Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 December 21

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.

December 21

previewing embedded references

When I do a section edit, I cannot see the associated references in the preview. At times, this creates problems, because a stray character can break the reference list pretty badly. Is there a workaround for this so that the reference list is viewable in a preview? Pirhounix 01:03, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, as long as the section contains no secondary uses of named references, just place {{reflist}} at the bottom of the section and hit preview. If everything displays okay, remove reflist and save.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:11, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

It is there, and that's what the issue is, in order for me to preview it I would have to remove that tag. If you dont you see your revisions but there is no way to verify the reference is listed at the bottom correctly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pirhounix (talk • contribs) 01:19, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I don't understand your response, sorry, and because of that, I'm not sure you understood my answer, so let me say it more fully. The problem you have is that because you are editing a section, you can't see the way the reference will display because that section does not include a reference list. So, the solution I am proposing is that you manually add a reference list to the bottom of the section you are editing by placing {{reflist}} temporarily. Now, with that in place, when you hit preview, it will display the references you've placed in that one section, allowing you to see if they will display properly in the article's actual reference section. After you've previewed, then remove the temporary reflist you placed before saving. Does that make it clearer? The only problem I noted was that if you have secondary named references, e.g., <ref name="name" />, where the first use was in a different section, they will break. If that's the case, I know of no work around. To preview, you will need to open up the article in a new tab, click edit this page at the top to edit the entire article, and transfer your changes to the interior section.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:46, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The {{reflist}} trick will only work if you have the full reference in the section. If you are re-using a reference (<ref name=Foo/>) then it won't work. The solution is either to edit the whole artice, or edit the section, save, then check the ref is working correctly, and fix any errors afterwards. Mjroots (talk) 10:39, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Another option is to enable the WikEd gadget. IIRC its preview function displays section references. – ukexpat (talk) 12:12, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

My Sandbox

Resolved

Wiki sandbox help content indicates adding template 'My sandbox' to your user account makes it easy to enable test edits. Q1: Does this create a sandbox for My unique use, or is it a generic sandbox for all to use ? eg If another user includes the template in their user account, is this sandbox accessible to them only (variant of above Q)

I'm confused. Thanks MW — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.149.192.133 (talk) 01:37, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

{{My sandbox}} applies only to logged-in users. If they put the template on their user page, it will create a link to a personal sandbox. As with other pages, if that page does not exist, clicking on the link will enable them to create it and allow entry of the initial content. Each logged-in user who clicks on the link is taken to their own sandbox, but as with other pages, anyone could see the page. —teb728 t c 02:01, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

OK tks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.149.192.132 (talk) 04:10, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Article title formatting

Hi, if you look at MasterChef (UK TV series), you will see that "MasterChef" is in italics. How is that made to happen? I don't want to change it, I'm just curious. 86.181.170.34 (talk) 02:18, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

See {{DISPLAYTITLE}}. Von Restorff (talk) 02:22, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean I should see the "DISPLAYTITLE" template appearing somewhere in the article code? I don't see it. Am I looking in the wrong place or for the wrong thing? 86.181.170.34 (talk) 02:26, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, it is probably a nested template hidden somewhere in some other template. An example of how to use it can be found here. Von Restorff (talk) 02:27, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

To be more precise: {{Infobox television}} automagically italicizes the article title. Von Restorff (talk) 02:30, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

See {{Infobox television}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 02:32, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh, right, that says it italicises the article title, but how does it know not to italicise "(UK TV series)"? 86.181.170.34 (talk) 02:34, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

MasterChef (UK TV series) uses Template:Infobox television which automatically italicizes the article title via Template:Infobox which uses Template:Italic title which uses {{DISPLAYTITLE}}. Template:Italic title has code to omit italics of text in parentheses (the details of this are tricky because the software lacks normal string functions). PrimeHunter (talk) 02:38, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Right, I see... Good unless the title itself includes brackets I guess! Thanks everyone. 86.181.170.34 (talk) 02:44, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

If there is more than one instance of DISPLAYTITLE, then the last overrides the previous ones. This means that if the DISPLAYTITLE automatically generated by an infobox template needs to be overridden, then an explicit DISPLAYTITLE can be placed after the infobox to make it work (for example at the bottom of the page). If you want to make Infobox television stop italicizing the title you can add |=no to the list of parameters. Von Restorff (talk) 02:52, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I want to create my biographical page but am facing a user error

Hello,

I wanted to continue promoting myself and was not able to display the content that I created regarding MDILLWORTH (talk) 03:21, 21 December 2011 (UTC)my own life.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia. It is not a forum for self-promotion. If you meet Wikipedia's notability requirements, and there are independent published reliable sources to indicate this, you might merit an article - but you certainly shouldn't be writing it yourself. See WP:notability (people), WP:RS, and WP:COI for a start. AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:28, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

