Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 November 9

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November 9[edit]

Issue with the Beta version[edit]

I'm using IE 7.0 for editing, and in the Wikiepdia edit windows, I get some really funky behaviour: clicking in the edit window will bring me just about anywhere but near where I was clicking; double-clicking will actually prevent me from editing any further (it starts highlighting text around the window!). Using the auto-sign feature will add my signature at a random location within the editing window... all rather unpleasant. Has anyone else reported this kind of erratric behaviour?--Ramdrake (talk) 00:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I sometimes use IE 7.0 for wiki editing, but never have had that behavior. Have you tried launching a "clean" (no add-ons, etc.) version of IE and seeing if the same behavior occurs? To start IE in No Add-ons mode:
  • Right-click on the blue IE desktop icon and select Start without Add-ons; or
  • Start | (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Internet Explorer (No add-ons). --4wajzkd02 (talk) 01:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
In addition, on the off-chance you have a security issue, you could try running this: Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool --4wajzkd02 (talk) 01:20, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Also, try purging the page cache and bypassing your browser cache.--Unionhawk Talk E-mail Review 01:20, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is a long shot, but have you zoomed-in using Ctrl++ or zoomed-out using Ctrl+? When I do this on some other webpages I get some really strange results. For example, on route finder websites the map zooms in but the higlighted route stays the same and I end up with it being totally out of line. ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 23:48, 11 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

CE vs. AD[edit]

What's the consensus regarding changing "CE" (presumably meaning Common era, but could also mean Christian era, which, somewhat confusingly, redirects to Anno Domini) to "AD"? The difference between the two seems unimportant to me, in terms of encyclopedic use. I do think it is important to have a consistent style between and within articles, and also to not have unnecessary edits made (e.g., changing British English to American English). Cheers, --4wajzkd02 (talk) 01:13, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has no official stance towards CE/AD or BC/BCE. Full guidelines regarding this topic, including when and how to use the abbreviations, can be found at WP:ERA. Xenon54 / talk / 01:36, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! --4wajzkd02 (talk) 01:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help[edit]

http://ro.wikipedia.org is down —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.119.224.159 (talk) 02:21, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:31, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to be ok on my end also. Jeffrey Mall (talkcontribs) - 03:42, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Linking where a page does not exist[edit]

I would like to link "Elfin MR5" in an article to a relevant page. There is no page named “Elfin MR5” but it is described in the page "Elfin Sports Cars". How should I link this please? Elfin MR5 or Elfin MR5. Can you also tell me where this issue is covered in Help please as I can’t seem to find it? GTHO (talk) 02:22, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have redirected Elfin MR5 to Elfin Sports Cars. You should link the whole name.--Unionhawk Talk E-mail Review 02:29, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have turned the redirect page into an article.Elfin MR5.--Pineapple Fez 06:07, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

when did wikipedia drop free documentation licence? And way?[edit]

I want to create a website similar to answers.com.

we own a small encyclopedia and want to create a site similar to answers.com in which articles from both my site and wikipedia will be displayed in a pahge. If I have to copy articles from wikipedia, should I get permission from wikipedia?

what should I do and whom should I contact? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.124.224 (talk) 06:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:EIW#Reusing. --Teratornis (talk) 08:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

HOW TO SHOP FOR ALL ENGLAND LAW REPORTS[edit]

GOOD DAY, MY NAME IS STEVE,I WILL LIKE TO KNOW HOW TO ORDER FOR ALL ENGLAND LAW REPORTS SET OF BOOKS. YOU CAN REPLY BACK TO MY EMAIL AT [removed] STEVE —Preceding unsigned comment added by Storyfirst (talkcontribs) 11:33, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. I have also removed your email address, since this is a very visible page and leaving your email address around is not a good idea. BencherliteTalk 12:32, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Try contacting the publisher? – ukexpat (talk) 16:05, 10 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Want put some link in the news article[edit]

i want put some link in the news article but it is not working plz help me —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.20.111 (talk) 13:23, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be more specific about which page you want to edit, what you want to add, and what the problem is? Are you referring to the "In the news" section at Main page? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:54, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editing Title[edit]

I created an article called "Sarasota blues fest" but it did not capitalize the B or F in the title. I need them capitalized but it will not let me edit the title. I tried to delete the article and just recreate it with the proper name, but it would not let me do that either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CandyCaine912 (talkcontribs) 15:11, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:Move "Only confirmed users may move pages, if you are an unregistered user or registered but not yet autoconfirmed, you may request a page move at Wikipedia:Requested moves." —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 15:36, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]


