Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 July 24

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July 24

Linking to Wiktionary

What's the view on linking to Wiktionary in the text of articles (sometimes you want to define a term rather than send the reader to the Wikipedia article). Joaq99 (talk) 04:24, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I can't point to an article or policy, but I've never seen that. What does happen is that sometimes, the bottom of the article on a word tells you it has an entry on Wikitionary. Allmightyduck  What did I do wrong? 04:33, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Sometimes interwiki linking to a Wiktionary definition is better, for example when wikilinking the term leads to a degenerate redirect. I recently fixed an example, a wikilink on the word pullet which confusingly redirects to chicken. (Redirecting pullet to chicken is like redirecting girl to human.) Interwiki linking to wikt:pullet is far less confusing to someone who doesn't know what a pullet is. I recommend piping out the interwiki link prefix: pullet, since it wouldn't look good in context. If we have a proper article for a term you want to link, and not just a nonsensical redirect, note that the lead section is supposed to define the term, so linking to Wiktionary should not be necessary. Can you give some examples of terms you believe Wiktionary defines more usefully? Maybe the lead sections of their articles on Wikipedia need improvement. --Teratornis (talk) 05:38, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Emailing talkpage?

Is there anyway to email changes to my talkpage?  A p3rson ‽ 00:36, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

There is no provision in the software to e-mail you any kind of notices. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:37, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The MediaWiki option to send notification mails is disabled at the English Wikipedia for performance reasons. Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 51#Watchlist email notification mentions an external service http://www.changedetection.com/. I guess there are others but haven't tried any. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:46, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

You could put a {{Notice}} on your talk page asking people to send you email, but that would depend on other users being willing to do that. And they would have to be registered users. --Teratornis (talk) 05:21, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Also see the links under WP:EIW#Monitor. You might find a use for a watchlist RSS feed. --Teratornis (talk) 05:22, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

chiropractic

The definition you have posted for chiropractic must have been writen by a source that clearly does not have any respect for my profession. There is a obvious negative connotation throughout the article. Death is even mentioned as a side effect and when I researched the citation the word death does not appear on the entire article that is cited as a side effect or otherwise. Chiropractors pay the least malpractice because they do not usually hurt people the way other doctors have the potential to do. In fact chiropractors have the highest patient satisfaction of any provider. You should consider getting your facts from a chiropractic source such as the ACA where citations back up print. Dr. Compton —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.5.58.177 (talk) 00:53, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The page history of Chiropractic (click "view history") shows a lot of editors with contributions. The article has several references to death. I don't know which one you mean but you can post more specific suggestions to Talk:Chiropractic. I don't know the American Chiropractic Association but it sounds likely to be biased for chiropractic. Wikipedia articles should have a neutral point of view. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:07, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Manute Bol

Strange thing. The article talks all about how tall his family was and how he was the tallest player ever until recently and other things about his height but it never says HOW TALL HE WAS! 7' 7"; 2.31 meters. Sources are [1] - [2] - [3] - [4] - [5]. Article is protected so I cannot add these to it.--162.83.139.249 (talk) 03:35, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The information is already there on the infobox. Allmightyduck  What did I do wrong? 04:29, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Present, yes, but unsourced and not in the text where it is a focus and belongs. I've added it in with the first source cited (diff).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk)

Citadel Broadcasting Streaming Plan Change

Hi Wikipedia. I am the person who has been making all those multiple changes to a string of Wikipedia pages. I believe all those pages I have been modifying have a common theme: they are all the Wikipedia pages for Citadel Broadcasting radio stations that are streaming online. I believe the company has changed their streaming plan and all their stations now stream via the StreamTheWorld. I have simply been updating all the now out-of-date Listen Live links. No malicious intent is present in this latest updating rampage, I promise. I have been singling out to only the updating of all the Listen Live links. I have not been changing anything else in any of those pages. 24.218.178.242 (talk) 05:25, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

First ...Welcome to Wikipedia...Lets see how i can help...I believe the what you should do is include an edit summary every time you edit a page - this will let others understand what your doing. However i am concern that this are links to downloads..could you explain y this is. Moxy (talk) 05:38, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Citadel Broadcasting Radio Station Pages Updating Halted...

