Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 December 7

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December 7

English language problem

I'm not a native speaker of English,so can I still try to edit/creat some pages in English?(like some articles about my country or local culture of my country) ,actually I 'm a beginner of editing Wiki(I've been using wiki for several years,but,I can't editing anything because of online censor in china,and now,government seems changed some censor policy）,and I tried to creat a new article, but today I found "It may need copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. Tagged since December 2010. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since December 2010. "this 2 tags have been added to that,would any one tell me what gonna happen to that page? thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Huzhen (talk • contribs) 05:49, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

What's going to happen to the page is that eventually, someone who does speak English well will come along and clean up the article. If you want, you may also contribute in the Wikipedia of your native language. See This full list of all Wikipedias to find your local language one. --Jayron32 05:59, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I've done some cleanup, and categorized it. Still needs work though.Naraht (talk) 13:38, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

WP:???

Resolved

I read a policy page a while ago that said we should write articles knowing that most people won't, and assuming that most people can't, follow wikilinks. It was a policy about writing, to some extent, self-contained articles. Does anyone know which policy page that was from? I've totally forgotten. Thanks. — Fly by Night (talk) 00:53, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

From WP:OVERLINK section in WP:Manual of Style (linking), I found a link to WP:NOT PAPERS, which stipulates "While wikilinks should be provided for advanced terms and concepts in that field, articles should be written on the assumption that the reader will not or cannot follow these links, instead attempting to infer their meaning from the text.". Is that what you were thinking of? Gonzonoir (talk) 12:02, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

That's exactly what I was thinking about. Thanks a lot. — Fly by Night (talk) 16:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia logo use

I am a college student majoring in graphic design. I am currently working on a information graphic for a poster about wikipedia. I am putting the logo inside a green orb. Do I need to get special permission to be using you logo? And if so, how? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.134.226.135 (talk) 01:11, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello there; according to the license on the file, you may need permission to use it. [CharlieEchoTango] 02:37, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Maybe now...

Hello, I have added the references for my article of "Zdenek Hanka", Czech author, there are many more refering to the books he wrote on Internet. Please, let me know, how to proceed to make it public now. Thank you very much, user: Heleho —Preceding unsigned comment added by Heleho (talk • contribs) 05:24, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

See the answers you received a few days ago at #disappeared?. Please also read WP:REF, and remember that in the English Wikipedia you will need references in English to demonstrate that the subject is notable. - David Biddulph (talk) 09:00, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

WP:NONENG doesn't say that only English sources can demonstrate notability. Dismas|^(talk) 09:21, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification that a reliable English translation of a foreign source is acceptable. As a first move, I've moved the user's draft from User:Heleho to a subpage at User:Heleho/Zdenek Hanka, which is where such a userspace draft would normally be expected to be found. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:18, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Need help from someone experienced with the backend of the ref tag

Resolved

Hi, I'm trying to implement a formatting similar to that of the English Wikipedia on the Amharic Wikipedia. Specifically, I'm trying to make the references tag show sources that are cited multiple times (using the name= attribute) to show up like [a] [b] [c] etc... I'm asking here in hopes that I will be directed to someone with the technical knowledge. Thanks Elfalem (talk) 05:46, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

The first instance of the tag would look like this: <ref name=foo>insert reference here</ref>

And each successive use of that same reference would only use: <ref name=foo />

Does that help? Dismas|^(talk) 06:19, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I understand. But when that source is displayed at the bottom of the page in the English Wikipedia, it looks like "^ [a][b][c] Author,..." but on Amharic Wikipedia it looks like "↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1 Author,..." We would like the square brackets. Elfalem (talk) 06:27, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

There's a setting for that - I think the numeric version is the default. Unless someone else replies beforehand, I'll look it up and give a fuller reply tonight -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternate account of Phantomsteve]} 06:57, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

See Help:Cite messages. Most of the Amharic MediaWiki messages are set to default (yellow highlight indicates default, green indicates custom, no color indicates a custom page does not exist so the cite.php default is used). ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:12, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Gadget850. That's exactly what I was looking for. The extension page at Mediawiki.org actually had a section about it. [1] Elfalem (talk) 22:19, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Image upload

How can I upload an image?Mrjaydip (talk) 07:52, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

TO upload an image to Wikipedia you need to be autoconfirmed. There are 2 criteria to become autoconfirmed, 1, the account must be at least 4 days old and 2, you must have made at least 10 edits. You meet the first criteria since your account was created 29 November 2010, but you haven't made 10 edits yet. After you make 10 edits you can go to Wikipedia:Upload to actually upload the image. As an alternative if the image you want to upload is free, then you can upload it the the commons so it available on all projects. You can use your same username and password that you use here on the commons. ~~ GB fan ~~ 08:32, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Submitted an entry but can't find it unless I do to my 'contributions' page

I've written an article and saved it knowing it would be there for public viewing. Will it take a while before it can be googled and found in Wikipedia? Or does it need to be posted in a specific place before it can be found by the public?? Does anybody at Wikipedia do anything to modify the text or page layout etc to make the article more uniform with what you find??

Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Leila Mutasa (talk • contribs) 12:20, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You can find the article by searching for i in the search field on the top of the page. Any user can edit your article, and if it has room for improvement, it may be edited. See WP:OWN. MikeNicho231 (talk) 12:36, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Addition: You have saved your article on your user page. You should take a look at WP:MUSIC to see if the article conforms with the notability criteria, before publishing in the article space. MikeNicho231 (talk) 12:37, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Actually, it's not at their user page, it's at the user page of an IP: User:86.172.115.53. Maybe someone could move it to the user's userspace and then get the IP user page deleted? Dismas|^(talk) 12:48, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

(ec) You'll also find useful advice at Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft, and at the pages linked from there. As a starting point, you may want to move the page from User:86.172.115.53 to [[User:Leila Mutasa/Limehouse Recording Studio]] or some other appropriate name. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I have moved the draft article to User:Leila Mutasa/Limehouse Recording Studio and removed the resulting redirect from the IP's user page. – ukexpat (talk) 15:34, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

The original poster has apparently ignored our advice and created The Limehouse Recording Studio without references. I have tagged it for G11 speedy as to me it is mainly promotional puffery and short on substance. – ukexpat (talk) 17:55, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Uppercase 'i's and lowercase 'L's

Hi there, is there a way to make articles display in a font where I and l look different? Thanks. It Is Me Here ^{t / c} 13:19, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

In your web browser's settings, there is a setting for the font to be used to display web pages. Change that to any font you like and web pages will be shown differently. -- kainaw™ 13:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You can also force a serif font in an article using:

<font face="serif">...</font>

But you'd only want to do this selectively in special circumstances, not for a whole article. 86.161.85.166 (talk) 13:58, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

The browser font only affects font size, not the actual font face itself, for some reason. It Is Me Here ^{t / c} 16:01, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Bracked link to a redirect page

How do I formulate a bracket link (e.g., between the [[ ]]) to a redirect page such as [[Phoo]] so that selecting the link brings up the redirect page and not go the page linded by the redirect? -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 13:57, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You can use Phoo, but it looks like an external link. Maybe someone else will know a way to format it like an internal one. 86.161.85.166 (talk) 14:05, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You can't make an actual internal link with redirect=no. The best you can do is hack the formatting so it appears the same. Algebraist 14:07, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

• From RfD, they use {{noredirect|1 = Phoo}}, which produces Phoo. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 14:26, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

What's the larger goal here? An alternative arrangement is to have the redirect-page itself be displayable instead of automatically redirecting/loading the target. See Wikipedia:Soft redirect. DMacks (talk) 18:01, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Page layout problem

I seem to be unable to figure out how to close up the large chunk of white space that (in IE at least) follows the "Characteristics" heading in Butyrospermum parkii.* Could someone show me how to do that? 86.161.85.166 (talk) 14:08, 7 December 2010 (UTC) * Clarification: ... other than by moving the offending image to a completely different part of the article, of course. I'm asking how to do it while leaving the image in the same place following the info box.

I moved the image in response to your original message before you subsequently added your extra "Clarification" point to it. You or anyone else can move it back if you want to. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:18, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I won't undo your beneficial edit, but I would still like to know how to solve the original problem; that is, get the whitespace to close up while allowing the "Worldwide shea nut production" graphic to flow immediately below the info box. It doesn't matter so much for the article, but I would like to know how to do it. The article in its original state, with broken formatting, is at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Butyrospermum_parkii&oldid=401045591 86.161.85.166 (talk) 14:25, 7 December 2010 (UTC).

Adding a PDF file containing his war time experiences to my father's listing in Wikipedia

How can I add a pdf file containing my late father's wartime experiences to his listing on Wikipedia? My father was a distinguished RAF officer and retired in 1976 as an Air Chief Marshal. He wrote a book about his wartime experiences, which is saved in pdf format, and which i would like to add to his listing: Air Chief Marshal Sir Derek Hodgkinson. As his wartime experiences are his own recollections, they are not editable. In fact the pdf file is password protected from change. Richard Hodgkinson217.35.79.23 (talk) 14:51, 7 December 2010 (UTC)File:Per Ardua Dec 2010.pdf

Hello Richard Hodgkinson. There's a few aspects to this: uneditable material shouldn't be (and as far as I can see in the case of a PDF, actually can't be) placed directly into Wikipedia: all the content here is licensed such that anyone can have permission to edit it per our CC-BY-SA license. Wikipedia is also not in itself a repository for primary source materials, though our sister project Wikisource does host such content. A document like the one you're describing might make an appropriate addition to the external links of the Derek Hodgkinson Wikipedia article, if it were hosted online somewhere else. If it's a published book, though, it may be subject to copyright measures that could limit how it could be reproduced online. Do you know whether the material is currently in copyright? Gonzonoir (talk) 15:10, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Conversely, if it's not published, then it is not acceptable for Wikipedia either as content or as a source. I'm sorry, but it really seems that Wikipedia is not the right outlet for what you want to do. --ColinFine (talk) 00:09, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

