Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 April 1

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April 1

password

3/31/08 Please forgive; but signed in as socialpeacest; could you please send password to <email address removed for privacy>

Thank You —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.85.27.166 (talk) 00:18, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, if you did not provide an email address when you created the account, there is no way we can send the password to you. - Milks F'avorite Cookie 00:20, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

At login I have sent a new password to the email address registered by User:Socialpeacest. I cannot see the address, I cannot send a pasword to another address, and I don't have access to the old or new password which both work now. See also Help:Logging in. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:37, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Firefox addins

For my wikipedia research it would be really convenient if I could add the Time magazine and Newsweek search engines to my dropdown. Can anyone create fire fox plug ins for me?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 00:27, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Please go to the Reference desk here and ask there. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 00:47, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Show button

On my own user page, I have reformatted all my honors to be hidden. Is there a way to move the show button so it is not under the infoboxes on the right?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 00:40, 1 April 2008 (UTC)]

See Wikipedia:Collapsible tables and WP:NAVFRAME. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 00:45, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Unified login system

Some time ago I asked here when would the Unified login system be available to the "regular users", someone told me it was on April the 1st, 2008, is this true? where is information about that date?
I haven't found no references to the date of general availability... thanks in advance. SF007 (talk) 00:57, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

There's still some bugs to take care of before it can be enabled fully. _→AzaToth 00:59, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

When I saw that, I suspected it was a pre-emptive April Fools' Joke. I'm still waiting for Google's usual surprise. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 03:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html Corvus cornix_talk 21:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Template help

I'm trying to make a template work: User:Jeff Dahl/Pharaoh Infobox. I want to make a hidden section with a [show] reveal under Royal titulary down to the gray bar. How do I do this? Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 01:24, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I think I figured out how to make it work, but apparently the parent infobox's table settings aren't available in the hidden section. Jeff Dahl (Talk • contribs) 04:17, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Advice on Possible Goalline Blitz Article

Greetings,

I am a subscriber of Goalline Blitz, a new MMORPG game based around American football. I understand that several people have tried to create an article to capitalize on the site's referral policy. I would like to create an informative (i.e. non-advertisement) article about the site, it's creators, and the game itself. My article would list only the URL for the main site with no referral url. Is there a way this can be done? I will adhere to any guidelines you set. Also is there a way to prevent people from editing the page in order to insert their own referral link, as people will surely attempt to do this to exploit the article. Believe me, I do not want this any more than you do. Please let me know. My email address is email address removed. I am a Ph.D. student at FSU and the article would be well-written, well-researched, and as unbiased as I can make it. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Thomas Paterniti —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tpaterniti (talk • contribs) 02:16, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I have removed your email address as this is a high-profile page and you might find yourself added to spam mailing lists. To your actual query, the main guideline that would apply is WP:WEB. Basically, articles need to demonstrate notability through references to reliable third-party sources. A quick Google search on Goalline blintz gives me the web site itself and a whole host of bulletin board posts which have presumably been created for the purpose of referrals, and as a result I suspect there are few, if any, reliable references (has it been the subject of an article in a major e-zine, perhaps?). However, assuming that the article could be created, then to avoid referral URLs being inserted you could make a request at the Wikipedia:Spam blacklist, stating the general form of the URL. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 03:08, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

top reference sites list?

Does Wikipedia maintain a current list of top reference sites like this (obsolete) one?: http://www.online-utility.org/wikipedia/top_reference_websites_wikipedia.jsp Thanks in advance. Jan 82.208.2.214 (talk) 08:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I have not heard of one, which may or may not indicate anything about whether it exists. If Wikipedia does maintain such a list, someone should add a link to it under WP:EIW#Source. If you want to generate your own list, you might be able to do that if you have programming skills, enough time, and you study the links under: WP:EIW#Query. --Teratornis (talk) 17:06, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Admissible photos of actors?

I'm wondering what qualifies as an admissible photo of an actor. Presumably, if I took a photo of the actor in the flesh with my own camera, that would be admissible. Anything else?

If I took a photo of an actor appearing on television in mid-performance, is the photo my property because I took it, or is it the property of the company that owns the television performance?

