Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 January 29

=January 29=

Internal links not working
I just created a page for Ernest van den Haag yet all the internal links I direct to that page appear in red. Also the heading of that article appears as "Ernest van den haag" (with the name "Haag" lowercased). Atripodi 00:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Lol you actually made the page Ernest van den haag - need to check capitalisation carefully when making new page. Have created Ernest van den Haagand redirected Ernest van den haag to it for you. Cheers Lethaniol 01:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

how often to cite?
I am considering creating the page for the 2007 Philadelphia Eagles season, as the Eagles are a passion of mine, as is Wikipedia. I would have a sense of personal satisfaction creating and 'running' this page in its infancy until it has been recognized by other users who will contribute. My question concerns citing sources; Every time I read on philadelphiaeagles.com, or in the Philadelphia Inquirer (website or print) about a coach being promoted, a player being signed, etc, will I need to cite that to add it to my page? For example, this page, http://www.cbc.ca/cp/football/070123/f012337A.html, has the following quote: "The Philadelphia Eagles reshuffled their coaching staff Tuesday, naming special teams co-ordinator John Harbaugh secondary coach and Sean McDermott linebackers coach."

If i were to include in my wikipedia article that these coaching changes occured, would I cite this? The pages I have seen listing personnel and player changes do not cite such things, but I don't want my page deleted or my reputation harmed if I do not cite sources when I really should. Thanks!
 * You should always cite anything controversial. And you should include at least a few cites just to demonstrate that the contents of the article are verifiable and notable. The thing that could get your article deleted is non-notability, so if you try to make the article satisfy WP:N requirements, then you are on better footing. Beyond that, if you try to put yourself in your readers' shoes, imagine what the reader might want to know more about at various parts of the article, and include an external citation there. Make sure you stick to wp:reliable sources though. — coe l acan t a lk  — 05:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I always try to cite every statement, partly because it backs up my research properly, but also to meet the guidelines for Good Article status. Formula BMW is a good example, where I have tried to use varied and reliable sources and cited extensively. Try to avoid relying only on a primary source, unless the information is not available elsewhere and it is a trustworthy source. Read the advice pages to which Coelacan has linked. Adrian   M. H.  16:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I create a merge and redirect?
I found a "parent" page with several "children" pages. I want to merge the content and redirect the other titles, but I don't know how.

Here's the specific story. Tree63 is a band. They have several albums, as you can see on their page. The blue-linked album pages have only the list of songs, and nothing more. Since each album is not independently notable, I want to merge the song lists to the band page, and redirect the album titles to the band page. Please show me how. (You can leave a comment on my user talk page if you want.) YechielMan 01:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * As a notable band, the albums themselves can have articles of their own. I would suggest adding the infobox album to the pages for the albums.  That will help fill out the articles.  Dismas|(talk) 05:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Question
This is the second day in a row that I have logged on to wikipedia, had new messages waiting on my talk page, and not gotten that orange/yellowisk "you have new messages" bar. Why is that? TomStar81 (Talk) 02:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't know. This is something that the WP:Village Pump needs to know about, though, so I am going to report it over there. — coe l acan t a lk  — 05:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I need to have an article's name changed
I am collaborating with Bellagio99 on an article profiling mid-twentieth century gangs. He inccorectly named the article Bronx Gangs, because we are profiling gangs in a certain timeline only. The page needs a LOT of work and we are working on it. How can I change the name to Bronx Gangs (Mid-Twentieth Century) (with the mid-twentieth in parenthesis) without having to PROD the old one and create a new page? Can an administrator do this for me? any takers? please! --rocketrye12talk/contribs 03:34, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I moved it for you. When viewing a page, you should see a "Move" button in the "Views" toolbox at the left of the screen. Click and follow the instructions. Yuser31415 (Editor review two!) 04:30, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I moved it to Bronx gangs (mid-twentieth century), please mind your capitalization. Unless you also plan on making an article for the early 20th century, I'd suggest you leave of 'mid'. And I think using full years instead of century description is better. Consider: Bronx gangs (mid-20th century) or something like Bronx gangs (1940s-1960s). - Mgm|(talk) 05:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Changing a system message
Where would the discussion take place which might lead to changing a system message? See to understand the context of my question. Thanks! Mpwrmnt 08:25, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure but you should also post the suggestion to the MediaWiki talk page. --WikiSlasher 08:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Copyright on pictures
Dear Wikihelper! I have writen an article for which I have also used a picture. This picture is taken by a friend of mine and has no kind of copyright etc.

