Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 October 19

= October 19 =

Pic won't show up in infobox
I'm trying to give this guy an infobox but his profile picture wont show up inside of it. (Take a look at my Sandbox) : all I get is an empty section where the image is supposed to go. I checked for typos, and if I replace it with another persons picture it works, but not with his. I can't figure out what im doing wrong. :| -- $user log (Talk) @ 00:11, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I got it to work at 180px instead of 220px (you can hardly tell the difference between the two sizes, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem). Alexius  Horatius 00:42, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, looks like User:Ling.Nut got it without changing the size. Alexius  Horatius 00:50, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the help, it now seems to be working. I can actually finish editing the article now :) -- $user log (Talk) @ 01:14, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I think it was just a cache issue. No real problem. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 01:35, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

GA tip?
I'd like tips to make this article into a GA; what further steps can I take to improve this? A talk  01:27, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you read WP:WIAGA? Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 01:35, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Submit it for a peer review and people will tell you how you can improve it. Sunderland06  (talk) 01:38, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * No, don't do that yet. It is too early even for that. Read WP:WIAGA. Click through all the blue links to read things like, oh just pulling two examples off the top of my head, Verifiability and Embedded list. The Characters section does not follow either of those two guidelines, for example. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 01:42, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Question on RfA
Anybody open to a question via e-mail regarding RfA?  Grsz  X  03:12, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah I will give it a go, Click on my user name then at the top right of the page you will see a envelope icon click on that and fire away!. -- intraining  Jack In  03:38, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Sent. Thanks.  Grsz  Review!  03:44, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Copyedit
What is a copy edit, and how and who do I ask someone to copyedit the Los Angeles Lakers article? The wikipedia glossary definition for copyedit doesn't help me.  Blu  e  Red  03:42, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * The word is used loosely often. To copyedit an article is generally to format it to meet manual of style guidelines, make spelling, punctuation, grammar and stylistic corrections. It is often used when more substantive edits are made, such as rearranging parts of the text already present for fluidity, tweaking the language for tone and so on. Contrarily, some users say they've done a copyedit when all they've done is made three spelling corrections. What it doesn't usually mean is an actual rewrite, with large scale information additions, or complete rearranging of material. You can ask for a copyedit at WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors, but they currently have a backlog of over 5,000 articles, so I wouldn't hold my breath. You might have better luck at Peer review/volunteers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:55, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Also see How to copy-edit. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 11:45, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

How do I delete a disambiguation page
Articles for deletion says "deleted pages cannot be redirects or disambiguation pages." How then do I go about getting a redirect disambiguation page deleted? What I have in mind is an unneccesary redirect disambiguation page, in which all targets except one are redlinks; specifically Immortal game (disambiguation). Peter Ballard (talk) 11:12, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

(UPDATE: Corrected my text, twice I wrote "redirect" when I meant "disambiguation page". Peter Ballard (talk) 11:51, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * You ask an admin to help delete it for you. :-) I'm surprised no one has helped you yet... you should try going to Redirects for discussion. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 12:01, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * More&mdash; in addition (or instead of) the above, it may be a candidate for speedy deletion. Am looking now. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 12:04, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, it looks like it is a candidate for speedy, as it is "removing a disambiguation page that only points to a single article". See db-move. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 12:13, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I have added some blue links to descriptions for redlinked entries at Immortal Game (disambiguation). If you still think it should be deleted then it can be nominated at Articles for deletion. The quote "deleted pages cannot be redirects or disambiguation pages" is taken out of context and does not refer to which pages can be nominated there (although redirects cannot). db-move could only apply if the page was in the way of a page move, but it is not. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:12, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I've merged all PrimeHunter's additions into Immortal Game and nominated it for WP:SPEEDY per Ling Nut's suggestion. If PH (or anyone else) objects I can through AfD but that seems like overkill. Peter Ballard (talk) 23:06, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Online reference doesn't let you out
The web sites led to by references 1 and 4 in the article Bannock (food) contain great material, but when you visit them, they don't let you use the IE7 "back" button to return to Wikpedia. This may have something to do with "frames." How can I keep the references but eliminate their "trapping" behavior? (I have twiddled with the links in the references, but all I've done is to make 'em not work.) Lou Sander (talk) 14:02, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * This does not solve the issue entirely but you can get back easily, if you know how. If you click the back button twice in rapid succession, it takes you back. Also, just next to the back button in IE is a little arrow that you can click on and it lets you choose which of the previous websites you visited you want to go back to. Using that, it's no problem.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:45, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I can't find any way to escape frames in wikitext. Ling.Nut (talk&mdash;WP:3IAR) 15:00, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

How do I embed content from another article section?
How can I take content from another article and embed its section in a new one? Other words quote a section. Something like and it will embed the Contents section of Spider in this article.
 * You cannot transclude a single section of another page, but if the page uses things from Help:Template then you can control which parts are displayed when the page is transcluded. Another option is to make a template page and transclude it in both places. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:53, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Ok thanks for the help. I worked it out from those pages. Placing a ':' at the front of the pagename, I was able to bypass the Template default and use the main repository. Then using tag around the content in question, I could do the task needed.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.219.215.14 (talk) 17:48, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Be aware that other users may edit things on Wikipedia and unintentionally break what you did. If you are including part of an article into another article, other users may edit the article you are including without being aware of the structure necessary to make it work in the article that includes it. Making a template page in the Template: namespace increases the chances that people will recognize the content as something that other pages transclude. What you did may not be wrong but it may be brittle. --Teratornis (talk) 21:55, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

