Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 April 13

= April 13 =

help with "if" condition
Why doesn't it work?

and so on...

Thanks, 79.180.111.133 (talk) 00:04, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not good with wiki-markup, so I can't answer your question, but perhaps Conditional tables might tell you what you want to know.  tempo di valse  [☎]  00:09, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * ahh.. sorry but I didn't find what I need there.. :/ 79.180.111.133 (talk) 00:18, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Have a look at this page which explains how to use #if and other related parser functions. Tra (Talk) 00:20, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Or failing that, please ask over at the technical section of the Village Pump. – ukexpat (talk) 00:23, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * huh? I just want to do that condition... what is so difficuly? :/ 79.180.111.133 (talk) 00:26, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It appears that you need to use the  form.  The   form only checks for a non-empty "string", so it doe not evaluate the "==".  The   form is also a possibility, but I don't know if it works with string values. (It does not.)  -- Tcncv (talk) 00:57, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I think you want the  function; see mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions. --Gadget850 (talk) 00:59, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Kevin Musker >> article appears to be made up
I thought that I spotted some vandalism at the bottom of the article entitled "Kevin Musker".

However, I then began to look at the article more closely.

I can't find any record of this person ever existing.

I looked at the Amazon.com view of the one source book Civil War High Commands, but the person's name is not listed in the index. I don't have access to the actual book.

I checked my Civil War book which appears to contain a public domain source of all Civil War generals along with their promotion dates.

He is not listed as a major general of the US army, a brevet major general of the US army, a major general of volunteers, a brevet major general of volunteers, a brigadier general of the US army, a brevet brigadier general of the US army, a major brigadier of volunteers, or a brevet brigadier general of volunteers. This name is not listed.

This website (http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/wpclasses.html) lists all the West Point graduates who became Civil War generals. The name still cannot be located.

The story about a leg injury sounds familiar.


 * I finally uncovered the similar story. That story along with the exact date of birth and death appear to have been taken from the article about Charles Ferguson Smith.

I am more than 99% sure that this article is fictional. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.133.171.51 (talk) 01:28, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It appears to be a hoax. I checked this guy out on Google, and the only things I get are Wikipedia mirrors -- not mentioned anywhere. I will nominate this article for deletion, as such. Thanks for pointing this out.  tempo di valse  [☎]  01:31, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Broken Links in External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajapalayam

The above link has few broken External Links. How do I correct those as below?

Wrong USA Rajapalayam Rajus - http://www.rjpmrajususa.com/

Correct USA Rajapalayam Rajus - http://www.rajapalayam.us/ Bangalore Rajapalayam Rajus - http://bengalururajus.org/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sjsubash (talk • contribs) 01:36, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Be bold and edit the article to change the links. – ukexpat (talk) 01:41, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Rajapalayam is semi-protected so you must have an autoconfirmed account to edit it. I have updated the external link. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:06, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I created a second account
Gah... I created a second account while visiting Wikinews cause I couldn't seem to login to my Wikipedia account there (I must have gotten my password wrong) I figured it needed a separate account and created User:Modred11 on there, and then I went to wikipedia and I was logged in as him still. I'm wondering what the procedure here is, should I request he be deleted or what. --illumi (talk) 02:42, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Unless you did a lot of work with the account, I recommend just abandoning the account. - Mgm|(talk) 09:48, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I wanna play a game
I am a very peculiar individual. I enjoy laying puzzles. I was interested in making a sort of treasure hunt through Wikipedia, by posting questions at the end of certain articles and having the participants look for the answers, I do admit that is not the purpose of this page but I think it would be very fun, especially taking into account this is what most high schools students like myself use for research. --207.150.172.54 (talk) 04:01, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Even puzzles (such as "secret pages") in the userspace are very controversial; tolerated to some extent, in certain circumstances, but highly frowned upon. Wikipedia is not Myspace. However, any sort of puzzles inserted in the main namespace where articles are written is simply not appropriate, would be quickly reverted, and would be considered vandalism if persistently added.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:11, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You might be able to start your own wiki at Wikia which could be about playing games. Something like this might already exist. Did you try searching the Web? --Teratornis (talk) 20:01, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Diff abiogenesis
Is there a way to to see a diff view for the first edit to an article? I do not mean the difference between the creation edit and the second edit but the actual first edit. I imagine such a diff, if possible to view, would show nothing on the left side, and all the material in green as new on the right. The specific issue is that I want to use Split-to on a certain page, but the template calls for the following parameters: The diff parameter seeks the first diff when the material was added, but in the case I want to use it for (as I imagine would often be the case when this template would be used), the split point is the first edit to a newly created page where the material was split to without proper GFDL attribution, showing the material being added. I guess I could just use the permanent link to that earliest edit, but I wanted to explore finding a way to follow the actual template parameters first.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:00, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You can view a diff of the first edit to the page by going to the earliest permanent link then replacing oldid= in the address bar with diff= but you get a page like this which is technically a diff page but which does not show any changes. Tra (Talk) 10:06, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you Tra. Simple enough. I will update the documentation subpage of the template to explain this.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:24, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

