Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 March 25

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March 25

Information box on side

Hello, another similar question to previous one. How do I create a box on the side of an article. I would like to put information, such as location and owners with a photo etc, in relation to my article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jacob&beau (talk • contribs) 00:49, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

If you are referring to a company (just guessing from your use of the word "owners"), then {{Infobox Company}} is the template you need. TNXMan 01:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Looking at your contributions however, maybe {{Infobox Historic building}} would better suit your needs. TNXMan 01:08, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Tables embedded in collapsible tables

If I have some table code that looks like this:
{| class="collapsible collapsed" width=100%
... other table markup ...
{|
... embedded table ...
|}
{|
... embedded table ...
|}
{|
... embedded table ...
|}
|}
how do I make the embedded table collapse? I believe my nesting is correct, is there something else I'm missing? Daniel J Simanek (talk) 01:34, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the code for a collapsible table looks like this:

{| class='wikitable collapsible collapse'
! Header
|-
|Content which starts hidden
|- 
|more hidden content
|}

Which shows up like this:

Header
Content which starts hidden
more hidden content

If you want the table to automatically show up uncollapsed, you use the following (the only difference is that the code would say "collapse" not "collapsed":

{| class='wikitable collapsible collapse'
! Header
|-
|Content which starts hidden
|- 
|more hidden content
|}

Which shows up like this:

Header
Content which starts hidden
more hidden content

For more info on wikitables, go to Help:table ZooFari 02:01, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I have read through Help:table. The issue I am having is when I embed a table within another table like with the code I show you. In other words, I need to put a table inside a table without breaking wiki markup and still maintaining collapsibility.Daniel J Simanek (talk) 04:09, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Uploading Creation of article

I created an article titled "Outside In" today, but was not sure if it was uploaded! Thanks in advance. Gary —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.12.156.226 (talk) 04:00, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

• Your IP address doesn't show any request for it and anonymous users can't create new pages. What account did you use to write it? - 131.211.211.85 (talk) 08:44, 25 March 2009 (UTC)
• The article Outside In was created in 2006 and has not been edited since November 2008. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:26, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Edit counter

Almost everyday there seems to be a problem with the [Counter]. Could somebody please fix it? South Bay (talk) 06:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

There doesn't seem to be a problem with it for me same example. If you are experiencing problems the best thing to do would be to submit a bug report on the tool page or alternatively use http://stable.toolserver.org/editcount/ (example) which is linked from the bottom of every users contributions page. Nanonic (talk) 06:16, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Can I use information i read in my report?

How Do i site this source for me report? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.109.160.100 (talk) 06:58, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. — TKD::{talk} 07:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Can some one help

Unsure where to post this...I've been trying to verify my email address but I'm not getting anything emailed to me. Been trying since I signed up last week.OhioRuthie (talk) 22:54, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

cAN SOME ONE HELP ME I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO HERE :( —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dog Scream (talk • contribs) 08:02, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Why don't you have a look at Help:Contents/Getting started? The helpfiles contain a lot of useful information that can help you find your way and figure Wikipedia out. If you have a specific question about using Wikipedia, feel free to ask it here, and we will try our best to answer it. Someguy1221 (talk) 08:22, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

edit this page

how any one can edit the page of a other persons encyclopedia. In your main page under the heading !edit this page! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lapgo (talk • contribs) 09:25, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

• WP:FAQ and Wikipedia are the place for you. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:08, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia's Main Page is fully protected so only administrators can edit it. You are not an administrator so you will see "view source" instead of "edit this page" on that page. If you want to suggest a change to something on Main Page then see Talk:Main Page for the place to make the suggestion. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:19, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Moslem Terrorism

I fully accept that the foreign policies of the USA and West have encouraged the spread of Islamic terrorism. One cannot create a jewish state for the second time (first one was on the fictitious conversations that Moses had with his Jewish God); take away the land of the indiginous people and keep many of them in refugess camps, where third and fourth generations are being born; give Israel economic help and provide advisors; allow them to develop a nuclear bomb; and at the same time ignore the plight of these displaced arabs. Just like the Northern Ireland conflict, the original inhabitants wanted a United Ireland and had to suffer from the ptotestany migrants brought in by a previous English Monarch to keep the catholic population under control. The 1920 agreement was absurd and because of the injustices Irish patiots eventually turned to violence which has succeeded in them realising part of their aspirations. The same applied to populations under the Ottoman Empire, so let us not be surprised by what has happened by the policies of so-called enlightened governments. We have to examine the route causes, apologise for our past mistakes and try and create a democratic world where all people can live in peace with their neighbours.

