Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 June 26

= June 26 =

Mirror sites
I don't know if this is the right place to ask about this, but is Wikipedia still supporting mirror sites? A couple months ago, I asked Answers.com why they hadn't updated their Wikipedia content. They told me that the last dump they received was defective and they were waiting for a new one. Reference.com hasn't updated their content since March. Before that they were really good at keeping their site up to date. Are you not supporting mirror sites anymore?75.105.233.55 (talk) 00:53, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * A ton of dumps are getting aborted. This has been happening for months now, so people haven't been able to get fresh content lately. Gary King ( talk ) 01:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Personal Attacks
Sorry if I'm wasting your time. On a couple of pages I've been observing, there's a user who in all his edit comments has been aggressive, for example "Mr Extremist, history is history, lets not distort it", My Indian friends, Stop Distorting History, You have already accepted that you are an Indian spy, and Link states that Mardana was Guru Nanak's muslim companion. So, please tell us frankly "What do want to acheive with your distructive edits. And from what I can tell, he hasn't been warned at all. Should I report him? Deavenger (talk) 05:55, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking an interest in helping wikipedia:-) Based on what I know about the situation, I can't tell you if you should report him or not. If he has been warned a few times, and has been given a last warning, then yes, report him. If not give him appropriate warnings on his talk page every time he leaves a uncivil comment. Happy editing!--SJP (talk) 06:41, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * With registered users from every conceivable background and point of view, Wikipedia has had plenty of content disputes. On Wikipedia, everything that happens, happens in writing, so we have plenty of writing on the subject of how to work out our disagreements. See the links under WP:EIW. --Teratornis (talk) 16:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * You may want to leave him a note on his talk page pointing him at WP:CIVIL, and just remind him in particular to avoid personal attacks - which "an Indian spy" may be skirting a little close to depending on the context. If he is continually disruptive after the warning, then a request for comment or wikiquette alert might help. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 00:21, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Blocking a user from moving
Is their a way to request for a user to be blocked from moving articles. The user has been moving the articles using the cut-paste-move method, the user has been warned more than once. Most of the moves are to Mexican First Divison teams and seasons, and causing redirects to the articles talk pages. Or, is their a way all his moves can be reverted? Erik93 (talk) 07:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I assume you're referring to User:Kaka12o? I don't see any cut-and-paste moves in his recent contributions, the most recent warning was back in May.  Can you give an example?  I don't think it's possible to just exclude an editor from moving, you should instead try to talk to him about it if possible.  -- tiny plastic Grey Knight   &#x2296;  10:30, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

English Article
How do you add an English version for an article that already exists but only in, say, Japanese? 71.174.16.91 (talk) 08:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)Ajisai


 * The same way you create a new article. See Starting_an_article. --grawity 08:54, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * You can then add the "interwiki" links to the two versions of the article on their respective language editions of Wikipedia, so that they know about each other. For example, if you look at the bottom of Final Fantasy, you'll see a set of language-edition links, which show up in the sidebar.  The Japanese article, for instance, is listed as  .  Meanwhile, on the Japanese article you can see the corresponding   at the bottom, which relates back to the English Wikipedia.  -- tiny plastic Grey Knight   &#x2296;  10:34, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * More specifically, these are interlanguage links. --Teratornis (talk) 16:09, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * For a big ol' guide on translation, see Translation. $$\sim$$ Lenoxus " * " 00:20, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Move of XChat to XChat Aqua
This page should be XChat due to the fact that Aqua is a fork from the original code and isn't supported on the official website. As seen here (1) (2) and various other times with the search page. And also there is this direct quote from their irc channel on freenode:  p858snake: not much of any, xchat aqua used the backend of xchat and made a full replacement for the front end using cocoa, so it would be native on Mac  but unlike xchat-gnome, it actually attempted to be similar to xchat's interface, so it was sort of (but not really) supported in here. Peachey88 (Talk Page 08:20, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Trouble uploading an image
Every time I try to upload an image I made of California's State Assembly districts:

Upload warning

The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again.

