Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 October 16

= October 16 =

someone using my username?
Vandalism is shown on Pele done by "Makana Chai." Has someone hijacked my name? What should I do? I've looked around WP policies incl. user names and don't see this. Thanks for your help. Makana Chai (talk) 00:09, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Where is such a claim made? I don't see it. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  00:17, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The article in question is Pele (deity). Arakunem Talk 00:22, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It looks like on October 3, an IP added a nonsensical paragraph to the article. On October 9, another IP removed that paragraph with no edit summary. Makana Chai reverted that edit (I assume because it was an unexplained removal of content). As this edit restored bad information into the article, User:Rkmlai reverted Makana Chai. Nothing sinister here, just looks like a misunderstanding.
 * Unless of course you didn't make any edits to Pele (deity), in which case there's another problem, as those 2 edits did come from your account. Arakunem Talk 00:31, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I think you're a bit confused. You might be concerned because the automatic TWedit summary is "Reverted 1 edit by 145.64.134.246 identified as vandalism to last revision by Makana Chai. (TW)". It is not Makana Chai that has vandalized, but Makana Chai to whose edit the script is reverting. Cheers,  Intelligent  sium  review 00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * That revert restored a bad rev though: . So the next edit may have been seen as reverting vandalism by MC. Arakunem Talk 00:37, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not an expert on Hawaiian mythology but this edit by Makana Chai certainly looks like it is restoring vandalism and falsely accusing 145.64.134.246 of vandalism both in the edit summary and then at User talk:145.64.134.246. I guess Makana Chai simply made an honest mistake. The best of us make them sometimes. I think you should apologise at User talk:145.64.134.246. You can change password at Special:Preferences if you are worried that your account may have been used by somebody else. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:47, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * That's the point. I didn't do this. Makana Chai (talk) 04:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It's weird. I deleted the language that it says I put in. User talk:145.64.134.246 is the one who put it in originally. Makana Chai (talk) 04:50, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

A WP friend looked at this and said I reverted back twice. He removed my warning from the wrong user. Sorry. Makana Chai (talk) 08:42, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

id user
hi there, I want to copy some articles in wikipedia and I need to put a footnote about the source (writer of that articles) but I just got their username, how can I get their real name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.164.206.253 (talk) 00:30, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * You don't. You don't need to cite the contributor, only Wikipedia itself.  Intelligent  sium  review 00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * In each article, on the list of links on the left of the page, is a link for "Cite this page" which will tell you exactly how the article should be cited. Arakunem Talk 00:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * See more at Citing Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:06, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I's hates parser functions
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm trying to de-Americanize a template by making it not always display 'Mile', but to give the user the option of selecting 'Kilometre'

The template at hand is Template:Jcttop, which contains the line

 !Mile 

Which I've changed to an if statement... I think.

 {{#if:{{{km|}}}|{{{!}} class="wikitable"|!Mile|{{{!}} 

This works fine and dandy for current pages, as it will not do anything until I put km=yes as a parameter in the template call. Once I put it in, all hell breaks loose and the table completely messes up.

For a substituted example, check my sandbox

Any help would be much appreciated! -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  00:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It seems at a glance that this template is only transcluded onto roads in the United States, which these guidelines cover. As I believe "miles" are widely used in the USA, this would probably be the correct unit.  Intelligent  sium  {{sup|review}} 00:39, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but roads exist outside of the United States, where miles are never widely used.
 * I'm trying to allow the template to have kilometers, but only when it is overridden to do so (So as not to change the many American road articles that currently use it). -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  00:49, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Are you using an extra brace in {{!}}, or is it supposed to be {{{!}} ?  Intelligent  sium  {{sup|review}} 00:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Its three before and two after. Doesn't make sense to me (especially since there's one missing closing bracket), but removing it messes it up even more. On top of that, I copied that line from the same template. -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  01:23, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, I see, it's supposed to produce {{{!}}. Hmm, I'll get back to you.  Intelligent  sium  {{sup|review}} 01:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think its to keep the pipes in: {{!}} class="wikitable"|!Mile{{{length_ref|}}}
 * from messing up the if function -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ ¢  01:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Now try it.  Intelligent  sium  {{sup|review}} 01:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * By the way, I've added a {{{unit}}} parameter, so you have to specify if your unit is km; default should be miles, if I did my parsing right.  Intelligent  sium  {{sup|review}} 01:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Works for me now. Thank you a bunch. I still hate this wikilanguage, its impossible to read and interpret. -  ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ  τ <sub style="color:#3AAA3A;">¢  03:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Unreadability results from trying to use a non-procedural markup language as a programming language. Templates with intricate syntax are doing all sorts of things the original inventors of wikitext probably did not anticipate. As a general rule, when people push a computer system far beyond its original specification, the result becomes uglier than a system designed from the ground up to do the fancy new things. However, we could make template programming easier if we had an integrated development environment for it. A template debugger would be nice, for example. It would also be nice to have an annotating template parser - that is, a program that could read a template's code, parse it like MediaWiki does, and then instead of rendering it into HTML, render it into an English description of what the template is doing, like a skilled template programmer could do if he felt like explaining his work to another human (such impulses tend to be rare among programmers). Such a tool would be useful, for example, if the resulting description did not match your intent. You could see how the computer was interpreting your code differently than what you thought you were saying. --Teratornis (talk) 18:40, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Transclusion question
Is it possible only to transclude one of the DYK, or one of the OTD? I think it would be interesting to put on my userpage. <font style="font-family:Monotype Corsiva"> Intelligent  sium  review 00:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * DYK for DYKs of the day. Not sure for OTD though.  Zoo Fari  02:15, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I meant only one; doesn't work. <font style="font-family:Monotype Corsiva"> Intelligent  sium  review 02:28, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

