Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 December 9

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December 9

donations

I use Wikipedia extensively and greatly appreciate it. I both want and need to make a contribution but won't until I understand the 7.5 million dollar need. Where does this dollar figure come from and how often will you be needing these kinds of funds? An explanations garners a contribution. (perhaps a link on the persistent banner requests...) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.243.26.4 (talk) 01:03, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

It comes from the Annual Plan drawn up by the Foundation (see the FAQ here). I think if you click through the banner links, you'll find more detailed information. Some other common answers to the fundraiser are here. Hope that helps, Best, -- Bfigura ^(talk) 01:11, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Can I also add to Bfigura's excellent answer that this is an annual fundraising event - although the Foundation accepts donations at any time - and that this fundraising means that Wikipedia (and the other Foundation projects) do not need to have adverts to fund themselves. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 12:41, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Firefox won't remember me as a user

Resolved

Starting several hours ago, FireFox will not remember my login, although I check "remember me for 30 days" and I have FireFox set to remember passwords. IE doesn't have this problem. I have also done the buffer refresh, but I still have the problem. Does anyone know the solution? Bubba73 ^{(the argument clinic)}, 02:00, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Not sure but if you aren't running the latest version, just upgrade and if it's a Firefox bug, that might well take care of it. Also, whenever I have some unexplained anomaly—something that was functioning one way and suddenly isn't with no discernible change on my end—I find rebooting takes care of it ¾ of the time.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:04, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm using the latest version of Firefox. The problem just started a few hours ago. Bubba73 ^{(the argument clinic)}, 02:07, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

After a reboot it remembered me, thanks. Bubba73 ^{(the argument clinic)}, 02:55, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Archiving a talk page

How do you archive your talk page? MMS2013 02:39, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

There are multiple methods; see Help:Archiving a talk page. Intelligentsium 02:46, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Question about adminship

What is the minimum age required to become a Wikipedia administrator? - Samwb123^T-C-@ 03:08, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

There isn't one. However, some people have opposed adminship requests because of their age (note that age is not required to be disclosed at any point to use this site). The admin age range of which I am aware goes from 15-50+. TNXMan 03:12, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Off the top of my head, it goes from 12–70. –Juliancolton | ^Talk 03:14, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

A side-note: I very much doubt anyone under about 15 or 16 could pass RFA today unless they had at least a year track record of appearing much older than their birth certificate indicates. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 03:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) There is no age requirement and administrators don't have to tell their age. Wikipedia:Guide to requests for adminship#What RfA contributors look for and hope not to see says:

"...

• Young age: If you are a teenager or younger, many people will oppose based simply on your age.

However, many RfAs have succeeded despite some of the above." PrimeHunter (talk) 03:13, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Samwb123^T-C-@ 03:20, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Age isn't the issue. Maturity and good decision-making are. If your level-headedness and apparent maturity leave people surprised when they find out you are not an adult, then it won't be an issue. On the other hand, if you are an adult and your lack of level-headedness and apparent immaturity have people surprised you are over 18, that will be a problem. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 03:29, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

• Since you're not required to reveal your age, it will only be a problem if you don't act mature. I support administrators who I know make good decisions. That is what matters. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:28, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

• As Mgm says, most editors do not know how old admins (or indeed any editors) are - they look at how the editor acts. If they act in a mature way, they are more likely to stand a chance of being an admin. If they act in an immature way, they have little to no chance. I know of a couple of admins who are below the legal Age of majority in their home countries, but if you look at their contributions, you would never guess it. Conversely, I've seen a couple of admins (and a few more well-established editors) who I know are legally adults in their home countries, but who act like immature children. (No names, no pack drill) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 12:56, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

can not find article

I submitted an article for Wikipedia. I added it on Friday December 4. I still have not seen it posted or found any other trace of it. It was a Bio of David J. Marcou. I needed help with the editing and formatting. I did not find it in the deletion log. I would like someone to let me know the status of it. I wrote the article myself and find Wikipedia to be very confusing to new contributors. My experience with it so far has turned me off about using it anymore. I am not sure this is even the right page for this purpose. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kayak paddler (talk • contribs) 04:46, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

You did not submit the article with the account you are currently using. It is not in either you contribution list or your deleted contributions. The edit above is your only edit with your current account. It also appears that there has never been an article on David J. Marcou or David Marcou or David marcou. It is possible you forgot to hit the save page button. Articles should become visible immediately after their creation. Unfortunately you may have to rewrite it. I'm sorry you are finding Wikipedia difficult, try this page for advice on your first article: Wikipedia:Your first article and feel free to ask other editors for help. --Leivick (talk) 04:52, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

You might also find the Article Wizard helpful. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 11:38, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Where to now

