Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 February 5

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February 5

Deleted contributions

Is it possible to see a list of my contributions that have been deleted? Grsz¹¹_Review 01:04, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Only sysops can view deleted contribs. Xenon54 (talk) 01:13, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Could one send me an e-mail of mine? Grsz¹¹_Review 01:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Y Done Bencherlite^Talk 01:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Wiki heading formatting

I need to know how exactly to make my heading appear? I created a new page with different headings but for some reason I have two headings stuck embedded in the last heading but they only appear during editting and not in the final product. Help me please. Kateri D.Phillips (talk) 01:54, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

See Help:Section. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:57, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

linking to city/state

what is the proper way to link to a city/state (ie Lansing, Michigan) should i link to [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]], [[Michigan]], or [[Lansing, Michigan]]? -TinGrin 02:53, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I do believe it's the former, but I can't remember whether any pages actually recommend doing so... Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 04:49, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

FWIW most bios that I have seen do the former. – ukexpat (talk) 05:01, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) my understanding of the current guidelines on linking is that [[Lansing, Michigan]] is the preferred way. (why force two links where one will suffice??) Sssoul (talk) 09:48, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Actually, it depends on whether or not [[Michigan]] has already been mentioned (& wikilinked) earlier in the article. If it has, then [[Lansing, Michigan]] is correct. If not, then [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]], [[Michigan]] is correct. Mjroots (talk) 15:41, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Deleted Edits

i am attempting to insert relevant data on a page about a politician, nothing bias or false it is strictly factual and relevant. But when I check back in a couple of hours the edit has been removed. Do I need to establish an account or what please help me because I want to help y'all —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.68.15.242 (talk) 04:53, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

If you are referring to your edit to Rahm Emanuel, the edit you made is still up there. Perhaps it is a problem with your your browser cache? Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 04:59, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

It won't be for long: as the edit summary that removed the edit tells you, and has previously under different IPs, the material you are attempting to add to Rahm Emanuel has been discussed at great length on the article's talk page and there has been no consensus for the change. There's also been an RfC and the conclusion has been that we are not characterizing the organization Irgun as militant or Zionist or terrorist or patriotic or peace-loving or any other way - instead we are wikilinking to the main article Irgun where the organization is described at length. This article is about Rahm Emanuel, not his father, and not the Irgun. Tvoz/talk 05:03, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

You don’t need an account, but you may need consensus to make an edit stick. —teb728 t c 05:05, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

This was my first attempt to edit I had no clue about the concensus thing, I'll keep it in mind in the future and although I dont concur with the concensus I guess it must be obey; but I think there is objectivity in making note of his fathers terrorist ties on his page just to give people a real picture of the man, because I know that all the children of prominent Nazis have their parents life details plastered all over their pages —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.68.15.242 (talk) 05:23, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Minor nitpick from a Latin nerd, it's consensus. – ukexpat (talk) 15:57, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

What is the geological information system?

Hitesh2001 (talk) 05:17, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• This was answered two days ago. See Wikipedia:HD#What_is_the_.22Geological_Information_System.28GIS.29.22.3F and note that questions like this one belong on the reference desk. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:39, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

search

Carlyle Group? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.221.94.82 (talk) 06:03, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Did you intend to ask a question? —teb728 t c 06:08, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Ummm...what? ArcAngel (talk) 07:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

You can search Wikipedia with Google for: "Carlyle Group". --Teratornis (talk) 22:13, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Delete a page

Resolved

 – Chamal ^talk 16:59, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

How do I delete a page, I mean not just delete the text but also the history of that page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Endothermic (talk • contribs) 09:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC) Endothermic (talk) 09:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

It depends. Generally speaking you can't, as only administrators and bureaucrats can delete pages. If, however, you are the only contributor to the page, then if you put {{db-author}} at the top of it, someone will be along to delete it shortly. If it's a page in your userspace then you can put {{db-userreq}} at the top and it should be deleted. What page did you have in mind? _Gb^T/c 09:23, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Its my userpage, I've added the tag; thank you for the reply. Endothermic (talk) 09:32, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Adding a link

Hi How can I add links to an article that I created, please ?86.209.158.62 (talk) 10:19, 5 February 2009 (UTC)petitmichel

