Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 October 21

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October 21

Blain Johnson

I created a page that was deleted. I would like to bring this problem to a higher authority other than the 12 year old that deleted it. How do I do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.215.244.216 (talk) 00:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

What was the page called? - Rjd0060 00:20, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh, Duh. It was called Blain Johnson. See the Deletion Log. It was deleted because it did not meet Wikipedias notability guidelines. It must have been about a non-notable person. You are welcome to start a Deletion Review but I would suggest not doing this unless it actually was about a notable person, and met the guidelines WP:BIO. - Rjd0060 00:23, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted? While you are slugging it out to try to get your article on Wikipedia, you may wish to consider putting the article on a wiki that has fewer requirements for biographical articles than Wikipedia, for example: WikiBios. Also look on WikiIndex for wikis that are about whatever subject Blain Johnson is/was involved with. --Teratornis 00:33, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

This is enough. This page concerned a 17 year old named Blain Johnson. Looking at the user's name who created the article, it is obvious that there is a very clear COI. Enough of this nonsense; this person is not notable. -- Anonymous Dissident^Talk 01:11, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I guess you made this edit. If you are Blain Johnson or close to him then see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Autobiography. And note that when Wikipedia editors discuss whether someone is "notable", they are considering whether they satisfy Wikipedia:Notability or Wikipedia:Notability (people). Try not to take it personally if editors determine you don't satisfy those and therefore call you non-notable. PrimeHunter 02:14, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Many of us are non-notable too. Only a small percentage of Wikipedians have articles. In the meantime, I suggest WikiBios, because it accepts autobiographies of anyone. --Teratornis 02:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• And let's make one thing absolutely clear. Someone's standing within Wikipedia is not decided by their age, but their contributions to the project. Twelve might be young, but if they were chosen to be an administrator (which is the case if they can delete something), it generally shows them to be mature, level-headed and thoughtful. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:37, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

template parameters

If I'm transcluding a template and one of the parameters has a ton of non-wiki pipes and braces, how can I keep that from interfering with the wiki syntax of the template translusion? Using alternate characters isn't an option- this is a simple form of what I'm working with: {{templatename|{{anothertemplate}}}} and anothertemplate is pasting in some end braces. What can I do? I distintly remember this issue addressed somewhere but I don't remember. --ffroth 00:33, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the issue. I dropped some curly braces and pipes into User:Wknight94/Stuff In Progress and then changed User:Wknight94/Stuff In Progress 2 to be {{resolved|{{:User:Wknight94/Stuff In Progress}}}}. User:Wknight94/Stuff In Progress 2 now looks like a {{resolved}} tag with curly braces and pipes. Is that not what you expected? What is your example? —Wknight94 (talk) 03:29, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Cyrillic display.

Hello,

I'm having trouble viewing Cyrillic characters in Wikipedia. I'm using Mac OS 10.4.10, Firefox 2.0.0.8, and everything is essentially on default for display (eg. character encoding is set to UTF-8, and changing the code does not show the missing characters). If i go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic, only about half the characters show up, including 'the table showing the differences between the upright and italic/cursive Cyrillic letters', and the 'Common letters' table, while others, like 'The Early Cyrillic alphabet (and the numerical meanings of the letters)', 'Cyrillic characters in Unicode' and 'Letters of the Cyrillic alphabet' are just questions marks. Most uses of Cyrillic on various pages are like this. This is a problem i don't have with alphabets like Hebrew, Greek and Arabic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.55.239 (talk • contribs) 01:00, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Take a look at this link. It appears you could choose View → Character Encoding → More Encodings and then either Unicode (UTF-16) or something under East European. Respond here if that does not help. —Wknight94 (talk) 03:05, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi, no it doesn't help. None of the encodings make the Cyrillic text display properly - most of them in fact destroy the display of what i can see (and UTF-16 turn the whole page into Chinese characters). It's annoying, because Safari shows the pages correctly, but i don't know how to translate their settings to Firefox, and i really don't understand the encoding process itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.55.239 (talk) 03:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Need to change title of article

I recently created an article but then realized that I had worded the title incorrectly.

How do I change the title to the correct words?

Thank you,

Walter Day —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.18.3.232 (talk) 01:25, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Name of article? -- Anonymous Dissident^Talk 01:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Take a look at WP:MOVE for instructions. If you do not have an account or your account is less then five days old you would need an admin to move the page for you. To request an admin to do the move go here: WP:RM. meshach 01:44, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Deleting offensive content.

