Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 April 4

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April 4

Flagging a page for deletion

How do i flag a page for deletion, specifically White House Office of Political Affiars, note the incorrect spelling. I have altered all the links and blanked the page but I don't know how to flag it for deletion, and I can't seem to find the answer, which I know is somewhere but I am too lazy to carry on looking Benny45boy (talk) 16:12, 14 April 2009 (UTC) Ignore question, I have found out how to do it Benny45boy (talk) 17:05, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

My talkpage TOC formatting disaster

Hi. My talkpage was getting too short, so I manually added a table of contents. However, since I have a hidden list at the top, the A-Z (1-26) are taking up too much room in the TOC! Is there a way I can make the TOC so that the hidden list does not show up? Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 01:41, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm seeing a TOC that says "You clicked my blue A..." etc., which appears to be a box. Is this the TOC you're talking about? I'm asking because your talk page and mine look very different - but I'm using a particular skin. I don't see any lists that go from A-Z. How does a page get too short? I'm confused!LeValley (talk) 02:35, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest that instead of a hidden transclusion of User:The Transhumanist/List of country outline government sections that you link to it. That way you could visit it when you want, but its sections would not appear in your TOC. As it is, the TOC is doing what it is supposed to. —teb728 t c 04:59, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you don't mind if they're not actual headings, and just want the look & feel of them, you could also always use ;A or <big>A</big> instead of ==== A ====. hmwithτ 21:13, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I've changed the template to a link, and to visit my talkpage, please click the "T" and not the "A". ~AH1^(TCU) 01:15, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

To write with International Phonetic Alphabet

Resolved

ZooFari 21:06, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know if this is the right place to ask. Does somebody know how to write "Steinway & Sons" and "Steinway" with the International Phonetic Alphabet (Wikipedia:IPA)? Fanoftheworld (talk) 02:20, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Based on WP:IPA for English, wiktionary:stein and wiktionary:way, I would go for {{IPA2|ˈstaɪnweɪ}} (IPA: [ˈstaɪnweɪ]), or perhaps IPA: [ˈʃtaɪnweɪ] if you feel the initial S should take the Germanic "sh" sound. Personally I would not bother explaining the "& Sons" part in an English encyclopaedia, but it would be IPA: [ˈstaɪnweɪ ænd sʌnz]. I am no IPA expert, so corrections are welcome. Certes (talk) 14:09, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for helping! Fanoftheworld (talk) 22:12, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Style on Wikipedia

Resolved

ZooFari 21:06, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Is it against the rules to make the lead paragraph of an article somewhat interesting, as opposed to an etymological/linear entry? I'm not being facetious or rude, I hope. Specifically, I'm talking about entries in very broad categories, like Anthropology or...well, lots of other topics. I know everything is supposed to be verifiable, but as a copyeditor, we're asked to pay attention to tone. People often say the "tone" of the article is too dry and, while informative (in my example, the reader learns that "anthropos" is Greek for "human being" early in the article), may linger too long on less interesting stuff. Anthropologists study modern and ancient cannibals, using everything from mythology to mtDNA to fossilized feces (coprolites). That's interesting and truthful - but apparently we're supposed to lead with..."The ancient Greek root..." (except that of course the word wasn't invented until way after the Greeks lived - along about the 18th century...in use by 1781 when Kant used it...(etc.) Is all that dry stuff about Greeks and Kant necessarily first? Or are there degrees of freedom in editing Wikipedia? I am in favor of some sort of "happy medium," but I also think the "medium" would be different, based on article topic. Anthropology is broad and interesting, inviting various kinds of leads whereas an entry on "centimeter" or "Ionian mode" isn't quite the same. Oh - and if someone can direct me to where discussions like this are already taking place, that would be very helpful. LeValley (talk) 02:31, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