If you mean internal wikilinks, then you can link to one article from another article by using [[square brackets]]. For example, typing [[elephant]] will create a wikilink to the Wikipedia article on elephants. You can find more information here. _Gb^T/c 10:26, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

No, sorry. I mean putting a link into a W article that takes the reader to an external site.86.209.158.62 (talk) 15:35, 5 February 2009 (UTC)petitmichel

See Wikipedia:External links. Please note that external links are included usually in the "External links" section, and are not included in the article prose. Chamal ^talk 15:39, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you.86.194.251.49 (talk) 14:32, 6 February 2009 (UTC)petitmichel

ER diagram and relational schema diagram

" A database is being constructed to keep track of the teams and games for a sports deed. A team has a number of players,not all of whom participate in each game.It is desired to keep track of the players participating in each game for each team,The position they played in that game and the result of the game.Design an ER diagram and relational schema diagram for this application.Starting any assumptions you can make.Choose your favourite sports."

can any one help me out please..??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dip query 09 (talk • contribs) 11:11, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Hello, This page is for questions related to using Wikipedia. Knowledge questions belong at an appropriate section of the reference desk. However, your question appears to be homework and it is our policy here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. You might find our general articles on Entity-relationship model and Relational model of use in doing so. So, attempt to do it yourself and if you need help with a specific part, then feel free to tell us exactly where you are stuck (again, at the reference desk, not here). Thank you.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

How to include XML comments?

Resolved

 – TN‑X-Man 15:47, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi, how can I show xml comments in a wiki article? Thanks, Gil_mo (talk) 12:10, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Enclose it in <nowiki></nowiki> tags. Powers ^T 13:37, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I was also given a better solution, using the <source> tag for xml. Gil_mo (talk) 15:43, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Article Quality

I feel that the article quality on the talk page of Poptropica no longer suits the article. I've tried leaving a note on the responsible WikiProject, but they never answered. Vltava 68 12:10, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

In that case, simply make the change yourself. If you've tried to solicit responses, and no one cares, go ahead and fix the article quality note on the talk page to the appropriate level. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 12:43, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

If you improved the article yourself though, it is best to ask someone else to review it. Chamal ^talk 13:42, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Discontinued product

Is there any way to tag an article that is about or contains information about a discontinued product, service, etc? Proud Gamer (talk) 14:22, 5 February 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neckername (talk • contribs) 14:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think there is a template to use, but you can note within the article itself that the product is discontinued. Be sure to cite a reliable source that supports the claim. TN‑X-Man 14:22, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• Such articles don't need tagging. Tags are generally for material that needs fixing or deletion. A product being discontinued should have no effect on its inclusion, so mentioning this fact in the article prose is enough. - Mgm|^(talk) 16:46, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• Discontinued software can be placed in Category:Discontinued software by adding [[Category:Discontinued software]] at the bottom of the article. There is also Category:Discontinued products but it only has two articles. It should probably either be deleted or greatly expanded. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:05, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Link Wikipedia to Wictionary

Is there a way I can link a word in a Wikipedia article to the entry in Witionary?Hammerdrill (talk) 14:33, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

There is. Link the word like so: [[wikt:word|word]]. This produces word. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:35, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

And, in appropriate circumstances, there is the {{wikt}} template. – ukexpat (talk) 15:54, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

how to uninstall wikipedia

I installed wikipedia the other day but would now like to uninstall it..Please help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.244.139.196 (talk) 15:11, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a website. You cannot install it on your hard drive. You could have downloaded a database dump, but that doesn't seem likely. What is it that is leading you to conclude that you have installed Wikipedia? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 15:14, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Did you install MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia? Hermione1980 15:32, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• Or did you install a browser toolbar? You uninstall those like any other computer program. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 16:33, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I would imagine it is the browser (Google toolbar incorporates a Wikipedia search now). You can hide it in Internet Explorer using by selecting "view" then "toolbars" and unchecking it. To actually remove it fully you need ot unistall. Pedro :  Chat  16:37, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Use of asterisk

I want to use an asterisk in an article. I type it in edit mode, and it works well when I place it following a word. However, when I type its mate lower on the page and then SAVE PAGE, I get a solid, square mark in the saved version. Is there a way to use asterisks in Wikipedia?Hammerdrill (talk) 15:54, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

You can put the asterisk between nowiki tags or use &#42; as a code to generate the asterisk. Otherwise it will be interpreted by the MediaWiki software as the beginning of a list. Emil76 (talk) 16:10, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Using nowiki is longer, but simpler and is sometimes more obvious in the page source for other editors - <nowiki>*</nowiki> is the syntax and as you see gives an asterix. Pedro :  Chat  16:40, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

What are you using the asterisk for? If it's to mark a footnote, we have far better ways of doing that. Algebraist 16:42, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

<source> tag - from which version in MediaWiki?