How to I get rid of that warning to upload this picture, since the pictures of other Assembly districts and all the Senate districts I uploaded, that have the exact same extension, uploaded just fine with no problems? Using PNG, JPG, and GIF did nothing to correct the problem. Socal gal at heart (talk) 09:35, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * You can search for this error message (with Google help desk and Google custom) in several places where people have discussed problems that elicited it:
 * Each of those searches finds several reports of this error message. Study them and see if they give any clues about how to fix your instance of this problem. It would be nice if the error message told how to "check the file." If you are running Unix, Linux, or a Unix-like compatibility layer such as Cygwin, you can check the file with the file (Unix) program. That may (or may not) say something useful. When MediaWiki receives a file, it checks the file with some program on the server to see whether the file format matches the file extension. If the program on the server dislikes what it sees, it displays the uninformative error message. Obviously, a better error message would explain the problem more clearly, and resolve the useless "or". In a well-designed program, every error message conveys two things:
 * Exactly what the program thinks is wrong. (For example, if a value was out of range or invalid, the message displays the exact value that it thinks is incorrect, and why. Displaying the value which is allegedly incorrect is necessary for a sanity check, so the user can at least be sure the program received the value that the user provided, and it hasn't spontaneously turned into some nonsense value.)
 * What the user should do to fix the problem.
 * Naturally, most programs are far from well-designed, so they display error messages that hardly any users can understand. This is an example of irony, because we build computers as tools to process information, and yet most computers seem incapable of processing and presenting even the information users need just to use the computers. Having to go outside the computer to answer questions that the computer itself generates is like using a mule to tow an automobile. Wikipedia partly closes the gap in that we can write the essential information that error messages omit, and then use search tools to find it. Of course error messages could facilitate this process by containing distinct error codes that would then serve as unambiguous search keywords. --Teratornis (talk) 16:29, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Exactly what the program thinks is wrong. (For example, if a value was out of range or invalid, the message displays the exact value that it thinks is incorrect, and why. Displaying the value which is allegedly incorrect is necessary for a sanity check, so the user can at least be sure the program received the value that the user provided, and it hasn't spontaneously turned into some nonsense value.)
 * What the user should do to fix the problem.
 * Naturally, most programs are far from well-designed, so they display error messages that hardly any users can understand. This is an example of irony, because we build computers as tools to process information, and yet most computers seem incapable of processing and presenting even the information users need just to use the computers. Having to go outside the computer to answer questions that the computer itself generates is like using a mule to tow an automobile. Wikipedia partly closes the gap in that we can write the essential information that error messages omit, and then use search tools to find it. Of course error messages could facilitate this process by containing distinct error codes that would then serve as unambiguous search keywords. --Teratornis (talk) 16:29, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I do not have Unix or Linux, and most of the "advice" given in those links I have either already tried or are too complicated for a computer novice like me to understand. Most of the advice said to change the extension to PNG, which my files are already in, or JPG, which I tried and it still failed. Socal gal at heart (talk) 00:14, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Do you have anywhere else you could upload the file to so that someone can check it for you? Somewhere like http://photobucket.com for example, or a similar site. -- tiny plastic Grey Knight   &#x2296;  07:53, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Starting a new subject
I am trying to start a new subject line for an online class I am taking. I'm having a little trouble getting started. Any help is appreciated!Jjpref (talk) 13:57, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi, welcome to Wikipedia! When you say "subject line", to what specifically are you referring? Would you like to start a new article? Let us know and we can point you in the right direction. Cheers!  TN ‑ X - Man  14:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Symbol move vote.svg|20px]] Please see Your first article.


 * 1) Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
 * 2) Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
 * 3) Find references
 * 4) Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
 * 5) Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
 * 6) Click 'Create this page'
 * 7) Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
 * 8) Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. ...... Dendodge  .. Talk Contribs 14:53, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The only kinds of "subject line" I can think of are in email and message boards, which is why I just made subject line a redirect. I'm not aware of either giving the possibility of a "new" subject, though. $$\sim$$ Lenoxus " * " 00:36, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Copyright attribution on Wikipedia
I noticed on Wikipedia images (even the copyrighted ones) don't attribute the copyright on the page they are displayed. Rather, you have to actually click on the image to view any copyright information. How is this allowed?--217.227.87.251 (talk) 15:30, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I would be curious to know why you might think it would not be allowed?  Perhaps if we knew the 'why' behind your question, we could better answer you.  -- ShinmaWa(talk) 14:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * All copyrighted works used in Wikipedia are used under the Fair use doctrine. As far as I personally understand the situation, Fair use does not require us to attribute the holder of the copyright either within the image or in the caption of the image (or to provide a credit at all actually). Wikipedia feels that attributing all copyrighted works on their Image page is attribution enough and we are not required to make explicit copyright statements within the articles. Actually, in many cases this will make our case stronger in court, because it can be argued that providing credits in some situations gives companies an unfair commercial advantage because their name is being used openly in an article that is supposed to show/explain something in a neutral manner. Other companies might use that as an attack tactic in invalidating some of our Fair use claims by stating that we are not neutral at all, and thus commercial stakes are introduced in our articles more than there should be. As a service to our readers, we have been looking into techniques that mark the image thumbnails as being used under "fair use". At this moment however there seems to be little need to implement this idea. Any copyrighted image that is being used in a way that is not supported by Fair Use law in the United States should be removed/deleted fromt he encyclopedia and we welcome any such notifications. This is NOT an official Wikipedia statement, it is my interpretation as an editor of the current practices within Wikipedia. --Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 15:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * In any case, if you find any major modern book with lots of color pictures, chances are the credits are given in an appendix, and not the captions. $$\sim$$ Lenoxus " * " 00:39, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

