Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 July 18

= July 18 =

Puting my own pic on my artical
How do i put my pic on my atical when its in my folder?
 * I'm presuming "your folder" is a folder on your computer? If so, you can go to the link on the side of the page, under "interaction", that is called "File upload wizard". Then you can follow the steps there. I   (said)  (did) 00:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Please be sure to read all of the copyright warnings when you follow the wizard's instructions. Corvus cornix 23:01, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Meta userpages
Hello all, I was wondering if templates specific to the English Wikipedia can be transferred to Meta userpages. Thanks,  Neranei  T / C  23:54, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Your question would be easier to answer if you mentioned the templates you have in mind - are you talking about userbox templates? Meta and Wikipedia both run on MediaWiki, so in principle any template that works on one should work on the other, but you have to copy the template page, along with any other templates it uses, and the destination wiki must also be running any necessary extensions (see Special:Version for the list of extensions on Wikipedia). In general, MediaWiki provides no clean simple method for porting templates between wikis. If a template is complex and uses many other templates, you have to tediously copy all the necessary templates by hand, and possibly install more extensions (which requires administrator access to the server). You usually cannot transclude a template from an external wiki because MediaWiki disables that feature by default. That's a brief summary of the technical aspects of "can" you do this. Whether you "should" copy templates from the English Wikipedia to Meta depends on the policies on Meta, and I have no idea whether any policies would apply to whatever templates you may have in mind. Maybe the first thing to check is whether Meta already has some templates similar to what you want; for example, some userboxes are here: m:Template:Babel. --Teratornis 19:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Color fade?
Is there a way to make a background (in a table) have its color fade from, say, black to white?


 * I'm reasonably sure that you can't do that directly, but I'm sure that there are workarounds: I can imagine both 1px-tall coloured rows with overflow:visible enabled, or perhaps an image used with a div covering it to allow normal content insertion... and I don't know if either would work. In other words, no, not directly. If you want to make a hack, you're free to, but it would be a challenge. :) Nihiltres ( t .l ) 00:01, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * By the way, is there a specific case? Nihiltres ( t .l ) 00:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes. In this Simpedia userbox, I want to make its background color fade like in the "2" in the logo. It uses Wikipedian code.


 * I don't think that is possible with text. -Icewedge 17:18, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

how to start a wikipedia article
i wish to start a factual wikipedia article/page. could you please send me instructions on how as i am experiencing difficulties in this matter.
 * One way is to go to WP:CREATE and follow the instructions there. Or, you can edit your userspace page with a Name of Page You Wish to Create, click it, and start. I   (said)  (did) 00:36, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * You need to create an account if you haven't got one, see also Your first article and please make sure the topic of your article meets our notabily guideline. Peacent 07:03, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Relevance
You'd think the word would be clear enough, but exactly how does relevance work in Wikipedia site searches? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)


 * I don't know the answer myself, but since this question hasn't been answered yet (after almost a week), have you considered posting your question to the technical question area in the village pump? Lisatwo 17:00, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of Jeff Claassen
I posted a completely legitimate third party article about a NOTABLE, and award winning artist, whom I admire- and the posting was deleted. I'm not angry, just very confused. The artist is well established, well documented, and successful. He has been featured in film and television, as well as numerous articles (2 of which I linked to in the article). Could someone please explain to me how and more importantly, WHY the "Jeff Claassen" article was deleted???

Thank you,

Coral Kessler —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jeffismygyro (talk • contribs).

The cited reason is that the article failed to assert the significance or notability of the subject. Contact the deleting administrator, user: Carlossuarez46 if you wish it reinstated or have further questions.

The Rhymesmith 05:25, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

I cant uplode my pic.
I tryed uplodeing the pic put when i want to it says bmp is not a sucured file name. then i change it to something like jpg and then it still dosen't work. What should i do?

Thank you.


