Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 May 26

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May 26[edit]

Formatting Tables[edit]

I am trying to clean up the List of SteelPans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steelbands)

I have been cleaning up the list of US bands. I have separated individual players from the band list, but the columns don't line up as well as the band's columns. I want it to spread horizontally across the page and not be left justified.

Please help. Thanks! Dave Gerhart Dgerhart (talk) 00:19, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of steelbands (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
For advice on setting the widths of table columns, see Help:Table#Setting column widths. But, I'm afraid to say, you may find that other editors have different ideas about cleaning up the article, because so few of the list entries relate to steel bands that have Wikipedia articles. See Wikipedia is not a directory. The steel bands with Wikipedia articles are listed here. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:39, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Peacock terms[edit]

Is "important" really a peacock term (see Tripoli)?? If it is, what should it be changed to? Theking17825 00:22, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Any term which tells the reader something about an object without also showing the reader why it is important is a peacock term. In this case you must tell the users why the LJBC played an important role in the recent events; merely telling the reader that a role exists and it is important, without elaborating as to what the role is, does nothing. Xenon54 (talk) 00:30, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Okay thanks. :) Theking17825 00:33, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Accusations of Vandalism[edit]

Hi,

my username is nhlsens and I don't know why but i received some messages that i vandalized a page or something. I have not done that in the least and am confused. could you help me figure out why someone would accuse me of that?

thanks,

Sean — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nhlsens (talkcontribs) 07:08, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where did you receive such a message? There's nothing on your talk page. - David Biddulph (talk) 07:19, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Did you receive the message when you were not logged in? If so, it was to someone else assigned the same internet address as your computer, and you can ignore it. —teb728 t c 08:04, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Change to a list of members[edit]

WHY AM I NOT LISTED AS A HORATIO ALGER MEMBER. I WAS INDUCTED IN 2008 AND AM A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS . JOSEPH JOE CLARK <redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.52.202.91 (talk) 08:06, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi Joseph. The article's list is limited to a few well-known members who already have Wikipedia articles written about them, or should have one written according to an independent editor. Otherwise the list would be far too long. If anyone feels the need, I believe this is the person in question. --194.60.106.38 (talk) 08:32, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When are "List of ..." articles supposed to contain references?[edit]

As far as I am aware, the only pages in article space that are not supposed to contain references are disambiguation pages. Yet there are large numbers of List of ... articles that seem to establish their notability through the fact, that most of their entries are wikilinked to an article about the entry. For example, the articles List of cities in Germany, List of cities in Argentina, List of towns in Japan are completely unsourced. Given that per WP:RS#Primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, Wikipedia is not considered an acceptable source to establish notability, I would regard these articles as having no established notability.

Another example is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Companies listed on the Singapore Exchange, which was kept at the AfD, despite having no established notability.

Am I totally confused and a lower standard of "establishing notability through coverage in secondary sources" is expected for List of articles? Are the wikilinks of the entries in those lists are in fact enough?

(PS: The town and cities lists are maybe ok because the towns could be considered as inherently notable. At least I remember having read somewhere that towns and cities are inherently notable, so there might be no need for references in these articles). Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 08:32, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of cities in Germany seems more like an index of articles page per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lists). List of Eagle Scouts (Boy Scouts of America) follows the guidelines at Wikipedia:Manual of Style (stand-alone lists)— every entry has references to show notability and membership criteria (we also require an article to show notability so we don't have to argue over every entry). ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 12:38, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Featured article[edit]

Hello, I want to nominate Manchester United F.C. as 29 May's today's featured article but I can't perceive how to do that. Can anyone do it instead of me? TGilmour (talk) 09:51, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can do it at WP:TFA/R. May 29 has not yet been assigned, so it is possible, though in the past there has been resistance to having an article on a match competitor appear on the day of the competition, for fear we might look biased.--Wehwalt (talk) 10:03, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Reminds me of Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 4, 2008. But Wehwalt is right. Even if the competitor's article is a featured article I doubt a game of kickfootyball will be considered important enough to warrant another double featured article. Rehevkor 10:35, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
User:Raul654, the Featured Article Director has said that while he does not rule out another double FA, he will not do it lightly. One idea would be to see if Man U wins, and if so ask Raul to run the article by approaching him on his talk page for the day of the victory parade. If you do want to go that route, I would immediately drop a note on Raul's talk page so he does not give the date (Monday or Tuesday, I'd reckon) away. Of course, he may not choose to do so, the choice is up to him.--Wehwalt (talk) 10:58, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly, I want it due to CL Final. Should I contact Raul654 on his talk page? TGilmour (talk) 11:13, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Clicking on pictures jumps to fullscreen[edit]

I recently made some changes to my preferences and have discovered that when I click on a picture it no longer goes to the page containing the picture and its related information. Now it jumps to a page simply displaying the picture alone. I've reset my preferences, but clicking on pictures still exhibits this behavior. How can I correct this so that I can see the details page?

Siouxdax (talk) 11:03, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know a preference which would do this. What happens if you click the example image to the right? What is the url in your browser? For me it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Example.jpg. If I then click on the image on that page, I go to http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Example.jpg which displays the image alone. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:41, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When I clicked on the picture you provided, it went to the page showing the details about the image, but a few seconds later it jumped to a page showing only the picture. Prior to this issue I did make some changes to my preferences, but I can't find anything related to that. Anyone else have any input on this? Siouxdax (talk) 17:10, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My Page[edit]

I want to start my own page. How do I do that?