Resolved

I would like to delete some offensive comments someone placed on a page. I can't figure out how to do it. Is it allowed to delete commets that others have placed? It's on the page about the town of Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, Ireland.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aedooling (talk • contribs) 03:25, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I take it you mean the article for Ballycastle, County Mayo. I reverted the last edit which was vandalism. Click on those links to learn more about how you can fix these things in the future. Dismas|^(talk) 03:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

thanks

Thank you, Dismas. That particular bit of vandalism was really disgusting and I wanted it off fast. Sorry for my clumsy attempt. It's my first time trying to edit Wikipedia. I'll spend more time researching how to do it next time.

aedooling —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aedooling (talk • contribs) 03:35, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Weird issue with page

Resolved

On this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sails_in_the_Sunset the length in the box on the right is in a weird box. I can't figure out why as it looks identical to other pages. Any ideas? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Metro (talk • contribs) 03:43, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Fixed: [1] PrimeHunter 03:48, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

nevermind, problem fixed

Nevermind, someone has already fixed problem.

Xiaolin showdown characters

Who deleted the articles on most of the Xiaolin Showdown characters?! Whoever did, please put them back!Kitty53 04:24, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Deletion was decided in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wuya. They have sections in List of Xiaolin Showdown characters. PrimeHunter 04:52, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Articles from main namespace as template

Is it possible to include an article from the main namespace as template in another article? – Ilse@ 07:39, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• Yes, it can be done the same way templates stored userpage can be transcluded and the same way archived pages are shown on this page, but it's generally a bad idea. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:33, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. – Ilse@ 08:56, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Help with navigation box

Could someone please tell me how to add the little v.d.e links to this navigation box? Thanks! SharkD 10:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I think we rarely do this because of space problems. Right-side infoboxes aren't usually wide enough to accommodate the edit links. I tried adding {{Tnavbar|Video RPG|mini=1|nodiv=1}} either before or after the title and it just doesn't look right. The best I could find was adding {{Tnavbar|Video RPG|mini=1}} after the title (i.e. without nodiv=1). —Wknight94 (talk) 12:06, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Should links to redirect pages be avoided?

When someone clicks a link to a redirect page, does it take more time to load and also wastes bandwidth? I mean, should editors be encouraged not to do give such links in the first place?

With piping, there is really no reason to ever link to redirect pages (unless it was not a redirect page when it was linked to), but still it seems many editors settle for linking to redirect pages as if it makes no difference whether they link there or directly to the source. So should there be a guideline asking to avoid writing link to redirect pages whenever possible (or trying fixing every such link if you happen to edit its article anyway)? -Raybnay 10:48, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Linking via the redirect makes sense if there's ever a chance that the redirect will turn into a full-fledged article; I seem to remember that developers said that the extra server load this causes is negligible. Bypassing a redirect to link directly tends to make the most sense when the redirect is from a typo or from a 'common-misconception'-type name; otherwise, it's not really worth it, and can even be harmful in some situations. Hope that helps! --ais523 10:59, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I can see how it is negligible when it is done only rarely. But it seems to be done in almost every other article. I don't think most people do it to support only temporary redirect pages. They probably just do it because they think it is completely equal for a direct link. -Raybnay 15:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes it's just for convenience sake. It's easier to type [[Henry VIII]] instead of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], for example. Corvus cornix 22:58, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

That's exactly my point. The question is whether other editors should be encouraged to fix such things. -Raybnay 11:41, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Can anybody translate this?

Someone has written a message to me in a completely foreign language on my talkpage here and I simply can't read it. Is there any way this can be translated into English, which is what should only be found on an English Encyclopedia? Many thanks, Lradrama 11:33, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's the translation from Google:

Title - Please help

Message - May peace and God's mercy and blessings I ask you to help the functioning of educational funds to my account as any employee has the funds and sugar

Eh... what do you think that means? For future, this should probably go to the reference desk. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 11:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• Based on that translation, I'd remove it as spam. There is a chart somewhere that helps pinpoint specific languages so you can use WP:BABEL to find a person to translate it. People are allowed to ask questions in other languages than English, there is no rule against that, but they shouldn't assume they'll get an answer. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:48, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Goodness me that sounds like a load of spam. Thankyou for translating it. I think I'll remove that. Cheers, Lradrama 15:00, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

references added

i can't find any info or anywhere i can properly ask about this, when an article has been tagged as needing sources and then someone revamps the article and it has great sources etc - who can remove the original tags? Its just that the article Declan Bennett has undergone a recent revamp and i got it upgraded to start class but its still tagged even though everything is pretty well sourced. This is something thats always confused me actually. Thanks :D Princesskirsty 11:49, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Anyone can remove the tags. If you have removed the tags but someone else has re-added them, you can follow the dispute resolution process which begins with discussing the tags with the person who re-added them (on the article talk page or the person's user talk page). —Wknight94 (talk) 12:10, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

aaah great, so i can just remove them then. the article reads really well for what it is so i thought it was unfair to have it still tagged. Thanks :D Princesskirsty 12:23, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi. The article now has some references, which is great. They were all naked links, so I have turned them all into inline citations with proper attribution information and reference formatting. The article is, however, only spottily referenced now and the {{refimprove}} tag does not merit removal. I have added fact tags for unreferenced paragraphs as well. So yes, anyone can remove tags, but in this case, I do not agree that the article has great or complete references. Every fact in an article must be attributed to a reliable source.--Fuhghettaboutit 18:34, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

