Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 February 10

= February 10 =

What happened to the search suggestion?
When you used to type in something in the search bar, suggestions would come up. Now when I type something it seems like the suggestions box is gone...what happened? --Smuckers It has to be good|undefined 22:35, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Turned off to conserve server resources. See WP:VPT. Algebraist 22:37, 9 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks [[Image:Smiley.svg|12px]]
 * It's back on now. Algebraist 01:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Helen Thomas page
Why is there a series of foul words and bad language at the beginning of that site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.60.216.157 (talk) 02:14, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * There has been a lot of edits to Helen Thomas in the last hour. Maybe they included vandalism but I don't see it currently. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:29, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

I have a question about the style of typing/writing
It has come to me attention, as I've browsed through your articles, that the style changes from one article to the next, and even within the same article. My main concern is the use of italics - should punctuation of a phrase in italics be also italic; for example, lemme make up a sentence:

The four words that his speech was based on were: hope, progress, love, and morals.

Now, you see - I personally didn't use italics for the commas nor the period (full stop for the British), but someone may very well do so and I've seen it, in which case it'd look as follows:

The four words that his speech was based on were: hope, progress, love, and morals.

I am willing to do some clean-up, so I'd like to know which of these Wikipedia prefers; and any other guidelines about style of writing that you'd give me would be nice. Thanks a lot! --71.190.93.6 (talk) 02:18, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm quite sure that you could find something about formatting and italics in the Wikipedia Manual of Style or it's subpages. Calvin 1998 (t·c) 02:23, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * (ec)Our manual of style says that punctuation should be italicized if it is included in the thing being italicized, but not otherwise. Thus in your example, it is the four individual words that are being italicized (to show they are being mentioned, not used), and so the punctuation should not be in italics. If, on the other hand, one were italicizing the title of a book, then any punctuation in that title should be in italics. Algebraist 02:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.232.59.157 (talk) 20:09, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

CafePress?
When I was first active in 2005, I ran across a link to purchase Wikipedia/Wikimedia merchandise through CafePress. A portion of the proceeds was donated to the WMF. Does that link still exist, and if so, could someone kindly point me to it? Thanks, Hermione1980 02:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * http://www.cafepress dot com/wikipedia (the link is blacklisted, alas) Algebraist 02:31, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, thanks. :-) Hermione1980 02:34, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you! links to it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * We blacklist a site which donates to the Foundation and which the Foundation points people at? That's clever. DuncanHill (talk) 05:59, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm guessing it's blacklisted because of people advertising their stores, not because of the company itself.  Matt  (  Talk  )   06:34, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Editing issue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_anniversary

The page there says you can get a presidential greeting for any anniversary above a certain number, but the reference cited is dead, and I cannot find anything like it on the current White House page. I'm not really an editor, I've never done it before, and i can't find a way to either remove the link or get rid of the sentence as it appears in the intro section. Can someone please fix it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.118.139 (talk) 04:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * For the moment I have flagged it with dead link. – ukexpat (talk) 05:00, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Degree symbol
How do I type a degree symbol on Wikipedia? DuncanHill (talk) 05:58, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * There's probably an altcode for it, but the symbol is °. The Manual of Style usually has the answer to a formatting question you might have. Regards,  Matt  (  Talk  )   06:30, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * It's also on the code box underneath the edit box. Directly under the 'Do not copy text from other websites' blurb under the Save page buttons you should see the code box with insert selected in a drop down box and then clickable symbols of ' – — … ‘ “ ’ ” ° ″ ′ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · §   '. Nanonic (talk) 06:33, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, 1) I know what the symbol is, I didn't ask that, and 2) no it isn't in the symbol drop down.~ | ¡ ¿ † ‡ ↔ ↑ ↓ • ¶  # ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ∞   ‘ “ ’ ” «»   ¤ ₳ ฿ ₵ ¢ ₡ ₢ $ ₫ ₯ € ₠ ₣ ƒ ₴ ₭ ₤ ℳ ₥ ₦ № ₧ ₰ £ ៛ ₨ ₪ DuncanHill (talk) 06:35, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry, in case i wasn't clear, it's on the "Insert" selection. Nanonic (talk) 06:38, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, that makes sense, thanks! °°°°°°°°° I should have known that Wikipedia wouldn't put a symbol in a section called symbols! DuncanHill (talk) 06:42, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Policy on profanity/racial slurs on talk pages
I came across recent changes to this talk page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:62.242.40.38

The editor (ip address) had added racial slurs to their own page. My first instinct was to roll it back, bit I didn't know the policy for what you could do on your own talk page. While I find it offensive, I am unsure how much leeway a person has on their own "turf." Any clarification of the rules will be much appreciated. Monkey Bounce (talk) 07:55, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Unless profanity is relevant to an article and can specifically be cited as being said by a person relevant to that article, it has no place here. Editors in particular shouldn't resort to such language, regardless of its location. Anon has been temp-blocked. - Mgm|(talk) 09:06, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the clarification. Monkey Bounce (talk) 09:21, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Scores on the doors
I have added some new content, but the old version is repeated above the updated article.

