Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 5

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December 5

I think that I committed a mistake :S

Hi everybody. I was reading the news and I saw an article about Moninder Singh Pandher and Surender Koli (Indian serial killers). Well, on the article I read that they are Indians, so I came to their articles and their nationalities were not, so I wrote on the articles (( Indian serial killer )) respectively. Was it a mistake?.... Did I must edit the articles to it?. Second point. They killed little girls (most of them only babies), the Pandher's article doesn't say it and the Koli's article doesn't say it.... Do I must edit it? Thanks and forgive me if I committed a mistake.Ahmed987147 (talk) 00:44, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As the subject is indeed a serial killer, I see nothing wrong with the categorization. See also WP:CATEGORY. --Kudret abi^Talk 08:32, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No, You did not make a mistake, and thank you for helping us build an encyclopedia. This is exactly why we are here, and this is exactly why we invite anybody to edit. Please add any additional relevant facts that you are aware of to the articles. However, all facts are supposed to come from reliable sources, and are supposed to cite your sources. If you are a new editor, the exact details of how to cite your sources may be intimidating. You can often find a worked example within the article itself, or you can try to teach yourself how to do it. If it's just too hard, then add the fact anyway, and put the information about the source on the talk page of the article with a request for another editor to add it properly If you prefer not to edit the article yourself, place both the information and the source on the talk page, and ask for someone to edit the article. Thanks again. It's refreshing to get this type of question on the help desk. -Arch dude (talk) 00:56, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

statistics

Is there a statistics counter to show what topics are accessed the most? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.159.64.10 (talk) 00:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

See old numbers at Wikipedia:Popular pages and new at [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

SPEEDY DELETION

Hello Help Desk

An entry I created yesterday for 'Servcorp' has been deleted as per the deletion log below

06:32, 4 December 2007 Ocatecir (Talk | contribs) deleted "Servcorp" ‎ (Speedy deleted per (CSD G11), was blatant advertising, used only to promote someone or something. using TW)

Can you please advise why this is classed as blatant advertising when it is a company description and references other search terms found on Wikipedia such as 'serviced offices' and 'virtual offices'?

Thanks for your help.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Shelleyc (talk • contribs)

Well, something you might want to look at is WP:AB, which is an article that tells you how to write an article about yourself, or about a company you work for. Before you do this, you should know that it is strongly discouraged to make an article about yourself or a company you own or work in. This is so the articles have a neutral point of veiw, and you don't accidently yurn something into an article that tries to advertise something. ~ Bella Swan 01:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Image license

Hello, how do I go about getting another license added to the drop down list on the image upload form? There's currently two under Creative Commons, version 3.0 and version 3.0 Share Alike. What about version 2.0? Would it be possible for that to be added? Thanks. Redrocketboy 01:53, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The best place to ask is at WP:MCQ, for details, they may know why it is not listed on the drop drop list, editors can still paste the tags {{Cc-by-sa-2.0|Attribution details}} or {{Cc-by-2.0|Attribution details}}, if the image falls under those licenses. see WP:TAG for instructions, Also as another upload option you may want to upload to Commons instead so that it can be used @ other Wiki project not just to the English version of Wikipedia. ▪◦▪≡ЅiREX≡^Talk 06:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll register there. Redrocketboy 16:33, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

eMail

I added my eMail to my preferences just yesterday but no confirmation eMail arrives. I already clicked the "Send Confirmation Email" button twice, but still nothing comes. Marlith ^T/C 03:40, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

This happens on occasion. Sometimes it takes a while to send, sometimes it gets caught by spam filters - check your "junk mail" folder, and see if it's appeared there. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:10, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

A whole day! Marlith ^T/C 04:20, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

reverting two edits back

an article was vandalized that erased content and formatting as well as obscene language, someone else erased the obscene language but did not use the undo function so the erased content and incorrect formatting remains, i tried to just undo the vandalizing edit but could not do it, is there an eaiser way to go two edits back other than reformatting and reinserting everything one by one?

Yes, see WP:REVERT. Marlith ^T/C 04:04, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

login/email problem

This evening, I made an account to help edit a Wikipedia entry. This went fine. I tried to log in a little while later (< 1 hr) and the login would recognize the password I just set up. It's unlikely that I made the same typo twice when initially creating a password, but strange things can happen. So I clicked the email me my password button.

An hour later, and I have yet to receive the emailed password sent to my gmail account--although the initial email confirmation message arrived promptly after I first set up my user account. So I know that my user name is correctly associated with my email. I know my gmail is active and working because I just sent myself a test message.