The article is: Buddhist Centre Copenhagen (one of the very first buddhist centres in the West).

Now I got a warning message from Wikipedia saying that the pictures will be deleted if I do not write information about copyright etc.

How can I prevent that the picture is not deleted?

Yours - and thanks! Nicolai Sennels Denmark

Picture copyright (now with signature...)
Dear Wikihelper! I have writen an article for which I have also used a picture. This picture is taken by a friend of mine and has no kind of copyright etc.

The article is: Buddhist Centre Copenhagen (one of the very first buddhist centres in the West).

Now I got a warning message from Wikipedia saying that the pictures will be deleted if I do not write information about copyright etc.

How can I prevent that the picture is not deleted?

Yours - and thanks! Nicolai Sennels Denmark Nicolaisennels 08:35, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * That article doesn't exist I'm afraid. --WikiSlasher 08:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * OK I found it at Buddhist centre copenhagen. --WikiSlasher 08:40, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I moved it to the proper title for you. --WikiSlasher 08:42, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * (after edit conflict)
 * Go to your image 56garden.jpg and click on the highlighted word license in the warning. The page describes licenses that can be applied by editing the description of the image and adding a license, such as . Also, the article you worked on is Buddhist Centre Copenhagen. --Kainaw (talk) 08:44, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * seems appropriate here, just have to replace name with the name of the one who took the photo. --WikiSlasher 08:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * When you say "no kind of copyright", I fear you are making a mistake. It does. Copyright doesn't just apply to books and movies; it also applies to every photograph taken by everybody. So your friend does own the copyright on this photo; your friend must specifically give up some of their rights to use it in Wikipedia. I hope this helps. Notinasnaid 09:49, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * If you didn't take this picture yourself, you can't put PD-author on it yet. You'd have to ask permission from the photographer first. - Mgm|(talk) 09:54, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Tip: The purpose of glossaries on Wikipedia
Note that while the glossary entries on Wiktionary are linked to Wiktionary definition articles, the glossary entries in Wikipedia glossaries are linked to Wikipedia articles, which afford greater coverage of each topic. That is one of the main purposes of glossaries on Wikipedia: they are a specialized form of list. Lists are used as both identification and navigation aids, while annotations on such lists assist readers in selecting articles which they would like to investigate further.  Th e Tr ans hu man ist  09:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Time-related variables
I was hoping that variables such as CURRENTMINUTE would reflect the time at which the reader browsed the article. But they seem to relfect the time at which the author last modified the article.

Is there any way to get these time-related variables to reflect the time of browsing? (As an example, is there some clever code on Wikipedia's Main page that does this automatically? Or does someone have to do a trivial edit each day to reset these variables?) Thegn 10:01, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The variables update whenever the page is purged. You can give a link to purge a page by typing purge at the place on the page where you want the link: . (I expect the Main Page is purged just after midnight either by interested users or by bot.) --ais523 10:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Editing someone else's user page
Is this edit acceptable? How much personal opinion are you allowed to express on your user page, and to what extent? And how much before it is considered offensive/inflammatory and/or an abuse of Wikipedia policy?  Zun aid  ©  ®  10:45, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * There is discussion of this at WP:ANI. I suggest you check that out. I have also given reasons on the person in questions user talk page. Viridae Talk 10:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

wikipedia review
i stumbled upon this website named wikipedia review, its a forum for people to criticise wikipedia. they say that if youre not an admin, you should not post your wikipedia username there because you will get banned here if you do. is it true? i have an account a few months old with 2000 edits and a quite controversial history. i wish to discuss some problems with wikipedia, but i cant find a place on wikipedia to discuss them, thats why i want to join wikipedia review.