How do I remove the old version?

The article is called Scores on the Doors.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Phiscoe (talk • contribs) 08:50, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * It looks like you figured it out yourself. - 131.211.211.169 (talk) 08:59, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Merge two articles about same topic
Hello, I already suggested this proposal but I didn’t get any answer. There are two articles CITY College ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITY_College ) and CITY College, Affiliated Institution of Sheffield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CITY_College,_Affiliated_Institution_of_the_University_of_Sheffield ) and they both concern the same topic. The original name is CITY College, Affiliated Institution of Sheffield, and these two pages need to be merged under that title (for more details you can check www.city.academic.gr). I tried to propose this but nothing happen. I would like to update the content of that article and add valid information about CITY College, Affiliated Institution of Thessaloniki. Can you please help me with this issue? Many thanks in advance —Preceding unsigned comment added by Floropoulou (talk • contribs) 09:41, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * If you didn't get any response, it's probably an uncontroversial merge. Weave the material from the wrong-titled article in the correctly-titled one (with an edit summary that tells where the merge is coming from) and when you're done, redirect the now empty entry to the correctly spelled one. - Mgm|(talk) 12:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Chandigarh Monument.JPG
A Certain International organization wanted to use the Chandigarh Monument.JPG, in a one of their publication. We are kindly asking if you could provide the information on the copyright holder. In this case the person who took the photo and copyrighted it. Thank you11:50, 10 February 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.9.197.126 (talk)
 * The copyright information is on its page at the Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chandigarh_Monument.jpg (that's the closest match to the file name you gave). "This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one." The person who made the photograph is Ravjot Singh. - Mgm|(talk) 12:48, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

How do I change the image on a page?
I work for the British Olympic Association and would like to add the Team GB logo as the image, to replace the generic Union Flag, on the Team GB page. How do I do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wilkinsonp (talk • contribs) 12:31, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * You go to the bar on the left side and click "Upload file". An extensive help page on how to upload the images and how to put them on articles is at Uploading images. -0 Mgm|(talk) 12:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The article is part of the NATION at the Olympics series of articles. All of these articles have the IOC recognised flag as the main article image. The Team GB logo could be added as a secondary image. However you should take note of the Conflict of interest notification on your talk page before further editing articles related to Team GB and the BOA. Regards, Yboy83 (talk) 12:46, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

editing talk page insert box
My question is, why does the insert box sometimes have a click-to-add function and sometimes one must cut-and-paste? It can switch from one to the other even when I use the "show preview button". I have only edited talk pages thus far, so I've only seen it there, I would like it to be consistent with one or the other.66.41.44.102 (talk) 13:52, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * This might be a javascript problem with you browser. What browser are you using? If it has a mechanism for reporting javascript errors, is it reporting any? Algebraist 13:57, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

All I know is, I was using the same browser when I first started using Wikipedia, and it was click-to-add. Then one day, it switched to what it is now, without any real changes to my browser.66.41.44.102 (talk) 03:03, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

create an entry
How can I create an entry?

Please let me know....

Natasha —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nleithsmith (talk • contribs) 16:23, 10 February 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. TN X Man  16:46, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Help with Bio
Hi, y'all. My name is Aidan A. Kelly. I do have a Ph.D. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. That and $1.25 will get me on a streetcar here in New Orleans. My problem is that there are false and in fact libelous statements about me in two articles that discuss my work. I have tried three times just to edit these, and each time have had what I did simply reverted. Please help with this. I am a writer, not a techie, and I cannot figure out how your system here works. I realize y'all are volunteers, and that this is a labor of love, but just in the interests of accuracy, please help with this. I can be contacted directly offlist, and I can provide documentation from well-known scholars to validate my concrns about these issues. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.230.226.128 (talk) 17:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * This and this are the edits in question. Put your thoughts on the articles in their talk pages, not the articles. Queenie   Talk  18:05, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, and please read WP:COI, which deals with editing an article about something connected with you. There is a fine line between neutrality and bias when editing an article about yourself. Queenie   Talk  18:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And WP:AUTO....given his claims that there's libellious content, even though it's not a bio, WP:BLP's principles are still at work aren't they?Skookum1 (talk) 19:32, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, I see no problem with the edits he made EXCEPT that he left rather threatening comments after making them. See WP:DOLT.  I think its perfectly OK to remove the material he removed per WP:BLP, HOWEVER, the OP needs to take care in assuming the good faith of others and remaining civil.  --Jayron32. talk . contribs  20:18, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Difference Between
what is the diference between between mission and objective? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Satya prakash sahoo (talk • contribs) 18:54, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Good question. I suggest you look at this Wiktionary entry and this one. TN X Man  18:58, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Speaking extemporaneously, I'd suggest it's like the difference between strategy and tactics. An "objective" might represent one's overall goal, and a "mission" might be one specific set of actions to (hopefully) attain the objective. See describe the goal, not the step. A common error when asking for help with a problem is to describe only the step one is getting stuck on, without explaining what goal the step is aiming for. Sometimes the stuck person has not chosen the best path to the goal, but without knowledge of the goal, people who try to help cannot address the real problem, which was the incorrect choice of path. It's too bad that learning to understand and maintain the distinction between goals and paths is not part of everyone's compulsory education. Also see Accident (philosophy), Essence, and No Silver Bullet. --Teratornis (talk) 22:22, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

