Help desk
< April 17	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 19 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

April 18[edit]

My edit count[edit]

Last time I asked here at the help desk I found out that my 12,548 edits are almost all attributed to User:Shannon1 (usurped3) because of my recent username change. But no consensus was reached on the matter, nor was anything done about it; is there anything that can be done to repair it? Shannon ^talk _contribs 00:34, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Shannon1 (usurped3) only has 3 edits. Your current account has the 12,548 (now 12,811) edits you were talking about above. Is this what you mean? If so, it's already been resolved. Goodvac (talk) 00:40, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But under my Preferences, it says I have 141 edits. Shannon ^talk _contribs 15:27, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article has disappeared... help![edit]

So I spent many hours today starting a new article called "International child abduction to Mexico." I started it in my userspace I believe, or that was my intent (i'm new to wikipedia) I was able to "Save" and "Preview" the article many times but it has now completely disappeared and I can't find any history of it ever existing, being saved, edited or deleted. Can someone please help me recover this article or provide some insight as to what may have happened to it? I am using Opera 10.5 if there are any known incompatibilities w/ Opera but everything seemed to be working fine till I acccidently closed the tab containing my article and now I can't find any of my work, and I didn't save it anywhere else :/ since using "save" in Wikipedia appeared to work. Cybermud (talk) 00:59, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, but it appears that these edits are all the contributions you have made to Wikipedia (it doesn't look like any have been deleted either). Are you sure that you clicked "save page" after making edits and not "show preview" or "show changes"? I don't use Opera, but is there an option under your History menu to restore closed tabs? TN X Man 01:05, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the fast response.. I'm positive I saved MANY times (or at least clicked "Save" and watched the page refresh to a non-preview page (which is the page I was usually on prior to saving).. I normally saved before doing a "preview" because I was worried about losing my edits. I can (and have) restored the closed tab but it's contents were lost and the newly restored page said something to the effect "the page "'International Child Abduction to Mexico' doesn't exist" click here to create it.

I have a personal rule against writing long pieces in the rich text editors of webpages but I broke it this time because I was still playing with the Wiki syntax and trying to get a feel for it. I was actually just thinking to myself I should save a local copy of the article text offline when I lost it.. :(

Whatever happened I expect it will happen to others. I have a degree in Comp Sci and work as a software engineer so, at least in theory, I should be able to figure this out pretty well.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cybermud (talk • contribs) 01:25, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you made it while logged out? I know I've done that... quite irritating at times. I only found the article I was editing a couple of months later, and by then I'd lost my train of edits. SS✞^(Kay) 03:16, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One can't create a page under an IP. See Wikipedia:IP#Anonymous users. Goodvac (talk) 03:18, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I can find no sign of such a page in your saved edits, deleted edits or the edit filter. You say "Save". Did you click a button saying "Save page" below the edit box? Are you sure you were logged in to the account Cybermud when you saved? Browsers often lose their login during a session without the user noticing it. Are you sure it was saved here at http://en.wikipedia.org? Many other wikis use the same software and have similar looking pages and user interface. Some of them will allow you to log in with the username and password you created at the English Wikipedia if you have unified login. What is the url displayed in your browser history? Are you sure you didn't get some error message when you saved? Your account is not autoconfirmed yet so if you save a url then a message will say you have to enter a CAPTCHA. I have worked here at the help desk almost every day for years and I only think it occured a couple of times that I was unable to find signs of an edit a user felt certain of having made here recently with their account. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:37, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is International child abduction to Mexico the article in question? – ukexpat (talk) 17:49, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It is International child abduction to Mexico, I have since completely rewrote it -- with some improvements on the first time. I was definitely here at Wikipedia and sure that I was logged in for the vast majority of the edits (was previewing/saving over the course of hours) I think it was mostly that I was not consistently using the Captcha though. I know I filled it out at least once (may have got it wrong), but I may have ignored it the rest of the times. In particular since it doesn't show any Save error or Warning w/ the capthca. User's to be prompted w/ captcha will get prompted after the page refresh that happens after clicking 'save,' but there is no message to the user that the save has not been committed or even what the captcha is for. I recommend adding some text there similar to the red text displayed warning users during a preview that their article has not been saved.--69.134.5.47 --Cybermud (talk) 14:07, 21 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

