Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 October 31

= October 31 =

Fixing a problem with a template
Can someone please help me in regard to the 2008 NBA Finals page and link to the 2009 Finals in the template box on the right hand side? 2007 is there but i dont know how to add => 2009 just like the rest of the Finals years (eg. 2007 NBA Finals you can see ) I have asked others but to no avail, we are really stumped so hopefully it can be fixed up. Thanks  Monster Under Your Bed  (talk) 03:27, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * As you can see from the NBA Finals summary template page, that template adds the previous and next year sequence links automatically. The link for 2009 appears even in the totally blank sample template. Thus I think there should be nothing you have to do in an article such as 2008 NBA Finals to cause the sequence links to appear. That one of them is missing is probably due to some seemingly unrelated error either in the template code or in some parameter value that is screwing up the template. I will look at it. Which is no guarantee that I will see the problem. One approach to troubleshoot the problem is to transclude the NBA Finals summary template onto a user sandbox page, starting off with no parameters, and then add in the parameters you have in 2008 NBA Finals until you see the template break. You might find the input item that is causing the problem, if in fact there is one item that is breaking it. --Teratornis (talk) 03:48, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, the bottom of the template has this code which appears to be trying not to display a link to a year which has not yet occurred:

... {{#ifeq:{{{year}}}|{{CURRENTYEAR}}| | ...
 * Evidently the "2009" shows up in the sample blank template because the  value is undefined, and the template coders did not default an undefined   to the   in that   expression. If I'm seeing this correctly, that means your problem will fix itself automatically on January 1, 2009. Can you wait two months? --Teratornis (talk) 03:54, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank You so much for figuring that out, and yes i think we can wait 2 months until the end of the year. So basically for the 2009 NBA Finals page, if someone creates the 2010 NBA Finals before January 1 2010, then it will hidden and so forth and so forth. I think that just about sums it up. SO basically wait until the current year to create the article :-)  Monster Under Your Bed  (talk) 04:01, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * As we see, the 2009 NBA Finals article already exists, albeit in a preliminary form since the event has not yet occurred. There is not yet a 2010 NBA Finals article. Since it is certainly possible that a page may exist for next year's NBA Finals for some portion of the current year, a smarter way to code the NBA Finals summary template would be to change this expression:

... {{#ifeq:{{{year}}}|{{CURRENTYEAR}}| | ...
 * to something that uses the  ParserFunction to check whether the next NBA Finals page actually exists, rather than indirectly trying to guess whether it exists as a function of the year. Do you know enough about template coding to take a shot at that, or do you need someone to do it for you? It's not super duper difficult, but you should probably test it on a user sandbox page (such as: User:Da monster under your bed/Sandbox) to avoid blowing up all the NBA Finals articles with a broken test revision of the real template. --Teratornis (talk) 04:08, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Use this:

... {{#ifexist:{{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+1}} NBA Finals|{{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+1}}| }} ...
 * That will work for one year in advance. It generates ... {{#ifexist:{{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+1}} NBA Finals|{{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}+1}}| }} ... Hand ITC;color:blue">Den dodge  Talk {{sup|Contribs}} 09:01, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Experts List?
Is there in Wikipedia a list of editors who are experts in particular subjects? Suppose for example, I want to find someone who is knowledgeable about plant taxonomy.

Thank you, CBHA (talk) 04:52, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Not sure if something like that exists, but why not try the respective projects to look for subject experts? Such as WikiProject Plants, or its parent WikiProject Tree of life if you're looking for taxonomy experts. -Optigan13 (talk) 04:57, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * And look at the histories of articles and templates that exemplify expertise. If you see something that looks knowledgeable on Wikipedia, it had to be built by humans, and you can find their user names. You could also ask questions about a subject on the Reference desk and see if anyone answers expertly. --Teratornis (talk) 06:48, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you both. Observations of contributions at the Reference Desks has led me to the conclusion that there are 4 or 5 contributors who are both omniscient and indefatigable.  But it seems unfair to take all questions to them.  CBHA (talk) 12:43, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * There is Category:Wikipedians by profession, Category:Wikipedian scientists, Category:Wikipedian biologists, but not categories for different fields of biology. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:40, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I've heard the advice that if you want something to get done, ask a busy person to do it. If they are busy, that probably means they get things done. Or so the advice goes. In any case, it's perfectly fair to ask questions of people who clearly have the hobby of answering questions. If your sensation of guilt becomes overpowering, you can always assuage your guilt by various means:
 * Shower them with barnstars.
 * Donate money to the Wikimedia Foundation in their honor.
 * Donate your money to me. I will gladly serve as your surrogate guilt-er. (Is that a word? The person who feels guilty in your stead.)
 * Take the information they provide and use it to improve Wikipedia. Anything you do to improve Wikipedia pays your debt forward to other people who benefit from an improved Wikipedia.
 * Answer questions on the Help desk. Anybody can do it, because all the answers are written down and all we have to do is look them up. Most of the time. Soon you'll discover that answering questions is fun! We get to play know-it-alls and some people even thank us for it.
 * --Teratornis (talk) 23:56, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Can't access edit page
When I am logged in, I am unable to access the edit page using the tab at the top. Instead I get a pop-up box from Firefox saying that it needs to know what program to use to open a .php file. I tried Internet Explorer and the same thing happened. However, when I am not logged in, or when someone else is logged in as a different user, the edit page comes up with no problem. I can't figure it out. Please help.Leave Message orYellow Evan home or User:Yellow Evan/Sandbox 05:24, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Go to Special:Preferences, and click the 'editing' tab. Make sure that the 'Use external editor by default' option is unchecked. This should solve your problem. Raven4x4x (talk) 05:51, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

