Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 September 15

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September 15

Wrong/Incorrect News on Wikipedia's home page today , 15th Sept 2010

Hey There,

In the "In the news" section, the top headline says that Rafael Nadal achieved a Career Grand Slam, which is incorrect as he has achieved a Golden Grand Slam, he has captured an Olympic Gold Medal along with a Career Grand Slam. This is confirmed on this wiki page as well.

Kindly correct this.

Regards,

Nisarg Dave

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.177.228.254 (talk) 02:17, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

It's not wrong that he won a Career Grand Slam. He also won a Career Golden Grand Slam but whether to mention that is an editorial decision. The term appears less known and less reported by media. I watched the final on Eurosport and don't recall hearing it although they talked lots about the Career Grand Slam. You can make a report at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors#Errors in In the news. The Olympics are only every four years and there was no tennis at the Summer Olympics from 1928 to 1984 so it's rather different. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:39, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Removal of header alerts/ neutrality concerns

There are several alerts on the Paul Steenhuisen page. 1. Material from a major contributor close to the subject. A different username (other than the first posting editor) has provided references supporting the information, yet the alert remains. What needs to be done to remove this concern? 2. Second and Third party references have been provided to substantiate information provided by the original editor, yet the alert about providing references and citations remains. Will the alert be removed? Please note that the information on the page is verifiable, and in no way evaluative. 3. The matter of notability is also listed at the heading of the page, and it is not clear why. The subject is clearly notable, as is substantiated by references and by comparison with other subjects in the same field (also linked to on the page). What is required for this heading to also be removed?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Contrappunto71 (talk) 04:22, 15 September 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Contrappunto71 (talk • contribs) 03:22, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

• You can remove any `unreferenced`, `unsourced`, etc. templates from an article at any time you think the issue has been fixed. %Gryllida 05:08, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
• The Paul Steenhuisen article has undergone cleanup and is verifiable now; however I'm not sure about its notability, and removed two of the three warnings. %Gryllida 05:12, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Regarding notability, it can be argued that the content supporting this is already present in the article. c.f. International studies with major figures in the field. Awards from peer-evaluated, juried competitions, performances/ commissioned works from all of the major orchestras in Canada, an artistic residency with a major orchestra (TSO), academic appointment and major grants, and publication of a well-reviewed book by an academic press. Affiliations include important positions with national and international music organizations. Performers are international, and established, acknowledged professionals in the field.

Comparison of this article with those of other composers also supports the notability and merit of this one. See other important Canadian composers to compare activity, awards, and achievement: Juliet Palmer, James Rolfe, Udo Kasemets, Linda Catlin Smith, Hildegard Westerkamp, etc (all cited within the Paul Steenhuisen page, and whose articles appear without notability concerns).

References are also made to secondary sources, including reviews in national newspapers that verify the activity and support its notability.

Thanks, Contrappunto71 (talk) 20:00, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

When editing in Monobook, insert options no longer work

In the Monobook skin, I'm no longer able to use the "insert" functions that appear below the edit window. I'm referring to the dropdown list that contains Insert, Wiki markup, Symbols, etc. When I choose a different item from the dropdown list, the list of options doesn't change. When I click on one of the displayed options (such as {{DEFAULTSORT:}} or [[Category:]], the text is no longer inserted into the article being edited.

This stopped working about the time that the new Vector skin was made the default. Any idea how I can get this to work again? Thanks. --Auntof6 (talk) 04:26, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't think that the problem is the vector switch. Try refreshing the browser's cache, or try making sure you have JavaScript enabled in both Wikipedia and your browser, and see if that helps at all. Otherwise, why not just us Vector? It has many more new features than Monobook.  A p3rson ‽ 04:52, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

It does? All of the features I know of are in the editing interface and that was changed for all skins. Implementing vector was a terrible and rash decision. It is ugly and was done with piss poor testing the results of which have been presented to the community in a highly deceptive manner. By the way, to the OP, I use Monobook and have had no problems nor have we seen this complaint before here that I know of so, like A p3rson, I think it's something on your end.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:02, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I have same opinion. Can't insist though. %Gryllida 05:05, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I personally switched to Classic instead of Monobook (Classic was used at Wikimedia projects before 2003 or so). No reason to switch to a new skin if you don't want to. Please reply whether the insert feature works in several other browsers for you. %Gryllida 05:04, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

garibaldi group miskate fixed

Hello, I already made several changes to Garibaldi (group) first of all must be just "Garibaldi Group".