War artists[edit]

Ashley George Old is incorrectly appearing under 'A'; he should be under 'O' (Old is his surname). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomintoul (talkcontribs) 15:35, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I presume you meant. "incorrectly appearing in a category". I have added a sorting option to the article of Ashley George Old. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 15:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)TheDJ has fixed the problem at Category:War artists. If you see something like this in the future the best way to fix the problem is by going to the page and adding {{DEFAULTSORT:Surname, Firstname}} to the bottom of the article. Hope this makes sense, if not just say and I (or someone else) will try to explain it better. All the best SpitfireTally-ho! 15:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
More precisely, it goes immediately above the list of categories. – ukexpat (talk) 16:10, 10 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks. I've now fixed two others as well. Tomintoul (talk) 16:01, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Brilliant, looks like you've got the hang of it. SpitfireTally-ho! 16:06, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disrespect[edit]

When I looked it up in Wikipedia I was redirected to 'respect.' When I looked it up in my hard copy dictionary I did not see any use as a verb. When reading news reports I often find it used as such. I beleive the word has taken on more meanings in certain sub-cultures and I was hoping to learn about it's current meanings, including slang usage. I know that most of the people using the word this way are much younger than I am. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wayne Lee Hood (talkcontribs) 16:06, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The best place to look in this case would be our sister project, Wiktionary. You can find the entry for disrespect listed here. TNXMan 16:09, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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. SpitfireTally-ho! 16:10, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Citing a sister project[edit]

I am working on references for List of English back-formations, and some of the words listed are not present on the internet at all, except for Wiktionary. The only Google hits for the word are for Wikt itself and websites that are !plagiarizing Wikt. Are there guidelines for citing sister projects? I assume this is frowned upon, as Wiktionary itself is reference-less. —Akrabbimtalk 16:23, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can use the format [[:wikt:test]] like this wikt:test where 'test' is the word you are linking to on Wiktionary. As to whether it is "frowned upon", I'm not sure - I've seen it used on articles, for example Indie pop (in the hatnote), as well as in main articles (see Reflexive pronoun "the reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, thyself, himself", where all the italicised words (my italicisation!) are links to wikt -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

how can i move a "userspace draft" (work in progress page) to the mainspace? - don't see a "Move" button[edit]

hi, the directions for moving a "userspace draft" to the "mainspace" are to find the "move" button at the top of the draft page and click on it. but there is no move button. i am a newbie to wiki, but it has been 4 days and i have been auto-confirmed. thanks, harvey —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harvey lee songfeld (talkcontribs) 18:45, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One more day until you get confirmed. Another day to work on User:Harvey lee songfeld/new article name here and get if referenced so it does not get deleted. See the welcome I left on your talk page for info. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 18:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The time of your account creation is shown here so there is still 1 day and 5 hours left. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:16, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have been trying to add a new word to the dictionary and it never seems to get added[edit]

I have tried several times to add the word Tronconing as a word and i tnever seems to get added.... Why?

Tronconing: (tron- cone- ing) (1) The process of creating something new and sounding correct only to the creator. example. "Julie created an ARS table that makes sense only to Julie and not anyone else, but she in conviced it works on the planet Krypton" (2) The process of correcting an issue and not communicating to others and not testing. example "Julie fixed all the processes. but we are having issues with what she fixed and Julie is nowhere to be found." (3) Talking in marble code. The process with putting about 10 lbs of marble in ones mouth and trying to talk. example Julie just put marbles in her mouth and she is trying to talk, what is she saying? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.167.188.61 (talk) 19:07, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not a dictionary. There has never been an article on the word. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 19:13, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This post is the only edit to the English Wikipedia by your IP address. Maybe you have been trying to add it to another site. It doesn't belong here anyway. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:13, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dual names?[edit]

Resolved
 – by OP -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 19:56, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to edit the 'National Youth Service (Zimbabwe)' to appear on the disambiguation page for 'The Youth Brigade' as that is its most common name.