The greatest threat facing world citizens is what is being done in the name of religions because of the injustices imposed on ordinary people - that is at the heart of all unrest.

I want to continue my research into the causes of terrorism and would like the following information.

(1) The countries of the world where Islam is the main religion.

(2) Which of these countries is democratic and has only secular law.

(3) How many of these countries have both secular law and sharia law.

(4) How many of these countries have separate courts like Israel with its secular and Halakha laws.

(5) Would it be possible for the UN t create a Moslem Task Force to esnure that moderate people of all religions will subscribe to their kind of democracy where there is only one law in the land - that is secular law.

I am an 84 year Welsh Retired Aviator and hope you will be able to help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.11.192.172 (talk) 11:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Even though your question sounds suspiciously like homework, I would encourage you to your question at the Humanities reference desk, where they answer specific knowledge questions. This desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. TNXMan 11:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

If this is homework, it sounds like a strange course. The questioner can find plenty of material on Wikipedia and elsewhere relating to the questions. It's probably worth pointing out that while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gives rise to terrorism, most of it remains local, and groups like Hamas have for the most part avoided widening their operations beyond attacks against Israel. The wider spread of Islamic terrorism into a global phenomenon has been due more to groups like Al Qaeda and owes much to the ideas and leadership of Osama bin Laden, who comes from a prominent family of Saudi Arabia. While Osama bin Laden has no love for Israel, he spent his career first fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan (after being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency) and then later fighting almost everybody else and the United States in particular. After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the U.S. began mobilizing to drive him out, bin Laden tried to persuade the Saudi Monarchy to let his organization lead the fight against Saddam, to avoid allowing large numbers of infidel American and other Western troops onto Saudi soil (regarded as sacred by Muslims). However, large numbers of infidel troops did move into Saudi Arabia to fight the Gulf War, and then remained afterwards to "contain" Saddam. This enraged bin Laden and (according to his own writings) became the reason why he declared war on the U.S. - to drive the U.S. out of Saudi Arabia (which, by the way, has to some degree occurred, as the U.S. has moved most of its forces out of Saudi Arabia and into neighboring countries like Iraq and Qatar, although I am sure no U.S. official would to portray this as a concession to bin Laden, and bin Laden for his part seems unsatisfied). Of course no discussion of Middle East politics makes sense without a mention of petroleum; Alan Greenspan claims the situation would probably never have occurred in the first place if the developed nations did not depend critically and increasingly on petroleum from the Persian Gulf. Robert Zubrin claims that energy independence is the decisive front in the U.S. war on terror. For more about the history of petroleum politics and the steadily increasing U.S. military involvement in oil-exporting regions following the Carter Doctrine you might read:

• Klare, Michael (2004). Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Metropolitan Books. ISBN 9780805079388.

--Teratornis (talk) 21:09, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Can't 'Go' or 'Search' when logged in

Hi - sicne yesterday I have not been able to click into and type anything in the Go / Search box whilst logged in. When I log out again it works just fine. Is this me or is there a problem? DaveK@BTC (talk) 13:29, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

It works for me and I haven't seen others report a problem. Have you changed anything at Special:Preferences or your browser recently? Try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:46, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding a definition

How do I go about adding a definition and explanation of a word that is not included already?

Shawn —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shlafave (talk • contribs) 14:47, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, Wikipedia is a place for encyclopedia articles. If there is not much material beyond the definition, then I would suggest heading over to Wiktionary, a user-created dictionary. TNXMan 14:49, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary, Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Your first article. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:53, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See the Urban dictionary if the word you have in mind is a neologism or slang. --Teratornis (talk) 00:26, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Merge request remedy

I just put my article Aglossa cuprina up. It has already been suggested that it be merged with a redirected page, Aglossa pinguinalis. How do I remedy this suggestion? I don't even know who submitted it. It said to begin a discussion, but I agree with the request. I just didn't know how to do it. Where should I go from here? Please, if you could, respond on my user talk page. Thank you for your time! Nanayaagh (talk) 15:10, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The editor who added the tag did not start a discussion (one trout slap). In the merge message is a link to discuss; click on it and start the discussion yourself. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Creating a new page with disambiguation

I would like to create a new page for the editor, writer, and teach William Troy. This is a different William Troy than the one in the current William Troy page. How do I do this? Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Teeping (talk • contribs) 15:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

If he's notable, you should create the page on William Troy (editor) or William Troy (writer) for example chandler · 15:45, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You can place a hatnote on the existing William Troy, for example

{{otherpeople4|US Navy sailor|the writer|William Troy (writer)}}

which renders as:

This article is about the US Navy sailor. For the writer, see William Troy (writer).