For the last couple of days I have been discussing the speedy deletion of some fair-use images with admin Rama (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) (in particular, see User talk:Rama#File:Nakheel Tower.jpg). I had pretty much reached a agreement to try creating my own replacement images. However, another editor has now raised the same basic question with the same admin (see User talk:Rama#File:Chicago Spire.jpg) and has pointed out that by creating our own images, we may well be violating the copyright on the design. I would like to bring the issue up for discussion by a wider audience but I'm unsure where to take this - WP:RFC perhaps or WP:ANI or somewhere else? Astronaut (talk) 05:22, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

• Personally, I do not think admin intervention is required, as you want a more open discussion about the issue - so ANI isn't the best place. I would suggest that you start by placing a question at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions - if there is no response in a while, then perhaps start an RFC on the subject. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 13:06, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Though, another user has already progressed this at ANI. Astronaut (talk) 22:37, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Deprecation

Over the past year or so I have read many statements that a template or a parameter has been deprecated. I have been unable to find any background, discussion or support for any of these deprecations. Is there a procedure to deprecate a template or a parameter and I have yet to find it or is this designation just a fancy way for an admin or a programmer to ram through a personal dislike of a template or parameter. As you can probably tell, I strongly suspect the latter to be the case. JimCubb (talk) 06:19, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I assume these things are discussed somewhere. Do you have a specific example? Astronaut (talk) 06:22, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Unless you have an specific example of a deprecated template, we cannot know why or when it became deprecated. Help us help you... ---Jayron32 06:25, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

As a rule, a deprecation of a template is discussed either on the talk page of the template or at Wikipedia:Templates_for_discussion. The deprecation of a specific parameter should also be discussed at one of those two venues as well. As Astronaut and Jayron32 say, if you give us a specific example, we can give more reasoned advice. Generally, the decision to deprecate a template or a parameter is not that of a single editor - it will have been discussed somewhere. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 13:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I will spend this weekend searching for the initial mentions of the various deprecations. The ones I have in mind are

• The original version of {{WPB}} which became a special case of {{WPBS}} rather than left alone and allowed to work when tinkering with {{WPBS}} caused it to cease to function,
• {{lifetime}},
• The |priority= in {{WikiProject Biography}} that was converted to a work group-priority and, my personal favorite,
• Category:Biography articles with listas parameter that was declared to be of no use to two or three editors and, over the strenuous objection of as many editors who used it, was finally depopulated and deleted. The discussion, such as it was, is archived at Category talk:Biography articles without listas parameter. I assumed that the question that started it all was asked in good faith, a request for information, and it appears that other editors took the question to be negative. I have asked the editor who asked the original question about it but have yet to receive a reply.

When I asked one of the editors who spoke against {{WPB}} why he did so, the answer I received was, "I don't like it."

As I first wrote, I will get links over the weekend and post them.

JimCubb (talk) 05:28, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

copying files to other language wikis

Hello, I want to copy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Liberty,_NY.jpg to simple.wikipedia.org. How would I go about doing that? Riffraffselbow (talk) 09:55, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

• On the picture page you linked to, you can see the image is on the Wikimedia Commons. Images on that site can be used across all Wikimedia projects (including simple Wikipedia) without the need for copying. Just link to it like you would with any other image. (If another image on simple already has the same name, you need to rename or move it so calling the file will get you the Commons image.) - Mgm|^(talk) 11:57, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

If in the future you find an image file which is on the English Wikipedia and not on Wikimedia Commons, see WP:MITC. --Teratornis (talk) 19:40, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Image links

How can I create a small picture at the top of my user page that links to one of my subpages or talk page? Also, how is it possible to create a welcome template? Mr. Prez (talk) 11:58, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) [[File:File_name.jpg|link=Where ever you wish to link to]], I don't think this will work if you try and thumb the image, although I'm not sure, regards, Spitfire^Tally-ho! 12:03, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

For thumbnails, put the link in the caption, like so: [[File:Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi 1925.jpg|thumb|The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_page Wikipedia] Main Page]].

I'm not sure what you mean by "create a welcome template." If you mean use an existing one, sure, there are several to choose from, see {{welcome}} and other templates listed in Category:Welcome templates. If you want to create your own welcome template, just copy one of these to a subpage of your user page, then transclude it as you would any other file: {{User:Mr. Prez/mywelcometemplate}}. Note: Most existing welcome templates should be substituted, like so: {{subst:welcome}}. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 12:12, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

template coding help please

A bit of re-writing up markup at Template:WikiProject Scientology seems to result in the ArbCom warning no longer appearing on article talk pages. As this warning is required by ArbCom ruling ("A note concerning these restrictions shall be placed on the talkpage of each of the affected articles."), could someone who can make sense of all that markup fix it so the warning appears? Thanks, BanyanTree 12:28, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

It's only broken on those pages where it is encompassed by {{WikiProjectBannerShell}} it seems. I think this was broken when {{WikiProjectBanners}} was converted to {{WikiProjectBannerShell}}. I'll inform the maintainers of that code. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:09, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, wait, class=wpb-outside is what is hiding it in those bannershells. I'll have to reformat my question on this. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:19, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

See Template_talk:WikiProjectBannerShell#Template:WikiProject_Scientology —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:21, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the ball and running with it. Cheers, BanyanTree 06:14, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism

How can I stop someone constantly vandalising our School's Wikipedia entry 200.122.177.46 (talk) 13:14, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Tell us the name of the article.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:20, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm guessing British School of Costa Rica. Dear school administrator, this is a link to an RSS-feed of the history of that article. You can use it to monitor changes to the article in question. Both IE and Firefox can subscribe to these kinds of feeds. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_School_of_Costa_Rica&feed=rss&action=history —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:27, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Sandbox?