American Indians

81.145.242.73 11:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)Dear Sir, My friend and i are planning a visit to America for two weeks, now i am disabled through a brain heamorage in 1979 which left me with no feeling down my right side, i can walk do my own cooking etc etc we intend to hire a large van sleeper to go around as far as we can as the country is far to big to visit a lot in two weeks, can you tell me the best route to take once we have landed, we are not interested in Las Vegas and we need the best routes to visit the US with the limited time limit we have, all help will be greatly appreciated, I realy wasnt to meet the American indians

Many Thanks

David Parker

Try asking at the Miscellaneous reference desk. This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 12:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

If Las Vegas is not an option, you could try the Mohegan Sun. There you can meet some of "the" Native Americans and lose a lot of money in two weeks. Also see WikiTravel. --Teratornis 06:34, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiMedia Donations

I was reading the page soliciting donations to the WikiMedia foundation and I think it's a great idea to do so, but in reading the section about direct deposit, I'm noticing that it only posts routing and account numbers for IBAN. This is all well and good for users in the participating European nations, but I'm in the United States, where I can't take advantage of this. Would it be possible to provide ABA/Routing Numbers and account numbers for those of us in the United States to be able to donate more easily? -Dorfner 15:44, 21 October 2007 (UTC)Dorfner

There's small text below the National Belgain Account Number that reads: For countries that do not support the IBAN system or for transactions inside Belgium. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 15:47, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

That's all well and good because that shows the Belgian national account number, but doesn't show a transit number. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dorfner (talk • contribs) 15:56, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

song search

Hi my name is Liz and I am looking for a song- on a 45 ( yes there were 45 lol) jo stafford sang "shrimp boat" but on the flip or "B" side was the song I was looking for- think it was called "A Brave Man"- don't know the singer other than it was a female- can anyone help? thank you liz —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.81.183.234 (talk) 18:30, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Please use the Entertainment reference desk. This page is for questions about using Wikipedia only. Thanks. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 18:31, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I need some advice!

I have been reading Wikipedia for a couple of years and I want to start contributing to the site but I'm somewhat scared since I do not want to post something that it false. I want to contribute but I do not want to get into trouble or cause more work for the other editors. Also, what type of information should be posted? For example, is it ok to post dates of up coming events or should you only post things that have happened in the past?

Thanks, I hope I can become a good contributor to wikipedia! =) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.28.200.12 (talk) 19:26, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello! It's really great to have you here with us. It would be nice if you would create an account; that way all of your edits are easily attributed. I'd suggest reading Wikipedia:Introduction, and Wikipedia:Your first article. Your information should be verifiable, please read this page for more information. If you need more help, just place {{helpme}} on your talk page post here, or ask me (I'm usually around and am able to help), and someone will be along to help you. Welcome to Wikipedia! Regards, Neranei (talk) 19:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• (edit conflict) I'll take your questions one at a time. It's okay if you accidentally cause more work for other editors - you'll probably get a note on your talkpage explaining what you did wrong. It's also a good idea to click "Show preview" before saving your edit to make sure formatting comes out correctly. You may post anything that you feel should be posted, just make sure it is sourced, and does not violate policies like Keep a neutral point of view, Cite reliable sources, and Don't post speculation. It's fine to post information about upcoming events - see 2018 FIFA World Cup for examples - but don't post speculation. If you have any other questions, just post here again! NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 19:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
• Wikipedia has grown a lot since I first arrived, but what I did when I started can still apply today. Instead of reading everything in one go, I read the help pages in small manageable chunks and I started when I found I needed something. If you read the pages that have been suggested by the others, you'll know the bare basics. Also, keep an eye on what you create. People are bound to come in and add to it, meaning you can learn from it. Since you're an experienced reader, take an article about a similar subject (preferably a featured article) and compare it so you know what a good article of type should look like. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:57, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Source Card

I am doing a science project and I do not have an encyclopedia so I came to this web-site, is there any way I can find out information on this web-site to put on a source card like a written encyclopedia? please repond thanks, susie —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.75.114.174 (talk) 19:46, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Here is something that might help: Special:Cite. You type the name of the article you want cited in the box on that page, and it gives you the information. If that isn't what you are talking about, sorry, but maybe you could be a little more specific. - Rjd0060 19:53, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Why is my edit not the way it previewed?