As the webmaster representative of this group I already updated their wiki information and unfortunatelly I realize nothing was change, so please let me know what can I do to fixed this trouble. This band will be on tour around the world and must be important to have their wiki information updated and correct. Thanks for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Webservicesarroba (talk • contribs) 08:39, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

The article is Garibaldi (group). My first thought is that we need a source of some sort to confirm the accuracy of the information in the article. If the sources identify the group as "The Garibaldi Group" (in the form of Dave Matthews Band, for example, as opposed to "Dave Matthews (band)"), we might consider a name change. But, since you're involved with the group, you will need to propose your changes and sources on the article's talk page, since you have a clear Conflict of interest. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 12:24, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

DELETE ACCOUNT

Respected Sir/Madam, my name is [redacted].I am having an account in Wikipedia for the past one year but am not at all active had just made an account.now due to some problems i am deleting my accounts, so i want my Wikipedia account also to be deleted.My login details are : user name : Harrypotter2062

So can anyone help me in getting my Account deleted —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harrypotter2062 (talk • contribs) 09:58, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Because we need to attribute all edits on Wikipedia, it's not actually possible to delete an account. You can, however, exercise your right to vanish. You can also have your username changed if you no longer wish to have this name associated with your edits.Sorry, this is out of date advice; usernames (except of long-established contributors) are no longer changed on these grounds. Does this solve your issue? Gonzonoir (talk) 10:03, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

NB: I have removed your real name from your question to protect your privacy - please feel free to restore it if you are not concerned about having it linked with your username on this highly visible page. Gonzonoir (talk) 10:07, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

IT Help

Would qualifications would I need to be able to work as an 'IT Help Desk Administrator'?

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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 upper right 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. TNXMan 11:48, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this question is better placed on the Computing reference desk. Ask again there, and I'm sure someone (maybe even me) will provide a range of answers. Astronaut (talk) 11:52, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Cite an image?

The image to be cited

I am attempting to cite an image with its associated description in Wikimedia Commons as a reference in a table. Right now I have been trying the cite web template. The cite video (aka cite media) template doesn't allow a still image like a JPG. Of course, I could be content with just inserting the image in the Notes column, or providing it elsewhere as a thumb, but I am investigating the possibility of an image as a reference, quoting the information. Perhaps I am expecting too much, but maybe not. Here is the attempt.

Tacony Branch<ref> {{cite web | url = File:Phila FLP Tacony02.jpg|200px | title = Placque in library entrance | accessdate = 2009-04-08 | quote = The Land On which this Building is Erected Was Presented to the City by Jacob S. Disston Esq. for the Tacony Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia MCMVI}}</ref>

Any ideas? --DThomsen8 (talk) 12:29, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

{{cite sign}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

You wouldn't display the image in the citation template at all but just refer to information about it, so in whatever citation template you use, there would be no normal image markup name as you have it, and no number of pixels; the url would be http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phila_FLP_Tacony02.jpg.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:52, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Fuhghettaboutit, that does what I want. Perhaps one of you could improve the documentation for the cite sign template, which doesn't say what to use for a URL, not even in the example. The example teaches.--DThomsen8 (talk) 13:04, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

You're most welcome. Regarding the documentation, computer technology and computer languages and various associated words can be very confusing but I don't think it needs updating for this issue because it's more about a terminology confusion—in the words of Gertrude Stein, 'a url is a url is a url'—which, when referring to anything online is normally a web address. This will start with http:// or https:// and is basically whatever full address you would place in your browser's address bar to navigate to a page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:22, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Make an "unreviewed article" reviewed and official

I created a wikipedia page for Balitmore lawyer Steven D. Silverman in the Wikipedia Commons (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:RyanK8585/Steven_D._Silverman). At the top of the page it states that this is a "New Unreviewed Article" but that this template will be removed once the page has been reviewed by "someone other than the creator." How does his process occur and when will the page go official so that the link no longer references my username and instead is simply "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_D._Silverman"? Any help would be very much appreciated. RyanK8585 (talk)

I think the page you may be interested is this one. It goes over what you need to do now that you have written a userspace draft. For what it's worth, the article seems vaguely promotional to me. TNXMan 14:42, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I was going to say a little too promotional. – ukexpat (talk) 14:46, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Now that you have created a userspace draft, see this page for what to do next. – ukexpat (talk) 14:42, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

The article is now in mainspace at Steven D. Silverman but, as you will see from the tags, has problems. – ukexpat (talk) 16:21, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Curious about my 'Deleted Edits', where/how may they be found?

