Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 August 29

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August 29[edit]

i am a play in africa, looking for team[edit]

i am mcdaddy kweh,i am a liberian living in ghana,i am a football. i am 18 years of age i play for futurestar in liberia im a striker, foward on my team i will like to play for this tam in my life i love it so much i want to be part of it. i am second division player in liberia i play for junior longstar in liberia i ready to play for this club if u can see me or contact me i am in ghana now this my contact (Redacted) please if u ready for me to come there for tryer i am ready. thank you!-kweh17 41.190.89.69 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 00:25, 29 August 2011 (UTC).[reply]

You may want to contact GAFCOA, which has a contact email listed at the end of this article about them They appear to be an organization for amateur Ghana football clubs. Even if you are looking for a place on a professional side, they may be able to direct you to the correct place. --Jayron32 00:38, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nasty WiKi on people who may be attacked for their logic[edit]

wondering if it safe or legal to have a WiKi here that is a registry of Atheists? As those people listed may be subject to threats from certain so-called christians who hate anything that is not christian. Page noted with all links in it to the data pages on people. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_atheists — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.183.237.34 (talk) 02:37, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of atheists says "who have publicly identified themselves as atheists". I don't see a problem if the list is sourced. Whatever somebody does or is, there will probably be people who don't like it, but I don't think the list puts people in danger. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:48, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
See Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Categories, lists and navigation templates for a relevant policy. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:53, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, if you use "wiki" to mean "Page in Wikipedia" here, you are liable to be misunderstood. The whole of Wikipedia is a Wiki, one of thousands. --ColinFine (talk) 17:22, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading scanned images of stamps[edit]

Is uploading scanned images or photographs of stamps, postcards, souvenir sheets, first day covers & stamped envelopes to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons ok? It won't violate copyright laws? If it's possible, can I upload them as my own work? Or as derivative works? What should be put as original source and Author? Gregorvitch (talk) 04:39, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on the country and the age. U.S. federal works are public domain, but a lot of other works by other governments are not. I see this has already been answered in WP:Media copyright questions though. -- Obsidin Soul 07:25, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gath, (city).... Goliath.[edit]

Gath (city) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

The last sentence in the following caption is incorrect.

"According to the Bible, the king of the city was Achish, in the times of Saul, David, and Solomon. It is not certain whether this refers to two or more kings of this name or not."

The list of kings, as per Biblical timeline references, is the historical account of the three consecutive reigning kings of Israel: first through third. As referenced in Samuel and I Kings.

Therefore, the sentence should read something along those lines.07:24, 29 August 2011 (UTC)07:24, 29 August 2011 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.202.208.148 (talk) 07:03, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The sentence was referring to the king or kings of Gath named Achish, not the kings of Israel.-- Obsidin Soul 07:21, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Then shouldn't the sentence distinguish between the two... given there's no obvious qualifications?07:32, 29 August 2011 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.202.208.148 (talk)

I think it's just the way you read it. It was pretty clear to me that it was referring to the kings of Gath in the same time period as that of the three kings of Israel mentioned. It is not about the kings of Israel, especially since the article is about Gath.-- Obsidin Soul 07:56, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In any case, I have reworded it for clarification.-- Obsidin Soul 08:04, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

finding a family in other countrys[edit]

How can a person find a family in another country, Using this wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.187.87 (talk) 08:22, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That is not a function of Wikipedia and never will be. You are better off contacting local governments in other countries or looking for help in more specialized sites. But you can try asking in Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous. -- Obsidin Soul 08:31, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Image in article pending review[edit]

If you upload an image as part of your article which is pending to go live subject to approval, will it be visible in the article on the userspace? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aliceako (talkcontribs) 09:25, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I take it you're referring to Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Freedom Centre International (FCI) Welling. Yes, an image will display in the same manner regardless of whether the page is in your userspace or has been made live in the encyclopedia. See Wikipedia:Uploading images for more information. Adrian J. Hunter(talkcontribs) 09:34, 29 August 2011 (UTC) p.s. Please sign your posts by adding ~~~~[reply]
I've fixed the image markup. You had the image name incorrect. Dismas|(talk) 10:05, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Doh, I rushed that answer. Adrian J. Hunter(talkcontribs) 15:02, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

article about treasure hunt movie[edit]

i wanted to read about the movie treasure hunt that is showing in cinemas now. i searched wikipedia for treasure hunt, of course the article is not about the movie, so i clicked the link at the top to go to the disambigation page. the last entry on the disambigation page said "treasure hunt (film), a hong kong action comedy-drama starring chow yun fat" so i clicked on that link. the article is about a british film from over 50 years ago. why the fuck? where is the article about the movie from hong kong, showing in cinemas now? i heard wikipedia has anti chinese bias?

