Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 July 24

= July 24 =

List of reptiles of Minnesota table sorting
Why are the tables (specific columns: Inches and Centimeters) at List of reptiles of Minnesota, under the "Snakes" header, sorting improperly? Albacore (talk) 01:08, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I believe it goes by the digits listed. Ergo, to sort it properly, all columns need equal digits - which means some columns need leading digits. I added these in this edit, which now makes it sort correctly, however it is a little unsightly. I believe there is a more elegant fix, however I can't remember it at the moment. Avic ennasis  @ 03:09, 22 Tamuz 5771 / 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * The other possibility is that it doesn't see the numbers as numbers, due to the hyphen - you could try separate columns for Min/Max length and just use numbers there (Which might allow proper sorting without a leading zero.) Avic ennasis  @ 03:17, 22 Tamuz 5771 / 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I have hidden the leading zeros with hs. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:28, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

I want to start a section of pages on Crosman Air Guns and Airsoft Guns and I was wondering if there is a template for that and am also wondering how I would create a page.
The above sentence is long, but I need a good amount of information on how to do this. I have the knowledge and have improved a previous page to a degree : Crosman P9 Airsoft Pistol but do not know how to create a page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Turtletechy (talk • contribs) 03:31, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Starting with WP:Your first article is probably a good idea. Dismas |(talk) 03:33, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Crosman could certainly use some work. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 20:27, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Articles are not appearing at Special:NewPages
My last two have not appeared at Special:NewPages. Even if you do this search, the articles are not found. The articles are HMS Doterel (1880) and Allen Morris (tennis). I created them both in my userspace draft, could that have anything to do with it? Should I bring them to requests for feedback? Ryan Vesey Review me!  03:49, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * That'll do it. Both pages are in Special:NewPages for you, alright, albeit under Userspace. Avic ennasis  @ 05:55, 22 Tamuz 5771 / 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Ahh, is it supposed to be like that? I wish there was some way that will still get the pages sent to new pages. Ryan Vesey  Review me!  09:45, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I think it's an "undocumented feature"! I think it only shows up in New Pages if the page has never existed anywhere - if it was created as "x" and then moved to "y" then the "x" page is new, but the "y" page is not because it already existed, albeit at another location. As far as I am aware, there's no way round this without creating the new article through cut&paste rather than moving, and that causes history/attribution loss --  Phantom Steve .alt/ talk \[alternative account of Phantomsteve] 09:56, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * See Village pump (idea lab)/Archive 4 for a recent discussion which could only refer to a feature request. If you are the only contributor then you are allowed to copy-paste. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:07, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

The time of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash as reported in the biographie of Billy Powell.
In the Billy Powell biography the date of the fatal plane crash involving the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, the date of the crash is stated to be 3 days after the release of the album, in fact it was in August after the release of the Album, several months later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.120.36.88 (talk) 04:11, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Do you have a source for that? Street Survivors says the album was released October 17, 1977, and Ronnie Van Zant and the bios of the other victims say they died October 20, 1977. —teb728 t c 05:47, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Numerous essentially indisputable reliable sources confirm the October 20, 1977 date of the crash (see e.g.,, and ) so the question is do you have a source for the release of the album showing it was a few months before? Note that this article says that the crash took place after the album had "just been released".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:06, 24 July 2011 (UTC) Aha. This interview has Skynyrd's guitarist reporting in an interview on October 2, 1977 that Sole Survivors had not yet been released so, while this does not onfirm the "3 days after" information to a tee, your assertion is plainly incorrect.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:13, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

William Jennings Bryan
The reference in the article to Dayton should specify Dayton, Tennessee04:41, 24 July 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.118.28.181 (talk)
 * Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed it. —teb728 t c 05:33, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Image not visible in infobox
For some reason, I am not able to view the image in the infobox in University of Lahore. This happens regardless of whether the image is png or jpg. Am I doing something wrong? Any help appreciated!  Lynch 7  14:08, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * It's . Infoboxes are unfortunately inconsistent in whether they need the full image syntax or just the image name. allows either, but they go in different parameters: image is for the full syntax, image_name for just the image name. So, you could have put University of Lahore logo2.jpg. -- Red rose64 (talk) 14:38, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks Lotje and Redrose64; I was indeed confused between image_name and image parameters.  Lynch 7  14:47, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