I have halted my updating of all those Listen Live links because I don't think that what I am doing right now is very popular in Wikipedia. Maybe I am not supposed to be placing the direct .pls links in the pages. In my mind, I was only trying to help keep the pages up to date. I was not deliberately trying to destroy the pages or vandalize them. You could always revise the pages I updated back into the forms that they were in before I updated them. I was getting tired anyway. If you are interested, I could update the pages for the Citadel Broadcasting radio stations from the eastern side of the United States but I am not very sure if you would want me doing anything of the sort. Well, it's the thought that counts, I guess. I was only trying to help. I guess I, like so many people, just never truly understood what Wikipedia is all about. You have a nice day...and if this is a misunderstanding than I am so sorry for getting all emotional. I guess that frustration and irritation is all part of the learning process. 24.218.178.242 (talk) 08:51, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

There's a discussion at WP:ANI#Possible spam / malware about your recent edits. I have no idea whether or not your edits are legitimate, but I've made the changes out of an abundance of caution, with no prejudice towards your edits until there's some more evidence about it. Please join the discussion at the above link. Shadowjams (talk) 09:06, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Search

Why does it happen that when I type skcrapers (please note: not skyscrapers) in the search box there comes comes two articles but they all have the correct spelling which I corrected yesterday? --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 05:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

When I search for skcrapers I don't get any hits. Have you tried clearing your cache? Winston365 (talk) 05:53, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Hey Extra999.. LOL great to see you here ...Me to i get nothing...what do you mean exactly Extra999 did you make a redirect page or something like that?Moxy (talk) 05:56, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

No. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 06:30, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The index used by the "Search" box is updated once a day, so your spelling corrections won't affect the search results immediately. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:09, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

But, I had done a day before. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 02:23, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

The time of updating the search index can vary. However, it had been less than 18 hours between your edits [6][7] and your post here [8], and it had not been morning GMT. By the way, you misspelled the misspelling! Your post said skcrapers but you corrected the spelling skscraper so I don't know which of the posts here are from people who searched skscraper. Neither of them have search results now. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:11, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Right. And the search results page writes the time of the searched revision which must have been a time before your edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:19, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Article created in the wrong place

I´m awfully sorry, but I seem to have created an article in the wrong place. I wanted to create a page with the title of an author not on Wikipedia, but erroneously placed it at USER/Example/test. How do I move the article to a page with the author´s name as the title? SylviaPetter (talk) 06:25, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

You can simply past it into one of these Donna, L Nelson or Donna-Lane Nelson, However i urge you to do the article by way of Wikipedia:Article wizard, this will help you with references ...as the article is not ready for Wikipedia and may be deleted.Moxy (talk) 06:39, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I have moved it to User:SylviaPetter/Donna-Lane Nelson. This is a user subpage for your account and still not a Wikipedia article. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:59, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

G3

I was wondering if you could tell me what in the world g3 means? --Monterey Bay (talk) 07:42, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

It's one of the categories of speedy deletions: see the "General" section in particular.

I'm guessing you're referring to Ryan winiata? You tagged it with {{db-vandalism}} - vandalism falls under "G3" (along with hoaxes).

TFOWR 08:23, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Such things are often wikilinked when they occur. You probably saw G3 and could have clicked the link to see the meaning. If an abbreviation is not linked then it often works to type it in the search box with WP: in front like WP:G3. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:26, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Bonding problem of plastics

I need to know the best possible way to structurally bond two (identical Material) polythelene sheets of 3mm thick ( Butt joint) \ I tried all commercially available adhesives, but in vain. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.242.42.35 (talk) 08:59, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia: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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:04, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Though the above is true, please see here which I found in moments with the Google search "polyethylene glue".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:28, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

why different categories of info for different politicians?

