Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 May 21

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May 21

Big textBig text == Type Size ==11 Big text

Since "New Features," the type size of text appears smaller and hard to read on my computer's screen. How do I make it bigger? —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Turquoise Turtle (talk • contribs) 00:40, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

See this earlier response. TFOWR^propaganda 00:42, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

What is the requirement for making a page about somebody?

At what point is somebody worthy of their Wikipedia page? I own a popular online magazine and blog about a specific game, and it merits about 12,000 viewers a month. Would I be able to make a page about myself? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.64.216 (talk) 02:08, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

See WP:BIO. You certainly wouldn't qualify. Besides, you're totally the wrong person to write about yourself; see our section on autobiography. --Orange Mike | Talk 02:11, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Number of page views

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 18:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Until a short time ago you could go to "view history" and there was a line "external tools", with four links. The fourth one was to "number of page views", but now it is gone. Is it somewhere else or has it been taken away? Bubba73 ^{(You talkin' to me?)}, 02:55, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

It seems to have been disabled temporarily since the tool is down at the moment. Intelligentsium 02:58, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I really like that tool. Bubba73 ^{(You talkin' to me?)}, 03:00, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

replacing unauthorized photo with correct photo?

how do i replace an incorrect photo with the correct one of the actual person? someone else removed the original,previous correct photo and replaced it with another person's photo--and it is NOT of the person the profile is about. thank you for advice/instructions Louannbrizendine (talk) Tamas —Preceding undated comment added 03:41, 21 May 2010 (UTC).

I presume you are talking about Louann Brizendine. If so, please read Wikipedia's conflict of interest policy; Wikipedia highly discourages subjects from editing their own biographies outside of deleting libelious information. You can suggest changes by editing the talk page of the article.

That said, adding a correct photo is a constructive and welcomed contribution. You can either upload the image yourself at Wikimedia Commons or donate an image through Wikipedia:Contact us/Photo submission. Please be sure that you are the copyright holder of the image and are comfortable uploading it under a Creative Commons license. Thanks, liquidluck✽talk 04:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

I see that you previously tried to upload an image for the article, and it was deleted. To prevent deletion again, please make sure to pick a license from the drop down box or, after the image has been uploaded, edit the page and add {{GFDL-author}} to it. liquidluck✽talk 04:34, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

If you wish to be involved with the construction of your own article beyond submitting the photo and/or removing any vandalism you should familiarize yourself with Wikipedia:Autobiography. This contains information about what is encouraged/discouraged, what you can expect from the wikipedia community, and in turn what we expect from you. The section WP:AUTO#IFEXIST is the most relevant section in your case.131.111.185.68 (talk) 09:08, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Unreferenced tables

I have a number of articles on my watchlist that have partially of completely unreferenced tables, some of them quite lengthy. The table in Sea Patrol (TV series)#Reception is short, but has 16 unreferenced figures. It probably only requires one citation per row, so adding {{Citation needed}} to each figure seems excessive. Is there a template along the lines of {{Unreferenced table}} or {{Refimprove table}} that could be used. I've looked but can't find anything suitable. --AussieLegend (talk) 04:38, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

If you added {{unreferenced section|date=May 2010}} just above the table, the meaning would be clear enough, I think. John of Reading (talk) 09:42, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Aberdor the beautiful small village in Fife,Scotland

Dear Madam/Sir,

My name is Prema and i am 53yrs. old and my mother land is India. I visited Aberdor this small place while i was in Edinburgh and i don't know why i am so moved by this place,people,culture and simple living that, my heart just fills with love and joy just remembering it all. My wish is that, i must live in this place atleast for 6months and then i just return to my country and i wish to fulfill this strong desire of mine before i die. I wish someone would listen with heart and show me a way to do it without much complications.

Thanking you and anticipating a favourable reply.

Sincerely,

Mrs.Premavathi Thallapaka —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.184.97.142 (talk) 07:55, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. TNXMan 11:50, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

viewing statistics of an article

An external tool existed on the history page of every article with a daily count of viewing the article. Not anymore. It was a useful tool about articles' usage. Why removed? Does any alternative exist, or is planned? Comps (talk) 11:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

I think this was addressed at #Number of page views. If not, please post again and we'll see what we can do to help. TNXMan 11:52, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Working again.--SPhilbrickT 12:21, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

casting lots

WHAT IS THE GAMBLING PROCESS TO CASTING LOTS? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.89.62.134 (talk) 11:38, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

According to our article on the matter, it would seem it's just a matter of drawing pebbles from a bag. Does the article answer your question? TNXMan 11:49, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Wiki logo