 * I've never heard of anyone being banned simply for posting at Wikipedia Review, though I vaguely remember (a small number of) people being banned for specific things they have said there. Quite a lot of the people who post there are banned but this is generally due to things they have done on Wikipedia. There's no harm in not revealing your username and speaking in general terms, though. --Cherry blossom tree 12:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Why post there? It's much more productive, to open a discussion here and try to find a solution for whatever the problem is. - Mgm|(talk) 12:30, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * WP provides ample opportunity for (civil) discussion and debate, review, and consensus. I can't see anything positive in joining spurned former editors in petty spleen-venting. You can take a positive and proactive approach to sorting out differences if you stay with WP. Adrian   M. H.  16:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Length/size of pages
Is there a fixed rule about the size of pages? There seems to be a great deal of confusion about bytes and words (10,000 words etc.) When one puts forward a large article, one is told that "maybe you cut out too much", and "it's way too long". What should one do? :) andreasegde 11:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * There used to be a rule (for technical reasons) that pages shouldn't be longer than 32kb. That doesn't really apply any more but it is good practice not to make pages too long. You can either make the page more concise or if that isn't possible then split it into more than one article. This is done with country articles, for example, where you have Guinea, History of Guinea, Geography of Guinea and so on. --Cherry blossom tree 12:11, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * See also Article size. PrimeHunter 13:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Font size
I've been using WP for a while without problems, but have just started using a different laptop and the fonts are coming up very small. I don't believe this is an Internet options, because other sites are fine. I've never changed the skin from default and am using IE 6.0 on a Windows XP Professional. Any help gladly received. --Dweller 12:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Go to View | Text Size in the menus of IE and set it to the size bigger than what it's currently set to. Different computers give different meanings to the font sizes Wikipedia sends out, so scaling the size like that should change it to a size you're comfortable with. (Note that Ctrl + mouse wheel is normally an easier way to do this, but as you're using a laptop you won't necessarily have a mouse wheel.) --ais523 13:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Fantastic, thanks. Embarrassed to have been wrong about the IE settings, but glad it's sorted. --Dweller 13:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Editing offline
Hi.

Perhaps a trivial question. Is it possible to edit offline, i.e., to download some kind of a simulator with a sandbox that allows to edit articles and look how they will show in WP, without remaining connected?

I understand all links should look red, but still I'd like to see formatting, tables and other basic features printing right working offline. I would then quickly upload a finite versions and check the links online.

Thanks in advance --Kaapitone 12:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * People have experimented with doing this (see m:Help:External editors and m:Help talk:External editors) but I don't understand the instructions and I don't know if they ever got it to work. There is an option in Special:Preferences saying 'use external editor by default'; I'm not sure whether it's connected or what it does. --ais523 15:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, thanks ais523. I'm not sure I can handle that, however, it looks all but user-friendly... --Kaapitone 18:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

degree certificate
HOW CAN FOREIGN STUDENTS WHO STUDIED AT MDS UNIVERSITY GET THEIR DEGREE CERTIFICATE?

This belongs on the Reference Desk, under Miscellaneous. But at a guess, have you tried writing to the university with "please send me my certificate"? By the way, DON'T SHOUT. Adrian  M. H.  16:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject?
I am planning to set up a WikiProject to restart and maintain the Encyclopedia of the Unusual (which was created by Dev some years ago, but, for some reason disappeared). Is this a good idea? If so, how do I go about it, and if not, what is a better suggestion?

Also, is it possible to include the Encyclopedia of the Unusual articles on Version 1.0? --JB Adder | Talk 13:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * How is this different to Unusual articles? If you want to start a wikiproject then WikiProject Council will probably be useful. In answer to your second point, it depends what you mean by Wikipedia 1.0. In general terms, I doubt there'll be anything to stop individual articles being included but equally nothing to guarantee that all of them will be. Bring it up at Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 for a more thorough answer. --Cherry blossom tree 17:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Now that I've seen the WikiProject, nothing. It covers what I wanted. Pretend I didn't ask. --JB Adder | Talk 04:53, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The articles for WP:1.0 have to be verified for both quality and importance. The appropriate place to go is to ask at Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team. Tito xd (?!?) 04:00, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Login
I log in, but as soon as I leave the login page, it returns me to be not logged in. Any suggestions?
 * First, make sure that cookies are enabled on your browser.
 * Second, try using the 'Remember me' checkbox when logging in.
 * If you are using a satellite ISP, use this URL instead of the regular one to log in. You might want to try it if the steps above don't work even on other ISPs. --ais523 15:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Referencing Wikipedia?
could you please tell me how to reference wikipedia email back to *E-mail address removed to prevent spam* thank you


 * I recommend that you carefully read Citing Wikipedia. Besides explaining how to cite Wikipedia, it also explains why it's often not a good idea to use Wikipedia as a source. --Tkynerd 15:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Moving images
On the pages I printed from wikipedia, the images cut off part of the information.How do I stop that from happening? Thanks --208.11.182.254 15:29, 29 January 2007 (UTC)James Robert Saunders


 * Have you tried the 'printable version' link in the toolbox on the left hand side? --Cherry blossom tree 17:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikilinking in categories to article namespace
I'm working on the project template LGBTProject. The tag is put on each article's talk page &mdash; as an example, let's use. The project tag is on her talk page. One of the parameters in the tag is "class", which puts her in the specific " -Class LGBT articles" category - in this case fa-class lgbt articles. Now when you visit that Category, you can see that all the listings are for the Talk pages, not the articles themselves. In other words, Talk:Angelina Jolie is listed in the category, not Angelina Jolie.

