Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 June 4

=June 4=

Referencing help needed ASAP please!
I appear to have made a mistake with the references on the Katie Hopkins article. Please can somebody go other there and fix it for me-there may be a Barnstar in it for you! Thanks a lot. Dalejenkins 16:24, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

looking for pictures of American Coins
i am looking for some some pictures of American Coins in 1776-1976 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.0.136.232 (talk • contribs)


 * A start would be to browse through articles in Category:Coins of the United States. United States coinage type set looks possibly the most useful, but I've only looked at a few of the articles. I'll leave you to find what you want. Also, I'm sure there must be lots of numismatics sites dedicated to US Coinage on the Web. --A bit iffy 09:43, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Water pollution
what is the outcomme of water pollution? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.130.192.76 (talk • contribs)
 * Dirty water. - Mgm|(talk) 10:07, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't recover password
I'm not sure if I changed my password while on cold medicine or what, but I can't log into my account anymore and I don't receive a 3}}

looking for pictures of American Coins
i am looking for some some pictures of American Coins in 1776-1976 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.0.136.232 (talk • contribs)


 * A start would be to browse through articles in Category:Coins of the United States. United States coinage type set looks possibly the most useful, but I've only looked at a few of the articles. I'll leave you to find what you want. Also, I'm sure there must be lots of numismatics sites dedicated to US Coinage on the Web. --A bit iffy 09:43, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Water pollution
what is the outcomme of water pollution? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.130.192.76 (talk • contribs)
 * Dirty water. - Mgm|(talk) 10:07, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Can't recover password
I'm not sure if I changed my password while on cold medicine or what, but I can't log into my account anymore and I don't receive a new password when I click the "e-mail password" link even though it says it's sending it. It doesn't look like my account has been stolen, because there haven't been any edits with it since I've been unable to log in. Is there anything I can do?


 * Username: Mal Bad
 * E-mail: Email address hidden


 * I'm afraid that by far the easiest thing for you to do would be to just create a new username. If the email you've posted here is different from the one in the 'email' field of your old user account, as it seems to be, it will be quite difficult to verify that you are the same person -- even if your IP addresses is the same as it was before, this is not conclusive; and it may well not be.  You only made 12 contributions under your old username, so hopefully you won't consider starting afresh to be too much of a setback.  Hope this helps!  -- simxp (talk) 06:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Related to the "Picture of the day"
I want to add the picture of the day to Azerbaijani version of the Wikipedia, but I could not figure out something can you please help me regarding to this issue?

Thanks in advance,

Ali Mammadov, Azerbaijan,Baku (email address removed)


 * It would be more helpful if you mentioned which picture exactly and what it is that you couldn't "figure out". What were you trying to do and what did you do? (Step-by-step...) Anrie 07:21, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Changing the colour of your signature.
I've noticed some Wikipedians have coloured signatures. I would like to know how to change the colour of the signature, not the text as I asked last time.Efansay 09:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * You include the same tags in the signature box on your preferences page before and after the text. Make sure 'raw signature' box is ticked, otherwise the code won't work. Example is a red signature with blue talk page link. The following text is what you put in the signature box. Efansay  (talk) Hope that helps. E   talk 09:52, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Well you see, that doesn't really work because all it says is Invalid raw signature; check HTML tags. And I can't do it with text either. The raw signature box is also ticked. Please help me. Efansay 10:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The 'invalid raw signature' error means that there's a mistake in the signature. In this case, it's because the '&lt;/sup>' that ought to eb at the end of the signature was left off the example. --ais523 10:34, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, should it not be   rather than  ? -- simxp (talk) 11:13, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, unless there is in fact a font called 'blue'. I didn't notice when testing because the links are blue by default anyway (and in fact I normally suggest leaving a 'blue' specification out of sigs as being unecessary). --ais523 11:14, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. I got it now. E fansay talk 10:11, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Page Counters
Is there any way to place a page counter on an article ?

I get the feeling that some of the articles on Wikipedia are only accessed once every blue moon.