example: at the Neil Abercrombie wikipedia reference, the displayed info shows: his platform positions on 1) gun control 2) abortion 3) voting rights 4) civil liberties; etc... At the Duke Aiona reference, no platform positions available at all. Why, (or why not)??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.235.172.238 (talk) 10:18, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Categories has a specific meaning in Wikipedia and this is not it. You are referring to information in article text. Wikipedia articles are written by a huge number of volunteers who make different choices. There are millions of articles and hundreds of thousands of biographies. All the platform positions for Neil Abercrombie except a line about religion were added [9] by the same editor who has no other edits. The edits look a little inappropriate to me. A Wikipedia biography should be about a person's life and is not election campaign information. Some of it was later removed by other editors. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:48, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Citadel Broadcasting Websites and Malware

I have been visiting the websites of various radio stations that are owned by Citadel Broadcasting and I have noticed a great deal of pop-up windows that my latest version of Norton Antivirus has been working feverishly to close up. Although it seems as though this Malware issue is a pervasive issue for all the Citadel Broadcasting radio station websites, this problem persists all throughout their websites and seems to intensify with the Listen Live links. I was unaware that .pls files could be infected and thought that direct linking to the Listen Live feeds (i.e. the direct .pls links) could bypass any Malware issues. Meanwhile, I will simply inform Wikipedia that Citadel Broadcasting has, indeed, rolled out a brand new streaming plan and all their stations that have been streaming online have changed their Listen Live links. I will leave it up to Wikipedia users who are somewhat more talented than myself to insert the updates to the Listen Live links. Information on all the stations can be found at this webpage. The Listen Live links should all look similar to this Listen Live link that I have taken from the website of WXLO. But there are no guarantees that these Listen Live links (or anything that is on any of the websites for any of the Citadel Broadcasting radio stations, for that matter) are not infected with Malware. I stopped trusting the websites from this company. If you feel I am being too paranoid, then you are probably right. The threat of Malware on a PC could could make anyone over-cautious, I guess. 24.218.178.242 (talk) 15:20, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried http://www.theedge1059.com? No pop-ups for me. It's hard to believe that a reputable broadcasting company is deliberately infecting you with malware. To me it sounds like you have already been infected and you are seeing the results of your infection. Xenon54 (talk) 22:07, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Paging through long articles

Dear Wikipedia,

I have noticed that my computer frequently freezes when I try to page through long Wikipedia articles. Has anyone else mentioned this problem? Lee —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.86.187 (talk) 15:25, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I haven't heard anyone else mention it. Does this happen only on Wikipedia or is it any site with long sections of text? TNXMan 15:27, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Insulting edit summeries and possible vandalism

The following user:81.92.19.146 has been writing offensive edit summaries.I'm not sure if he is reverting vandalism or making it.Should i report him for offensive edit summeries?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 15:39, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

I've blocked him for disruptive editing, offensive edit summaries, etc. . TNXMan 15:43, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Edit OK?

Is [[10]] that i made ok?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 15:56, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a source? Xenon54 (talk) 22:04, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Deletionpedia

I don't know where else to post this question, so I'll try here. A lot of the EnWikipedia pages go to this website after they've been deleted. Where do the rest of the deleted pages from interlanguage wikis go, such as the Simple English Wikipedia? :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 16:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Deletionpedia is not a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. If similar wikis exist for pages deleted from other WMF project wikis, ideally they should have pages on WikiIndex. The Deletionpedia page on WikiIndex has a see also link to MARJORIE-WIKI which looks like a Deletionpedia for the German Wikipedia. There does not seem to be a category on WikiIndex specific to these types of wikis. Maybe there are only these two. The Deletionpedia Main page has an email address for questions; you could ask them. --Teratornis (talk) 18:20, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm not allowed to have email enabled (for privacy reasons). But thanks anyway for the response. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 18:29, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Upon re-reading my reply, I think my first sentence may be unclear. When I wrote "Deletionpedia is not a project of the Wikimedia Foundation", I meant there is no guarantee that similar wikis will exist for pages deleted from other WMF project wikis. It will depend on whether people outside the WMF decided to set them up, and were able to obtain administrator access to deleted pages so they could copy them. Good luck in your search. --Teratornis (talk) 07:19, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

deletionpedia don't have admin acess. they grab articles (mostly from AFD I think) before they are deleted.©Geni 09:19, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Tna alumni

