Help desk
< May 15	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 17 >

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.

May 16[edit]

How do you make a category hidden?[edit]

Is a category automatically hidden if {{Hidden category}} is placed on the category page or does something need to be done when adding the category to a page? In addition, if an admin sees this can they modify Category:Articles that need to be wikified with reasons given to be just Category:Articles that need to be wikified with reasons given? It is on the 4th line, right after {{{reason}}} Ryan Vesey Review me! 02:04, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think in addition to that tag you need to follow the instructions at WP:HIDDENCAT RudolfRed (talk) 03:46, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Links[edit]

How do I make a link from an article to a specific point in another article? For example, there's an article about the basketball team Harlem Globetrotters. Wilt Chamberlain was on that team. Let's say you wanted to make a link on the Globetrotters' page to a section in the article about Wilt Chamberlain that's dedicated entirely to his career on the Harlem Globetrotters. How would you do that? (And I would just like to say that I was providing an example, this is not what I'm using it for). — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheBestZebra (talk • contribs) 02:09, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, most of the time you will be linking to another section at which case you would write [[Article name#section title]] So for Wilt Chamberlain you would type [[Wilt Chamberlain#Harlem Globetrotters (1958–1959)]] which would give Wilt Chamberlain#Harlem Globetrotters (1958–1959). If you wanted it to still only say Wilt Chamberlain you would type [[Wilt Chamberlain#Harlem Globetrotters (1958–1959)|Wilt Chamberlain]] which would give Wilt Chamberlain. Ryan Vesey Review me! 02:18, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

DYK length criteria[edit]

Do timeline sections about the article's subject matter formatted kind of like this article overall count towards the length requirements? Abyssal (talk) 04:11, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that it would not count, Wikipedia:DYK#Eligibility_criteria only the prose portion of lists are counted. The timeline looks like a list to me. --kelapstick^(bainuu) 04:49, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, where is the boundary between list and prose? What's the difference between a history section and a timeline besides the linebreaks? Abyssal (talk) 05:13, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Autobiography[edit]

Greetings! My name is Craig Holiday Haynes. I am the oldest son of Roy Haynes and although Ive played music professionally for decades, other than bare mentions in my fathers biography (and another mention or two), there is no written evidence of me on your site. I (like most) consider your site to be of much significance in todays digital world and I therefore would like to be validated by your site more thoroughly. I understand that it is not appropriate for one do write an "auto"biography here. So what do I do? Would you do it for me, by simply going to a site such as "All about jazz (.com)" or do I need to find a professional to have it written? Thank you for your consideration, time and advice! Best regards, Craig 'Italic text' — Preceding unsigned comment added by Craigholiday (talk • contribs) 04:13, 16 May 2012 (UTC) [reply]

To have an article, the subject (you in this case) needs to be notable. See the guidelines at WP:NOTABLE, and WP:BLP. If you feel you meet those critera, you can request an article at WP:REQUEST RudolfRed (talk) 04:42, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The most important thing you could so to increase your chances of having an article written any time soon is to identify reliable sources on your request, containing information from which an article could be written. This is not so crucial on a request where lots of reliable sources are easily found, but here, I just checked Google News Archive and Google Books and did not find much material to work from. You are in a much better position to know where you have been written about than we are. If those reliable sources do not exist, I'm afraid an article that will "stick" is not a possibility.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:54, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind also that in every profession there are hordes of solid, reliable professionals who are just not notable enough to have articles written about them, from musicians to journalists to teachers. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:26, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Question on sandbox[edit]

On your own sandbox can others look at your sandbox or it's history, can they edit it also. Is there a way not for people to look at it cause I want to write stuff in it and highlight blue to link it to wikipedia articles it will look like a little story — Preceding unsigned comment added by Plasma laser (talk • contribs) 07:27, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Others can see your sandbox and edit it but people generally don't unless there is a problem you have stated. AndieM (Am I behaving?) 11:33, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Forgive me if I've misinterpreted your question, but it sounds as though you need to read WP:UPNO, where "extensive writings and material on topics having virtually no chance whatsoever of being directly useful to the project, its community, or an encyclopedia article" are discouraged. Wikipedia is not a Web host, and a "little story" that is unrelated to building the encyclopedia does not sound like appropriate content even in a sandbox (and especially if it's intended to remain there more or less permanently). Deor (talk) 13:08, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dumfries, Virginia Wikipedia site[edit]

On the Dumfries, Virginia Wikipedia site the Mayor listed in the right hand block (Fred E. Yohey) passed away in November 2011. The current Mayor was elected May 1, 2012. The Mayor's name needs to be updated to Gerald M. Foreman II.

Reference: Prince William County Election Results http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/vote/Pages/Election-Results.aspx Town Elections May 1, 2012 http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/vote/Documents/ER%20Current.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.204.10.50 (talk) 08:31, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done. (Since this is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, you could have made this change yourself.) Deor (talk) 10:46, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Updated notice[edit]

Hi, I was wondering why lately the words "updated since my last visit" are appearing in green beside many edits in the page history. I thought this jargon was confined to administrator updates on Wikimedia Commons. Also, what button are the editors pushing to get this to appear? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 09:05, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is one of the changes that were introduced in the most recent software update. See WP:VPT#Now getting green "updated since last visit" message in page history for some reactions. Deor (talk) 10:51, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't appear to be a popular move. Until they get their act together, you can remove those notices now. Just add this to your skin.css page:

.updatedmarker { display: none; }

Equazcion ^(talk) 11:02, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Equazcion, I think I'll do that right now. Yoninah (talk) 13:43, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Search suggestions[edit]

Hi, I really want to find out in what accordance are the "suggestions" in the search bar shown, as in, what order? For example the first article that comes up for 'A' is 'Animal', then 'Association football', 'Australia', etc. How is this determined? By article size? Popularity? What what what? Thanks. Till I Go Home (talk) 09:47, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is number of links to an article. --rainman (talk) 09:56, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. This has been irritating me for a while now, Lol. Till I Go Home (talk) 10:12, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Book Creator[edit]

Dear Help Desk,

I am having a problem with the option "Book Creator". I can bring up the book I have already created, with all of the added pages, but when I then search for a new article that I wish to add to the book, I often do not get the option at the top of the page to add the page to the book. Is there something I am doing wrong, or is this a bug in Wikipedia?

