Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 December 5

= December 5 =

Patrolled
So I've been using WP for several years, but I keep running across this term "marked as patrolled" both on WP and in Huggle, but I can't find any information about what that is or how it's used. -- Kraftlos  (Talk | Contrib) 21:23, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * New pages patrol May help. Essentially, as a confirmed user if you are looking at Special:NewPages you can click the "mark this page" link which means that you feel it is acceptable in the face of it, and does not fall under a criteria for speedy deletion. The yellow higlighted items in Special:NewPages have not been patrolled, the others have. Does that help? Pedro : Chat  21:32, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's what I wanted to know! ^_^  -- Kraftlos  (Talk | Contrib) 01:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * When I look at unpatrolled pages, I do one of three things: if it is suitable for a speedy deletion, or a proposal for deletion, I will do that; if it is missing references, etc, I add any suitable tags; if I think I can improve it, I will - then I mark it as patrolled. Actually there is a 4th option: if I'm not sure which one of those 3 is applicable, I just leave it! --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 07:45, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia edit stats
Does anyone know of any statistics on the number of Wikipedia edits (per day, or whatever), stretching back over the past several years? 86.134.9.78 (talk) 23:12, 4 December 2009 (UTC).


 * There are per month statistics for the English Wikipedia at http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/ChartsWikipediaEN.htm#3. Statistics has links to various statistics. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:19, 4 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Fantastic ... thanks PH. 86.134.46.130 (talk) 01:10, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

How to download and use a labeled image map
Where can I find information that will explain how to download and use a Wikipedia labeled image map? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.162.76.88 (talk) 01:18, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * mw:Extension:ImageMap, and linked pages. Intelligent  sium  02:52, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Days of the year RSS feed
How can I get an RSS feed for the individual 'Days of the year'? I have been looking for a good online almanac. This format is ideal:

* 1 Events * 2 Births * 3 Deaths * 4 Holidays and observances * 5 External links

¡Gracias! GBH —Preceding unsigned comment added by Genesee.gbh (talk • contribs) 02:43, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You can find that information by typing in any day of the year (e.g. 5 December) in the search box to the left. Unfortunately, it is outside the domain of this help desk to help you find something outside of Wikipedia, as this page specifically deals with questions about Wikipedia itself. Wikipedia does not provide the type of RSS feed you are looking for, so the next step is to ask this at the Reference desk, where volunteers are reading and willing to answer just about any question you can throw at them that doesn't have to do with Wikipedia. Xenon54 / talk / 03:13, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

linking new account (username) to old edits done under anon. IP address
I just created an account for myself, but have made about ten minor edits in the past anonymously under my IP address. Is there a way for my new username to show up on those past edits? Lynn Maury (talk) 03:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * It was possible, but the page fell inactive in early 2005 and I guess the feature was eventually disabled, because it hasn't been restarted since then. Sorry. What you could do is create a userpage and write on it to the effect of "I made X edits as IP.ADD.RES.SS" just to let any interested parties know. If the edits were very minor, though, it probably isn't worth it. Xenon54 / talk / 03:13, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The page was at Changing attribution for an edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If you only made around 10 edits under your IP address I wouldn't worry about it too much. Rjwilmsi  20:11, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Auto archiving your user talk page
Can someone please point me to a page which explains how to set up auto archival of your user talk page? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 03:35, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * 2 bots are currently in service for that purpose: MiszaBot III and ClueBot III. Directions are on the userpage of whichever one you pick. If you're having trouble deciding: MiszaBot runs once a day at a specific (but undisclosed) time. Conversely, ClueBot runs continuously, as far as I know. Xenon54 / talk / 03:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Questions Comments to ensure Publication
As the owner/writer of the new submission, I have attempted to delete the Facebook link for our Windy City Blues Society (Chicago), even though I don't feel thi is a violation as it is our Facebook Page link. I am hopeful that the Page will now be published with or without the link without further "quick deletion" action from me. I am also hoping that I do not need to add links to help it become non-orphaned, but please advise. I also did not understand where to put hangon

BlackJack7861b (talk) 14:23, 5 December 2009 (UTC)BlackJack for Windy City Blues Society
 * The problem isn't the facebook link - it is the fact that the page is a direct copy from a website! It is also overtly promotional, it is not written in a neutral point of view - and those are just what I see from a quick glance at the article. I cannot find any significant coverage in the media (a Google News Search had 3 hits, all of which basically said "the Windy City Blues Society put on xyz event"). I cannot see anything to show that this society meets Wikipedia's Notability guidelines let alone Wikipedia's notability guidelines for organisations. --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 14:50, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Author Page Publication
Hi. I'm a new author and would like a Wikipedia page. People who have read my book have posted to try to get a Wiki page, but it's never been published. Can you please tell me why and what has to be done to get one?