7th Rib Surgery for Cancer
Please respond, as already have surgery scheduled for the 21st of this month.

I have Breast Cancer, that went into my 7th rib. Started in Sept 2006, rec'd 2nd opinion at City of Hope and at that time they suggested I have the Cancer on my 7th rib removed. The docs here did not act on that recommendation. However, now, the Oncologist has decided I should have the Cancer on 7th rib removed.

The doc that will be doing it, has never done this procedure before - he is a heart doctor. Is this doc ok to do this surgery, or should I go to City of Hope?? Please respond...thank you!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.237.35 (talk) 05:10, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry but Wikipedia cannot give you medical advice. —teb728 t c 05:15, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

7th Rib Surgery for Cancer
Question for medical advice removed. We cannot offer medical advice. Please see the medical disclaimer. Contact your General Practitioner. --Jayron32. talk . contribs 05:23, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Admin user account User:Jersey_Devil invalid blocking
[duplicate post removed] Onetwo1 (talk) 06:44, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * This is a duplicate post. See this discussion. Tra (Talk) 11:13, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Semi-protected article on helicopter
I've just established an account with Wikipedia for the first time and am anxious to contribute to the project.

I'm writing a children's book on helicopters and have a reference I think should be added to the bibliography section of the article [helicopter]. However, the article is listed as "semi-protected" and there is no "Edit This Article" tab at the top of the page. How do I get permission to add a bibliography citation (and a couple of additional pieces of information on early helicopter models) to this article.

Thanks for helping a newbie.

Bryan Johnson Yamamoto333 Yamamoto333 (talk) 08:13, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You'll have to wait to get autoconfirmed status before you can edit the article. That means 10 edits after four days (usually). Or you can post on the article's page and request someone add the relevant information. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:49, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The page Zain is referring to is the article talk or discussion page. - Mgm|(talk) 09:43, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Footnotes in Harvard Style
In Wikipedia, standard footnotes are formated in superscript (e.g. ^[1] ^[2] and so on). Is it possible, to switch footnote formate to Harvard Style? Example: "In history (Klein, 2005) was nothing, but than modern times started (Feldon, 1998).

I mean, that superscript blows up the linespacing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manuel-aa5 (talk • contribs)

Surely, i can use Harvard Style without the Wikisyntax But then I miss the hyperlink-functionality of the references.
 * The line spacing looks fine in Firefox; it's been a long time since I've used anything else for more than a few minutes at a time, though. Aside from that, yes, it is acceptable to use Harvard citation, but, if an article already has an established and consistent style of referencing, you should stick to that. If you do use Harvard citation, you can use harv and related templates to link to the appropriate full citation, but note that only citation generates the appropriate anchors automatically; if you use the "cite" family of templates (cite web, cite news, etc.), you will need to add the correct  parameter manually for hyperlinking from harv to work. — TKD:: {talk}  10:48, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Converting citation styles should not be done without first gaining consensus for the change on the article's talk page. For information on implementing this style, see Parenthetical referencing. Wikpedia uses some CSS code to fix the line height when using superscript or subscript, but Internet Explorer 7 it has problems with the  CSS selector. --Gadget850 (talk) 10:53, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

== Google map link is out of date: how to get the most recent edit appearing??? ==