I see the wiki logo has changed, but earlier one was much better. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 12:08, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Wikipedia logos and Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia logos for more about this.--BelovedFreak 12:19, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Many users have complained at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#New logo, the announcement at Wikipedia in 3D and elsewhere. It appears the main discussion is commons:Talk:Wikipedia/2.0#Logo revisions need input. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:20, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Article inaccuracy

Akethorpe (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I have just written and saved my knowledge in respect of AKETHORPE (I live there!) only to be told that I may have violated an existing article. The existing article is highly inaccurate. How do I sort this out? Robbie1938 (talk) 12:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Which article. And be sure to add sources. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 12:23, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Hello, I'm not sure who's told you you've violated the article, as I see that you have no messages on your talkpage. There are some problems with your edits. You've added a large amount of unsourced material to the article. One of our key policies here is Wikipedia:Verifiability, which means that everything we write about needs to have references to reliable sources. You have removed the only source that was being used on the article (I don't know how reliable that source was, but you haven't added any yourself.) You've removed the article's category, which is one of the ways that we organise information here. And, if you notice the difference between the article before you edited it here, and, and what you have added, you have also changed the style of the article, removing internal links to other Wikipedia articles. Don't worry, you haven't broken anything, but I do suggest that you slow down a little and read about some of out policies and guidelines before making any big changes. The main problem here is that you have added information based on your knowledge of your home village, presumably taken from somewhere, but other than the Domesday Book, it's not clear where this information is coming from. For me, as a reader who knows nothing about Akethorpe, how can I possible verify that anything you've written is true? Please, as I say, slow down a bit and learn a bit about how we reference articles etc. I'll leave some helpful links on your talkpage. I don't mean to discourage you at all, because I'm sure you can add a lot of helpful information. It might also help if you outline the inaccuracies in the article at Talk:Akethorpe.--BelovedFreak 12:30, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

School Editing

Dear Help Desk,

We are a school and have recently changed our public ip address, as a result our previous arrangement based on our old public ip address is now invalid. The previous arrangement was to block editing from our public ip address but to allow us to view all of wikipedia.

Is this still possible using our new public ip address?

Kind regards,

Adam —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.108.133.155 (talk) 14:23, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

What was your old school IP address? We usually don't make these sort of arrangements without some sort of contact with the school's administration (AFAIK). TNXMan 14:28, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The best thing to do would be to contact OTRS. They normally handle these kinds of situations, I think...--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail} 14:49, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Yup. Email info-en-swikimedia.org. Stifle (talk) 20:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

How do sumit a page you have made?

I have created a page on wiki and I would like to know how to submit it so it is possible to find the page on wikipedia and if I search for it on goolge it can be found.

many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.85.218.34 (talk) 15:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

According to Special:Contributions/87.85.218.34, your only edits have been to this page. Where did you create your article? TNXMan 15:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

I am guessing that the user has an account but posted this question while logged out (as of course IPs cannot create articles). So question for 87.75.218.34 - what is your Wikipedia user name? If we have that we can easily find the page you created. – ukexpat (talk) 18:25, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah, but IPs can create articles using the AFC process. It is possible they created an article there, but have had a new IP address assigned to them. TNXMan 18:56, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Dang, foiled again... – ukexpat (talk) 19:17, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

How do I find my Village Pump contributions?

Resolved

I was told the last time I asked a question there that I was in the wrong place. I want to see how often I might have been in the wrong place when asking Village Pump questions, and maybe figure out where the right place would have been.

I was given this address when asking about the reference desk, but substituting Village Pump doesn't seem to work.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 15:24, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

You'll want to click at the top of the page, where it says "My Contributions". This will list all of your edits, everywhere. Then, under "Search for Contributions", you'll see your username in the User: box - and a dropdown menu to the right of that. Select "Wikipedia:", then click Search. You'll get a screen that looks like this. Your edits are shown there. Hope this helps, UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 15:31, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The Village Pump (Policy) is for discussing or changing our policies. It looks like you were asking about a specific article or articles, and not about how policy applied to them - so, rightly, they directed you to the Wikipedia:German-speaking Wikipedians' notice board. Not sure what else you're looking for, to be honest. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 15:38, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

This targeted search seems to work fine. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:50, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Fuhghettaboutit. Ultraexactzz, I checked and I have 10,000 contributions, so thanks, but it would be more work than I want to do. What happened in my most recent Policy Village Pump topic was that I added too much information and then continued to talk about my specific problem even after getting the answer intended. All of this led to a more helpful answer, though, which I'd have never gotten by following proper procedure.