I've looked around in the FAQ and help desk but failed to find clear advice on exactly what photos are admissible. If I missed something, I apologize. Torve (talk) 09:52, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The general rule is that any living actor can easily have a free-use photo taken by someone, so no fair-use sources are allowed. That means no screen caps of movies/shows they're on, no photos from magazines, etc. -- Kesh (talk) 12:13, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. So there seem to be three admissible ways in which a photo can get into Wikipedia: the actor puts it there himself, the photographer puts it there, or either of them puts it somewhere else on the Web and explicitly declares that it's for free use. Does that cover the possibilities? Torve (talk) 13:50, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The links under WP:EIW#Copy should cover all the possibilities relating to copyright (if they don't cover some case, then we need to improve the manuals). See especially Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria. --Teratornis (talk) 17:10, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the useful link. There's a lot of stuff there to read through, but I've looked at some and I'll go on looking. The non-free content criteria are not, in fact, particularly interesting to me: I'm not looking for an excuse to use non-free content. I'm just trying to establish what 'free content' consists of. There doesn't seem to be a lot of it around. Torve (talk) 19:02, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

That's because there isn't, unless you count public domain. The concept of "freely licensed media" is a relatively new one, in the sense that licenses like the GFDL, or Creative Commons licenses are all less than 10 years old, so most people haven't even heard of them. Then there's the problem with getting professional photographers and other creators of content to agree to release their stuff under a license that basically says "people can do what they like with this and I don't get paid for it". You can search Flickr, and I believe a few file sharing programs now, with a filter that only shows free content, which can sometimes be helpful if you're looking for a picture for an article (just remember to double check that the Flickr user actually had the right to use that license in the first place, and also make sure the picture uses a license that's compatible with the GFDL - CC-BY-SA is fine, CC-ND isn't). Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:36, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The licensing of images in Wikipedia is a problem. Most publicity-conscious actors would be happy to sign a release sayinh basically, "You are welcome to include my publicity photo in your encyclopedia." But the licensing for Wikipedia images means that anyone could then take that image and put it on T shirts, coffee mugs, posters, picture postcards, novelty urinal targets, punching bags, (possiby even inflatable sex dolls), or lots of other money-making uses without any cash going to the original owner or any say-so about the uses, as long as the next user included the same licensing statement. Edison (talk) 20:52, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

How Can i edit and add one information in Wikipedia? (repeat question)

I would like to share one link with a good information provide by you but i am not able to edit it. It was deleted by Wiki Staff daily. one External link is all ready add with that link please help me out I am providing the links where i supposed to edit by George D. Watson

This is the link where i wish to add link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_centre under Additional reading section.

1. http://www.callcentersindia.com/call_center_forum.php 2. http://www.callcentersindia.com/call_centers_news.php

Pushkar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.174.5.2 (talk) 10:28, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

You don't. Our rules on external links are very specific, and forums almost never qualify for addition. -- Kesh (talk) 12:15, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I also see you already asked this question and were answered yesterday. No need to ask again. -- Kesh (talk) 12:16, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Language and log-in question

I speak both english and spanish. I joined in the english speaking Wikipedia and I´ve just discovered I can´t ´log-in´ in the spanish version with the same account. Is there any way I can have one account for both languages or I have to create another account for spanish? Thanks! I just joined Wikipedia, I´m sorry if this has been already asked two thousand times. Zetakah (talk) 10:54, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Unified login is in the test phase right now and may become usable soon. Presently it is only enabled for administrators. For the present you need to make a separate account on all other language Wikipedias as well as other Wikimedia projects.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:59, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

How to "strike out", "strike through" or "rule through"?

Hi, I dont know what its called but I've seen comments on talk pages with a line ruled through the middle of the characters indicating that the editor no longer held that position. How do I do this? What is the correct name for it? Thanks SmithBlue (talk) 10:55, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Place <s> ... </s> around the text. The icon str above the edit box does it. See this and many other things at Wikipedia:How to edit a page. It's called different things. I don't know if there is a "correct" name for it. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

page display of List of RAF stations

I've just noticed that List of RAF stations is not displaying correctly. I have checked the revision history for possible vandalism, or inadvertant edits, but I can't find anything wrong.

When you view the article, the display ends after section 2.7.16 - which is France former stations. No categories, stubs or navigational boxes are displayed either. However, when you click on "edit this page" at the top of the article, all the "missing" text is still there. OK, the entire article may be 31 kilobytes long, but I've seen other far larger articles still displayed in full.

