Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 September 28

= September 28 =

Inclusion of NASDAQ ticker symbol/link in intro sentences
Hi. Is there a relevant policy or guideline regarding the use of NASDAQ ticker symbols/links in article leads? Examples: Google ("GOOG"), Microsoft ("MSFT"), and Apple, Inc. ("AAPL").

I find the practice a bit bizarre, but I don't know where the relevant policy would be. I tried WP:NASDAQ and WP:TICKER. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 00:50, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * WikiProject Companies/Guidelines says to include it but not where. The NASDAQ documentation recommends the opening. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:54, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * The Template:Infobox company has a paramater for it - "traded as". Roger (talk) 08:59, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Changing phone number
8600773524

Hi, Would like to change a phone number on the site map which pops up to the left when somebody types in our business name. This is not the information they click thru too but automatically come up. I can't find out how to edit this information anywhere? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by AUT Marketing Dept (talk • contribs) 01:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC) airtl
 * What you describe does not sound like the behavior of a Wikipedia page. Do you realize that you are on the Wikipedia Help desk? If so, pleae give more details: What business? What page and where on the page do you type the name? What do you see see when you do it? —teb728 t c 01:49, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I believe this is something Google does: nothing whatever to do with Wikipedia. You'll need to ask Google. --ColinFine (talk) 09:12, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

I'm getting set up for calling someone a fucker and I didn't.
Dear Wikipedia,

I don't know nothing about no Teen Mom or anything yet when I come onto your site its saying something got fixed from 2010 from my IP address stating to the effect that someone from here posted that MTV's Teen Mom was a "fucker" on that page. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:76.14.179.5&redirect=no I go to check all corrections using the ClueBot NG Report Interface and there is no revert ID on that page in question to be found. Now I wanna know why I'm not even logged in and get a message when I don't know nothing, never been nowhere and yet somehow I'm getting tagged with what's happened where and how. I'm not Sandra Bullock. This isn't The Net. What the hell is going on here?! AOL seriously needs to fuck off with their Romney, Sarah Palin bullshit if they're up to something because that ain't right. ESPECIALLY when I've looked up things *entirely* beneficial to the whole PLANET on here! Thank you.

- John Lewis Wright


 * Relax, it's not directed at you. IP addresses are not uniquely or permanently assigned to a specific person, your ISP most likely randomly assigns one of their "pool" of numbers to you - the same IP has been assigned to many of their clients in the past.
 * Take a look at the text at the bottom of that page:
 * "This is the discussion page for an anonymous user who has not created an account yet, or who does not use it. We therefore have to use the numerical IP address to identify him/her. Such an IP address can be shared by several users. If you are an anonymous user and feel that irrelevant comments have been directed at you, please create an account or log in to avoid future confusion with other anonymous users."
 * I hope this clarifies the matter and you continue to use and contribute to Wikipedia without problems in future. Roger (talk) 08:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Syntax error in math formula
What is the syntax error in $$/tfrac{\log n}{\log &gamma; \big( n \big)}$$ ? I can't figure it out. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 10:14, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * &amp;gamma; is html and not TeX. You also have /tfrac instead of \tfrac. I'm not sure what you want with \big but if we keep that then we get: $$\tfrac{\log n}{\log \gamma \big( n \big)}$$. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:27, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * That seems to be the formula from p. 4 of this paper which is the formula I want. I don't understand what you mean regarding \big, since that is the syntax for parentheses given at Help:Displaying a formula. Is there an alternate syntax I should use instead? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 11:05, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * You only have n inside so I don't know why you want big parentheses instead of $$\tfrac{\log n}{\log \gamma (n)}$$. The latter looks like your PDF link. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:15, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I didn't think of the possibility to just use the '(' or ')' symbol inside the $$ tags, especially since Help:Displaying a formula labels this bad. Your solution is exactly what I want. Thanks. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 11:27, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * It's bad in the example at Help:Displaying a formula because there is a big expression inside and the parentheses aren't tall enough to cover the whole expression. n is not a big expression and normal parantheses are fine. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:34, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I added the formula at Wieferich prime. There in the formula p, the product still looks a bit odd. How can I push the  symbol a bit further down? It displays that way, because I didn't define the 'upper bound'-parameter. What can I do? Is there some kind of non-displaying placeholder character I could add there that would make the symbol displaying a bit further down? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 12:58, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * You don't need an upper bound but you should usually only use one math tag for one formula so the relative placement of the elements can be determined: . If you want better vertical alignment of gamma with the surrounding text then you might consider the problematic vertical-align at Help:Displaying a formula. This currently looks better for me in Firefox with my settings: \gamma (n) = \prod_{p \mid n} p$$. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:22, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I corrected the vertical alignment. It looks good now in Safari for me. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 13:36, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Talk page changes not appearing on watchlist
In the last few days I have noticed that changes to certain talk pages are not appearing on my watchlist. Changes to the article itself appear but not the talk page. It maybe happening to articles also. I can see it clearly happening with talk pages as I'm in the middle of various discussions and am not notified of replies. It seems to be a glitch. Can you make any suggestions as to why it might be happening and what to do? Thanks Span (talk) 14:15, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * If Help:Watching pages doesn't explain why they don't appear then please give an example and list your settings and skin. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:27, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * The only box I have ticked on my watchlist preferences are 'Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist'. I'm using Vector. An example: John Keats. I am notified of changes made to the article but not to the talk page. Span (talk) 15:51, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I use Vector and see the most recent edit to the talk page on my watchlist. It was a minor and bot edit. Does it say "Hide minor edits | Hide bots | Hide anonymous users | Hide logged-in users | Hide my edits | Hide patrolled edits" (with none of them saying "Show") on your watchlist where the edit is missing? PrimeHunter (talk) 16:09, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * It was all working fine until a few days ago. Nothing appears on the watchlist where the talk page edits are missing. I've noticed it with about four talk pages so far. Span (talk) 16:27, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I meant whether it says "Hide minor edits | Hide bots | Hide anonymous users | Hide logged-in users | Hide my edits | Hide patrolled edits" near the top of the watchlist when the edit is missing from the watchlist. Are the same talk pages missing each time you view the watchlist? The most recent edit to Talk:John Keats is now your own . PrimeHunter (talk) 17:44, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * No edits are hidden, no. It's hard to say which talk page changes are not appearing as they're not appearing. With about four separate articles I thought it odd there was no talk page changes as I was in the middle of discussions and expecting responses. I looked on the pages in question and saw responses had been written but the changes had not appeared on my watchlist. Span (talk) 22:54, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

