Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 November 30

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

November 30

Resizing text.

Hi this is an odd question, but for the last couple of weeks when ever I come to wikipedia all the text is really tiny. I don't think this is anything I have done as wikipedia is the only site where I am having this problem. Is there some way I can fix this so I can go back to enjoying the site?

(I am talking about reading articles not an editing issue.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.68.33.59 (talk) 01:28, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I noticed in an earlier entry somebody suggested hitting cntrl 0 this however does nothing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.68.33.59 (talk) 01:40, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Which browser do you use? The Ctrl + 0 shortcut works in Firefox only; for other browsers, the zoom is literally all over the place. In Internet Explorer, for example, the function is in the status bar at the bottom of the window (the small magnifying glass icon, make sure it is at 100%). Xenon54 (talk) 01:56, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

And if you are happening to be using Google Chrome, you can reach the zoom function by clicking on the little wrench in the upper-right hand corner, which will open up a menu in which you can see your browser's zoom percentage and adjust it from there until it is at 100%.

If you do find that your zoom settings are perfectly fine, then there is a chance that you may be one of several who are suffering from font size issues due to the new layout. To test if the new layout is the reason for your problem, open up this page, and then this one. If there is a difference in the font size of the article text, you should report it at the page I just linked to. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 02:08, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, if you're using Chrome, the text size is based on the site: you can have it bigger or smaller for one site and it'll only be bigger or smaller for that site, so if you've resized here, that could be why it's only small here. HalfShadow 02:14, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Disgraceful

Your company is disgraceful.. To publish all that classified sensitive information that illegally obtained.. Its the same as accepting stolen property... You have no respect or dignity. SHAMEFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.214.63.10 (talk) 01:44, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your input. However, Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation are not associated with Wikileaks. They are two completely different entities, and Wikipedia has nothing to do with the leaked documents. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 01:48, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

• Also your feet smell terrible. Jesus Christ, get some Dr Scholls. HalfShadow 02:09, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
  • Thank you for your input. However, Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation are not associated with Wikifeet. They are two completely different entities, and Wikipedia has nothing to do with these feet and any odors associated therewith.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:41, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
    • ...okay, that's just weirdshit. HalfShadow 04:03, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
      • ;-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:43, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Here is a link to the right place "www.wikileaks.org". --Monterey Bay (talk) 02:38, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

--Teratornis (talk) 06:21, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

coding error

hi, my article has a "coding error" but I did not touch anything.. it was working fine. the link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_ruocco —Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlesrock11 (talk • contribs) 03:30, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi. That article does not have a coding error. It was purposely deleted because it was written in an exclusively promotional manner, because Wikipedia is not a means of promotion. If you need further explanation or clarification, feel free to ask here, or, if you have a more specific question regarding the specifics of the deleted article, you can contact the admin who deleted your article on his talk page. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 03:39, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

(e/c) Hello. The issue of an error is moot since the article has been deleted under section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion as blatant advertising (though looking at the deleted content I don't see any coding error showing up, unless you mean the deletion itself as the error). The deletion log entry is here. Based on your username, there is a suggestion that you may have a conflict of interest in writing this article. In any event, blatant advertising or not, were you to recreate the article, what is required is not just a neutral tone, but citations to reliable third party sources discussing the topic in some detail. This is at the heart of our core inclusion policies and guidelines to show notability (and here see the topic-specific notability subguideline, WP:BIO), verifiability, to avoid original research, and is more stringently applied in articles like this one concerning a living person.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:46, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

help with editor assuming bad faith

just looking for some advice/help with an editor i am working with on an article who has a habit of automatically assuming bad faith and making unfounded accusations; all contributing to a somewhat hostile editing enviroment. for instance, in this edit i am accused of "ineptly" writing the lede of the article. i didn't write the lede, i reverted it to the version that existed prior to me even editing the article. and again, in this edit, the editor removes a wikilink added by another user here and instructs me to "stop this silly linking" in the summary. i have further diffs and more detailed complaints, but just wanted to give the general idea. wondering if some one could remind the other editor about WP:AGF and WP:CIVIL as my attempts to do so seem to go ignored. would it be a better idea to take this to AN/I with said greater detail? not looking to have the editor removed or anything, just trying to get them to edit cooperatively instead of adversarially. WookieInHeat (talk) 04:15, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that falls under AN/I... HalfShadow 04:20, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

alrighty, thanks. WookieInHeat (talk) 04:26, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

world Wide gum co.

