Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 February 19

= February 19 =

pearlscale
my pearlscale is not floating upside down or on the top but is very lifeless tody. Anything I can do or what may be causing this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.188.18.97 (talk) 00:46, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you tried the Science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:01, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Seeing edits since last visit or last patrol
Watchlist says
 * If one views the history of a watched page directly, without first viewing the page, the edit at the top (the most recent one) may be marked with update marker "updated (since my last visit)" (or the ); this applies if the edit was made by someone else and you have not viewed the page (while logged in) since it was made.

Exactly what does this look like? I can't detect any difference in a watched page's history and there's no difference at all. I also checked the HTML and it's identical meaning it's not an element hidden by a CSS style. I see the word may is in there though without explanation. Is there anything I can/should do enable this?

While "updated (since my last visit)" will be helpful what I really want is a way to remove pages from the displayed watchlist while still watching them. For example, if I'm watching this help page I'd like to be able to flag it as "I've caught up on recent edits" and that it would vanish entirely from my watchlist, including the edits from yesterday and the day before, until someone makes a new edit. At that point it would reappear. That would allow me to clear the watchlist to a blank slate. I don't visit Wikipedia every hour, or even every day, meaning there may be several days of edits to look over in the articles I'm interested in. I'm aware of patrolling on RecentChanges and that method with the ! would also work if it was done with my watchlist. --Marc Kupper|talk 01:34, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Watchlist redirects to Help:Watching pages. Many Help pages have content copied from meta. The update stuff originates from a copy from meta in 2005.. Village pump (technical)/Archive 39 from May 2008 says that shortly after being enabled on Wikipedia in May 2008 it was disabled again due to problems. I don't know whether anything has changed since then. I have never seen the message. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:22, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you. The village pump thread you referenced was interesting. I updated Help:Watching pages and removed the reference to the history mechanism. --Marc Kupper|talk 02:50, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Are these persons from this site, notable enough for a WP:ATHLETE article?
http://www.philolympicfestival.com/pofgames_sportprofile.asp?pofgames=NATIONAL&teamid=141&teamname=CAGAYAN%20DE%20ORO%20CITY&sportid=29&sportname=WRESTLING

More particluarly, the two Grecias and one Fernandez in the Bronze Medalist section.

People who have competed at the fully professional level of a sport, or a competition of equivalent standing in a non-league sport such as swimming, golf or tennis. People who have competed at the highest amateur level of a sport, usually considered to mean the Olympic Games or World Championships. Angdl (talk) 02:12, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I would say "no" as this is a regional tournament. The athletes involved are not competing at either a fully professional level of a sport or at the highest amateur level of a sport, usually considered to mean the Olympic Games or World Championships. --Marc Kupper|talk 02:23, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * But it says "Olympic" on top of the page. And it's not regional, it's national. You have to take into account that "professional" wrestlers are performers such as Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker. "Amateur" wrestlers aren't amateur in definition, but it means that they are the real deal. They aren't scripted like pro wrestling. So, yes, they have competed at the highest amateur level of a sport, wrestling. And if you thought that it was an "inside the city" match, no it wasn't, it was the Olympic nationals and the city's listed there are only to indicate where they came from. Angdl (talk) 03:15, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * That's still not THE Olympic Games, the worldwide competition; it's just a national competition called the "Philippine Olympics"; not the same thing. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  03:20, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * (edit-conflict and so this overlaps with Orange Mike a little) The specific example criteria for a notable amateur athlete are the Olympic Games or World Championships. Angdl, I agree with you completely that Wikipedia's "notability" system is skewed towards attention getting people and the odds are far more likely that a WWE/WWF entertainment "wrestler" will qualify as "notable" than the most skilled amateur wrestler. In looking at the news archives it appears the Philippine Olympic Festival itself may qualify as notable for Wikipedia and once that is in place you can add tables that list the medal winners in each event for each year. --Marc Kupper|talk 03:37, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I Messed Up the Title of My New Page-How to Change?
I created a new biography page on John yates beall and left the last two names in lower case letters, it should be John Yates Beall. What is the solution? Thanks, Dubyavee (talk) 02:20, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Move the page. Algebraist 02:21, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