PrimeHunter (talk) 16:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

User script compatability

I was recently informed that my new script, User:Drilnoth/assessortags.js (see documentation) works in practically no browsers other than Firefox 3. I'm still kind of new to scripting, so it would be much appreciated if someone with a little more knowledge of it could take a look at the code and see what the problem is... other scripts based on the MoreBits library work find in many browsers that this one just isn't showing up in. Please discuss this problem at User talk:Drilnoth/assessortags.js. Thank you! (also asked at WT:US) –Drilnoth (T • C) 16:14, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You might get a better response from the more technically inclined over at the Technical section of the Village Pump. – ukexpat (talk) 16:25, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding pictures

Dear Wikipedia Team!

I know I don't have the rights to ad pictures, but was wondering who I would need to talk to to add them! And after reading all the instructions my page is still up for speed deletion! Why is it so difficult to add something to Wikipedia???

Thank you! Sonia —Preceding unsigned comment added by Happysunfish (talk • contribs) 18:38, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Once your account is autoconfirmed you can upload. See WP:Spam for policy on promotional articles. – ukexpat (talk) 19:24, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Hello Sonia, welcome to Wikipedia, where even Happy sunfish may occasionally sing the blues. New users often find Wikipedia difficult because they get fooled by Wikipedia's unusual style of reactive control. Most real-world organizations rely more on proactive control, by putting up barriers to prevent people from making certain kinds of mistakes.

• Proactive control: before you get permission to do something, you must demonstrate that you are qualified to do it.
• Reactive control: everybody gets permission with no qualifications, and when they make a mistake, other people delete it.

Wikipedia is a do it yourself system that relies on reactive control. To succeed with a do it yourself system, you must read instructions. Since Wikipedia is one of the most complex systems available to the public, we have correspondingly complex instructions. To save yourself some frustration, read: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. --Teratornis (talk) 20:28, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

uploading images for use in the main encyclopedia

I have a useful image for an article containing a note that it wants supplementation. I have opened an account and otherwise scrrewed around for an hour and have made no headway whatever. I tried to load the image into the Commons to start with as the "uploading images" link suggested. Nothing seems to produce any results. I like to consider myself reasonably computer literate. What's going on here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blswagger (talk • contribs) 18:42, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See WP:Upload for more help. To upload to Wikipedia, your account must be autoconfirmed (4 days old and 10 edits). There is no autoconf requirement for Commons. If you are the creator of the image, Commons is the best place for it.  – ukexpat (talk) 19:20, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I recently learned about this: Commons:Commons:Autoconfirmed users which does mention uploading files. I cannot confirm that behavior because my account on Commons is not new. I agree with the reasoning behind autoconfirmation, but this seems to confuse some new users. We must not be getting these points across to the new victims users. Since my account is no longer new, it's difficult for me to see exactly what new accounts are seeing (unless I were to create a sock for that purpose, a strategy I consider inelegant). Are we displaying the instructions that a new user needs, when they need them, to understand why various features aren't working yet in a new account? --Teratornis (talk) 22:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