News[edit]

Can i get newspaper articles from 1944 and 1945 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.25.152.108 (talk) 02:05, 18 April 2010 (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. -- œ ^™ 03:00, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I can't log into my original user account[edit]

I originally set up an account under my name, Darrellweaver. However, I don't have the ISP I originally used in my email to sign up & hence, can't retrieve my forgotten password.

How do I get access to my account?

Please reply to: <redacted> Thank you,

Darrell Weaver —Preceding unsigned comment added by ThothsBook (talk • contribs) 03:40, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid you can't if you no longer have access to the account which will receive the password mails, there is no way you can retrieve the account. See Help:Logging_in#What if I forget the password?.

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you want them to be permanently removed from the page history, please email this address. --ColinFine (talk) 10:44, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How to mark a discussion on a Talk page after it is over?[edit]

What is the recommended technique for marking a discussion as over after the consensus is in (or non-consensus is clear)? I've seen this done on many Talk pages but cannot locate the policy page for recommending how to do it? Cheers. N2e (talk) 03:56, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Closing discussions may help. -- œ ^™ 04:07, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a specific page with a specific type of discussion in mind? Help:Archiving a talk page includes links to {{Archive top}} and {{Hidden archive top}}. Most discussions are never marked as archived but may be moved to a talk page archive at some time to prevent the main talk page from becoming too big. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:12, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

digital electronics[edit]

can i use 555 timer circuit as a half adder circuit?give its circuit diagram.plz send me at {email redacted}Deepakmjpru (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:09, 18 April 2010 (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. NotAnonymous0 did I err?|Contribs 06:11, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What is the max limit of groups in a navigational box?[edit]

Hi, I am trying to create a navigational box with more than 25 groups. However, only the first 20 groups are displayed. Is there a limit on the count of groups and lists in a navigational box? Thanks in Advance. Thaejas (talk) 09:17, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on the box. {{Navbox}} has max 20. {{Navbox long}} has max 38. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:24, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you want so many groups in the same navbox? --Teratornis (talk) 19:32, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Initially, I thought of having all the Hindu Temples in India (group by States) in one Nav box. The states of India are more than 25. After going thru the list List of Hindu temples in India, have changed to a better idea of having statewise nav boxes. And hence created Template:Hindu Temples in Andhra Pradesh. Thanks. Thaejas (talk) 04:30, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds better. Usually when a navbox exceeds the group limit, that means it should be subdivided into several smaller navboxes, as you have now done. A navbox should contain a judicious number of links. Exhaustive lists are better to put on list pages. See Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates for a comparison of the various methods of grouping related articles. --Teratornis (talk) 19:28, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Licensing schemes which are not available in Upload form[edit]

Hi.

When I was using Wikipedia:Upload form, I notice that whatever I do, I cannot seem to find "Non-free computer icon" (and some other schemes) in the Licensing drop-down box. Is there a way of adding those items to the list? Fleet Command (talk) 10:04, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Click "Other", and then add {{non-free computer icon}} to the summary box manually. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:58, 20 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But that was not my question. I want to know whether there is a way of adding new entries to the Licensing drop-down box. I'd like to who is in charge of doing that. I already assume that you don't know. Fleet Command (talk) 13:14, 21 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

User History[edit]

My history page does not show most edits I have recently done. Thanks In Advance Matt-tastic (talk) 11:41, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you clicking the "my contributions" link at top of any page leading to Special:Contributions/Matt-tastic? The "history" link at User:Matt-tastic or other pages only shows edits to that page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:14, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Rounding numbers[edit]

To how many decimal places should we round millions of viewers? This can be found at Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains#U.S. Nielsen ratings in the viewers column. For example, should it be (in millions of viewers) 12.377 or 12.38? By the way, the reference, TVbytheNumbers, lists it as 12.377. —Untitledmind⁷² (let's talk + contribs) 12:10, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

All examples I examined show 2 decimals. I also think 3 would be too much. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:10, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Follow-up to my previous post[edit]

I have emailed Sit-up TV Ltd so should have a reliable source in the next week to support my initial suggestion.

