Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 December 24

= December 24 =

2 articles on the same thing
Hi, I was just wondering what I ought to do (Delete, Speedy delete, re-direct, merge, etc.). There's two articles about the Leinster Junior Schools Cup. What should be done with the inferior Leinster Junior Cup article about the same thing? Backbeatlistener (talk) 01:20, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You could take it through the formal process of requesting a merger, or because this is not likely to be a high-traffic article, you could "be bold" and combine the facts into a single article under whichever is the better "common name", and redirect from the other one. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:24, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If there is any information in Leinster Junior Cup that is not in Leinster Schools Junior Cup, then merge the content and then redirect. If there's nothing worth merging, then just redirect.  --Mysdaao talk 01:26, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Having trouble with a custom signature...
I have been trying to make my signature using this code: Ham  tech  person. It should come out like this: Ham  tech  person. However, when I put it in my signature box and click the check box to make this be my signature, I get an error message telling me to check the HTML tags. What is the problem? Using a basic HTML page with the text leaving the wiki-links out, but the HTML code is not modified, works fine. Hamtechperson (talk) 02:22, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Use quotation marks around the color code: . PrimeHunter (talk) 02:54, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Just a note, the light green is very hard to read on a white background. You may want to consider a darker color. TN X Man  14:51, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

JS on talk page
Is there any way to import a js file (say something like user:btilm/replace.js) to a page so that the script will run on the page whenever someone visits it? Btilm Happy Holidays! 04:06, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not aware of anything like this (of course, that doesn't mean its not possible) - as a rule, js files are for inclusion in people's monobook(etc).js files. They import it by adding the line . In your case, a "replace" tab will be added to the screen if the script is in the user's skin js file. --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 14:01, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Cannot Setup the WIkiFIlter to Work with either Apache or IIS in sevrer 2008
i followed the instrucstion below exactly and nothing seems to happen i even tried IIS but no luck.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.229.217.95 (talk) 04:10, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Start downloading a Wikipedia database dump file such as an English Wikipedia dump. It is best to use a download manager such as GetRight so you can resume downloading the file even if your computer crashes or is shut down during the download.
 * 2) Download XAMPPLITE from [2] (you must get the 1.5.0 version for it to work). Make sure to pick the file whose filename ends with .exe
 * 3) Install/extract it to C:\XAMPPLITE.
 * 4) Download WikiFilter 2.3 from this site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/wikifilter. You will have a choice of files to download, so make sure that you pick the 2.3 version. Extract it to C:\WIKIFILTER.
 * 5) Copy the WikiFilter.so into your C:\XAMPPLITE\apache\modules folder.
 * 6) Edit your C:\xampplite\apache\conf\httpd.conf file, and add the following line:
 * 7) * LoadModule WikiFilter_module "C:/XAMPPLITE/apache/modules/WikiFilter.so"
 * 8) When your Wikipedia file has finished downloading, uncompress it into your C:\WIKIFILTER folder. (I used WinRAR http://www.rarlab.com/ demo version - BitZipper http://www.bitzipper.com/winrar.html works well too.)
 * 9) Run WikiFilter (WikiIndex.exe), and go to your C:\WIKIFILTER folder, and drag and drop the XML file into the window, click Load, then Start.
 * 10) After it finishes, exit the window, and go to your C:\XAMPPLITE folder. Run the setup_xampp.bat file to configure xampp.
 * 11) When you finish with that, run the Xampp-Control.exe file, and start apache.
 * 12) Browse to http://localhost/wiki and see if it works
 * 13) * If it doesn't work, see the forums.
 * I would follow the final bit of advice: If it doesn't work, see the forums --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 14:11, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Medieval Warming Period
Why are contributors unable to provide the historical graph for this period in time? Rather than the graph that has been proven to inaccurately portray this period? —Preceding unsigned comment added by GrandePrairie (talk • contribs) 07:04, 24 December 2009 (UTC)


 * The proper place to discuss this is on the talk page of the relevant article (presumably Global warming or Global warming controversy): this is the Help Desk, for questions about using Wikipedia.
 * It sounds as if you are arguing against widely-held views: that is perfectly acceptable, but be aware that exceptional claims require exceptional sources. You need to explain on the talk page exactly what you think is wrong, not just make sweeping statement about people being "unable to provide the ... graph"; and present extremely solid, reliable references for your claim that the given graph has been "proven to inaccurately portray". --ColinFine (talk) 08:18, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Signature blues
Hi, I'm a bit new to wikipedia and I would like to create a signature. I would be much obliged if somebody could help me with this. Thank you in advance. Rock drum (talk) 13:50, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I assume that you have read WP:CUSTOMSIG? If you still have questions, I'd suggest leaving them at Wikipedia_talk:Signatures --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 14:13, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Download article titles
Hi, is there any way to download a plain text file of all English Wikipedia article titles (titles only), including all the redirect pages if possible? 81.152.168.149 (talk) 14:29, 24 December 2009 (UTC).
 * DUMP mentions all_titles_in_ns0.gz - I'm assuming that includes redirects, but I can't guarantee it! (the 'latest' version at wikimedia.org is 37.7Mb compressed, 133Mb uncompressed - it is complete to 2009-Nov-29 00:57:31 --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 14:33, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks Steve. 81.152.168.149 (talk) 14:43, 24 December 2009 (UTC).

