Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 March 2

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March 2

Can you edit content on the mobile version?

There appears to be some vulgar content on the wikipedia subject of Chile (country) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile Under "6.5 Largest cities", the chart is erased and left with a rude message in all caps. However, it is only visible on the mobile site when I check through my phone. When I try to access the mobile version via PC, the content is normal. Yet on my phone, despite pressing "refresh", it still appears. I would like to erase this myself, but the edit function is not there for the mobile site. Otherwise, I kindly ask if you could check and remove the problem. If this content is already gone, and my phone is just having problems, then I'm sorry for having troubled you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.29.24.64 (talk) 00:53, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

The section displays Template:Largest cities of Chile. The template was vandalized 27 February. The vandalism was reverted the same day but unregistered and mobile users sometimes see old versions of pages. I have purged both the template and article but I don't know whether this helps mobile users. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:10, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

You can see the mobile version by adding .m. in the URL, eg http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile

What are the green and red +/- numbers in an articles Revision History?

Not found on Help:Page history? 99.109.125.168 (talk) 01:30, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

The number of bytes added or subtracted from the article by the edits.--Wehwalt (talk) 01:32, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

You looked in the proper place but this and some other things were changed in MediaWiki 1.19 which was activated a day ago. Some help pages need updating. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:53, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I have updated Help:Page history and a few other pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Are you sure of that? I've always been under the impression it's the number of characters rather than bytes. Roger (talk) 08:32, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

This edit added 3 Japanese characters and a carriage return; the revision history showed +10 —teb728 t c 08:53, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Well that quite conclusively settles it; it is indeed bytes, not characters. Thanks. Roger (talk) 08:58, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Is there a way to disable this feature? It sort of is annoying. Tinton5 (talk) 17:49, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, see Wikipedia:Added or removed characters. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:08, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Issue with concert list

Hi I'm not sure what the policy states for concert list in an arena article, the issue at hand is the current length of the list in the Chesapeake Energy Arena article which is getting out of hand. If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be much helpful--Dcheagle 01:44, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Can I get an answer on this?--Dcheagle 09:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

It strikes me that your first step is to be bold and get rid of a lot of it. If there is objection, point out WP:TRIVIA and possibly WP:NOT.--Wehwalt (talk) 13:06, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok that's what I thought just wanted the be sure ill do that.--Dcheagle 13:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Help on an editnotice

Hi, I had changed my name from "Parasect" to my current username, but many new users keep posting messages on the talk page of my old username. I wanted to create an "Editnotice" for the page, but I am having difficulties with setting it up. I already have the template set up at User:Gourami Watcher/Editnotice. Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks, --GouramiWatcher ^(Gulp) 01:59, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I have created it at User talk:Parasect/Editnotice. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:29, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! --GouramiWatcher ^(Gulp) 04:33, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Updating link in a gadget

Probably not in the right place, but... *shrugs*. Following soxred's departure, tools and bots tasks have been rehosted elsewhere and most links updated. However one of the gadgets (the one provide extra links in a dropdown menu of user pages) provides a link labelled Edit summaries. The link is http://toolserver.org/~soxred93/editsummary/index.php?lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&name=Salvidrim, it should be changed to http://toolserver.org/~tparis/editsummary/index.php?lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&name=Salvidrim. Thanks for the assistance, or at least redirect me to the proper channels. :) Salvidrim! 02:25, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Fixed.[1] The listed maintainer User:Haza-w at Wikipedia:Gadget#Currently installed gadgets hasn't edited since June 2010 so I boldly made my first Gadget edit without knowing how gadgets work. It appears I haven't destroyed Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:55, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

As someone who has blown up Wikipedia (twice), I wait to welcome you to the club. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 02:59, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Seems to work. I'd have done it myself but I simply have no clue where those gadgets are located. Salvidrim! 03:01, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

It's in the MediaWiki namespace which can only be edited by administrators. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:04, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Yea, but if I know where to look I can request the edit there... ;) Is there some page that lists the MediaWiki pages of the gadgets? Salvidrim! 03:06, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

See Special:Gadgets and Wikipedia:Gadget#Currently installed gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:13, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Ooooh, thanks! :) Salvidrim! 03:16, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Deleting the User "Autofan"

Since the User "Autofan" is blocked on the English Wikipedia for an infinite time since several years, I'm wondering if it would be possible to delete this account, so that I can add this username to my global Wiki account. I'm a user from Germany (my username in the German Wikipedia is "Autofan" too) and I would like to get more involved in some discussions on the English Wikipedia and it would be a great help to use the same username, so that I can use the "global login". I don't know if thats possible somehow, but if so, it would be great if an admin could take care of that. --174.62.144.158 (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Accounts cannot be deleted but they can be renamed. I'm an administrator but it requires a bureaucrat. You can file a request at Wikipedia:Changing username/Usurpations. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:08, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for that but it looks like it has to be my account if I want to rename it or is it also possible to change someone else's account if its a blocked one? --174.62.144.158 (talk) 03:16, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