So I was playing around with, , and the like, trying to figure out how to get the category to link to the article, not the talk page. Is that even possible?

As I've finished this, I've realized that it's pretty technical and that this may not be the right place to ask the question. If it isn't, would you mind letting me know the best place to ask it?

Thanks much! -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 16:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No, I don't think it's possible to get the category to link to the article based on code on the Talk page; that would be really confusing for editors if it were. --ais523 16:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Grr. Okay - thanks :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs)  21:55, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Images not displayed?
how can i view images? they aren't comming up.


 * It would be easier to answer your question with more detail. What page(s) are you looking at? What images is it that aren't displayed? You should be aware that sometimes images get deleted from Wikipedia, and in that case, naturally they can't be displayed on a page that links to them. --Tkynerd 18:49, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

user anonimity
I made edits to an article, went to another web-site or two outside wikipedia came back and did furthur edits under the impression I would still be logged in, I wasn't. The main reason I got an account here was to have my information protected now that I have inadvertinly squanderd that privilge should I be worried?Pancho.C 17:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC) I cliked on to my number id on my last two edits and there was a name with several entries below my non-logged in Mostachones edit that I've never seen before then, does that mean any thing?Pancho.C 17:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC) Is there any reason I should be worried?Pancho.C 17:47, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * If there's edits under your IP address it usually means it's a shared IP address something common to providers like AOL. If you're worried about your online safety, make sure you have an up-to-date anti-virus program running and get a firewall (it's built in if you have Windows XP). There's nothing to worry about. - Mgm|(talk) 18:44, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, when you log in, click in the little box that says "Remember me" before you hit save. This will put a web cookie on your computer that will keep you logged in for (almost) as long as you could want to be. If it's a computer that you share with other people, you probably want to click "log out" in the upper right corner of the page when you are finished; this will remove the cookie. — coe l acan  t a lk  — 21:45, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

How to change the title of an entry
Greetings,

I created an entry for David Gomberg of kiting fame. But when I saved the page I realized I hadn't capitalized his last name, so it appears "David gomberg" instead of "David Gomberg". How can I fix this now that the page has been created?

Appreciate any help you can provide.

Todd

For detailed instructions please see How to rename (move) a page&mdash; Wils Bad Karma  ( Talk ) 18:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

CSS|XHTML: Request - Border, Background and width style tags for Template: Infobox Geography
Have a question: is there any chance to change (by design/modification request) the classed CSS for the template "infobox geography" globally, instead of just for user stylesheets? Would like to inquire about changing the hardcode to allow style changes to 1. Border-color; 2. Background; 3. Width. This way folks can match color themes and table sizes, but still keep all of the hardcode intact. I'm trying to edit a Wiki and match the geography box to specific city theme colors. Redoing the entire table to just do so is an ugly and very messy affair, when simple CSS change would make cleaner working code for editors.FResearcher 19:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I think this would involve adding a series of arguments to the template, by which a user could pass some css tags. I would bring this up at Template talk:Infobox City. — coe l acan t a lk  — 22:05, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Password problems
I appear to have forgotten that I even had an account here. I had the wikipedia system email a new password for the name I would doubtless have picked. And I received that email, so it looks like I do in fact have an account.

But the new password I was given does not work with the username used to send me the email.

Now the system won't try to send another password without waiting, I don't know, a day or something. I think I need an actual person to help with this. Something appears to not be working correctly somewhere.

Thank you.

72.148.44.11 19:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I moved this to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#user's autogenerated password doesn't work to log in and notified the IP on their talk page. — coe l acan t a lk  — 22:00, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect that someone has hacked into my account, changed the password, and removed my registered e-mail address from the database so that I cannot have Wikipedia e-mail me a new password. Please help, thanks. To contact me, please consult my contact info (deleted).