 * How did you change it to jpg? Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 01:31, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Not really change but like where it says destination filename.
 * You'll probably need to convert it into a jpg before uploading -- you may need image editing software to accomplish this. Anything from Adobe Photoshop to GIMP to MS Paint should be able to do the trick. – Luna Santin  (talk) 02:04, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Is there a way to report people who repeatedly violate WP:FORUM in talk pages?
If not, is arbitration a decent solution? -- Craigtalbert 01:57, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * If they're not otherwise a productive member of the community, you could try the admin noticeboards. ArbCom tends to deal with the most difficult and heated disputes (say, after the admin noticeboards and/or an RfC (or two) have tried and failed to resolve things). It's a lot of trouble to open an arbitration case, usually. But, it is an option. – Luna Santin  (talk) 02:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Protect
Help! I wrote three articles: Brutal Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal, and Slam Death Metal. Whenever I go to one of them, I find that it has been redirected to Death Metal. Would you please protect those articles so they cant be redirected to death metal? P.S. They are real musical genres that were mentioned in the extreme metal section. I shall Mezmerize you! My edits shall Mezmerize you!! My articles shall Mezmerize you!!! 02:51, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The redirect is perfectly legitimate, considering that the genres in question do not have enough information/are not notable enough to merit separate articles, are clearly subgenres of the redirect genre, and that the information has been integrated into the redirect article. The information has not been lost- the pages have simply been merged into the article dealing with the broader whole.

The Rhymesmith 05:20, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Putting a new picture in for WWE superstar Big Daddy V.
It's not a question but i was wandering who i cuold speak to about updating wwe superstar Big Daddy V 's Profile Picture.

If you have a picture that satisfies Wikipedia's requirements, be bold and upload it yourself.

You can find instructions and information at

The Rhymesmith 05:18, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Fair use-ness of wikipedia images
Alright, I've been quite fastinated by this illustration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aids_virus.jpg

I intend to put it on a t-shirt, along with text overlayed upon the image. Would it be legal if I sold said t-shirt for a profit?

206.124.132.33 03:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * It's not owned by WikiMedia; you'd have to get permission from the owner. Look at the information below the image to find out who to contact. =David ( talk )( contribs ) 07:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The image he asks about is (atleast claimed to be) in the public domain. Images in the public domain do not have an "owner". In general using such images would be perfectly fine. The only caveat is that the image is only *claimed* to be in the public domain by the uploader, there's always a possibility he/she wasn't being truthful. --Eivind Kjørstad 08:32, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Template Help
I have a question about ""if statements" in templates. Where is the best place to ask this?  In case anyone is wondering what the actual question is: I have created NFLretired.  In the career stats I have made the pfr value optional.  I would like to add similar values BUT only allow one of them to be used at a given time.  is this possible? Jmfangio ► Talk  03:54, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * You can do this by nesting the #IF templates. It would look sorta like this:


 * Does that make sense? If pfr exists, then it will display pfr.  If pfr doesn't exist, then it will display xxx.  If both pfr and xxx exist, it will only display pfr.  Is that enough to help you do what you want? --JayHenry 06:08, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * That does make sense. I will try this out.  Would you mind if I hit you up on your tp if i have ?'s Jmfangio ► Talk  06:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

how to add something to wikipedia
i would like to add an article onto wikipedia website...how do i go about that?? i ahve already transfered my documents into the pedia document. So,how do i go about uploading the article onto the website? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Meetha6 (talk • contribs).
 * Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.


 * Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.


 * If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Your first article and How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Sebi  &#91; talk &#93; 08:25, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

