Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 October 25

= October 25 =

Error in decompression of file dump
Earlier today I downloaded enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2, and was attempting to decompress it. I did not have enough free space on my computer, so the file continued to decompress until free disk space ran out, and then stopped (how large is it anyways?). When it stopped, hower, it did not give me any of my disk space back, and only a small amount returned when I restart my computer. My question is, what happened, and how to I get those gigabytes back? (if it makes a difference, I'm running OSX) 66.191.6.162 00:12, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * This is basically a question about how the bipz2 program operates on an Apple computer. Please ask such questions on the Computer Reference desk. Here at the Help desk we try to answer questions about how to use Wikipedia, not how your computer works. However, from a user perspective this distinction is fairly subtle, so I will attempt to answer anyway: We don't want to scare you away, after all. When you download a file from any web site that has the ".bz2" extension, your web browser running on a UNIX-like OS (such as OSX) will invoke the appropriate decompression program, whose name is bunzip2. On your computer, the result in a "disk full" situation will be whatever bunzip2 does on disk full, in conjunction with whatever your OS does on disk full, in conjunction with whatever your web browser does when it runs a helper program that cannot complete its task. As you have just found out by experiment, your particular combination of browser/OS/bunzip2 reacts to a disk full by dieing and leaving you with a partially uncompressed file that occupies a lot of disk space. -Arch dude 01:27, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * And if you want the space back, you need to (a) delete the files created during uncompression, and (b) empty the trash. Confusing Manifestation 07:20, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Units of measurements
Which one is larger an ounce or a gram? Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.49.15.124 (talk) 00:23, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See ounce and gram. PrimeHunter 00:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Loading an image
I have tried to upload a file - Iamba_logo(Lo).jpg and use it in an article on iamba. The file shows on checking the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Iamba_logo_%28Lo%29.jpg#filelinks I have included it in the sandbox and it never shows there using "Show Preview". The "red" link seems to indicate it hasn't been uploaded. Rsiamba 01:37, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * It works fine. Type for example [[Image:Iamba logo (Lo).jpg|200px]] to display it (I'm not doing it here when it's fair use but preview worked fine). See more at Help:Images. PrimeHunter 01:56, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Whow do I change my Usermane?
Can you please instruct me on how to change my USERNAME? Then name 'Fury Anderson' that I currently have for Wikipedia, I would like to change it to something else. Please send me the direct link where I can change it. Thank you in advance.

Best,

FURY —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fury Anderson (talk • contribs) 03:15, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Since this is your only edit, and since username changes cannot be initiated without help from a bureaucrat, your best bet is to log out and simply register a new one. Cheers, Tangotango (talk) 03:19, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Default field to serach box
I'd like to suggest making the default field to the search box, so like google, when you start typing, it is automatically placed into the search field. I think this would improve the efficiency of wikipedia users. Nick —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.193.241.156 (talk) 03:41, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That is a possible suggestion, but the developers who make our software aren't likely to see it here. If you create an account at Bugzilla and post your suggestion there, they'll be able to respond to you much more easily. Hers fold  (t/a/c) 03:48, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * However, it is a suggestion that has apparently been made before. See Main Page FAQ for the gory details. Confusing Manifestation 07:18, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

access
Dear sir, Yesterday, on 24th october 07 I could access one article named How to solve a problem_ article. I an how lost the contact and could not find the article I liked the contents i could read. Please help me to access it again. thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.94.210.210 (talk) 04:45, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * It was probably Problem solving. :) PeaceNT 08:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You may also have been at "How to Solve a Problem" at wikiHow which is an unrelated wiki using the same MediaWiki software as Wikipedia. PrimeHunter 12:56, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Why is my account deleted?
My account, Mightyfastpig, appears to have been deleted. It isn't just a wrong password. The account itself no longer exists. When I check the pages I've edited recently, my changes are still there, but my account links to a missing page.

