Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 10

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March 10[edit]

Help creating links[edit]

How do I make a link to a Wikipedia article if the link includes "()"?

For example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_(TV_series)

The problem is my e-mail program unhighlights the last ")", which makes the link unusable.

AmyStrange (talk) 02:27, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a header to your question to make it easier to respond. As to your question — perhaps you could replace the parentheses with their HTML entities? In this case, the link becomes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fringe_%28TV_series%29 . Nyttend (talk) 02:36, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Proper fair-use template[edit]

I'm writing an article about a church that has been destroyed, and per WP:NFCI, I'm preparing to upload a historic nonfree image of the church. What's the proper nonfree media tag to apply to this image? I'm inclined to use {{Non-free historic image}}, but Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/Non-free says that this tag is only for "unique, famous historical photographs". Unique this photo is, but it's definitely not famous. Should I go ahead and use this tag anyway, or is there a better option? Nyttend (talk) 02:31, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I came to the same situation last week when uploading a scan of an historic map. The problem with the wording of the template is that it makes it seem like there is always a better option, when in the majority of situations this is not the case. While there are other tags that have to deal with everything from logos of scouting organizations to cereal boxes to pictures of Dutch politicians, there is a noticeable lack of generic tags in the photography department. I would go with {{Non-free historic image}} simply because there is not a more specific tag to use. Xenon54 / talk / 02:45, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Copyvio and "permission"[edit]

What to do about 7Cs compass model... There is a copyright violation, yet the author claims to have been given permission to use the material. On Talk:7Cs compass model, I urged the editor to instead use his own words, and instead he just reinstated his edits and the article is now retagged for speedy deletion. So, what is Wikipedia's policy on having permission to use copyrighted words, and was I right to suggest the author use his own words instead? Astronaut (talk) 03:54, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You were absolutely correct. Copyvios are unacceptable on Wikipedia. A process exists for providing evidence of permission, but if an editor chooses not to follow it, refuses to rewrite the copyvio content, or persists in reverting to a copyvio version, deletion is the only option. In this case the IP should probably be blocked for repeated removal of the speedy tag. – ukexpat (talk) 04:06, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Revert to prior version?[edit]

Resolved

Someone made a mess of 2009–10 Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. I think what's need is to revert back to the version before michael did something wrong, this version at 09:55.

I either don't know how or don't have the ability to rollback to a prior version. Can someone else do it?--SPhilbrickT 04:33, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just press the "edit this page" button when looking at the old version, and then "save page" without any changes. Leave "reverting back to old version" as the edit summary so people know what you are doing, but that will do it... --Jayron32 04:35, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, that was easy.--SPhilbrickT 04:49, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Twinkle makes reversions even easier, and has a lot of other useful tools too. – ukexpat (talk) 04:42, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I have twinkle, and was looking for the rollback option in twinkle, wasn't sure why I wasn't seeing it - I'm running on empty now, will check tomorrow.--SPhilbrickT 04:49, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
At first I was confused sometimes, and couldn't find the Twinkle rollback options. You need to open the specific 'diff', and then they will appear. --ColinFine (talk) 07:50, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly. I just opened something else, and saw them, now realize what I did wrong. Thanks.--SPhilbrickT 13:29, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Assistance for including Matrix Telecom in Wikipedia[edit]

Dear sir, I need assistance of how to have Matrix Telecom included in the WIKIpedia. Below is my Email Id mary.thomas email removed Hope to have your revert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.118.161.162 (talk) 06:27, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Mary. Unfortunately, the help desk does not provide answers via email. As to your question, you should know that as an employee of Matrix Telecom, you are strongly discouraged from writing an article on it. If you insist on ignoring that advice, then please read this page. And you must keep in mind that your article should cite reliable sources such as books, newspapers, and magazines (not your company's website or press releases), and should remain neutral (described the way sources describe it, and not how the company describes itself). Someguy1221 (talk) 06:48, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not "should cite": "must cite". If there are not multiple independent reliable sources covering the company, it is not notable by Wikipedia's standard, and any article will be deleted. --ColinFine (talk) 07:54, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DELETION OF ACCOUNT[edit]

Respected Sir/Madam, My name is Thomas Varughese.I have rarely logged into Wikipedia never participated in any discussion and i wish to DELETE my account as soon as possible.So searched a lot of pages but am getting very much confused so is there anyone who can help me.Please I want to DELETE MY WIKIPEDIA ACCOUNT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harrypotter2062 (talkcontribs) 10:38, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Accounts cannot be deleted, because every edit you've ever made needs to be attributed to you. You could exercise your right to vanish, but since you haven't really made any edits to articles (and don't have any userspace to speak of), you don't have much of anything to vanish. The best option for you would be to just scramble your password and never log back in. Xenon54 / talk / 11:17, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mountains of the Marche[edit]

I was just wondering why no one has so far thought to add Monte Carpegna, which although on the border with Emilia Romagna, is still in the Marche, isn't it?