Because nobody has created an article about it. You could do that yourself, if you use capital letter properly, under a title such as Treasure Hunt (2011 film). The claim of bias is nonsense: many of our finest editors are Chinese; but not all of our policies are in accordance with the policies of the current government of the PRC. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:52, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If you do create an article, of course, you will have to establish why it is notable enough to have an article about it in an encyclopedia. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:55, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The questioner might be referring to National Treasure 3. Wikipedia certainly doesn't have "anti-Chinese bias", although there are forces in China with anti-Wikipedia bias. But the English Wikipedia's coverage of China-related topics tends to be sub-par, just because its authors are mostly from English-speaking countries. Adrian J. Hunter(talkcontribs) 15:02, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The English Wikipedia currently has no article about the film. I have fixed Treasure hunt (disambiguation). The English Wikipedia tends to have more articles about English language films or films which have been shown in English speaking countries. Maybe the Chinese Wikipedia at http://zh.wikipedia.org has an article about the film, but I don't know Chinese. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:55, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NFL Pages[edit]

Hello,

I am working on cleaning up a few pages for NFL Green Bay Packers Tom Crabtree and Jarius Wynn. How do I go about contacting someone who can edit the main feature box to the left of each page? Any help would be greatly appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.1.229.184 (talk) 14:34, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can do that yourself. Instead of clicking on an "edit" link within the article, click on the one at the top of the page. This will allow you to edit the whole article and the infobox at the very top. TNXMan 14:36, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

redlinked categories[edit]

Why do a number of articles, such as Traditional Mongolian alphabet, have redlinked and undeletable categories which are not obviously encoded on the page? — kwami (talk) 14:46, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to be transcluded from {{ISO 15924/wp-category}}. If you can't manually remove the category, it's a safe bet it's transcluded from somewhere. TNXMan 14:56, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like the category is coming from Template:Infobox writing system and that looks like it actually links from Template:ISO 15924. GB fan please review my editing 14:58, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the category is added by iso15924=Mong in the parameters to Template:Infobox writing system. See Template talk:ISO 15924/wp-category. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! — kwami (talk) 16:06, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Photos of 1903 Cannstatt fire[edit]

I'd like to upload two photos [1][2] to Commons of the 1903 Cannstatt fire, but I don't know anything about them except what you see in the links. I can assume they were taken in June 1903, and so copyright has expired. But it would be much better if I knew who originally owned them, which archive they were scanned from, etc. The site www.automobilesreview.com doesn't seem concerned with these details; they have collected images from everywhere without any copyright info. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 15:43, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you're asking if they're required: nope, it's optional. A lot of public domain old photos have unknown details. But you probably already knew that, so if you're asking for help determining the original source, it might be better to ask in the reference desk. I can't find the pictures anywhere else online either except in automobilesreview. So I assume they were the ones who digitized the originals.-- Obsidin Soul 17:46, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The photos may not be in the public domain yet in Europe, although I guess that need not concern us. (European copyright law does not have the 1923 cut-off date. Copyright span for photographs is death of photographer + 70 years.) But I think for American copyright law it would be important to know when the photograph was first published. I think if the first publication happened only recently (e.g. it was a private photo, only recently scanned from a private photo album), then there is a shorter copyright period, but starting with publication. But I forgot the details and may be wrong. Hans Adler 19:12, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Using 'dashes' for sports scores etc.[edit]

I'm not sure which 'dash' I'm supposed to use when adding a sports score or other sports statistic on a web page. I have one dash to the right of the ZERO (-), and another dash on the top right-hand corner of the number key pad (-). Which one should I be using? Secondly, I have noticed that some editors can easily pick out the "wrong" dashes and replace them on mass. When I look at a webpage with a mix of the two, I can't tell which is which. How are some editors able to pick the wrong ones out?Juve2000 (talk) 16:02, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The two dashes on your keyboard are the same thing. They are just a regular hyphen. Then there are dashes – these are a little bit different lengths, and the standard keyboard doesn't include them, but Wikipedia has buttons to add them right below the Save page button. In a monospaced font where all the characters are the same width, (like Wikipedia's editor window), you can't tell the difference. Wikipedia's policy is explained at WP:DASH and WP:HYPHEN. To specifically answer your first question, you should use an 'en dash' (–) in between sports scores. —Akrabbimtalk 17:35, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
If you use WP:WikiEd, an ndash will show as n
, an mdash as m
and so on. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 19:06, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Company page, operated by others, no log-in available[edit]