Having page counters on articles will be able to show which pages are the most popular.--87.243.196.167 09:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The feature exists, but is disabled for performance reasons; Wikipedia is a highly visited website, and the caching used makes it hard to count each individual hit. --ais523 09:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Statistics has links to lists of popular articles. However, the stats are so old now as to be fairly useless.--A bit iffy 10:46, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * There may be a rough correlation between the number of page views and the number of page edits by distinct editors. (If only one editor has edited a page, the page may have hundreds of edits but maybe only that one editor is viewing it, for all we know.) If the history of a page shows no edits for a long time, the page may not be getting many views, especially if the page contains glaring errors that would be easy to correct. You can see the ratio of views to edits on some smaller wikis that leave the page view counter feature enabled. I have no idea whether the ratios of views to edits on other wikis are comparable to Wikipedia's, but they might tell you something.
 * You might get other hints of an article's popularity by clicking toolbox | What links here, and see how many other articles link to it. Presumably, the more articles that link to a given article, the more readers who might visit, and presumably the people who linked to the article viewed it. You could check the article's talk page. A busy talk page suggests an often-viewed article. You could try a search engine that lets you search for Web pages that link to a given page. If lots of sites outside Wikipedia link to an article here, they may drive traffic to it. However, all the above methods are merely guesses. I wish we had page view counters working here. All it takes is money. --Teratornis 17:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Filmography templates
I want to create a filmography template on the films of a particular actor.

How do I actually do that ?--87.243.196.167 09:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Templates are used in cases where the same code or text is used multiple times in different locations. I don't see how the filmography of an actor which is usually either a bulleted list or a table warrants the use of a template. - Mgm|(talk) 10:04, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It also seems odd to me, but it's apparently common that film articles use a template with a list of other films by the actors. See for example Template:Streep movies and all the articles that use it: Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Streep movies. I don't know whether this practice has been discussed but I suppose Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Films would be the place to start a centralized discussion. PrimeHunter 14:08, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * There's one being used for Pierce Brosnan. You could copy it and change what needs changing for your case.  Dismas |(talk) 10:21, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Check an anon's contribs, please
An anon user, User:151.203.18.206, has been going through quite a few articles making drastic changes to some judging by their talk page. Quite a few of the deal with porn stars. Judging by the edit summaries, I believe they may be trying to make a point. I'm at work and would rather not have all those articles in my history here. So, could someone look through the anon's contribs. I'd put this somewhere else if there were a "I'm at work and would rather not be view articles about porn stars from behind my employer's servers" help page but there isn't. Thanks,  Dismas |(talk) 10:11, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * He's tagging them with unencyclopedic. I don't think it's vandalism, as the template does simply say "an editor has expressed an opinion that ...".  It doesn't lead to deletion or anything like that.  I have removed his tagging of the parent category, however.  Neil   ╦  10:46, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Templates
How do I edit a template? The template for The Kinks is wrong (I work for one of them). Thanks
 * You need to edit the template's Template: page; is at Template:show1, for instance. If you edit a page and scroll down right to the bottom, you'll get a list of templates used on that page, and you can click on the appropriate one to edit it. --ais523 10:22, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you


 * Most likely you really only want to edit the data which appears in an instance of a template in an article; if so, you do that by editing the article itself, rather than the template. (Editing the template would impact all the articles that transclude it, and that is probably not what you want.) The top of The Kinks article contains this wikitext to transclude an instance of Infobox musical artist:


 * If you see something incorrect to the right of an equal sign, you can edit it. Be sure to leave an informative edit summary, or a comment on the article's talk page explaining what you did and why. --Teratornis 14:02, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Academic Papers
Do you accept academic term papers. I would like to submit a term paper which is well over the essy range but should be of interest to many people. It it entitled "The Long Term View of the American Health Care System: Inflation and Infection." It covers four possible scenarios of what would happen to the American health care system. 1: Continued cost increases well above the inflation index. 2: A major epidemic 3: Bioterrorism 4: Bioterrorism plus other acts of terrorism.

