Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 November 9

= November 9 =

"Wikipedia" Without the Images
Hello. Is there any website that changes word for word according to Wikipedia and as Wikipedia is edited, just without images? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 00:45, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't know of one, and I doubt one exists since the mirror sites take their information from the database dumps. If you want to browse wikipedia without images and you use firefox, you can right click an image and select 'block images from upload.wikimedia.org' from the context menu. This will prevent firefox from loading images. If you use some other browser, I cannot help you. --Sopoforic 00:53, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Line breaks when editing
I encountered unpredictable line breaks when creating a list of external links. Sometimes the links would run together in the same line; other times theey would appear on a new line.

How to control this?

WWriter 01:32, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * We usually format external links as lists. See Help:List for information on how those work, and be sure you're following the guidelines on External links. --Sopoforic 01:34, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Number 1 card player in the world just passed away (Paul Soloway)
Text of copyright violation removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.253.57.148 (talk) 01:44, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Please do not post copyrighted material on Wikipedia. The Help Desk is for asking questions anyway - if you would like an article created about this person, you may make a request here or write one in your own words here. Please remember, however, that Wikipedia is not a memorial site and the subject must be notable. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 01:53, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The subject is notable. I copied the request to WP:AFC and might actually write an article myself but I hope a better writer does it. Sbowers3 22:32, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

How to remove my IP address?
Yikes, I did an edit and did not notice I wasn't signed in. (I thought signing in was global across Wikipedia.) So my IP address is now on the History page for that topic.

If I delete the edit, will the entire record on the History page also be deleted?

WWriter 02:28, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by WWriter (talk • contribs) 02:26, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The edit will remain in the history unless deleted by an admin. --Sopoforic 02:47, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Admins can only delete entire articles and restore selected revisions. Quite an undertaking if you're talking about a large article history. People with Oversight priviliges can directly delete a revision under certain circumstances. Usually, though this isn't enough reason to remove the edit. Unless you tell us what the edit is, no one will be able to link it to your username and there's no point in keeping your IP secret, because your computer shares it with about every website you visit. - 131.211.161.123 08:38, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

How do I post a picture to an article?
How do I post a picture to an article? I'd like to post two photos with captions. BruceK IPMS649 03:02, 9 November 2007 (UTC).
 * Type  to the article – replacing   with the actual file name of the image,   with the alignment of the image on the page and   with the caption, which of course, is optional. See Picture tutorial for more information. --Silver Edge 03:25, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

WIKI E'mail
Can anyone say whether or not enabling E'mail on Wiki allows a user to user to maintain their anonymity, other than their pseudonyms (user names)? Jagra 03:04, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * If you enter your email and send a message to someone, your email address will be visible to them. If they reply, their address will be visible to you.  Some people set up Wikipedia-only accounts for email at free services like yahoo or gmail to maintain anonymity on email, but in general your email may be seen by others.  Cheers,  --TeaDrinker 08:26, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

SILVER RINGS
silver rings homogenous mixtures, elements, or compounds.. i dont seem able to figure it out please explain to me why would it be any of the choices thank you thank you thank yoouuou!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.71.37.71 (talk) 09:28, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * It would help if you provided more info on what choices you are talking about. Are you talking about a multiple choice question? If you do, it helps to repeat the exact question. On the reference desk mind you, this page is for questions about Wikipedia. - 131.211.175.100 11:38, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

