Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 August 14

= August 14 =

I was given the following advice as to how to improve my page Kerry Hallam
"dyk ref is No 4 and its in the lede. Do change hook as required". What does this mean and how do I do it? If anyone wants to do it for me that is fine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rage707 (talk • contribs) 00:14, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * dyk is Did You Know. See Did you know for background. An article you substantially improved, Kerry Hallam, has been proposed for a DYK, but someone thinks the proposed "hook" should be better worded. Look here : Template talk:Did you know (and search for Kerry) to see the proposed "hook". As the substantive editor, you are being informed, as you might be in a good position to suggest better wording for the hook. Actual DYK articles are selected from the proposed. -- SPhilbrick  T  00:45, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * (edit conflict) You can ask the editor who made the comment at User talk:Victuallers if you want to be sure. It was also Victuallers who nominated it at Template talk:Did you know. It looks to me like it's not advice and it's not asking for changes. "dyk ref is No 4 and its in the lede" means that the reference for the suggested DYK statement (which is called the "hook" at DYK) is the 4th reference (at the time of the comment ) and is placed in the lead section. There is nothing wrong with that. I guess "Do change hook as required" is unrelated to the first sentence. Victuallers who wrote the suggested hook is just saying that other editors can modify the suggestion if they want. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:50, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Title mistake
I have entered a spelling mistake in the title when creating a new page, How can I correct it?Tyroneshills (talk) 02:56, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I have moved Daryl simpson to Daryl Simpson. I guess you refer to this. Your acount is not autoconfirmed yet so you cannot move pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:10, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

dropdown section?
i have a sectin in an article that i'm creating that seems a little long. Can someone help me turn it into a drop down list? the page is User:Tim1357/sandbox/An Empress And The Warriors--Tim1357 (talk) 03:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Every film article I have seen lists only the first billed cast. See WikiProject Films/Style guidelines for more info. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 03:43, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

iPhone App for Watchlist
Does anyone know of an iPhone App that can view a user's watchlist? Cheers. Grover cleveland (talk) 03:38, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't suppose navigating to Special:Watchlist with Safari will do the trick? You may also want to ask at the computing reference desk. &mdash; QuantumEleven 09:10, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

"Current user" display
Is there a template or magic word I can use that will make the name of the current user display?  • S • C  • A • R  • C • E •   03:53, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * No. Why do you want to do this? The desired result may be achievable in other ways. Algebraist 03:57, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * For a message on a user's talk page? I think you're talking about . There are more at mw:Help:Magic words.   hmwith  t   04:08, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

will show the name of the current user when transcluded. See User talk:Gadget850/Editnotice. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 12:54, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * That's interesting. On the editnotice page itself, is doing what it should (display the username of the user who edited the page most recently), but on your usertalk edit screen, it displays the name of the editing user. Is this some special quirk of editnotices, or something else? Algebraist 13:14, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * displays the user name of the last user to edit the page, currently Amalthea for User talk:Gadget850/Editnotice. It is not changed by a purge or null edit. If you preview then it displays you. If you are editing a page where it's in the editnotice such as User talk:Gadget850 then it also displays you. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:20, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * That is why I noted "when transcluded." Neat little quirk. Might be nice to have this in a template for ease of use. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 13:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * . Is that your name? For me it's displaying my name when I was not the last person to edit the page  • S • C  • A • R  • C • E •   15:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * As PrimeHunter explained above, when you preview from the edit page, it displays you. When you saw it display your name, you were previewing. When you saved your edit, it still displayed your name because you were the last editor. If you had canceled your edit, it would have reverted to last editor to save. —teb728 t c 20:50, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Do we have a template page for an article that is primarily based on primary soures?
A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 04:13, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * primary sources. Algebraist 04:15, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Are externak links to blogs allowed?
I saw an article Influencer marketing a user added an external link to a blog I removed it as per WP:ELNO when I checked the article most of the links provided were to blogs ,Are they allowed in out here ?Should I remove all the links (to blogs).I'm a bit more cautious than usual because Admins have given me the rollback right I do not want to abuse it Thankyou--Notedgrant (talk) 05:40, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You can be bold and remove any links that you think violate WP:ELNO as a normal edit. Rollback is only for reverting blatant vandalism; but you couldn't use it in this case anyway, and no one is going to remove your rollback ability because of an edit that didn't involve the use of that feature. Deor (talk) 11:58, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Thankyou--Notedgrant (talk) 13:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Signature appearance
Is it allowed to have your signature, not even barely relate to your username?  • S • C  • A • R  • C • E •   05:49, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The guideline is at WP:SIG. Scanning through it, I don’t notice anything on point to your question. It is hard to talk about hypotheticals: If this is something you want to do, what specifically do you want to do and why? If this is something you have seen, what specifically did you see? Otherwise, IMHO it is not worth thinking about. —teb728 t c 07:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Its not forbidden. In fact I know of several administrators who's signatures have nothing to do with their usernames, but its not generally a good idea. Icewedge (talk) 08:08, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's not worth the confusion. It's less effort to get a username change. (Which is not recommended in your case as you just had one.) Xenon54 (talk) 13:20, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * "While not an absolute requirement, it is common practice for a signature to resemble to some degree the user name it represents." (from WP:CUSTOMSIG). However, "If your username or signature is unnecessarily confusing, editors may request that you change it." (from WP:U).  hmwith  t   14:37, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Illegal link
someone keeps putting an illegal link on my page