How much research should be use as well as the type needed for a wikipedia
How much research should be used as well as the type needed for wikipedia98.214.171.150 (talk) 03:24, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * To write what we consider our best work, a hell of a lot. I think the best answer to your question would be gleaned directly by examining a few of those top notch articles. They are called featured articles and require rigorous research and sourcing using only reliable sources to meet our verification policy. A full list of them is at Featured articles. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:32, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Link refers to incorrect person
The Cost of Living article lists the personnel on this LP. The drummer/percussionist is correctly named Tony Fernandez, but the link takes you to the article on Tony Fernandez the former Major League baseball player. BitterbloggerBitterblogger (talk) 04:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Tony Fernandez the musician does not appear to have an article so I have redlinked him at The Cost of Living (Rick Wakeman album). – ukexpat (talk) 04:14, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Ready To Launch article
Hello there, I just joined Wikipedia. I used to work at congressional quarterly Press, which would subcontract another company. then I left CQ, and I tried to launch my own Press company. So I went back and got help from the same Contractor "Kevla corporation". I decided to write an article about that company. I dont work for it, nor its my buddies', but I guess i didnt have good citations and they deleted it, can anyone take a look and see how I did on the updated article and if its acceptable?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Linkaland/Kevla_Corporation

thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Linkaland (talk • contribs) 04:18, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * If you want to avoid deletion of Kevla corporation, you need to demonstrate the notability of the subject with reliable sources. Please read Wikipedia’s guideline for notability of companies. Only companies that are notable qualify for an article on Wikipedia. Please read also Wikipedia’s guideline for reliable sources. The notability and all other facts in an article must be backed up by references to reliable independent sources. User:Linkaland/Kevla Corporation has the same problems, but since it is in user space, it is not in danger of speedy deletion. Your original article was deleted because it read like an advertisment. —teb728 t c 08:22, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * At the moment the draft in your user space does not indicate why the subject is notable. If it is moved to the main space, it will be speedily deleted under speedy criterion A7. – ukexpat (talk) 16:21, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

to find out a medicine
I am looking for a medicine(cream) which i bought couples years ago. Its indications is "An ldorless and greaseless analgesic rub. Its rub in action pin-points its analgesic action. Provides deep penetraring pain relief to those painful areas without aspirins stomach upset. For temporary relief of minor aches and pains of muscles associated with simple backache. I have old and used one, but the printed name on surface of medicine can not be see clear. The partial name is " .....hricreme,     m Rub". I need to know the name of cream to tell my kid who lives San Jose to get one of it. My email is best regards

shu-leung so —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.230.79.44 (talk) 06:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * [[Image:Pictogram voting delete.svg|20px]] We cannot offer medical advice. Please see the medical disclaimer. Contact your General Practitioner.  C h a m a l  talk 11:39, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I support the above response. Instead of relying on total strangers to guess correctly, you'd be better of contacting your doctor who will know the name if they prescribed it, or your local pharmacist. - Mgm|(talk) 11:49, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

email articles
how can email wikipedia articles? Thanks,

RCB —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rbisesi (talk • contribs) 11:43, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Write an email and include the link. There is no specific email function to send articles to a friend. - Mgm|(talk) 11:51, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * By link, I beleive Mgm means the article's URL. So if you wanted to email this help desk, you'd include the following text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk  in your mail. Best, Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:12, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Shortcut
There is a WikiProject I access frequently that has a rather long name. It is WikiProject Tamagotchi. As a result, when I am entering it in the search box, I often make mistakes, e.g, capitals, spaces etc. Is there a way to add a shortcut to it, like WP:...? 12:38, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Redirect an easier term, perhaps? WP:WT is taken. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:46, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, WP:TAMA should be what you're looking for. Best, TN X Man  12:50, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I just found that. Thanks anyway. 12:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Just for anyone else that was curious, on any page/section where there are shortcut links, you'll see a small box that lists them. For example, at the top of this page, you'll see two shortcuts to this page: WP:HD and WP:HELPDESK. TN X Man  12:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * (e/c x3) I have created a shortcut at WP:TAMA. Most two letter combinations are taken and this name seemed intuitive. If you want something different, simply create a shorcut just like you would an article, then redirect it to the WikiProject, and add it to the project description box at the project page . Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:55, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Cite error
I am attempting to add info to a page and get a cite error that reads Cite error: tags exist, but no  field, then you must have a reference by using. . .   or. I started a discussion at Template talk:Infobox NFLactive. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  17:27, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Mike R (talk) 18:07, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Request for Title
I could not find a descritption undes Corporate Titles for Principal Engineer. I wonder if someone would atempt to create one. Mpraca (talk) 16:47, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure to what you are referring. Are you saying there's no article for the job title "principal engineer"? TN X Man  17:26, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Or maybe that the article Corporate title doesn't list "principal engineer"? Note the general principle strongly followed on Wikipedia that if something needs improvement; if there's a missing article; if something needs to be done, well, what are you waiting for? (but if you do create the article, don't forget to cite to reliable sources which verify the content). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:13, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

How do I add a subject into Wikepedia?
I am an author and one of my books is entitled Career Directioning. How do I get it posted to Wikipedia??

