Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 December 19

= December 19 =

2 Grammar / Wiki questions

 * 1) How should it be written: "The Secret" or "The Secret" ?
 * 2) How should it be written: ...this is mentioned in a newspaper article / poem called "Is Wikipedia an Encyclopedia," which was written by a critic. OR ...this is mentioned in a newspaper article / poem called "Is Wikipedia an Encyclopedia", which was written by a critic.
 * Thanks, C Teng [talk] 01:57, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * For the first, I think your second example is easier to understand. It makes no difference to the displayed result, but the underlying Wiki-code is a little easier to read. btw I enclosed both of your examples in tags, so that the difference could be seen.
 * For the second, the answer is at WP:LQ in the manual of style; the second is correct. --AndrewHowse (talk) 02:09, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * There actually is a difference to the display in the first question: "The Secret" or "The Secret". In the second case the quotation marks are part of the link and they shouldn't be, so use the first option. That is what citation templates do. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:49, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Modify entry name
Hi, I'd like to know how do I proceed to modify the entry name of an article I've created. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ikematsu (talk • contribs) 04:51, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You don't have enough edits to do it yourself. How do you want the name changed? (Or do you actually want to move it into article space and out of your sandbox?) -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  05:01, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Oh, boy. You're right, I was thinking my article was posted outside of the sandbox. Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ikematsu (talk • contribs) 07:07, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

age template with iso date
I am trying to calculate a time (in years) between two given dates that are in iso format (1938-04-22). I want to be able to type and have the reader see "64". The dates themselves are being brought as a variable from template, so it will actally look like this. (perhaps is even better for general use?) Is there such a template? Part of the problem is I am having difficulty including pipes in my variables - hyphens are much more friendly. I am loathe to have variable for each the year, month, and day of each dates as variables, but I am aware that is an option. Jrkenti (talk) 06:16, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm poor at templates but I have created Age-iso which appears to work. It uses mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions to convert dates so several date formats are accepted. produces . It calls date which gives the same: 63 produces 63. You say you want "64". Does that mean you only want year2-year1 without considering the month and date? That is simpler. You can do:  . PrimeHunter (talk) 16:56, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Templates mentioning "iso" in a date related template should
 * not be written by anyone who has not read the ISO 8601 standard (the standard, not the 'Wikipedia article''
 * document the acceptable input range of the template
 * vomit ugly error messages unless 1583 <= year <= 9999.


 * The writer of the template should figure out how he/she is going to communicate to users that they must only use the Gregorian calendar, never the Julian calendar.


 * Templates that fail to do this should be promptly deleted before they become too entrenched to delete. --Jc3s5h (talk) 17:08, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, I have deleted the template. The date code in it is here if Jrkenti wants to use it for a given purpose:


 * PrimeHunter (talk) 17:28, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much, I have spent most of my morning reading time templates to find things like and have created something similar to what you made. Thank you very much for helping out with this.Jrkenti (talk) 17:23, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * PrimeHunter, why did you delete it? It works great, and it seems like it would put out the right error messages.  I wanted to use it!  (I also wanted to make another that calculated the age in days.  Must it really be deleted?Jrkenti (talk) 17:34, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If there was some "noinclude" text explaining Jc3s5h's concerns would that be sufficient to bring the template back to life? Jrkenti (talk) 17:42, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe under a name without "iso" in it, but I will just leave the code here and let others decide if they want to use it for something. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:48, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I created and  but I do not know how to add meaningful documentation, so they have none.  Any help? Jrkenti (talk) 18:05, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Book stores query
'''Sir, I would like to know thw contact addresses of Book Stores selling Bengali books in United States of America.I mean complete mailing, contact address, phone numbers, e-mail id's,websites if any. Any positive and swift response from your end shall be highly appreciated. I am forwarding my mail id. for your benevolent pursual; Regards - sujan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.208.194 (talk) 06:53, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

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]. -- Phantom Steve /talk &#124;contribs \ 14:09, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. -- Phantom Steve /talk &#124;contribs \ 14:09, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Changing Passwords
Once you've created a user account in Wikipedia and given it a password, is it possible to change that password? If so, then how do you change that password?

Bowei Huang (talk) 22:40, 20 December 2009 (UTC)


 * When you're logged in, click "my preferences" in the upper right corner. Dismas |(talk) 07:08, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If you've forgotten it and listed an email address, you can have it reset. Otherwise, you're out of luck. -- B figura  (talk) 07:43, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Box with broken blue lines
I tried to edit the Tuli Kupferberg article with a paragraph containing information I received from Tuli himself. He asked me to make this edit as the misinformation is dangerously misleading to the public. It conveys the romantic notion that one can jump off a bridge and not be hurt by it. I entered the paragraph and all that was published after I clicked "Save" was part of the first sentence I wrote with box around it made up of small broken blue lines.

"The above paragraph is a poetic fiction by Anne Waldman and Ted Berrigan and did not really occur" is the sentence that appears in typewriter type larger than the rest of the type/

How can I get the entire paragraph published on the page as I wrote it?