You can, however, put some basic information about yourself and your wiki-related activities on your user page. But you can’t use it to promote yourself; that is why someone blanked your user page. See WP:USERPAGE for more about user pages, and see especially WP:UP#NOT for what you can’t put on your user pages. —teb728 t c 07:05, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

unnoticed non-too-trivial vandalism by a specific user

Can someone be so kind as to remove all the vandalism performed by a specific user that didn't do any contributions at all? Special:Contributions/112.200.167.240 — looks like someone has removed a bunch of visa-related info from several tables on 2011-11-17, performing multiple edits on multiple articles. MureninC (talk) 04:06, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I reverted (as unexplained) the anons edits that hadn't been reverted previously. —teb728 t c 05:19, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Someone should communicate to the user on their talk page. Rmhermen (talk) 06:11, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Feedback requested

Hi, an entry of mine was tagged G11 (Unambiguous advertising or promotion) and therefore I did changes to fulfill the requirements, essentially deleting or rewriting a lot of stuff that might sound "marketing related" - which I get from the translator initially. The article is online in the German wikipedia for quite a while. Surprisingly, after I did this changes, the article was tagged "Spam" and up to speedy deletion. I reworked the article again, but did find it deleted this morning. 20:18, 20 December 2011 Fastily (talk | contribs) deleted "Brewmaxx" ‎ (G11: Unambiguous advertising or promotion). I don't want to repeat mistakes and therefore have setup the page in my own namespace at User:Patrick.em/brewmaxx May somebody help me on the issue and give some advice how to change the article to avoid infringing wikipedia rules? Any help is very appreciated. Thanks.

Patrick.em (talk) 09:45, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I dunno, there's a lot of detail there that seems like you'd find it in a brochure about the system. The section under "Product Features", for example - if you could distill that into a single paragraph, you might make it more neutral. Another concern I saw might involve the statistics at the bottom of the page - under "Application and distribution". This is another place where prose would seem more neutral. "Brewmaxx has an install base that includes German breweries Erdinger, Oettinger, Warsteiner, and others. Internationally, the system is utilized by brewers including Anheuser-Busch, Heineken, Carlsburg Group, and Tsingtao." Whether the system uses SQL or not does not impact the importance or notability of the system - try simplifying the article into what is most important. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 15:33, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

problem with Merger proposal

I've posted a merger proposal from E1 Music to Entertainment One, and had already created the Merger proposal section on their respective talkpages - the proposal itself looks okay at the tops of the pages, but not the Discuss part. Sorry, I don't know how to fix them. Thanks. Milkunderwood (talk) 10:28, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The only thing I can think of is that earlier this month I had created sections on each of the talk pages saying merge?, and today just renamed the same sections instead of deleting and re-posting. Could that be the problem? I can't see how. Milkunderwood (talk) 10:37, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

You had spurious < > characters, so none of the links worked. I've removed those characters. Also, on Entertainment One you had referred to E1, but I've corrected that to E1 Music, which is what I think you intended. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:53, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it was what I had intended - I made a mess, didn't I? Thanks very much for fixing them both. :-) Milkunderwood (talk) 10:56, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Additional info for "Boontling" article

Dear wonderful volunteer people at Wikipedia,

The article on "Boontling" (here's the link: Boontling ) neglects to mention the fairly significant facts that A: Boontling was, in fact, determined to be an actual language-- as opposed to lingo or slang-- by the authorities at the time, in the 1960's (this comes from my father, A.C. Brocki, an editor and authority on the English language), and B: Boontling also passed the "acid test" as to whether or not it was an actual language by the fact that it was used by the "codetalkers" during the second world war, along with many Native American tongues, to confuse the enemy radio monitors. Ad far as i know, only Choctaw was used in WWI, due to its unusual obscurity even for a Native American language, but by the time of WWII, we had a lot more radios... and more need for codetalkers, so many tongues were used... including Boontling. The first point can be disputed... current thought on what constitutes a language may differ; but the second point is interestng and in the historical record and should, IMHO, be included. i would also wish to add my vote that the article be retained in Wikipedia (including the sample vocabulary list), instead of being relocated as several people seem to be urging on the discussion page. To those who are urging it be moved in the name of consistency or some other bureaucratic consideration, I will mention the Emerson quote: "A foolish consistency is a hobgoblin of little minds." I would love to edit the article myself, but since I am currently writing TWO books (I work on the non-fiction text in the morning and fiction in the evening and produce a daily radio show in between), I currently DON'T HAVE THE TIME to find out how. Sorry. 142.179.36.18 (talk) 12:17, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Freezing Internet Explorer in Vista

