Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 December 27

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December 27

Some things I would like to discuss

1. First of all, I think Larry_King should go under the category: [Category:American_people_of_Belarusian-Jewish_descent] because it says in the article that his parents emigrated from Belarus and they were Jewish. Also I think Peter_Douglas and Eric_Douglas should go under that category as since their father Kirk_Douglas is listed under that category as well. 2. I think it should be noted in the Alexandra_Powers article that her mother is Katharyn_Powers and was a writer for variety of TV series. This article says they are related: http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Katharyn_Powers Also I think in the Katharyn_Powers article these links should be added: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0584251/ http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Katharyn_Powers http://www.moviefone.com/celebrity/katharyn-powers/2035049/main http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Katharyn_Powers Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 00:31, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Number 1 is a fantastically bad idea. See WP:OC#CATGRS for an explanation why. The big issue is that there is no compelling reason to categorize people by their ancestry for arbitrary reasons. Categories should be relevent, and unless Larry King or Peter Douglas's Belarussian background is demonstratably a big deal in their lives, there is no reason to categorize them as such. --Jayron32 00:55, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Some non-question that had no heading

I would like to write a book about Bennu some 20 yrs later and his actually finding Mira and what his mission was finally revealed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.167.229.4 (talk) 06:26, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a question about using Wikipedia? --Teratornis (talk) 07:49, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Alexandra Powers

I think it should be noted in the Alexandra_Powers article that her mother is Katharyn_Powers and was a writer for variety of TV series. Also I think in the Katharyn_Powers article these links should be added: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0584251/ http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Katharyn_Powers http://www.moviefone.com/celebrity/katharyn-powers/2035049/main http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Katharyn_Powers In the Alexandra Powers article I created I found a website that says she is in Scientology. Here's the website: http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/a/alexandra-powers.html Should this be used as a reference in the article? Please let me know.Neptunekh2 (talk) 07:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

I see that you've posted this at Talk:Alexandra Powers, where it will be seen by the editors most interested in that article. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:11, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Glen MacDonough

I posted an article on Glen MacDonough. It was up for a few hours, but now appears only linked from my own 'my contributions' link, but not from the main page or any of the other links in related articles (including this comment). I think it's probably an easy fix; I just don't know how to do it. Thank you. Jeffmatt (talk) 07:14, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

The article is named Glen Macdonough. Article names are case-sensitive except for the first letter. See Wikipedia:Moving a page if you want to change its name. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:09, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

I have moved Glen Macdonough to Glen MacDonough. You could have made the move yourself. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:25, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Regarding Policy Number: WTG1321908

First of all I would like to clarify you about the policy that has been taken...

<<removed copy+pasted emails containing personal details>>

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.193.160.9 (talk) 07:16, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 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. --Teratornis (talk) 09:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

geolocation

I note that the URL when pulling up a page shows en for English. if I want a dutch version of the page the URL shows NL

So if I am reading the EN version of the page, why is it that your money begging note from the founder ONLY looks at my IP location and not which language I am reading the page in?

p.s. I note that Content that violates any copyrights will be deleted (as below) I do not know if this question has been copyrighted and I am too busy to search. So I suppose that if I do not get a reply it must have copyrighted, but I would be interested to find out how your helpdesk came to that conclusion —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.212.33.191 (talk) 10:06, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

You are not the only one to have noticed this. There is a long discussion here, and there may be other discussions elsewhere. To donate in English you may find this page helpful.

(The "copyright" message is aimed at people who copy+paste text from other websites into Wikipedia. You'd be surprised how often that happens) -- John of Reading (talk) 10:21, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

System does not accept any login name

Hi,

I ve been trying to create a new account but the system does not accept any login name. It is strange becouse I tryed around 10 different names. I guess there is a problem about this function.

I ve also been trying to edit a new article but I can not find the edit page.

Please check the system and let me know how the solution.

Best regards sems —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.246.120.200 (talk) 11:08, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

There are around 14 million taken usernames and the system also rejects some names which remind too much of the existing names. Our logs [1] show several accounts created per minute on average so the system seems to be working. You didn't mention any of the attempted names so it's impossible for us to check whether they are taken. And you didn't mention the page you were trying to edit (or were you trying to create a page?) so it's impossible for us to see whether there is something special about it. Please be more specific. We are not mind readers. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:21, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Check information on a main page but also on individuals?

I'm trying to set it up so that I can add information about specific people on their respective pages, let's say:

A: 140 120 100 90 B: 142 120 101 84 C: 100 130 120 98

But I also want to see on a main page, the information of all of these, in a table.

The problem is I need A, B, and C to use a template, because there were will be a lot more than three things. Every time I try and use transclusion within a template, I get a messed up template page, severely messed up. The information is also constantly updating and it'd be nice if the A, B, and C pages only have to be updated, and not the other page as well.

I'm sure there are plugins that help with this, but the one I've used before on a wikia was a bit buggy so I stopped.

I'm sure there has to be a nicer way to do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DatOneGuy (talk • contribs) 11:52, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Template help

Resolved

 – Didn't know that it was so easy.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:40, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

hello,

I recently created Template:Animator.ru, but I have a little problem: If you have a look at 4.2 in the "Detailed instructions" section, the the link goes to http://www.animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=2279/ instead of http://www.animator.ru/db/?p=show_film&fid=2279. Can you correct it please? Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 12:54, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

The slash is from /{{#switch:. If you don't want a slash there then just remove it. What is the intended use of the switch? I don't want to remove the slash without knowing what you are trying to do. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:16, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much :D!-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:40, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

The use of ' vs >

Resolved

 – GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 16:39, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

This may sound very dumb but I am a 65 year old neophyte.