Redd Stahl — Preceding unsigned comment added by Buster1960 (talkcontribs) 12:17, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you are wanting to start an article, here is a great place to start WP:FIRST. If you are talking about creating a userpage, just go here, User:Buster1960, and start. If you are talking about creating an autobiography, you should read this, Wikipedia:Autobiography. If it is something else, please clarify. GB fan (talk) 12:31, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Template quality class[edit]

In some WikiProjects there are quality classes such as category or template. But in other projects, they are missing. Is there any rule which limits the number of quality classes in a Project ? Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 12:32, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The template {{Grading scheme}} seems to support up to 19 quality classes, the basic set plus others that individual projects can enable or disable as they choose. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:26, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Logged out[edit]

I have already created an account. It says above That i am not logged but i DID log in. I am unable to EXPORT yo my E-mail address any of the information that is on the screen pages that I would like to have sent to my E-mail address. WHY wont it EXPORT the stuff????? Adrien — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.102.52.100 (talk) 16:11, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikipedia:Logging_in#Login issues_and_problems, especially the sub-section "I get logged out just after logging in". I don't think there is an option to have a page emailed to you, but there is an option to download an article as a PDF file. You'll find that in the left sidebar under "Print/export". -- John of Reading (talk) 16:20, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright on statements from an interviewed person?[edit]

In an article where an person makes statements like this "-All green cows are evil, said Hallspan". Does that sentence fall under the same copyright as the article or is the actual word-by-word comments public domain in practice? The case where this is of use to know is when statements needs to be included into an wikipedia article.Electron9 (talk) 16:26, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Quotations for assistance. CTJF83 17:54, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talking[edit]

I was wondering how to uplode pics, and how to chat about a supject. CDplayer11 (talk) 16:55, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding uploading of images, how and where to upload them depends on the copyright status of that image. Free images should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Non-free images are not normally allowed on Wikipedia (see Non-free content), but can be used under special circumstances. Help:Upload contains further information on uploading files. If you need help with any specific images, feel free to ask here again. If you need to figure out the license of an image, you can ask at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions.
For instructions about how to talk about an article, please see Help:Using talk pages.
I hope this is helpful. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 17:14, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Donating an article that has been created for my website[edit]

I have created a history of the game of ACQUIRE on my website www.MEGAcquire.com. ACQUIRE was invented by Sid Sackson for the 3M Company in the late 1950's. The rights to the game are currently held by Hasbro Inc. Through the process of buying and selling games and game components, I learned so much history about the game that I decided to share it on my website.

The current section on Wikipedia concerning this game is very weak. I don't really want to edit the existing information since the info I have already created is much more extensive and chronologically placed. I am wondering if there is a method to link this history to Wikipedia or a way to import the entire page (text and pictures)into your encyclopedia. All pictures and writings are my creations expcept where cited.

You can see this history by going to http://www.megacquire.com/inspiration.php The lead in paragraph for this history would be deleted for Wikipedia purposes.

Thank you for you assistance; Lloyd Solon Gmcpanel (talk) 17:40, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at this page. – ukexpat (talk) 18:32, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The text on your web-page looks very comprehensive, and largely suitable for a Wikipedia article (provided you are willing to licence it appropriately, as at the link Ukexpat gave you) but as it stands it would not be satisfactory because it has no references. Having said this, the existing article is very poorly referenced, and arguably does not establish that the game is notable. If you substantially changed it, you would be well-advised to add some references and establish that it is notable, or it will be liable to get deleted. --ColinFine (talk) 22:36, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Go to "My Preferences" and look under... tools I think. There is a special program called ProveIt that can help you put in proper references. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | Say Shalom! 22:56, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User name spelled in correctly needs to be changed[edit]

Recently I set up a user acct. It is now put in as "Air One Enviromental", and it should be "Air One Environmental" Can you all help change this ?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Air One Enviromental (talkcontribs) 18:42, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can visit this page to request a change of username, or just create a new account. Bear in mind though that your account could be deemed as promotional or shared, both of which could end up with you being blocked from editing. If you wish to create an article about Air One Environmental be sure to read WP:FIRST and WP:CORP beforehand to save you the hassle of your work being deleted once you save it. SmartSE (talk) 19:13, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

sandbox whoops[edit]

Hi,

I saved something I was working on several times in the sandbox, not realizing it was being submitted each time. How do I let you know you should disregard those submissions? Updater0906 (talk) 19:28, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You don't need to worry about what you have saved in the sandbox. The sandbox is made specifically for testing things and experimenting. The Sandbox is regularly overwritten by users so your edits will go away soon. GB fan (talk) 19:33, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! That's what I thought, but I got a warning that made me think changes were being submitted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Updater0906 (talkcontribs) 19:37, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Acually, looking at your contributions shows the changes were in fact submitted. The Sandbox is a page like most other pages on Wikipedia and can therefore be changed by almost anybody. What GB fan meant was, that the Sandbox is specifically for test edits, so you don't have to worry about breaking anything (unlike when you would perform edits in the main namespace), because the guidelines (specifically the manual of style) to follow in the sandbox are not as strict as in main articlespace. So there is nothing for you to worry about. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 20:58, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

how to edit tupac shakurs article[edit]

help asap tupac shakur sold 80 million records not 75 million records — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zohanaa (talkcontribs) 21:12, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a reliable source? CTJF83 21:16, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I have updated the entry here in the meantime.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:19, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Permission[edit]

My new domain is in need of Wikipeda. I will not edit information in any way. Do you allow information to be posted on my site? I did not find my answer or mabey I over looked it. Duchess329 (talk) 23:39, 26 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your question is not clear, but - if you want to re-use Wikipedia content, that's fine, as long as you say where it comes from. See WP:REUSE.  Chzz  ►  06:02, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
P.S. You can ask questions here in any language.  Chzz  ►  06:03, 27 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]