On a side-note would it be possible to write instructional information to a neutral standard, if so could someone give me an example cause we could explain the auction system in a more neutral way so as to meet wikipedia standards. Paul 2387 12:21, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

E-mailing the company is not a viable option to create a source; the resulting e-mail is not published publicly, therefore it cannot be cited. If you were to cite an e-mail that is not published we essentially have to assume what you say is supported by the e-mail is actually supported by the e-mail, which is never good -- we want to be able to inspect the source for ourselves and determine whether it supports material in the aricle. The e-mail is also not independent of the subject of the article, meaning it cannot establish notability, and can only be used to verify basic factual information (i.e. the article cannot be based solely on such questionable sources).

You have already been told that instructional content is strictly disallowed. If you want to explain how something works (i.e. how it WORKS, not how you use it) you need to cite several reliable sources that have already explained how the subject or a portion of the subject works. For a good example of this type of writing, see Radio#Processes. (In this case, how a radio works is considered to be "common knowledge" and does not need to be cited.) Note the article tells you how a radio works, but it does not tell you how to use one.

I have a fair warning for you: If you want to be a sysop in 18 months as your userpage says, you need to read and understand now what constitutes a reliable source and what does not, what can establish notability and what cannot, and which articles are permissible and which are prohibited. Xenon54 / talk / 13:14, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I want a date[edit]

when was the 'Chinese martial arts' written? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.93.164.76 (talk) 12:47, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article Chinese martial arts has been edited thousands of times since the first version was created in 2004. If you want to cite the article in a work outside Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia or click the link "Cite this page" in the toolbox to the left of the article. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:04, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A small query[edit]

Resolved

Hi guys. I had a query on my contributions. I had Speedied this link [1] as it was a redirect to a page that had been recently deleted. Now, while the redirect was subsequently deleted, my contributions[2] somehow aren't showing that I tagged the redirect for speedy. Wanted to find out how did that happen? Thanks ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 13:19, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Worked it out! :) Thanks ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 13:29, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

eMail[edit]

Resolved

– – ukexpat (talk) 17:31, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible to provide an eMail address after registration to Wikipedia, or does one have to provide it at registration? MR.PreZ 14:03, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Go to Special:Preferences and it's at the bottom. Enter your e-mail address and click Save, then "authenticate" your address by clicking on the e-mail you will recieve. Remember, if you don't want other users to e-mail you, untick the "Enable e-mail from other users" box. If you do want other users to e-mail you, I suggest you go to any one of the myriad free e-mail providers and get a Wikipedia-only address from one of them. (I, for example, got a Wikipedia-only address from T-Online, where I already had an active address.) Xenon54 / talk / 14:09, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. MR.PreZ 14:17, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can also set a custom emailnotice that users who email you will see by editing Special:Mypage/Emailnotice. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 18:53, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Userboxes[edit]

How can I center my userboxes, as Example did on his "About me" page? Also, how can I create different sections of my user page, kind of like how Wikipedia's main page is set up, and then change them different colors, like Jimbo Wales did? MR.PreZ 14:41, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you go to that page and click on the edit button, you can see exactly how it was done. Obviously, you shouldn't actually edit, but clicking edit will always show what was done - in some cases, the details are abstruse enough to require help, but it looks to me that if you just click on the edit button, you'll see what to do.--SPhilbrick T 18:19, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Although <center>...</center> is deprecated and should not be used. You don't need the div, just set the table style:

{| style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"