Thank you 79.49.66.12 (talk) 12:52, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question, although it could be because we don't yet have an article on Monte Carpegna. However, Wikipedia is a work in progress and things only get added when ordinary people like you or me decide to add them. So feel free to add anything you think is missing, as long as you can provide references to reliable sources.--BelovedFreak 13:25, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) Wikipedia is a work in progress and there are many topics still without articles. The Monte Carpegna is linked in Carpegna There appear to be plenty of sources on it so it looks like a valid topic for an article that can be verified with citation to reliable sources. I don't think there is any particular reason for its absence other that that no one yet has been interested or motivated enough to create it and it's not a core topic such that lots of people would have noticed its absence. You can fill this gap, though you must create an account first as only registered users can start articles. If you decide the be bold and take the plunge, I recommend taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial first, and you might try creating the article using the article wizard which provides some guidance. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:38, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

suggestion[edit]

It would be super totally awesome if there was a "bookmark" tool, so that if we don't finish an article and save it or bookmark it, when we come back, we will know where we left off. Like maybe a star on each paragraph that says "bookmark here", and then when we return to the page, we will know where we left off. Thanks, and I really love what you guys do. Have a great week.

-Daniel —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.228.243.0 (talk) 17:02, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you are doing something like copyediting an article sentence by sentence, you can leave a hidden note where you left off. Then, the next time you come back, just press ctrl + F and search for the hidden note. Make sure to leave a note on the article's talk page to let others know what you're doing, and this generally isn't advisable for high traffic articles.
You also have other options if you create an account. You can copy and paste an article into a userspace page and then work on it all you want, however you want until you want to paste it back into the regular article. If you are writing an article, you can keep it a userspace draft until it is ready.
If you have an account and install friendly, you're given a tab that says "since mine". If you click it, it shows you everything that's changed since your last edit to the article.
Did I answer your question? liquidlucktalk 17:25, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If you create an account, you can keep track of your contributions. If you don't log in to edit, your IP address may float to different values between sessions, and other unregistered editors may share the same addresses, making your contributions harder to track. With an account you can also make user subpages to use for scratch editing. In general, you have to save your edits if you want to come back to them in another session later. If you are not ready to save your edits to an article, that's what user subpages are for. --Teratornis (talk) 05:10, 11 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How do I create a new Wiki page[edit]

how do i create a new wiki page for a company. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rjg418 (talkcontribs) 17:36, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.
Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.
If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. liquidlucktalk 17:40, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just seeking feedback that I did this right[edit]

I removed two external links from the Show Me! article [1]. I then added a section to the talk page, explaining what I did and why (copyright violation and that the first link had - unlabeled - apologetics for the writer's paedophilia, which doesn't seem at all appropriate). Is there anything else I should have done, or was any of this inappropriate? 86.178.167.166 (talk) 17:59, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds right to me. Well done! --ColinFine (talk) 19:40, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I've just looked again, and someone reverted me without commenting on the talkpage. [2] I don't feel confident fighting this: they say it is an abandoned work (which, if it is, it is surely only the English translation that is so, judging by the article. They have not supported this claim), and say nothing of the fact that we link (with no clue given) to a webpage which begins with the person explaining how they are a paedophile, etc. I seem to recall Wikipedia had a problem with man/boy love people in the past, although I didn't follow it at the time. Is this type of link generally considered okay? 86.178.167.166 (talk) 22:56, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Changing a phone number[edit]

I was looking at google earth and found the airport where I work. There was a picture box there on airport road that said Dalton Municipal Airport but the number was incorrect. How do I go about changing it?? Thank you!

Zac Fager Crystal Air Inc Dalton Municipal Airport Dalton GA —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jetboy563 (talkcontribs) 18:46, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Someguy1221 (talk) 19:07, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia's Dalton Municipal Airport article does not list a phone number, so Wikipedia does not seem to be the source of the information you saw in Google Earth. Google Earth does pick up some Wikipedia information. You might ask on the Google Earth Community where the incorrect information is coming from. --Teratornis (talk) 05:04, 11 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone please move that image to Commons? I need that in Finnish Wikipedia so fast than possible.-Henswick (talk) 19:19, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Done. commons:File:Nash SpecOps Equipment.JPG  – Samwb123T (R)-C-E 19:31, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Line breaks[edit]

Is there a small line "spacing" or a small line break? An empty line between two lines of text

Renders like

This,

and the space between the lines is the height of a line. Is there a line break that is, say, half the height of a line? Thanks! Samwb123T (R)-C-E 19:25, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Use <br>, so this code:
Renders like<br>
This,
will display:

Renders like
This,

--Mysdaao talk 19:30, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Previous entry[edit]