Hi Guys

Last Couple of days I've noticed that every two or three searches I've done on a country, which I need to do several times an hour for work (eg "Brazil"), have frozen my internet completely. Only solution is to restart using Task Manager. I'm running Internet Explorer on Vista. I think that the problem might have started a few days ago when a certain Anti Virus free edition package turned up on my desktop and started scanning my harddrive unrequsted. I could be wrong about this though. The timing just seemed to co-incide. I've deleted the programme as I didn't want it - I'm running other anti virus freeware. Any suggestions what could be causing this freezing and how to fix it? - Thanks, MB — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.164.222 (talk) 13:57, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Hi, you might find that you'll get a better response on the computing reference desk - I've copied your query there: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#Freezing_Internet_Explorer_in_Vista.

Darigan (talk) 14:02, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Problems with template editing and application

Dear Help Desk

I believe, in good faith, I have caused a problem with a template(s). I was editing University of Gloucestershire template category as it is no longer in the Alliance Group of UK universities, but is now in the Million+ Universities. I thought I was doing what I needed to, but think I was mistaken and I have 'corrupted' the template for Alliance so that those truly in that group are now having the Million+ template info displayed rather than what should be there for Alliance group. No doubt there is a log record of this which would allow someone with privileges to correct cleanly and speedily.

Would be so grateful if you could direct this for resolving and could let me know precisely where I went wrong. Have been doing general editing for Wikipedia for some time, but obviously am not understanding use and application of templates. With apologies. Gordiana (talk) 17:18, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Your error was this one, where you changed the content of Template:University Alliance so that it looked like Template:Million+. What you should have done was this, so that University of Gloucestershire called up Template:Million+. I think I've cured it (and it didn't need any special privileges). Tracing the problem might have been easier if all your edits had been done under the same user ID. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:36, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Thank you and for the additional tidying about which you sent a message. All understood for future use. Gordiana (talk) 18:56, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Timeline

Hi, I'd like to create a timeline of world history which is divided into 5 headings. I'd like it to look something like this:

Asia excluding the Near East | Europe | Near East and North Africa | Other regions | Culture and technology

How would I go about creating this, does anybody know? --Hadseys (talk) 18:16, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

question on wiki-style blogging

I was thinking of having a blog in style of wikipedia. a personal blog with editing boxes and methods of wikipedia. do anyone knows any website or domain which provide such request and present it for bloggers?--shahrhormozd (talk) 18:18, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Take a look at this article: wiki software. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:34, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I checked some websites like pimki mentioned in the article but still i couldnt find what i wanted. i need a personal page using as a weblog just like as wikipedia user pages.--shahrhormozd (talk) 04:41, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia runs the Mediawiki software on its servers. If you want a site that looks and works like Wikipedia, then you need another site which runs the same software - either an existing site run by somebody which will allow you to use it in that way, or your own site hosted on your own web server. --ColinFine (talk) 10:46, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Error in automatic redirect

I work with Linda Howe, who is an expert in the field of Akashic Studies. She has written two books on the subject, "How to Read the Akashic Records" and "Healing Through the Akashic Records" (Sounds True). When I typed "Linda Howe" in the Wikipedia search, I was automatically redirected to the article about Linda Moulton Howe, who is an expert in the field of UFOs.

This automatic redirect is a problem because they are two very different people from two very different subject areas. Please assist! Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jdlachowicz (talk • contribs) 18:29, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Unless the Howe you work with is notable enough to have her own article in Wikipedia, which sounds extremely unlikely, there is nothing you can do, really. On a planet of seven billion people and growing, most of us will never be notable enough to deserve Wikipedia articles about ourselves. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:33, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

There is no Wikipedia article about the Linda Howe who writes about Akashic Studies. Therefore, the only person we have an article about is Linda Moulton Howe.

If you think that "your" Linda Howe meets the notability requirements, then you could write an article about her; see WP:FIRST and WP:WIZARD.

If we have more than one article about people with the same name, we usually have a "disambiguation" page - for example, John Smith. However, unless/until there is another person called "Linda Howe", the existing redirect seems appropriate.  Chzz  ►  18:35, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Upload one of my own images to my own profile

Resolved

Hi everyone,

Can somebody tell me (A new user) how do I upload my company logo to my own profile and upload a gallery of images from my agency's represented artists?

Regards

Roberto — Preceding unsigned comment added by ARTWORKXOFMANN (talk • contribs) 18:48, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

You don't. Please read WP:COI carefully and use the talk pages of relevant articles to discuss the changes that you think should be made to those articles. Please do not use Wikipedia to promote your company or your clients. – ukexpat (talk) 19:00, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

User blocked for inappropriate user name, marking this 'resolved'  Chzz  ►  20:33, 21 December 2011 (UTC)