fibroddysplasia
i was wondering if i could put an article asking if anyone out there has a child with this could help us my 18 month old niece has just been diagnosed with this and were wondering if we could get some info on how to get an inflateble sauit or something to stop her banging herself .we don't know where to look for help .the doctor said there are only 5 known cases in uk at the moment and if we could find another family i think it would really help us kind regards jenny lofthouse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.127.165.87 (talk) 15:34, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Pictogram voting delete.svg|20px]] We cannot offer medical advice. Please see the medical disclaimer. Contact your General Practitioner.  If you are sure this is not a medical question, [[Image:Symbol move vote.svg|20px]] This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk.  They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try  for an article related to the topic you want to know more about.  I hope this helps. ...... Dendodge  .. Talk Contribs 16:15, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * You could start with our disambiguation page about Fibrodysplasia and read the articles it lists, bearing in mind the the medical disclaimer. Since you mention "banging herself," you seem to be describing Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. The Internet has made it easier for victims of rare diseases and/or their families to find each other at great distances. It's unfortunate that the diagnosing physicians often cannot provide the kind of in-depth practical information you need, because of their heavy patient loads and the sheer variety of conditions they see, and because physicians do not yet carry around Google brain implants. However, Google has plenty of time and attention to lavish on anyone who wants it, so you could and possibly find a support organization (if that is, in fact, the disease you refer to). For example, the top search result is the  International Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva Association. --Teratornis (talk) 16:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Multiple lines in second column of table
I'm trying to create a table where the first column contains only one line of text, aligned to the top of the cell. The second column may contain several lines of text. I've almost managed to do it, but the first line in the 2nd column isn't aligned properly. I guess this needs to be aligned to the top also.

I can't work out how to get the -valign code to work without messing up the rest of the table. Or am I on the wrong track entirely? Any ideas? Thanks in advance. Bazonka (talk) 16:19, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

produces:

207.58.235.243 (talk) 16:49, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but that solution leaves bigger gaps between each of the lines, which isn't particularly desirable either. Perhaps I'm being too fussy :)
 * Any other ideas? Bazonka (talk) 17:03, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Well you could go


 * The important thing is to not have a new row after the | that starts the  &mdash; chandler &mdash; 17:08, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Perfect! Thanks. Bazonka (talk) 17:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Quantitative Technique in Management
Short notes on 1. Central Limit Theorem 2. Decision Tree Analysis —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arvindrbl (talk • contribs) 16:52, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Do you have a question? See Central Limit Theorem,, and dyoh. --Teratornis (talk) 17:26, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Pictogram voting delete.svg|20px]] Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems. Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can or. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. Please sign your post by typing four tildes ( ~ ) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this:. Do NOT sign in articles. ...... Dendodge  .. Talk Contribs 17:32, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

My user Account
I cannot log into Adam Zarboni, my user account. Please respnd to —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.103.108.130 (talk) 17:00, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * [[Image:AROBAZE.png|20px]] Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet.  The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email [mailto:oversight-l@lists.wikimedia.org this address].  Please sign your post by typing four tildes ( ~ ) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: [[Image:Signature_icon.png]].  Do NOT sign in articles. ...... Dendodge  .. Talk Contribs 17:28, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * See Help:Logging in. Have you tried mailing a new password at Special:UserLogin? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:05, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I've sent one, in case he doesn't check back here. Algebraist 10:06, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia election results?
They said they were going to be announced on June 26th. That's today. Where are the results? The Wikipedia signpost has nothing. &#9775; Zenwhat (talk) 18:36, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Nevermind. Found it. Board elections/2008/Results/en &#9775; Zenwhat (talk) 18:37, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Printing in Printable Version
Sometimes when I try to print articles, using the 'Printable Version' link, the ending result has pictures over text. For example, First National of Nebraska, the picture is over the text in the History section. What can I do to fix this so that the document is printed in an easy-to-read format? Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 19:22, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * What browser (and version) are you using ? --Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 21:44, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I use IE 6 Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 18:02, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, when I reboot to windows later today, I will take a look and see if I can find a way to fix this. --Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 11:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Redirects in WP:AFC
I was looking at the AFC recently, and I saw that someone had added requests for redirects using the middle name. For example, 75.47.147.40 requested that Adam Derek Scott be redirected to Adam Scott. There wasn't anything here about it, so how should these be reviewed? Thanks, -- θnce θn this island Speak! 19:56, 26 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Normally, this question would be better asked at WT:Articles for creation, but as a regular WP:AFCer myself, I would say that its fine to create the redirect. As it says in WP:R, they are cheap and may be helpful to someone.   The real rule of thumb at AFC is "would this get speedy deleted?"  If the answer is no, then its a good candidate to create.  -- ShinmaWa(talk) 23:17, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * As a member of WikiProject Redirect, I feel compelled to point out that there's a little-used section for requested redirects. Perhaps AFC ought to link to it? $$\sim$$ Lenoxus " * " 01:41, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Stalkers
I've noticed that one user in particular has been stalking me for some time now: specifically, finding the pages I have contributed to/edited and introducing inaccuracies/questionable edits. I'm pretty new to the intricacies of wiki admin, so is there a specific place where I can voice these concerns? Thanks. golden bells, pomegranates, prunes &amp; prisms (talk) 21:33, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * WP:WQA might be the right place ...... Dendodge  .. Talk Contribs 21:46, 26 June 2008 (UTC)