What happened to my account? Do I need to make a new one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.113.221.220 (talk) 06:20, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Your account was not deleted, see User_talk:Mightyfastpig, perhaps you've forgotten your password? Ariel  ♥  Gold  06:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You created an account, but you have not created a user page for yourself. Your accont is perfectly usable as it is, and you have a "talk" page because someone created it when they wrot a message to you. You are not required to create the user page, but until you do, your user name will show up as a red link in edit summaries. If you Prefer a blue link, simply click on this link (User:Mightyfastpig) and add any thing you like (e.g., "Hi, I'm a user.") Most users add more content, and some user pages are quite elaborate. -Arch dude 10:18, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleting the Page of Greater Nepal (Bishal Nepal)
Dear sir,

I post the article about Bishal Nepal, Greater Nepal, which is the historical truth, I posted so many article in wikipedia all are running but why you delete this article which is totally truth and facts. Regards Rabin —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rabinbaral (talk • contribs) 08:19, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * According to the administrator who deleted it, the entry was a copyright violation. Please do not copy material directly from other sources, but use your own words. - Mgm|(talk) 10:00, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I noticed your creation of Greater Nepal has already been redirected to the History of Nepal article. Perhaps your efforts could be directed to contributing to that article.  Astronaut 14:16, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

referencing
How do I reference a text to my article. I need to know how to get the little number next to a quote and then how to put a reference at the bottom of the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartolomas214 (talk • contribs) 08:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, you can use citation templates. See also WP:CITE and Footnotes for more instructions. If you need further help, please feel free to ask any questions here. All the best, PeaceNT 09:02, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

referencing
sorry still having trouble

I used the template and ended with this

and all it did was add the reference directly after the quote I want it to put a number at the quote and this reference down the bottom thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartolomas214 (talk • contribs) 09:40, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * To make the references appear at the bottom in a references section you should use and < / ref > around the citation template (without spaces) and add either reflist or ; for instance, google:inurl:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_Desk snail searches for Reference Desk threads (including in the archives) about snails. (You have to click the repeat the search with the omitted results included link to get more than 2 results when using this method.) The same method works for many other project pages, too. --ais523 17:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Blocking
We are trying to upload information about our school, the programs, curriculum and two administrators keep deleting the information as well as "tagging" our company. I've requested the administrators inform us of what copy is deemed commercial and they have not responded. The information is simply factual about our programs and history and in no way is commercial. Is there a way to block these individuals? 15:48, 25 October 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Empire2216 (talk • contribs)
 * I am one of the people who has been listing your articles for deletion (though I am not an administrator.) In my opinion the article was entirely an advertisement, and the admin who deleted it clearly agreed with me. The problem is that you, as an employee/owner of the company, have a conflict of interest when it comes to writing an article about it. Further, your article was HUGELY long, and cited no sources to attest to the company's notability. None of these things are deletion issues of course, though they do draw the attention of other editors! The principal problem is one of advertisement. Kim Dent-Brown   (Talk to me)  15:56, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I have to agree, looking at the deleted version. It includes stuff like student testamonials and promotional language. It also appears to contain huge sections of directly copied and pasted text. It's not written like an encyclopedia article.  Leebo  T /C  16:40, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Citing references from reliable sources to assert business notability, being aware of conflict of interest, and writing in an encyclopaedic style is the right way to go about it. Unfortunately, creating another username only to submit the same content, is NOT the right way to go about it - you could be accused of sockpuppetry. See User:Hollyyacynych Astronaut 17:32, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Uploading photos
i want to add one image to the page of Nagarjun(Hindi Poet). i have photograph of Nagarjuna Poet. Please tell me, how to add that photo to the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.30.174.15 (talk) 16:10, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Before you can upload an image you need to create an account. You don't have to log in to read or edit articles on Wikipedia, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, requires no personal information, and gives you many benefits. To [ create an account now click this link]
 * If you want to add an existing image to an article, 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 our picture tutorial for more information.
 * If you want to upload an image from your computer, to put in an article, you must find out what license the image is licensed under. If you know your image is licensed under a free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons, where all projects have access to the image. If you are unsure what license your image is licensed under, see the file upload wizard for more information. Also, please read Wikipedia's image use policy, because if you upload the image under a false license, you may be blocked.


 * Hope this has helped. Woodym555 16:40, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

How to edit a page?
Hi, I want to edit the page located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paras and have been unable to figure out how to do so?

Can you please guide me through the steps needed for the same?