On Googlemaps the [link] to my school has a Wikipedia entry which is old (and illiterate!). The current W page is what should appear but doesn't: can someone please advise? Thanks very much. [[User:Dpro1|Dpro1]] (talk) 11:38, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, this sounds like something to ask at the Google forums instead of here, as Wikipedia doesn't have any control over what content Google puts up at its website. My explanation would be that Google hasn't yet updated its Wikipedia mirror, so it's showing an old version of that page.  tempo di valse  [☎]  17:15, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

What can I do when an entry is wrong?
I have just found an entry that I know to be wrong ... Knoll sofa. It never was 'Knoll sofa' but "Knole". I can't even edit to make it correct and the title is incorrect ... is there anything I can do? 12:32, 13 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pixiecoo (talk • contribs)
 * I have redirected Knole sofa to Knoll sofa. Both spellings are used according to for example and . You can suggest another title at Requested moves. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:57, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Research
Good Morning. I am trying to research past law decisions in the N.J. court system regarding defendants DUI cases that were dismissed due to improper police procedure. Can anyone guide me in this search? Thank You. EugeneFailla —Preceding unsigned comment added by Funzone2 (talk • contribs) 14:38, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 14:45, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * The Humanities reference desk seems to be the correct venue for your question. Cheers,  tempo di valse  [☎]  17:17, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Naming convention
Why is the article University of California, Los Angeles not named UCLA as its main title per "the most recognizeable name" convention? Same question for "MIT" vs "Massachussettes Institute of Technology". Isn't "MIT" a more popular name?--Zereshk (talk) 15:11, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * See Naming conventions. I don't think they are almost exclusively known only by their abbreviation. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:20, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * (e/c)There's a convention of using educational institutions' full names. See the discussion at Talk:University of California, Los Angeles. --AndrewHowse (talk) 15:22, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Looking for Wikipedia Guru's to Share Knowledge at Microsoft
I work at Microsoft and we are creating our own internal Wikipedia. We have some basic ideas of the Wikipedia framework but want to learn more from the experts. I would like to reach out to Wikipedia guru’s that can give me insight on the “behind the scenes” of Wikipedia. Specifically, Wikipedia’s governance and community model.

Would you be interested or know of folks that may be interested?

It would be great to get some of the Wikipedia guru’s to share their knowledge and perhaps present at Microsoft.

I look forward to your response.

Simone —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.112.89.198 (talk) 15:25, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is the name for this particular website. What you probably mean is that you'd like to have your own internal wiki for work-related materials. If you like our software you want MediaWiki (the article should have a link to the site with the software. If you like experts about the internal workings to present, you should have a look at Developers. If you want more of an overview on how to use the software there are some editors who give that type of lectures regularly, but unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on names at the moment. - Mgm|(talk) 15:40, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I know that Durova has written articles online about Wikipedia before and I believe that Elonka has given talks on the subject. TN X Man  15:45, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * What software are you using for Microsoft's Enterprise wiki? Microsoft's own SharePoint software, or MediaWiki (which powers Wikipedia), or something else? I suspect the specific software you choose will impact the governance model which evolves on your wiki (wikis inevitably evolve, because they are inherently bottom-up organizations). What we do on Wikipedia has been strongly influenced by what the MediaWiki software makes easy to do. If we were running on different software, we might have a somewhat different governance model.
 * If you plan to use MediaWiki, see Enterprise use of MediaWiki.
 * You might contact some of your business partners at Intel and ask them about Intelpedia. I would imagine Intel's experience would be relevant to Microsoft, given the business overlap.
 * Read everything linked from Wiki topics, in particular Enterprise wiki and Personal wiki.
 * If you want your wiki to look and feel like Wikipedia, then you want to run the MediaWiki software. While MediaWiki is great software, its designers built it to run the world's largest free content encyclopedia. Thus it lacks some features that enterprise wikis need, such as fine-grained access control. However, a company with Microsoft's programming talent could easily customize its own version of MediaWiki to do whatever it needs.
 * If you have a big budget and you want to bring in some heavy hitters, Clay Shirky and Yochai Benkler have interesting insight into collaborative editing and Commons-based peer production. Or you could just read their books and watch their videos on YouTube. Both have studied Wikipedia among other systems. I don't know whether they would have the depth of insight specific to Wikipedia that you might want, but I am sure you will learn many useful ideas from them.
 * Perhaps the largest and most visible collection of Wikipedia-specific expertise on public display is Wikimania.
 * See WP:EIW for links to people (mostly academics) who study Wikipedia.
 * Good luck. If you have any detailed questions, you could leave them on my talk page. --Teratornis (talk) 19:18, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

