Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 October 10

= October 10 =

Similar names
If I list a name can I find other names of similar meaning?


 * (given own section) --h2g2bob (talk) 03:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. I'm not sure I understood your question. If you want to find articles with a similar meaning, you have to do it by yourself. But if you want to create an article which already exists but yours has a different meaning, you can create a disambiguation page. But they are many things to do, not really easy for a newbie, so if you need help, please ask us before. Martial BACQUET 03:39, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * There isn't a thesaurus on Wikipedia but you can try Wiktionary which sometimes has related terms. Otherwise, there are plenty of thesauri out there.  x42bn6 Talk Mess  09:27, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Read the Thesaurus article to find some thesauri. --Teratornis 05:42, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Solar Cell,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

I work for Amorphous silicon (a-Si or a-Si:H) solar module manufacturing company (United Solar Ovonic). We currently have more than 50 MW of production capacity, and we are also efficient and posses good market share but there is nothing in this article that says about the A;Si on stainless steel substrate. We are the only one who makes flexible A:SI modules, and its also easier to deposit gases on steel with our process at large scale. Why only cd Tel technology with company name(first solar) is being praised here? Any comment?

Thanks,
 * Hello. The Help Desk is for questions for using Wikipedia only. Please ask your question on the Reference Desk Thank you. Martial BACQUET 03:33, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Um, that isn't a general knowledge question. Either way, first see our conflict of interest guideline which discourages editing for subjects you have a conflict of interest in.  Read that policy then when you understand the guidelines, you can write about it.  Noting, of course, that that guideline doesn't prevent editing, it just requires special care.  x42bn6 Talk Mess  09:26, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is a charity, but you can grease the wheels to some extent; see: Bounty board and Reward board. --Teratornis 05:41, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Reviewing my article
I was wondering if someone could review my article the name is national dairy checkoff. if someone could do that i would appericate it. thank you Bakekari 02:27, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You should go to either WP:GAC or WP:PR. The folks there should be willing to help you. Ne ra n e i   (talk) 02:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

IE and Wikipedia incompatibility
I noticed a number of pages are reporting script errors with Windows XP and IE6 or IE7. In fact, this has been going on with people in the US, and people overseas in Hong Kong as I last checked. Basically if you use IE, you get the following errors.

Line: 673 Char: 8 Error: Expected '}' Code: 0

I want to say this is a bug having to do with multi-media box and non-English characters, but I am really not sure. Here are two pages to try (one and two). There is no problem at all with firefox. Does anyone else experience a similar problem with IE? Is there a wikipedia disclaimer for IE users? Benjwong 05:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Not that I'm aware of. Some scripting tools such as Twinkle won't work in IE, but I haven't heard of any standard pages having any issues. Unfortunately, I can't check as I'm running the wrong operating system at the moment (Linux = no IE). You might want to check at the Tech Village Pump as well - if something's going screwy, they're probably going to be the first to know about it without going to another project. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 05:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Hello, This problem is coming from Wikipedia. You have to install additional tools in IE to be able to read some foreign characters. You can find them on the Microsoft's website. Martial BACQUET 06:04, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See Help:Multilingual support. I have IE7 and Windows Vista. The two pages work fine for me. PrimeHunter 10:10, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I meant this problem wasn't coming from Wikipedia, of course. Typing error. Martial BACQUET 13:13, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Well that's the thing. According to Microsoft help, you need the Asian fonts installed. But most of the people having these issues overseas have had the fonts installed long ago? They only have problems with some pages, but not all. And is isolated to IE6 and IE7?? Benjwong 16:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Signature Automatic signing not working
FYI, It seems that the automatic signing on the page WP:RD/S is not working. --KushalClick me! write to me 05:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hm. It would appear SineBot hasn't made any edits for nine and a half hours now... He hasn't been blocked, so he must have broken. He's not responding to his high-priority sandbox either. I'll inform the operator - thanks for the heads-up. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 05:30, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

special all pages for images ?
is there a special page for uploaded images on wiki? (like the Special:Allpages for articles) kernitou talk 07:21, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * All pages allows one to narrow its ambit to the image namespace.--Fuhghettaboutit 07:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * thanks kernitou talk 09:16, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You also can use Special:Imagelist Martial BACQUET 13:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

how to password protect one link from my main wiki page?
Dear Support, 1. I need to password protect one link from my wiki main page. is this possible? 2. could i make some links available only to my personal login?