"redirect"
I want to make an article about the record label "Simple Machines" that was primarly a label that released cassettes in the early 90s. There most well known artist was Dave Grohl, still with Nirvana at the time, released a album called Pocketwatch, and currently typing in "Simple Machines" redirects to an article called "Simple machine". Can somebody either remove the redirect for me or tell how to do it? Speedboy Salesman 08:56, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Sure thing. There are two (equivalent) methods: (1) go to Simple Machines, and when you get the redirected article, there should be a small line of text up the top that says something like "Redirected from: Simple Machines". Click "Simple Machines" and it will take you to the un-redirected article, which you can then edit. (2) Enter the full URL in the address bar of your browser, adding "?redirect=no" (without quotes) - so, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Machines?redirect=no should do it. Once you've got the new article up, it would be a good idea to add an appropriate disambiguation link to either or both of the articles, so people looking for one don't wind up at the other with no idea how to get to the one they want. Confusing Manifestation 09:00, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmmm ... noticing that Simple Machines is currently a red link, I would point out that Wikipedia articles are, to a certain degree, case sensitive, so I assume you were looking at Simple machines, and it would be a good idea to make sure you put the article in the right place, and use the correct disambiguation templates. Confusing Manifestation 09:05, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Cheers, thanks a lot! I must've typed something wrong and not realised it! Wow, I didn't expect you to reply that fast! Speedboy Salesman 09:09, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Misinformation on part of a page
The last section on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke_County_High_School_%28Virginia%29, called "Controversy" is fabricated information. The entire paragraph is inaccurate, unencyclopedic, and at times non-objective. The entire paragraph should be removed.

INFORMATION NOT VERIFIABLE: No school board meeting documents, no budget documents, no Virginia Department of Education School report card documents, and no other credible sources can verify the information presented in this particular section, and in fact, those documents present facts and evidence to the contrary (the dropout rate, for example, has remained zero).

SOURCES: Clarke County Public Schools - School Board Minutes (http://www.clarke.k12.va.us/School_Board/School%20Board%20Minutes/2007/2007_minutes.html)

Clarke County Public Schools - Budget Documents http://www.clarke.k12.va.us/School_Board/SBCommittees/Finance/Finance_Index.htm

Virginia Department of Education - School Report Card http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/src/


 * The section had controversial claims about living (unnamed) people, and no sources, so I have removed it. PrimeHunter 12:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

making your own wikipedia page/article
Hi, i just registered as Freeballday.. i just wanted to ask how i can make my own wikepedia page...

Cheers Turhan Freeballday 11:42, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, you cannot make an article about yourself unless it complies with notability, verifiability and reliabale sources guidelines and policies. However, you can create a userspace. To do so, go up to the top, and you'll see a list of links. Your username, my talk, my preferences, my watchlist, my contributions and log out. Click on your username, and you can edit it! You might want to see WP:USER for guidelines. I   (said)  (did) 21:19, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

please?
I lost my cat earlier this morning, is it all right if I post notices on this site to help look for him?Thank you. Please help me, I need him for show and tell. If you don't help, you'd be breaking a child's heart. Tammy Forestfeld, age 7.
 * I don't want to sound coldhearted, and I certainly hope you find your cat (I love cats too), but Wikipedia is not the place to post "lost cat" notices - perhaps some posters for your neighborhood would be in order instead. Nihiltres ( t .l ) 15:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Tammy writes pretty well for a 7-year-old, wouldn't you say?  j e f f j o n  20:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * It's certainly the first time I've ever heard a 7-year-old say "you'd be breaking a child's heart", yes. Confusing Manifestation 22:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * And it's the first seven year old I've met who discusses Drew Barrymore's sexuality on Wikipedia  AndrewJD  TALK  -- 22:52, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

countries
tell me about hatie
 * Haiti-- VectorPotential Talk 12:26, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

i dont undestand what this below means please advise
Asylum band → Asylum Gothic Band Current name: Asylum band (talk · contribs · logs · blocklog) Requested name: Asylum Gothic Band (rename user) Reason: Reason for requested renaming.band name incorrect Clerk note: Request was made by user to be renamed [1]. WjBscribe 10:22, 18 July 2007 (UTC) Your only edit excluding this was to advertise your band on your userpage which I have removed as its in violation of WP:USERPAGE and Wikipedia is not a Myspace. Rlest 10:28, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

looking for spec and dimension for 2000 western star commerical truck
looking for specs and dimension for 2000 western star truck


 * Symbol move vote.svg Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.  AndrewJD  TALK  -- 15:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Previewing references
If you look at my activity today on Wikipedia, there were 4 edits in a row, mainly me fixing my reference. I previewed the page, but the "references" section isn't previewed.

