Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 November 15

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November 15

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__NOEDITSECTION__

When transcluded, the __NOEDITSECTION__ should apply only to the template. The parameter will is the heading title. If you wanted to edit a different subpage, change {{#if:{{{1|}}}|[[{{fullurl:{{{1}}}|action=edit}} edit]]| }} to {{#if:{{{2|}}}|[[{{fullurl:{{{2}}}|action=edit}} edit]]| }} where the second parameter is a subpage. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:30, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

User Page

I have recently changed my name but all or my previous edit counts, contributions are gone and I can't upload anything. Is there someway I can get it all back? Colleen16 (talk) 02:36, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Did you actually get a username change (ie. with WP:CHU), or did you simply just make a new account? The former will preserve your history and contributions, the latter will not. GlassCobra 02:38, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

How many contributions did you have before (if) you went through CHU? If you had a lot, your account may have been "broken". Intelligentsium 02:45, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Your username was successfully changed from Colleen16 to InkHeart, as you requested at Wikipedia:Changing username. Your edit count, contributions, user page, user talk page, etc. were moved to your new account, InkHeart. If you log in as InkHeart, you'll see everything. --Mysdaao ^talk 02:47, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

WP page hit counter

Any suggestions as to the best one out there? hydnjo (talk) 03:18, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

This is the only one of which I am aware. Intelligentsium 03:27, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Intelligentsium, that's exactly what I was looking for :) hydnjo (talk) 03:53, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Stalker

There is en editor stalking my edits. What should I do? User:Mosmof has been going through all of my images and adding deletion tags on them. Colleen16 (talk) 06:05, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

You should assume good faith on the part of Mosmof, and participate civilly in the deletion discussions for those images. Also, please stick to posting with only one account. Since your rename you have switched back and forth between InkHeart and the recreated Colleen16 account. Please take care to ensure you are logged into the correct account. It may help to clear cookies and any saved passwords in your browser. AJCham 06:38, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. The images all appear to fail Wikipedia's fair use policy for re-using copyrighted work; therefore tagging them for deletion seems appropriate. If you have a reason why the images are NOT in violation of the fair use policy, you should raise those reasons at the deletion discussions linked from each image's information page. --Jayron32 06:42, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

1968 CALENDER

WHICH WAS THE WEEK DAY ON JANUARY 20TH 1968 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.95.25.255 (talk) 08:59, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

These questions tend to be answered very easily simply by typing the keywords into Google: I did this for you, and it turns out the answer is in the first link. For future reference, this page is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. More general questions should be directed to the reference desk. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:24, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

For future reference, if you look at the 1968 article, you will find that with each "events" month, there should be a calendar for that month. In 1968's case, there wasn't one for January, for some reason - although I have now added it. Thanks for you question, as I wouldn't have noticed this otherwise! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:55, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Phantomsteve, the calendar for January that you added shows January 1 to be a Tuesday, while the article lead says that the year started with a Monday. Please correct your mistake. Cheers, --Siddhant (talk) 07:20, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the note - although you could have corrected it yourself! It has now been corrected. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 15:05, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

How do you create an FAQ?

Some articles, like Global warming, have an FAQ embedded in the discussion page so editors who watch the article don't have to answer the same question multiple times. It's been suggested that an FAQ be created for Scientific opinion on climate change. Unfortunately, I'm not finding any policy guidelines or instructions for creating an FAQ for a specific article. Where to I go?--CurtisSwain (talk) 09:23, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

There isn't one. In fact, this suggestion is the only linked mention of the FAQ template in namespace 4. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:30, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

That's what I'm looking for! Thanks guy!--CurtisSwain (talk) 09:37, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Newly registered; need a move

Hi. I'm newly registered and computer illiterate... I can't understand and follow all your confusing instructions and links. I edited an article and decided to write my own as a result, to be a link from what I edited. I think I have propely made references, but a link I tried creating works when I type it into Google but not as itself. I guess I need help with RochelleCurtis/ThePalaceGuard in the wizard. I got so confused and frustrated with your tutorials and cross-references that I'm not sure I have done anything right. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by RochelleCurtis (talk • contribs) 11:14, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

According to your contributions, you have only made one edit (excluding this one) which was to add a missing band member. It is possible you did not save; you accidentally hit "Preview" instead. If so, I regret to say that you'll have to start over. Intelligentsium 17:17, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi Rochelle. I'm sorry you're struggling with Wikipedia's instructions and tutorials. It's true that it can be a steep learning curve here at first, but there's a lot of help around if you need it. Creating a new article is one of the more complicated processes here, and some users don't do so for quite a while, preferring to make minor improvements and additions to existing articles while they find their way around and become familiar with how Wikipedia works. There's a lot of guidance aimed at those creating new articles, which is why you may be feeling a bit swamped with advice.