I have a serious problem
Hey guys... I'm User:Shshshsh. Everytime I log in my Wikipage is stuck (either instantly or after a few minutes). When I don't log in it works well. I tried to change my account but it didn't help... That's why I created a new account (which I'm using now). I think someone damaged my account... Probably a break-in... Maybe some geek hacked in? Opinions? Shshshsh2 (talk) 19:29, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * What do your mean by your "Wikipage"? Xenon54 19:40, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I mean my Internet window (when I'm logged in on WP). Shshshsh2 (talk) 20:57, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * That sounds like it might be a problem with your browser. Which one do you use and have you had any virus infections lately? Xenon54 21:00, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Explorer I think. I don't think I have any virus. Shshshsh2 (talk) 14:10, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with your userpage to me. Maybe you should try at WP:RD/C, where you are more likely to get some technical-oriented answers. Cheers. C h a m a l  talk work 14:33, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Unauthorized Request to change password on my account
I received e-mail from wikimedia that an IP address, which I don't recognize, requested that I be given a new password for my account. How can this happen?Gebhardt (talk) 19:34, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * If you forget your password, you type in your username at Special:Userlogin and hit "E-mail new password". What happened was someone typed in your username and hit the button. Xenon54 19:38, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * As for the logical follow-up question, "What should I do about it?", the general answer is "Nothing". There are two likely reasons this might have happened - (1), someone wasn't sure if they'd registered under that name and tried to get the password reminder email, (2) someone wanted to try to hack your account (possibly a vandal you reverted). In both cases, all you have to do is ignore the email and the temporary password will just expire, leaving you free to edit as always. The person who submitted the password request will not be able to do anything since they never see the email. If it becomes a recurring event, you can drop a note at the admin incidents noticeboard although I'm not sure if there's much they can do. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!) 22:36, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Images
How do I post an image? —Preceding unsigned comment added by SirMikealot (talk • contribs) 19:57, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * See Uploading images for instructions as to how to upload images. See the section "Adding images to articles" on that same page for instructions as to how to add images to pages.

MiszaBot's archiving
The bot just archived my talk page, but the old stuff's not where I asked it to be put - in fact, I don't know where it is. I haven't changed the bot's template at the top, so why has it done it wrong? Den dodge | Talk Contribs 20:30, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * The edit summary was Archiving 3 thread(s) (older than 24h) to /dev/null. Odd, considering your have it set to five days. Perhaps the bot's malfunctioning? Misza13 might be able to tell you what's up, but your threads look like they're gone. Xenon54 20:40, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Looking in more detail, it didn't do any archiving in September either. I'll ask the operator. Den dodge | Talk Contribs 20:46, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Misza13 fixed it for me - he just put the template on separate lines. Den dodge | Talk Contribs 22:43, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

MOS questions
I have two questions about formatting:
 * 1) Is it required to use a template for references? Is it acceptable to use a method that captures all the key information for a reference & preserves the proper format without using the template if you feel it is a better technique to do so?
 * 2) Is piping never allowed on a dab page? I had someone say it was not, but have not been able to verify it in the MOS.

Thanks in advance! FieldMarine (talk) 22:40, 19 October 2008 (UTC)


 * 1) Citation templates are not required. See Citing sources.
 * 2) Piping should generally not be used for disambiguation entries, but see Manual of Style (disambiguation pages). PrimeHunter (talk) 22:52, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks PrimeHunter, much appreciated. FieldMarine (talk) 23:25, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Some things to consider before rejecting citation templates:
 * Why do you feel your citation method is better than using citation templates?
 * Are you aware of the advantages of using citation templates? Here are a few:
 * Citation templates are machine-readable. This creates the possibility for automated tools to analyze the citations in Wikipedia, in ways that would be quite difficult if all the articles use inconsistent ad hoc formats.
 * Citation templates reflect a degree of consensus on Wikipedia. This means if you format references with citation templates, other users are less likely to reformat them some different way. In the articles I've edited, I've seen lots of users changing random citation formats to citation templates. I haven't seen a lot of migration away from citation templates. If you'd like your work to stick longer, that's something to note. While citation templates are not the only legitimate way to format citations on Wikipedia, almost everybody on Wikipedia agrees that they are one of the legitimate ways. If you format your citations in some other way that people do not already recognize as legitimate, you must first convince them that your method is legitimate. That could end up being an uphill battle unless your idea is obviously good.
 * Citation templates are globally maintainable.
 * Peruse some featured articles and see how they format their references. Quite a few of them use citation templates. Will your reference style survive in an article as it evolves toward featured quality?
 * --Teratornis (talk) 02:43, 20 October 2008 (UTC)