Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 August 1

= August 1 =

A-Class review setup assistance
This makes no sense to me that noone knows how to help set up an A-class review. I have asked at Wikipedia_talk:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team and the poorly named section Help_desk/Archives/2008_July_22. I am asking again here can someone help set up ChicagoWikiProject so that WikiProject Chicago/A-Class review instructions can operate like like WikiProject Military history/Review/A-Class review instructions?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 00:43, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * What is missing, you seem to have the instructions down, you are missing the project template of course, but that is a simple matter of including the template at the top of the page. I don't understand what you want here, you have instructions on your page. I don't think your question is clear.
 * Do you need template help? (making the project templates behave right for A-class reviews?
 * Yes.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 18:34, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Do you need help setting the instructions up?
 * Maybe. Is there a way to set up separate discusion pages?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 18:34, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Do you need help with the details of how to review A class articles?
 * No.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 18:34, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Some advice though, if you like how military history does it, pop a detailed query onto their project talk page, I'm sure someone there would be glad to assist another wikiproject, and from old memory that project is very active, so help from them should come fast. ——  nix eagle 12:44, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

My Wikipedia page is left justified how do i change it?
how do i change the Wikipedia page to be in the middle like a normal internet page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.85.163.59 (talk) 02:02, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what you mean. Wikipedia and most other websites usually have left-justified text. Is it about the screen placement of the window you watch Wikipedia in? If so then you may be able to "drag" the window with the mouse at the top or right edge of the window, but it depends on your software. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:16, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Superscript
Is there a way to do "th" as in "1/5th" so that the "th" shows up in superscript? Without using superscipt, that is, a character code or HMTL or something. Does that make any sense at all? Maury (talk) 02:47, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I understand what you're saying. Many word processors will automatically change the "th" into a superscript. August 5th would be August 5th for example. I'm not sure the MediaWiki software does it automatically. You may have to use  tags. Others may know more though. I hope this helps!  TN ‑ X - Man  03:01, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * You must use the superscript tag. A shortcut to do so is on the toolbar, the [[Image:Button_upper_letter.png]] button, which produces . Calvin 1998 (t-c) 03:09, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Note that Manual of Style (dates and numbers) says:


 * The ordinal suffix (e.g., th) is not superscripted (23rd and 496th, not 23rd and 496th).
 * PrimeHunter (talk) 03:13, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * See also Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)/Archive 104. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:19, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Experienced user can't figure out why his text has vanished
Hello - I had a snarky lolcat on my user page, and I decided, for layout reasons, to move it into my userboxen box (see this edit). When I did so, however, the non-wikilinked text in the caption turned white, and I can't figure out why this is or how to fix it. Because I'm an idiot with wikimarkup. Can somebody help? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 07:03, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * It is because in the template Userboxtop, you defined the  parameter with   (white).  I have fixed it by surrounding the text in   tags and defining the color of the words as black (see ).  Hope that it was you wanted!  « Gonzo fan2007  (talk ♦ contribs) @  '' 07:13, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Question on a blacklisted domain
While conducting a search for our school Gonzaga University, we noticed that our online website http://www.gonzaga online.com had been blacklisted for being a spammer. Not sure why this is. How can we get this removed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.210.143.158 (talk) 13:57, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Give me a moment to respond, others out there, please wait a few moments. I'm doing some lookups to find out why this is the case, and I'll be back with you :) ——  nix eagle 14:04, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Alright, I finally found out why this was added. Someone was apparently spamming user pages, and thus this link was added to the english wikipedia blacklist. You can find out full details at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2008_Archive_Mar_2. If you want to talk to the person that did the addition of the link, talk to User talk:Hu12. ——  nix eagle 14:14, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I think he means Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2008_Archive_May_1. And apparently Hu12 has been on WikiBreak since July 1. —teb728 t c 21:11, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Blacklisted domain name
Hello, for some reason our website ogpaper.com has been blacklisted. Please, advise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 15:24, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * (quick note, not an answer) That website is primarily an online gambling site peppered with a little news about casinos and the like. Mjpresson (talk) 15:43, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

(response) Of course it's a gambling website, the name of the website says it. I didn't think this is of any importance at all. Also, the website is primarily for gambling news, peppered with ads (just like any website).