Creating your article as a user subpage is a good idea, so you can work on it in your userspace with little risk of it being deleted. IIf you click on User:RochelleCurtis/The Palace Guard, type in the box, then save your work, you'll create the page you need. Don't hesitate to ask for further help with your article as it progresses. Karenjc 17:50, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Did you click on the Show Preview button instead of the Publish changes button?

Edit summary (Briefly describe your changes)

 

This is a minor edit Watch this page

By publishing changes, you agree to the Terms of Use, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 4.0 License and the GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.

Publish changes Show preview Show changes Cancel

If you didn't click on Publish changes, the edit wasn't saved. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:58, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Talk pages of pages that became redirects

What is one supposed to do with talk pages of pages which were later redirected to another page? Any guideline or advice on it? E.g., sometimes other names for things result in two parallel articles. One is later merged or redirected and they end up with parallel talk headers. Should they just be ignored, or redirected to the talk page of the new article, or redirected and merged if there are any posts worth salvaging? If not redirected, what about the {{WPBiography}} templates? Should I change class to stub (which is what I've been doing)? What about changing living to no, otherwise it appears on lists like Wikipedia:Uncategorized biographies of living people/BLPPotential. The instructions on those lists say to add "|non-bio=yes" but that does not actually seem to be a real parameter and does nothing. • Anakin ^(talk) 12:48, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Here are a few I did so you can see what I mean. They're all inconsistent: [1], [2], [3]. One could argue that they're all valid, but they all feel equally imperfect. • Anakin ^(talk) 12:55, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Your third example looks like the best solution. Redirect the talk page of the redirect to the talk page of the target article. When all we have for a person is a redirect of their name to some other article, I would argue that no 'biography' exists and there is no need to use a WPBiography template on anything related to them. If you create such a redirect, I agree that any useful content of the talk page should be merged to the talk page of the target. EdJohnston (talk) 14:32, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks I'll do that in future. • Anakin ^(talk) 17:53, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Creating pages

hi how can i make my own page ~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iamanshjain (talk • contribs) 13:49, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is available to walk you through creating an article. GlassCobra 14:18, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

You have a user page which can be used to tell other Wikipedians a little about yourself and your interests in contributing and editing here. To start editing it, click on this link, type into the box and save. Please note that Wikipedia is not a web host or social network and isn't an appropriate place for lots of personal information unrelated to the purpose of the project, which is to build an encyclopaedia. There's guidance about what is and is not acceptable on a user page at WP:USERPAGE. As far as an article about yourself is concerned, GlassCobra's advice above is comprehensive and correct. Unless you're a notable subject for an encyclopaedia article, any article you do create about yourself will probably be deleted pretty quickly, and if you are notable enough for an article, you're probably not the best person to write it. Karenjc 17:06, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

.svg map not rendering properly

I have converted the .svg image File:KøbenhavnMetroKort.svg to File:KøbenhavnMetroKort English.svg. I first uploaded the image, but it had a rendering error due to being saved as an Inkscape .svg instead of a generic .svg. I then (half a year later) uploaded a clean version of it. When I look at the file page, it looks fine, but when being rendered at List of Copenhagen Metro stations, it looks wrong. I have tried purging the image (on WP and Commons) and the article, and also tried to alter the image size, but it never seems to be able to render right. Arsenikk ^(talk) 14:06, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

.svg files are converted to .png in articles because more browsers support .png than .svg. Intelligentsium 16:55, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