Any suggestion of how to proceed? My user name is cmbarton and the linked email is <e-mail address removed>

Thanks, Michael Barton —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.35.65.242 (talk) 05:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

OK, first, I've removed your email address because having it up on a page like this is (a) not good for your privacy, and (b) asking for spam. Second, it looks like you may have made a mistake not in the password, but in the User name - while there is a User:Cmbarton, their account was created in November 2006, and they have no edits to their name (the first letter of a user name or article title always ignores capitalisation). I would suggest looking at the edit history of the article you edited, to see if you can work out what user name you might have used. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:55, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Each Wikipedia version has separate accounts. Did you register at the English Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org? You should not be able to choose the old existing username cmbarton here. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

And in case you don't know: The large majority of Wikipedia articles can be edited without having an account. Then the used IP address is credited for the edit instead of a username. Could this have happened with the edit you think was made with your account? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:30, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Copyrights

When mentioning brandnames on articles we don't need to write ® or ™ near them, right? -- Mentifisto 06:41, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No you don't, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks) which states "Do not use the ™ and ® symbols, or similar, unless unavoidably necessary for context.", cheers. ▪◦▪≡ЅiREX≡^Talk 06:58, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. -- Mentifisto 07:02, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

And by the way, can no one answer my Wikipedia:Help_desk#Hiding_all_fundraising_ads question that I asked some days ago? -- Mentifisto 07:28, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I cannot answer it, but searching Wikipedia for: hide fundraiser box finds some discussion elsewhere about the method you tried. Maybe someone else reported the same problem, or you can check with another user who managed with the same technique, and get a sanity check. --Teratornis (talk) 07:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps this would help [2]. --Kudret abi^Talk 08:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yay, thanks! Now that annoying banner is finally gone! :-D (Although I don't condemn the fundraising itself, but that green bar with the green people and especially those comments were just intrusive.) -- Mentifisto 09:34, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

No problem, glad we could be of help. --Kudret abi^Talk 22:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

presentation

How to give a good business presentation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.118.106.24 (talk) 07:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

You could start by reading Presentation and following links therefrom. If you mean a presentation where you are not physically present, see Screencast. From my college days, I recall a professor who advised students to "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em; tell 'em; then tell 'em what you told 'em." The idea being to summarize your presentation both before and after you deliver the main body of details. I have no idea whether that is good advice, and see the disclaimers. --Teratornis (talk) 07:19, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Alignment and structuring

Hi, Im having some problems structuring my work (on my user page), it jumps around the page. I think I need help on how to justify, center align (horizontally and vertically). If you can help can you also tellme how to add backrounds, please! Also different fonts. Thanks Fattyjwoods (talk) 07:27, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Everything about user pages is here: WP:EIW#User_p. Let us know if you can't find what you need in those links. I don't myself know how to do what you want, offhand anyway, because I opted for a very simple user page, just plain sections, lists, and links. --Teratornis (talk) 07:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

in need topic importance leadership with headings plz

i need topic importance of leadership now plz with its heding —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ghaffarkalal (talk • contribs) 09:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and as such, we don't do your work for you. Additionally, this page is for getting help using Wikipedia; you may have more success at the Reference desk, which specialises in general knowledge questions. You may also like to read our article on Leadership. --Kateshortforbob 10:09, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Nandigram

nandigram what this is all about —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.211.175.21 (talk) 10:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you have a specific question about Nandigram? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

wikimedia

I heard wikipedia is going to be available for places with limited access to the internet in hard copy format (CD,DVD,...) so can users "buy" or "recieve for free" a hard copy of wikipedia?

(I hope this is the right page for asking this question :-)) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dara.bayat (talk • contribs) 13:56, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The help desk is a good place to ask questions about Wikipedia. See Wikipedia:Snapshots. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:09, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

designing a family tree

I need a programor some advice that will help me to design a family tree without having to fiddle around with formatting whose workings I anyway can't find explained anywhere on wikipedia. Thanks. Yehoishophot Oliver (talk) 14:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean an article using {{Familytree}}? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• To me this came across as a question about something outside Wikipedia (for which the questioner is looking for an answer on Wikipedia). I think WP:RD/C or WP:RD/H (the reference desks for computing and humanities respectively) are the best place to ask this. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:23, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Where is

Where is the page that shows the leading editors on Wikipedia? --EndlessDan 14:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not have a command structure. At Special:Listusers you can list users based on their permissions, for example administrators. Or maybe Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits is what you want. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:04, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Thats what I was looking for. A late thanks! --EndlessDan 17:52, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