I am trying to find out more about a spearmint gum made by the world wide gum co..of Grandby Que, I have an unopened package of this gum and I am trying to find out what year it was made. I'm thinking the 1930's or 40's. if there is any help you could give me it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.64.229.193.106 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 05:28, 30 November 2010 (UTC).

The only on-wikipedia references I can find to the World Wide Gum Company is as the manufacturer of Baseball cards. From that article, "1933 also saw the delivery of the World Wide Gum issue. World Wide Gum Co. was based in Montreal and clearly had a close relationship with the Goudey Gum Company, as each of their four issues closely resembled a Goudey contemporary. Goudey, National Chicle, Delong and a handful of other companies were competitive in the bubble gum and baseball card market until World War II began." Also, from Goudey, "Similar cards as the 1933 and 1934 Goudey sets were also released in Canada by the Goudey-owned World Wide Gum Co, of Granby, Quebec. They are sometimes known as Canadian Goudey sets." It appears that World Wide Gum Co. was a Canadian subsidiary of Goudey Gum Company, an American company which operated from 1924-1962. It is quite likely, therefore, that the gum was indeed from the 1940's or 1950's. --Jayron32 05:38, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

You may also want to post this at Reference desk/Miscellaneous where users specialize in answering general knowledge questions. -- œ^™ 09:25, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Geonotice problem

One week after request there still appears to be no sign of our Geonotice request for a Meetup in Dublin, and I don't know who to contact. I have tried requesting help from several Admins (at least, I think they are Admins), but have had no feedback so far. We have put a lot of work into this, but due to the current bad weather, we need to get this information out to country members ASAP. Hohenloh ⁺ 07:35, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

This seems to be resolved, as I've just seen the invitation. Reading, Berkshire isn't exactly next door to Dublin, of course... -- John of Reading (talk) 21:05, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

wp:vanish requests

Hi,

I used to use an account Adrian-from-london and tagged it with { {retired} } for a clean start. As I've decided to cease editing Wikipedia permanently please can you process vanish requests for both Adrian-from-london and Oldgraybeard accounts (I scrambled the password for Adrian-from-london but I've used the same PC for both accounts so the IP addresses for the most recent logins should be identical.)

Many thanks, Oldgraybeard (talk) 08:30, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

A bureaucrat would need to deal with this request. You can contact them at the bureaucrats' noticeboard (WP:BN), or by e-mail at the address given there. January ^(talk) 23:27, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

How to 'Review' or approve an article

Hi all,

I am new to wikiepdia and want to 'review' an article so it becomes a proper live page - how do I go about doing this? The page in question is the one on 'Pharmaceutical Medicine'.

Any help would be most appreciated - thanks!

Ben —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benjicott (talk • contribs) 10:35, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

You mean Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine? Usually I would direct you to WP:FEEDBACK but I will give some comments here: First, there is no indication in the article as to how or why the organisation is notable per WP:CORP and it will need some references to reliable sources to demonstrate notability; second, it reads like an advertising or promotional piece, which is not permitted - see WP:SPAM. It is in danger of being deleted for each of these reasons, so you should try to fix them ASAP. – ukexpat (talk) 14:42, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Also, as you will see from the message on your talk page, it appears to be copied from, or a close paraphrase of, the Faculty's website, neither of which is allowed, please see WP:COPYVIO. – ukexpat (talk) 14:44, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

The one which is flagged as a new unreviewed article is Pharmaceutical Medicine, not Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. I agree that it isn't crystal clear whether there is intended to be some specific process for review of articles tagged with {{Userspace draft|source=ArticleWizard}}, or whether it is OK for any editor to look at the article and, if it looks OK, remove the tag. David Biddulph (talk) 15:22, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Anyone can review a tagged article. The tag just adds the article to the appropriate category, in this case Category:Unreviewed new articles created via the Article Wizard from October 2010. Some folks patrol Category:Unreviewed new articles created via the Article Wizard and its child cats for articles in need of review. – ukexpat (talk) 15:34, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