It looks like the text is not scaling as well as the image (change the pic in the arcticle to 650px and it looks OK). Suggestions - is reduce the original map down to the size you plan for the article (500px?) (Inkscape - Object... Transform... Scale 500 x 278), - that looks OK in inkscape.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 17:39, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't believe that solution will work – the problems are due to the Verdana font face not being supported by the SVG rendering engine used on Wikimedia servers. You should change the font to one of the supported ones listed at m:SVG fonts, or convert the text to paths. AJCham 19:53, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I changed the font to DejaVu Sans, but that did not solve the problem. I then converted the text to paths, and it seems to work alright now, but it is of course not editable, so the solution is only half-good. Thanks very much for the help, this should make the list ready for FL nomination :) Arsenikk ^(talk) 11:44, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

make a commons transfer please

Good day, this file cant be licenced under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chernenko_FrontierGuard.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-Russia-2008 Please, make everbody a transfer to commons. Commons got no other file with mr Chernenko. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fredy.00 (talk • contribs) 16:32, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Commons does not accept any images other than free images. Intelligentsium 16:54, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Your wrong understand -in time, where it file uploadet as "fair use" it dont exist new Russian laws (read a http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-Russia-2008 )

In this year, after 2008, it this file in public domain and cant be transfered to commons. --Fredy.00 (talk) 18:19, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Is there any reason why you can't upload it to Commons then? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:26, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Also, do you know when the photograph was originally taken, and who by - as those will affect if it is indeed in the PD or not. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:28, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Reason it, im got a ban at commons.

Source and author it provided as "Soviet Gouverment" - beascue, im thing, this file cant by licenced as PD-Russia-2008, or as "PD-old". --Fredy.00 (talk) 18:29, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Fredy,00, from what I can see, it cannot be uploaded to Commons under the PD-Russia-2008, as I don't think it meets the criteria. Its use on Wikipedia is OK under fair use, but fair use images cannot be put on Commons. As you say, you are blocked on Commons - but I can't see that the image can be hosted there anyway.

Looking at the image on Wikipedia, the site given as a source is clearly identified as being copyrighted, and so the picture couldn't be used on Commons. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:36, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Incidently, the source for the image isn't actually Russia Today, but Russkaja Germanija, which also has a clear copyright on the image. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:38, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The source is here (click "Read more..."). Incidentally, that site cites rg-rb.de as its source, but I cannot find the image anywhere on that site. To the original poster: It seems you have gotten into some...difficulties at Commons for issues like this. Intelligentsium 18:42, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Files oldes as "+70" and from unknow author cannot be copyrighted.... --Fredy.00 (talk) 18:38, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• The point is, the website hosting the image claims copyright over all images on their site. The author being unknown does not mean that copyright for the image does not exist. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:40, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Also, without a precise date for when the photo was taken, we cannot judge if the copyright has expired or not. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:41, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Nonsence, study a copyright law --Fredy.00 (talk) 18:41, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Fredy.00, the onus is on you to provide evidence that the copyright has expired. The website linked to (Russia Today) shows that the photo was sourced from Russkaja Germanija - which has a copyright over all content on their website. If it is indeed an Soviet Government photo (as it possibly is), then find the picture on the official Russian Government website, or the official Russian Army website - and then it may be suitable for upload to Commons, as being sourced from the Russian Government. Until such proof exists, the copyright would appear to belong to Russkaja Germanija - provide evidence to the contrary, otherwise copyright laws clearly show that this cannot be used. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:45, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Let me quote the conditions for the use of PD-Russia-2008:

1. The author of this work died before June 22, 1941, or this work was originally published anonymously before this date and the name of the author did not become known before January 1, 1992.
2. The author of this work died between June 22, 1941 and December 31, 1942 and did not work and also did not serve in the Army during the Great Patriotic War.[2]
3. This work is shot from non-amateur cinema or television film or television broadcast, which was first shown more than 70 years ago (before January 1, 1939).

Which criteria do you think the picture would come under? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:48, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

How do I undo a Wikibreak?

I put permanent (expires in 7 millenia) wikibreak code on my account, and now want to undo it. I can't edit the page anonymously because it is a "user's" (mine) private setting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.11.116.212 (talk) 17:30, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Set the clock on your computer...erm...forward seven millenia? Intelligentsium 17:34, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• Two questions - firstly, why can't you just log onto your account so that you can edit it; secondly I'm curious as to how you made a "permanent" wikibreak code - I assume to make it secure, you did it as a .css? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 18:30, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I guess he refers to the Wikibreak Enforcer script. Since the script logs you out immediately after login, disable javascript in your browser before logging in, then you can edit your monobook.js to remove it without problems. Regards SoWhy 18:47, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I picture John Harvey Kellogg smiling at this. --Teratornis (talk) 05:06, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Pictures???