At Wikipedia:Changing username/Usurpations you request the change of someone else's username (you don't choose what it will change to) so you can usurp the name. A bureaucrat will review the request. I cannot say what the decision will be when there are a few old article edits at Special:Contributions/Autofan. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:42, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! I added my request now, its still showing that I have to add a confirmation link, but if I'm right I can't add one in my case. --174.62.144.158 (talk) 03:55, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I was wrong again. Sorry for that. I figured it out. --174.62.144.158 (talk) 04:04, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

The confirmation should be at your home wiki http://de.wikipedia.org. Special:CentralAuth/Autofan shows commons is controlled by dewiki so maybe the reviewer will let it slip. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:13, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

HOW TO CHANGE WIKIPEDIA'S FONT COLOR SETTING?

GREETINGS,

I'M TRIED OF LOOKING WORDS & LETTERS,ETC IN "BLUE". HOW CAN I CHANGE THE WORDS & LETTERS,ETC INTO A DIFFERENT COLOR? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.122.181.121 (talk) 03:38, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

If you create an account at Special:UserLogin/signup then you can change colors and many other things. Wikilinks are blue by default so I guess you mean links. See Wikipedia:Link color#Making links appear a different color just for you. It's free and easy to create an account and it has many benefits. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:47, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

PLEASE, 69.122.181.121,

DO NOT USE ALL CAPITALS WHILE EDITING. SUCH LANGUAGE CAN BE EASILY TAKEN AS "YELLING."

See what I mean?

Also, if you do take PrimeHunter's advice, then I would like to say welcome to Wikipedia! In fact, if you keep making constructive contributions as an IP, pretty soon you'll become an official editor no matter what!

    :)

W (talk) 20:46, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

submitted article

I thought I submitted an article but it doesn't appear on my contributions page or articles for creation. Am i missing a step? I thought you just needed to press save changes for it to be reviewed? Is it my error that is preventing me from finding it anywhere or something with the backlog? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kirkconnell.k (talk • contribs) 04:30, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Hm. I can only see work you have done at Wikipedia:Sandbox, which isn't preserved or submitted as an article. If you did try to submit it at Articles for Creation then perhaps you forgot to press "save changes" and instead hit "show preview" instead? --Jayron32 04:32, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Subsequent to that question & answer, Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Ian Calderon was created, so I guess that the problem is resolved? - David Biddulph (talk) 12:09, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

HOW TO CHANGE WIKIPEDIA'S FONT COLOR SETTING? Section 2

I was about to ask a question about font color when I found the question just above about it, so I read that page. I'm confused, however: does the "a:link.external" provision affect ELs that have been visited, ELs that have not been visited, or both? Ever since the new MediaWiki version was added, both visited and unvisited ELs have appeared the same way, and because I've been checking lots of external links lately, I really need to be able to tell the difference between visited and unvisited. Nyttend (talk) 05:18, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

a:link.external refers to unclicked external links.
I think this is a problem specific to the English Wikipedia and that has existed long before MediaWiki 1.19. The default CSS already has .mw-body a.external:visited{color:#636; } (color test), which should take care of it, but for whatever reason it's not working. On other languages, it works (for example, try clicking on a link at de:Brighton#Weblinks), and they use the same code. I am perplexed, so I've commented at VPT linking here. I'm not sure whether this is something to be brought up at Bugzilla or not. Goodvac (talk) 08:03, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

A reply at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Visited external links are not changing to purple thinks you want to change the default color but I don't read your post that way. I have made no change to the default and I see different colors for visited and unvisited external links on the English Wikipedia in Firefox 10, for example purple on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A after I click it, and light blue on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B which I haven't clicked. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:09, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, yes, you read it correctly. I would like to change it for myself because it appears that the default has been changed to be the same as the unclicked. It's not purely restricted to en:wp; I tried on Commons and got the same problem. By the way, there's another thread at VP, "Color doesn't change for links when I visit them; is this an update-related problem?", which I posted over there and which has gotten no replies since I moved it from RD/C. Nyttend (talk) 13:39, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried to clear your entire cache? Which browser do you have? Can you try another? Does it matter whether you log out? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:48, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Not relevant, since I believe it's a MediaWiki issue. If you'll read the aforementioned ignored VP post, you'll see all my technical details; I restarted the computer and dumped the entire browsing history. Nyttend (talk) 16:00, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I think it's a Monobook problem. If I go on Meta, where I use Monobook, clicked external links do not change color. On other wikis, such as French, where I have the default Vector, the links do change. Goodvac (talk) 19:00, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

PLEASE, NYTTEND,

DO NOT USE ALL CAPITALS WHILE EDITING. SUCH LANGUAGE CAN BE CONSIDERED AS "YELLING."

See what I mean?

W (talk) 20:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, yes, I know. You were supposed to catch the allusion to the title of the section just above this one. Nyttend backup (talk) 04:01, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Redirect the redirect?