audio function of dictionary
When I put my mouse cursor on certain words, a small window of dictionary appears over the word. and with the explanation, small icon of audio appears as well. It looks immensely helpful especially when I bump into a strange foreign word or a name of regiion which is difficult to read or pronounce. However, it doesn't work, there's no sound when it is clicked. Is that one of the function that Wikipedia provides? If not, isn't there a similar function that I can use when I want to know the pronunciation of certain words? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.6.61.110 (talk) 09:34, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * If you need a word translated into French, Spanish,German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Korean or Chinese and are using Firefox This "add-on" could help you. You just need to set the dictionary language, then every time you highlight a word the translation appears below. If you were to install that "add-on" it would be advisable to disable adblocker as it interferes with it.  Гed ʃ t ǁ c ɭ 10:06, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Redirect pages with categories
Is it ok for a redirect page to be in a category? For instance, Argumentum ad antiquitatem is in Category:Latin logical phrases, but it's just a redirect to Appeal to tradition. I think this is useful, because it avoids the need to have a list page for these terms, but is it the right way to do things? — PhilHibbs | talk 09:46, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree it's useful. See Redirect and Categorizing redirects. PrimeHunter 16:02, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I haven't received an confiormation email
I signed up for an account on 11/08/2007 I haven't received a confirmation as of yet I Tried to loggin. not able to I ask for my passsword to be emailed. I havent received it either i did sign up using an email account help ? leglessone998 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.129.177.210 (talk) 12:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * This is usually the result of an overactive spamfilter. What email provider do you use? If you have AOL or hotmail, try putting anything coming from wikipedia.org on your whitelist and trawl through your spam folder to see if anything got filtered out. - Mgm|(talk) 23:11, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

288 Closed
I need a letter stating that the 288 freeway was closed on October 13, 2007 around 10 pm because I was late and need an excused letter to justify me being late that day.

Tracy Taylor —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.250.231.202 (talk) 12:39, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I think it is more likely that you will be able to find some agency involved in an official capacity with transportation/maintenance with the route that will have a verifiable public record showing the closure, as opposed to procuring a tailored letter addressed to your boss. You haven't even stated in what country the subject freeway is located so it is not possible to help you with details of this. Please note for future reference that this page is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. Knowledge questions are asked at the reference desk.--Fuhghettaboutit 13:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * The IP address is registered in Texas, so this may be about Texas State Highway 288. PrimeHunter 17:08, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Template function
I added to the dated prod template. It was in a parser function that displays a red expired message when the 5-day prod time limit is up. The template seems to work correctly, and articles with expired prod tags show the message and include the Category. For example: this article: CEXL. However, when you click on Category:Expired proposed deletion the category is empty. Only once on the day before yesterday did I see it populated with like 20 articles. I can't fathom why that is happening. Help!--Esprit15d (۝ • ۞ • ▲ ) 13:30, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Additional note: well today I did see it populated with some cats, so I don't know if it's suddenly working now or not?--Esprit15d (۝ • ۞ • ▲ ) 13:38, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I had the same problem with the changes I made to fair use reduced, to categorize into CAT:FURD7. Basically, dynamic categorization doesn't work reliably in the current software, but a null edit on the template will fix it (though it's difficult with this one, as it's protected).  Also, it may take a couple of hours to fully populate the category. --Pekaje 19:45, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Woah! That null edit thing worked, inexplicably. I'm an admin, so I was able to edit it.  Thanks!--Esprit15d (۝ • ۞ • ▲ ) 01:35, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Give us your fucking money
Yes, I saw a banner on Wikipedia that said this. I don't care if Wikipedia has articles on sex-related stuff, because children won't see them unless they want to. But they will see this banner even if they don't want to. I'm not going to donate, and I'm going to tell children not to read Wikipedia in case they see this banner. And where do I complain about such banners? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.189.57.203 (talk) 14:02, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * This banner was on someone's user page, as I recall. Whose page was it (I can't remember)? I thought it was a fairly harmless joke, but understand how some might be offended.  Also, this question might receive prompter attention on WP:AN/I.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 14:11, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * You know what, I'll copy this thread to the incident board for you.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 14:18, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Image:Giveit.jpg and Image:Giveit.png was a little joke as the author Neil says at Administrators' noticeboard. It is apparently only displayed on User talk:Addhoc, User:Jeffpw, User talk:Jeffpw and User talk:Dynaflow. They are just three of a huge number of Wikipedia editors and they personally chose to add this (see for Addhoc) to their own user or talk pages. User space like this is not a part of the encyclopedia and I hope you don't advice people against Wikipedia based on something in user space. PrimeHunter 14:37, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh and Wikipedia is not censored. I understand your concerns but it was not intended to cause offence and is only on a very limited number of pages. Woodym555 14:43, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Aetna Wiki problem
If you go to /wiki/Aetna, you will notice the first paragraph has a link titled "Big Floppy Donkey D***" in it. This should be removed. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.213.209.31 (talk) 14:54, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for reporting it. It was vandalism added earlier today and I have reverted it. You are welcome to revert vandalism on you own. PrimeHunter 15:10, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Get a copy of help pages, please
To whom it may concern:

I would like to get a copy of all the wikipedia help pages to install in our locate version. I don't want to go to each page and copy paste, since I don't know how to complete clean or fix one with tabs. Is there a way to copy all the help pages, so I can install them?