Thanks , lightning49 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lightning49 (talk • contribs) 15:21, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

This happens when a line starts with leading spaces like this one.
 * I removed leading spaces in your post here. The whole text of a long line with leading spaces can still be read by scrolling to the right in your browser but that is not the intended use of leading spaces. Note that Verifiability and Reliable sources require published verifiable sources to Wikipedia's content. If something is dangerously misleading but there is no published source explaining this then the best solution may be to remove the misleading text instead of explaining it with use of a non-public source such as personal communication with the subject. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:36, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I've fixed the formatting problem for your submission (and removed some repetition in it). But there is a problem with the material you've added, because in Wikipedia's terms it is original research. I'm not sure how best to handle this, and have opened a discussion on the article's talk page. --ColinFine (talk) 17:02, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Joining and/or editing
You have got a major factual error in your article abour Lord Monckton. It says he is not a member of the British House of Lords. He is. There is NO edit tab at the top of the page. There is no way to correct this mistake. I have tried over and over again either to log in to my old account or to create a new one. Your system will not let me do so. It throttles every attempt. It won't e-mail me my old password, It won't allow me to select a new username or password. It blocks everything. It seems designed only to waste people's tiome and circulate unreliable information. WILL YOU PLEASE STOP RUNNING IT THIS WAY. I think you are doing a lot of harm by circulating misinformation and then preventing people from editing it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.110.36.92 (talk) 16:13, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well if you do things like this, then people become rather distrustful of you. Why not post a link to a government or newspaper source or something that clarifies that he IS a member of the House of Lords ? You can add the link with an explanation to the talk page of the article. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 16:34, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * He is not included in http://www.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/mps_and_lords/alphabetical_list_of_members.cfm. The article Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is semi-protected so it can only be edited by autoconfirmed users. As TheDJ says, if you have a reliable source saying he is a member then you can post it to the talk page. If you have forgotten your password and the account has not stored an email address where you can receive mails then you have to create another account with another username. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:13, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I'd personally have a hard time accepting the word of another source beyond the one that PrimeHunter posted. Is there reason to believe that the official UK Parliament website itself would be wrong on this matter?!?  -- Jayron  32  01:28, 20 December 2009 (UTC)


 * This is a well-known climate change denial meme which circulates widely on the Web. The origin is evidently a fraudulent claim by Lord Monckton himself. It's been debunked numerous times. See for example this article by George Monbiot. --Teratornis (talk) 05:18, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

barnstar
Is there a way that barnstars can be created? I thought of one that I was sure was already made, but couldn't find it on the list. Paper fork  ♠ 17:11, 19 December 2009 (UTC)


 * The upper right box at Barnstars has links to more pages with awards. The discussion tab redirects to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikipedia Awards where you can ask a question or post a suggestion. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:17, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * (e/c) Sure, but it is restricted by its nature to people with skills at image manipulation/creation which might or might not be you. You can take one of the existing barnstar images such as File:Original Barnstar.png, tweak it, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons (instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up)), then post your suggestion for its inclusion (in Barnstar) and purpose at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wikipedia Awards. If all of that sounds impossible, you can suggest someone else create it at the talk page I just linked or there may be other relevant places. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:24, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

template
If I type, for example,, a navagation box pops up because it is a template. How do I make the article show up? Is there a template so I won't have to put &lt;tt&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;(text)&lt;/nowiki&gt;&lt;/tt&gt; every time I want to show something in plain text? Thank you. Btilm 19:40, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I find some ambiguity in your question when you ask how to make the "article show up". So let me cover the matters I think might be involved. If you want to link to the template, rather than having it come up, you can type Wikipedia which formats as Wikipedia (tl stands for template link) or you can link to the template's name: Template:Wikipedia. If you want to link to the article about this site you can type Wikipedia which formats as Wikipedia. If you want to transclude the article content that is at Wikipedia by treating it as a template, see below.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:09, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Just add a colon before Wikipedia.  Intelligent  sium  22:27, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

Reading articles on Blackberry
Untill recently, I had not problem reading all but the longest Wikipedia artciles on my Blackberry. Now, even the shortest article or even the search page retruns an error that it is too too big to laod. I haven't added software and have free memory in excess of 4 mg. Has omething changed on your end? Suggestions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.113.7.99 (talk) 20:31, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Is this using the mobile version of the webpage ? And what model blackberry do you have (One with WAP1 or with WAP2/full HTML) —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 22:38, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

thanks. I didn't know there was a mobile version. oddly, the non-mobile version worked well until two weeks ago. Now if mobile Google would bring up mobile wikipedia, all would be perfect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.113.7.99 (talk) 15:16, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

Image on Commons with name needed for template
File:Map of Kosovo-Pomoravlje District.PNG is currently available on Commons as File:KPM19.png. I was going to delete the local image until I realised that it's used in Infobox Serbian district at Kosovo-Pomoravlje District. That template automatically links to a map, using the following code:     It looks to me as if the template would be unable to display this map if it's under any other name at all. Do we have a template saying "Don't delete this image, even though it's on Commons, because it needs to have this specific name"? Or would you recommend that I reupload it at Commons and try to have File:KPM19.png deleted there as a duplicate? Nyttend (talk) 20:35, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Can't you just change the template? Or if it is used on a lot of pages like this, add an image redirect.  Intelligent  sium  22:28, 19 December 2009 (UTC)