regards Vlad
 * This question is hard to understand. By "my main wiki page" (or "my wiki main page") do you mean a page on your own wiki? If you refer to the Main Page on Wikipedia, the possessive pronoun "my" does not apply, because that Main Page does not belong to you. I have never heard of a way to password-protect a link from a page on a MediaWiki wiki (but then I have not heard of everything MediaWiki can do, or can be forced to do). Generally if you want to password-protect a Web page (or a whole Web site), the site administrator has to implement that on the server that hosts the site. For example, perhaps the simplest (and weakest) method is Basic access authentication. In any case, please clarify what you mean by "my wiki main page," by giving us a link to whatever that is. Also tell us what link you want to password-protect. Otherwise I don't think our volunteers will know what you are talking about. There are too many possible ways to interpret your question, and besides the available options for password protection depend entirely on what you want to protect. --Teratornis 05:15, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Teratornis, I have installed WIKI in the local network for 10users, thats why i want to create eg: John private, Piter Private...links so each user (with their own passwords) THis would allow those users to add its own data and of course share finished or requested docs on the public main page. 11:50, 12 October 2007 (GMT)


 * Hi Vlad. The Wikipedia Help Desk is for questions specifically related to Wikipedia. You might be better off asking at MediaWiki Support Desk :) --saxsux 19:09, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

translation of article
Hi,

Where would I have to put the translation for an ongoing translation?

inside [...]] ?


 * Translation_progress = 0|

[...]]

Talk
or some place else?

am doing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Translation/Ojibwe from English to Spanish

Thanks,

Romain


 * I don't know, but I do know where to learn all about how translation works here: WP:EIW. --Teratornis 05:17, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

"REDIRECT"ed term not hit or posted by Google
"REDIRECT"ed term is not posted by search engine by such as Google, why ?

If frequently used "term A" has the page or article in Wikipedia, and "term B" is redirect to "term A", why "term B" is not posted by search engine like Google. "Term A" is well posted by most search engine, Google too. I am talking on the case of Japanese wikipedia terms and Japanese Google's case, but Iguess this might be apply to US-English edition for both Wikipedia and Google.--Namazu-tron 10:56, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia has no control over what Google does. But let's try an example and see how Google handles redirects. Picking a completely random page from the last question I tried to answer: Basic authentication is a redirect to Basic access authentication. Search Wikipedia with Google for both titles:
 * Search Wikipedia with Google for "Basic authentication" - this does not find the redirect page.
 * Search Wikipedia with Google for "Basic access authentication" - this finds the article.
 * So, if this random example is representative, it looks like Google does not index redirect pages on Wikipedia (I would lean toward that conclusion because I have searched Wikipedia with Google probably hundreds of times, and come to think of it I cannot recall a redirect page appearing in the search results). Since Google is Google and not Wikipedia, you may not be able to find out why Google works this way. Wikipedia documents nearly everything it does (actually, nearly everything we do) in astounding detail, whereas Google documents hardly anything (I hate to say it, but even Microsoft is probably more informative). If you want to know why something is the way it is on Wikipedia, you can probably find out (just ask us); but if you want to know why something is the way it is on Google, you probably have to get hired by Google first, and work your way up high enough in the company to have access to that particular information. There does seem to be a Google Help desk, but I have never actually seen it. --Teratornis 05:36, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your response, Teratornis. Yes, Google and Wikipedia is different "animals", and no relative control each other. I appreciate your check on example Basic authentication. Now it is realized that both edition of animals behave the same way. If article Basic access authentication does not say any thing about Basic authentication, Basic authentication is may not posted by Google, it is sad isn't it ? Now we got the homework, why and how to solve the simple but serious(?) phenomenon/trouble. Do you think can I wait Wikipedia headquarter or Sysops solve this problem, or Sysops talk with Google? --Namazu-tron 16:06, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Move/copied to discussion of Administrators with expecting some remedy action.--Namazu-tron 12:49, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Uploading WikiCode
Howdy y'all!

Here's a weird one: Do you guys or perhaps the developers know if there some way to modify an article by sending a text file or perhaps through FTP, sort of like how one uploads images and audio files? Basically, I'm editing certain low-activity articles Category:Sesotho language and, instead of going to an internet cafe to implement my changes, I thought it might be great if I could transfer the edited text on my PC to my phone then just send it to the servers (no, where I'm from PC does not imply internet).