Glenn Druhot —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.245.236.200 (talk • contribs)


 * Short answer, because of your conflict of interest you should make a request at Articles for creation. And when did "direction" become a verb? – ukexpat (talk) 20:07, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Possibly sometime before Buzzword bingo became a sport. --Teratornis (talk) 22:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * And see WP:COI. --Teratornis (talk) 22:05, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Add a Name to "People from Clairton, Pennsylvania" Page
I'm trying to add a name to the page "People from Clairton, Pennsylvania" but can't seem to do it. The name to be added is Ron Lancaster

Here's the information from his bio page on Wikepedia:

Ronald "Ron" Lancaster (October 14, 1938 – September 18, 2008[1]) was one of the pre-eminent quarterbacks of the Canadian Football League during his playing career; after his retirement as a player, he was also coach and general manager in the same league, and a sports announcer for CBC Television. At the time of his death, he was the Senior Director of Football Operations of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He is enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1982), the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1985) and the Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Honour (1985).

Lancaster was born in Fairchance, Pennsylvania but moved to Clairton, Pennsylvania as a young boy. At the time of his death, his mother still resided in Clairton.

Maybe someone can go ahead and add Ron Lancaster to the page mentioned above, rather than just responding here.

--NameThatWorks (talk) 20:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ - I just added the Category:People from Clairton, Pennsylvania (ie ) to the category list at the end of the article. – ukexpat (talk) 20:17, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Deleted edits
Occasionally I check my "Edit and action count" summary on the SQL's Tools page, and I find that my total number of "Deleted edits" is decreasing. I have also found some people have a negative number of deleted edits. Could someone explain all this to me? How does SQL's Tools' deleted edits tally work? kilbad (talk) 20:03, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * You might want to try this at WP:VPT. Algebraist 03:10, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Career Directioning, A Practical Guide for Job Seekers
I am an author and one of my books is entitled Career Directioning, A Practical Guide for Job Seekers, the ISBN number is 978-14257-6643-6 How do I get it posted to Wikipedia??

Glenn Druhot ==


 * Hi there. I'm assuming you're talking about creating an article about your book. If that is the case, you have to be an autoconfirmed user to create it, or you can request it at WP:AFC. If you do decide to create it, please read Your first article and the conflict of interest guidelines. Cheers, Hermione1980 20:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * See my reply to the same question three threads up ↑. – ukexpat (talk) 20:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

How can I add a book title to Wikipedia?
I am an author and one of my books is entitled Career Directioning, A Practical guide for Job SeekersBold text. The ISBN number is 978-1-4257-6643-6. How can I get it listed on Wikipedia? Glenn A. Druhot


 * You can't Wikipedia is NOT a directory.  Teapot  george Talk  20:59, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Please don't keep asking the same question. Your query has been answered above - twice over.   Ka renjc 21:00, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Furthermore, your new username betrays a conflict of interest, which means that if you do create an article on your book under that name, the article is likely to be tagged for deletion as promotional material, unless you can demonstrate clear evidence of the book's notability. I will leave some links on your talkpage that may help you. Ka renjc 21:05, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Not only does it betray a COI, it is also clearly in breach of the user name policy and has been reported to WP:UAA. – ukexpat (talk) 21:46, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Welcome to the friendly world of Wikipedia! As you may be gathering from these brusque replies, Wikipedia is not, for many people, what it initially appears to be. To get a solid understanding of what Wikipedia is about, and how to navigate its numerous pitfalls, while avoiding all the stereotypical beginner mistakes, read the book:
 * Wikipedia - The Missing Manual (the full text is here)
 * --Teratornis (talk) 22:11, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * User name blocked. – ukexpat (talk) 01:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

printing Wiki articles
I can't seem to find anything in your FAQs directly on point, so I'm sending this message seeking -- imploring -- your assistance.

In general, I find Wiki to be an enormously useful, rich and interesting resource -- a resource I often wish had been available a long time ago. I often read Wiki articles on all kinds of subjects, often simply as a valuable adjunct to my own wide-ranging and eclectic interests.

One of my major interests is mathematics although I am not a professional mathematician (in fact, I've been an attorney and an international banker, and I'm in the process of writing an article on some important areas of international banking and finance for submission to Wiki).

With my interest in mathematics, I have found numerous mathematics articles in Wiki extremely useful in my ongoing study of math, and often wish to print out the articles so I can read and study them in detail at my convenience. Moreover, I am trying to write a book on a math topic/subject and find numerous Wiki articles to be comprehnsive, generally well written and enormously helpful, especially as a research tool for the book I'm trying to write.

Over the past few months I have been encountering a problem in printing Wiki articles (and it seems to be an increasing problem since I seem to be encountering it with increasing frequency). Specifically, when I get to an article I'd like to print, I first go to "Print Preview" in the "File" menu. If there seem to be no problems in reviewing the article in "Print Preview," I print the article and end up with the full article without any difficulty. However, over the past few months (and increasingly the case), when previewing an article in "Print Preview," I get one or more (usually more, especially in the longer articles) blank pages in "Print Preview." At first I tried printing the article anyway, hoping that the fu;; article would print and that what I was seeing in "Print Preview" was only some kind of anomoly having to do with "Print Preview."

