Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 September 18

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September 18

All about ME!!

Hey Everyone My Name is Bess

I have a world record of being able to hold my breath under water for an hour!
Also, Jerry Jones the owner of Dallas Cowboys Is my Grandfather!
I own over a hundered Jones Soda Bottles
My Cat thinks She is Running for President, she has yet to find a running mate!
My Car cost me over a million dollars after fixing it up!! danngggg —Preceding unsigned comment added by LuckyBear2321 (talk • contribs) 03:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Good for you! Paragon¹²³²¹ 03:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you might want to consider starting a wordpress blog where you can post your thoughts, instead of wasting our time here. - Icewedge (talk) 03:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Or posting your "bio" at Wikipopuli or Wikibios.

Bodies Exhibition.jpg

There's some problem with the image Image:Bodies Exhibition.jpg that prevents it from displaying properly, but I don't know what's wrong or how to fix it. The current version has a working thumbnail, but the image is presumably at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/Bodies_Exhibition.jpg which gives a 404. The image is accessible in a previous version http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/4/46/20071207053717%21Bodies_Exhibition.jpg but the thumbnail doesn't work. What's going on and how can this be fixed?  —Chris Capoccia ^T⁄_C 07:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure where the file went. It seems there has been a lot of image problems recently. I've uploaded a new version of the file. Scottydude _review 15:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Image server has been hiccuping lately. Gary King (talk) 19:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

edits and deletion of pages

I generally look at new pages and then if they are no good, I put them up for speedy deletion. 99 times out of 100, the page is then deleted. But after that happens, in 'my contributions', that edit that I made putting the speedy deletion tag on that age dissapears.

with the disappearance, does my edit still count on my edit counter (are you with me??)

thanks heaps. Aflumpire (talk) 11:31, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

According to WP:EC, the count shown in Special:Preferences is not changed. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Deleted edits are not counted in various other edit counters, however. Algebraist 12:06, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Apparently, once the article is deleted, they are listed as "deleted contributions" and do not show in the contributions list any more. Chamal ^Talk ± 11:59, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Your speedy tagging edit does become a deleted contribution. However, if you have also alerted the author of the page to the speedy tagging, then this second edit will remain and will give you an easy record of the speedy tagging you made. When you add a SD tag to a page, the template that appears contains a message to you, requesting that you consider also placing a message on the author's talk page. It even provides a line of code that you can cut and paste in order to do so. For example: Please consider placing the template: {{subst:empty-warn|Wikipedia:Help desk|header=1}} ~~~~ If you do this, and use an edit summary along the lines of Warning author re SD nomination of [[Unsuitable Pagetitle]], you'll have a record of your edit in your own contribution history. Karenjc 15:17, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Deleted contributions are still logged, however due to the sensitive nature of certain deletions, Special:DeletedContributions is only accessible by administrators. Preferences still counts them, and certain edit counters do as well (my userpage links to one near the bottom). However, don't get too hung up on WP:Editcountitis. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 16:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Blanking a page

Resolved

Hi, how do I blank a page? When I just remove all of the content, the link at the top of the page remains blue, even though there isn't anything on the page. Thanks, TheMoridian 13:09, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean you want to delete a page? If the page is in your userspace or is an article that you created and no other user has contributed significantly to it, you can blank the page or request speedy deletion by adding a {{db-author}} tag. Or you can simply ask an admin to delete it. Do not blank any other page, as this is likely to be taken as vandalism. Please see Wikipedia:Deletion policy. Cheers. Chamal ^Talk ± 13:24, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I think this is about User talk:Themoridian/workshop, right? If the page is not deleted after some time, you can tag it for deletion as explained above or ask an admin to delete it for you (or you can tag it now itself, of course). Cheers :) Chamal ^Talk ± 13:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Help Editing A Page

Resolved

 – answered on Talk:Delaware North Companies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Delaware_North_Companies

Would someone look into the talk section of this page and respond to my editing question. I'd like to move forward with some edits. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cwhit3134 (talk • contribs) 16:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Answered on talk page above. Gtstricky^{Talk or C} 18:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Reporting possible copyright violation