So, is it possible, or have I gone hopelessly bonkers? Tebello TheWHAT!!?? 11:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You will always need an Internet connection to edit Wikipedia (because you need some connection to the servers); the only current editing method requires a Web connection over HTTP. A new edit implementation (not yet available) is being worked on for the benefit of bots, which is also over HTTP but is simpler than trying to use an edit page; at present, I don't think there are plans for editing over connection types other than HTTP. (Both systems require a GET request to obtain the article's existing text and an edit token that allows it to be changed (at current, the edit page); they both then require a POST request submitting the edit token and the new text for the article (in the current system, this request is sent by the 'Save page' button). Note that you don't necessarily need a Web browser to make an HTTP connection; you might want to ask at the technical village pump or the bot owner's noticeboard (because many bots don't use browsers) for more information. Hope that helps! --ais523 11:12, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Of course editing Wikipedia requires an internet connection! My phone has GPRS (I'm actually using it to write this) and can even upload files to Wikipedia. If I knew how to write for Symbian I could've tried to write a little application that did GET and POST with index.php -- but that would just be overkill! I was just wondering if I could access the servers using FTP or if there was some other way to send the data other than through POST (as with images).

Thank you for your help. I think I'll try the technical village dump... Tebello TheWHAT!!?? 12:25, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Check the links under WP:EIW. You might find some sort of offline editor. Also, the Village dump is on Uncyclopedia and they probably won't help you, but they will probably make you laugh. (Yes, I know what you meant.) --Teratornis 19:48, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia coordinates and Google Earth
Please can you tell how i can add coordinates to an existing article created by someone else. also how does one get an article onto Google Earth. I have looked everywhere for the answers to both these questions and can find nothing.

Thanks

212.9.22.222 11:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See coord for instructions about adding coordinates; for information about Google Earth's relationship with Wikipedia, it's probably best to read Google's FAQ at http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/geoweb_faq.html. --ais523 11:46, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Lots of related information is at: WP:EIW. For example, see: WP:GEO and WP:GEO. --Teratornis 19:52, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

University High School, West Los Angeles
I have just read the information regarding the subject and wish to add to what exists. I don't know anything about this but I think some of what I have added might be worthwhile regarding the history of that school. Perhaps I have used the wrong area, test edits. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.190.225.80 (talk) 13:23, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Information should be added to University High School (Los Angeles, California) and not where you edited . Content should be based on published reliable sources. See Verifiability, Reliable sources, No original research. You cannot use private knowledge or make your own speculation. PrimeHunter 13:53, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Benchmark Systems
The company name is not capitalized correctly. It reads Benchmark systems —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.103.158 (talk) 13:32, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I have moved Benchmark systems to Benchmark Systems. PrimeHunter 13:44, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

500 Error
Hi all, Is there a problem today? I am paroling recent changes and every 5 or so reverts I am getting a 500 internal error when submitting a page. Thanks Doyley Talk  15:26, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * According to http://thewritingpot.com/wikistatus a moment ago (before I changed it), the site was down. As far as I can tell, viewing and editing normally work fine, but occasionally fail altogther. You might want to look at the technical village pump to see if there's more information there; when the site has serious problems, someone will normally ask what's happening and quite often someone who knows will answer. --ais523 15:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Many thanks Doyley Talk  15:38, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there a how to on creating TABBED pages.
I like the look and use of TABs used in the help section. I am unable to find any real documentation on how to create a page with tabbs like in the help section.

Looking at the source,

To create a set of tabs, use these four elements. Keep the page tabs in the same order on all pages and use "Tab1" for the current page.

Tutorial/TabsTop Current page name Other page name(s) Tutorial/TabsBottom

So do I create a page called TabsTop, one called Tab1, and one called Tab2, and one called TabsBottom as the templates.

Does anyone have or know where more detailed instructions are for creating a tabbed page.
 * I turned the pages you were transcluding into links, because they caused the "[edit]" links on each section of this page to be removed. I think this is really just designed for the tutorial and can't really be created for another page unless you're willing to set up the whole infrastruction of tab related pages. It's really not necessary for any encyclopedia page.  Leebo  T / C  16:30, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I would like to for use on our wiki at work. It would help for some projects. Still trying to make sense of it, any suggestions?

Help with title of page and categories
I need the title of my page to have all four words in caps. Right now, only the first word is in caps and the next three are in lower case. It is the name of my company and I need it to be correct. Also, I think it's causing problems when I make internal links on other pages.

Also, the categories at the bottom of my page are not all working. I know the pages exist but when I click on the link, it doesn't go to the right place. It acts like those pages don't exist in Wikipedia.