My objective here is to see if there are any other cases where I should have found my answer in a better place than the Policy Village Pump.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:21, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Keeping updated on new WikiProjects

What would be the most practical way to keep updated on the creation of new WikiProjects?Kind Journalist (talk) 15:35, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

If you don't get an answer here, you could ask on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council after searching and/or reading the archived discussions there. Some possibilities that come readily to mind:

• Watch the page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory and all its subpages. Then you will detect when someone manually edits a page in the WikiProject directory; often these edits would indicate the addition, removal, or reclassification of a WikiProject entry. Of course this can only detect WikiProject additions that somebody bothers to list in the directory.
  • Look at the histories of the WikiProject directory pages. If you see a few editors are making many edits to the directory, ask them how they are detecting new WikiProjects.
• Help:Category#"Related Changes" with categories tells how to check for recent additions to a category. You would want to monitor Category:WikiProjects and its (many) subcategories for new additions. However, the large number of subcategories might make this impractical, since I know of no simple way to check a whole category tree for new additions in one step. And this only detects WikiProject additions that someone categorizes.
• The MediaWiki API might provide another way. See mw:API:Query.
• Maybe a bot program could periodically perform complex searches for new WikiProjects, and generate a report. See WP:EIW#Bot.
• Maybe someone could add a tag to new page creations whose names begin with the prefix: Wikipedia:WikiProject. See Wikipedia:Tags.

--Teratornis (talk) 18:41, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Citing the same reference more than once

I want to cite the same reference more than once in the same article. How do I do that without having it appear multiple times in the reference list? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Duoduoduo (talk • contribs) 17:58, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Named references. Basically, you name the first instance of the reference and you can use that for the rest of the citations that use the reference. See this page for the guide to using them. TNXMan 18:00, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Problems with Edit Conflicts

This is the second time in the past week that I've had this happen and maybe someone can help me out. I've gotten an edit conflict while editing a section, however, I conflicted with someone editing a completely different section (I don't remember this being an issue before). On the edit conflict screen, I pasted my reply, only to find that I erased the contribution of the person with whom I edit conflicted. Am I just losing it, or there something deeper (dare I say, sinister??) going on here? TNXMan 18:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

No, it has happened to me. In my case, I was trying to edit a section on a talk page, and the section was off by one. I found if I clicked on the edit above (or below, forget which), I was editing the desired section. I assumed that someone had some bad code somewhere and the edit buttons weren't lining up with the right section. After the next archive, it cleaned up, but for a short while, each section was off by one.--SPhilbrickT 23:51, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

I've noticed this; I was editing the DYK page when an odd edit conflict came up. My edit did not go through though the section I had been editing was not changed by anybody else. Might it have something to do with the recent switch to beta? Intelligentsium 23:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Firstly - if you get the edit conflict screen it is always best to abandon that attempt and start again - particularly on busy pages. The software used by Wikipedia is simply not suitable for discussion pages. As to getting an edit conflict when someone is editing a different section - this seems to happen when someone adds a section or sub-section. I've seen edit buttons misplaced since before the new style was brought in. There has long been talk of a thing called "liquid threads", which apparently will solve these recurring problems, but it's been imminent for so long that I can't remember why it hasn't happened yet. DuncanHill (talk) 00:09, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Category watching

If you have a category in your watchlist, will you be notified when articles are added to that category ? If not then is there any way of getting notified of such additions? Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 21:15, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The watchlist only shows edits to the source of the category page. See Help:Category#"Related Changes" with categories. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:29, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

There is a great userscript that does just what I think you're looking for (note: apparently does not work well with Internet Explorer). Here's the step-by-step:

1. First make sure your java is up to date; you can go to your preferences → gadgets → at bottom of page turn on "The JavaScript Standard Library".

2. Create User:GrahamHardy/monobook.js with the following text:

importScript('User:ais523/catwatch.js');

3. Create User:GrahamHardy/WatchedCategories.js and add those categories you wish to watch additions to with the following text (the categories shown are just examples; replace with those you wish to watch):

var WatchedCategories=new Array(

"Requests for unblock",
"Wikipedia protected edit requests",
"Wikipedia files requiring renaming",
"Candidates for speedy deletion as broken redirects"

);

4. Note for the above that the categories do not have "category:" prefixed, they must be in quotes, and each in the list has a comma after it except for the last.