University Musical Society

I am trying to create a page for the organization "University Musical Society" but am unable to do so, as you can see from the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_musical_society. "University Musical Society" is the full name of our organization (it goes by no other name). For more information (and to ensure the validity of my request) please check out our website at www.ums.org. Why am I unable to create a page for this organization? —Preceding unsigned comment added by UniversityMusicalSociety (talk • contribs) 15:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

The page University Musical Society already exists as a redirect to University Music Society. As there appear to be several organisations with a similar name it's somewhat unclear to me that UMS you refer to is going to be the UMS everyone thinks of when people talk about UMS. I strongly suspect someone from Australia may think of the QUMS or perhaps some other organisation. And similarly someone from the UK may think of the OUMS or some other organisation instead of your one, even if the full names of these organisation includes Queensland and Oxford respectively and yours is just UMS. There are probably other UMSes too. As such, it is probably best if you leave things as is and add an additional link in the disambig page to whatever page you create. I would suggest something like University Musical Society (University of Michigan) or University Musical Society (United States). You may want to read Wikipedia:Disambiguation for more information on disambigation pages. I also suggest you read WP:COI before starting any article on an organisation you apparently work for or are part of. Nil Einne (talk) 16:01, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Nil Einne makes some good points. Regarding redirects, clicking on University Musical Society redirects to University Music Society with the message "(Redirected from University musical society)" near the top. Clicking on the redirect source there leads to the page http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_Musical_Society&redirect=no without activating the redirect. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

How Do I Create A Wikipedia Page

I was wondering how to create a wikipedia page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by JoshWalker89 (talk • contribs) 15:56, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:15, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As above really. If you have any further questions about first pages, don't hesitate to ask me. I've had some experience adopting other users and I'd be quite happy to apply that knowledge here. — Rudget _{contributions} 16:52, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Why have my changes been deleted on a page that I initiated?

Hi there Just curious as to why some changes that I made to an article initiated by me have been changed. The page in question is Legends of Classic Rock. I had a list of all the episodes, that has been deleted. Last week, I added links at the Corus owned affiliate stations - cjxy, cilq, cfgq, cjkr and ckdk - and these have also been removed.

Just wondering why so I don't make the same mistake again.

Saralanthier (talk) 16:41, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, the editor who made those changes (Ckatz) answered this with their edit summary: they felt the article contained excessive links and a non-encyclopedic list. (Note: you shouldn't be editing that article anyway, since you have a severe conflict of interest, as a Corus employee.) --Orange Mike | Talk 16:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As above, try to refrain from areas that you may be personally involved in. — Rudget _{contributions} 16:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Image formating and latex

Hello,

When using Latex code, a new image is created, but this image "merges" in the text. I would like to know if it is possible to have this image in a standard image box.

Cheers, Randomblue (talk) 17:21, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I may be able to help more if you bring this to my talk page. Thank you. — Rudget _{contributions} 17:35, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

This problem still hasn't been resolved. Thanks Randomblue (talk) 18:17, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Something like this? x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes but I would like it to be a thumb on the left or on the right, with a small comment. Randomblue (talk) 19:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[3] is probably what you need, then. I'm against spoofing the UI of Wikipedia so I'd like to know what it is for (perhaps a proper, saved and uploaded image might be better). To left-align it, change tright to tleft. x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I am working on the article constant. Randomblue (talk) 19:59, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Latex

Hello,

How do I put colour in my latex symbols? When trying \colour{red}test I get Failed to parse (unknown function "\colour"): {\displaystyle \colour{red}test} .

Cheers, Randomblue (talk) 17:48, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

LaTeX apparently uses American English. Try <math>\color{red}this</math> to get $\color {red}this$ tiZom_(2¢) 17:56, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Haha, thanks for that! $\color {red}this\color {blue}that$ It works! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Randomblue (talk • contribs) 18:07, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

starting a new listing

I just created a login account and spent 45 minutes looking at all the FAQs. Maybe I "can't see the forest for the trees?" I only want to create a new listing for a new business website with a brief description of the website.

I see all kinds of information on editing existing listings using "the sandbox". But how do you start a new listing or entry?