Any suggestions? Rfcu 17:09, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Welcome to Wikipedia. I want to start by saying that it's not really appropriate for you to create an article about your company, as this often represents a conflict of interest. Your username indicates that you are treating this account like an official account of the company, while your user page is being used to store a copy of the article. I can try to help, but realize that there are policies and guidelines for content on Wikipedia that the page will have to meet.  Leebo  T / C  17:15, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See Business' FAQ. Wikipedia has several articles about credit unions, so your credit union may be notable enough for an article too, but if it is, someone who is not associated with the company will write it. You may wish to try writing your article first on Wikicompany, which wants to build a wiki featuring every company, and may not mind if people write about their own companies (although I haven't delved far enough into Wikicompany to know for sure, but from what I have seen of other wikis, very few are as persnickety as Wikipedia when it comes to what sort of articles they allow). Your user page content is still safely in the page history so you haven't lost your work yet. --Teratornis 19:42, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Now that the COI stuff has been taken care of, here are the answers to your actual questions (although it appears that someone else has actually fixed things for you). To change the title of a page, you have to move it, a function which becomes available to you when your account is four days old. (A "move" tab will appear up the top of the article, to the right of the "history" tab.) As to your categories problem, the ones you were having a problem with were not categories, but other articles, and so while Redstone Arsenal exists as an article, there is no Category:Redstone Arsenal. Links to other articles belong either as wikilinked text in the article (e.g. "RFCU was originally located in Redstone Arsenal"), or as a separate "See Also" section. Confusing Manifestation 01:08, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Turning off Pictures in Wikipedia.
Is there a way to customize my account to not show pictures in wikipedia? I would rather limit this to wikipedia than do it for all of the webpages i view. I'm at work and the pictures really give it away that i'm looking at something else ;PSkorp3on 17:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You could write


 * in your personal styling file Special:Mypage/monobook.css, and then bypass your cache; I haven't tested this, but I think it will work. (Remove the line and bypass your cache again to turn them back on.) --ais523 17:20, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * If you can pick your Web browser, download Mozilla Firefox, install it, and select: Tools | Options | Content, and click the Exceptions button next to the "Load images automatically" checkbox. You can tell Firefox not to display images for particular Web sites. I don't know whether other browsers have this type of option; some probably do. Incidentally, I'm suprised your workplace doesn't allow you to view Wikipedia, given the vast amount of information in Wikipedia that is helpful in many businesses. Of course there is an even vaster amount of information which is merely distracting in a business setting. You aren't looking at that stuff, during that fraction of your fleeting lifespan which your employer has bought and paid for, are you? --Teratornis 19:28, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Colored text
How do I mark text to appear in a certain color, like red or dark green? —Angr 18:09, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Like this. . It's probably not a good idea to do this in articles, though. --ais523 18:11, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm planning on doing it at Wikisource to indicate a special font in the original book. I knew I'd get a faster answer here, though. Thanks for the answer! —Angr 18:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia ID and IP address
I have two technical question for using the Wikipedia

If I login to edit a page with a wikiperdia ID, does my IP address even matter?

Are Wikipedia ID's used to track edits, or IP addresses used to track edits, or is it both?

Thanks

-Stl0 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.111.4.25 (talk) 18:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Usernames are used in an article's edit history and all other publically viewable places when one is available (that is, the user is logged in); otherwise, the IP adderss is used. When a user is logged in and edits, their IP address is stored, but it is not publically viewable; only a small subset of administrators known as checkusers can view it, and even then they only access it when trying to deal with severe incidents such as ongoing pattern vandalism and serious sockpuppetry - and even then, they won't let anyone else know what it was, only just enough information to sort out the problem. See the privacy policy for more details about this. Hope that helps! --ais523 18:35, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Toolbar problems
Hey everyone. I have a problem with the edting toolbar - it doesn't work. There is no link access to its buttons (I mean there is no "hand" indicated when I try to use it) and it annoys me very much. The problem exists even when I'm logged out, and additionally, I did a check of that on other languages of Wikipedia, and it works there, so basically the problem in only here on the English Wikipedia. Do you have any idea of why it goes like this? Please help if you do. Thanks, Best regards, Shahid  •  Talk 2 me  18:39, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * This is almost certainly to do with a script that's being used to fix the display of some transparent images on Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6. I thought this bug in it had been fixed, but apparently it hasn't been (you're the second user to mention this). It does work in other browsers (including Internet Explorer 7 and browsers other than Internet Explorer), though. Hope that helps! --ais523 18:46, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your really quick answer. So you mean it's a temporal problem actually? Shahid  •  Talk 2 me  18:51, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The problem's likely to be fixed properly eventually. (The script in question had some emergency modifications made to it because there was a server problem that was potentially either affecting it or affected by it (we're not sure which it was yet, or whether it was coincidence); it's possible that they caused a previous problem to reappear, or that the problem was never fixed in the first place and nobody noticed.) I'm not sure when it will be fixed for certain, though, but it's unlikely that such a problem will remain unfixed forever. --ais523 18:56, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I still wonder why on other Wikipedia sites (I mean, other languages) it does work properly. Does this problem exist only in the English Wiki? Anyway, thanks for your help, Shahid  •  Talk 2 me  19:07, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Editing our artist page
I don't know who controls the Fat Joe page, but we need to correct some information on it. Can you please give me the editing rights to that page?