How could I avoid all that "un"activity on a page like that? IE is there a way to preview the reference while previewing the page?

It turns out I'd left out "cite web" which I found in Citing Sources, but missed in my actual factual typing.

Thanks much, Rhesusmonkeyboy 15:08, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * If you click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of an article, you can preview the reference section (like when you preview this). I assume you usually edit a separate section, that way the refs won't show up, as you can only preview the secton which you edit, not the ref section at the bottom of the article. I hope this helps. Peacent 15:20, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Another option is to add a reference section to the edited section while you preview, for example with which currently evaluates to: . Refresh this page in your browser and watch the article count change. --Teratornis 21:03, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Column
HI i just read one of your cullum from Rob Niedermayer. I just wanted to let you know his birth name is not Robert he is Robin W. Niedmayer if you care......... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)


 * http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=669 says Robert like our article Rob Niedermayer. Do you have a more reliable source? PrimeHunter 22:24, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

"!vote"?
What do editors mean by "!vote"? Bubba73 (talk), 21:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty sure that the prefix ! means not (it's a computer programming thing, I think). It refers to the fact that Wikipedia is not a democracy, it operates on consensus, not voting.  W ODU P  21:16, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * They mean "stance and rationale", if you like. For example, if someone "!voted" "Delete not notable, fails WP:MUSIC" in an AfD discussion, "Delete" is the stance and "not notable, fails WP:MUSIC" is the rationale. Together this makes a !vote. The ! is to avoid calling such discussions a vote, which they are not. - Zeibura (Talk) 21:18, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks to both of you! Bubba73 (talk), 21:28, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * See ! and Negation for the meaning not. PrimeHunter 22:16, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I knew that "!" meant not in some computer languages, but I didn't understand what "not vote" meant. It didn't seem to be a "no vote" because some of the votes were "yes".  Bubba73 (talk), 23:59, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * It is a misuse of the !. While it does mean "not", it does not mean "not" in the sense of "this is not a vote".  It means "not" in the boolean logic sense.  So, it really means "opposite of" - which would really make "!vote" = "this is the opposite of a vote".  Because there is no such thing as the opposite of a vote, there is a very understandable vagueness to the meaning of "!vote".  Now, if it was "!keep" or "!delete", it would make a lot more sense (and demonstrate that the voter is a major geek who is unable to type "delete" and "keep" respectively).  Of course, it could be used to prove another point all together.  For example, if I was so against JimboWales that I hated everything he did, I could vote "!JimboWales" - which makes my vote the opposite of whatever his vote is. -- Kainaw (what?) 00:50, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

How do you link a wikipedia page to Google Earth?
I have created a wikipedia page for my high school, and would like to create a link to it on google earth. Anyone know how to do that?

Thanks.


 * You can use the coor template or one of its derivatives which will link to a bunch of links to look that co-ordinates up, one of those will be a Google Earth link.

Source on Transformers: Animated
User:Seibertron supplied sources for claims in this article, which was in need of it, but based on their username and their edit summary, I'm concerned that there may be an issue with self-citation from a a self-published source. Speaking as a fan of Transformers, I know Seibertron-- the website and principal author thereof --to be a valuable and trustworthy resource. However, as a Wikipedian, I'm concerned that this there may be an issue here, or that another user may take issue with these edits. Can anyone offer some insight? Lucky number 49 22:04, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Blocked user for using a name of company that he or she represents?
What is the policies for user names. where will I find a users guidebook for WikiPedia and editing, adding external links. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Donald 918 (talk • contribs).
 * Username policy here, guidebook here and more here, editing guide here and guideline on external links here. Sebi  &#91; talk &#93; 22:53, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Or here / here. —  «  A NIMUM   »  22:54, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * And don't forget WP:COI. Corvus cornix 23:00, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

The basic Wikipedia tabs are insufficient
1. How can I find a list of questions I've asked the Help desk (and other places for editors)? I can't remember the dates and pages. The answers aren't on "My Talk" page (sic, should be "Your talk"). "My Watchlist" (sic, should be "Your watch list") is not useful for that because it's much too full of other stuff: I can't find the needle in the haystack.

