Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 July 16

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July 16[edit]

alfalfa pills (vitamins)[edit]

To whoom it may concern:

I need to know the pros and cons of using this vitamin. What is it primarily used for, and also all pertinant information on this subject.

Thank you for all your help I greatly appreciate it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mento98 (talk • contribs) 01:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This message board is for asking questions about how to use Wikipedia. Your question looks more suited to the Science Reference Desk. Try asking it there. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 02:04, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Though if it is for medicinal purposes, we can't help you. See Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer. Don't ask for, and don't accept any medical advice from Wikipedia. ≈ Chamal talk 02:07, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

ARTIST ARTICLES[edit]

IN THE WP:BAND SECTION. IT STATES THAT A MUSICAL ARTIST WHO HAS A SONG THAT IS ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS IS NOTABLE ENOUGH FOR AN ARTICLE. DOES THE "BUBBLING UNDER HOT 100 SINGLES" COUNT? I KNOW IT IS A 25-POSITION ADDENDUM TO THE HOT 100 BUT NOT SURE IF THAT IS SUFFICIENT ENOUGH.

Jaystylez561 (talk) 02:33, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please don't type in all-caps, it can be interpreted as shouting, which is rude. The problem you are going to have is that you need to have enough independent (i.e. not written by the subject) and reliable (see WP:RS) sources to add appropriate biographical information to the article. Even if the single has buzzed around just under the charts, as you indicate; there still needs to be reliable references for any biography of a living person. If there is nothing reliable to cite in writing your article, there's not much of a reason to write one. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 02:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Non-breaking space[edit]

Resolved

Cptnono (talk) 06:59, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am working with square feet several times in an article and using "sq ft". This looks OK to do from what I have looked into. However, I was curious about non-breaking space use ("#&nbsp___"). What is the format if use is preferred? Thanks for any assistance!Cptnono (talk) 05:39, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See also {{Convert}}. --Teratornis (talk) 07:52, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
awesome. I didn't think it existed for ft-m. Thanks, Teratornis!Cptnono (talk) 00:10, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Images[edit]

I don't know if this is just me, but some images' thumbnails aren't loading on some pages. When I click on the images, they show on the description page fine, so Idk what it is. I know Commons was down earlier and thumbs/uploads weren't working then, but I can now upload, so I figured the thumbs would be fine too. The articles in question are Meridian, Mississippi and History of Meridian, Mississippi, both of which have thumbs that won't display for me. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 07:04, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see those thumbnails either. --59.95.103.25 (talk) 07:13, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Turns out if I change the size of the thumbs, they show up. Apparently it's only that specific thumbsize that's messed up. Sounds like a server problem to me? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 07:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I can see the thumbs on the pages with no problem. Have you tried to bypass your cache? If that doesn't work, this might be a good topic to take to the Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). — QuantumEleven 07:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wow.. I didn't think about that haha. I tried purging the server, but I didn't think about doing anything on my side. Silly me. It worked. Thanks! --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 07:52, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, no, it worked for every image except one. File:Bonita Lakes 1.JPG's thumb still won't display on Meridian, Mississippi for me. Should I take this over to the Village pump? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 07:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can see that image, but if you're still having trouble after bypassing your cache, I would take this to the village pump. Good luck at getting it fixed! — QuantumEleven 08:06, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Also, image-server has been overloaded and flaky over the past few days. I had similar "some but not all images in an article"--no pattern, except that after a few hours they started working. DMacks (talk) 21:54, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Name change[edit]

How do I change my user name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sardaka (talk • contribs) 08:34, July 16, 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Changing username. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 08:46, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Policy on rumors[edit]

I haven't found a clear policy on rumors. This discussion Ok_to_Use_Rumors_as_Sources_in_Wikipedia is relevant, but it is not a solid policy.

The item in question is a rumor in Maya Moore. At a minimum, the existence of the rumor needs a citation, but I don't want to go to the effort of tracking down a citation, or asking someone else to do so, if the result should still be removed.