I previously created an entry in the 'preview' mode and had yet to publish it. I saved it but now I cannot locate it. Where/How can I find the article information I entered? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Katherinefaith (talkcontribs) 20:53, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you're referring to the draft you created for Ascend Integrated Media, it is at User:Katherinefaith/Ascend Integrated Media. In the future, you can click "my contributions" in the upper right corner to see pages you have edited/created.
Besides that, the only other page you have edited is the Help desk page here. If you created a page but only pressed the "Show preview" button and not the "Save page" button, then the page was not saved, and we can't retrieve it for you. --Mysdaao talk 21:13, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

76.178.246.119: accidentally edited from IP[edit]

Hello! I accidentally edited Symbolism (see this diff) from my IP address, despite having a registered account — this seems to violate WP:SOCK. Is there anything to do to remedy any damage caused by this? Thanks. Cheers!☮Ecw.Technoid.Dweeb | contributions | talk | If you reply somewhere other than my talk, please leave me a talkback template. 21:39, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sockpuppetry is usually defined as using several accounts abusively to make one user appear as multiple users. Honest mistakes are not considered sockpuppetry. Everyone forgets to log in from time to time...I just did it a few weeks ago on German Wikipedia (and unfortunately didn't notice until I made several edits). Many users, especially admins, also have alternate (non-privileged) accounts to use when on a nontrustworthy computer, or to use as a doppelgänger to prevent impersonation. However, using alternate accounts (or your not-logged-in IP address) to spam, vandalise, votestack or, basically, make it appear that you are two people, is considered sockpuppetry.
While you're here, I suggest you remove the talkback bit from your signature. It's quite unnecessary, and honestly five lines of code is too long. Just add {{Usertalkback}} to your talkpage if you haven't already. Xenon54 / talk / 22:07, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Significant source tagline[edit]

I notice under Wikipedia:1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica it states:

The {{1911}} template should always be used whenever significant amounts of imported text appear in an article

The 1911 Template states:

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

The template documentation indicates that the template shoudl be included at the end of the article above the categories section.

I notice that some articles have similar statements for interwiki translations - for instance Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe, Stuttgart S-Bahn and List of Algerian Provinces by population - although practice here seems patchy and irregular.

Nonetheless, we do not seem to normally include attribution in the text of an article itself and I can't find any policy or guideline that refers to this practice. Could anyone clarify for me what I should infer from this practice - should something similar apply to any article where a significant amount of imported text comes from another free source?

The reasons I ask is that we're currently in discussion with the holder of a large volume of content which they may be prepared to release under Creative Commons and would be suitable for merging into Wikipedia articles. Most of the content would match to stub articles on Wikipedia and we would like to investigate whether it would be appropriate to add a similar tag line to the bottom as we have for 1911 EB material.

Any guidance or views would be gratefully received! AndrewRT(Talk) 22:00, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've found the answer to my question in the Guideline "Plagiarism":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Plagarism#Sources_under_copyleft
"Attribution for copyleft licensed text is provided through the use of an appropriate attribution template, or similar annotation, which is usually placed in a "References section" near the bottom of the page....
In the past, Wikipedia has undertaken large projects in which many articles are generated from copyright expired and other public domain, or copyleft sources. For instance, Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 was used as a source to build many articles in 2002. These articles were marked with the Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) template to make it clear that text had been taken from this source. Similar templates for other free content can be found at Category:Attribution templates.
These templates are an accepted way to give credit to free content when that free content is used to build Wikipedia. [my emphasis added]
Additions of this kind can be improved through the normal process of wiki editing.
Before engaging in any similar large-scale project of your own, be sure to discuss your ideas at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) and/or a relevant Wikiproject. Mass edits of this kind should always be discussed in advance to be sure that you are properly attributing your sources."
Thanks anyway! AndrewRT(Talk)
Correct. The other reason is to make sure people understand how a text came about. For instance. Many of such "imported" texts, have a certain tone and flow that is unique to that work, and might not be suited for Wikipedia. To have a note that tells people that an article has such an origin can help people understand why the text reads as it reads. It can also be an indicator of bias (intended or not) that an article might inherently have. Basically, it's a memory support for editors, who are usually rather transient in their editing and might otherwise not have realized that the text needs more work. In that sense, it is an indicator that the page is sort of a {{stub}}, an article with lots of content, but little actual Wikipedia authoring. The more original authoring takes place, the less important the note becomes. The article history becomes more important than the note you could say. Still it once showed, that some of the most improved 1911 Britannica imported articles, have some of the original prose in place. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 23:13, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

craigslist[edit]

Need instructions on how to reply to post on the personals on craigslist. Can't see the words in the box to reply22:00, 10 March 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.171.235.19 (talk)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. – ukexpat (talk) 22:48, 10 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]