how can i stop them —Preceding unsigned comment added by Creatiev (talk • contribs) 09:49, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * If you mean the speedy deletion template, you shouldn't remove them if you created the page yourself. Placing one is not illegal, it's perfectly allowed if the page meets a speedy deletion criteria. If the page is not eligible for speedy deletion it won't be deleted. Kotiwalo (talk) 09:54, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * If you want to oppose deletion, you should add a hangon tag on the page. But if you keep removing the speedy deletion template, you will be blocked from editing and will not be able to do even that. —teb728 t c 10:03, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not your page just because you created it and it may be about you. See Ownership of articles. It was deleted as a copyright violation of something you maybe also wrote. The copyright problem might be solved by following Donating copyrighted materials, but the article had other big problems. If you are the subject then see Autobiography. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

deleting account
dear Sir/Madam, i started a bit too fast and had created an account in the name of my organization (very wrong i realised). Now i realised it must be deleted. And as advised in the FAQ, i created my own account where i'll ask independant editors if they would consider enter an article about my organisation. I know Wikipedia is definitely not a vanity press, etc. but its name goes around a lot and i think there should be a place on Wikipedia that gives objective neutral info about it. But now, i think i must delete the account in the name of the organisation. How can i do it? you said on 12/08 that one cannote delete accounts but change username. This would not alter the conflict of interest issue though? thanks for your help, marie-hélène cussac - Generation Europe FoundationMhcussac (talk) 13:24, 14 August 2009 (UTC) Mhcussac (talk) 13:24, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Accounts can't be deleted and don't need to be. Just don't use the old account. Algebraist 13:29, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Bonjour! To expand on what Algebraist said, there are two issues to be considered: the first was your previous username (which, as per Username policy, must not represent a company or an organisation), which you've solved by registering a new one. Whilst the old user name will still exist, as long as you don't use it to edit, there's no problem. The second are the edits you make, irrespective of your user name - as you've correctly said, at Wikipedia we frown on vanity and non-neutral language, so as long as your edits stay within the boundaries of what is accceptable then everything is all right.
 * I realise that understanding what is appropriate and what is not appropriate on Wikipedia can be tricky if you're just starting out, so if you have any questions, feel free to post here or leave me a message on my talk page. If you want to edit a rough draft and get comments on it before making it "live", you can do so at a user subpage (for instance, User:Mhcussac/draft). Good luck! &mdash; QuantumEleven 14:11, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

How do I add my own links to the sidebar
I am using the monobook skin. Arlen22 (talk) 14:35, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Anyone know how I can add links to the sidebar that show up when I am logged in. Arlen22 (talk) 16:35, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * What would you like to add? --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 16:36, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * A welcome user link in the community toolbox section. Arlen22 (talk) 17:45, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * What code do I use to add a link? Arlen22 (talk) 19:55, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Securing content rights protection
Wiki officials:

