Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 June 27

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June 27

wikiporno?

Is www.wikiporno.org part of wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.77.209.192 (talk) 01:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Heh, no. Wikis are used by many different organisations and people, and the Wikimedia Foundation (which runs Wikipedia) is just one of them. They're totally separate. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 01:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

For a list of all the projects operated by Wikimedia, see Wikimedia Foundation#Wikimedia projects. —Kal ^(talk) 02:30, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Like a lot of wikis, they use the same free MediaWiki software as Wikipedia, so many things in the sites look similar although Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation has no affiliation with them. http://www.wikiporno.org/wiki/About says "The project was begun in 2006 and was inspired by Wikipedia". PrimeHunter (talk) 10:47, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

My Signature

Hi! I just used this yesterday and I'm going to use it again. Today, I tried to change my signature from DA PIE EATER to [[User talk:ilikepie2221|<c=red>DA</c>]] [[User:ilikepie2221|<c=orange><big>PIE</big></c> <c=yellow>EATER</c>]]. I'm pretty sure that in the <c> tags, I need a number, not the color's word itself. I'm just asking what are the numbers? DA PIE EATER (talk) 02:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The <c> tag doesn't work here, you'll have to use <span style="color: red;">DA</span> and such, which makes DA. The <span> tag doesn't need to have hex codes (numbers) in them, words will work fine. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:35, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

For future reference, see Web colors for some common colors :) —Kal ^(talk) 02:48, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Cultural Backgrounds

How do I look up my cultural background or ancestors? If possible. --Tralene Sasso (talk) 04:51, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:54, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hypercard - changes that eliminated a reference to my stack Unprotect XCMD

Several months ago I was reading about HyperCard and came across a reference to a stack that I had written called "Unprotect XCMD." Recently I went back to look for it again and the whole HyperCard section had been rewritten. It looked like the people who created HyperCard redid the story and replaced what was originally there and which had probably had been written by the users of HyperCard rather than the creators. Both versions seemed equally valid so I have no complaint with the new version. I hope though that it is possible to retrieve all previous versions of a page like uncovering one city on top of another at an archeological dig. If this is the case and I hope it is, how do I go about locating the previous layers of pages the lead back into the past? John Durocher <e-mail redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.102.105 (talk) 06:01, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

It is possible to see all old versions of articles if you click on the "History" tab on the top of the page. It is to the right of "edit this page". Have a nice day!--SJP (talk) 06:46, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

If you play around in the history section, you should be able to figure out how to compare versions — (these comparisons are known as "diffs"). See Help:Page history for more info. $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 19:01, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I asked the original question above. I searched using the "History" tab and could find no reference to my stack/XCMD Unprotect XCMD which someone had entered in an earlier version. Does this mean it was thrown away and more importantly that data in general can be thrown away? If so this site will be much less interesting to me. I think every clearly non-obscene comment should be preserved whatever is left floating on the top page as the current consensus. Every controversy with its tail of flaming bloguments is interesting and in my opinion worth saving. So is everything saved or not? If it is how come I can’t find what I’m looking for using either Wwikipedia’s search engine or Google’s?

Financial aid

(request for money removed). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Legesse desalegn (talk • contribs) 09:34, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Sorry but this is not a place to ask for money. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Differecnes

How is [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]] different from [[Category:Blue Ensigns|A]]?68.148.164.166 (talk) 07:58, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

In most cases, the text after a pipe is the "show text." [[The weather in London|Timmy]] produces Timmy. With categories, the text after a pipe is the "sortkey" -- when looking at pages in a category, they'll be sorted alphabetically (using the sortkey if one is provided, or the page name if not). Among other uses, this is helpful for biographies, since we want to alphabetize those by last name, rather than first name. WP:SORTKEY has some more information. – Luna Santin (talk) 08:20, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

But what about [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]]? Category:Blue Ensigns does not have a category: British Indian Ocean Territory.68.148.164.166 (talk) 10:08, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

It determines the sort order among the pages listed in Category:Blue Ensigns. If an article contains [[Category:Blue Ensigns|British Indian Ocean Territory]] then it will sorted in the category like if the article had been called "British Indian Ocean Territory" (but the real name will still be displayed). It's practical to have an article like Flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory sorted under B for "British Indian Ocean Territory" instead of F for "Flag of ..." in a category like Category:Blue Ensigns. So I have reverted your edit.[1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:25, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Flag of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Flag of the Cape Colony are currectly listed under F in Category:Blue Ensigns because they have no sortkey for the category. If nobody else has changed it already then you can fix it by editing those articles and see how they change their placement in the category. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Citing References