It would be submitted with the expectation that it would not be edited.

email removed


 * The answer is no and no. First of all - an academic term paper is classed as original research WP:NOR and therefore is not suitable for an encyclopedia article. Secondly, when you submit something to wikipedia, you agree it can editted without mercy by others. --Fredrick day 13:22, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * If in the course of writing your term paper you came across some reliable sources containing interesting content that could improve some existing articles on Wikipedia, you may of course try to improve those articles, adding your content and citations to them. The English Wikipedia has articles, so there are probably some existing articles (perhaps dozens of them) that cover the topics your term paper mentions. See Help:Search and Help:Contents/Browsing Wikipedia for tips on how to find those articles. Of course as Fredrick day correctly notes, anything you contribute to Wikipedia is subject to change by others, and is highly likely to be changed sooner or later. That's just the way Wikipedia works. If you want to publish your work as a signed essay which will not be edited by others, you may want to try Wikinfo, which I believe provides that option. --Teratornis 13:49, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I should also point out that it is quite common for people who are new to Wikipedia to think in terms of the writing tools they have used all their lives. With most writing tools, a writer works alone to produce a "complete" work. Once the work is "complete," the writer signs the work, and (typically) nobody else changes it. Therefore, many new users who come to Wikipedia expect to be able to create large, distinct, finalized, permanent works, because that is how the vast majority of other writing tools operate.
 * Wikipedia overturns the traditional concept of writing. On Wikipedia, nothing is ever "done." All articles undergo continual editing, from any number of editors. It's best for new Wikipedia users to abandon (or at least postpone) their preconceived grandiose ambitions of treatise-writing, and spend some time getting the "lay of the land" first. Start by making small edits to existing articles. If an edit takes more than 15 minutes, that's probably overreaching for a new user. Study the Help, check out the enormous backlog of articles that need work, and help improve them (fix typos, add links, fix article layouts, find reliable sources). Once you have learned how to make bad articles better, you will be much better-equipped to create substantial new chunks of high-quality content that might not get deleted. There may be dozens to thousands of articles already here in your areas of interest, so before creating more articles, be sure they are needed. --Teratornis 15:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Failed password
I tried to create an account today, and upon clicking create account i received an error message - something to do with a server being down.

Now I cannot access the account I have created. The account name was Bantman and the password I created for it **** now apparently doesnt work.

Can you help?

matt


 * The account User:Bantman has existed since 2004. If you're new to Wikipedia I'm afraid you'll need to create an account with a different name.  Whatever you do, don't use the same password that you just posted on a public discussion page. Canderson7 (talk) 13:44, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It's a very bad idea to post your password anywhere. Create a new account under a different name; if our servers had been working then, they would have told you that the account name you tried was already taken. I'd advise you to select a less guessable password, too. --ais523 13:46, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Busted Redirect
I usually dont have any trouble adding new redirects, but this article is giving me nothing but trouble. The syntax for a redirect is right, but it keeps showing it as a numbered list instead of a redirect. If/when somebody fixes it, please let me know on my talk page. Cheers. Ghostwo 14:30, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Replied on the user's talk. --ais523 14:34, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Spouses in Bios
Is it appropriate to add birth date and place information in a parenthetical when a spouse is mentioned in a biography? I have posted this query on the talk page for MoS:BIO, but have not gotten a response. Where else would be appropriate to post it, if not here?--Vbd (talk) 15:12, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * If the spouse is notable enough to warrant his or her own article, then you could add the birth information there. If the spouse is not notable enough to warrant a separate article, then other editors might delete such extra information about the spouse as you might add to an article not directly about the spouse. Or they might not. (On Wikipedia, many issues come down to how hard you want to fight.) Presumably if you are asking this question, the spouse is not notable enough to warrant a separate article. I suppose the obvious question is where does it end? Would you also list the birth dates and places information for other relatives? And how about a person who has had many spouses? --Teratornis 15:28, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I agree.  I had removed the spouse's information a while ago, but someone recently added it back in.  Before I deleted it again, I was wondering if there was a guideline or precedent.--Vbd (talk) 01:54, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

nba history
Bold text


 * Please ask your question. The Sunshine Man 15:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * There is an NBA section, if that's what this is about. --Teratornis 16:52, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Image usage: Are these usable?
Per the Legal wording included in the following site, are the images posted on this web site, considered Free Use. Also, what tag should be placed against these images? Carfolio.
 * All data in the database is freely available for re-use, provided that www.Carfolio.com is noted as the copyright holder. Any modifications that are made available to any other parties must be submitted back to this site at feedback@carfolio.com. Where copyright resides with parties other than Carfolio.com, for example pictures and articles, permission to use must be sought from the copyright holder, not www.Carfolio.com.