Where do I enter the term 'The Youth Brigade' so that the page 'National Youth Service (Zimbabwe)' appears on the disambiguation page for 'The youth brigade'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lumpia2 (talkcontribs) 19:27, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I want to sue for having my name misrepresented on this website![edit]

My name is Elan Ribenbach. For some reason when you google my name it comes up that I was a gang member of Sheepshead bay houses. This is false. I would like to find out who put this on and why you did not check to see if this is factual. This has caused collateral damage. My email address is <blanked> I would like thgis resolved as soon as possible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.195.201.234 (talk) 20:08, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been subjected to vandalism. I have removed the nonsense and will watch the article to make sure it does not recur. TNXMan 20:12, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry that this misinformation has been inserted but please do not threaten to sue. We are willing to help you if at all possible but if you threaten legal action, your access to this site has to be restricted due to our policy in such cases. Regards SoWhy 20:16, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You should oversight you e-mail...you can still see it if you view the diffs of this page.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 20:17, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Incidently, I should point out that the Google index may reflect the old version for a while - we have no control over when Google re-index. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 20:25, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have requested that Google update the cache on the article in question.--Unionhawk Talk E-mail Review 20:38, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This problem is another argument in favor of Flagged revisions. Google elevates Wikipedia articles to the top of its search results, but the Google indexer might happen to look at a Wikipedia article during the (hopefully short) period of time when vandalism appears. Then the vandalism can hang around for weeks in the Google search results until the Google indexer revisits the article, even if Wikipedia editors fixed the vandalism quickly on Wikipedia. If the English Wikipedia used flagged revisions, then Google would index the article revision that had undergone some sort of quality control. --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Someone used my real name on Wikipedia[edit]

Someone I know outside of Wikipedia, who did not know that I prefer not to use my real name here, addressed me by my real name in on a Talk Page. Another admin told me that I could remove it from the page per WP:BLP guidelines, and I did, but I wanted to know if it could be removed from previous versions of the article's Edit History. Is this possible? If so, can I email someone here privately so as to not post a link to the page here? Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 21:11, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why not try contacting WP:OVERSIGHT? BencherliteTalk 21:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You might want to check out this article Wikipedia:How to not get outed on Wikipedia. Best Wishes.Civic Cat (talk) 17:25, 11 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image problems in Muhammad Iqbal[edit]

Resolved
 – But article needs clean up

Geek alert: we need some help. I though I would help an IP with an image problem in Muhammad Iqbal, and indeed, I got their image to display properly (look at the "death" section)--but to my surprise, all of sudden the next image, that street sign, didn't display anymore. Help! Thanks, Drmies (talk) 21:11, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I see nothing wrong.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 21:21, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved, might need some cleaning up though.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 21:25, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Eh...your edit removed half the article. I've undone it. Drmies (talk) 21:33, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think I fixed it by removing a wikilink from the caption, though I don't understand why it worked. Drmies (talk) 21:38, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This vandalism edit left an open [[Image:Iqbal-RahmatAli.jpg|... without the closing ]]. Unclosed tags can cause display errors in later sections as well, but such errors are not seen when the later section is previewed by itself without the earlier unclosed tag. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:57, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Applying image to wiki page[edit]

I have uploaded images in Commons and wiki, however unable to place on my wiki page. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I think all I should have to do is put the title of the image where it ask in the image command, but nothing works. Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by G4hype (talkcontribs) 21:37, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You have to spell the image name correctly. The title is File:CraigPumphrey.JPG, not File:Craigpumphrey.jpg. That produces: Intelligentsium 21:55, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

closing page merge[edit]

The Web bot article has had a merge tag for several weeks. The discussion has largely fizzled out with consensus clearly indicating the article should be kept. How do I close the merge discussion. Does an admin need to do this? Voiceofreason01 (talk) 21:42, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No admin is needed. You can do it yourself. All you need to do is take down the merge tags on the pages, and close out the discussion with something like this. —Akrabbimtalk 21:54, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lots of dictionary-type citations[edit]

I'm still working on List of English back-formations, and I wasn't sure which is better, as far as dozens of citations from the same website goes. Each word has their own url, but they are easily searched, so I don't know whether to include them all in one citation or not. Here is one way, and here is the other way I could do it. Nothing on WP:CITE seems to help in this case. Thanks —Akrabbimtalk 21:51, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New article creation[edit]

I recall a page where anon editors could create a new article which was then checked by an editor with an account. If it was a suitable topic the editor could move it to article namespace or reject it. All the articles were kept. I think they may be sub-pages in Wikipedia namespace. I can no longer find this service. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 22:50, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Articles for creation. The format has changed so it may not look as you remember. Wikipedia:Articles for creation/2008-01-01 is an example of an old format where each day had its own page with all suggestions of that day. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:02, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Yes, that what I was after. Cheers. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 04:26, 10 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]