And I see that you've done just that, so that it no longer appears in the aforementioned category, hence the OP can dive in and edit at will (within normal Wikipedia guidelines, of course), without worrying about the review stage. I see also that you've changed the case of the opening of the second word of the title, so that it is now Pharmaceutical medicine, not Pharmaceutical Medicine. - David Biddulph (talk) 15:53, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

BOOK CREATOR IN HEBREW

I'V NOTICED THAT THE BOOK CREATOR OPTION IS NOT AVAILABLE IN HEBREW does anybody know whY —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.182.34.238 (talk) 12:34, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

That sounds like a question for the Hebrew Wikipedia, not for the English Wikipedia. - David Biddulph (talk) 13:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

The Hebrew Help desk can be found at he:ויקיפדיה:דלפק_ייעוץ. Thanks. —Half Price 17:45, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Google "Potassium atomic weight"

When I Googled "Potassium atomic weight" the search result for Wiki shows the chemical properties for sodium not potassium, yet when I clicked on the Wiki link the correct values for potassium are in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.56.81.6 (talk) 15:02, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. Sounds like Google cached an incorrect version of the page. As you say, however, the article here appears correct. TNXMan 15:07, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not control the "blurb" text displayed by Google at search results. If you click the "show" link to the right of "Alkali metals" at Potassium#External links then you will see the text Google chose under the heading "Sodium". The next heading is "Potassium" and has the values for Potassium so Google made an unfortunate choice when it processed your query. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:00, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

first amendment rights

Does your first amendment rights trump my soldier son's right to live? Did you thank him for being made the target to your "news?"76.188.30.73 (talk) 15:21, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I think you are confusing us with Wikileaks. We are not affiliated with them at all. TNXMan 15:25, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. See more at Wikipedia:Wikileaks is not part of Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:49, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to get sushi. Anyone want anything? I can stop off somewhere else if you don't want Japanese food. HalfShadow 22:51, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

New to Wikipedia

Help. I am new to wikipedia, I don't really understand it. But I have been trying to make a contact reference the RIAS Studios in Berlin 1964 to 1966. I was in a military band- 3 Royal Anglian regiment, and we did a broadcast (30 minutes). What I would like to know is, can I get a copy of this broadcast? My name is Ron Bingham, my email is <blanked>. Can anyone help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.14.172 (talk) 16:53, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but we have no access to that material. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. You may have better luck contacting RIAS Studios. TNXMan 17:05, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Gossip Girl

Can you tell me what episode I can find the character Scott Rosson? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.59.221.73 (talk) 17:31, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

IMDB shows him in six episodes. -- kainaw™ 17:36, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Help determining notability

So, an article I posted, Flying White Dots, was nominated for deletion for not passing the notability margin. I've added a variety of other notes on them, which brings the argument closer to "Notable" vs "Not Notable", but they don't "convincingly" pass the criteria listed at WP:Music. My question is this: WP:Music is a guideline. It claims that a band must pass at least one of the listed criteria. However, What are people's opinions with regards to a band nearly passing several criteria? Flying White Dots has never been on a regular "rotation" on national radio, but his music has been played on several national stations in both the UK (his home country) as well as the US. While he has not been covered convincingly by several reliable sources, he has been interviewed at least once (I'm trying to get more information from the man himself; perhaps a local newspaper has done a story on him), as my citations link to. Any thoughts? suggestions? anyone find a good review of him/report on him/whatever that I missed when I was googling?

Also, should I go ahead and delete the prod? By the way, I was never contacted about the prod; if you go around prodding, please do leave notes on the creator's talk page!