The instructions for the lead section can be found here. There is no 'order' that the information is presented in, but we should use common sense to determine the most suitable way to present the information. Unless there is an established format for the articles at WikiProject Anthropology, this should be ok. But make sure you don't use unnecessarily decorative language (no peacock or weasel words etc). I suggest you try at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anthropology if you need a more detailed answer, since the people interested in this subject area would know about this more. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 02:49, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Check Category:Anthropology for other articles relating to anthropology that might be better suited for emphasizing whichever aspects you care about. I'm not familiar with our anthropology articles, but I know that in other topic areas, a common misstep is to try to pile everything into the top-most article for the topic area (such as Solar energy), instead of breaking out subordinate ideas into the many related subordinate articles. (See WP:SPLIT and WP:SUMMARY for guidelines on how we divide up large topics into several articles.) If you have some new take on anthropology that Wikipedia doesn't already cover, you might be able to start a new article about it (although starting new articles and getting them to stick can be difficult). The top-most article in a topic area usually gets the most views and the most edits, which can make it much harder for getting your edits to "stick", since so many other editors might have a different idea for the article. Look at the article's history to see the frequency of edits - an article that gets edited every few minutes becomes harder for any individual editor to reshape. If you want to do something major to an existing article, discuss it with other editors first on the article's talk page. If you want to rewrite an article completely, you can make a user "sandbox" page to practice (almost) anything you like by clicking here: User:Levalley/Sandbox. That can be helpful for showing other editors what you have in mind, with less chance of someone deleting it out from under you. In general, the more of Wikipedia's articles you read in a given topic area, the more indications you may see that other editors did not necessarily read all the related articles - you may find contradictions, redundancies, and absences of informative links. Before editing the Anthropology article, it helps to be very familiar with what's in the related articles. Wikipedia often has extensive coverage of major fields, so it can take some study just to catch up to what's here, before you are in good position to break new ground. --Teratornis (talk) 07:57, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. I have read every page in the Anthropology project that I can find, and talk pages of many of the editors. I am thinking of trying to rewrite the article completely or substantially in my sandbox, this time. Anthropology is meant to be a pgae on anthropology-in-general (which in a sense, doesn't exist, but which is always a goal in the field), there are dozens of pages that represent various subfields in anthropology, to which that page should be linked. I am indeed finding contradictions, redundancies, etc - no one's fault, just part of the process. It's exciting to try and fix it. I'll stop editing bit by bit and try my sandbox.Levalley (talk) 19:05, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

How to set up disambiguation

As noted in the talk page about The Grail Movement, there is a need for disambiguation, and I'm unclear about how to go about this. The Grail Movement that is portrayed in the article is neither the only or the first Grail Movement. There is one that precedes it that is a women's organization not characterized by the inflammatory charge on the page. I would like to disambiguate the two different Grail Movements (they are completely unrelated). I can't find directions that help me to do that.

Here is verifiable information about the Grail: http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/christianity/projects/grailville.html

02:43, 4 April 2009 (UTC)Prairiefyre (talk) 02:43, 4 April 2009 (UTC)prairiefyre

This page has the instructions for disambiguation pages. Please feel free to come back here if you need further help with this. Chamal ^talk 02:52, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

tags

What do these tags do:<noinclude>, <includeonly>, {{DEFAULTSORT}}?—SV 03:36, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

The noinclude and includeonly tags are used in transcluding a page. See here for the details. The defaultsort is a magic word used in adding an article to a category with a different name than the page name. More about that here. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 03:49, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

about the place

I am a volunteer from india working in indonesia, flores island, ruteng, would like to add information about ruteng, i live here more than a year, i can provide information about social, culture, entertainment, touristic places , food, staying etc., hope right now there is nothing about Ruteng, i can update information, which will be very useful for tourists when they want to visit this place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raviridwi (talk • contribs) 04:10, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Information included in Wikipedia must be published in reliable sources. Unfortunately information based on unpublished personal knowledge cannot be included. —teb728 t c 04:27, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

However, if you can provide written sources for the information, please do contribute. We don't have much about Ruteng; indeed, our coverage of the whole area around East Nusa Tenggara in general is poor. Please examine other articles to see the kind of information we seek, which should be neutral in point of view, not the kind of advertising calculated to attract tourists. See WP:CITE for rules on citing your sources of information in verifiable publications. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:30, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you want to start a new article, see Wikipedia:Your first article. —teb728 t c 05:31, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

There is one major exception to the "no original research" rule: you are allowed (and encouraged) to take photographs and add them to Wikimedia commons, and then add them to articles in Wikipedia. We consider Photographs to be their own reliable sources, since someone else could actually go to the location and verify them (in theory.) Please take some pictures for us. If you need help adding them to commons and thence to Wikipedia, please come back and ask -Arch dude (talk) 15:55, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

For more information about uploading images to Commons, see Commons:Commons:First steps. If you upload images from your area, you can categorize them in Commons:Category:East Nusa Tenggara. If you find Commons difficult to figure out, you can upload your images to Flickr and license them as CC-BY-SA which makes them relatively simple to upload to Commons from there. (I suspect Flickr may be somewhat easier for more people to figure out because it has about 3 billion images compared to the 4 million on Commons.) See the Indonesian Wikipedia which may have some information that nobody has translated to the English Wikipedia yet. If you are bilingual, you might consider helping with translation. --Teratornis (talk) 07:35, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

How to write my something to WIKIEPEDIA?