---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 18:51, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, one of the pitfalls of borrowing from what someone else has done. I didn't realize it was deprecated.--SPhilbrick T 19:04, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

When I saw it, I could not remember ever using it, so I looked it up at http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_center.asp. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:15, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See also Help:Table#Centering tables; the markup in the example is a bit different, but essentially does the same thing. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:17, 18 April 2010 (UTC)---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:17, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. MR. PreZ 19:31, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But wait, it actually seems like it is to comlicated, could someone help? MR. PreZ 19:41, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Generally Unfriendly User[edit]

Where would one notify higher authority of a user who did a few decent edits, but recently switched to being antisocial, by deleting anything on their talk page and creating unconstructive redirect pages? They aren't a vandal, per se, but are rather hostile and just blank their own page, with an extreme aversion to "prefab" messages. Are they worthy enough to be given warnings? 2D Backfire Master ^{ballroom blitz} 17:45, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See the links under WP:EIW#Dispute. --Teratornis (talk) 20:26, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't check your contributions to see who you are talking about, but you are allowed to remove warnings from your own talk page, and some consider it rude to use templates on regular editors (see Wikipedia:Don't template the regulars), so those actions are alright. Inappropriate redirects can be sent to WP:RFD or prodded. Depending on the titles, some redirects can be considered vandalism and, after appropriate warnings, the user can be reported to AVI. liquidluck✽talk 06:26, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Picture as background?[edit]

Is it possible to apply an image as the background for text (especially for a table)? Shannon ^talk _contribs 18:22, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Anything is possible in Inkscape - that is, if you create what you want entirely as a Scalable Vector Graphics file, with all the background and text on it. See Commons:COM:EIC#Inkscape if you want to do that. I don't know a way to float text over an image in wikitext. It might be possible with some application of div or span tags. Please be more specific about what you are trying to do. --Teratornis (talk) 19:02, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

On Help talk:Table there is a form to search the archived discussion. Searching for: background image finds some results, including a question with no answer: Help talk:Table/Archive 1#Background Images. If you don't get an answer here, you could try asking again there. --Teratornis (talk) 19:07, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Whoops; I actually ment, with wiki syntax only. Shannon ^talk _contribs 23:20, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just created a page and I'm new as registered editor to wikipedia[edit]

Hi. I just created a page in my user space on Amazonian perspectivism. I think the article is ready to be posted to the public so that other editors can add to it, etc. Can an administrator please review my page and if they deem it ready, please move it to the published space? Thanks. Antropologo (talk) 19:01, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am not an administrator (so please do not get confused that I am an administrator who is helping you). Anyway, if you want to know if your article is alright or not, see Wikipedia:Article_Wizard. Then, you can ask me how to make into an article (I'll be able to do it). --Ha dg er 19:52, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Antropologo has since blanked the article in his User space. I've left a message on his talk page. --ColinFine (talk) 20:02, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Userbox wikitable[edit]

Several days ago, a user reformatted my userboxes, which were growing quite unruly and messy, into a wikitable, which greatly improved the appearance of my userpage. However, as I have added and subtracted userboxes from the wikitable, it seems that the wikitable has become "broken" and the userboxes are again disorderly. Any help would be appreciated. Immunize (talk) 19:20, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Find the last revision of your userpage where the userboxes looked good. Then diff that against the first revision where the userboxes started to look bad. A glance at your userpage indicates the problem is that you are not maintaining the same number of columns in each table row you create. You should read the whole Help:Table page carefully. --Teratornis (talk) 19:29, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am really bad at formatting-it would be good if another user could help me with this issue. Immunize (talk) 19:35, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, and he may eat for a lifetime. Your table should be as follows:

|-
| 1
| 2
| 3
|-
| 4
| 5
| 6
|-
|...