When I went to the sandbox, instead of a blank text box, it was full of jibberish.

thanks, Ronald55 (talk) 18:06, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It's quite easy. Search the name of your entry in the search box to the left, search it again and click the red link saying "create this page". Make sure to read this first, though. — Rudget _{contributions} 18:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

And, since it's a business, this → WP:CORP. tiZom_(2¢) 18:31, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

• New websites tend not to be suitable subjects because they do not have the number of visitors/users or the coverage to show it is notable. Quite often such entries are accused of being a promotional effort to direct traffic. It's best to avoid all that and wait until the site made a name for itself. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:28, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia has many restrictions on what sort of content is suitable for articles. If your company is not notable enough for Wikipedia yet, you can write about it on AboutUs.org and Wikicompany, which have content policies much more lenient than Wikipedia's for articles about corporations. Also see: Wikipedia:Business' FAQ and Wikipedia:Alternative outlets. --Teratornis (talk) 19:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Boxes

{| class="wikitable" align="right" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin:0 0 0.5em 0.5em"
{{Elementbox_section_physicalprop | color1=#ffc0c0 | color2=black }}
{{Elementbox_density_gpcm3nrt | 19.3 }}
{{Elementbox_densityliq_gpcm3mp | 17.31 }}
{{Elementbox_meltingpoint | k=1337.33 | c=1064.18 | f=1947.52 }}
{{Elementbox_boilingpoint | k=3129 | c=2856 | f=5173 }}
{{Elementbox_heatfusion_kjpmol | 12.55 }}
{{Elementbox_heatvaporiz_kjpmol | 324 }}
{{Elementbox_heatcapacity_jpmolkat25 | 25.418 }}
{{Elementbox_footer | color1=#ffc0c0 | color2=black }}

Hello,

I would like to have the same element box but without the periodic table, and all the stuff on top of "general".

Cheers, Randomblue (talk) 18:40, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I've hacked it about a bit. Is the result what you wanted? Algebraist 19:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Awesome! Thanks. Randomblue (talk) 19:27, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

ALTA

What is ALTA standard form owner’s policy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.158.20.2 (talk) 19:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

(added header) This doesn't appear to be a question about Wikipedia, which is what the Help Desk is for. You might get an answer at the Reference Desk, especially if you tell them which ALTA you mean. Algebraist 19:41, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

calcite

how do you test for the presence of calcite in a rock sample?

You click here: how do you test for the presence of calcite in a rock sample? and read some of the search results. The Rockdoctor site, for example, looks interesting. --Teratornis (talk) 19:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

How to make a page of information.

Hi my fellow wiki's. I currently edited a page and added a author whos well known in my small town. I want to make a page about him, but I can't seem to find out how. Please help me as he deserves credit! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Natedogg sachs (talk • contribs) 20:19, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

It looks like you want to make a page about Nathan Robert Sachs; you, however, are discouraged from creating pages about yourself or pages about things you are related to. From your username, it appears you are in fact Mr. Sachs. While you are not expressly prohibited from creating the article, please make an attempt to get someone else to write the article for you first. You may also want to read the notability guidelines for people; if your article doesn't show evidence of passing those guidelines, it likely will be deleted. Thanks. NF24^{(radio me!)} 20:38, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Graphs and distribution characteristics suddenly won't print correctly any more (for about past month...)

For example, under "Weibull Distribution", all of the same information is presented, but some sort of update has occurred such that printing the page generates a mess, whereas for at least the past couple of years, this worked without fail. It seems to apply to numerous distribution pages - it is always the sample curves, plus the boxed information about parameters, support, PDF, CDF, etc., that no longer print. There appears to be nothing in the FAQ and I've searched on "print", but nothing seems to be mentioned. This is my first posting, so I'm not even sure how to find any answers any of you may offer, but I'll play with it. Anybody know what happened and how to print these pages moving forward? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.40.0.9 (talk) 21:13, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried the link in the sidebar to 'printable version'? I've no idea what that does, but it might help. Algebraist 22:24, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

poems that don't rhyme

what is a poem called that doesn't rhyme? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.145.179.246 (talk) 21:29, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. NF24^{(radio me!)} 21:57, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Not all poems have to rhyme, so it's called a poem. Astronaut (talk) 23:47, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Specifically, an unrhymed poem. Algebraist 23:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

As above, they are generally just called poems, but they are sometimes distinguished as "free-verse poetry" or "prose poetry".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:32, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

No, there are lots of unrhymed poems which are neither free-verse nor prose-poems, such as the works of Homer, and Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse. Algebraist 00:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Caught Vandalism

I caught some vandalism by 76.16.196.13 on the Jay Treaty's article. Is there any procedure for recommending an IP address be blocked because of vandalism???Thanks! Noneforall (talk) 23:45, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

WP:AIV is the place for that, but it's very unlikely that any admin will block after a first offence. The normal approach is to just revert the edit and leave a warning on the user's talk page (which I have done). Algebraist 23:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

See also WP:VANDAL for more info. --Kudret abi^Talk 23:51, 5 December 2007 (UTC)