Also, what about the following site?: Remarkablecars. I'm just trying to be legal. --Drussel3 16:20, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Neither of those is a suitable source of images. Carfolio doesn't own the copyright of its images (and it's extremely unlikely that the individual copyright holders would be prepared to release them under a free licence allowing commercial use and derivative works); Remarkablecars says "All rights reserved" which means they specifically do not allow free use. Although they allow pictures to be used on websites with a reciprocal link, that's not really applicable here as Wikipedia isn't intended only to be a website. You could email them and ask whether they're prepared to release their images under GFDL or Creative Commons Attribution (not no-derivs or non-commercial) but I strongly suspect the answer would be no. In any case an email expressing the permission would need to be forwarded to permissions@wikimedia.org. Thanks for asking, though. --YFB ¿  16:33, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

create a wiki account
Dear all,

Since three days, I'm struggling to create a wiki account, but I'm always failing.

They ask me to introduce a username ans a password, those that I have choosen were not correct, so pleae assist.

Irène. email:
 * The problem is probably that the account you want to create already exists or one with a very similar name exists. You can use this page to see accounts that exist already. You may also be entering the info in the wrong place. Are you sure you are using this page? Mr.Z-man  talk ¢ 17:38, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Rule violation
I am recently warned by another user about violation of WP:NOT and he threaten to have me blocked for that violation. What I did is just to update sport score a few minute before a game actually end. Now, is that violate the rule he point out. Since I feel I didn't violate the rule, and I am trying to maintain wikipedia, I try to reason with him about this. But he insist that I break the rule and threaten admin intervention. Now, as far as I know, WP:IAR states that rules should be ignore, if it is for the improvement of wikipedia. So according to this rule, what I did is not wrong. Is there anything I can do? Chris 19:25, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi Chris, I agree that Ksy92003 is being somewhat officious and your conduct is unlikely to be a blocking offence. I would advise that you politely request that he stops posting on your talk page, then archive the whole page. Addhoc 19:33, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

solar combustion
when we know that oxygen is required for the combustion or help to produce fire, then how does ther is fire in the sun when no oxygen is present? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.210.14.226 (talk • contribs)
 * Stars are powered by nuclear fusion and not by fire. PrimeHunter 21:16, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Also, please use the Reference desk for further questions of this type. — M ETS 501 (talk) 21:18, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

search types
How do you change the search from a basic search, to a keyword search or a title search?
 * Wikipedia doesn't have that search functionality, but it is always looking for the 'titles' of articles. Read Look it up for more information on searching here. E  talk 20:51, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Editing Parsons Dance listing
I recently edited the information and layout for Parsons Dance (formerly known as The Parsons Dance Company); however the page was flagged down and all of the formatting and the text was completely altered.

The following items were deleted from out listing: Mission Statement Vision Outreach

Are we not allowed to include these in our listing?

Bullets were also added in front of the names and spacing between each of the bios was decreased. Can you please explain why?

