Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 February 12

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February 12

Pointmaster Joystick

I have a pointmaster joystick with a 9 pin serial plug it plugs into the 9 pin serial plug on my laptop but it say's in my control panel it is not connected what is the problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.19.150.153 (talk) 02:16, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

This really should be asked at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. My first question would be if this is the Discwasher Pointmaster joystick for the Arari 2600? Laptops do not usually have the 15 pin joystick port that has been replaced by USB on current systems. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 04:38, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

The computer won't recognize serial port devices... it is not Plug and Play. However, if you tell a driver or program the COM port number, it will work. However, I do not know of any drivers for it. Assuming it uses standard commands, it could work if you give it the correct COM port number (if you only have one, it is usually COM1). Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:26, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Random (specific) question about soccer goalkeeper pages

I wonder if it would be more relevant to soccer goalkeepers in particular if editors and authors would give goals conceded on goalie pages, rather than goals scored. (Hockey also?) I have looked up quite a few soccer goalies on Wikipedia in my time and always get excellent biographical information, but this is the one statistic that is a bit lacking! I am not an editor right now, but I would like to get involved at some point. I hope this is the right place for this suggestion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.77.236 (talk) 02:45, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).  Chzz  ►  02:49, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Since your suggestion would affect many articles, you could try posting it at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject American football. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:27, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

American football is different than European (and almost everywhere else) football... so I'd recommend talking to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:31, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Is there an easy way for an anonymous user to check their contributions?

Thanks. 66.108.223.179 (talk) 03:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes: In an IP's signature, the address links to his/her contributions page. It can also be reached at Special:Contributions/<address>, such as Special:Contributions/66.108.223.179. -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 04:19, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

If you are not logged in then your edits are assigned to your IP address at the time. At Special:Contributions you can enter a given IP address to see its contributions. At Special:Mycontributions you can see your current IP address (or account if you are logged in) and its contributions. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:59, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Your browser may have a history feature that might be somewhat useful for recalling the Wikipedia pages you have recently viewed, some of which you will have edited. That might help if your IP address changes from one Wikipedia session to the next, as often happens. If you are serious about tracking your contributions to Wikipedia, create an account. If you edit anonymously, your IP address can vary and other anonymous users may sometimes edit with the same IP addresses as you. --Teratornis (talk) 07:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Whether the IP changes or not would depend on whether their ISP uses dynamic or static addresses, so IP addresses sometimes never change frequently.   ArcAngel   (talk) ) 09:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Page move documented but page unavailable

Hello Wikipedia Help Desk, I moved my new page from draft status to live status. Unfortunately, the page is unavailable online, Google search comes up empty. Page move was reported as successful on February 10, 2011. How does one publish a Wikipedia page? The directions are unclear and confusing. Your help will be much appreciated. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Htothtide (talk • contribs) 12:01, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You mean The_College_Club_of_Boston? This page is really not finished. It must wikified and there are more problems... mabdul 12:09, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

(e/c) The College Club of Boston (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Google has a very big Internet to index. It will get round to this new article eventually, but it may take a week or two. Meanwhile the article could do with more references to reliable sources to show that the club is notable. The "find sources" link suggests that this news item might help, but without a subscription I can't read the full text. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:12, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

We don't have any control over when Google indexes pages, although it often happens fairly quickly. The page does show up in a Google search. As others have noted, it needs work, and may get deleted if not improved. For example, it has zero references.--SPhilbrickT 17:31, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

WP:RFM Setup

I've never done a RFM, under the "involved users" section, do I need to list everyone who weighed in at Talk:List_of_The_Angry_Video_Game_Nerd_episodes#Request_for_comments, including IPs with very few other edits? CTJF83 19:46, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

• Never mind, found the answer. CTJF83 12:27, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

HELP

I am trying to find out why my postings are not live? I created them following instructions but don't see them - this was over a month ago. Can you let me know what happened and what I need to do? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mtsegal (talk • contribs) 20:32, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You edited a sandbox, a page for testing the wikimarkup which is constantly overwritten. Create a sandbox for example at User:Mtsegal/sandbox and start there a proposal - If you think the article is ready then submit it. mabdul 20:35, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You have asked this before - please re-read the replies which are now archived here before re-posting your text. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:40, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Street

I entered South Capitol Street and Southern Avenue for information on how to get to that intersection, but the search brought up Southern Avenue and East Capitol Street, NE, which is not an actual location in DC. I don't even know if I am in the right place to report this as I started out entering the location in Google, and followed a link to here. I did finally find the information I was trying to verify, but only because I already knew what I was looking for. Pity the person who tries to find this location cold. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.48.185.144 (talk) 22:06, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Please provide links to the articles. CTJF83 22:11, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

You are at Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, and this is the Help Desk for people trying to use or edit it. Were you trying to use an online mapping service of some kind? -- John of Reading (talk) 22:25, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

I could not duplicate it. And no, this is not the place to report it. Try "Report a problem" at the bottom of the left pane of Google Maps Lucimundatene89, formerly Aroni125 (talk) 15:46, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

out side uk

my friend in canada, new brunswick cannot find what i have been writing on wiki. is it because no one outside the uk can access what someone has written in the uk? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Comnut (talk • contribs) 22:42, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

No, location has nothing to do with it. Your text on "men or gods" is on your user page, which is not part of the encyclopedia. An ordinary Wikipedia search only looks in the encyclopedia articles. Your friend will be able to read your text by typing "User:Comnut" into the search box. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:56, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Wet weather driving doesn't read like an encyclopedia article

It's more like a pamphlet or something. I know there's a template that can be put on the page for this, but can't remember what one it is (it's not wikify), so mentioning it here in the hope someone can appropriately tag the page. M0ffx (talk) 22:43, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

I think {{Howto}} is what you want. Goodvac (talk) 22:45, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

 Done. Monterey Bay (talk) 02:01, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Sent to AFD: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wet weather driving. – ukexpat (talk) 18:15, 14 February 2011 (UTC)