 * What is your question? − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 16:46, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Why is our website blacklisted? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 16:46, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * What do you mean by blacklisted? I don't see a problem with http://ogpaper.com. Are you unable to save the link here on the English Wikipedia? If the problem is just that you must answer a CAPTCHA then that is normal for unregistered users adding external links. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:50, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

It said: "The following link has triggered our spam protection filter: ogpaper.com" with the "http://www." included (just tried to type in the full domain and it gave me the same response). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 16:55, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * is on the blacklist at meta. Algebraist 17:03, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * So the answer to your question of why your site is blacklisted is that a link to it would serve no encyclopedic purpose. Unlike your site Wikipedia does not contain links for advertising. —teb728 t c 18:51, 1 August 2008 (UTC) More specifically, the request that added your site to the blacklist is here. —teb728 t c 19:02, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

TEB728 - I was not aware that Wiki blacklists automatically websites which you think have no encyclopedic purpose. We have broken quite a few stories and I was actually going to edit the entry "Bodog" to add the response of the CEO to the latest money bust. But I am not going to argue with you, since you are clearly biased towards gambling websites or something.

A question to the rest of the Users: I know we have not added the entries we've got blacklisted for. What can I do to remove the ban? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 20:41, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * "Wiki blacklists automatically websites": no, editors report spam, the issue is investigated and the site added to the blacklist. The site was blacklisted in November 2007, see Spam_blacklist/LogPre2008 You can see the request was here. You can request removal from the blacklist at MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  20:54, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * For reference, MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist referred the anon to meta:Talk:Spam_blacklist —teb728 t c 22:47, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for the help. One of the senior editors should explain this to teb728, according to him/her "the answer to your question of why your site is blacklisted is that a link to it would serve no encyclopedic purpose". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 22:10, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I suspect the Bodog response you refer to is /news/news-02290.html on your site. This is essentially a press release issued by one of your advertisers. Even if your site were not blacklisted, a link to this page would be deleted as WP:SPAM. —teb728 t c 07:47, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Actually this is what I was trying to post (I doubt that editor who specializes in Gambling would have deleted it):

[i]On July 31st, 2008, court filings in Maryland say that in January and February a total of $14.2 million was seized from accounts in the name of JBL Services and Transaction Solutions at Wachovia, Regions Bank, Bank of America and Sun Trust Bank. In July, filings say, another $9.9 million was found in eight accounts at Nevada State Bank, a unit of Zion Bancorporation (nasdaq: ZION - news - people ), in the name of Zaftig Instantly Processed Payments, doing business as ZipPayments.com. The companies are described as helping to facilitate parts of the Bodog operation. The CEO of Morris Mohawk Gaming Group Alwyn Morris later said in a statement that second case refers to a payment processor known as Zippayments.com and seizure of funds from this processor’s bank accounts in Nevada. The article falsely implies – but notably does not go so far as to state - that $9.9M seized from Zippayment’s Nevada bank accounts were funds on account for “Bodog”. [/i]

I personally believe that someone interested in Bodog would like to know all this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.8.24.140 (talk) 13:00, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