Thanks,

Steven W Imperial Records/EMI NA —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sawhitak (talk • contribs) 18:53, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The page has been semi-protected due to vandalism. If you are a registered user (which it does appear so), you will be able to edit the page when your account is four days old, or you may request unprotection here. I'm not sure when the protection is set to expire, as the log doesn't specify any time. Please note, however, that we generally discourage people from editing articles with which they have a personal relation or conflict of interest, in an effort to maintain a neutral point of view. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 19:00, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You could bring up concerns on Talk:Fat Joe in the meantime.  Leebo  T / C  19:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * It's semiprotected indefinitely, and has been since last December! That is not supposed to happen except for a few high-profile vandalism targets like George W. Bush. —Angr 19:13, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and unprotected it. Ten months is more than long enough, and the admin who protected it has since left the project. —Angr 19:18, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Userboxes
Hi again,

I'd like to know how to get userboxes on my page?

Thanks, AlexAlex Rossi 19:19, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * All the information you need is right at Userboxes. Good luck! GlassCobra (Review) 19:20, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Tagging Issues
Dear Sir/Madam,

I have recently written an article but the blurb warns me of 'orphaned','unreferenced', 'unlinked, 'unveriable' etc etc matters. I am more than happy to put relevent links in but there is no way of finding out just HOW this is supposed to happen? ALL details I've placed in my article are 100% true, so no one can accuse me of making it all up.

Can someone please assist.

Many thanks in advance,

Rotterdam —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rotterdam1953 (talk • contribs)


 * Most of those template should provide links to pages that describe how to fix the problem, but here they are again:
 * Orphaned: Search for topics related to the article you're working on (Arthur Benjamins) and add links to that article like so: Arthur Benjamins
 * Wikify: The article needs to be formatted according to the Manual of Style, Wikipedia's guide on how to organize and write articles.
 * References: Find some reliable, third-party sources about Mr. Benjamins and use them to cite any controversial or otherwise important information in the article. This is so that people researching this person can easily verify that the information is correct and find other places to look for information. See here for directions on how to use in-line citations that look like this:[1]
 * Notability: This one is a bit more urgent, as if it is not properly addressed, the article may be deleted. The article needs to establish why the subject is notable according to our guidelines on people. Providing sufficient sources as described above should take care of most of this.
 * For more information, check those pages or feel free to come back here for more explanations. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 21:01, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hope you can help me, Please!!
Hi there, my name is Linda Matteson and my yahoo Id is strawberrymilk1958 on yahoo messenger, but my question is I have a webcam and it's made by "creative" it has the same feature that wikipedia has and it's the same kind. How am I able to use my webcam? Thanks, hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks, Linda Matteson —Preceding unsigned comment added by Strawberrymilk1958 (talk • contribs) 23:37, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't understand what you mean by "the same feature that wikipedia has and it's the same kind." I was not aware that Wikipedia has features in common with Webcams. However, Wikipedia does have some interesting articles on the subject:
 * Webcam
 * List of computer hardware manufacturers
 * and you can search Wikipedia with Google for: creative webcam
 * "creative webcam" - or search the entire public Web
 * --Teratornis 00:34, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * We have a User webcam userbox that you can proudly display on your user page, if you want the world to know you use a Webcam. Although it sounds like you haven't figured out how to use it yet. Remarkably, it looks like you could be the first Wikipedia user to display that userbox. Wikipedia has registered users, and you could be the first to say you use a Webcam. Wow! I think, anyway. In the meantime, you might ask your question on Reference desk/Computing which is where volunteers answer general questions about computing. The Help desk (this page) is for help with editing Wikipedia. --Teratornis 00:54, 11 October 2007 (UTC)