I'm adding an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuzuyu) but I can't figure out how to make a reference (Like this^[1]) link to the URL on the bottom of the page. T_T —Preceding unsigned comment added by GentleSpringRain (talk • contribs) 11:20, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Use the syntax <ref>http://www.example.com</ref>. You can also put a template like {{cite web}} inside the <ref> tags. Xenon54 11:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

You would put the "<ref>http://www.example.com</ref>" where you want each^[1] to appear, and then just put <references/> where you want the list of actual reference text to be (i.e., in the "References" section of the article). I updated Kuzuyu to show you in-place.

If you wanted to use the same reference twice, you could name it the first time it appears — <ref name="reusable-reference">http://www.example.com</ref> — and then to point to that same reference in another place you can just do <ref name="reusable-reference/> to say that it is the same one. How's that? --_{tiny plastic} Grey Knight ⊖ 11:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The chart below should help:

Formatting references using inline citations

Inline citation code; what you type in 'edit mode'	What it produces when you save
Two separate citations.<ref>Citation text.</ref><ref>Citation text2.</ref> Multiple<ref name="multiple">Citation text3.</ref> citation<ref name="multiple" /> use.<ref name="multiple" /> References {{reflist}}	Two separate citations. Multiple citation use. References
Templates that can be used between <ref>...</ref> tags to format your references {{Citation}} {{Cite web}} {{Cite book}} {{Cite news}} {{Cite journal}} Others Examples

--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:45, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much! GentleSpringRain (talk) 11:44, 27 June 2008 (UTC)GentleSpringRain

I have a tutorial at Wikipedia:WikiProject Scouting/References that includes troubleshooting. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Also see WP:EIW#Citetools and {{Google scholar cite}} for some tools for finding references and/or generating citation templates automatically. --Teratornis (talk) 16:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Forgottan Login Password

It is unfortunate that I have forgotton my login password. I havn't even supplied my e-mail ID when account was created, so I cannot receive the e-mail about new password. What is remedy? I just know my login ID. Please help by conveying way to retrive password and allow me to contribute again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.170.166 (talk) 12:01, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

This is why you should have supplied an emailadress. We are very sorry, but there is no way that we can retrieve your password. Your only option now is to create a new account. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:21, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Statistical analysis

Is it possible to search wikipedia for the number of articles that contain a specific phrase, rather than view every article? 87.86.35.34 (talk) 13:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the left-hand side of the page near the top, you'll see a search bar. Alternately, you can look here or here. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 13:37, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Search to learn about Wikipedia's built-in search feature and its limitations. See WP:EIW#Search for links to third-party search tools. You can use the {{Google wikipedia}} template to search for exact phrases on Wikipedia, for example:

• Search Wikipedia with Google for: "statistical analysis"

but Google's custom search feature provides no simple way that I know of to restrict the search only to articles; Google may also find the search phrase on pages in the other Wikipedia namespaces. (The {{Google custom}} template lets you search individual namespaces on Wikipedia; but unlike all the other namespaces, the main article namespace has no prefix, and thus nothing we can use to tell Google to search only there.) If you want to analyze Wikipedia statistically, see WP:EIW#Query and WP:EIW#Research. --Teratornis (talk) 16:15, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

LOOKING FOR A JOB AT SINGAPORE

DEAR SIR, I AM WORKING AS A CHIEF ENGR IN MSC. I HAVE 18 YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE.I HAVE 54 MONTHS WORK EXPERIENCE AS A CHIEF ENGR. I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN IN YOUR GOOD COMPANY AS A SURVEYOR. NOW I AM AT HOME. I AM READY TO JOIN AND I WILL BE AVAILABLE BY 15TH JULY 2008.

PLEASE ADVISE. BEST RGDS.

