Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 April 1

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April 1

Adding search keywords for a wikipedia article

How do we add keywords for the wikipedia search engine to find my article as it contains sections that have no articles on wikipedia yet, so people searching those terms could get some info from my article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Martin.gerren (talk • contribs) 00:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The search engine is automated, but the index is not constantly generated due to the high load that would require. Wait about 24 hours and if your article doesn't start coming up in search results for key words or phrases found in the article, ping us here or on WP:VPT to see if there's a problem. —bbatsell ¿? ✍ 04:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Or create appropriate redirects. Algebraist 11:55, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Claims I've never heard before

I'm trying to verify some claims that User:Terrillja has put forth when removing improvement tags from several articles. Can someone point me to the appropriate policy that might enlighten me?

• In his revert of CLAWS, he states that "Notability is not for a stub". Presumably Wikipedia:Notability or one of its variants states this?

• His logic is "As for adding notability tags to stubs, it was written somewhere that notability tags should not be applied to stubs, since they are really just a brief blurb about the subject. I think it was on WP:STUB..."

• In his revert of RIT College of Liberal Arts, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, and RIT Ambulance he states that "Notability inherited through RIT". "Notability inheritance" is a new concept to me. Again, Wikipedia:Notability or Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)?

• His logic is "As for the notability of specific colleges, there have certainly been plenty of articles written about them or their programs, however for ease of recognition, the articles generally refer to RIT rather than the specific college, since it is more likely to be recognized. Thus, the notability of the colleges is through RIT."

Thanks in advance!

—129.21.179.32 (talk) 00:30, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The first claim about stubs not being subject to WP:N is completely false, and I doubt if it ever was different. We delete loads of pages (mostly stubs) everyday as CSD A7, which fail to assert notability. This does not even check if it is notable or not, but looks for any indication of notability, which is obviously at a lower level and shows how important notability is here. A lot articles deleted for non-notability at WP:AFD are stubs. However, page patrollers are generally encouraged to allow some time for a new article to be improved instead of tagging it straight away as soon as it was created. It seems to me that this editor has confused this with notability.

I'm not sure about the second claim since I'm not familiar in that subject area, but "inheriting" notability is something very unlikely. I suggest you ask about this at Wikipedia:WikiProject Universities, who'd be knowing about this. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 01:34, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget that the test for A7 is indication of importance or significance - a lesser standard than notability. – ukexpat (talk) 01:55, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

(EC)1. As Chamal_N pointed out, this is completely wrong. Perhaps, he's confusing that {{expand}} tags don't go on stubs.

2. This is a bit trickier. Arguments can be made that these can be merged into the main articles. There is no policy on inherited notability, but there is an essay. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 02:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

This may seem kind of stupid...

since I'm telling you all what I'm gonna do, but I had this plan for April 1st since late last year, that I would point all "Citations" I could to the articles "Cessna Citation" "Court Citation" "Traffic Citation" etc...but I didn't want to just do it for fear of getting banned or something, so I'm asking if that would be okay or not. What can I say, I'm a person who likes to have fun VERY wary guy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Draconiator (talk • contribs) 03:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I think you're wise to be wary. You will find that April Fool's pranks are (to some limited extent) tolerated in Wikipedia space and User space, but are very much frowned on in Article space. Yes, if you did that, you'd be reverted and warned by someone. My advice is, don't do it. --Floquenbeam (talk) 03:34, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, keep it out of article space and very restricted in WP/User Space per Floquenbeam. The alert level for Vandalism is at its highest level on April Fools Day and you don't want to get caught in the crossfire. Valley2city^‽ 03:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

And see WP:HUMOR. To get your comic relief, consider editing on Uncyclopedia. --Teratornis (talk) 05:26, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

• A joke like that would result in trouble for new users who wouldn't understand how to properly use citations if they were to run into a page you edited. April Fool's Day jokes are fine, but they shouldn't disrupt normal editing activity. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Unassessed articles