Watching my 'edit count' over time, I have seen the number shown as 'deleted edits' go up, then down, then up again in the last several months. Based on the numbers, it seems only a very limited problem (9 of 4200 edits deleted), but I am quite curious about which specific ones those are. My interest comes from the hotter topics I often edit, and as a back-check for myself, as to where I might not have complied with Wiki's intent and Wiki's many policies and guidelines. Since these edits no longer exist in an accessible way for the common editor, may I request that an admin look at/describe them, or better yet, email them to me. Such an action, if within policy bounds, would allow me to second-guess those edits, possibly provide me with an indication of the error of my ways, or possibly find a more neutral way to present the material previously submitted, or several other possibilities. Have any suggestions, or advise about a more appropriate page? Regards, CasualObserver'48 (talk) 14:26, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I've emailed you a list of your deleted contributions. I wouldn't be comfortable providing deleted content, but I don't see any harm in providing titles. I'm not sure why deleted contribs would go down: your deleted contribs show two entries for a file that's been recreated/restored, so that shouldn't cause the deleted contribs count to go down. TFOWR 14:44, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Having looked at a few of the entries, I'm not seeing anything that should concern you - it's all pretty routine stuff. A file was deleted here, because it exists on commons, a request for mediation was rejected, and the page deleted, etc. TFOWR 14:46, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure from your post whether you know this so let me just mention that "Deleted edits" refers to all edits to a page which was later deleted. It doesn't mean there was anything wrong with your particular edit to the page. If the page is later undeleted then the edits are no longer counted as deleted edits. You have edited a lot of pages and I'm not going through the deletion log to see if any of them were deleted and then undeleted in the past. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:59, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, you provided me with much of what I was curious/concerned about, as well as some simple causal explanations which I had not known/considered. Greatly appreciate the rapid reply, and am breathing easier; My question is resolved. Regards,CasualObserver'48 (talk) 16:43, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

E-mail contact or mailing address for Hans Kung

Would like to make an appointment to meet with Hans Kung. Could you assist me by giving me his contact either direct or through his publist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.101.2.154 (talk) 15:03, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:09, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Ads on Wiki

I am so sad to see ads on Wiki - although I understand the free enterprise of it. I often use wiki links in my blogs to define to detail the subject matter and provide clarity. However, often my product reviews are for competitors of the manufacturer ads you are showing on Wiki, which means it presents a conflict of interest between my advertiser and Wiki advertising another product. I'm sure other Wiki user will have the same concerns. Maybe not make the ads visible in the copied/pasted links??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.101.144.10 (talk) 15:56, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

There are no ads on Wikipedia. If you are linking to articles here from an outside web provider, they may be inserting their own ads in the redirect URL, but they are not coming from here. Arakunem^Talk 15:59, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Wikipedia does not show any advertisements. If you see ads while on Wikipedia, it means one of two things. Either you are viewing Wikipedia through a mirror site that puts their own ads on the site or your computer has spyware. Always make sure you are viewing the direct Wikipedia site - http://en.wikipedia.org. This will ensure you are not viewing a mirror site with ads. TNXMan 15:59, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

You say "wiki" several times but never Wikipedia. This is the help desk for Wikipedia which is one of thousands of wikis. Maybe you are thinking of another wiki. Some of them have ads but they are not associated with us. At which url are you seeing ads? PrimeHunter (talk) 16:05, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

If you provide an example of a link where you see ads, we could give you more specific answers.--SPhilbrickT 16:20, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

An example would be nice. (What are the odds we will get one?) Given that the vague question forces us to speculate, maybe the questioner refers to linkspam, which we should remove from the articles the question may allude to. On the other hand, an article about a particular company or product on Wikipedia will often contain links to similar (i.e. competing) companies or products; those links are not advertisements but an essential feature of Wikipedia. Also, the questioner should note that Wikipedia is not "Wiki". --Teratornis (talk) 16:54, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm guessing it is a hosting provider that adds one of those click-through ad-links to any outbound link from the provider's network (e.g. urlcash.net, linkbucks, etc.) that puts a frame around the Wikipedia content. Arakunem^Talk 16:58, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Unblock request on behalf of the blocked user

Can I submit an unblock request on behalf of a blocked user? In short, I disagreed with the indefinite block of an anonymous IP user by a Wikipedia admin (I'm not going to name names here, but I guess the paper-trail is there if you want to follow it). The admin that performed the block has since amended that block to 1 week, so there is no more issue. For future reference, though, my question still stands... can I submit an unblock request on behalf of a blocked user, or does the unblock request have to come from the blocked user?  Amit  ►  17:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

You should take this to WP:ANI. – ukexpat (talk) 17:43, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