I soon discovered that such was not the case. Instead I found that if a page showed up blank in "Print Preview," it also did not print and came out (from my printer) as a blank page (and, especially with longer articles (usually 6 or more pages) several pages failed to show up in "Print Preview" and hence failed to print.

Since I do find Wiki articles so interesting, comprehensive, clear and generally easy to follow, informative and emormously helpful, I find this problem in printing specific articles very frustrating. I would be grateful if you might know of anything I might do to be able to print the articles I would like "hard copies" of. If you do have any suggestions, please let me know what they are, or if the problem is on Wiki's end, I'd be grateful if you would let me know when they might be remedied.

Thank you for your assistance.

David Levine Wiki Account Username: i.is.imaginary General e-mail address:
 * It sounds like you are trying to print from the normal article view, which can be problematic. Click the "printable version" link on the left side of the page, under "toolbox". Doing so removes everything except text and images, allowing you to go to File -> Print and print as normal. Xenon54 (talk) 21:24, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * You are not the only one with this problem. This has been reported before, including yesterday; see . This seems to only be a problem in Internet Explorer. I am looking at this issue.


 * I would like to clarify how printing works here. Browsers that support CSS will look for certain stylesheets when you select print. On Wikipedia, these are commonPrint.css (editable by developers) and MediaWiki:Print.css (editable by admins). These stylesheets are the CSS rules for printing. When you select 'printable version' in the toolbox, you are applying these rules to the viewed version; this gives you a print preview and lets you print neatly to a browser that does not support CSS2. So: you do not need to select printable version if you have a modern browser.


 * --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  21:56, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * If no solution to your printing problem materializes, I'd suggest rethinking the need to print. You mentioned that you are trying to print (which we would call "the step") so you can read articles (which we would call "the goal"). There are other ways to reach the goal. I'm trying to think of a situation where printing Wikipedia articles would be the only way to read them. Do you venture frequently into undeveloped locations where there is no electricity? It seems that in most parts of the developed world, widely available mobile computing technologies should allow you to read Wikipedia articles. Reading articles is much less technically demanding than editing the same articles, so there are more options for reading. See WP:EIW. --Teratornis (talk) 00:06, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

To resolve this issue with printing from Internet Explorer 7:
 * Create an account
 * Open your Special:Preferences → Skin → from your currently selected skin, click on Custom CSS and open it for editing
 * Add:
 * Save and bypass you cache using the instructions at the top of your CSS page.


 * Thanks to RockMFR for his help on this. This will get added to Help:Printable once I start updating that page. --—— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  12:31, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

New Article?
How do you start a new topic or subject? MoonRapper (talk) 21:30, 19 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.
 * 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  21:32, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Divine Service Foundation
Why was this article deleted? Divine Service Foundation Thank you, Floyd
 * It was speedily deleted under criteria G11, which is "blatant advertising". All Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view and preferably by someone who isn't involved with the subject. In short, it was deleted because Wikipedia is not a place to advertise a business or organisation. Xenon54 (talk) 21:54, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
 * In other words, Wikipedia deleted it because Wikipedia failed to inform whoever created it of Wikipedia's rules for content, before letting them proceed. Wikipedia's general philosophy seems to be to prefer reactive rather than proactive regulation. I.e., Wikipedia lets anyone do whatever they want, and then we delete whatever they do that isn't what we wanted them to do. Some people might consider this to be the opposite of what a "well-run" organization would do: give new users only as much freedom as they have demonstrated they know how to handle. For example, if you want to operate a motor vehicle, in most parts of the world you have to get some training and pass a test first. Not on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is like the frontier where everyone can do whatever they want - and pay the price, just like pioneers did when they got eaten by grizzly bears. Apparently this approach is working because Wikipedia is the world's fifth most-visited Web property now. If you were involved in creating the article, read WP:WWMPD to learn about your options now. If you want to learn Wikipedia in a systematic way, rather than by costly trial and error, read the book:
 * Wikipedia - The Missing Manual (full text is here)
 * --Teratornis (talk) 00:18, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

help on paragraphs
i have tried to submit a new paragraph into the section of area 51 the game 2005 on wikipedia and suceeded but when i do a blue box appears around my article and the words streach out longer. i have used the tutorial but this is no help. and in my message box it says it has been deleated by wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgrgrgrgrobertgordon (talk • contribs)
 * That is because you have an indent out from the left. Place the text as far left as it will go. BigDunc  Talk 21:59, 19 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I fixed it above as well... – ukexpat (talk) 22:12, 19 February 2009 (UTC)