Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 1

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March 1[edit]

Removing warnings from user talk pages[edit]

I welcomed User:Chiton magnificus using a standard welcome template. The person changed my welcome message to make it appear that I had used profanity toward them. I then used Twinkle to warn them not to alter other people's talk page comments. The user removed this and wrote on my talk page demanding I no longer post "rubbish" on their talk page. Am I supposed to revert their reversion of the warning on their talk page since it may be useful in the future in establishing a pattern of misbehavior should the need arise? CopaceticThought (talk) 00:30, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Generally, users are allowed to remove warnings and notices from their own talk pages at their discretion; such removals should not be reverted to restore them. Exceptions are outstanding blocks' notices and IP banners (neither of which are applicable in this case). Intelligentsium 01:25, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
While I agree with the above, I believe that the user's first edit, which served to make it seem like you'd used profanity towards them, is disruptive on any page, even their own user talk page. To avoid getting into a war with them on their own user talk page about it, I'd suggest just blanking it off the page (I mean if they don't want your welcome, just get rid of it). That should serve to get rid of the inappropriate comment and hopefully keep them from becoming upset about you posting "rubbish" on their page. Just my suggestion, though :). --Nick—Contact/Contribs 04:53, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In some cases {{subst:uw-tpv1}} may be suitable. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:38, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

really dumb question- autoconfirmed?[edit]

Resolved

SS✞(Kay) 05:09, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've been looking at Special:NewPages a bit, and I've seen a couple of improbably ridiculous articles. I thought you had to have ten edits or something to create pages, but surely after ten edits one would realise that this is an encyclopedia? Plus, popups doesn't appear to show any other edits in the users' contribs. Was my assumption right?

Never mind. After previewing my question, I figured I could just search it up- and apparently not. Why isn't the autoconfirmed threshold required for page creation? Wouldn't it make life easier? SS✞(Kay) 06:39, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you found your answer at Wikipedia:User access levels, specifically WP:AUTOCONFIRM.
While this certainly would stop a lot of pointless article creation, I think it would hamper the amount of information that would be added to Wikipedia. Just using myself as an example, I created an article for my fourth edit ever to Wikipedia, that was found to be useful and kept. (At least until a duplicate article was found and it was merged/redirected.) Still, until then, the article existed for a whole year, and hopefully helped some people in that time. I'm sure there are many others that have similar stories. Besides, I think a good deal of 'those' people would make ten small edits, many like spelling correction, and then create whatever page they want. --Avicennasis 07:39, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, but still, those ten edits would at least prevent those "Hi I am XXX and I want to find a girlfriend" type or "Hi do you sell oranges?" kind. Hmm. I'm gonna search the village pump and see if it's been asked there. SS✞(Kay) 05:09, 3 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Languages[edit]

The user who left this question did not sign it. Please sign all talk page messages with a signature (~~~~)


As a bilingual person (speaking English and French), it would be possible for me to take an English article of which no French version exists and create a Frech version. The only problem is that I cannot find out how to create an article that is already made, but in a different language. Please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elvislivesyet (talk • contribs) 07:19, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

All articles on this version of Wikipedia should be in English, as this is the English Wikipedia. You may wish to contribute at the French Wikipedia. There is a completely separate site created for each language version of Wikipedia. --Nick—Contact/Contribs 07:26, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In essence, if you look down the side of the English article and there isn't a link to a French one, feel free to make an account on the French Wikipedia and create that article. :) Thanks for your interest! SS✞(Kay) 07:33, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
See also Wikipedia:Translation and fr:Projet:Traduction. I don't know the policies of the French Wikipedia but there may be differences from the English. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:54, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) The link between versions in different languages is done by means of an interwiki link. As mentioned above, these are displayed on the left-hand side, in a section headed "languages". If you edit an article on English Wikipedia, the interwiki links are normally found at the very bottom, after the categories.
So, when viewing (not editing) Eiffel Tower, down the left you will find "Français", which is the clickable interwiki link; when editing, you will find that it contains:
[[fr:Tour Eiffel]]
Similarly, when viewing the article in French Wikipedia it displays "English" on the left; and when editing it, near the bottom there is the line
[[en:Eiffel Tower]]
I'd also like to mention that we have WikiProject France, have a look at their page. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:55, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
See Help:Interlanguage links. If you haven't already, you may wish to unify your accounts on all the language Wikipedias at Special:MergeAccount. And see WP:EIW#Translate for more details. --Teratornis (talk) 06:37, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Generating map pngs[edit]