5. Bypass your cache.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:06, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Tip: Special:MyPage/skin.js links to the user's JS page for their current skin; similarly Special:MyPage/WatchedCategories.js. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:59, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Hi! I did exactly as you said, and it doesn't work. Would you please take a look?
User:Lova Falk/monobook.js and User:Lova Falk/WatchedCategories.js Thank you! Lova Falk talk 15:10, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmm okay, a few things to know. First, I know the script does work because I've been using since October 2007 and it works every day. Second, the way it works you will only know its working when a new pages is added to the category you have watched. It's static until then. What you would see is the category pop up on your watchlist. For example, in my watchlist right now is:

• (diff) (hist) . . Category:Requests for unblock; 15:17 . . (+ User talk:name removed (last))

Do you know the category you watched has been changed and that it didn't pop up on your watchlist when that occurred? Third, I vaguely remember that when I first installed it it didn't work until after I either restarted my browser or my computer. I think I may have posted to the user who created it asking about it, let me check. Ah found it. I went to ais523's talk page because it wasn't working at first, but never posted on a problem, because I read on his talk page about found another user who was having a problem, followed that discussion to here, (bottom of page) and followed the instruction there of clearing my browsers page history and all my temporary internet files. Hope that fixes it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:01, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Okey, I understand! Thank you! Lova Falk talk 17:06, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

I believe I have follwed all the instructions; deleted my cache and restarted my browser. I have added a few categories to the file and added articles to the category but nothing is happening on my watchlist, have I done something wrong ? GrahamHardy (talk) 10:07, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Oops there was a bit of a delay ! All is working now, Thankyou! GrahamHardy (talk) 10:08, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

multiple &nbsp

If you have some text containing lots of spaces and you only want it to be possibly split at certain points; is there any way of achieving this without resorting to putting lots of &nbsp's in it ? Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 21:19, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Wrap the text in <poem>...</poem> to retain spaces and newlines. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 21:22, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

See WP:NOWRAP which mentions {{nowrap}} but not mw:Extension:Poem. Unless it's actually a poem or similar, I think nowrap is preferred. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:25, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

article: Republic of Macedonia

At the article: Republic of Macedonia , the title is wrong. I mean that this isn't the right name for this country! The real name of this country is FYROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia)! When you put a wrong name people that see the article may make wrong ideas about this country or its history! For example: fyromians say that they are macedonians (they aren't)! Everything they say is right? If they are macedonians then i am the King Alexander the Great...! Fyrom has made a propaganda against Greece! It's not right to help them in this propaganda. Historic sources report that Alexander the Great was fully Greek like the (Εστί ουν μεν Ελλάς και η Μακεδονία)(Esti oun men Hellas kai i Makedonia) or the fact that Alexander joined the Olympic Games, a competition which included only Greek people! Oh and the fact that he continued his father's dream about the union of all the Greek city-states (ex: Pella of macedonia, Sparta, Corithus, Athens, Epirus city-states, Aegean islands, Creta, Cyprus, Pergamus, Militos, etc) Finally the fact that macedonians were speaking greek language! The so called (fake) "macedonian" language is only the slavic language made for slavs at the Byzantium times by Cirillus and Methodius.

I hope you will take care of what i said and i hope you will check your mistakes and make this article correct... my e-mail adress--> [REDACTED] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.119.185.37 (talk) 21:29, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Read Republic of Macedonia and its discussion page and Macedonia naming dispute. If you have further questions, pleas discuss it on those talk pages. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:01, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Auto-Confirm Question

Hi! I am using a fresh account since I have not edited for a while and was wondering why it isn't auto-confirmed already. I have been on this one for more than four days and made more than ten edits. Is it actually already auto-confirmed? I don't think so.
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 21:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The account will be 4 days in 18 minutes.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 22:11, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks!~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 22:13, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

Loading a page on a Facebook tab.

I have tried to ask Facebook about making a Wikipedia tab for an article (Reichsarbeitsdienst), but they have been less than helpful about it. If you have any information on how I could link up a Wikipedia page to face book, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

JamesNot the Face (talk) 22:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

There is a wiki for Facebook developers although it seems to be deprecated according to the ominous blurb across the main page. You might find something there. Read all of Wikipedia's articles relating to Facebook and Facebook features. See the histories of those pages to see who added most of the content. That might lead you to Wikipedia users who know about Facebook, and you can ask on their user talk pages, or ask on Talk:Facebook features. It's not surprising that you couldn't find an answer on Facebook itself, because everything sucks compared to Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

You could find a page on Facebook that is similar to what you want to make, and ask the person who made that page how they did it. Also, describe what you want to do precisely; "link up a Wikipedia page to face book [sic]" does not clearly specify the direction of the link. Instead you should say "put a link on Facebook to a Wikipedia page" or vice versa. There is also a Facebook help desk - did you ask there? --Teratornis (talk) 20:17, 22 May 2010 (UTC)