Thanks, Paras Wadehra —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paraswadehra (talk • contribs) 16:25, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Read How to edit a page (click on the blue link). Basically at the top of the page, you click the "edit this page" tab, you type in what you need to in the box, leave an edit summary and click save. How to edit a page should tell you all you need to know. Welcome. Woodym555 16:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Different characters that appear the same
I've noticed that sometimes the distinction between separate Unicode characters sometimes gets lots on Wikipedia pages (or more generally, pages using the MediaWiki software). For example, U+03AC (Greek small letter alpha with tonos) and U+1F71 (Greek small letter alpha with oxia) are supposed to be different characters, and in some fonts they have different glyphs. But if you enter &amp;#x1F71; in an attempt to get the letter with the oxia, what appears is &#x1F71;, which is the exact same character as &#x3AC; (&amp;#x3AC;). Other distinctions that get lost are between U+00B7 (middle dot: &#xb7;) and U+2022 (bullet: &#x2022;), between U+2329 (left pointing angle bracket: &#x2329;) and U+3008 (left angle bracket in the CJK range &#x3008;), and between the two right angle brackets corresponding to them. Is there any way to fix this or work around it? Is this something to report as a bug to Bugzilla? Should I be asking this/bringing this up somewhere else? —Angr 17:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm... having asked this question I seem to have answered it. The difference does show up properly if you type in the Unicode entities. What makes the contrast disappear is entering the characters directly. If I copy-n-paste U+1F71 into the edit box thus: ά, what gets saved is U+03AC ά. Likewise if I copy-n-paste U+2329 〈 into the edit box, it gets converted to U+3008 〈. (The bullet and middle dot really do seem to be kept separate.) Anyway, I guess I know how to avoid the problem now. —Angr 17:38, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Are you sure U+03AC (Greek small letter alpha with tonos) and U+1F71 (Greek small letter alpha with oxia) are supposed to be different characters? This mailing list thread and page 5 of the section from unicode.org suggest these are supposed to be the same. Then Unicode normalization, specifically Unicode equivalence would merge them together. Also, when I copy and paste U+00B7 (middle dot: &#xb7; or ·) and U+2022 (bullet: &#x2022; or •) into a Wikipedia editbox they do not get merged, and it does not appear they should be, see page 4 here. Stefán 20:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * There are definitely fonts in which U+03AC and U+1F71 are visibly different, because in some fonts the Modern Greek tonos is vertical, but the Ancient Greek oxia is always slanted like an acute accent. Code2000 and Tahoma are such fonts (see image). You're right about middle dot and bullet not merging; I was mistaken about that, and said so in my second post. But the angle brackets definitely merge. —Angr 20:42, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * First of all, sorry I missed the part of your second post where you mention that the bullet point is indeed kept separate. Here is a nice discussion about the tonos/oxia issue. It seems that the official position is that the fonts which render the tonos with a dot are simply wrong and lazy and in particular are unsuitable for displaying polytonic text. Avoiding the issue by entering the &amp;codepoints is not the official standard so I guess we should expect that there will at some point come a bot (Curpsbot reborn?) which will substitute the &amp;codepoints with the actual character and then the normalization will kick in. The proper solution is probably to ensure that Template:Polytonic does not list any font which renders the tonos with a dot. I would probably say that Code2000 is acceptable because eventhough that font renders the tonos differently from an oxia at least they are both acute accents. Tahoma is definitely off limits, as the page I linked to mentions. Stefán 21:06, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay. But what about the angle brackets? I just had to change the article Bracket to use the &codepoints so that the angle brackets there display properly. —Angr 21:19, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh my, the bracket issue is even worse. The candidates are U+003c (&#x003c;), U+2329 (&#x2329;), U+3008 (&#x3008;), U+27E8 (&#x27e8;) and U+2039 (&#x2039;). The first of these is the "less than sign" so that is probably out for wikipedia purposes, the second of these looks promising but Unicode has made it canonically equivalent with the thrid and their notes have a remark that this canonical equivalence has made this character roughly useless since the third comes from the CJK range and it's size is therefore too large too fit with latin or mathematical text. So I guess I would vote for using the fourth with mathematics (it is defined as "MATHEMATICAL LEFT ANGLE BRACKET") even though it may be poorly available in fonts since it has only recently been introduced and the fifth "SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK" for denoting dialog and orthography in linguistics. Note I based this reply in part on a section of "Unicode Explained"by Jukka K. Korpela found by googling "2329 unicode" Stefán 21:51, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Search Title
How come the search is case sensitive. I just posted an article and unless i put the exact case of the title, it wont show up. is there any way to change that so its not case sensitive? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hwhitt01 (talk • contribs) 18:35, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You can make case-variant redirect pages, but that's a bit of work. A simpler solution is to wait for a few days to give Google a chance to index your new article, and then search Wikipedia with Google. Google tolerates not only letter case variations, but also misspellings and punctuation differences. --Teratornis 18:47, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia search is not case sentitive but it hasn't indexed the new article The NewsMarket yet. When it does, the article will show up in a search on newsmarket and other capitalizations. When you click enter or "Go" in the search box, Wikipedia goes directly to an article without searching if it has the same capitalization, so it works before search is updated. PrimeHunter 19:38, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

block anonymous edits from my ip address
I would like you to block anonymous edits from my school's ip address.