The sentence in question: 

It is rumored that her choice of University of Connecticut over
 The University of Tennessee Lady Vols, and Pat Summitt's suspicion
 of recruiting violations on UConn's part,
 caused her to end the schools' early highly anticipated
 home and home match-up.

What do others think - is this ok if properly sourced, or should it simply be removed?--SPhilbrickT 13:15, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If it is referenced, it is not "rumored". For example, if the reference is an article in the NY Times, it would replace "It is rumored..." with "As stated in the NY Times..." -- kainaw™ 13:19, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) If it's properly sourced, it should stay, since we wouldn't be making up the rumors, but rather, reporting that reliable sources think they exist. A great way to do this would be to mention the source, something like "According to Sports Illustrated, it was rumored . . .". TNXMan 13:20, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Also... if the rumor is very popular, but proven false, it should stay and note reliable sources that reported the rumor (they deserve egg on their face for reporting false rumors) and reliable sources that print the retractions. -- kainaw™ 13:23, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Um, no. Rumors are rumors, even if reported in a reliable source. Either say "According to the New York Times, XXXX happened" or leave it out. If you have reason to doubt the validity of the New York Times report, then leave it out. We aren't here to document errors in another publication, we are here to build an encyclopedia. If you trust the report as factual, then cite it and move on. If you do not personally trust the report, and have other reliable sources which clearly disagree, then leave it out. To report a rumor merely because it showed up in a reliable source is a bad idea. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 13:31, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) WP:V should be the main policy to be considered here. If we can find a RS source for the "rumour", then it is probably something notable and should be included. If it is just a rumour, an RS would state that, and I think in such a case it is better to state that it is a rumour. If it is given as a fact, then it would not be a rumour as Kainaw said. This is not the same as some speculation appearing in a blog or something like that, which should not be included in Wikipedia. We have to use our judgment in a situation like this; there's no way to create rules to allow for every possible thing. ≈ Chamal talk 13:33, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The NYT says:
As the story goes, suspicions were raised on how Auriemma might have landed Moore...
The NYT is a reliable source, but their statement isn't verifying that Summitt made the decision based upon violations, it merely asserts that some suspicions exist. I don't think that's strong enough to support the existing wording. maybe is should simply be reworded. However, I don't want to drag out a content discussion here, I'm trying to learn whether there are clear guidelines regarding the reporting of rumors.--SPhilbrickT 13:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Concerning Jackobillia[edit]

Resolved

I have already tagged the said article with a few tags (notability, ect). I am just curious if this article constitutes a speedy delete. I see a lot of speedy deletes every day, but I do not know what I should tag this one as. -- Dspradau → talk  15:18, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's now been tagged for speedy per WP:CSD#G3, no content.  – ukexpat (talk) 15:29, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
=> PROD as neologism. - Jarry1250 [ humorous – discuss ] 15:30, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! I'll remember that! -- Dspradau → talk  15:33, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

question, please how can I link wikipedia site to my normal email site?[edit]

how can I link wikipedia site to my normal email site?. is there any way out, please help me. how can i also get books of iterest from this site/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wad4 (talk • contribs) 15:28, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please explain further - what do you mean by "link...to my normal email site"? – ukexpat (talk) 15:30, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

adding external links to others' articles[edit]

Resolved
 –  – ukexpat (talk) 19:17, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi;

Is the addition of external links solely the right of article creators/editors, or can others - who would like to post an external link to a very closely related and relevant-to-the-article's-subject article - add links to the "External links" section of a Wikipedia article? (I've already read the Wikipedia guidelines on what constitutes appropriate/inappropriate external links.)

If others are allowed to do so, could you please point to the Wikipedia resources that describe how.