I'd like to generate a map like File:GHG_per_capita_2000.svg for the chart List_of_countries_by_ratio_of_GDP_to_carbon_dioxide_emissions. Is that doable through project tools, or are editors using off-wiki software that I don't have access to? THF (talk) 13:05, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One popular tool to produce SVG files is Inkscape (Inkscape official website), see also Wikipedia:How to draw a diagram with Inkscape. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:13, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Free download for the software. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:21, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ideally a file such as File:GHG_per_capita_2000.svg should list on its page the tool(s) the uploader(s) used to create it. See WP:EIW#Map, Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps, and some tutorials from our friends at the French Wikipedia: 
- mapmaking tutorials from the the French Wikipedia graphics lab

- tutorial to change the color of a country

- georeferenced map data resources
Manually recoloring the regions of an existing map in Inkscape should not be too difficult. If you must also generate a map file, you would ordinarily use a GIS program such as Quantum GIS. See for example Commons:Category:Created with Quantum GIS. But you should be able to start with something from Commons:Category:Blank SVG maps of the world and just color and label it in Inkscape. --Teratornis (talk) 06:53, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DYKCheck not working in Google Chrome?[edit]

Just switched to Google Chrome to view T:TDYK. DYKCheck gone. Why? There's nothing between Lupin's vandal-fighting tools and special pages. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:44, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

William S. Burroughs[edit]

In the section under "After his death," it is noted that "In December 2007, Ohio State University Press released Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs. Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing Queer and The Yage Letters." This is incomplete since the names of the General Editors, Geoffrey D. Smith and John M. Bennett are omitted. Oliver Harris is the volume editor. See, for instance, http://www.ohiostatepress.org/books/Book%20PDFs/Burroughs%20Everything.pdf. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.146.23.206 (talk) 14:00, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your suggestion regarding William S. Burroughs. 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 14:14, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Two articles I didn't write are attributed to me[edit]

Soxred93's tools on created articles has falsely attributed the creation of two articles to me;

Is there any way you could get the tool to give these articles back to their original creators? ----DanTD (talk) 14:13, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't actually looked at your examples, but as a general rule, you'd need to contact Soxred93 and leave a message on that talk page. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 17:20, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The first one looks to me like an improper cut and paste move to revert your original move; I've asked admin Anthony Appleyard (talk · contribs) (who knows much more about this) to double-check and I'm sure he'll fix it if required.
The second one is just one of those things and can't be fixed at a Wikipedia level; I'm not sure how, if at all, Soxred93 (talk · contribs) could adapt (or would want to adapt) the tool to exclude redirects later converted into articles / dab pages by another user, but that's something you'd have to ask him. BencherliteTalk 17:23, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I guess I can thank Anthony Appleyard for the fix involving Victory Station. I renamed it after he did, and now I just have to fix DART & TRE's S-Lines. After checking that tool again, I overlooked anther article that was erroneously credite to me; Guyanese. This too was nothing more than a redirect on my part that became a dab page. ----DanTD (talk) 18:32, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
When you move a page, you automatically create a redirect from the old name to the new. That redirect will show as an article created by yourself, and the article under its new name will continue to show under the name of the user who created it under its original name. For example, Clegg Street railway station was originally created by P.hogg. On 3 January 2010, I moved it to Oldham Clegg Street railway station. Since then, Clegg Street railway station has showed as created by me; Oldham Clegg Street railway station shows as created by P.hogg. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:46, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

hugh johnson biog[edit]

Dear Sir,

I am an award winning photographer and would like to enter my biography for your wikipedia pages

How do I do I this?

Thx HughHugh n tysilio johnson (talk) 15:26, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Short answer, you don't; long answer, you obviously have a conflict of interest as you would be the subject of the article and writing an autobiography is strongly discouraged. The best thing to do would be to head over to Requested articles and make a request that the article be created. – ukexpat (talk) 15:33, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

weight measurement[edit]

references to billions - are these million millions or thousand millions212.49.197.79 (talk) 16:27, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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.
Certainly in the business and financial world "billion" means "thousand million". In addition see long and short scales and 1000000000 (number).  – ukexpat (talk) 16:45, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

School Name changes[edit]

If a school changes its name (for example) from Mike Johnson College to Mike Johnson University the school wikipedia page would move and the old name would receive a redirect. I'm wondering which types of wikipedia pages should actually be changed from [[Mike Johnson College]] to [[Mike Johnson University]].