How do I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ghug (talk • contribs) 18:36, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The correct place to ask would be the Administrators' noticeboard, but you'll have to give more of a detailed reason than that: is there a lot of vandalism from that IP? Does the school's IP staff agree with that? Is the IP frequently hit by autoblocks? If you can come up with a detailed explanation as to why, then by all means make a request there. --ais523 18:51, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See WP:EIW for more guidelines. There is a Schoolblock template. See the template page for instructions on when it is appropriate to use. --Teratornis 18:52, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Sandbox
Hi, I'd like to know how to get my sandbox up? Thanks --S.C.Ruffeyfan 19:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * If you'd like to create your own personal sandbox, rather than use the standard one, you can create the page User:S.C.Ruffeyfan/Sandbox and place a link on your userpage. You can then use that page for experimenting etc.-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 19:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Referencing Wikipedia
I know this is a really dumb questions, but I simply can't find the answer. I want to copy verbatim an entry in Wikipedia to my web site. How do I reference the entry? What text do I use to show it came from Wikipedia? Please keep in mind that I am a techno-dummy and the answer is probably on the site someplace, but for the life of me I can't figure it out since it's probably written in some sort of techno-code.

Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Can5050dee (talk • contribs) 19:41, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I think Verbatim copying covers it. If not, you can ask about something you need more clarification on.  Leebo  T /C  19:52, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Like a talk page
For future reference, how did you get this page to act like a talk page (ie. + button at top)-- Phoenix 15 (Talk) 20:10, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * It's the __NEWSECTIONLINK__  inside Help desk/Header, which is transcluded at the top of this page. --barneca (talk) 20:18, 25 October 2007 (UTC)


 * See this and more at Help:Magic words. PrimeHunter 20:23, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

problem adding picture and file
As far as I can tell, I followed the directions properly but I still don't see my contribution added. I put in 'Simon Longmore' and 'Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts' pages and still nothing. Is there a certain amount of time I need to wait to see it come up, or is there some necessary action I need to be taking? Thanks!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrissybug66 (talk • contribs) 21:24, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Did you want to add them to an article? You have to edit the article and put them in. Help:Images explains more.  Leebo  T /C  21:40, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Your image of Simon Longmore is here. There is also a biography on that image page.  Although there is no Simon Longmore article.  You can create the S.L. article by clicking on that red link for his name and adding the biography there.  Then you can add a link to the image in the biography.  See Help:Images for more on adding images to articles.  I didn't look but I'm assuming the same thing is going on with the other image you mention.  Dismas |(talk) 21:48, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The Simon Longmore image looks like it was scanned from a book or magazine (notice the text included in the image and the metadata). Astronaut 04:02, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil - Deletion
Can someone explain why this page was deleted? It got a speedy deletion notice while I was in the middle of adding to it, then it was deleted even though the speedy deletion notice says that this would not happen if contested. Parslad 21:57, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Putting aside whether the deletion on the stated basis was proper or not, I think your best course of action is to politely ask the deleting administrator, whose talk page is here, to explain or reconsider his deletion.--Fuhghettaboutit 22:04, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I had already done that. Is it not sensible to take into account the time lapsed between creating an article and deleting it? The speedy deletion notice was placed on this article about 10 minutes after it was created, I was making a cup of coffee! Is this normal practice? Parslad 22:21, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Let me put it this way. I am an administrator, and personally I would not have deleted that article under the circumstances unless I had proof it was a hoax, you were a banned user, etc. or that the text was a copyright violation, i.e., that the text you listed from the back page was a verbatim copy (which did strike me as a possibility). However, please understand that reversing other administrators' actions is not done lightly. What I will do is provide the text to you in a subpage. Work on the article there until you are ready to post and please note the copyright issue, if it is applicable. I would aslo suggest taking a look at Notability as well as Notability (books) which I am the majority writer of. Basically, keep in mind that you should be citing to reliable sources which verify the facts in the article. I will post to your talk page in a moment.--Fuhghettaboutit 22:56, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

I too would not have deleted it, although I would have removed the back page blurb. As far as avoiding this king of in thing in the future goes, I always slap an underconstruction template on articles I am just starting. Nobody has tagged any of my tat with a speedy deletion tag for an awful long time, so it must work! And if you forget to remove the tag, a bot will come along and remove it after a couple of days. Worth a try, Angus McLellan (Talk) 00:27, 26 October 2007 (UTC)