That page is very confusing because by saying "Autoconfirmed users can... upload files" it strongly implies the converse to be true, which is not the case. You can indeed sign up for an account at commons and immediately upload a picture. I'm going to go change the language or, if protected, post on the talk page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:25, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Edit protected request is at Commons talk:Autoconfirmed users.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:56, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. There are some questions currently on the Commons Help desk about autoconfirmation, and it's hard to answer them without a clear statement of who can and cannot do what things, when, and on what site. I guess these questions tend to answer themselves after four days, possibly reducing the incentive for experienced users to clarify the documents. --Teratornis (talk) 00:22, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I just looked at the COM:HD and yeah, there are quite a few questions where clarity on what autoconfirmed users can and cannot would be good. The problem with my current request is that I have to hope an admin lands at the editprotected request who actually knows what to fill in in the blanks I left. Editprotected requests on-Wikipedia are often ignored for long periods of time (or declined) when the requesting user doesn't provide the exact change requested. If I actually new exactly what not-yet-autoconfirmed users couldn't do, I'd have made the request with all of the disabilities filled in. Certainly they can't edit semi-protected pages, nor overwrite existing image files, but what else? The current page lists moves as an ability of autoconfirmed Commons users which really confuses me since I see no move button on any page using my existing autoconfirmed Commons account, but I could swear that move ability used to exist despite never accessing it. Hmmmm.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:56, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The infallible list of what rights are possessed by each group is at Special:ListGroupRights. This reveals that on Commons, the group 'Autoconfirmed users' does indeed possess the 'upload' right, but so does the group 'Users', so it's redundant. Algebraist 01:59, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah great. Thanks for the link. Now I can do a compare to find out what autoconfirmed don't have as compared with users and fill in the blanks in the request. Of course, the list is not apparently infallible; it's appears wrong as of now. I just found the answer to my question above about moving; it was disabled except for Commons admins this month, but the ability is still listed at Special:ListGroupRights for users.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:19, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The list is fine (as it must be, since it's directly generated by the software). The 'move' right only allows moving of normal pages, not files. The 'movefile' right is required for that. Algebraist 02:23, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Something's not automatic or it would be capturing not just uploading files redundantly, but everything in lower classes. Still, I have clarified the request to note the distinction between non-media file pages.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:51, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Damn, I need to learn to express myself more clearly. If you look at commons:Special:Preferences, you'll discover that you (like all autoconfirmed users) are a member of the group 'Users' and of the group 'Autoconfirmed users', and thus have all the rights of both groups. Thus rights given to 'Users' do not have to be given to 'Autoconfirmed users' also, though in the case of 'upload' it has been for some reason. Algebraist 10:21, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Lol, still not clear but I think I can clear up the confusion. You explained it was redundant but the whole reason for the problem at the request was because of the redundancy; that needed no explanation and is the basis for my clarification request to remove upload from the description of autoconfirmed users' rights at Commons talk:Autoconfirmed users. But now I see what SpecialRights lists (I think). It's not all abilities that a status includes (which I had erroniously thought), but all rights conferred upon reaching an access level. In other words there's a place where some human has defined the rights to grant upon reaching each level and incorrectly included uploading files when they did so, or failed to remove it from the autoconfirmed group when they granted it to brand new users who theretofore did not have the right. Is that correct? In any event, the important issue is that my request at the page fixes the confusion imparted by that page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:21, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Exactly. Algebraist 22:19, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia table formatting

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:00, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

I am wondering why certain rows in tables do not get separated by a line. An example of what I mean can be found in the Masters Tournament article. Look at the rows for 2005/2004, 1998/1997, and 1991-1990. There are others in the same table. The formatting in the code looks the same as any other row. What gives? WAT (talk • contributions) 19:51, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see the problem. What browser are you running? --Teratornis (talk) 20:04, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks fine to me. Try resetting your browser zoom (Ctl 0 for many browsers). --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:03, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I am using Firefox 3. Resetting the browser zoom worked. I didn't know that shortcut combination. Thank you both. WAT (talk • contributions) 00:43, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Categories still not working for article

I created an article on 21/3 but the categories included are still not showing through, even though other pages I've created since are working. Can it sometimes take this long?Eldumpo (talk) 19:57, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

What article? --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:01, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The only page Eldumpo created on that day is Wayne Powell, whose categories are showing fine (if mis-sorted). Algebraist 20:02, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Wayne PowellEldumpo (talk) 20:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

It seems to be working fine now, did anyone do anything?Eldumpo (talk) 20:08, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I added a {{DEFAULTSORT:}} so the article now appears under P rather than W. Algebraist 20:23, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See more at Wikipedia:Categorization#Sort order. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:10, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Erase the search history

how do you erase the search history? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.42.231.194 (talk) 20:41, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

It depends on your browser. See Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 May 22#HOW TO CLEAR 'SEARCH HISTORY'. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:09, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See the previous answers to this question with: Search Help desk for: clear search history. For example, see:

• Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 January 12#clear search history

The precise method depends on the web browser that you use. --Teratornis (talk) 22:10, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Request for Un-Deletion of Article of Muhammad Abubakar Durrani

Honourable Sir, Can you review your opinion about the deletion of the Article of Muhammad Abubakar Durrani which has been deleted after discussion of only three or four persons, I think this is against the criteria and regulations of Wikipedia, I hope my appeal will be considered positively, Ali Mohammad Khilji 2:07, 26th, March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ali Mohammad Khilji (talk • contribs)

Here's the discussion. That article was deleted by User talk:MBisanz. I suggest you leave a message there. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 21:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

That deletion took place according to our rules. The subject is not a notable athlete as that term is defined here on Wikipedia. The decision was sound. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:25, 25 March 2009 (UTC)