CHIEF ENGINEER DHAKA, BANGLADESH. <redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.190.33.94 (talk) 16:32, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with an article on an association which is hiring or to which you would like to apply for a job. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free 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; we are not the organization to which your job application is intended, nor are we affiliated with that organization. Best of luck.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:06, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

And don't submit your application in ALL CAPS - it looks pretty terrible...... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 18:04, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Not only does it look bad, it means that you are yelling which is frowned upon here at Wikipedia. Please do not do that again. Thanks, RyRy5 (talk) 00:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

I did an ip trace to see if this was someone just goofing off. Or if it was something we might should delte. turns out the IP is in Bangladesh. I think I should atleast delete his name.Swampfire (talk) 00:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Signpost

What's going on with the Wikipedia Signpost? It used to be updated on Monday or Tuesday, but recently it's been much, much later. Last week, it wasn't updated at all, and it still hasn't been!75.104.128.59 (talk) 16:35, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

I had been wondering about this as well, but the new one came out yesterday, I think. Here is a note about the recent delay, looks like it was a temporary thing. AlexiusHoratius (talk) 16:39, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Drawn images, licensing?

I've drawn out a few very small resolution images for use in the article, Raven (game show). They are not screenshots, but they are a pretty accurate representation of the ones used on the show, which themselves look hand drawn; I drew these to solve an edit dispute with regards to their naming, and I uploaded them as free content. I'm now beginning to have my doubts as I am not the person that designed them, but I cannot find a license that would cover them under non-free content from the choices presented to me on the image upload box. As trifling as it might appear to other editors I am really interested in your opinions as I would like to get this one right, as I mean no offence to the show's crew, the producers, or the designers who originally came up with these, by claiming I have copyright, which is what the free-use template seems to be implying. Can they remain as free content, and regardless, if I do put them as non-free, what license would you choose? SynergyBlades (talk) 17:24, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The problem we face here is how close do they resemble the copyrighted images? If they are sufficiently original they are not a violation of the copyrights, but then again, if they are original then they may violate WP:NOR. Your talking about this image, right? ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 18:51, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Good point about NOR - I think, to avoid that possibility, they are close enough to be classed as something taken from the screen - just very clear, very specific screenshots. :) In that case I could use the TV screenshot non-free template; it just seemed like they didn't quite fit into one specific category (I even looked at logo, but that didn't seem to be appropriate either). Thanks for the help though, I shall consider which to put in. SynergyBlades (talk) 22:04, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Ancient Middle-Eastern Mythology Templates

These are a real mess. I'd like to clean them up, but such an action will likely result in toe-stepping, and I'm not sure where to discuss the issue because it spans so many pages, and most of the relevant Talk pages haven't seen any traffic in a long time.

There are a bunch of templates for the "Myths of the Fertile Crescent series", each of which differs from the rest in inappropriate ways:

• Template:Fertile Crescent myth
• Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Arabian)
• Template:Fertile Crescent myth (Levantine)
• Template:Meso_myth

And then there's this list which isn't part of that self-described "series", but is apparently an independent stab at the same info:

• Template:Middle Eastern deities

Anyway, my question is this: Where should I be talking about the cleanup I think is necessary, given the disjointed nature of the subjects in question? E^robson (T^alk) 20:12, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Look at the talk page for {{Meso_myth}} and you will see that is is under the purview of Wikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near East. Discuss this on their talk page, and consider joining that project. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:09, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I'll give that a try. Thanks! E^robson (T^alk) 21:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

How to use Contents in Navigation

I am trying to enter a backstory on a fictional character but cannot access the contents page to put in (i.e. Personal History, Background, etc..) Can you please ashow me the correct link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Miker3870 (talk • contribs) 20:41, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

You can simply click the "Edit" link at the top of the page to edit the page's contents. Gary King (talk) 20:54, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Remember titles are like this:

== History ==

And make sure it is notable.

See Help:Section (especially Help:Section#Table of contents (TOC)). --Teratornis (talk) 22:19, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

The table of contents is generated automatically. You just put in the section headings in the articles with two equals signs on each side, as Teratornis suggested, and they will automatically appear in the table of contents. ☺ Coppertwig (talk) 02:23, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Just for the record, I did not give the example of formatting the section heading. A previous editor added that, but had an unclosed nowiki tag that ate the signature. I closed the tag, but then the previous editor's (unprocessed) signature tag was going to show up incorrectly as my signature, so I deleted it. My comment begins with: See Help:Section. --Teratornis (talk) 14:51, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Add

how do i add an "article" (thats what ill call it) i dont see it anywhere someone please help me! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reesespiece100 (talk • contribs) 22:57, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi there. Type the name of your new article into the search box on the left, and press Go. It will tell you that "No page with that title exists". Now you want to look for "Create the page including your references" (should be a red link). Click that, and away you go. :) SynergyBlades (talk) 23:00, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Please see Your first article.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article.
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 23:02, 27 June 2008 (UTC)