Sincerely, James Freas —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wegues (talk • contribs) 15:44, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I couldn't be sure, but I think there is a reason you can't easily save them. Presumeably because you're not supposeed tso I would recommend just not doing it and creating your own. :: Manors ::  talk to me 16:25, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

"Euler's formula", editing
I'd like to expand a bit on the basic description of Euler's formula in the Preview section.

Here's my proposed addition: "The formula becomes especially elegant when x = π. The formula then becomes $$e^{iπ} = \cos(π) + i\sin(π) \!$$ [The preceding part is a copy and paste]. Since the sine of pi = 0 and the cosine of pi = -1, the result of this substitution is that e (with the exponent i * pi) = -1 + 0. Adding 1 to each side of the equation yields: e [with the exponent i * pi] + 1 = 0, an elegant equation which includes the five most foundational numbers in mathematics."

No matter how I substitute π for x in the formula, I receive error messages. They state "Failed to parse (lexing error): e^{iπ} = \cos(π) + i\sin(π) \!" or refer to lexing errors.

I've tried several variations on this idea, with none being successful. How should I continue?

Billastro 16:37, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Billastro


 * Write  to display π in a math formula. PrimeHunter 16:59, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry, it's still not working. \pi appears in the final text as \pi, not the Greek letter. I've tried replicating the source in several different ways, but nothing works. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks in advance.

Bill —Preceding unsigned comment added by Billastro (talk • contribs) 22:51, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * It works for me. Here is your example with π replaced by \pi inside the tags: $$e^{i\pi} = \cos(\pi) + i\sin(\pi) \!$$. PrimeHunter 00:40, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * You wrote π correctly outside so I assumed you were referring to what to do inside math tags where \pi works. But \pi just displays as \pi outside math tags. If you want to write π outside math tags without using the special π character then write &amp;pi; PrimeHunter 01:09, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Citation of Wikipedia Page
How should I cite a wikipedia page? Is the author Wikimedia Foundation Inc.? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.212.81.223 (talk) 17:02, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * In the menu on the left of any article, there is a link for "cite this article," which gives you the citation in several formats. In some styles, the author is "Wikipedia contributors," and in others it does not list an author.  You may also want to check out Citing Wikipedia for more information.  --TeaDrinker 17:07, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Please keep in mind citing an encyclopedia is unscholarly and the reason WP exists is to direct you to reliable sources with that information that can be cited. Simply citing WP could be fairly viewed as laziness. - Woo ty   [ Woot? ]  [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam! ] 01:19, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Suspected advertisements - how do I report?
I suspect that Whothehellru171 may be using Wikipedia to promote the website. His only contributions to the site have been to add somethingpunk.com ratings to a number of albums. His first contribution was yesterday. I tried to search for somethingpunk.com throughout Wikipedia, but it only shows a handful of results, and does not include some pages I know that he has edited and have not been reverted. My intention was to see if other users have put forward this website as a valid site for reviews.

I want to assume good faith, so I don't want to revert any of his changes or call him on this. I merely wish to find a venue to raise the question, where someone more adept at handling this sort of situation might look into it.

Thank you. Harukaze 18:09, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Those are spam links, and I'll remove them. I've also left a note on the users' page.  Those were the users only contributions, which is obviously suspicious and something to look for when suspecting spam.  Thanks for pointing it out. - Rjd0060 19:14, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Remove templates??
I get a little confused about something: When is it APPROPRIATE to remove a template (say, one that notes style, grammar, "reads like a magazine article", etc.)issues??