Hello guys, I am new and confused. Can someone tell me how to add my definition into the WIKIPEDIA world, as well as description of that definition so everybody can search for it? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by AlexanderMoroz (talk • contribs) 04:18, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

By "my definition" do you mean something new, a neologism or something you just created? Because Wikipedia is not for things made up one day. We are a reference guide to things already notable. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:24, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Even if you are talking about the definition of an established word, Wikipedia is not generally a place for definitions of words. The related dictionary project (for established words) is Wiktionary. —teb728 t c 04:35, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you want to start a new encyclopedic article, see Wikipedia:Your first article. —teb728 t c 05:33, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you can find an existing article where your definition of the word fits in (as part of or an improvement to an existing definition), that's always good. If you want more help, leave a note on my talk page - I'm a newbie too, but I've gotten a few articles up, sometimes we n00bs are good coaches for each other.Levalley (talk) 21:56, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Request copies of files: File: Outline map metro and rail Brussels.svg and File: Metro Brussels.svg but with new lines

Hello, Is it available to copy the files: File: Outline map metro and rail Brussels.svg and File: Metro Brussels.svg but changing the lines? Why? Because on Saturday, 4 April 2009, the STIB changes its lines. Metro lines 1A, 1B and 2 give them up to 4 lines. If you do not know the new subway lines, it is these 4 new lines following:

• 1 Gare de l'Ouest - Stockel (purple color)
• 2 Simonis (Leopold II) - Simonis (Elisabeth) (orange color)
• 5 Erasme - Herrmann-Debroux (gold color)
• 6 Roi Baudouin - Simonis (Elisabeth) (steelblue color)

Info: 4 color lines such as the example of Modèle:Métro de Bruxelles (in French). Note: In addition, the station Simonis has changed its name: Simonis (Leopold II) is the station on the upper level of the station Simonis (formerly served by the line 1A), and Simonis (Elisabeth) is the station's lower level of Simonis Station (where the terminus of line 2 done). TravauxSTIB

I think the best place to discuss this would be on the Brussels metro talk page. The editors there should be more aware of the situation and the best way to approach the images. TNXMan 12:30, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

How do I bring up an alphabetical list of each article I have have edited?

Resolved

I did this yesterday, and it was very easy to do, but I can't seem to duplicate it. Its very frustrating. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. KevinOKeeffe (talk) 12:21, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Try this tool which shows the articles you've created. Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but you can access this from your contributions page. The link is at the bottom of the page. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 12:55, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If your acount is set up (in preferences) to add every page you edit to your watchlist, an alphabetical list is available by clicking My watchlist > View and edit watchlist. --Kateshortforbob 16:36, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

You can also see your most edited articles using this tool to see your most edited articles, but that's the closest tool of which I'm aware. If you do remember one that lists every page, let me know. hmwithτ 20:53, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Template:Campaignbox Pakistan attacks

Pl correct this [1].yousaf465'

I don't see any obvious problem with the template. What do you want us to do? Chamal ^talk 16:29, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I wanted to add the latest attack.It's o.k.--10:32, 5 April 2009 (UTC)~~

main logo in upper left of every page ...

why is the wikipedia logo blurry?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.15.11.44 (talk) 16:44, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

It looks fine to me. Is it a browser problem or display error, perhaps? Try purging your cache. tempodivalse [☎] 17:44, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

nope, just blurry. cache purged, different monitors and display resolutions ... all blurry. seems to be a theme on this site ... compared to sites like google or yahoo! this site has blurry images/logos (user uploads not included/excluded from this observation).

TROY DOUGLIN

Troy Douglin did not work for Charlton Athletic Academy in the USA he worked for BE Soccer Academy in Seattle USA.

Thanks

Stewart Brown BE Soccer Aacademy Director (phone number removed) (email removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.208.229.132 (talk) 19:17, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I have hidden the OP's phone number and e-mail to deter abuse. NonLeagueDaily and Rushall Olympic think Troy Douglin was with Charlton. Could he have worked for both, perhaps in different years? Certes (talk) 19:33, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you have reliable sources stating that he did work for BE Soccer Academy, please add it to the article. hmwithτ 20:45, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Where should I ask for removal of full protection?

Resolved

Thanks! —Pgecaj (talk) 21:12, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

WP:RPP. – ukexpat (talk) 21:18, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Question on IP block vs account

Resolved

ZooFari 21:24, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Most of the time on Wikipedia, I am on a public network with a shared IP. I have decided to create my own account instead of anonymous IP editing. Today at some point, the IP on this network was blocked for editing. But it seems that my account is ok. Does this IP block in any way affect my account that is currently in good standing?Ivtv (talk) 21:44, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

No, you should still be able to edit via your account. As long as you didn't cause the block on the IP using the account is perfectly acceptable.  GARDEN  21:59, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

No, I do not vandalise which is why I created the account to begin with. Thanks for clarification.

Ivtv (talk) 22:02, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

If you still can't login, try seeking an Wikipedia:IP block exemption.Smallman12q (talk) 13:22, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Deletion of Comment to Article

Can you tell me why my edit to an article ws deleted? Isn't it appropriate for the administrator to give a reason?≈≈≈≈Grandparent

This was already addressed at User talk:Grandparent. —C.Fred (talk) 22:23, 4 April 2009 (UTC)