• In general, if the blocked user cannot place an unblock request themselves (because access to edit their talk page has been revoked), they should send an email to [email protected]. If talk page access has not been revoked, they should place the unblock request on the talk page themself. If you feel that an admin has abused their position, then that can be discussed at WP:ANI as Ukexpat says. As a rule, an editor/IP has to present their own unblock request (that's why generally, talk page access is not revoked when they are blocked, and why there is an email address to request an unblock if talk page access is revoked) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 20:27, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Edits have disappeared

All my edits of the last hour seem to have disappeared - is there something up? --Cameron Scott (talk) 20:52, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Can you point to a page that you are certain you've edited in the past hour? That would provide a good starting point. TNXMan 20:55, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Obi-Wan Kenobi - I've made at least three edits to that page, which the system accepted. --Cameron Scott (talk) 20:58, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Cameron Scott shows three edits by your account a little less than an hour before posting here: Two to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ventrilo and one to TeamSpeak. All three edits are still there. Bypass your cache if you don't see them. As an administrator I can see no trace of other edits in the period. An IP made an edit to Obi-Wan Kenobi and then self-reverted. I have seen no other claims of problems in the period and there were many edits. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:47, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Well unless I dreamed an hour's worth of editing, plus dreamed me entering text, plus dreamed writing edit summaries something happened. I'm a 10,000 edit man not someone knew who doesn't understand wikipedia. --Cameron Scott (talk) 06:57, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Cameron, I swear something like that has happened to me before too!--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 07:07, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

FWIW, yesterday I had to abandon my AWB typo-fixing at one stage because the "Save" function kept failing and restarting. Maybe something got overloaded behind the scenes? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:05, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I've also had edits "disappear", until I realise I almost certainly forgot I was in preview mode and moved on to another page without saving. I've also had my internet connection drop-out on me and when I hit the back button IE 8 sometimes doesn't remember the text I've typed in the editing window and instead reloads the old text from the unchanged article. In either case, it's damn annoying when it happens. Astronaut (talk) 11:46, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I saw some Wikimedia tech tweets yesterday to the effect that there were problems with the European servers. Maybe the "missing edit" problem is related to that?  – ukexpat (talk) 17:11, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

I am totally new here and just started the "Cooper Edens" entry (NONE existed before!) and i am a total techno newbie senior citizen..

I can't even figure out how to reach a help forum... and there was some advice printed in a "Help Me" page that said i should go to my Talk page and type "Help me"... and i don't know how to type on my Talk page

There was a message from an experienced user with their User Page link ; i went there and could not figure out how to communicate with that person...

I went to the "Adopt me" help page and it said something about a "template" to use, but i don't know how to find or use the "template"

and everybody keeps saying remember to type Kasha8888 (talk) 21:39, 15 September 2010 (UTC) before my name... but I don't know how to type on any page except the Cooper Edens page, where i choose edit and just today added a bibliography from isbndb.com... but the text was not printed as the readable list i copied & pasted, it was reproduced as compacted text without any line breaks between the individual bibiographic entries, which are alphabetically arranged

I don't understand how people communicate-with-people here...?????

If you can make comments on the Cooper Edens page i am trying to create, maybe i will be able to contact real people in forums or the "Adoptme" program, etc... This website/encyclopedia is overwhelming to me... totally lost newbie....

Kasha8888 (talk) 21:39, 15 September 2010 (UTC)Kasha8888

Kasha8888 (talk) 21:39, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

To address some of your concerns:

• You cannot reach a help forum: You are at the Help desk, which is a help forum.
• Go to your talk page: Go to Special:MyTalk.
• Add helpme: Type {{helpme}}, followed by your question.
• Communicating with another user: Follow the link to their user page and click Discussion.
• Putting a template on your userpage: Go to Special:MyPage and add the text between the curly braces (the {{ and }}).
• The message before your name: Rather than typing your name at the end of the post, type four tildes (~), like this: ~~~~. This adds your signature (which can be changed on Special:Preferences), and a timestamp.
• To edit any page: Click the edit link at the top; alternatively (preferred), click the edit link next to a section header (like the one above your question)

Please let me know if you have any further questions. -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 22:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

problem printing article

Hello,

I'm trying to print the article "Adolf Eichmann" but page 7 keeps printing partially blank. I have tried reloading the webpage, closing my browser and coming back to the site, but each time the same problem occurs. Only 1/2 of page 7 of the "Adolf Eichmann" article is printing. Thanks in advance for your speedy reply,

Matthew Bruce —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.83.222.209 (talk) 23:11, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

• Is the issue browser-specific? What program are you trying to print from? %Gryllida 04:14, 16 September 2010 (UTC)