CharInsert not working
I've had the CharInsert extension activated since I first started editing, and I use it all the time. In the last 24 hours or so, it's stopped appearing on my edit screen. I have it turned on in Preferences, and when I click to edit a page I can see it briefly appear below the edit window as the page loads, but then it disappears and there's no menu or button to bring it back up. I can get it to remain if I click "stop loading" on my browser, but if the page loads fully it vanishes. I've tried resetting my Preferences to the defaults, but that didn't solve the problem. I use Google Chrome and the standard WP Vector settings. I don't know if I accidentally hit some combination of keystrokes that would disable it (it wouldn't be the first time I'd butterfingered something on my keyboard that caused a screwup). Any help would be appreciated; I really do use the CharInsert all the time and feel a bit lost without it. --IllaZilla (talk) 17:41, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * It dispappeared during recent changes to the edit window but should come back. See Village pump (technical). PrimeHunter (talk) 17:52, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Ah-ha. I had noticed some differences in the edit window and wondered if the two incidents were linked. Thanks. --IllaZilla (talk) 18:13, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Stub class template
I've done quite a bit of editing on this page:

Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys

There's a message stating that the page has been automatically rated by a bot as stub class because it uses a stub class template. I'm not sure what (if anything) should be done, as it seems to me the article isn't any longer a stub.

Thanks for any help with this. NinaGreen (talk) 18:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I removed the stub template - in this edit and changed the class to "Start" in the WikiProject template on Talk:Thomas de Camoys, 1st Baron Camoys. Roger (talk) 18:42, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you! NinaGreen (talk) 22:03, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

RSS/Atom Feed
Hi, when I am on my watchlist, in the toolbox to the left is an atom feed. My blackberry has a feed application so is there a way to get my watchlist on my blackberry feed? I tried puttin a whole bunch of urls but I kept getting error messages. Any help?--Dom497 (talk) 18:33, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 20:16, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

Editing help has disappeared
Until today, I had a display below the edit window which offered useful things like "Defaultsort", "Nowiki", and other editing/formatting facilities. Today, it isn't there. I've not consciously changed any preferences or similar. Is this a temporary blip in the software, or a permanent change, or have I accidentally switched off this useful facility? I'm puzzled. Pam D  20:36, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
 * OK, I have now found Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Edit_window_changes - will try and plough through it all to see what's going on! Pam  D  20:39, 28 September 2012 (UTC
 * And the answer seems to be "Go to Preferences, Editing, and Switch OFF the Enhanced editing toolbar". Pam  D  20:56, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Editing help - Tildes
Some of my editing help has gone too. I know longer have access to tildes to sign my name. Can anyone help? Offender9000 (no tilde)
 * See above? Pam  D  20:57, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

There's so much info on that page - its far too complicated. Can you be more specific. Offender9000


 * Most keyboards have a tilde. See Tilde. Above the edit box you may have a signature icon to the right of a red circle with a 'W'. There will often also be visible ~ for copy-pasting in an edit window. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:17, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

That's my problem - none of that is visible to me. Offender 9000
 * If you have a numeric keypad then try .  doesn't require the character at all but I admit it's a hassle to type. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:31, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Quattro pro did not transfer
I had quattro pro on the first computer I had. Recently bought a new dell. They transfered most of my dta to it, but the quattro pro did not transfer. These were improtant files and I need to recover them. How do I do this? Thabk you for any help you can be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.22.224.138 (talk) 21:15, 28 September 2012 (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. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:17, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Editing on iPhone
Is it possible to edit with or without an account on an iPhone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.40.254.157 (talk) 21:24, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I haven't tried but Help:Mobile access says: "Currently, the only way to edit Wikipedia on an iPhone is to access it via Safari." PrimeHunter (talk) 21:33, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

Dear
In regards to Hussein Bikar's wikipage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Bikar), his name is spelled wrong. It should be Hussein Bicar with a C instead of a K. If you want me to provide documents other than those provided in www.hbicar.com.

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Srushdy (talk • contribs) 21:36, 28 September 2012 (UTC)


 * The only two external links in the article (there are no proper references) both spell it "Bikar". So did the article, until 31 July, when User:Karimalaa substantially rewrote the article and introduced the spelling "Bicar". At present that spelling is supported by not one link or reference from the article.
 * A Google search seems to show that both spellings are used. You refer to http://www.hbicar.com - but that site is apparently maintained by you, Salah Rushdy, and Karim Alaa: it calls itself the 'official website', but how can we know that? (It doesn't even spell his first name correctly).
 * I agree that if the article is to use the spelling 'Bicar' then it should be moved to that title (which will leave the current title as a redirect). But I am not persuaded that changing 'Bikar' to 'Bicar' is justified.
 * I have also tagged the article as a close paraphrase, which is a kind of copyright violation. In order to use the text from http://www.hibcar/com in Wikipedia, you will need to release it under an appropriate licence: see donating copyright materials. --ColinFine (talk) 23:29, 28 September 2012 (UTC)