Is there a classification/distinction that an editor can earn to to protect content from being changed on my employers Wiki page, a public university? If so, what are the proper procedures to arrange this right/distinction? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.164.121.43 (talk) 15:06, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * No. See WP:BFAQ —SpaceFlight89 15:19, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Further to SpaceFlight89, when articles are posted, it is done under the Creative Commons licenses, which means that anyone can copy it (subject to attributing it), modify it or anything else. Also, if it's on a university's wiki page - the whole point of a wiki is that it is a collaborative piece of work, so apart from monitoring it and undoing any vandalism, there's nothing else that can be done. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 15:38, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Since you work for the university, and since you want to control its article, it appears you have a conflict of interest with regard to its article; so you probably shouldn't be editing it at all. —teb728 t c 20:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You can make suggestions on the talk page at Talk:Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:30, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Starting a brand new page
How do I do it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by African2 (talk • contribs) 15:17, 14 August 2009 (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. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 15:25, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Incidently, your idea for an article about Gift sex would probably not be considered notable enough for wikipedia (going by your draft mistakenly put on Help talk:User contributions). May I suggest that you create a user page to work on it (for example User:African2/Gift sex. That way it may not get deleted very quickly, whereas I think that if you created it normally, it would be. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 15:29, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Further, your draft appears to have been a copy from the RichardDawkins.net forum post, which was about the only reference that I could find to Gift sex on a quick google search (ignoring things like Gift, sex, gift - sex, gift: sex, etc.). I'm not positive, but I have a feeling that RichardDawkins has an agreement when you post to the forum that anything on there becomes copyright RichardDawkins.net, which means it couldn't be used here anyway. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 15:33, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I received a strange email in Croatian from WikiAdmin??!
I received a strange email from the WikiAdmin, pls can someone explain what this email is about and why I am receiving this in Croatian language??!! Is someone hacking my account?

Email received from 2009/8/14 WikiAdmin :

Bthomeldh,

stranicu na Wikipediji s naslovom Razgovor sa suradnikom:Bthomeldh je dana 14:35, 14. kolovoza 2009. stvorio suradnik SpeedyBot, pogledajte http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razgovor_sa_suradnikom:Bthomeldh za trenutačnu inačicu.

Ovo je nova stranica.

Sažetak urednika: dobrodošlica

Možete se javiti uredniku: mail: http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posebno:Elektroni%C4%8Dka_po%C5%A1ta/SpeedyBot wiki: http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suradnik:SpeedyBot

Do vašeg ponovnog posjeta stranici nećete dobivati daljnja izviješća. Postavke za izvješćivanje možete resetirati na svom popisu praćenja.

Vaš sustav izvješćivanja - hrvatska Wikipedija.

-- Za promjene svog popisa praćenja posjetite http://hr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Posebno:Watchlist&edit=yes

Za pomoć posjetite: http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomo%C4%87:Contents ELD 16:00, 14 August 2009 (UTC) (feeling very puzzled; I am a English, Swedish, Chinese wikipedia user and not Croatian) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bthomeldh (talk • contribs)


 * I think it's telling you that you have a new message on your talk page on the Croatian wikipedia (it's just a standard welcome template). DuncanHill (talk) 16:05, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I see your account is unified. What this looks like is: you probably clicked a link somewhere that led to the Croatian Wikipedia. Since you're a SUL account, an account on that wiki was created automatically when you landed on that page, and there appears to be a bot running there that welcomes new accounts as they are created. This bot left a welcome message on your page there, as well as emailing you. Arakunem Talk 16:15, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Strange email
Mikespedia,

07:47, 1 серпня 2009 сторінка проекту «Вікіпедія» Обговорення користувача:Mikespedia була створено користувачем Turzh, див. http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B1%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%83%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0:Mikespedia, щоб переглянути поточну версію.

Це нова сторінка.