I just made my first edit of the Wiki. Being the Web manager for The Big Wu, I checked out the site and found some errors to fix. After making my (this time) small changes I previewed the edit and everything displayed fine. Next I clicked 'Save' and it took me back to The Big Wu wiki page. Now a information box that was in the upper right corner of the page is no longer there. Is this now a temporary page until someone reviews my edit or did I break the entry somehow?

Thanks! -Nate —Preceding unsigned comment added by Omnipitous (talk • contribs) 19:58, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Your Edit has been done, it is in effect. It is there. - Rjd0060 20:06, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• No, the box is there. Whatever you did didn't affect it in any way. Keep on editing! Oh yes, and edits don't have to be approved - they take place instantly. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 20:07, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• You didn't do anything wrong but just got caught in a weird coincidence on your first edit. You saved your edit [2] the same minute the infobox was moved.[3] The used template name on the page you edited is a redirect which was updated to the new location 4 minutes later.[4] This may have caused the box to temporarily not display. PrimeHunter 23:30, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

How can I find articles created by a specific editor?

I read two related articles which were interesting, and I noticed they created and written by the same editor. How can I search for other articles created by this user (apart from searching their contributions)? I know there is a special way to search for these, or possibly only articles created in the last month. 172.214.131.229 20:03, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Try Special:Newpages. Pop in their username and hit submit. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 20:05, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

But that only works for articles created in the last month...if you want more, try this page Btyner (talk) 23:35, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

how do you create a page?

how do you create a page?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Irule94 (talk • contribs) 20:08, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:How_to_start_a_page. It should answer all of your questions. - Rjd0060 20:18, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

RE: source card

Hey, i need to know the author and copyright date. how do i find that on a wickipedia page?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.75.114.174 (talk) 20:40, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

As I said above: Here is something that might help: Special:Cite. You type the name of the article you want cited in the box on that page, and it gives you the information. If that isn't what you are talking about, sorry, but maybe you could be a little more specific. - Rjd0060 20:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. PrimeHunter 23:05, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

how to make links between similar pages in different languages?

--Dimagene 20:45, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Interwiki. Regards, Neranei (talk) 20:59, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

how do i report a user that is vadalising wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Luuke1 (talk • contribs) 22:12, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

You can report obvious and persistent vandals at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Before posting there, a final warning in an escalating series should have been posted to the user's talk page (for example {{Uw-vandal4}}, {{Uw-spam4}} or {{Uw-speedy4}}), and the user must have vandalized within the last few hours, including after the final warning was given him or her. Various warning templates can be found at Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace. Your block request is unlikely to be acted upon unless you follow these steps. Cases that are not simple vandalism can be reported at WP:AN/I. Of course, in conjunction with warning against and reporting vandalism, you have the ability, mandate and are encouraged to revert all instances of vandalism you find yourself. GlassCobra 22:16, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• edit conflict) It depends. You can first try warning them with the templates at WP:WARN. If they've already been given at least one warning, and one of them is a recent final warning, then report them to Administrator intervention against vandalism (AIV). Alternatively, if you suspect the account is being used only for vandalism, then you can report to AIV without a final warning - however, it is common sense to wait until they have made at least five edits and have at least two warnings before reporting a vandalism only account. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 22:18, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Citation

I am not sure how to cite my source, I tried using the citation help but I can't figure it out. The citation is on the page for The Academy Is... I need help. Fobmcrtaipatd 23:06, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

At the bottom of the page, in the left-hand pane, under "Toolbox," you should see a link called "Cite this article." Be aware, though, that most teachers won't accept Wikipedia as a direct source; instead, you should use the sources that the article uses. Good luck! GlassCobra 23:09, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that Fobmcrtaipatd was asking about how to add a citation for his edit to Almost Here (The Academy Is album), not how to cite a WP article for a school asignment. He added a ref/ref, but what is missing is a {{reflist}}. A complication is that the article's one other citation uses the alternate ref/note style. To make Fobmcrtaipatd's ref work I am going to change the other citation to the ref/ref style and add the reflist. Sbowers3 00:13, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I've added a "notes" section, hopefully that will clear up the problem for now. NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 00:17, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Right, my bad. I didn't read closely enough. GlassCobra 01:55, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Fonts

Where can I find the fonts I can use in Wikipedia? (for my signature) --Naruto Tron 23:15, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

• You may use any font you have on your computer - just declare it with the <font face="Example"> tag in your prefs. Don't forget to include the </font>! NASCAR Fan24^{(radio me!)} 23:16, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
  • all right, thanks --Naruto Tron 23:17, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Keep in mind that some people might not have the fonts you have on your computer so your signature might be slightly different than what shows up on your computer. --Hdt83 ^Chat 00:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)