New Individual
I am a scientist of repute with two US Patents in biotechnology and one in heavy metal extraction chemistry. I am also the inventor of BioSparge technology, which has been used by every branch of the Armed Services, many states, Canada and Mexico. I am also the discover of Angular Chronology and my work is cited within several contexts during Google searches. I do not appear on Wikipedia, however. How do I create and post my Biblio? Thank you for your assistance in this matter. Michael M. Hobby —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.180.83.42 (talk) 17:13, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, people are discouraged from writing their own articles because of the inherent conflict of interest. The best thing to do is to request that someone else write the article, either at requested articles or articles for creation. Remember that all articles must be written neutrally and supported by independent reliable sources. TN X Man  17:17, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Sortable table from Excel
Hello, I'm trying to make a sortable table from one I've made in Excel. In the past I've used this tool for Excel to wiki conversion, but that doesn't make a sortable table. Is there a similar tool to make the generated wiki-table sortable? Thanks in advance. TastyCakes (talk) 17:55, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm assuming your table is laid out the standard way, with the column headings at the top and each row appearing underneath that. Generate the wikitext the normal way with Excel, then at the first line of wikitext, replace  with  . If that doesn't work, please link to the table you're trying to make sortable. Tra (Talk) 18:38, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Perfect, thanks a lot. TastyCakes (talk) 20:02, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

using sandbox
with thanks. I tried sandbox for the first time today, to start a new stub. I don't know how to get back to it to, and I have less than 12 hrs before the work is lost. I don't see in yr instructions on sandbox how to return to it once one's saved a version. Quick help much appreciated. Thanks Alethe (talk) 18:11, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Nothing that is ever saved in the Sandbox is ever lost, it is just a bit harder to find when removed. Is this the version you are talking about?  tempo di valse  [☎]  18:18, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * (e/c) I moved the content you entered there to User:Alethe/sandbox. The main sandbox gets turned over rather quickly, but the page in your userspace will be less volatile. --AndrewHowse (talk) 18:20, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Editing in the main sandbox is like building a sand castle on a public beach, except that as the above responses illustrate, Wikipedia saves the history of every edit by every user (that is, assuming you do not make some edits and then cancel them before saving). Your user space functions more like your own semi-private beach, except that you don't actually own it. Other editors will generally leave your userspace alone, by convention, but we have rules to govern user space as well, and if you violate them, another editor might eventually change your work there. --Teratornis (talk) 18:40, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Weight gain/loss
How long does it take for weight gain/loss to show up on the scale? I've heard that if you eat poorly it can take up to two weeks for it to show up on the scale and others have said that it takes a few days. Same with losing weight, my question is how long will it take before you can see your efforts on the scale?
 * Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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. I hope this helps. Algebraist 18:55, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * A person's rate of weight gain (or loss) depends on their daily calorie excess (or deficit), much like the way your checking account balance rises or falls, depending on the sizes of your deposits and withdrawals. You could watch Super Size Me for one example . --Teratornis (talk) 19:58, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Layout problems
I've just put a large table with details of all the Bristol councillors on the Politics of Bristol page, but I can't get the text to the right of the table to go under the table- it just stays in its awkward place to the right no matter what I do.

Can someone give me some hints how to get it to behave- or even better, do it for me? :P —Preceding unsigned comment added by SamUK (talk • contribs) 19:05, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * SamUK and I have both had a try at this. Can you please check that I've not accidentally changed any content? Certes (talk) 20:13, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * On second thoughts I have reverted my change as it breaks the table formatting. Picking the best bits of each version should do the trick.  Still unresolved. Certes (talk) 20:19, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Another approach would be to take some existing templates instead of building a table from scratch. See members of Category:Political party colour templates for examples? --AndrewHowse (talk) 20:40, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Those templates are already correctly used within the cells. The table layout has now been improved and looks right to me but may look wrong for some readers.  I've posted a hint from Help:Table at Talk:Politics of Bristol but can't try it out on my system as I can't reproduce the fault. Certes (talk) 11:22, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It's working now! Thanks for all the help. Sam 14:26, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Deleting an uploaded image
How can I delete an image that I have uploaded in error? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eightiesnr (talk • contribs) 19:16, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Tag the page with . TN X Man  19:51, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