As a side note, if you like music, I highly recommend checking Flying White Dots out. Riffraffselbow (talk) 17:52, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Remove the prod and explain why you did so on the talk page. It seems as though this may meet guidelines. With regards to your first question, all guidelines can be broken on Wikipedia if editors think it right. See WP:IAR. Thanks. —Half Price 18:31, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Gossip Girl

Do you know what actual episode that the character Scott Rosson is on? I know that he was on in season 2 and 3. I want to look it up on you tube. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.59.221.73 (talk) 18:15, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

You might find what you are looking for in the article about List of Gossip Girl characters. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for). I hope this helps. TNXMan 18:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Super and subscript

Is there any way to put one above the other? For instance, if you were trying to write out the mass and number of Uranium-235, and you put one in front of the other, you get "²³⁵₉₂U". Is here any way to fix this? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 18:47, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

In that specific situation, you should try Template:Element2. Thanks. —Half Price 18:53, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

²³⁵
₉₂U
= {{Nuclide2|U|235}}, for example. GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 19:00, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

In general, you'd use math markup like <math>_{92}^{235}</math>U to get $_{92}^{235}$U. -- kainaw™ 19:02, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Can it be done without <math> or templates? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 01:28, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Nope. -- kainaw™ 13:52, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes it can, but the source may not be pretty. Everything made by templates can be made without templates, and GiftigerWunsch's code {{Nuclide2|U|235}} does not use <math>. If it's entered at Special:ExpandTemplates to recursively expand templates then you get

<span class="unicode;" style="white-space:nowrap;"><span style="display:-moz-inline-box;-moz-box-orient:vertical;display:inline-block;vertical-align:bottom;min-height:1em;font-size:80%;line-height:1;margin-bottom:-0.1em;overflow:visible;text-align:right"><span style="display:block;min-height:1em;margin-top:-1.1em;line-height:1;background:transparent;overflow:visible">235</span><span style="display:block;min-height:1em;background:transparent;line-height:1;overflow:visible">92</span></span>U</span>

which renders as 23592U. It could be cleaned up some but when there are templates specifically designed for something then it's usually best to use them. It gives a cleaner source which is easier to maintain, and if the templates are changed (for example because the old code was discovered to fail in some circumstances, or a software change made it bad) then the uses will consistenly change their output correspondingly. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:22, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

By "nope", I meant "it cannot be done any easier without math or templates." You could use an inline table as well, placing one cell over the other. Again, the code would be a real pain. So, a template or a the math markup is the easy way to go. -- kainaw™ 14:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree. {{PhysicsParticle}} is the general particle template used by other templates. It might also be used in other areas. The code in this example would be {{PhysicsParticle|U|TL=235|BL=92}} to produce ²³⁵
₉₂U
. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:51, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

                                                                         The Great Astrologer of India & Goldmedalist 
Sir, I heartly thanks to u.Sir u re change my life as zero to hero . many2 thanks to u.Sir u re my God. Yours,Diciples

Name:-Dr.Debabrata Sharma,Astrologer,Gayatri Mandir,Sector-6,Bhilai Chhatish Garh<Website:-www.astroproblems.com

help

i am a candidate of marine fisheries academy in bangladesh which is situated in chittagong.Here five steps have to cross for an candidate.and as a candidate i have crossed four of them.and the last one is viva-voce.This is the thoughest part.can you help me by giving some direction so that i can be able to pass in the examination? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.38.42 (talk) 19:04, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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 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. TNXMan 19:08, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean that you have to give a speech? Or an oral examination of some kind? I don't think we can give you tips on how to do this well. Public speech#Training has a few bullet points to note. You might also want to have a look at Public speech#Noted orators and research what they did. —Half Price 19:11, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

A viva voce is indeed an oral examination; we don't have a specific article on the subject. I googled "viva voce tips" and found lots of links to pages which offer general advice on how to approach this type of test; this is just one example, but I'm sure you can find more. Good luck with your exam. Karenjc 21:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

My Own Bio

Hello Wiki,

My name is Rodney Whitaker and I have submitted the following bio for your page on me, Rodney Whitaker. I seem to have run into a little issue. Below is a bio that I've created and have sent to many festivals and event coordinators. Could you please assist? I would like to have the bio updated.