Resolved

 – Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 15:29, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

May I please have a sandbox? Heh... I'm new at this and don't want to mess up an article. Or where to even ask this at. Thanks --Leila Gallmeyer (talk) 14:57, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

You don't need us; if you click on this link: User:Leila Gallmeyer/Sandbox you can create your own. I'll leave you some useful info on your talk page in a sec. --Floquenbeam (talk) 14:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

yay thanks --Leila Gallmeyer (talk) 15:00, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Image filename confusion

The image file for Camus.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Camus.jpg) seems to have been replaced for a file with the same name but completely unrelated to the original image - some sort of confusion there. Could you please fix this - perhaps assigning different names to both files? I'd do it myself but I'm frankly at a loss here. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.117.248.43 (talk) 16:35, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

The file on Wikipedia - File:Camus.jpg - has only one version uploaded on 11/26/09. Is that the file you were referring to? – ukexpat (talk) 16:44, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I have split the histories of the file into File:Aquarius Camus.jpg and File:Dave Sale - Camus.jpg —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:47, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative

Hi, I just created an article called 'Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative'. I have no idea if it is 'being reviewed' or if it is still on my user page. I'm really trying to figure it out. I want it to be reviewed but how do I know it's not still on my user page. I did move it to a a new title. Please help —Preceding unsigned comment added by NiamhGeSCI (talk • contribs) 18:33, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Your page Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative was moved to be an article correctly. It is no longer in your userspace. It will get reviewed when someone else looks at it and decides to remove the template at the top of the page. That may take some time, but it will happen. --Mysdaao ^talk 19:04, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

ages

Where do I go to find out the ages of the people that play on Young and The Restless. I'm wanting to know what their ages are on the show not real life? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.128.185.49 (talk) 18:47, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Miscellaneous 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. TNXMan 18:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

You can often find out actors' dates of birth at Internet Movie Database. Just scroll to an actor's name and check out their biography.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Fughettaboutit: The OP was asking about the character's ages, not the actors'!

To the original questioner: If you look at the List of The Young and the Restless characters, you will see links to articles about the different characters - I presume that those will show the characters' ages (as opposed to the actors'). If not, you'll need to ask at the Reference Desk, as suggested by TNXMan - this is actually the Help Desk, where we answer questions about using Wikipedia, not general knowledge queries! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:17, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

editing someones sig..

i left a comment on a talk page and came back to find an editor has removed the background colour on my name on my signature, stating 'fmt' as a reason. the editor tends to be one of those who feels he owns the article and everything has to be how he likes it, he even deletes valid statements on talk pages if he doesnt like them.. where do i stand? chocobogamer mine 21:03, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

If this is a recurring problem with this specific editor, it might be an idea to report it at the Administrator's Noticeboard (Incidents). Make sure that you use diffs to illustrate what has happened. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 21:08, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Have you seen Wikipedia:Signatures#Appearance and color? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Well, your signature appears to be within WP:CUSTOMSIG, the background to text ratio is 19.6:1, and policy advise no less then 5:1, so you're within that. I would suggest you discuss the matter with the editor to discern why they edited the signature, but remember to be polite. Kind regards, Spitfire^Tally-ho! 21:11, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

cheers guys, was just about to say that, as you can see its yellow and black so very contrasting colours, with bold, largish text, so I would think its ok. he was also removing ()'s from around someone elses sig, so its not just mine, i will have a word with him :) cheers again chocobogamer mine 21:14, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

It's also not okay to be removing valid talk page postings, no matter how disagreeable they may be. Only postings in clear bad faith (i.e. vandalism, trolling) should be considered for removal. Plus, the article should not be kept to "how [the user] likes it". Be sure to bring that up (see WP:TPG and WP:OWN). Xenon54 / talk / 21:19, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Ruth Gordon article

Hi,

The article stated that Ms. Gordon died in 1985 but had her performing in two films in 1987. Just wanted to let you know - I couldn't find an e-mail address under "Problems with an Article".

Thanks,

BS Buie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.77.2.103 (talk) 21:17, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Very, very, strange, her imdb has the same issue, I'm looking into it, thanks for the report, Spitfire^Tally-ho! 21:30, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Got it, they were filmed in 1984 and then shelved for three years — [1]. Kind regards, Spitfire^Tally-ho! 21:32, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I've added a note to the article to this affect, kind regards Spitfire^Tally-ho! 21:39, 9 December 2009 (UTC)