When an article is unassessed but listed with a particular project, how does it get assessed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Levalley (talk • contribs) 05:24, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The detailed answer is in the links under WP:EIW#Assessment but I think the simple answer is every level below featured and good comes from whichever user decides to assess an article. --Teratornis (talk) 05:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you have any particular articles in mind? --Teratornis (talk) 05:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

As well as featured and good, A-class status also cannot be granted unilaterally, but requires independent review. Algebraist 11:53, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I stand corrected. Thanks. --Teratornis (talk) 20:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I have several in mind - I've been helping doing clean-up for both Anthropology and Philosophy (and some other pages). Many anthropology articles have no importance rating, and I think I can make a stab at ranking some of them. Two pages in particular (recently nominated for deletion but apparently rescued) are Semantics and Reference. Thanks for the help!--Levalley (talk) 16:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)LeValley

You might discuss this on the talk pages of the respective WikiProjects. I haven't noticed a huge amount of controversy over article assessments in the topic areas where I have edited, but it can be risky to generalize about Wikipedia. It seems to me the importance rating is inherently arbitrary, but now we have a (possibly somewhat accurate) view counter on the history page of every article. An article that gets 100,000 views per month according to that tool might be more important than an article that gets only 100 views per month, but then again "popularity" might not automatically equate to "importance", depending on who one asks. --Teratornis (talk) 20:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Custom messages heading edit pages

If you try and edit the Earth article, there's a message that comes in at the top of the page, customized to the article (it says, among other things, don't add "mostly harmless" jokes to the article). Anyone know how that was done? --TeaDrinker (talk) 08:51, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

WP:EDN has the details. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:58, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Outstanding; thanks. That was just what I was looking for. --TeaDrinker (talk) 16:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

network components and its types

answer this with basic meanings —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.39.193 (talk) 09:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the Computing 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.Zain Ebrahim (talk) 09:04, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

How do you add a picture to a page you have created.

How do you add a picture to a page you have created.

RBLALA001 (talk) 11:35, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Check out WP:UL and let us know if you need any help. Best, Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

But note on Wikipedia your account must be autoconfirmed before you have upload rights. – ukexpat (talk) 15:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Question about user and usertalk pages

I often see user and usertalk pages being blanked with the editor claiming promotional material and conflict of interest far before it actually happens, and when the only contribution that the accused user has made has been to their user pages.

Isn't that some sort of bias? Isn't the user that the pages belong to allowed to do whatever he or she wants to them? Elm-39 - T/C/N 12:15, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The relevant guideline is Wikipedia:User page. As for this specific matter, I'm not stupid enough to comment on specific pages without knowing what they are. Algebraist 12:19, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

No - the community owns all of the pages and as a group we can decide to remove whatever we like from userpages (which are for community co-ordination not for self-promotion). In practice, established users will be given a bit more leeway but if we have someone who just edits their user-page and it's promotional, that's likely to be deleted pretty quickly.. --Cameron Scott (talk) 12:21, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The most frequent occasion for this is when the "userpage" is actually an advertisement for a business or service, in some cases complete with, "For further information on Jenkins Metal Demangement, click here: http://www.jenkinsmetaldemangement.com" We are under no obligation to tolerate such misuse of Wikipedia. --Orange Mike | Talk 13:32, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Why is my accont not valid?

Hi. Somebody have deleted my account, see below. Is it possible to make it work again? I haven´t done anything wrong so it´s a little peculiar.

This email confirm my account.
Someone from the IP address 83.227.233.10 has registered the account "Haraldwallin" with this e-mail address on the English Wikipedia. To confirm that this user account really does belong to you and to activate e-mail features on Wikipedia, please open this URL in your browser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ConfirmEmail/3bcbe49deb85940be5c3386206215a6c

If you did not recently register for Wikipedia (or if you registered with a different e-mail address), click the following link to cancel the confirmation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Invalidateemail/3bcbe49deb85940be5c3386206215a6c

This confirmation e-mail will automatically expire at 15:11, 10 November 2008 (UTC).