I entered 'autopatrol' in the search box and found to my surprise that Autopatrol redirects to Grader. I was looking for WP:Autopatrolled. I asked on Talk:Grader and was told that the redirect is probably due to a grader vehicle with "Auto Patrol" in its name, although the article does not mention this vehicle or the word 'autopatrol' at all. The editor who answered me suggested I create a disambig page at Autopatrol, but I have read that this is not advised for a term with only two meanings. I could put a hatnote in Grader, but really I'm wondering whether it is reasonable to have Grader as its primary meaning. Would it be reasonable to redirect Autopatrol to WP:Autopatrolled and cut its connection with Grader? Thanks in advance. ~ Kimelea (talk) 07:51, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Proper venue is Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion (note that unlike Articles for Deletion, Files for Deletion & Miscellany for Deletion, RfD and Categories for Discussion are for discussion, although still included in Template:Deletion debates). Dru of Id (talk) 08:10, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I think that putting a hatnote of the type "Autopatrol redirects here. If you are looking for autopatrolled pages on Wikipedia, read WP:Autopatrolled." onto the Grader page would be the correct way. AFAIK, automatic redirects from null namespace to WP: namespace are not allowed, so a redirect from Autopatrol to WP:Autopatrolled would be illegal. Cheers! 217.251.166.13 (talk) 10:18, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

If you are looking for a Wikipedia feature and not an article then put wp: in front as in wp:autopatrol. Pages and redirects without a specified namespace are intended for mainspace articles. A limited number of Wikipedia features have cross-namespace redirects from the mainspace like NPOV, or hatnotes on the redirect target like Original research. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:50, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Oo eck, does Wikipedia ever confuse me. Thank you for all the advice though. I stuck it up as Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion on the basis of what PrimeHunter said about how some mainspace redirects point to WP: features. If it doesn't pass, I'll use a hatnote. Thank you Dru of Id for the discussion/deletion distinction which would doubtless have disoriented me. ~ Kimelea (talk) 07:11, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

missing children

I have lost contact with my children . The last I saw them in 2003. Please advise how to track them down. <email redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.46.112.86 (talk) 11:49, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 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. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:55, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Tag for partial deletion proposal ?

In order to clean up an article containing various sections that stray from the topic, I need a tag warning that the off-purpose sections are going to be removed. Is there such a tag, or can it be made? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Retal (talk • contribs) 15:05, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

You could use {{Off-topic}} with a talk page post suggesting removal. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:13, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Creating a box around text

Resolved

Is there a quick way to create a box similar to that generated by {{Quote box}} but without any parameters? I just want to place some text inside a rectangular box. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 16:56, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Something like {{Divbox}} looks pretty generic for boxed-content. DMacks (talk) 17:22, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

That seems to work for what I want to do. Thanks. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 19:31, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Requests for comments/discussion on talk pages

From time to time on various talk pages I'll see a box asking for consensus about merging, deleting, updating the information on a page. Usually it will say something like "It's been suggested that the pope's beer pong prowess be included in the article about his administration (discuss)". Is there a general template for creating these requests for comment/consensus? Shoeless Ho (talk) 18:04, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Have you looked at WP:RFC? - David Biddulph (talk) 18:23, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I was thinking of something along the lines of what was done here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Chinese_aircraft_carrier_ex-Varyag in the decision to merge the two articles. With the box at the top and that summed up what was being asked. If this is a really obvious question bare with me, I'm a pretty new editor. :) Shoeless Ho (talk) 01:54, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

In which case, have you read WP:Merging and Help:Merging? - David Biddulph (talk) 03:09, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

How to find out how many people have contributed to a wiki page or made a contribution in the last two weeks? ( University question)

Hello

I am studying on an Open University course and need an answer to the above subject please. How am i able to find out how many people have contributed to a wiki page or made a contribution in the last two weeks. I was just told to look under the history tab.

Regards

Shirley Morgan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.196.192.126 (talk) 18:39, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

At the top of pages is a link saying "View history". This is the history tab. See more at Help:Page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:43, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

File name above uploaded picture

I just uploaded a new picture to a page. How do I delete the file name that appears above it?

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fidelity Inv (talk • contribs) 20:52, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I just fixed it. A couple of additional points: your user name is a clear breach of the user name policy; the image appears to bear a copyright notice, but we have no way of determining whether the copyright owner has released the copyright appropriately - please see WP:CONSENT.--ukexpat (talk) 21:11, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Broken Link

Under the List of Intel Processors, under the Pentium II, near the Bottom of it is a Link to an Engineer's Example:

http://www.publictransport.hu/temp/IMG_8006-b.JPG

This no longer links to an Image. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.144.65.54 (talk) 22:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I've marked it as a {{dead link}}, but I'm afraid that the internet archive wasn't able to give me a useful copy of it. They do have a copy from 2007 but it appears to be an empty file for some reason. --NYKevin @041, i.e. 23:59, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

I assume you meant this one http://web.archive.org/web/20070310192526/http://publictransport.hu/temp/IMG_8006-b.JPG which is also available Here- Happysailor ^(Talk) 12:04, 3 March 2012 (UTC)