E-mail address
I ALREADY HAVE A USER PAGE UNDER THE NAME ZUBAIR HASAN FOR URDU POETRY. I NOW DO NOT REMEMBER MY PASSWORD AND I AM NOT GETTING NEW PASSWORD VIKIPEDIA IS SENDING ME BECAUSE MY E-MAIL ADDRESS WITH THEM IS DEFUNCT BECAUSE I HAVE LEFT MY OLD EMPLOYER IIUM AND JOINED INCEIF SINCE JULY 2008. MY NEW PASSWORD MAY PLEASE BE SENT ON PROF. DR. ZUBAIR HASAN THANKS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.184.53.66 (talk) 02:05, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * If you cannot access your email address, I'm afraid there is no way to recover you password. The password emailing is automated, and it can be sent only to the email address you have registered with your account. That address cannot be changed by anyone else. The best thing is to create a new user account and use that. ≈ Chamal talk ¤ 02:08, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Infobox
Hi, I'm trying to copy some of the content in the Infobox from the English page Formosan Mountain Dog to its corresponding Chinese page. However as I find out that apparently the English language Dogbreed template is different from the Chinese one so that some whatchumacallit -- tags? -- like maleweight, femaleheight do not show up in the Chinese page. Where do I go about asking someone to modify the Infobox template or how do I go about doing that myself if possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Huggie (talk • contribs) 03:42, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd say for now just leave those parts of template out; incorporate the info into the article if it should be in there. Translation has info on translation but I assume you already know that. Is there an equivalent of Pages needing translation into English on the Chinese site?--RDBury (talk) 12:44, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Using the "ref name" syntax for "#tag:ref" notes
Hi, for this version of the list of Holden vehicles by series, I have utilised the syntax to create footnotes. However, some of these notes are repeated twice, and when the list is complete, many of these notes will be repeated multiple times.

Basically, is it possible to use something similar to the tag as used by citations?

If grouping identical footnotes is not possible using the syntax, is there another style that will allow for this? I would like to have the references and footnotes in separte sections, and I would also like the footnotes to remain distinguished from the references like the are now ( [note 1] as opposed to [1] ). OSX (talk • contributions) 03:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I am not familiar with the method of citation but I can give you an alternate: Cref2 use with Cnote2 and I'm providing you a working demonstration in this sentence.. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * ==Notes==

As I can see,  is simply a convenience wrapper for.
 * See also this: defining two named references, one with  and the other with   ; recalling both with   and then with.

<dl><dl><dd> </dl></dl></dd>
 * -- <tt>Codicorumus</tt> &laquo; msg 14:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you both: List of Holden vehicles by series. OSX (talk • contributions) 15:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Untitled
I heard Paris was known to be the largest massive grave sight there is about 200 years or more ago is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tamra40 (talk • contribs) 04:28, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Have you tried the humanities 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.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:09, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

How to turn off?
I don't like seeing the "This user is blocked, here is the block details for reference" message that you get when looking at a blocked user's contributions. How can I disable that message? <em style="font-family:Courier New;color:red">jc <em style="font-family:Courier New;color:green">iindyysgvxc  (my contributions) 06:00, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't think you can; it's there for a reason, and that's to notify other users that the user in question is blocked. OSX (talk • contributions) 06:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * You can turn all log-excerpt boxes in the Special namespace light gray by inserting the code below into your monobook.css. If you use another skin, you can find redlinks to the corresponding stylesheet in your preferences (under Appearance). The block log boxes look less intrusive when they are gray. This change will only affect your account, and only when you are logged in.