What proportion of edits on here constitute vandalism?
I would like to know as i'm giving a presentation and I have chosen to talk about the growth of the online encyclopedia wikipedia! 79.75.150.189 (talk) 13:27, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Nice. :) What would you like to know? Peter Symonds ( talk ) 13:35, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh. xD it would help to read the header properly, wouldn't it?? Sorry! Peter Symonds ( talk ) 14:16, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * ... i'm guessing he/she wants to know what proportion of edits on here constitute vandalism. 8) but i don't know the answer. Sssoul (talk) 13:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * It's a good question. I think there will be several different answers, since people define vandalism differently. Is adding "hello" to an article vandalism? Is pushing a point-of-view vandalism? There's a whole range of problem edits which could be defined as vandalism. That probably won't help your project though. :-(  TN ‑  X   - Man  13:52, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, if it's any help, there's an average about 6-9 reversions of vandalism per minute. Sometimes it goes lower, or even up to 30s and 40s. This is not recorded anywhere, I'm just telling from my experience when using Huggle and by the statistics it gives. Cheers. C h a m a l  talk 13:56, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * The proportion from this ASSIGNED PA IP address so far is 50%, which isn't good. -- Rodhull andemu  14:49, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * See WikiProject Vandalism studies which has LOTS of data and analysis on this subject. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  04:34, 1 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Also related to the above, Wikipedia talk:Don't protect Main Page featured articles/December Main Page FA analysis. --Jayron32. talk . contribs  04:36, 1 November 2008 (UTC)


 * It's about 10% (and another 10% for reverting vandalism). See User:Dragons flight/Log analysis. Hut 8.5 18:24, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Medical Miracles
Can someone delete this page...I am the creator of this page and I created it when I first became a wikipedian, it hasn't been worked on since August of 2008, it has only been tagged since. If you think this page has potential could someone maybe give me some suggestions, because I can't seem to find any sources or references. Thanks! Hairy Perry  15:33, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Hello Perry,
 * I've deleted it for you, since it meets the requirements of WP:CSD. In the future, you can request deletion of articles that only you have worked on, and which you no longer think appropriate, by adding db-self to the page. --barneca (talk) 15:43, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Thank you...I'm sorry, still learning here, i'll remember to do that next time. Thanks and Happy Editing. Hairy Perry  16:21, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Template help
This is a template I work to expand on, but I want to have it in half, if it is possible (ie. kids on one side, rents on the other side, like two columns).

Thanks in advance, A  talk  19:30, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * So you're looking for this
 * {| border="1"

! !!Kids !! Rents ! Row 1 ! Row 2 and so on? I'm not great at tables, so let me know if that helps. Also see Help:Table. Cheers!  TN ‑  X   - Man  19:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * + The table's caption
 * Alex Wilder || The Wilders
 * Karolina Dean
 * The Yorkes
 * }
 * Yes! Your brilliant. Thanks, A  talk  19:40, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Sidebar code with template works in "Show preview", but not after "Save page"
QUESTION: On the WikiProject Aircraft/page content page, using a section edit,
 * why does this code work in "Show preview", but not after "Save page"? (Mugs2109 (talk) 21:35, 31 October 2008 (UTC) & 22:10)

Works fine for me - try Den dodge  Talk Contribs 21:44, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * It fails in the section edit diff given by Mugs2109. The reason appears to be the use of  in a template parameter earlier on the page. If that is removed then the box displays. The use of  is before the edited section so it would not affect a preview while editing the section. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:47, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

A suspected serial killer
I was wondering how WP:BLP reflected on Arthur Leigh Allen. Thanks,  Grsz  11   →Review!  23:47, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * What do you mean? Biographies of living persons doesn't apply to a man who died in 1992. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:42, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, very true. But are there any problems, can accusations of slander still be made? I mean, here we are stating that a man is possibly the Zodaic killer, and he probably is not.  Grsz  11   →Review!  00:52, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Other general policies like Verifiability and Neutral point of view still apply. I haven't examined whether they are followed. The Zodiac Killer may still be alive and BLP applies to all pages, so I suppose somebody might argue that BLP should be considered to defend the reputation of the unidentified Zodiac Killer against speculation of being Arthur Leigh Allen. But I don't expect that will happen. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:14, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
 * IAAL, and you cannot slander or libel the dead. – ukexpat (talk) 04:03, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I never understood that. Must be so painful for surviving relatives that that isn't possible. How did they ever come to the idea that you cannot slander or libel dead people? - Mgm|(talk) 09:29, 1 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't think this article is really problem. 1) The article is very upfront. It gives all the evidence that clears him right in the lead of the article 2) It's what the guy is primarily known for. - Mgm|(talk) 09:29, 1 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Mgm, you might find this NYT article on libel protection for the dead of interest.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:28, 1 November 2008 (UTC)