override collapsed state when transcluding a template made with Navbox?
I want to transclude the writing guides template, in its uncollapsed state, onto a user page. However, that template uses the Navbox template with autocollapse state, so if there are any other similar boxes, it is automatically collapsed. Is there a way to override this behavior? Thanks, Baccyak4H (Yak!) 20:05, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I wish there was a way to make some properties inheritable, that would prevent that sort of problems. I'm not quite sure there is a way to do what you want here, apart from writing your own template with the behaviour you like of course. Equendil Talk 20:15, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Change the template:

|state =


 * This keeps the current setting as the default, but allows it to be changed with state. Discuss it on the talk page. --Gadget850 (talk) 20:27, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Wow, that appears to work. Thanks! Baccyak4H (Yak!) 20:36, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You might write a documentation subpage for the template, per WP:DOC. If you do, you could put the Collapsible option template on the documentation subpage to document the  option:


 * See for example the documentation for this template: Peak oil. --Teratornis (talk) 21:18, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

how do i write a page
i was wondering how to write a story or biography on something or someont, can you help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by NBallerA (talk • contribs) 20:51, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * See: WP:FAQ, the first FAQ entry. --Teratornis (talk) 21:20, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * If your story is original, see WP:NOR. Guidelines about biographies are in WP:BIO and WP:BLP. Note: the mechanics of creating new articles are relatively straightforward, but it's more difficult for the new user to add content which will "stick", because Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles for violating our policies and guidelines. --Teratornis (talk) 21:25, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Hide Images
Is there a way to turn off images on a page?

For example, to read about spiders without an photos being displayed. Is there a way to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bac5665 (talk • contribs) 20:58, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Options to not see an image. --Teratornis (talk) 21:22, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

My Categories Deleted Unfairly
Two of my categories were nominated for deletion, and they were deleted without the slightest hint of why. The reasons why sounded too ridiculous and unusual. Their reasons for deleting them were totally irrevelant. It was not overcategorization, and those two categories were indeed characteristics. They were categories for Title tracks released as singles, and Singles released from compilation albums. There are plenty of categories that would have been much longer than them, and since there were much longer categories, and that not every title track was released as a single, and not every single was released from a compilation album, I feel that they were totally unfair deletions, as well as being totally ridiculous, and this is a very serious problem. Please help me out. Ryanbstevens (talk) 22:30, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * You may want to review WP:DELETE, and the related page on deletion review, as the category appears to have been deleted as a result of Categories for discussion/Log/2009 April 7. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 23:09, 13 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I see you participated in the discussions at Categories for discussion/Log/2009 March 30 and Categories for discussion/Log/2009 April 7. There was clear consensus to delete and I think there were valid concerns about the categories. Singles cannot have separate categories for every property associated with a subset of singles. Other editors didn't think these two properties of singles were worth a category. I'm afraid you will just have to accept that. You can see Why was my page deleted?, but I don't think there is anything to do in this case. On a collaborative project like Wikipedia you must expect to win some and lose some. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:26, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I believe it was Winston Churchill who said "We will never surrender". See Categories, lists, and navigation templates - there are two other methods of grouping links to articles that you might explore. You might attract the unkind attention of deletionists with them as well. But maybe not exactly the same deletionists with the same views, and the criteria for categories, lists, and navigation templates are slightly different from each other. If you don't succeed in the article space (with a list), nor in the Template: namespace (with a navigation template), other options include:
 * Make a list as a subpage in project space, for example maybe under WikiProject Albums or something similar. The various WikiProjects have methods of grouping articles for their own maintenance efforts.
 * Make a list in your user space.
 * Find an alternative outlet.
 * Learn about Semantic wiki technology which might someday render Wikipedia's present category system obsolete and allow for extremely flexible, user-selectable article grouping. Maybe someday if semantic wikis catch on, these "one size must fit all" battles about which categories to keep may seem somewhat silly in retrospect.
 * --Teratornis (talk) 01:26, 14 April 2009 (UTC)