Text quality
i'm currently viewing wikipedia on wii (non mobile) and i think text quality has degraded. why is this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.230.147.170 (talk) 15:17, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

How to publish my Page?
I am the editor of ARThood and want to publish my Page. I "saved" the Page (which I understood would make the information public to everyone), but the information is still not visible. Please help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by ARThood (talk • contribs) 15:42, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You have put the information on a user page, which is not an article. Since you don't have the ability to move pages until your account is autoconfirmed, you can create an article with the content with the article wizard.  However, the content on User:ARThood/ARThood is probably not acceptable on Wikipedia because it looks to be about a non-notable website.  You will have to add reliable sources to show notability.  Please read Notability (web) for more information on this.  Also, your username indicates you are associated with the website.  In that case, you are strongly discouraged from creating the article at all because it is a conflict of interest.  --Mysdaao talk 15:55, 24 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Also, for the same reason, your username probably contravenes User name policy. --ColinFine (talk) 16:55, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Uploading new images?
I uploaded a new, cropped image to Mike Kafka, and the old one keeps showing up instead. I don't know if it's Wikipedia or my computer.  Eagles   24/7  (C)  17:20, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Sometimes it takes a while for images to update on all pages on which they are displayed. Try purging the page cache, purging the image cache, and waiting an hour. I think the image has updated now, anyway. Intelligent  sium  17:26, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Still hasn't been updated (at least not for me) and I'm not sure how to purge everything.  Eagles   24/7  (C)  17:30, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * First, try bypassing your cache. If this does not work, Purge explains purging. --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 17:32, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, it worked now after I bypassed my cache.  Eagles   24/7  (C)  17:35, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

How to remove redirect while keeping sandbox?
I just moved an article into the mainspace, but the move left a redirect at User:Giants2008/Sandbox. I could just mark the entire page for deletion, but I would prefer to leave the sandbox intact as a functional page for future article building. How do I get rid of this redirect while leaving the sandbox functional? Is this something that I can do, or will admin help be required?  Giants2008  ( 27 and counting ) 17:53, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You can remove the redirect syntax, and the sandbox will still be there, though you will probably have to subst: it into the mainspace if you don't want a confusing initial edit. Intelligent  sium  18:02, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * In that case, what would be the formatting for subst?  Giants2008  ( 27 and counting ) 18:05, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Never mind. I just removed the syntax and added a user sandbox template, and everything appears to be in order. Didn't know that I could remove that myself.  Giants2008  ( 27 and counting ) 18:09, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You can also type db-userreq if you want any page in your userspace deleted. An admin will come along shortly and delete it.  -- Jayron  32  18:11, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If you want a new article to be moved into the mainspace from your userspace (without a first edit saying "moved x to y"), you can put  on a page, and the contents of the Sandbox will be copypasted to that page. As you should be the only contributor to the Sandbox draft, attribution will not be a problem, I think.  Intelligent  sium  18:12, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Attribution was what I was worried about at first. Will keep that in mind for the next time I build up a page.  Giants2008  ( 27 and counting ) 18:19, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Virginia College
kind of an fyi there was a college in virginia years ago also called virginia college. my mom graduated from there about 1924 or 25 it apparently disbanded at some point thought it might be interesting for readers to know i don't have too many more facts for you - sorry —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.182.44.135 (talk) 18:18, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you for this! The Virginia College mentions nothing of this (which is why you mentioned it here!) but unfortunately we need some verification of the facts - as I'm sure you can appreciate, we can't just have "My mom told me" as a source of information! Without more information, I'm afraid that we can't really create a new article. Perhaps you could ask your mom to look at this list of Virginia Colleges that have Closed, Merged, Changed Names and see if any of them ring a bell: I suspect that the name was not exactly "Virginia College". Regards, --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 18:43, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

aashrama jeevitham
i would like to spend my lwhole life in an ashramam, which means not by doing any work but i need the aashramam in tamilnadu and its village? pls dont need any other advice or comments`Gowriraj.nair (talk) 20:03, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. --Mysdaao talk 20:13, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

template for tagging disputes of licenses?
File:Nicholas Blake.JPG is tagged as self-made; I think it's a screenshot or something, but I don't know exactly what since I'm not the creator. Is there a template to tag such things for review? Pseudomonas(talk) 23:10, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Blatant copyvio; . Screenshots are by default copyrighted. Tagged. Intelligent  sium  23:51, 24 December 2009 (UTC)