RODNEY T. WHITAKER

<Copyvio of http://gmea.org/Divisions/Band/All%20State%20Jazz/ASJclinician.htm removed>

19:40, 30 November 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cookey Whitaker (talk • contribs)

Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia. Here's some things you might find interesting : Wikipedia:Autobiography and Wikipedia:Copyright. I also left an explanation on your talk page. «CharlieEchoTango» 19:56, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Want to contribute to Wikipedia

Dear Help desk,

I'm Chandra Sekhar from India. I'm very fond of Wikipedia and its articles and being assistanced by them. Hence would like to contribute to wikipedia some amount. But, I dont have credit card. Is there Wikipedia office in India? Or is there any other mode of contribution? Please let me know. I suggest you to make donations in India too.

Happy to hear from you at the earliest. You can write to me at <email removed>

Thanks and warm regards, Chandra Sekhar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.46.55.31 (talk) 22:04, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

(I have removed your email address to protect your privacy)

Thank you for your interest in giving to this project. PayPal, the default mechanism for donation, does not deal in rupees. There are other ways to give that may work for you, including mailing a check directly to the Foundation or wiring money to their bank account in Paris. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:13, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Template

How to make this :

into a template? Would be useful to quickly answer messages messages like the ones above, considering we might see more. Can some kind soul do the template magic? I suggest also a little rework for clarity to WP:Wikileaks is not part of Wikipedia which saw a peak in views today. Cheers «CharlieEchoTango» 23:08, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Done. The template is at {{Notleaks}}. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:24, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

P.S. I thought you might like to know how to do this yourself. It really is as simple as this. I chose a name ("notleaks"), prefixed "template:" before it, created that page just as you would any page, pasted your text, clicked save. That's it. If you don't like the name, just move it, and if it's okay, but you want some alternative names, you can make shortcuts to it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:28, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I didn't know it was that simple! Thanks very much! «CharlieEchoTango» 23:31, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. I may add some documentation to the template page later.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:03, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

If the intent is to use the template on the Help desk, see:

• Template:Help desk templates
• Category:Help desk templates
• Template:HD (contains many canned messages for the Help desk}

--Teratornis (talk) 06:19, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Submitting information on someone

I am attempting to establish a Wiki identity and history page of a recording artist from Texas. The general regulations advise not to write articles on bands, etc.

Then I notice Eric Clapton has a page, a huge page.

So how do I submit information on my artist and if I cannot then how did Eric's information get clearance to be posted ?

Christa Texas Music Productions —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delzhaus (talk • contribs) 23:42, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Is the person you want to write about as well known as Eric Clapton? If so, there's no problem- the suggestion to not write about musicians is mainly targeted to people who would use Wikipedia to write about their own bands, or artists they represent. If you have a direct connection with this person, then don't write about him- when the artist is notable, it's inevitable that his many fans will write about him. If you don't have a conflict of interest, all you need to do is show that the person meets Wikipedia's notability criteria, supporting your information with reliable independent sources that verify the accuracy of the information. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 23:45, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

To answer your second question, Christa, regarding how Eric Clapton's article is in the state it is in. The answer is that hundreds (maybe thousands) of different people, none of whom have any connection to Eric Clapton, read things about Eric Clapton that were written about him outside of Wikipedia. These people, in reading these things, used this information to write the Wikipedia article. It is important to note several things about properly written Wikipedia articles:

• Every piece of information in a Wikipedia article needs to be verifiable. That means that it has been written down, in reliable, trustworthy, and independent sources, before it was ever in Wikipedia. Because there have been many books, magazine articles, newspaper articles, television shows, etc. etc. about Eric Clapton, there is a wealth of information available to researchers about Eric Clapton.
• This information was added to Wikipedia by people unconnected to Eric Clapton. That is, no one who works for Eric Clapton, was hired by Eric Clapton, etc., or even Eric Clapton himself, wrote any part of that article. It is, therefore, free from a conflict of interest.

If you need more information about Wikipedia policies, please click the bluelinks I have left. --Jayron32 23:57, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I believe that the phrase "establish a Wiki identity" indicates that you have a fundamental misunderstanding about Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a vehicle for promotion or publicity of any sort. That is why it is restricted to topics which others have already written about. --ColinFine (talk) 21:09, 1 December 2010 (UTC)