  • Athletic Conference that has Mike Johnson College?
  • Fraternity chapter list with Mike Johnson College as an active chapter?
  • Fraternity chapter list with Mike Johnson College as an inactive chapter?

Any other guidance? Naraht (talk) 16:42, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

All articles linking to the old name should be updated to the new name as soon as possible, so all the cases you list should be updated. Redirects are primarily in place to aid users who are searching for an article and should seldom be linked to from other articles. Xenon54 / talk / 01:35, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The only situation that I'm hesitant about is something like "Omega Omega Omega was founded in 1872 at [[Mike Johnson College]]" where the school was changed to Mike Johnson University in 1990. Perhaps, changing that to "Omega Omega Omega was founded in 1872 at Mike Johnson College (Now [[Mike Johnson University]])"Naraht (talk) 16:58, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You could always use a piped link, and write something like "Omega Omega Omega was founded in 1872 at [[Mike Johnson University|Mike Johnson College]] (now Mike Johnson University)". Gonzonoir (talk) 17:04, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If [[Mike Johnson College]] is moved to [[Mike Johnson University]], the piped link suggested by Gonzonoir will be unnecessary, because a redirect will be created automatically; simply leave the text as "Omega Omega Omega was founded in 1872 at [[Mike Johnson College]]", and in that way, somebody clicking on "Mike Johnson College" will be taken to a page headed "Mike Johnson University", which might surprise them; but they will also see a message something like
(Redirected from Mike Johnson College)
which will clear up any confusion. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:14, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MENDIP HILLS ARTICLE[edit]

THE ARTICLE ON MENDIP HILLS HAS AN INAPPROPRIATE PICTURE IN IT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.10.254.60 (talk) 16:44, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which one? They all look OK to me. – ukexpat (talk) 16:48, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Some child added a picture of genitalia. It was reverted quickly and the article was semi-protected for a few hours. If you find problems like this in the future you can go to the article's page history, find the offending edit, and revert it yourself. Thanks for the alert.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:00, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why does my edit not save for any longer then 5 minutes?[edit]

Whenever i try and make a edit on a page i change it then save it and it will appear on the page for a few minutes. But after about 5 minutes it will change back to what it was before. Can anyone please help? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Calger14 (talk • contribs) 23:38, 1 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Because multiple other users are reverting your edit, as you can see from the article's page history. The reason others are reverting you is that the number killed is cited in the text to an apparent reliable source, and you are not citing a better source or any source for that matter in the text. Stating that you've seen it on some webpage in an edit summary is not sufficient. I suggest you go to the article's talk page and write a post suggesting that the current number killed is incorrect and stating what sources you have for this. The website from you edit summary is probably not enough. You want to cite to a few books which verify the correct number killed. Google books may be a good research tool for verifying your proposed edit, or you may even discover that you are not correct. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:08, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Aha! It appears that 351 Zulu bodies were left on the field, but more than that were killed in the battle, some dead were carried off when the main force retreated. See this source.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:24, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Your edits like [1] were reverted by others because your number "500+ killed" contradicts the inline reference "F.E. Colenso, History of the Zulu War and Its Origin, London, 1880, p.305". Next to "500+ killed" in the displayed infobox is a small number "[2]". Clicking it leads to [2], the given reference which is meant to support the number but it contradicted the number after your change (at least I assume so without having read the book). If you believe a statement with an inline reference is incorrect then never change the statement in such a way that it falsely looks like the reference supports your change. Instead you can discuss on the talk page of the article or possibly change the statement and reference at the same time if your reference is a reliable source and the existing reference is not. See Wikipedia:Footnotes for how to make inline references. Mentioning a source in an edit summary is not enough when you change something with a source given in the article. Note that casualties in war usually refers to more people than those killed. See Casualty (person). Your source http://www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/rorkes-drift.htm in an edit summary says "Zulu casualties are thought to have been around 500", but your edit says "500+ killed". PrimeHunter (talk) 00:32, 2 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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