A Ukrainian message was sent to me from wiki@wikimedia.org. It says

Короткий опис змін: Створена сторінка: Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on, or ask your question on this page and then place  before the question. Again, welcome! --Mikespedia (talk) 16:15, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * Tutorial
 * How to edit a page
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

Звернутися до користувача, що редагував: ел. пошта: http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%86%D1%96%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%B0:EmailUser/Turzh вікі: http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%83%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%87:Turzh

Не буде подальшого сповіщення в разі нових змін, якщо Ви не відвідуєте цю сторінку. Ви могли також повторно встановити прапори сповіщення для всіх сторінок у вашому списку спостереження.

Система сповіщення Вікіпедії

-- Змінити налаштування вашого списку спостереження можна на http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%86%D1%96%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%B0:Watchlist/edit

Зворотний зв'язок та допомога: http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B4%D0%BA%D0%B0:%D0%97%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%81%D1%82

What is it doing in my email?--Mikespedia (talk) 16:15, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * This is the exact same question as the one above. Your account is probably unified, and you accidentally clicked on a link to uk.wikipedia. Xenon54 (talk) 16:22, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * (ec)Did you just make a global/SUL account? If so, somebody on that Wiki might have noticed a new account and posted a message to your talk page on the at wiki---which, depending on the wiki's settings, might have generated an automatic email to your registered email account.--- Balloonman  NO! I'm Spartacus! 16:23, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * August 1, by the looks of it. Arakunem Talk 16:26, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

hiding minor edits for user contributions
Hello, I'd like to see all my edits, but not the ones I've marked as minor. Is there a way to do that with the wikimedia software, or has someone written a tool to do that? thanks, WhiteDragon (talk) 16:46, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You can change it in the Watchlist tab of your Preferences.  hmwith  t   17:53, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I was going to write that just after WhiteDragon posted his question - but that's not what is required... the OP wants a list of edits (as in Special:Contributions/WhiteDragon) but without the minor edits showing. I'm not sure if there is a way to do that. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 18:02, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Ohh, fail. I misunderstood. Sorry, WhiteDragon. I agree with PhantomSteve then. I don't think there is a way.  hmwith  t   23:34, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Changing Title of an Article
Hello, As an employee of the University of Colorado Department of Theatre & Dance, I have been given the assignment to update our Wikipedia page previously created by a student. This student however, did not use the correct name in the title. The current title is "Colorado University Theatre and Dance." It should read "University of Colorado at Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance." Since my account is new, it appears I do not have the right clearance to make such a change. Is there a way to do this? Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Marcuseturner (talk • contribs) 20:34, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I have moved the page, as the title is shown on the official website. There is work to be done on the article, but as an employee of the University, you have a potential conflict of interest. Should you consider working on the article, I would suggest that you read the COI guidelines linked to, as well as Neutral Point of View Guidelines. It might also be an idea, should you do any work on it, to place a note on the article's discussion page declaring your affiliation. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 20:53, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * (e/c)University of Colorado at Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance seems rather promotional. And I suspect any not-promotional part should be merged into University of Colorado at Boulder. Ordinarily university departments are not notable enough to have their own page. —teb728 t c 20:57, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I have removed some of the worst parts of promotional wording, and if others want to look to see how it could be improved further, then please do! I tend to agree with teb728, that this should be merged with the main Univ of Col article. Especially since none of the faculty have an article on wikipedia, and only a few of their 'guest' lecturers (or however they phrased it) have articles. I don't really think that this department is notable enough in their own right to justify their own article. --  Phantom Steve  ( Contact Me, My Contribs ) 21:25, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Broken Links
There are tags on this page, but the references will not show without a < references/ > tag. Could someone PLEASE kix the broken links in my article? Also, can you please post HOW to fix and where i messed up? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinique --99.231.196.195 (talk) 23:13, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I added a References section with a reflist template to make the references appear. The Clinique article has other problems, though. Please see WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, WP:CITET, WP:OWN, WP:COI, and WP:LAYOUT. --Teratornis (talk) 23:18, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * To see what I changed, check this diff. See Help:Page history and Help:Diff. --Teratornis (talk) 23:20, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The big blue "Cite error" part of the message is a link to Help:Cite errors. I think I got the link working in all but one of those messages. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:12, 15 August 2009 (UTC)