2. We need a REAL "My Watchlist" / "Your watch list"! If I click on that (alleged) tab, I see instead a huge list of all the changes anyone ever made to all the articles in my watchlist, not the list of just the articles themselves (listing each article once!). "My Watchlist" as it is now is much too long to be of much use. Instead it should list the articles (once each) and then let you click on any one to see the changes made to that one article in reverse chronological order. What you get now with "My Watchlist" tab should be under a tab called "Everyone's changes to your watch list articles".

3. When I wasn't looking, a posse deleted one of my favourite articles, "List of Famous Smokers". I spent many hours editing it trying to please the complainers. It was saved from deletion once. Then later I see it's been deleted. I had no notice, no chance to vote. If the people who (a) had it on their watchlist. (b) had edited it. (c) had commented on it. (d) had voted on it any time it was considered for deletion. had been notified in time to vote, it might very well have won the vote. That's why I say it was a posse. A bunch of people (maybe biased tobacco company executives, who knows?) stealthily ambushed it. Because I happened not to notice, I get disenfranchised. Is that a good way to run an encyclopedia?

4. How do I start a campaign to bring back an article? I need to notify those in categories 3.(a-d).

Please answer with a note in "My Talk" page. Korky Day 23:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * There sure was a chance for you to discuss it: Articles for deletion/List of famous smokers (2nd nomination).
 * As far as the watchlist goes, go to your preferences and check the box that says "Expand watchlist to show all applicable changes". --YbborTalk 23:19, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * When I click on My Watch List, it shows the LAST change to each article in my watch list. It does not list every change, causing articles to list multiple times.  As for finding your posts, click on My Contributions.  It is rather easy to see what changes you've made.  As for notice of deletion, it is not the responsibility of the world to notify you about the article because you do not own the article.  If it is important to you, add it to your watch list and check your watch list regularly. -- Kainaw (what?) 00:45, 19 July 2007 (UTC)


 * You can search the Help desk archives with Google. For example, search the Help desk for: Korky Day. (I listed some useful search links here: User:Teratornis.) Another way to see where you have posted is to look on your contributions: Special:Contributions/Korky Day. See: Help:User contributions. If you don't like the way Wikipedia looks, you can try a different skin or try designing your own. If you want to improve the way Wikipedia functions, see How to become a MediaWiki hacker. Wikipedia is almost entirely the product of volunteers, so the chance is good that you can contribute significantly if you have the skills and you want to work hard for free. --Teratornis 16:29, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm continuing this on my help page because otherwise I'll lose track of it. Korky Day (talk) 02:51, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Trouble with creating a new article
I would like to create an article with title "Set Extension". In the current situation a request for this is redirected to "Matte (Filmmaking)". Apparently, "Set Extension" has several meanings. The one I want to write about is the meaning this term has in mathematics. An extensive article about "Set Theory"in mathematics might include topics like "Functions", "Relations", "Partially ordered set", etc. In Wikipedia, these are all separate articles. Accordingly, it seems best to add a separate article about "Set extensions". In the current situation, this is not considered a new article. What should I do? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vanemden (talk • contribs).
 * The redirect has no edit history but its creation, so you can simply edit it to become the article you wish to post. Note that in order to access the redirect to edit it, after you type it into the search box and are redirected to the film article, click on the linked text, "redirected from Set extension". Please note that the article should cite to reliable sources, verifying its content.--Fuhghettaboutit 23:34, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Our capitalization rules would call the article Set extension. If you refer to the meaning in http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SetExtension.html, then is there material for a whole article? The name could be added to Set, and Set extension could be changed to redirect there (the word "extension" is not used in the current redirect target). We have many articles but we usually don't create an article if there is only material for a few lines which would fit well in an existing article. PrimeHunter 23:54, 18 July 2007 (UTC)