body.ns-special div.mw-warning-with-logexcerpt { border-color: #aaa; background: #f9f9f9; }


 * Use the code below instead to turn them and all other possible log-excerpt boxes in the Special namespace completely off. There might be other log boxes than block log boxes of interest in the Special namespace, and since they are hidden too, this may not be the ideal choice. I have not discovered any other ones in the Special namespace (to which the Special:Contributions page belongs), but I don't know if there exist more.

body.ns-special div.mw-warning-with-logexcerpt { display: none; }


 * Iceblock (talk) 09:49, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Source: Email interview
I emailed an artist (Michal Karcz) about his work and his response has information I want to include in an article. How can I source this, especially since it's coming directly from him and the information isn't published anywhere online?

It's important to mention that I may be incorrect in my intentions here. There is no article on the artist or his work, but I was hoping to go into some detail (not overly so) on his artwork used as album covers since they integrate with the music closely.

In general, is there a guideline to source email interviews since I tend to contact artists directly for information I can't locate anywhere else? – Κεραυνοσκώπηα (talk) 09:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Unpublished emails are not allowed sources. Information in Wikipedia must first have been published by a verifiable reliable source. Somebody once created Cite email but it was deleted at Templates for deletion/Log/2007 April 19 on my nomination. See also Biographies of living persons. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:18, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Excellent, I figured this was the case, and I appreciate your timely response. The deletion log is an interesting read as well.  I can only hope someday the artist will expand his own website with the information I'd requested.  Thanks! Κεραυνοσκώπηα (talk) 10:55, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Remember, though, that a subject's own website is often not considered a reliable source for information. (People lie on the Interwebz? Who knew?) -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  14:27, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And also I may be doing original research if I follow through. I won't include the information. Κεραυνοσκώπηα (talk) 06:07, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Templates
{{hidden|Long discussion|headerstyle=background:#ccccff|content=

Hello,

How do you make a template for say

so it will do onlyinclude on certian sections so you do not need to do this

so meaning the template can be changed if you decide you want different element and oyu dnt have to go through the entire page changing it, i need ot make a similar template for episode list but i assume the process owuld be the same. the guidelines on how ot make templates is vague or how for me to understand due to my reading diffucluties if i can see a example of how it done i can reproduce it myself easily

thanks-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 11:16, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I changed &lt;nowiki> to &lt;pre> so this shows in a more friendly manner. If I understand this, you want to show only certain rows in certain articles. The best way is to make the rows as sub-templates and call them as needed. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  {{sup|talk}} 11:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thankfs for fixing it so it can be viewed easier. :) Basically yes that whjat i want to do but i dnt understand hwo you do the sub template, the instructions as vague and hard to understand for me is there some sor tof example i can view so i can understand hwo to do it? i fidnit easier ot understand for reall examples than basic example-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 12:57, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

OK. Let's call your template {{UK Channels}}. We split the table into chunks:

Call the table header {{UK Channels/start}} :

{| class="toccolours sortable" border="1" cellpadding="3" style="border-collapse:collapse; font-size: 90%; text-align:center" width="100%" ! width="5%"| EPG No. ! width="25%"| Channel Name ! width="20%"| Notes ! width="20%"| Owner/parent company ! width="10%"| Broadcast hours ! width="10%"| Encryption/Package ! width="10%"| Format

Then make each channel a sub-template, call this {{UK Channels/101}}
 * 101
 * BBC One
 * Including regional variants.
 * BBC
 * 24 Hours
 * bgcolor=tan| Free-to-air
 * 16:9 SDTV
 * 16:9 SDTV

And {{UK Channels/102}} | 24 Hours
 * 102
 * BBC Two
 * Including regional variants. < /onlyinclude>
 * BBC
 * BBC
 * bgcolor=tan| Free-to-air
 * 16:9 SDTV

And so forth. To put it all together, use:

{{UK Channels/start}} {{UK Channels/101}} {{UK Channels/102}} {{UK Channels/104}} {{end}}

Where you add any of the defined channel sub-templates. {{tl|end}} is an existing template to end a table. Ensure you document the template at {{UK Channels}} using {{tl|documentation}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  {{sup|talk}} 16:16, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok should i would need ot make a tempalte for each item? i thought it might be possibel to make one liek this

|
 * < /onlyinclude>
 * < /onlyinclude>
 * < /onlyinclude>
 * < /onlyinclude>

and when ever data is enter and the data transcluded to the otehr article only what is avaialble within the onlyinclude part of the template would go over, otherwise i the template would need ot be edited if the content is changed.by the way thans for this i udnerstand this far simpler than the whats on the example-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 16:44, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * There is a example of what i mean List of Naruto: Shippuden episodes and it copies data from List of Naruto: Shippuden episodes (season 1) but it does not have the episode summaries copied across but the season article only has onlyincuide used once so i am guessing this a is a template that is doign that? and it sometihn similar i want to do-- Andrewcrawford ( talk  -  contrib ) 16:44, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