Any comments? Thanks - -- Teutonic Tamer 11:41, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I fixed it by this edit [1]. A ref tag hadn't been closed properly - it had <ref> instead of </ref> at the end of the reference. DuncanHill (talk) 11:52, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Any time you see that problem it is a missing /ref. Probably worth a FAQ. Sbowers3 (talk) 11:58, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Phew . . . many thanks, guys. Agreed about the FAQ. -- Teutonic Tamer 12:01, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:FAQ/Editing#The end of an article doesn't appear, although it's there in the edit screen. What happened? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:19, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Can't see Edits

Hi, sorry to take your time, but I'm a relatively new editor and I wanted to ask a an admin how come the edits I make don't appear unless I'm logged in. If I visit wikipedia just as a normal viewer, without loggin in, the edits I've made to pages, say, the previous day, don't seem to have been registered, even on the edit history page. Any idea why? Thanks loads.Thedarkfourth (talk) 16:20, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried purging the cache. Put ?action=purge in your address bar. So an example would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Airport?action=purge .Have you got a specific page where this is happening? Woody (talk) 16:37, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

You can also check the history of a page to see if your edits are there. --Teratornis (talk) 17:54, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Cheers, a good purge was what I needed!Thedarkfourth (talk) 20:47, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Admin

If I feel I am being unfairly treated by Admin, is there a page that can help me end this? Many Thanks, ::Manors:: talk to me 16:25, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

WP:AN should be a reasonable place. Stwalkerster [ talk ] 16:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Cheers! ::Manors:: talk to me 16:32, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Network

Our house has various computers in different rooms of the house, though all are in one network. Do the PC's all have different IP's? I ask this as another family member could get their own account without us having to worry about who takes part in which votes etc (I am aware of the restrictions). Thanks for the answers... --Cameron (t|p|c) 18:06, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

If you all are connected through a router to connect to an ISP, then no, you all share the same IP address. However the router assigns different local IPs so that you can bypass the ISP only allowing one IP addy. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 18:16, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Creating a page about my band

I have a band called Godless located in Montreal, Canada.

I would like to have a little info about it on here. Now I've noticed a page for a Godless band from the USA that deleted every bits of info about them on here... what should I do at this point?

Basically I want a picture of our logo and links to our myspace/facebook/official website.

any words of advice would be greatly appreciated !

Mat of Godless —Preceding unsigned comment added by Godlessmtl (talk • contribs) 18:14, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Replied on user talk. Friday (talk) 18:17, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

You would need to read up on notability regarding musicians and bands to see if you meet the necessary guidelines. More than likely if your band only appears on myspace and facebook, it will not meet the criteria and will be deleted. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 18:19, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

There are other wikis where you could list your band. See wikiindex:Category:Music. If you have legally incorporated your band, you could list it on Wikicompany. Otherwise, if you have an agent who is legally incorporated, Wikicompany could have a listing for your agent. --Teratornis (talk) 18:33, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Help editing a page

I want to edit a page but am confused. I am trying to to figure out the proper way to format my article. I also ave a lot of references but i just want to do it right. What is the best way for me to get help figuring this out —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomasfipps (talk • contribs) 18:36, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The following links would probably be useful for you: your first article, how to develop a great article, citing sources and reliable sources. Also, bear in mind our core policies such as neutral point of view, no original research and verifiability. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 19:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

References can be included alongside text as a url in square brackets, thus: [http://example.com], or by using a <ref> tag. You don't need to worry about formatting at all if you don't want to (others Wikipedians can fix it up if need be). However, you might like to take a look at an annotated article or visit a WikiProject related to the article to get ideas from articles they list as good. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:49, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

How to add an notice in an template

Ok, since a few weeks I'm expanding and writing new articles about webstandards, comparisons, browsers and so on. I made a template Template:Standard_support this template will maybe used in future or gives a new way of template in thi section. on the talk page is an (incomplete) alternative. Now the question: I want to make a note on the page of the template to show that this template is actual not in use but maybe will be and that there is many to discuss (discussion in progress). How can this be accomblished? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mabdul (talk • contribs) 18:43, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

If you place text on a template inbetween <noinclude></noinclude> tags, it will appear when viewing the template's page, but not when placing the template on a page. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

i want to change my username

Hi I want to change my username. How can I do this? Istanbulmike (talk) 19:50, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Just make a new account, and use that one instead. Friday (talk) 19:50, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

if you want to preserve the edits you've made, you could request it at request for username change. Although your username is fairly new. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 19:53, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

print to PDF

I'm having trouble printing an article to a PDF file saved on my hard drive. Can't seem to find a solution elsewhere 65.121.117.191 (talk) 20:05, 1 April 2008 (UTC).