Thanks! Maberly (talk) 16:00, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No one owns or controls wikipedia articles. If you edit an article, then you are one of that article's editors. If you have appropriate external links to add, go ahead and do so as explained at Help:Link#External links. Algebraist 16:04, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Maberly, if you add inappropriate links, another editor will end up removing them - but there is no harm in putting them in there. Just think to yourself "do these links add to the article, and are they non-advertising, non-spam, etc"... if the answer is Yes, follow Algebraist's advice. PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:17, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank-you, Algebraist and PhantomSteve! Maberly (talk) 19:09, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Moving new article to "live" wikipedia[edit]

I have created a new article after re-checking that this article doesn't exist. I created it by clicking on the red "create this article" link and logging into my wiki account. It was created on 7/13 and I have previewed and "saved" the page. But this new article - titled "Multi-probiotic" - is still not available on a wiki article search. How do I make this article live, to be viewed by the public? Currently, it just displays in my own wiki account. Or, is there a lag time I'm not aware of after saving the article before it can be displayed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Annamacd (talk • contribs) 16:25, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It will have to be moved from your user space to the main space, but at the moment I don't think it's ready. It's a little spammy - use of the ® and TM symbols is not appropriate in an encyclopedia. Did you consider adding the non-spammy content to the Probiotic article? – ukexpat (talk) 16:39, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation links[edit]

Resolved
 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:38, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I am attempting to remove these [[1]] disambiguation links that are wrong, can anyone please tell me how to do it? As far as I can see they are like wrongly added redirects? and need removing for the GA reassesment. (Off2riorob (talk) 16:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC))[reply]

 Fixed –Juliancolton | Talk 16:49, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Labour Party should be [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and Dunfermline East should be [[Dunfermline East (UK Parliament constituency)|Dunfermline East]]. – ukexpat (talk) 16:50, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you both. I see it now. (Off2riorob (talk) 16:55, 16 July 2009 (UTC))[reply]

Category:Football League of Ireland Players[edit]

Does anyone know where I can get a list of the above players (off-wiki, reliable third party source) so I can source the unsourced articles in the above category? Aditya (talk) 17:20, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You may have to do multiple sources, even individual ones for each player/team. hmwithτ 17:44, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Here are a few possible sources:

Question[edit]

I keep getting this message when I try to access wikipedia information via google search... any ideas on how to avoid this? Thanks in advance : )

"Windows has the following information about this MIME type. This page will help you find software needed to open your file.

MIME Type: application/x-gzip-compressed

Description: UnKnown

Windows does not recognize this MIME type.

You can search the following Web site for related software and information: Windows Live Search"

Thanks again, Steph —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stephy73 (talk • contribs) 17:23, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note, I've created this question in a new section. Next time click on "create new section" at the top of the page when you want to ask a question. Cheers, Aditya (talk) 17:28, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Are you trying to read articles or edit them? If you are trying to edit them, there may be a box checked in your preferences that shouldn't be. Go to the "My preferences" link at the top of this page and then click on the editing tab. Make sure that "Use external editor by default" and "Use external diff by default" are unchecked. TNXMan 19:17, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This was also reported at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 February 9#New Problem of Accessing Wikipedia from the Google Search Engine, but it was not solved. It may be an incompatibility involving a combination between Google, Wikipedia and your browser or something else on your computer. Which browser do you have? Does it happen when you copy the url to the address bar? Google's source on a search page for "Computer" says:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer" class=l onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','3','')"><em>Computer</em> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>
A standard link would not contain the part
class=l onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','3','')
Maybe that part tries to pass something Wikipedia cannot communicate correctly with your browser, but I don't know much about the topic. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:52, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I also reported this issue a week ago or so on this board. It appears to be a relatively common problem with IE8. I have the same issue with my computer at work. Here is a page that doesn't open: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Borromeo I saw on another board that it appears to be a MIME problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Barbnagy (talk • contribs) 03:10, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If IE8 can't yet handle gzipped files, then that's a serious problem with IE8. I don't know that there's much Wikipedia can do. - Jarry1250 [ humorous – discuss ] 17:09, 17 July 2009 (UTC)Bold text[reply]