Andrew Carroll, Dublin, Ireland — Preceding unsigned comment added by Artwarden (talk • contribs) 11:05, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Try WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:03, 18 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Loading Issue[edit]

Earlier this morning, I tried going on Wikipedia, only to have it either not load completely, or not load at all. I use Firefox, and until this morning, the site was loading fine. Nothing has changed with my computer, so I am asking what is wrong with the site in that it is now loading oddly on Firefox, if it loads at all. Note that all other sites I go to are working fine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.89.104.255 (talk) 11:13, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I just tried it with Firefox 11.0, and it works fine. Which version is yours? AndieM (Am I behaving?) 11:36, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There were some server problems earlier. Try clearing your cache (usually Ctrl-F5) to resolve any lingering issues. Equazcion ^(talk) 11:48, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I was at school and didn't know that. AndieM (Am I behaving?) 11:49, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No apology necessary, we all fill in each other's blanks :) Equazcion ^(talk) 11:53, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I tried to clear my cache. That didn't work. I use Firefox 3.6, but that shouldn't matter, because like I said, up until that time, it was loading fine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.89.104.255 (talk) 12:58, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

posting my own original literary works[edit]

how do I post my own original literary works, e.g., prose, adages, axioms etc I want to make public on wiki RobertOnTheRocks (talk) 13:26, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Check out the sister project wikisource--SPhilbrick (Talk) 13:38, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Loading Issue Continued[edit]

Since I do not know how to reply to the users in my previous question, "Wikipedia Loading Issue", I will repost with updated information.

Earlier this morning, I tried going on Wikipedia, only to have it either not load completely, or not load at all. I use Firefox, and until this morning, the site was loading fine. Nothing has changed with my computer, so I am asking what is wrong with the site in that it is now loading oddly on Firefox, if it loads at all. Note that all other sites I go to are working fine.

I tried to clear my cache. That didn't work, as Wikipedia was still loading oddly. I use Firefox 3.6, but that shouldn't matter, because like I said, up until that time, it was loading fine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.89.104.255 (talk) 13:47, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To reply to a question, click the "edit" link next to the title for that question. I've been seeing Wikipedia page errors intermitently also, but not so far today. The problem might be on Wikipedia's end and not your browser. RudolfRed (talk) 16:53, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

He had replied to his earlier post; he just wanted fresh users to respond. AndieM (Am I behaving?) 13:21, 17 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently there were still more server issues when he was asking this, but now they have apparently been resolved :) See Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Error on loading page (2) for the discussion. PS. WP:VPT is a good place to check for current technical issues in the future, or to post new ones if you don't find them there already. Equazcion ^(talk) 13:31, 17 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback[edit]

Hi, just a bit of feedback:

If you're going to go to the trouble of having a massive advertising campaign (such as the one that uses various people's photos at the top of every Wikipedia page) you might want to make the photos less creepy. Seriously. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.5.156.252 (talk) 14:55, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The people who need to hear this can be found here. Alternatively, you could register for an account. See the advice here.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:16, 18 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ralph Nader[edit]

What is Ralph Nader doing today, and where is he. Miss his commentations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.46.32.246 (talk) 17:29, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe the Ralph Nader article will help, though I doubt it contains his day-to-day schedule. I'm also not aware that Ralph Nader has ever commented on Wikipedia. Astronaut (talk) 17:59, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I assume the questioner meant today as in these days. You could possibly do a google news search [1]. Ryan Vesey Review me! 22:08, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think the person meant Nader's commentaries in general, not here. This was probably a reference desk question.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 16:35, 18 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How do I mark two pages as translations of one another?[edit]

Tire balance is the English version of the Russian page Балансировка колеса, but one does not appear under the "Languages" rubric of the other. how do I fix that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.18.54.254 (talk) 20:17, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can add [[ru:Балансировка колеса]] to the English page, or [[en:Tire balance]] to the Russian one. (I believe that you only need to add on of these and a bot will add the other, but I'm not certain). This can go anywhere in the article, but you'll find existing language links all together near the end, and should add it in that list. --ColinFine (talk) 22:05, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

wrong info for sister sledge[edit]

Correct birth dates, Debbie 7-9-54, Joni 9-13 56 Kim 8-21-57 Kathy 1- 6-59 ADD! Sister Sledge has close to a billion digital downloads of their music Take out that Kathy is our lead singer and report that she left sister sledge to pursue a solo career 24 years ago, ADD Sister Sledge has over one hundred awards and commendations. ADD We are family won a Grammy for song of the year and ADD Sister Sledge;s African Eyes CD won a Grammy nomination for best produced CD — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.35.33.79 (talk) 23:07, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please use the article's talk page to make change suggestions. Be sure to read the policy on conflict of interest and reliable sources. RudolfRed (talk) 23:19, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]