Hi, the MediaWiki software I installed in my office does not recognize the <source> tag. What version of MediaWiki do I need? Do I need some add on for that?

Thanks, Gil_mo (talk) 16:02, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• I don't remember seeing a source tag anywhere. Are you sure you don't mean <ref> and </ref>? - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 16:36, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

The <source> is provided by mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi. You can find out this sort of information yourself by looking at Special:Version. Algebraist 16:39, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. You are more likely to get a reply about the Mediawiki software at the MediaWiki Support desk. – ukexpat (talk) 16:41, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you all. Gil_mo (talk) 07:34, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

don't find links

I have a departmental promotion offertunity, The exam for this consist management ability test, management decesion meking test. can i download such type of sample question paper ?. if possible send me link, i will greatly oblised to Gurukul. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.6.165 (talk) 16:41, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Algebraist 16:42, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I suspect you are looking for the answers to the Unicru employment test. These have been removed. [1] --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:26, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Removal of a template after permission ticket number (OTRS) given for an image

File:Conceptioncap.JPG needed a permission ticket number (OTRS). I have obtained the number and included it on the page and now need to remove the templated error message:

"This image or media is missing evidence of permission. It is sourced to someone other than the uploader and while a copyright tag has been applied, there is no proof that the author agreed to license the file under the given license. Unless a link to a webpage with an explicit permission is provided, or an email from the copyright owner is sent or forwarded to permissions-en@wikimedia.org, the image will be deleted after Wednesday, 11 February 2009. Please remove this template if a link to a webpage with an explicit permission is provided, or a tag with an OTRS ticket number has been added"

I need to resolve this prior to 2-11-09 so that the image doesn't get deleted. Slynn3 (talk) 18:57, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• An editor with OTRS access needs to review the ticket and change the template to confirm it all checks out. You can't do that yourself as far as I know. Try leaving a message on the related talk page. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:26, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

editing a stub

Hi, I need to edit the 'Duke University' stub that appears on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_School_of_the_Environment It references the 'Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences' which is no longer the name of the school. I've successfully edited the template for the stub that I found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Duke_University but it has not updated the stub on the Nicholas School page. Can you all please help?

Thank-you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.63.128.75 (talk) 21:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Sometimes, when changing a template, it takes a moment for the change to propagate down to the articles in which the template is listed. If you try pressing Ctrl+Shift+R, the page should load directly from the Wikipedia server and bypass your cache. Hopefully, that should update it. TN‑X-Man 21:23, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

org name change

Resolved

 – Done. _Gb^T/c 22:22, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

an organization legally changed part of their name: from 'election' to 'electoral' -- how would i make that change? Demfoundation08 (talk) 21:24, 5 February 2009 (UTC) demfoundation08

The process is to move the article to the new name. However your account must be autoconfirmed (10 edits and least 4 days old) before you can move articles. Let us know which article you are referring to an someone will move it for you. – ukexpat (talk) 21:27, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

OK I found it at International Foundation for Election Systems. Should the title be International Foundation for Electoral Systems - that page is currently a redirect back to International Foundation for Election Systems and will require admin assistance to move over that redirect.  – ukexpat (talk) 21:51, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

According to their website they identify themselves as IFES - the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. I've moved it back over the redirect and updated the disambiguation page at IFES. _Gb^T/c 22:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Category mystery

I am at a loss to figure out how Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Log/2006_May_28 is ending up in the category for unassessed Eurovision articles. Could someone please take a look and fix it if they find out what is wrong? Thanks. Grk1011/Stephen (talk) 21:57, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

This is a common problem when the job queue's long. When someone removes a template that includes a category, the article doesn't get removed from the category immediately; the removal is put on the job queue instead. Thus it will be done as soon as the servers finish processing the 1.4 million things already on the job queue. If necessary, a null edit will fix the problem immediately (I have just applied one here). Algebraist 22:04, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Okay thanks. I had tried purging both pages, but that didn't work. Grk1011/Stephen (talk) 22:13, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