I enjoy style editing, but sometimes, by the time I get to an article that's 8 months old, it's been nicely edited by 5 different people and doesn't (at least in my opinion, anyway) require anymore cleanup. Is it kosher for me to remove some/all of the "cleanup" templates at the top of the page?? Buddpaul 18:24, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * If you have read the article over and feel that the template isn't deserved anymore, be bold and take it off. And you can always leave a note on the talk page stating that you took it off and if someone wants to replace it, to please point out specific reasons why they feel it still belongs.  Dismas |(talk) 19:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * However, you should check the talk page and see if there are any specific comments before deciding to remove the tag. RJFJR 19:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Sponsorship
how do you find a sponsor? how do you get to know them and all of that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.10.166.231 (talk) 19:31, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not quite sure what you're referring to, but I can tell your question has nothing to do with Wikipedia. We're only able to assist with using this site, and cannot offer any advice to you, other than recommend that you seek a professional in your field. Sorry. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 21:06, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * It's conceivable you mean a mentor on Wikipedia. If so, go to Adopt-a-User, and if something is still unclear after you read that, asking a more specific question at Wikipedia talk:Adopt-a-User might help. --barneca (talk) 22:00, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Proposal: allow longer edit summaries
Hi. In the past few weeks, I've had the problem that edit summaries weren't allowed to be long enough. When I revert, I often have to add an explanation to add to the revert message already there. Could someone consider allowing longer edit summaries? The revert summaries are already quite long, and when I add my own summary, it often gets cut off. In fact, there have been about a dozen times when I added more text to the popups revert summary, only to find that it had been cut off when I don't know at which point in the summary it would be cut off. This is beginning to be a big problem, so I suggest making allowed edit summaries twice the space of the current one. Please, I can't go to the reverted editor's talkpage every single time to explain the reason for my revert. Just look at my past few edits, you will see times when my summaries got cut off, or I knew when it would be cut off and had to finish the summary early. If this is not the right place to post this, please notify me on my talkpage where I should post it. I don't know if it's admins or crats or devs that actually controll this stuff, so please notify me on what we could do. Thanks. ~ A H  1 (TCU) 21:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * If the vote of a newbie means anything, I'd like to second this proposal. There are just times when you need to explain in semi-detail why an edit or revert was made, and the system doesn't give us enough room to do so.  Harukaze 21:22, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * This should really be directed to the village pump. I dunno if it's actually possible but you could always shorten your summaries by ommiting vowels etc, like one does with text messages--Phoenix-wiki (talk · contribs) 21:25, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Suggestion 1: Don't use the default edit summary when undoing an edit. Revert manually – go to the 'history' tab, select the correct older revision, click 'edit this page', save – and use an appropriate edit summary.
 * Suggestion 2: If the amount of information you want to convey won't fit in the edit summary field, then you're almost certainly using the edit summary for the wrong purpose. Refer, in the edit summary, to an appropriate comment on the article talk page, or leave a message on the talk page of the editor whom you've reverted, as appropriate. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:29, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't know how popups works, but when I use the normal undo button in a page history, I sometimes delete the prefilled edit summary to write something else. PrimeHunter 22:28, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * My 2p worth: I often get this problem, and the only explanation is that I am trying to write too much in the edit summary, and I need to tighten up my prose. Do the same! AndyJones 10:06, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * If people are curious what was changed they can always look at the diff so anything that doesn't fit and would be covered by the diff is superfluous. RJFJR 16:34, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with the suggestion by TenOfAllTrades to use the article's talk page for documenting complicated edits in more detail. Another advantage of using the talk page is that you get full wikitext markup - if you have a lot to say about your edit, it will be easier to read if you format it on the talk page. You might also add a link to your diff in your talk page comment, so people can easily see what edit you are describing (that is, to connect your talk page comment to the article history). As to whether you need to tighten up your prose, that might depend on how much you edited. If you make a large number of different types of changes to an article, it's hard to avoid using a correspondingly large number of words to describe them. You might want to make multiple edits with fewer changes per edit, so you don't have lots of different things to explain in one edit summary. --Teratornis 00:13, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

WIkipedia/Google search problems
I'm trying to get a list of all the Wikipedia categories with "Software" in their name, so I ran the google search

intitle:Category intitle:software site:en.wikipedia.org

That search returns about 690 items. However I noticed that the category "Business software" was not included. I had used edit/select all/copy/paste into notebook/ to capture the Google search results, then sorted that notebook created file. And I've done it several times; "Business software" never shows up. However, just make it more curious, if after the Google search you use Googles "search within results" facility to search for "Business" -it's there!