--83.227.233.10 (talk) 13:03, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

No-one has deleted your account. It's not even possible for anyone to delete your account. I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about, or the relevance of the email you've posted. Can you clarify? Algebraist 13:07, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

OK, I think I see what's going on. The username Haraldwallin does exist, and the account has been editing very recently (see its contributions). Is this you? The email you're quoting was sent to you in November because you tried to register an email address associated with the Haraldwallin username. (Registering an email address to a username can be a good idea, because, for example, if you forget your password you can get it emailed to you.) However, it looks like you didn't complete the email registration process - you needed to respond to the email from Wikipedia you quote above, and click on the link to confirm your email - so the registration expired. This means you don't currently have an email address registered to the Haraldwallin account. If you want to try again to register your email address, you need to login as Haraldwallin then go to Special:ConfirmEmail and follow the instructions there. Provided you still remember your Haraldwallin password this should work fine. Hope this helps. Karenjc 21:35, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

What do the numbers on the watchlist page mean?

For example: (diff) (hist) . . m W. (film)‎; 08:04 . . (-19) . . Yhe

What does (-19) mean?

Jabberwockgee (talk) 14:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The number of bytes that were added to the page. Generally, one character is one byte. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 14:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Ah, that makes sense. I kept getting huge negative numbers whenever I edited a page. It made me feel bad.... But I generally shorten articles (like the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre plot from 2100 words to 900). Jabberwockgee (talk) 14:48, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Reassessment

At Talk:Keep Yourself Alive, it says that the article's start-class, but if I knew it wasn't ready for GA yet and just wanted it to go to, say, B-Class, where would I nominate it? Thanks, Queenie 14:49, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

B-class is actually a class that you can assess on your own. Only A, FA, and GA have third-party reviews. Just make sure the article meets the criteria and change the assessment. TNXMan 15:53, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, right. Thanks. Queenie 16:10, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Linking to selfpage (linked page has redirect back to same page as what linked to)

Does this allowed to wikipedia, if not, what to resolve?? common sitition is suppose a page name A001 linked to B001, but it has redirect back to original page A001, for a example, like this WP:HD will be redirected bake to this same page.

Can a function be designed to make this looplink to be highlighted to a special color? or other method instead!!!

JustbeBPMF (talk) 15:00, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Redirect#Undesirable redirects. Does that help? – ukexpat (talk) 15:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Dates for when articles change level in Quality Scale

Is there any way to check when an article has changed level in a WikiProject's quality scale? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Madmonky (talk • contribs) 15:29, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, quality determinations are mostly self-reviews (except for A, FA, and GA class, which are third-party). Since the article's talk page template should be updated once the review is done, simply check the talk page's history to see when the classification was changed. TNXMan 15:50, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Will do, thanks --Madmonky (talk) 17:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

PC Pitstop page

PC Pitstop page

I tried to pattern my page after others that I consider similar. For example Lavasoft, but there are many others on Wiki. PC Pitstop is a help site and although it does have paid products, it's main software "OverDrive" is completely free as are it's forums and many articles, some of which I write.

Is there something in particular that seperated what I wrote from the many others on Wiki. We're very well known, respected, and considered one of the good guys, Like Lavasoft,Spybot,Avast, Norton, McAfee, and infact are more focused on free user help than any of these.

Thanks for any help you can give. I've been reading the how-tos and help pages for over a week so any specific instructions would be a help.

Thanks. Steve Hogan.Wouldshed (talk) 15:36, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The page was speedily deleted as blatant advertising. It may not have been your intention to advertise but sometimes there is a very fine line between the acceptable and the unacceptable, particularly when you have a massive conflict of interest as you appear to have. You are strongly discouraged from writing articles about subjects to which you are closely connected for this very reason. If you want to work on the article in your user space to put it into a more acceptable form, please as the deleting admin (User:NawlinWiki) to userfy it in a subpage for you. One other word of caution, the argument that other stuff exists will usually not get you very far in deletion discussions.  – ukexpat (talk) 15:49, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I've templated Steve about conflict of interest, since it's rather clearly a problem here. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:05, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

How do I place a text that has a differente language than the rest.