I started a page for a book and found a picture of its cover at ar.wikisource,org - how would I use that image on a a page here at the English Wikipedia? I am beginning to read up on images in general, but these seems way over my head. This is the link: Muqaddimah. Thanks in advance. Supertouch (talk) 19:16, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I believe the only way to use the file here is to upload it either to Wikipedia or Commons. TNXMan 19:17, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I thought that you couldn't upload a fair use image to Commons... And a book cover would be fair use, no? Dismas|^(talk) 05:28, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

If it is "fair use" it can only be put on Wikipedia. However, as the above link no longer works, the point is moot. As I can't log in, I can't see the deletion log to find the reason.

Incidently, it appears that the Arabic Wikisource is not part of the Unified login? Or would I have to type my user name and password in Arabic to log in? -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 09:55, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I just accessed http://ar.wikisource.org (note there is a punctuation error in the URL above) and it did autolog me in via SUL. – ukexpat (talk) 15:50, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

My bad - I just tried it and it worked for me too - I clicked on the wrong button before! With regard to the image, the Arabic Wikisource page lists it as PD - but it might be worthwhile checking that it would be PD under Commons/Wikipedia - It might also be worth asking at the equivalent to the Help Desk at ar.wikisource - the main Help Page appears to be at this location, but I can't read Arabic, so I can't help further. If the image is globally in the Public Domain, then it can be uploaded onto Commons with no problem -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:05, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Unable to retrieve password

I recall setting up account jogrady a long time ago, but I have not been able to get into it for a long time. As a result I've had to set up this account. (jwogrady) I would much prefer to go back to account jogrady if at all possible.

When I try to password reset account jogrady (without the w) it says there is no email address associated with the account. Is there another way to reset the password? If no, please verify the account is still active and unlocked so I can continue going through my historical password list.

Thanks,

John —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwogrady (talk • contribs) 20:56, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

• I'm afraid that if you did not set an e-mail up with the account, there's no way to retrieve you password. The account is showing on the creation log, created 01:36, 24 October 2006. However, there is no user page, no talk page and no contributions. If you made any contributions, they would appear to have all been deleted. If this is indeed your old account, I would suggest that you abandon it, or try to usurp it. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 21:09, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

The account has no deleted edits either. Accounts don't expire or get prevented from logging in so if you remember the password then it will still work. Accounts can get blocked from editing but it doesn't prevent logging in, and the account jogrady has never been blocked from anything. As PhantomSteve says, you can abandon it or try to usurp it. Either is fine by us. Creating a new account when the old has no edits is perfectly OK. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:29, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

For clarification: PrimeHunter is an admin on Wikipedia, so can see deleted contributions. As an ordinary editor, I cannot see delete contributions - hence why PrimeHunter could respond about those while I couldn't. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 09:51, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Non-Free Images and Userspace

Is is OK to use a non free image (a book cover) to work on an article I'm currently working on in my sandbox? Eventually, it will be placed in the mainspace, but for now the only place the image will be used will be in my userspace. --Michaelkourlas (talk) 21:22, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you wait until you move the article to regular space before uploading the image. You can put it in your sandbox but it can't stay there for too long (more than a month). ZooFari 21:29, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Non-free images used in any namespace other than main/article will get deleted by a bot within a few days.---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 21:39, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

That bot is inactive now. And it didn't just delete them as so, it had to list the images and notify the uploader under certain criteria. ZooFari 21:44, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

You can put the link in your sandbox article with a leading colon so that a link to the image appears but the image itself doesn't—e.g., [[:File:Example.jpg|thumb|250px|Caption]]. Then you just have to remove the first colon when you move or copy the article to mainspace. Technically, nonfree images should never be displayed in user space.Deor (talk) 01:03, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_Park_episodes#Season_4

season 4 of this list is totally wrong, somebody might have vandelized the list at some point. I have the DVD set and I know the correct order they should be in but I don't know the original air-date. I have a online reference here for proof http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/?season=4. Is it ok if I go ahead an fix this list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Epicnoob (talk • contribs) 21:33, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion regarding List of South Park episodes. When you feel 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). --Mysdaao ^talk 22:00, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for helping, I noticed on the talk page of the list and it appears to be a issue that people are already aware of. I have left a comment their so I guess i'll just wait for a reply and that talk page. Sorry for wasting your time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Epicnoob (talk • contribs) 21:57, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

There's no need to apologize. We're here to help if you need more assistance. --Mysdaao ^talk 22:00, 15 November 2009 (UTC)