Notice three pipes per column followed by a pipe-dash for the next row. –xeno^talk 19:38, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I attempted to reformat the userboxes, which resulted in this. Immunize (talk) 19:43, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You had more than 3 in some rows. Fixed... –xeno^talk 19:51, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

a lot of this can be avoided by ensuring that userboxes use the same height / width as each other. This is usually just a matter of using {{userbox}} and sticking to the default font and image sizes. I try to tweak infoboxes I come across so that this doesn't happen to others. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 12:20, 20 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Subcats not showing[edit]

At Category:Inactive WikiProjects the subcategories are not showing for me; but with an offset they do: [3]. Is it just me? What's going on here? Rd232 ^talk 20:42, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not just you, it's the same for me (using Chrome on WinXP). Maybe a category tree would fix it? DuncanHill (talk) 20:45, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They show alphabetically, which can be confusing. I use this on some long category pages to show the subcats upfront:

<div style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-columns:2; column-count:2;">{{#tag:categorytree|{{PAGENAME}}}}</div>

Perhaps I should make a template. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:48, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a category tree. DuncanHill (talk) 20:50, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Using {{category tree all}}. I was looking for that a while back. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 20:52, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks. So is it the case the subcats follow the same alphabetical order as needed to order the pages, i.e. subcat AAA is always on first page of a large cat, and ZZZ on last page? I don't recall coming across that before - and it seems a weirdly unhelpful behaviour if it is that! Rd232 ^talk 23:20, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unless I misinterpreted the above, I think the answer you're looking for is to sort it by adding a pipe then a blank to the subcategory like so: [[Category:AAA| ]] This then places the subcategory always on the first page. -- œ ^™ 05:00, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. I never knew that's what that was for! Ta. Rd232 ^talk 18:11, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted Page[edit]

A page a created earlier today called The Daftknees was deleted. The information provided was entirely accurate and I provided a reference. Not entirely certain why it was removed and I would like to put it back up but I don't want it to get deleted again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.235.10.131 (talk) 21:59, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I guess you refer to Daftknees created by User:GGirl123. The reference http://www.youtube.com/daftknees didn't show up on the page because the page had no <references/> or {{Reflist}}. See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners#Inserting a reference. The page started "The Daftknees is a group of 7.5 girls". That doesn't make sense and made it sound like a hoax. Even though The DaftKnees are really on YouTube the page could still have been deleted per Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#A7. See also Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Notability (web). You would need independent reliable sources to keep a Wikipedia article. If you are associated with the subject then see also Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:52, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Merely being on YouTube does not make you notable by Wikipedia's definition. Anyone can put anything on YouTube; if everyone who ever appeared on any YouTube video was automatically notable, then I would have an article here. Wikipedia's threshold for inclusion is verifiability, not truth. You can say something is "entirely accurate", but unless you provide reliable sources -- and no, YouTube is not a reliable source -- to prove what you claim to be accurate is in fact accurate, your article will quickly be deleted for being unverifiable and/or failing to establish notability. Xenon54 / talk / 01:28, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

G.S.Khaparde on Wikipedia free encyclopedia[edit]

Your encyclopedia has mentioned Balkrishna Ganesh Khaparde who was my maternal grnadfather. His father G>S>Khaparde is also mentioned. Lot of unknown information about G>S> Khaparde is added in chapter MR of netajibosemysteryrevealed.org. Please see and add.
Dr.Suresh Padhye —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.161.104 (talk) 23:47, 18 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your link! This information would be best placed on the talk page of the article (Talk:Balkrishna Ganesh Khaparde), but I'll leave a link there. It may also be helpful to contact the creator of the article, User:Shivap (edit and leave a message at User talk:Shivap). While you should avoid editing the articles yourself due to your conflict of interest, items such as newspaper articles or photographs can be very useful in improving the article and appreciated. liquidluck✽talk 06:33, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There would be no problem with Dr Padhye editing the articles, provided he did not attempt to influence the view of his relatives that emerges from the sources,eg by deleting negative information that was verifiable. See WP:COI for more information - really the only time it is a major issue is creating an article about yourself, your company, your rock band etc; or when editing disruptively. Elen of the Roads (talk) 10:48, 19 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]