How do I start an article when there is already an article of the same name?
I would like to start an article on George Robson - professional rugby player - but there is already some Canadian rally driver of the same name. How do I make an article for my George Robson? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Henrycowen1991 (talk • contribs) 19:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Use George Robson (rugby player). Adding a parantheses explanation is called a dab, short for disambiguation.Skookum1 (talk) 19:29, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I see that's alraedy blue-linked; if the English player George Robson isn't who you mean, and he's Canadian, you could use George Robson (Canadian rugby player) as a further disambiguation.Skookum1 (talk) 19:31, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Where to report minor technical glitches in Wikipedia pages?
Where is the appropriate place to report a minor technical glitch in a Wikipedia page? Two examples of what I have in mind: (i) an odd string of code displaying on existing article page that didn't seem to relate to anything that I could see on the edit page; (ii) a couple of related category pages that weren't displaying properly. (These particular problems have been resolved, so I'm asking for future reference.) Thank you.--Arxiloxos (talk) 20:03, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Here or WP:VPT. Algebraist 20:06, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Two possibilities: It could be that the page did not load properly, and if you just reload the page and it goes away, then there's nothing to report. Teh intrewebzz are like that some time. The other posibility is that the text of the article has been scrambled by a bad edit. There's no need to report this anywhere, its something you can fix yourself if you wish, though I suppose you could always bring it up somewhere like the editor assistance request desk if you need help fixing the specific problem. If you pull up the history tab on an article, you can often pin down the problematic edit, and undo it. --Jayron32. talk . contribs 20:13, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

hi kinda newbie/ clicking link wont bring up a page to edit
Hi...i managed to edit the main page of a article about my band...King Of The Slums..that went ok...however last night i tried to click on a link for one of the albums, The Orphaned Files, and started to write a tracklisting etc the add a foto of front cover, but it got deleted for being short i think but it wasnt...anyway i keep trying now to click on the link for the, i think its called, internal link, but no page appears that i can edit or add info to...all i want to do is add the same info for this album as appears wen i click on the other albums listed...any help please..thank you. 20:57, 10 February 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jgnewyork (talk • contribs)
 * You can see what you have edited by checking your contributions. You have edited an article called King of the Slums (note that article titles are case-sensitive). --Teratornis (talk) 22:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * A great book for new Wikipedia users is Wikipedia - The Missing Manual. The author was generous enough to license the book freely and donate the contents to Wikipedia, so you can read it online for free at WP:TMM. Reading the first few chapters should give you a solid idea of how to do what you are trying to do. --Teratornis (talk) 22:10, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I've also warned this editor about COI, based on the phrase "a article about my band". -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  00:25, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

program crash
I INSERTED CODE QQEWAN BUT PROGRAM CRASHED AND I CANNOT REINSTAL IT. THIS FOR PORTABLE EDITION.I AM USING WINDOWS XP. OTHER 2 DOWNLOADS INSSTALLED OK PHIL PRZYGODA AUSTRALIA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.3.141.29 (talk) 21:11, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 2.7 million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free 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 that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:38, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

User vandalising "Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan" entry
Hi,

A user with IP 66.99.218.13 is constantly vandalising the entry for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan by inserting text stating that it is a homosexual organisation. Additionally, this user is vanadalising the external links from this entry.

Please could you put a block on this user from editing articles.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.86.146.136 (talk) 21:22, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I have given a vandalism warning. See Vandalism. The IP address had no prior warnings and that's usually required before blocking. I also reverted some edits. I cannot read but based on the editing pattern I suspect it is also vandalism. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:35, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Blacklisted User name from creation
How do I un-blacklist a user name that is my corporate business name? I would like to set up a new account under my corporate name, but it is blacklisted. 97.67.44.194 (talk) 21:35, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The reason it's blacklisted is that you're not really supposed to do that. Have you read WP:Username policy? Algebraist 21:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And it probably got blacklisted because someone already did it. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  02:41, 11 February 2009 (UTC)