template for remember mediation
I want to inform in a talk page about mediations regarding an issue. This template shold not be archived in order to keep the information for other editors. Sometime I saw such a template. Do you know it?. --Keysanger (what?) 17:15, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Depending on what you mean exactly, it may be, , or . These are designed for article talk pages or the articles themselves (or subsections of it). If you meant a user talk page, I suggest you simply tell them about it.--  Obsidi ♠ n   Soul   21:21, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Noah Wylie
Need to know if Noah Wylie plans to do anymore Librarian films.. I have worked in the media for many years and think this series had a bit of everything; James bond, Indiana Jones, the History Channel, romance, action, adventure....etc.. and he was the pyramid of all this. Can't seem to find anywhere where I can reach him or find out.. I figured if anyone knew it would be your people.. thanks, (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.96.38.208 (talk) 19:38, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Symbol_move_vote.svg Have you tried the 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) 20:20, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Adding external links to multiple pages (not spamming)
I am adding an external link to the website for the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame on the pages of all of the boxers that have been inducted. I got a warning about multiple external links being considered spam. Can I proceed? Should I only do a few at a time? what is the limit? Thanks! Im4bath (talk) 19:59, 24 July 2011 (UTC)im4bath
 * Hello. We will be able to help you better if you could specify which external links you are try to contribute and to what articles you plan to do so. That way we can confirm or deny your claim that your links are not spam. Happy editing, hajat  vrc  with WikiLove @ 20:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Why do you wish to add this particular link? Your every contribution has been to add a link to this site to multiple articles, this would appear to be spamming. If you are using it as a source you should bring it up at our reliable sources noticeboard to determine if the source is a reliable source and usable. Rehevkor ✉  20:31, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * You should also bring this up at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Boxing and start a discussion on whether this award/hall of fame is notable enough for inclusion, you should not be inserting these links without consensus. Rehevkor ✉  20:36, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Is there a special page to store private notes ?
Is there a special/ordinary page for user's personal use only like the one 'My watchlist'?? By saying "personal use", I mean to store some important notes for future use like to do list, future re-search plan etc. The user page is viewable to all it cant hold personal elements. Existing special pages like 'My watchlist' is not fully editable. Only the list can be edited. Theres no place to mark a page how much important is it for me or to make a footnote about the page. D!p 20:08, 24 July 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by D!p.computing (talk • contribs)
 * What you are describing is exactly what user pages are for. They cannot be made private, in the sense of others not being able to view them, but they they are generally "private", in the sense that others will not normally edit your user page except to remove improper material (e.g., a fair use image used outside the mainspace) or to revert vandalism by third-parties. You can also start subpages which are seen far less than even your userpage, though they are technically just as public. They have the advantage that you can research and write an article there at your leisure before moving it to the mainspace. If you really need a privately viewable document, then a text document of some sort stored on your hard drive is the place to keep it. You can always drop the text onto a Wikipedia page and hit preview to check if your formatting is working.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:29, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * As you probably already realized, be careful what you place in your userpages. Do not place personally identifying or sensitive information unless you fully understand the consequences of doing so. See Wikipedia is in the real world and On privacy, confidentiality and discretion. And yes, like Fuhgettaboutit says, what you described are usually what user pages are for. Most users (including me) use userpages for frequently used templates, notes on articles they are working on or planning to work on, drafts, experiments on formatting, links to commonly used sources, and other useful things for editing (See User pages). Even if you don't actually 'own' it, as long as you aren't breaking any rules, no one will usually touch it for etiquette reasons (See Etiquette).


 * If you wanted something more private, however, I recommend you do it off-site or offline. Bookmarking the articles and jotting down notes in pen and paper or a text-editing program usually works just as well.--  Obsidi ♠ n   Soul   20:54, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * You can mark a page as "important for me", of course - with a note at the top, or use an or something. But everyone will be able to see it, and edit it too.
 * That concept often seems odd to new users, but once you embrace the idea, it all kinda works. For example, I have User:Chzz/note which is just my own scratch-pad of reminders - anyone can see it; anyone could change it, but I'd probably just change it back.
 * Once you accept the 'openness', it's all rather nice, really.
 * For anything actually private though - it's best to just use a text note file on your own computer, or something like that; don't put private things on the wiki. And don't put your shopping list on either, or it'll get deleted as WP:NOTWEBHOST.  Chzz  ► 11:48, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

C-grade movies
i want to work in c grade movies can u tell me how i can join my e mail address is (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.179.83.75 (talk) 21:03, 24 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Can you clarify the question? Work in actual C-grade movies or work on articles about C-grade movies?--  Obsidi ♠ n   Soul   21:09, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I think actual movies, so I will respond accordingly: I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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.  An  editor since 10.28.2010.  04:03, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Photographer credit in photo caption
Do we have a policy about whether we should or (I'm guessing this one) shouldn't credit the photographer in image captions? Saw one added to Olivia Bonilla. doom gaze  (talk)  22:17, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Captions seems to cover that. Shouldn't be necessary. Rehevkor ✉  22:30, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
 * But please see the current debate over image attribution at Village pump (proposals).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:06, 25 July 2011 (UTC)