I other words, how do I create an alternative language section?

Thanks, SWWhite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SWwhite (talk • contribs) 15:42, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia articles should be placed in the appropriate Wikipedia for the language they are written in. This is the English-language Wikipedia. List of Wikipedias lists Wikipedias in other languages. Algebraist 15:47, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

My Very First Question??

Hi there!

Pardon me as I really do not know where to post my very first question as a new comer in wikipedia. Hope someone outthere can send me an correct answer.

For a while ago, I noticed my girlfriend consuming a drug namely "Xenical Orlistat 120mg", a blue and white capsule and when I asked her about the medicine, she told me is for her allergy on her hand. But I am quite curiuos to find out isn't that drug for weight loss???

Appreciat anyone could send me an correct answer by sending it to me at: <blanked>

Many thanks...

Fr:Tang —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgtang (talk • contribs) 16:21, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but Wikipedia does not give medical advice. Please consult a medical professional. TNXMan 16:31, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

While we can't give you any specific medical advice as noted above, this is precisely the type of question that a search engine is well suited for. I think you will find your answer very quickly by simply typing the name into Google.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:54, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, Orlistat is primarily sold as a weight loss drug. I'm not quite sure what part of the question looked like a request for medical advice... --Onorem♠Dil 17:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Ex abundante cautela, it's probably good practice not to attempt to answer any question that even remotely deals with medical (or legal) issues. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Certainly on the helpdesk, which isn't the place to answer anything that isn't about Wikipedia anyway. I wouldn't want to see WT:HD as full of 'is this really a medical question?' arguments as WT:RD is. Algebraist 18:23, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Login problem

I have an account that when i try to login to does not allow me, but then when i try to email myself the password it says

Login error Error sending mail: There is no e-mail address recorded for user "[username]".

I know this username is mine as it is unique and rarely used, but I can't seem to get logged in nor does it have an email for this account. Is there any way to retrieve this account? Have it deleted as the contact information is null so I can re-create it?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.172.169.15 (talk) 17:27, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

If you have forgotten the password and did not add an e-mail address when you created the account then I am afraid your only option is to create a new account. Accounts cannot be deleted and re-created. – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Did your previous account make any edits? If not, you might be able to create a new account, edit constructively, wait a little bit, then ask that your previous account be usurped. Unfortunately, if the previous account had made any edits or other significant actions, then it is impossible to change the account because Wikipedia has to comply with the attribution requirements of the GFDL. —bbatsell ¿? ✍ 20:40, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I have an account that used to have an email address associated with it, then for some reason I deleted the email address. Now that there is no address associated with the account, when I request them email me the password for the account, this error message appears. Is there no way for them to email me, to my previously-registered email address, about resetting the account's password? Also, I have made edits with the account.--Geremia (talk) 15:41, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Problems adding new picture to existing entry

I am trying to update the article "GE U30C Locomotive" with a new picture and am having problems.

I used this syntax:

image=CS 890.jpg| caption=Colorado and Southern U30C

Obviously there's no path to my hard drive but I did upload it to Wiki Commons as CS 890.jpg

I also tried copy/paste from my c drive and drag and drop.

The picture is mine and I own the rights to it.

Please help as far as instructions to get it from my C: to the article or from Wiki commons to the article. I would like it displayed, not just a link.

Thank you.