The problem is not that "Business software" was missing, the problem is that anything was missing. "Business software" is only an example; "Accounting software" is also missing on my last attempt.

Why would anyone care about this? Please take a look at my "Contributions" log, I'm engaged in some obsessive/compulsive updating of the computing and software categories.

So what's going on between Wikipedia and Google searches?

thanks 69.106.226.205 21:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry if this is a stupid question, but did the last page of your search end with:
 * In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 545 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.


 * Yes, always click that - count went from 690 to 691. Apologies for not being logged on for orginal post, probably got dropped while at lunch. Use this id ==> tooold 22:28, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps when you did your cut and paste, you only had 545 of the entries, not 694 of them? Since things like Category:Business software and Category:Accounting software are probably largely populated by subcategories, that might affect their pagerank in some bad way, so they might have less Google "relevance" than other categories. --barneca (talk) 22:11, 9 November 2007 (UTC) I actually bothered to look, obviously not. Still first part might be right. --barneca (talk) 22:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * After the select/copy/past, I checked that the last item on each Google search page (7 pages, 100 items/page) was in the notepad file. tooold 22:28, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * btw, I'm not desperate to use Google, if there is a Wikipedia way to get the result I'd be happy to use it. tooold 22:31, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * OK, I checked, and you're right, and I can't explain it. Seems like it's more of a Google question than a Wikipedia one.  However, I think I have good news.  If you do a MediaWiki search on "software", and limit it to the Categories namespace, you get 1342 results . But, it seems to be sorted so Categories with "software" the title are listed first.  Look at page 30 the 550th or so entry (page number depends on your search results default in your preferences), and you'll see the switch.  You'll have to double check, but I think that'll get you where you want to be. Possibly the first time in the history of the universe when a MediaWiki search worked better than a Google one.  Maybe Wikimedia should consider competing with Google in the search-engine market. --barneca (talk) 22:55, 9 November 2007 (UTC)


 * You got it! Thanks.  Neat catching that those with "software" in title listed first.  Comparing to the Google search, Google missed 10 out of the 1st 50. Thanks again. tooold 00:28, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Glad to help. Enjoy your obsessive compulsion. --barneca (talk) 02:37, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

(undent) If you want to search just the Categories namespace, try my (relatively) new Google custom template. I even included a usage example for exactly this case. For example, to search the Categories namespace for "software": That finds about 2,720 results, with Category:Business software on the first results page. --Teratornis 23:43, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I should add that Google custom uses a style of Google search URL that I haven't actually seen documented on Google's site (I admire lots of things about Google, but its online documentation isn't one of them); instead, I've seen other people mentioning that search URL style on the Help desk (and I think it got into Help:Search or a related page at some point). Since custom Google search URLs are handy for searching on portions of Wikipedia (see the usage section of Google custom for several examples), and this is often useful for answering questions on the Help desk, I copied the Google template and edited it into Google custom. --Teratornis 23:49, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I haven't had to learn about templates yet, looks like I'm going to have to. The search with 2,720 results, however, is not the desired search.  The Google search was "intitle:Category intitle:Software", the template search looks to be "intitle:Category software".  That is, software was found anywhere in the category page's text, not just in the title - thus the 2,7020 results. tooold 05:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Display problems in Firefox
Hi, i'm using Wikipedia on Firefox 2.0.0.9.

Is the set of "buttons" (i.e., my preferences, etc.) supposed to show up halfway down the page? It didn't when I used IE, and it makes it difficult to navigate? rich 23:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Which skin do you have in Special:Preferences with Firefox? MonoBook (default) should place the "my preferences" link at the top. PrimeHunter 00:36, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Have you edited your monobook.js or monobook.css? Jonathan  —  end transmission  20:16, 11 November 2007 (UTC)