Where's the right place for me to report a possible copyright violation - not IN wikipedia, but OF wikipedia. An article in the English Daily Mail [1] seems to have large chunks copy-and-pasted straight out of the Wikipedia article on Ray Mears. Thanks. Beve (talk) 16:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I think WP:MF is the only relevant page we have. Equendil Talk 17:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

See also: WP:REUSE. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 21:50, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Why not simply inform the next largest newspaper in your town, and let them publish the story? DOR (HK) (talk) 03:30, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

HTML Code for Text Box

I'd like to to add a framed text box on the right of my page. I can't find the code anywhere. P C McKinnon (talk) 17:00, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you need an infobox? Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 17:10, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes........I want to add a few poems on the right of the page P C McKinnon (talk) 17:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

See {{quote box2}} --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:17, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Great! It works.......thanks Gadget P C McKinnon (talk) 18:00, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

BTW- anything you publish here is released under the GNU Free Documentation License. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 19:05, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Accused of "vandalism" by adding a fact

New here. I added a line in bold on the Trekkie Puppet wiki page. It talks about how highly collectable these puppets are. We are the manufacturer and went through hell designing and producing these puppets. The line I added in bold said: The Trekkie puppets were made by Folkmanis. First of all, this isn't VANDALISM. It's a fact. If it's considered commercial, well, I could argue that but it remains a FACT. Please advise. puppetalchemist —Preceding unsigned comment added by Puppetalchemist (talk • contribs) 18:37, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

First, Wikipedia is not a collection of facts. It is a collection of references. So, to ensure that this "fact" will not be deleted, it must be "referenced." Second, why was it in bold? That is most likely why it was deleted. There is no reason to have that in bold. Third, did you ask the person who removed it why he or she did so? Running here first indicates that you do not want to work with the other user. Finally, see WP:COI. If you work for Folkmanis and you are trying to make edits about Folkmanis, then you are in a conflict of interest. -- kainaw™ 18:56, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

A user making their second edit to a help page cannot fairly be accused of "running here" to avoid working with other editors. Please assume good faith, especially on the part of new editors. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 20:20, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

To "talk" to other users, you would use what we call talk pages. Wikipedia's talk pages can be somewhat jarring to new users who are usually more familiar with e-mail and Internet forums. However, as with most things on Wikipedia, once you learn how to use our talk pages, they have some nice features. I like that on talk pages we can use the full wikitext markup, for example by adding links with minimal extra typing. People who are fluent on Wikipedia tend to put links in almost every sentence; it saves much typing, since we rely on standard documents to define all our jargon and so on. To understand what kainaw wrote, you will need to read these pages: WP:RS, WP:NPOV, WP:V, and WP:BFAQ in addition to WP:COI. Also note the difference between policies and guidelines. Policies are for the most part non-negotiable on Wikipedia, but guidelines allow for some flexibility in interpretation. For example, WP:V is a policy, whereas WP:RS and WP:COI are guidelines. Having a conflict of interest on a topic means you have to take extra care to maintain neutrality, but it does not preclude you from editing. It does mean that statistically speaking, you may be prone to some types of common editing problems that correlate with having a conflict of interest - such as a temptation to lapse into promotional language. But as far as correcting a factual error, if you have reliable sources to back up your claim, a source is a source and it doesn't necessarily matter what you personally feel about a topic. --Teratornis (talk) 23:11, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't find "proportional to" symbol in character insert thingy.

Looks like "∝" (not a "α".). Thanks. Saintrain (talk) 20:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

You can request it be added at MediaWiki talk:Edittools. You can also create custom edittools: see MediaWiki talk:Edittools#User-added functions to edittools. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:52, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

It can be added with ∝ which produces ∝. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:09, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Woohoo! Look what I can do! ∝∝∝∝∝∝∝∝! Thanks both. Saintrain (talk) 22:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't find my changes - what have I done wrong?