General tip: if purging fails, try a null edit. If that fails, head to WP:VPT. Algebraist 02:00, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Talk vs. Discussion

This is more of a general query than need of assistance. I've always wondered why all the talk pages we have use the word "Talk" in their titles, but the tag at the top of the articles is "Discussion". Is there any reason why they're not both "Talk", or not both "Discussion"? Thanks. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:09, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

As far as I have been able to determine, this is a highly visible instance of synonym disease on Wikipedia (actually in the underlying MediaWiki software). "Synonym disease" is a term I have used for years to describe the tendency of computer systems to collect multiple words that mean the same thing. It occurs because programmers get lazy and do not look up the canonical terms before using terms extemporaneously to label various user interface elements. For example, if a function or feature appears in more than one place in a program, it should appear under the same name every time. If it appears under different names, this usually means different programmers developed different parts of the program at different times, without checking the rest of the program to make sure they were using consistent terms. Synonym disease is something you don't want to see in a program or system for two reasons:

• It unnecessarily confuses new users, who naturally tend to think if two things have different names, they must not be exactly the same.
• It indicates poor coordination between the various developers who worked on different parts of the system (or if there was only one developer, then he or she has poor coordination within his or her mind). It suggests nobody was taking a global view of the development project to insure consistency between all the parts. If we see inconsistency in the visible portion of a system, we have to wonder what inconsistencies lurk in the parts we cannot see.

When reviewing code written by other programmers, I have seen examples such as when a single programmer wrote five instances of the same error message which could occur in different parts of the program, and he worded it differently each time. Of course he should have only written the error message once and stored it in a global variable, but even if he needed to use five copies of it, he should have been aware that he had written it already. Incidentally, these types of inconsistencies are more likely when programmers do not document their own work. Then it falls to the documenter to find all these irritating inconsistencies and try to persuade the apathetic programmers to fix them. That in turn requires convincing programmers that consistency matters, and good luck with that. --Teratornis (talk) 22:29, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

• Rather than talking about the article topic, talk pages are to discuss writing the article. Using the word discussion on the tabs brings that across better. The pages are nevertheless called talk because it's easier and faster to type. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:57, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for both those perspectives. The latter explanation makes a lot of sense (not that the former one doesn't, and I agree 1000% about consistent terminology). When I was a complete newbie, this confused the hell out of me, I must say. I'd read all the general instructions and guidelines, and would read about "Talk pages", but there was nothing anywhere on an article page that used the word "Talk". I quickly twigged that "Discussion" must be the right tab, but I am exceptionally intelligent :), and maybe others are not so blessed. Maybe somewhere in the "How to ..." pages, this could be made a little more explicit, rather than making the newbies have to work it out for themselves. (Or perhaps that's been attended to since I last visited them.) Cheers. -- JackofOz (talk) 23:25, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, if it makes you feel better, you can change that 'discussion' tab into 'talk' in your preferences :) Chamal ^talk 00:15, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Where is that in prefs? It's easy to do with custom javascript, of course (cf. User:Algebraist/monobook.js, penultimate function). Algebraist 00:20, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Weird... I can't find it now. But I know I have it enabled because it always shows the link as 'talk', and I don't have your script installed either. Maybe the option to make the new section tab into '+' does that? Chamal ^talk 00:25, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Is that Friendly/Twinkle? Mine displays as "talk" and "+", and I have both scripts installed. Hermione1980 00:38, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's in Friendly. (User:Ioeth/friendlytabs.js) Algebraist 12:09, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

That's all fine for those conversant in such software. I don't think there should be a general assumption that users either have those applications, or have even ever heard of them. Or would be interested in using them once they've heard of them. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:17, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Not Logged In...

why does this page say only this, and then link to a page asking you to log in?

don't waste your bandwidth, wikipedia! put a login form on the Not Logged In page!! - Foofighter20x 131.252.195.19 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 23:12, 5 February 2009 (UTC).

Because you're not logged in, I suppose. And anyone can edit Wikipedia without logging in, so there's no need to 'force' them to do it. Chamal ^talk 00:13, 6 February 2009 (UTC)