OK- See {{tl|Japanese episode list}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  {{sup|talk}} 17:30, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

}}

Images of illegal acts
Is this allowed? and if not what is the policy on acceptable imagery? Nicholas.tan (talk) 04:00, 19 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is not censored so if an image complies with the non-free use guidelines, it should be OK. – ukexpat (talk) 20:43, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Duplicate tag
If someone creates an article giving information which is already contained in an existing article then which tag should be used? Would it be a speedy deletion tag, a merge tag, or what? Dr Dec (Talk)   13:25, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * It depends on the circumstances, for example whether the new article has a new subject which may deserve its own article. In some cases the new title can simply be redirected to the old one. Do you have a specific case in mind? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, but someone else has already redirected it as you said. It was the article Foundations of the Spanish kingdoms. But we already have excellent article on Spain and the History of Spain. Both of which contain all of the content of the Foundations of the Spanish kingdoms article, and to a much higher standard. I didn't want to redirect because that is more or less just deleting the article (but with the option of undoing it). I wanted some discussion and consensus before I took such bold action. Although, seeing as another editor replaced the article with a redirect, it seems that it would have been the right thing to do. Dr Dec  (Talk)   14:20, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Even better, I redirected it not just to History of Spain, but to History of Spain, since that was the topic covered. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  16:50, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Please see below Dr Dec  (Talk)   10:41, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm involved in the company I want to write about... will the article be deleted for bias?
I myself DID not write the descriptions of the various films from {GOD'S FIRE} Production. However they WERE written by someone involved in past projects from my indie film production company. I of course, am the founder of the production company but want to publish the writtings of my co worker to let people be aware of our accomplishments. We send our projects to numerous film festivals and have screened them many, many times over.Our projects have an IMDb page each as well. Thank you for any response: Cesar Lazcano —Preceding unsigned comment added by Venomcal2001 (talk • contribs) 13:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Writing about yourself is strongly discouraged on Wikipedia, see WP:AUTO for details. And yes, the article could be deleted. Keep in mind also that once an article is created, anyone can and will go in and change it. So unless someone besides yourself has an interest in maintaining it, that task will come down to you.--RDBury (talk) 15:31, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * there's a FAQ page for articles about businesses that should be helpful to you. Sssoul (talk) 15:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Portla:Current Events -- Day's Events
Among other 'morning coffee bookmarks', I've bookmarked Portal:Current events. However, I'd much prefer the page to jump to the day's events -- i.e., the green box that, today, says "October 16, 2009 (Friday) edit history watch". Or, alternatively, have that be the only box displayed. Is there a way I can have that happen? Is there an "&lt;A NAME" on the page that would let me align it, or is the data transcluded from another page, i.e. "Portal:Current Events/Today"? WCityMike (talk) 17:01, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Answered my own question. It's Portal:Current events/Inclusion. WCityMike (talk) 17:04, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

How do I upload music samples?
How do I upload music samples?Rossini1868 (talk) 19:15, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * See Music samples and Creation and usage of media files. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:55, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

ASKING ONE QUESTION
WE ONLY WANT TO KNOW WHERE JIMI HENDRIX PARENTS WERE BORN? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.197.15.174 (talk) 19:27, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You might find what you are looking for in the article about Jimi Hendrix. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps.  TN <b style="color:midnightblue; font-size:larger;">X</b> Man  19:40, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

photo magnification
how do I convert an 18-250mm lense for a sony a350 digital camera to the binocular type magnification —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.28.152.225 (talk) 21:35, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * [[Image:P question.svg|20px]] This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try  for an article related to the topic you want to know more about.  I hope this helps. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:38, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

List of Authors
I want to reprint an article from Wikipedia and do not want to reference a url. Where can I find the list of Authors? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Franzeva (talk • contribs) 23:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The "list of authors" is embodied in the edit history of that particular article. In extreme cases, that can run into hundreds, even thousands of accounts and IP addresses. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  23:15, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * See also Reusing Wikipedia content. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:19, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If you just want to cite the Wikipedia article, you can find out more about it at Citing Wikipedia. &mdash; QuantumEleven 19:01, 18 October 2009 (UTC)