You may want to try asking this question at the reference desk. The editors there specialize in answering technical questions about specific topics. Wisdom89 _{(T / ^C)} 20:25, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Search button captions

Someone seems to have vandalised the search button captions. —teb728 t c 22:05, 1 April 2008 (UTC) Nevermind; it's fixed. —teb728 t c 22:06, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

There is something funny going on. If you type Plum or Apple and click Go, nothing strange happens. But if you type Anal Sex (yes I was looking up dirty stuff!) and press Go you get two buttons saying "I feel lucky" and "Search" - I also at one point found that I got "I feel lucky" and "Wacky search" - some kind of programmer joke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MillieTant (talk • contribs) 22:10, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

OK, it isn't doing it now. But it was, honest! —Preceding unsigned comment added by MillieTant (talk • contribs) 22:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Someone was messing with the MediaWiki namespace, it's been since resolved.--VectorPotential^Talk 22:12, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Requesting Unprotecting

I am trying to write an article about YouTube star Charles Trippy. Apparently the article has been deleted many times. I, however, have followed the criteria of writing an article for Wikipedia. Now that I want to post my article I cannot because the page is protected. How do I unprotect this page, and if I need an administrator then where do I find him and ask? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.81.140.65 (talk) 22:47, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Hasn't this exact question been asked before? There is a standing consensus that Charles Trippy should not have an article. Common procedure for protected deleted pages is to request the posting of a new version at deletion review; however, they'll need to see what the proposed new article is. I'd suggest you create an account and then post the article on your userpage so everyone at deletion review can judge for themselves. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:53, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

I would recommend against putting it on the userpage itself. Rather, a Sandbox page (such as User:Namegoeshere/Sandbox) would be more appropriate. User pages should only be used for personal info about the user himself/herself. -- Kesh (talk) 10:21, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Reverting my user talk page?

In the near-three years I've been here I've not received any warnings or infractions for doing anything wrong, because I haven't done anything wrong. Today, my good faith edits for Wrestlemania 24 were reverted because I had no sources. It had not come to my attention that adding time lengths for matches needed sources, because it's not a particularly important aspect of the article. After my edit was reverted, I reverted back because of my earlier reasoning, only to have it reverted again by another user, and then having a note posted on my user talk page, informing me of such, when I already saw it on the article history. Well, long story short, I reverted the changes to my user talk page because I did not need to be spoken to in such a way as though I had joined yesterday, only to have that reversion reverted by the same user, who then threatened that I could be blocked from editing? For reverting my own talk page? I find it a ridiculous notion, considering I did nothing wrong to begin with, and merely tried to help the article. So, in summation, I would like for someone more experienced than I to clear this situation, because I'm now quite upset over the snowball-like effect that's occurred. --Antoshi~! ^{T | C} 22:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

In general, users are free to remove messages from their talk page, as that just signifies the message was read. I'll leave a quick note on the other users page, but it's possible that the other editor somehow mistook you for a vandal (without reason). Just keep a cool head, and try to assume good faith. Best, --Bfigura ^(talk) 22:51, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

An established user who receives a warning they consider incorrect or too harsh should be able to delete it or archive it. There is no reason to have it there on your talk page for a long time in the future. It could be deleted with an edit comment that the editor disagrees with it. It is highly appropriate to ask an uninvolved administrator for their view of the correctness of the warning, whether by posting on their talk page or emailing them, or by posting to the Help desk as you did, or to the Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. If you deleted or archived a warning, it should will be visible in the talk page history, and admins can see any history of problems with a user there. Some feel that by deleting it, you are simply acknowledging that you have read it, without any intent to cover up alleged problem edits. There are always going to be disagreements over what is proper sourcing for text in an article, or over what content should be in an article. If someone is a brand new user and has done 4 acts of blatant vandalism in 4 edits, then their deleting of the warnings would appear to be an attempt to deceive lazy administrators into giving a level 1 warning instead of a block. What I have done in those cases is to restore the collection of warnings when posting a higher level warning. The other user who reverted the wrestling match timings was not at all out of line in doing so, in my view, because they are original research. The templated warnings placed on Antoshi's user page are one of the regrettable consequences of using the automated "Twinkle" application in vandal fighting, and infact no warning needs to be placed there at all for normal editing of an article. I would have just undone the edit to the wrestling article with an edit summary citing WP:OR WP:V and WP:RS, and would probably have moved the match timings to the talk page to see if there are better sources or if theere is a consensus to keep them based on someone's personal timing of events. Edison (talk) 19:37, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Companies

In reading about SuperValu today there was a great link that took me to a wikipedia page that listed all of the major corporations in Minnesota. I tried to find a page where I might look up major corporations in other states to no avail. Is there such a site where I can get links to major corporations in other states besides Minnesota? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.219.219.62 (talk) 23:23, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

You can start at Category:Companies of the United States by state. Someguy1221 (talk) 23:43, 1 April 2008 (UTC)