Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 December 26

= December 26 =

Reverting old vandalism edits
If the most recent edit of a page is vandalism, reverting that edit is straightforward. What do I do if the vandalism is sandwiched between good edits? Say the edit history is like this

1. Good edits 2. Vandalism 3. Good edits 4. Vandalism 5. Good edits

One option is to manually go through the latest version of the page and remove the vandalism. Is there any way of automatically removing the vandalism, without touching the good edits or their edit histories? In other words, some way of reverting to 5, then applying 3 and 1 as diffs to 5, while ignoring edits 2 and 4?

Thanks TotientDragooned (talk) 00:37, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * You can use the undo button for the two instances of vandalism. This will only work if the vandalism was not touched by intervening edits or you'll get a message that it could not be undone. If that is the case your stuck with manual I think.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:56, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * It would be nice if everyone (including me) would remember to check the history of a page before editing it further, to check the last few edits for possible vandalism. Cleaning up vandalism gets harder when later constructive edits start to bury it. Maybe someday Wikipedia will have a method whereby users earn a "trusted" status, such that they can validate edits to an article. Then we could get an automated warning if we are about to edit a page that contains any unvalidated edits. The level of validation I'm describing here would be to rule out egregious vandalism, not to say the validated edits are the highest form of brilliant prose or wouldn't possibly have other problems. But it's annoying to edit a section of an article only to then discover another section contained some juvenile vandalism one did not notice before editing on top of it. If it's necessary for every single editor to check an entire article for uncorrected vandalism before editing any part of it, that sort of argues against having the ability to edit an individual section with no preconditions. (I'm not arguing against having the ability to edit sections, just saying it would be nice to have some way of knowing whether a competent editor had checked all the recent previous edits, and a Preferences option to get a warning if not.) That probably won't happen any time soon, so we just have to remember to check page histories before editing away. --Teratornis (talk) 03:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Flagged revisions are up and running at Wikinews, sitewide. It works quite well there, though they have a much smaller volume of contributions, which is a difference that I can see causing problems here that isn't an issue there (articles sitting around for long periods of time with the draft version much improved, but the changes not implemented).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Hatrick Wickets Takers
hi, I would like to know that if any bowler play ODI & he is taken 2 wickets & two ball & than match was finished & than he played second ODI & in that he take one more wikcets. It means that he was taken Three wickets in Three ball, so on the basis of Rules & regulation it is call as a Hatrick or not & if it is yes that how & why & if it is no that tell me how & why. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.162.4.226 (talk) 09:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * This desk is for questions about using Wikipedia - you might like to try asking at the Reference Desk where they specialise in answering all manner of questions. I suspect that the answer is that it wouldn't constitute a hat-trick, because the three consecutive deliveries would have to be in the same game of cricket, and two separate one day internationals do not constitute the same game of cricket. Two separate innings in a two-innings game would count, but two separate ODIs would not. GbT/c 09:27, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I think you're right, that would not count as a hat-trick. – ukexpat (talk) 16:15, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * This sounds vaguely analogous to the so-called Tiger Slam in golf, wherein Tiger Woods won four consecutive Men's major golf championshipss but not in the same calendar year. --Teratornis (talk) 21:45, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

creating a new page
hi

can i send you the contents of an artical, and you create it for me ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fofo927 (talk • contribs) 09:49, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * You have already created an account. So all you need to do to create an article is to find the right title and create it. (see Your first article) If you only want to suggest sources so someone else can create an article, you'd need to find someone who's interested in the topic to create it for you. What is the article about? - Mgm|(talk) 11:25, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.


 * Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.


 * If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Your first article and How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. – ukexpat (talk) 16:16, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Temperary transfur of land and house to remove someone from property
Can I show or have a fake (but legal) agreement made up! Showing sale of propery, that the buyer wants any physical abled person on this property moved within 30 days. that any physically disablied be allowed 90 days. the buyer of this said propery not be named. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.88.93.95 (talk) 13:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You'll get in jail for forgery :D This page is for help on using Wikipedia. I'm afraid we can't help you with this.  C h a m a l  talk 13:13, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Professional reviews
I've been trying to add reviews from Allmusic for singles, but they don't show up in the infobox like they do for albums. Is possible to add them or not? 68.37.78.9 (talk) 15:10, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I wondered about this myself. It doesn't seem to be included in the template for singles. If no one answers my question on the noticeboard for the music wikiproject, I'll try copying the code from the album template. In the mean time, you can cite short passages/sentences from the reviews you've found and add the actual links to the references list, or you can put the review in the external links list - Mgm|(talk) 17:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Posting the same message on multiple users' talk pages
I would like to post the same message on multiple users' talk pages. All of the intended recipients are participants in WP:WPMT. The purpose is to draw attention to a request I have posted here. This seems similar to a WP:RfC, but I'd like it to only go out to the Project Participants. Is there a way to do this all at once, rather than going to each user's talk page and adding a section separately? Thomprod (talk) 16:46, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Bots is the place to go. There are several bots (automated programs) running. When you find a bot with delivery capability, just ask the owner to set the bot the task to deliver your message (or ask someone who uses WP:AWB) - Mgm|(talk) 17:09, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I see you have already added a note to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Musical Theatre. Surely any active project participants will see this and will respond if they are interested ? Some editors dislike "bulk mailings" appearing on their user talk pages. Gandalf61 (talk) 17:23, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you, MacGyverMagic. Gandalf61, the project has been quiet lately, and I'm not sure that all participants would see my original request.  However, I do not want to offend anyone with a bulk mailing either. Would this not be appropriate? Thomprod (talk) 17:32, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Why not wait for a while and see how it goes? The interested people will turn up, and that's what matters. It's something useful for the people directly involved in the project, not something that would really interest part-time contributors or non-participants.  C h a m a l  talk 17:42, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * And rather than send out a completely untargeted bulk delivery, you could examine the contributions of each of your intended recipients, and start by individually contacting a few of the most recently active users first. Someone who hasn't edited any of the articles relevant to your request in, say, a year is less likely to take an interest that someone who has made dozens of edits to such articles in the past month. Also see WP:CANVASS. --Teratornis (talk) 21:11, 26 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You might want to check out User:ClockworkSoul/Igor. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  03:16, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Template:Infobox Fishery
Could someone please tell me why this template is not displaying correctly? --Geronimo20 (talk) 20:47, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Because the template was miswritten. Fixed. Algebraist 21:16, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you :P --Geronimo20 (talk) 21:23, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't understand what you are doing in Template:Infobox Fishery/doc. What is the purpose of the strange code after the div tag? --Teratornis (talk) 21:35, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Jetsam I hadn't noticed. --Geronimo20 (talk) 22:21, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

what are the steps (make it coherent please) to upload my new article? Please upload this article for me (see inside)
subject "what are the steps (make it coherent please) to upload my new article? Please upload this article for me (see inside)" Secure Edition 2008 Dec. 26 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgmf (talk • contribs) 23:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

The article you provided seems to be an instructional guide? we don't put those up as articles. --Cameron Scott (talk) 23:21, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * In general the answer to your question is that you should read Your first article. —teb728 t c 00:26, 27 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.


 * Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.


 * If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Your first article and How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. – ukexpat (talk) 01:28, 27 December 2008 (UTC)