Ksamson1 (talk) 18:05, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

For information on how to add images to articles, see Help:Images and other uploaded files and WP:Picture tutorial. As to this specific image, there is no article titled GE U30C Locomotive on the English Wikipedia, and no image titled CS 890.jpg either here or on the Commons. What article and what image are you actually talking about? Algebraist 18:11, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

It looks like you might be using the wrong file name. Is File:Colorado and Southern 890.jpg the image you're looking for? --Onorem♠Dil 18:17, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

You need to head back to the image page on Commons and add the appropriate copyright status. Without it the image is in danger of being deleted. – ukexpat (talk) 18:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

The Sky is Falling (novel)

In attempting to change the capitalisation of "is," I erroneously redirected the above article to The Sky Is Falling, which is a disambiguation page. How do I now redirect it to The Sky Is Falling (novel). In puzzlement, GeorgeLouis (talk) 19:15, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

If you mean the Sidney Sheldon novel then I think that page has moved to The Sky Is Falling (2001 novel), so you need to redirect to there. Certes (talk) 20:13, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

There are several novels entitled "The Sky Is Falling" so IMHO The Sky is Falling (novel) and The Sky Is Falling (novel) should both redirect to the disambiguation page The Sky is Falling, as they will do when I fix the double redirects. – ukexpat (talk) 20:19, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

How does the deletion process work?

Who can nominate an article for deletion? What template is used? What happens next?

How does this differ from speedy deletion? Where can I go for more information on the deletion process? Thanks.Diotemaheartsphilosophy (talk) 19:45, 1 April 2009 (UTC)Diotema

See WP:CSD, WP:PROD and WP:AFD. – ukexpat (talk) 19:46, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

And especially Wikipedia:Deletion policy, which summarizes all the deletion procedures. Algebraist 19:48, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Deprecation

How do I broach the subject of banning the use of the word deprecate to mean discontinue the use of? See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Date_formatting_and_linking_poll&curid=22079576&diff=281149930&oldid=281146962#Deprecation Yours, GeorgeLouis (talk) 20:57, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I think this sort of discussion is what WP:VPM is for, or perhaps WP:VPR. Algebraist 21:01, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

"Deprecate" in software engineering definitely has the meaning of the way it is used here (and that's the second definition of the word in my copy of OED). That's the source of our conception of the word. I've never heard "deprecate" used in terms of the first definition outside of "self-deprecation" or "deprecating". —bbatsell ¿? ✍ 22:40, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks very much. I will go to one of those places. In the meantime, type DEFINE DEPRECATE in a Google search box and see what you get. Your friend, GeorgeLouis (talk) 06:39, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Usurp

Hello! When I made this usurp request I forgot to notify the the user who has the name I wish to usurp to. I notified him/her since then. Will the bot fix that notice or does a human have to? Flamewire2 (talk) 23:37, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd recommend just adding a note below where the bot has, and just say something like "I have since notified the user" and include a diff to show the edit where you notified them. Should suffice :) — Deon555^talk_{I'm BACK!} 01:35, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

soliciting feedback

Hi there - I posted a sub page with an article I'd like to post to wikipedia. I'd like to get some edits and input before I make it public, but no one has weighed in. Is there a way to solicit input? This page was deleted once in an earlier, less evolved form, so I want to be careful before I publish it.

Thank you

Jbmmoore (talk) 23:45, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

To me it reads like a press release, and therefore would probably be speedily deleted as promotional if it were moved to the mainspace. Please take a look at articles on other similar subjects for an idea of the tone that is acceptable.  – ukexpat (talk) 00:21, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Much of it is a press release. The entire 'features' section is a copyright violation taken from here. Algebraist 00:25, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Youll need to work on some sourcing issues with the article. Have a read of Wikipedia:Citing sources. That should help with getting on the right track with sourcing. Becareful it doesnt sound like a promotional brochure either. Generally in your own words and using primary, secondary and tertiary sources and you should be fine, good luck Ottawa4ever (talk) 01:02, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

I have tagged for speedy as a copyvio - we cannot have that, even in userspace. – ukexpat (talk) 19:13, 2 April 2009 (UTC)