On the tna alumni can someone make an edit so it shows the name chris chavis as a hyperlink as it looks complicated on the edit page and is also my weakest point on wikipedia?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 16:07, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

 Done - ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 16:16, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

extra text visible above a dot map

Hello. I'm drafting a new page, and have just added a settlement map with subdivisions for the community. It's visible, but above it is some code that I can't seem to remove. Played around with it a bit but can't figure it out. Probably a small error in where or how I've placed the template.

Here is the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Nihola/Crawford_Bay,_British_Columbia&action=submit

Thank you, Nihola (talk) 17:28, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Fixed, the infobox should call the Location map template by itself from the pushpin options. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:37, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Articles that continuely need to be updated

I was not sure where I could find the answer for this question, so I will ask it here. I edit a number of pages in relation to Rugby union and there is a practice to maintain the current squad of players on a national team article. see this edit for example. Has there been a discussion on this topic, on whether articles should be written from an inherently stable position, avoiding the need for this type of continual updating, or not? Could someone point me in the right direction to anything relevant please?SauliH (talk) 18:27, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Prod. Anyone?SauliH (talk) 01:22, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Just realized that I should probably ask this over at WP:EAR.SauliH (talk) 01:26, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Is my edit ok?

I have recently made a change with the edit summery (bobby lashley IS now in mma).Is this edit ok?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 18:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

If there is a reference column with references then it is supposed to reference the content so [11] should have been done together with a new reference supporting your statement. The statement goes partially against the current reference and that is bad. It's sometimes OK to omit a reference but don't change text at an existing inline reference which doesn't support the new text. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:55, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Disney Channel Latin America

There is a spelling mistake on the above page that says 'thuesday'.Does it mean thursday or tuesday?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 18:54, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

If I had to guess I would say Thursday like the two directly below that one. I would probably change it to Thursday with an edit summary saying best guess and if wrong please fix. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 19:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Another thing that would make me think it is Thursday, probably is just a typo since the e and the r are right next to each other on the keyboard. ~~ GB fan ~~ ^talk 19:05, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

User Blocked

West.andrew.g has been blocked.I don't understand why as he has created a successful vandalism tool and helped rollback edits.???????????Gobbleswoggler (talk) 19:31, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The user contributions page Special:Contributions/West.andrew.g shows the log for a current block. ArbCom refers to WP:ArbCom. The page also has a "block log" link but there are no other blocks in this case. The contributions of the blocking admin (who is also a checkuser) shows that several other accounts were blocked at the same time. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

References

How do I add or substitute references? Script8 (talk) 20:23, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:42, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Fatehabad, Agra

Are the two most recent edits on the above page vandalism?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 21:14, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

It's hard to say whether [12] is vandalism without knowing the subject or language. Without taking time to investigate carefully, I might revert it with an edit summary saying something like "No Google hits on PITAVALI POKHAR so probably doesn't belong". PrimeHunter (talk) 21:45, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Warning

I have warned Nad365 for an edit on jeff jarrett's page.Should i have warned him or not?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 21:21, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Not. Please provide diff links when you refer to specific edits. The edit [13] was clearly a good faith attempt at adding http://www.mediaman.com.au/profiles/jarrett460.jpg which is an image of Jeff Jarrett. The user simply didn't know that images cannot be external. Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace includes:

Attempt to link to an external image {{subst:uw-imageuse}}

{{subst:uw-imageuse}} would have been a proper response. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

The problem here is not that you didn't know whether the edit was good or bad but that you used rollback and a vandalism warning without that sure knowledge. In addition to the approach I recommended you follow, higher on this page, you should never use rollback for any edit that is not clearly vandalism, nor warn using vandalism templates for any edit that is not clearly vandalism. If you weren't sure, you should have refrained rather than going forward and asking later. Avoid doing this like touching the third rail.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:02, 25 July 2010 (UTC)