logs are missing?
Why are there no logs for the "Optic" page? The first step to find out why a page has changed is to check the log, right? but when I request them, it says no logs found. why not? Tericl2 (talk) 15:45, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * There is one log entry (the page was moved by a vandal), but you probably want the page history. Algebraist 15:48, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * (edit conflict) Well, there's logs for a page that indicate if the page has previously been deleted, moved, or protected. There's also a history that shows all the edits that have been made to a page. To which one were you referring?  TN ‑ X - Man  15:50, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Optic redirects to Optics. You can get to the page history of Optic by first clicking Optic, then clicking "Redirected from Optic" at the top, and finally clicking "history". This shows the page has been edited by a user name very similar to yours. Page deleton leaves a log entry, but turning a page into a redirect does not. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:36, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * See m:Help:Contents and read the pages under the "Tracking changes" heading. --Teratornis (talk) 16:49, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Nederlands And Spanish wikipedia embassy
Please dont laugh at me :) but is there like a Nederlands And Spanish wikipedia embassy, or some thing like that? because i usurped here but i cant unify my account to those wikipedias. Thank-you.  Here  Ford  17:21, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * If you speak Spanish and Dutch fluently, you might wanna try contacting es:Wikipedia:Café/Portal/Archivo/Ayuda/Actual and nl:Help:Helpdesk - Anxietycello (talk) 17:28, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * You may also want to check out our Local Embassy. Paragon12321 (talk) 18:45, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Definition list formatting issue
I am trying to do some cleanup for WP:WikiProject New Jersey and am getting frustrated by the indentations on WikiProject_New_Jersey/templates. The definition lists using the semi-colon seem to be continually indenting and a newline is not reverting the indent back, causing the bottom of the page to only display on the right hand third or so. Am I missing something? Jim Miller (talk) 17:56, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Consider using tlrow, a template designed to list templates. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  18:02, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks Gadget. That works great! Jim Miller (talk) 18:31, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Update entry for National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The current entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assessment_of_Educational_Progress was drawn from a web page, but it is now out of date. Please update it from the same page, http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/ and also cite that page as the reference that you say is missing. Please also update the 'External links' for NAEP Data Explorer--the better URL is http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/. I am a contractor on the NAEP website; please contact me if further info is needed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nballator (talk • contribs) 18:11, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Audio file question
To be able to test my new microphone, I plugged it into my father's computer instead of my own (to see if the microphone itself is at fault, not my soundcard or its drivers). I opened up Microsoft Sound Recorder (yes, my father uses Windows Vista) and recorded myself saying "Haloo!" in Finnish. Unfortunately, my father doesn't have speakers, so I was unable to play the sound back. I emailed it to myself and played it back on my own Fedora 9 system. I heard nothing whatsoever. But I am still unsure whether this is because the file itself does not contain any sound, or because Fedora 9 can not play WMA files. Is it possible to upload the file to Wikipedia so you others can test it for me? J I P | Talk 21:21, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * To answer your first question: yeah, only Windows can play WMA audio, and you can't record using Sound Recorder in any other format :( 2.)Special:Upload doesn't say you can upload .wma files, so I suppose you can't. Tip: If you play the file on your father's computer using Windows Media Player, you can usually tell if it's empty or not by using one of the "visualizations" (right-clicking on the display where video would be playing if it were a video). Calvin 1998 (t-c) 22:15, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Inquiry from the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
To Whom it May Concern:

A fan of our program recently brought to our attention that the information about us posted on Wikipedia under the categories Mural Arts Program, Jane Golden, and Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network is both inaccurate and out-of-date.

Today, I attempted to update those listings on behalf of the organization; however, my efforts were not successful. I am writing both to let you know that I was (and am) acting as an official representative of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and to ask how this can be resolved.

Kindly let me know. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Amy R. Johnston Public Engagement Coordinator

City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program Lincoln Financial Mural Arts Center at the Thomas Eakins House commented out address, phone numbers, and email address —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amy.johnston (talk • contribs) 21:29, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I reverted two of the aforementioned contributions, because they were, as explained in my edit summaries, cut and pasted directly from web sites and printed materials. Copyright issues aside, the text was of press release quality and not suitable for encyclopedic content. However, there was clearly information relevant to the subjects, and one hopes that another effort will be made to add content in an acceptable form. JNW (talk) 21:41, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * It should also be noted that institutions are generally discouraged from writing about themselves for this very reason; see WP:COI. It might help if the information can be verified by outside reliable sources, too. Although, parenthetically, you and your institution surely constitute a reliable source. JNW (talk) 21:45, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * (double e/c!)We apreciate all constructive contributions to Wikipedia, and hope that you will contribute the information that you have. However, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted material.
 * Wikipedia strives to have all articles project a neutral point of view. Sometimes people/organizations editing articles about themselves/their organizations can run into conflicts of interest, as JNW mentioned. To best be sure that your contributions can benefit the article, but without running into such problems, it would be a good idea to discuss changes you'd like to make to the article on that article's talk page, which you can get to by clicking on the "Discussion" tab at the top of any of the articles' pages. I hope we are starting to be of help to you; please feel free to respond with any more questions you might have. -- Nataly a 21:49, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