What is the difference between Kip and Kip?--Kipd (talk) 15:40, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

''Kip'' and <i>Kip</i> both make italics here at Wikipedia. ''Kip'' is the recommended wiki method. <i>Kip</i> is the html method which may for example occur in code copied from a html document. Somebody may later convert it to ''Kip''. You wrote <i>Kip<i> which may also work in some contexts but should not be used. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:52, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks--Kipd (talk) 15:56, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Alexandra Powers

Would you mind cleaning up the Alexandra Powers article. I added a reference and messed up. Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 15:45, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi Neptune. If you go to the article's page history your will see that your edit was reverted with the accompanying edit summary: " WP:RS / WP:BLP. Find a better source." For future reference, the problem with the display of the citation is that you did not enclose it in ref tags, like this <ref>citation text</ref>. That is what tells the software to treat it as an inline citation and makes it display in the references section at the bottom of the article. The citation template you used {{cite web |url= etc.}} only acts to make the citations formatting consistent. Please see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners for further information. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:24, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Sorting Wikipedia links?

Hi, I have a long list of Wikipedia links saved in a plain text file. A lot of the links are out of date and are redirects or their appropriate article has been removed. Is there any automated way of sorting through these links (e.g. automatically removing dead links and replacing redirects)? I am running Debian for what it matters, so tools like wget and awk are available. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.30.12.42 (talk) 16:39, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

If you don't get a quick reply here, trying posting again at Village pump (technical), where the techies will see it. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:53, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Questions about using infobox templates

hello,

I have threeone question. I have errors with Template:Infobox Masters of Russian Animation. First, the | preceded by = and | followed by = don't display; could you clean up this template? Second, in the article There Lived Kozyavin there are a large space between the top of the article and the text. Why? Third, How do I add different colors in Template:Infobox Masters of Russian Animation/color, so that the colors in the e.g. "DVD1" row for | labelstyle = and | datastyle = are different, anything but red. Is this possible? Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 17:00, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

I think you've fixed the colour problem yourself since posting here? -- John of Reading (talk) 18:22, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you john for fixing. Unfortunately the colors were not resolved. But it is optional.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 18:54, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

If I edit There Lived Kozyavin, change "DVD1" to "DVD2" and then preview, the infobox subheadings turn green. Is this the kind of colour change you are after? -- John of Reading (talk) 19:08, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but I want that the labelstyle and the datastyle will get another colors, for example: DVD1 is color red, the labelstyle should be "#FF4500" and the datastyle "#FFA500", and for the other DVDs the same. How do I do that, so not only the headerstyle will get this color after switching through 4 DVDs. I hope you understood me. Thank you.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 10:42, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Since I am hoping to improve my template skills I have coded this in my sandboxes. User:John of Reading/X2 could be a new two-parameter definition of the "color" template; User:John of Reading/X1 could be a revised definition of the "infobox" template; and User:John of Reading/Sandbox calls "X1". At least with the colours I've coded into the "X2" template, the result is hideous. If you decide to use any of this, make sure you choose more subtle colours! -- John of Reading (talk) 20:04, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Unable to edit

The last item at Talk:Sarah Palin was "hatted"...(an explanation of that process might help me). Also, when I try to add a new thread, Steven Schmidt, it lists the title of the thread but I don't see it except for on the list. What am I doing wrong? Buster Seven Talk 18:01, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

The problem was that the person who archived the thread using {{Hidden archive top}} did not do it properly. When you hide a thread with the various templates available you have to add a template at the top as well as to the bottom. If you forget to add the bottom one, then it keeps swallowing new text added to the page as part of the archiving. I have fixed it and your post is showing now. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 18:16, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Copy and paste vandalism

Last January I have created two lists named List of scientists whose names are used as SI units and List of scientists whose names are used as non SI units. These were well sourced articles and were in the scope of several projects. But somebody has delated the articles and cretaed another list named List of scientists whose names are used as SI units and non SI units by copy and paste method. I have spend a considerable time and energy to create the two articles and I am sorry to see them deleted. Although every contributer is welcome to improve the articles, deleting articles and creating new articles by copying should be considered as a kind of vandalism. I think this type of creating (or should we say cheating ?) should not be allowed in Wikipedia ? Well, happy new year to all Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 21:21, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

It's not vandalism. The editor merged the two articles into one at a different title, which is perfectly within the rules. The original titles you created have been redirected, but the page history still exists. You are free to revert the redirects and restore the content, but I suggest you talk with the editor who performed the merge first. --Mysdaao ^talk 21:32, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Advertisements

I don't mind the advertisements on facebook. The do not distract me while on my page. Having ads on the side column like facebook would not hinder the reading of each page on wikipedia. Why don't you guys just do that. I don't get the need to be ad free. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.127.192.28 (talk) 22:42, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

It is because of neutrality. Please see WP:Perennial proposals#Advertising. --ColinFine (talk) 23:39, 27 December 2010 (UTC)