 * Please follow the village pump link Coelacan provided, because you're more likely to find help there. Also try not to post contact info on the help desk. Thanks. Xiner (talk, email) 20:47, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the info, and sorry for the trouble; I've been around for years, but all this troubleshooting business is new to me. -Hoot


 * Trouble is what we're here for, but unfortunately no one on this page seems able to help. You could also go to #wikipedia-tech on irc.freenode.net (WP:IRC). Xiner (talk, email) 22:43, 30 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Mind trying again? (And make sure that you clicked on the "send me a new password" link only once). Then, copy and paste the username directly from the email you get into the form at Special:Userlogin, and tell us how it went. Tito xd (?!?) 03:58, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

posts munged together -- nevermind
Notice that the above text appears in someone else's post above this one. This is the second time I tried to post for help with login. The first time I used no Subject/headline. Seems to be a bug in the system perhaps because my original post was munged together with the above one with no way to edit mine.

Update: nevermind, the munged post seems to have been fixed.

72.148.44.11 19:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Bline
I noticed an admin has deleted a page called "Bline" because it contained nonsense posting about a presumably unrelated subject.

BLine [note different cases] is the name of a bus operator in my local area and currently does not have a page, how should I make such a page as the page has been deleted and protected. Jobie29 21:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * BLine (note that it has the capitalization you requested) has neither been deleted or protected, so you should be able to follow the link and make your article. Once there's an article at BLine, go to WP:RFPP and ask for Bline to be unprotected so you can create a redirect to BLine. ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 21:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Flagging a page that needs cleanup
I'm sorry, I've tried looking around to find out how to do this but I need help. The page for World Relief is basically an advertisement, and has the tone of an advertisement from a member of the organisation. How do I flag this for cleanup?

Please see: Template messages/Cleanup and select the best tag for the article.&mdash; Wils Bad Karma  ( Talk )


 * Template messages/Cleanup has a wide variety of clean-up messages like you're looking for. I'll add

to the article you mentioned. ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 21:14, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Great! Thanks. Somewildthingsgo 21:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikitables
How do you make a wikitable? I'm wanting to make one about mountains; it should have 3 columns, one for the name, one for a picture, and one for the height. Should be pretty simple; but I tried to base it off of List of Presidents of the United States (a much more complicated table) and it got messy quick. Can anyone point me at a page that will tell me what I'm doing? ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 21:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * It's not even easy when you know what you're doing. Help:Tables is where you should start. Come back after you've read that and tried to make a table; if you still need help I'll climb into the mud with you. — coe l acan t a lk  — 21:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much! Help:Tables is exactly what I was looking for, and I seem to have it working in my sandbox. Now to see if the other editors like that as a solution in the article... ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 22:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

can't log on
I have created an account on wikipedia but every time that I log on, then click on a link, it automatically logs me off, I can't do anything about it. Could someone please help me work through this?

rowan22
 * Is your browser set to accept cookies? If not, try enabling cookies. ~  ONUnicorn (Talk problem solving 21:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

China Project
"China Project" says anyone can help, but the links lead only to "Category:Chinese Wikipedians," which has no place for non-Chinese.

Are non-Chinese welcome? Does Wikipedia screen for race?


 * Please sign your comments with four tildes. No, WP does not "screen for race". WikiProject_China/Participants shows lots of members from all over the world, so I suggest that you add your name there if you feel that you have something to offer the project. Adrian   M. H.  22:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No, there's no race screening, but it is interesting that you bring up China...Wikipedia was blocked on China for some time, I believe. But no, we're all cool with you whether you're white, black, yellow, red, green, or polka-dotted.   Dooms  Day349  23:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Where to find help watching a user?
Hi. Is there somewhere you can find people who are willing to watch another user for you? The problem is, I've found a newish user who's been making some disruptive edits, apparently for some school project they're doing. I've warned them not to, but judging by their initial response, I suspect they will try again. And I fear they'll try it on low-traffic pages this time, meaning it would normally stay for a while. I'd like to keep an eye on their edits for a day or two, to see if they've decided to be productive or if they continue. The problem is, I have to go to bed now, and my battery is low, and tomorrow I have real-world things to do almost all day. Is there somewhere, some notice board, where I can pass this responsibility on to other people who are awake? It would just take a couple of people who are already on Wikipedia to check his contribs every once in a while.

Thanks. Skittle 23:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd be happy to help with this. What user is it? --Tkynerd 23:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Already checked his contributions. Obviously on the wrong track. I'll keep a watch out for the next few hours.--Fuhghettaboutit 23:29, 29 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks guys. Battery died before this reply came through. If people still wanted to keep an eye on their edits, it's User:Joshw26. I can't be around 24 hours a day! :-) Skittle 17:08, 31 January 2007 (UTC)