How do I ask a Flickr user to release photos from copyright?
For use in nurdle, I quite like the look of these two photos: ...but they're copyrighted on Flickr. I don't have a Flickr account, and I don't know how to contact users to ask them to release photos. Can anyone help? Anxietycello (talk) 17:08, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/gentleman_rook/2414135327/
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordantam/316091795/
 * You would have to contact the owner of the picture in flickr to change the permission of them to Attribution Creative Commons or Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons. Sunderland06  (talk) 22:35, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, the actual process you might use is listed at WP:Permissions. The gentleman in question evidently is also the blogger, here. You might leave a comment for him at his blog asking him to contact you. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 22:41, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Backlink on user subpages
Hi everyone. I'm using a transcluded menu in my user space, and I am wondering if there is any way to suppress the the "< User:SJL" backlink that appears in the top left corner of my subpages. It shifts my menu down the page, and isn't necessary on pages that have the menu. Thanks for your help! – SJL 23:37, 1 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Add the following to Special:Mypage/monobook.css (assuming you use the default monobook skin)


 * Note that it'll always suppress the backlink. And if it shifts everything too far up, just ask me and I might be able to fix it. Calvin 1998 (t-c) 01:33, 2 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, this:


 * works better. If you only want the backlink suppressed on your subpages, I'll have to figure out how to write a JavaScript script to do that... Calvin 1998 (t-c) 02:19, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. I tried both, and only the first worked for me. If you do decide to write a script that limits it to just the user's own pages, please let me know. Also, any ideas on how to do something like this so that other people who view my pages will get the same formatting? – SJL 02:40, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That's not possible, as well-written CSS and JavaScript can be used to hijack people's computers (plant malware, etc.); compromise accounts, all sort of bad stuff. That's why CSS stylesheets only work if they are in Mediawiki:Common.css or Mediawiki:monobook.css(for monobook-only), etc. or your own /monobook.css. Seeing that the backlink is there for a reason, I don't think they'd let you put the code into the site-wide stylesheet, so you're stuck with it only working for you :(  (PS - I'm working on a script that only works in your userpage + subpages) Calvin 1998 (t-c) 02:56, 2 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your response. I had been hoping that there was a particular code that I could add to individual pages where I did not want the link, but I guess that doesn't exist. Let me know how the script works out. – SJL 16:45, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Missing article
A week ago I created an article (to the best of my understanding of the instructions)on the British actor Robin Hunter - son of the well-known film actor Ian Hunter, himself active in films, TV and theatre. The style of it was based on comparable articles on similar subjects. All I know how to do, to put the article online, is to Save the Page. It has not gone on the web, nor can I find any answer to an earlier question about it. Am I missing - or misunderstanding - something?

Many thanks - Roger Sansom —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.16.224.196 (talk) 23:59, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Hi Roger. If I understand you correctly, you're having trouble finding the article you created. When I typed Robin Hunter into the search box, though, it came up without any trouble. If you click on the name, it will take you to the page. Does that answer your question? – SJL 00:19, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe last time you tried to search for it, you may have made a typo? Well, either way, the article is still here as stated above. Just click Robin Hunter. Thanks, RyRy (talk ) 01:52, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the above responses. Yes, I can find what I wrote, on Wikipedia (someone has already edited it further, which is fine). What I don't understand - it may be that I have not grasped the basics - is how this relates to the article, hopefully, appearing publicly on the net? Can someone please clarify. Thanks. Roger —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.16.224.196 (talk) 13:52, 2 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Articles and changes appear on the net as soon as they are saved. This article is accessible to the world at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hunter. If your problem is that Google or another search engine does not find the article, then it is just because their web crawlers haven't indexed it yet. Google will probably do it within a couple of weeks. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:06, 2 August 2008 (UTC)