On August 25th in the afternoon I made lots of changes to a page that had been flagged as reading as "advertising" (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IBM_WebSphere_Application_Server). When I finished with my changes I saved them and went back in to view them later and all seemed well with the world. Now I can't find my changes and the log says it hasn't been changed since August 15th! So, I have to assume I did something wrong. I was using Safari on a Mac - which I have mentioned in case it is something to do with caching. So I can avoid making the mistake again, could someone advise me as to what I most likely did wrong, please? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ColinRenouf (talk • contribs) 20:53, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

There are edits on IBM WebSphere dated August 25th, is there a chance you had actually edited that article instead of IBM WebSphere Application Server? --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:58, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, but it was definitely the IBM WebSphere Application Server page as I added information about the EJB3 feature pack, removed the word beta from something released a year ago, and then added some things about the internals. Would it make any difference that it I had only set the account up in the morning of the 25th? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ColinRenouf (talk • contribs) 21:08, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

According to your contributions list, you haven't made any edits other than the two to this page. So you very likely made those contributions under your IP address instead of this username, just to clear one thing up. But because that page doesn't show any edits since August 15, I think we can definitely say that you didn't edit that page- or rather, that your edits weren't saved. I suppose you'll just have to redo them, and be sure that they actually save next time. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 21:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I've provided a welcome menu template to the user, which includes information - if the user is stuck with anything he/she could request assistance here or request help from any user who's willing to help out. Terra 21:22, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

A mistake I sometimes make is to use Preview to check my edits and then absentmindedly navigate away from the page without actually saving them. Might that be what you did? Deor (talk) 21:12, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Magazines

I'm working on improving a biography of a religious figure, and I'd like the use information released by the church in the form of a magazine (copies of which are online). Should I use a cite web or cite book template, or some other third thing totally unrelated? Thanks. Intothewoods29 (talk) 22:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

{{Cite web}} is often a pretty good choice when you don't know what else to use. However, it's hard for someone to answer this question without being able to see the source you have in mind. See WP:CITET for a list of citation templates you can use (the standard three guidelines for citing sources are WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, and WP:CITET). Also, does this source count as reliable? If you aren't sure, you can ask on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. --Teratornis (talk) 22:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Oops I guess I was being a bit vague there. :P It's the magazine Liahona distributed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, linked here. It's a magazine, and the text is put online on the church's website. Would cite journal work? Thanks for being patient. Sometimes I honestly don't know if there's anything in my head. ;) Intothewoods29 (talk) 23:04, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

One of the hardest parts of communicating is being consciously aware of which parts of your knowledge another person does not share. Developing that awareness may almost be the entire basis of clear communication. Journalists learn to answer the "who, what, when, where, how, and why" questions when they describe a topic or event. People who haven't trained as journalists may have a harder time putting themselves in the reader's shoes. It certainly isn't natural for most of us. It's even much less natural for computers (so far). Anyway, to your question, when I am not sure what to do on Wikipedia, I like to look for examples of what other people have done. That doesn't necessarily determine what we should do (see Wikipedia:Other stuff exists), but it can give us ideas. We could try searching for this magazine with {{Google wikipedia}}:

• Search Wikipedia with Google for: Liahona

I had to scroll a few pages into the results to find some citations. Check out these articles for example: Elaine S. Dalton, August Höglund, and Benjamín de Hoyos. It looks like various editors have used a variety of citation styles; this is pretty typical for Wikipedia. I'd suggest using whatever citation template provides the necessary fields. {{Cite journal}} is probably fine. {{Cite web}} has enough fields that it works for almost any online reference, but {{Cite journal}} is more specific so you could use that. --Teratornis (talk) 23:26, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Intothewoods29 (talk) 23:33, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Edit missing from watchlist

A comment by a vandal on my user page at 23:04 on 18 September does not appear on my watchlist. The subsequent removal of this by another editor does appear, as do previous edits by the same vandal. Can anyone explain why? Thanks RolandR (talk) 23:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I guess you mean this edit to your talk page at 22:04 UTC. I can see it on a watchlist and have no explanation why you cannot. There is no combination of watchlists settings which should at the same time hide this edit and show the preceding edit by that IP (there are settings which would hide both of them). PrimeHunter (talk) 00:30, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, there were so many edits in the "Main" section of my watchlist, that I couldn't see, and forgot to check, the "User talk" section. RolandR (talk) 08:04, 19 September 2008 (UTC)