Thank you, Manny Romero
 * Wikipedia is not a directory, but an encyclopedia. You should know that your article is in a pretty bad state at the moment as it needs a decent amount of wikifying towards Wikipedia's manual of style. E  talk 21:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It is Parsons Dance Company. This edit removed some advertising material. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not an advertisement for organizations. Anybody can edit articles, for example to make them conform better with our many policies and guidelines. Nobody owns an article. PrimeHunter 21:09, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Would it be acceptable...
...If I spent a lot of time answering questions over at the reference desk, and participating in Wikipedia policy discussions, rather than contributing to the encyclopedia per se? I have skills in the former, and expect that I shall have forthright opinions regarding the latter. Best username yet 21:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * There's nothing that says that in order to contribute that you have to edit the encyclopedia proper. Any constructive help would be beneficial.  Dismas |(talk) 21:38, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes it is perfectly acceptable to specialise in whatever field of Wikipedia you please, and more contributors answering questions at the reference desk are always welcome. Anyone can also contribute to policy discussions, although keep in mind in these discussions that Wikipedia is primarily an encyclopedia so policies are generally made with that fundamental aim in mind. Basically though, this is a volunteer project and volunteers are welcome to spend their time editing the areas that they most enjoy as long as they keep the overall goals of the project in mind. Will (aka Wimt ) 21:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Just what we need! A noncontributor who will give his opinion on how we should do it! I know I can't wait... Actually, on second thought, maybe we should turn all the policy pages over to people like this, and maybe some real contributors might return to writing actual content. 207.81.133.5 22:15, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Like almost everything else on Wikipedia, the approach Best username yet is asking about has a name and a page to describe it: metapedianism. As to whether metapedianism is an "acceptable" approach to volunteering on Wikipedia, that depends on who you ask, I suppose. Presumably, Metapedians believe what they are doing is important, otherwise they would do something else. Wikipedia appears to be one of the largest and most complex volunteer projects in history, and like any other large organization, it requires a lot of organizational overhead. However, I think it's important for everyone involved with Wikipedia to do at least some editing on actual articles, just as it is healthy for Bill Gates to attempt to run Windows on his own once in a while, and maybe even write a bit of working code, just to show he still can. Otherwise, if the Cabal gets too distant from the actual work, we might end up with a Cultural Revolution in which the elite have to go scrub toilets or something. --Teratornis 23:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * We have at present at least one editor, Clio the Muse, who edits almost exclusively at the reference desks but nevertheless has an exceedingly propitious effect on the mainspace; one finds that text she adds (for which she often provides fine sources) often is integrated into articles and generally that those who receive exemplary help at the reference desks often join the project and improve encyclopedic content. Anything that one does the net effect of which is the betterment of the project is, or ought to be, appreciated. Joe 04:53, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Shaw Communications
As an employee of Shaw Communications Inc. it has come to my attention that there are some factual errors in your articles related to this company. Namely, you cite that CANCOM became Shaw Broadcasting Services, when in fact it became Shaw Satellite Services. Shaw Broadcasting services is merely a business name given to a part of the Satellite Services company. I have made a few changes in the body of these articles which should be left, but the Title of the page emtitled "Shaw Broadcasting Services" should be changed to read "Shaw Satellite Services". Thanks for the help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)


 * Feel free to change them. It would help if you can CITE you changes, possibly the companies web site. ---CWY2190TC 22:18, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

prince harry and william
what is their surname


 * Please put trivia questions here. The Help desk is for questions about Wikipedia its self. ---CWY2190TC 23:37, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Have you tried the obvious links, e.g.: Prince William of Wales? --Teratornis 13:50, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Name questions...
Hi. I have a question related to Naming conventions that I couldn't really answer on the Wikipedia section related to them. I'll use Victor Pellot as an example here since it was a hot-button issue recently. Anyway, Victor Pellot is the given name for a baseball player who is widely known in the United States as Vic Power, but is more commonly known in Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries under his given name (I've used a Spanish language Google test to verify this), and he is in fact buried in Puerto Rico as Pellot. Do we list him under the name that he played as in America or his official name? Generalizing the question to apply to other players, if a player uses a playing name that is different from the name they are born and buried with, which do we use? Thanks in advance. -- transaspie 23:07, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * My suggestion would be to redirect Vic Power to Victor Pellot. ---CWY2190TC 23:44, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually we use a disambiguation page for that because there's a politician of the same name.
 * Huh, so they've been right all along in directing that page there. Interesting. -- transaspie 23:51, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

A question about account security...
I originally made my account for Wikipedia on a school computer (which has multiple users, of course.) Since then, I have had, at various times, messages on my User page warning that either I'll be banned outright or I'll soon be banned if I don't stop vandalizing--in other words, I'm assuming that someone/something at Wikipedia thinks that I'm the one vandalizing. But I'm not. Is there a way I can make sure that Wikipedia (whether the admins or the automated parts) knows that I'm not vandalizing? Or, is there a way to make sure that Wikipedia knows that the computer and account I'm using is, in fact, who I say I am?

Tolerant666 23:22, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Replied on your talk page here. -- Hdt83 Chat 23:26, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

viscose material
does viscose material shrink??
 * This is the Help desk, for questions about editing Wikipedia. Your question is not covered by the scope of the Help desk. Please take your question to the Reference desk.—WAvegetarian (talk) 23:38, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism: Imageek1333
Imageek1333 appears to be a vandal. They have contributed nonsense on 3 of 3 occasions, including altering another user's comments on a Talk page. Please refer to the comments on Imageek1333's Talk page for details. Rubywine 23:34, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Please refer vandalism to the admin intervention against vandalism page. Thanks.—WAvegetarian (talk) 23:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

If you spot vandalism go ahead and revert it. Then you can put the appropriate user warning on the vandals talk page. If they continue to vandalize, report them to WP:AIV---CWY2190TC 23:42, 4 June 2007 (UTC)