symbols[edit]

all over the sites and forums and user pages of a game i play i see weird symbols that are not on any keyborad ive ever seen......i kept asking around about them and in three weeks i got a tip that some are made on wiki......how do you make them??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mokonachiko (talk • contribs) 19:19, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you referring to Unicode symbols? --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 19:23, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Give us a clue about what sites and what symbols you are asking about. —teb728 t c 20:50, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps someone adds them to the edit window for Wikipedia & then copy/pastes them elsewhere. See the bottom of the page in the edit window. Right below "Save page", there's a line that has a drop-down box with "Insert" inside. Select any of the options in the drop-down menu for a selection of symbols. I hope this helped, hmwithτ 10:24, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How to make a new topic?[edit]

Can anyone help with posting a new topic? is that possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Greenstaralley (talk • contribs) 19:48, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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 Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at 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. – ukexpat (talk) 19:51, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How to use Template:Random portal component[edit]

Using {{Random portal component}} on the "Selected article" and "Selected character" sections of Portal:A Series of Unfortunate Events, I have been unable to get the selected excerpts to alternate without purging the cache. Yet pages like Portal:The Simpsons alternate every time you refresh the page. Clearly I did something wrong.

These are the pages that fail to alternate (transcluded at Portal:A Series of Unfortunate Events):

— The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 21:45, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I found the problem. First, you don't need the seed parameter if you have the max number. It is redundant. The actual problem was that the random component template displayed like this:
{{Random portal component|max=2|header=''Selected article''|subpage=Selected article}}

The quotation marks were not supposed to wrap the Selected articles, so it was supposed to be as follows: 

{{Random portal component|max=2|header=Selected article|subpage=Selected article}}

I've fixed everything now so you can continue creating more random components. Remember to update the "max" number with the amount of components. Hope this fixes everything. ZooFari 02:28, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for looking into it, but these changes have not solved the problem. I had wondered myself about the seed. As for the quotations marks, they are apostrophes set to italicize the title of the boxes in accordance with all other boxes on the page, and seem to have no effect on the situation (as I would imagine). Frankly, I'm stymied. Do the pages alternate on anyone else's computers with a simple refresh instead of purging? They do not on mine. Again, I cite Portal:The Simpsons as a page which successfully alternates. I have no idea what the difference could be. — The Man in Question (gesprec) · (forðung) 09:21, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
They seem to alternate when purging. They won't alternate all the time. The more components, the random it gets. Still a problem? We can continue on my talk page... ZooFari 15:13, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Password Forgotten[edit]

How do I find my password if I forgot it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.211.4.117 (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you associated an email with the account, you can have your password emailed to you from the login screen. If not, then unfortunately, your account is unrecoverable. TNXMan 21:58, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

File:Veitshakmah.png[edit]

This was deleted as an orphaned nonfree image, but discussion at MCQ agreed that it actually fit under {{PD-text}}. The uploader has asked me to restore it, but every time I try, I get one of those basic servers-are-down error messages. Until just a moment ago (i.e. a few minutes after I stopped trying to restore it), nothing appeared; however, just now I found that the description only had been restored. The image itself (a word or two in Hebrew and a transliteration of that text) has not appeared, but as I've officially restored everything, I can't even access the image. Any ideas how to get the image back? Nyttend (talk) 23:17, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

At the top of image pages at Wikipedia there is a notice that says "There is a problem with the image storage. We are in the process of fixing it." This may be related to your problems. There has been a major slowdown in Wikipedia lately due to this problem; editors from Europe have really noticed how image loading has crippled some areas of Wikipedia. Apparently, the devs are working on this, and its just one of those things we're all gonna havta deal with for a little while longer. --Jayron32.talk.say no to drama 03:23, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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