I am the new communications director for Reflex Traffic Systems in Phoenix, Arizona. The wikipedia page for Redflex Holdings has content provided by others not affiliated with the company. I would like to reclaim editing authority for the page. At this time there should be only two people with authority to post or edit copy on the Redflex page - me and my associated in Melbourne, Australia.

How can we demonstrate our roles with the company and retake ownership of our company's page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.161.174.250 (talk) 18:17, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You will want to read the Overview FAQ and the FAQ for organizations. These will clear up your misunderstandings. --Daniel 18:20, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Please also note that no one owns a Wikipedia article, even if you own the company in question. TNXMan 18:23, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Redflex Holdings (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Personal Sandbox?[edit]

We've created a Wikipedia user account in order to submit a substantial revision of an existing article. The copy revisions are essentially complete, though I am having some difficulty creating the citations and the links. Isn't there a "personal" sand box for registered users where I can "assemble" my revised article, along with all the required citations, before posting it to Wikipedia? I thought I'd accessed such a place last week, though now I cannot find it. Thank you. AFGI Wiki (talk) 19:10, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User:AFGI Wiki/Sandbox - David Biddulph (talk) 19:13, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
But it's case sensitive and you chose User:AFGI Wiki/sandbox. - David Biddulph (talk) 19:16, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I am afraid I have reported the username as a breach of the user name policy. See http://www.afgi.org/ . – ukexpat (talk) 19:28, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Mullingar"/people[edit]

Please check history of "Mullingar"/people. Someone is libelously stating my name (name redacted, see history) and attaching comments such as gobshite and wanker. It ha now escalated to "wife beater".

How can I get this to stop - could this section of the wikipedia be locked. Can I get IP details - physical address? Is the IP used to deflame me deflaming others on wikipedia? As you will see there is a history of abuse.

(name redacted, see history)78.152.234.8 (talk) 19:31, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See diff diffdiff diff diff diff diff. Perhaps more. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 20:19, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia for 72 hours. It has only made two edits to pages other than Mullingar. Neither edit mentions the name given above, but both were unconstructive and have been removed from the articles. Certes (talk) 22:53, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The block has now ended and unfortunately the vandalism has recurred. The comments have been removed, I have reported the matter at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism and the IP address has been blocked from editing any articles for a further month. Certes (talk) 19:13, 2 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
A different IP has added similar allegations. The page has now been protected (i.e. the section of Wikipedia is locked, as requested) and the new IP has also been blocked from editing any pages. Let's hope this is an end to the matter. Certes (talk) 22:15, 4 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tool to search character string in EDIT SUMMARIES across the PROJECT (not just a single article)[edit]

If this isn't the best place for this question, please steer me the right direction..... Is there a tool on the server that allows editors to search for character strings in edit summaries across site? This would help with some pre-ANI research over spam and sockpuppetry. Let's pretend, for hypothetical example, that a mob of IPs started making minor edits in order to insert "NewsAndEventsGuy is a pimplefaced toad" in the edit summary. The tool I'm looking for would allow me (or an admin) to do a single search across EN-wikipedia for any DIFF in any page space that contains "pimplefaced toad" in the edit summary. (Although true - the part about me being a pimplefaced toad - that was only an example. The real search strings to be investigated are something else, and don't involve any editors personally.) Thanks, please steer me elsewhere if there is a better place to post the question.NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 21:03, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am not the person to answer this question, but in the interim, I thought you might find Wikipedia:Cleaning up vandalism/Tools useful. I don't know if any target edit summaries but some do monitor the text of recent changes and RSS feeds.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:10, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I'll check it out.NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 03:25, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia source code syntax highlighting[edit]

Are there any in-browser methods/tools to highlight the syntax when editing articles? --Flukas (talk) 23:52, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

With an appropriate browser, you can enable wikEd at Special:Preferences#preftab-9. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]