Thank you Melissa Foster —Preceding unsigned comment added by WriterFoster (talk • contribs) 15:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia's principal criterion for inclusion is notability, further described for people here. I suspect, and no disrespect is intended, that you are not notable as Wikipedia defines it. Please also take a look at WP:COI and WP:AUTO. – ukexpat (talk) 16:04, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Further to ukexpat's answer, as you have described yourself as a new author, I also suspect that you would not meet Wikipedia's criteria. The places that I tend to look at are Google Scholar (no hits about you); Google Books (which has one hit which I believe is related to you - assuming that you are the author of 'Megan's Way') and Google News (none of which appear to be about you).
 * Megan's Way was only published in July this year, so I think it is too early to be considered a 'notable' (as Wikipedia defines it) author! Regards, --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 16:16, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * A suggested article at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Melissa Foster was declined for lacking reputable third-party sources. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:12, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

By the way, this site is called Wikipedia, not wiki. A wiki is any website using wiki software; there are thousands of them.

Ojay123 (Talk&bull;E-Mail&bull;Contribs&bull;Sandbox)(Respond on my talk page! 01:27, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Windy City Blues Society
Please undelete the page. I have removed Facebook link (which I believe should be allowed) so there should be no reason it is still deleted, and please see my other messages relating to this. Thank you. BlackJack (editor/creator/writer of page and Windy City Blues Society executive committee member) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.38.68 (talk) 18:56, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Nope. That was a copyright-violating advertisement for a non-notable organization, and thus fell under three categories for instant deletion. Since you have such a blatant conflict of interest, you should never have created the article in the first place; a fourth problem. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  19:15, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The facebook link was not in particular a problem - there were two main problems with the article - firstly, it was advertising/promotion (which is not what Wikipedia is for); secondly, it was a direct copy from a copyrighted website. --  Phantom Steve / talk &#124; contribs \ 19:18, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Problem with refreshing Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Old
Articles for deletion/Old is refreshed by mathbot with the refresh link on that page. I just did that, and the bot removed at least one link to a discussion that has not been closed - Articles for deletion/Waka Flocka Flame. Any idea what's wrong? Is there a better place to turn to with such problems? &mdash; Sebastian 19:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


 * At the time of Mathbot's edit Articles for deletion/Waka Flocka Flame had been relisted on December 5.. Mathbot probably saw it was not transcluded on Articles for deletion/Log/2009 November 27 so it seems correct to remove it from November 27. If it seems a bot is doing something wrong then the first step should usually be to look for contact information for the bot operator on the user page or user talk page of the bot. User:Mathbot and User talk:Mathbot refer comments to User talk:Oleg Alexandrov. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:47, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Unwanted bold-face in wikipedia table, bug?
The first table in List_of_National_Treasures_of_Japan_(paintings) has entries which appear in boldface even though they should not be in bold-face. Also the table code does not contain any markup which would make it bold face as far as i can see. Bold-face seems to appear in cells which have dark background and don't have a "rowspan" (don't cover more than one row). How do I get rid of the bold-face?bamse (talk) 21:21, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Nevermind. I found my mistake (using ! instead of |). bamse (talk) 22:12, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Annoying bug
This may be a long shot, but I'm wondering if anyone who has any influence in such matters could press for a long-standing bug (and, for me, regular irritant) in Wikipedia's "diff" generation to be fixed. This is a typical example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nonsuch_Palace&action=historysubmit&diff=328327302&oldid=283689391

You can see that several paragraphs that are identical or substantially identical are flagged as completely different, due to the software getting confused for some reason that I do not fully understand. I believe this is logged as a known issue, and has been for some time, but is seen as low priority and appears unlikely to ever be fixed without a prod from someone. If there is a more appropriate place for me to post this request then please let me know. 86.146.46.190 (talk) 21:58, 5 December 2009 (UTC).
 * Yes, it is known. One of the Village Pump sites, probably technical is the best place to discuss it further.-- SPhilbrick  T  22:15, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I'll move this thread there. 86.146.46.190 (talk) 22:45, 5 December 2009 (UTC).

Search bar
how do i clear my search bar?66.25.32.17 (talk) 23:09, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I assume you are referring to the search bar located in your browser. General knowledge questions relating to computer issues are the territory of the Computing reference desk; this page is for questions directly relating to Wikipedia. Xenon54 / talk / 23:14, 5 December 2009 (UTC)