I came to the same conclusion in looking at a online-only published recounting of a father's life, with the son as author. I did not consider it reliable. Possibly truthful (I caught a few things he slanted) but not reliable. It was Jerry Voorhis btw.--Wehwalt (talk) 00:15, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Interesting one - even if not published by a third party, mightn't it make a useful addition to "external links"? (Obviously not suitable as a citation or for verification, but still plausibly of interest if reasonably attributable - which I guess would be the critical issue.) There can be a place in external links sections for good quality primary sources, can't there? Gonzonoir (talk) 09:56, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Need to rename/move article

Resolved

Metabase should be moved to IIS Metabase and then Metabase should redirect to MetaBase (note the capitalization), and I'm not sure how to do it. No one is working on either article and just happened to stumble upon them this morning. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 15:54, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You can request this at WP:RM, an admin will have to do the second part. ~~ GB fan ~~ 15:56, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Done, I think. Let me know if I've missed anything. TNXMan 17:29, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

It looks good. Thanks. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 18:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Ophthalmology

I am attempting to locate a book published in 1937 by the American Medical Association, entitled " Archives of Ophthalmology" Canyou help please? ----- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.26.190.214 (talk) 17:23, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities 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. TNXMan 17:26, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Henry Hopwood

I introduced the image of Henry Hopwood to the article, but got the licence wrong. It aint a fair use licence - its a public domain licence. I now have days to correct my mistake but dont know how to do it. Can someone please correct my mistake as the image is genuine and I dont want to see my work wasted. Please make this a Public Domain licence. Thanks Majorly - Mark^Dask 18:14, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Fixed. Kittybrewster ☎ 19:14, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Help -- I made extensive updates a few weeks ago and the updates are not showing!

Help, As the Director of Communications for the Society of Actuaries, I came across a number of errors on our Wikipedia page. I made EXTENSIVE changes a few weeks ago and the updates are not showing. Sadly, it took me about 2 hours to make these updates.

What happened to the updates?

Thanks very much, Lisamarie Lukas <<redacted email and phone number>> 65.114.82.201 (talk) 18:15, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

It seems that they were reverted. You added a lot of unreferenced materials that wasn't especially notable. They didn't seem to follow the manual of style, either. — Fly by Night (talk) 18:19, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

And please read WP:COI before you make any more edits to articles where you have a conflict. – ukexpat (talk) 18:26, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

portuguese version of wiki

what happened to the portuguese version of wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.58.114.23 (talk) 18:23, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Still where it was, at http://pt.wikipedia.org/ - David Biddulph (talk) 18:25, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

...which can also be linked as pt:Página principal. – ukexpat (talk) 18:30, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

... or even just pt: - David Biddulph (talk) 18:33, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Philabundance Wiki Page- please help

Hi -

I work for an organization called Philabundance and I wanted to ensure that most accurate information was posted to our wiki page- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philabundance. Unfortnately a user by the name of Eclipse keeps going in and undoing my work- as an organization, it is our responsibility to ensure that information on platforms like wiki is the most up to date and accurate- the sole purpose of having a wiki is to serve as an accurate resource which we're making an effort to do. My username is caberra. Please help me resolve this issue- as an organization, we can't afford having someone tamper with something as valuable as our wiki.

Many thanks!

Camilia Aberra Online Marketing Coordinator <phone # redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Caberra (talk • contribs) 18:36, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You have been warned about copyright violations, about conflict of interest, and about neutral point of view. These are not optional; they are core to our practice here. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:45, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

You are confused, Caberra.

en.wikipedia.org is not YOUR wiki, but OUR wiki. If you wish to set up your own private internal wiki for your company you may of course do so; the software is available and you can set it up on your own server.

en.wikipedia.org is a public wiki, and is set up according to principles which have been well-defined. You've been given links to many of them on your talk page, so please go away and read them. You don't own the page which refers to your company, and, as you have been told a number of times already, you need to read the Wikipedia guidance on conflict of interest. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:54, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Place-Based Social Media

Hi,

I'm wondering why there isn't a place-based social media section to include companies such as Foursquare, Gowalla, LocaModa, Facebook Places who deliver location based services. Place-based social media is the wave of the future, and it would be great to have a wiki page about it so people can learn more about what it is and how to integrate it into their advertising campaigns. I think many companies would be interested in reading about it as everything is becoming more social these days.

How do I start one of these pages? Or how would someone go about this?

Thanks, Jennifer <e-mail address redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.145.114 (talk) 18:41, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, 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 Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is available to walk you through creating an article, but you will need to create an account to use it. if you don't wish to do so, you can submit a proposal for an article at Articles for Creation.

(edit conflict) You need to read Wikipedia:Your first article for a description of how to go about creating an article, written for new users. Please make sure the concept is a distinct, well-attributed concept. If this is a new term you have created, or which does not have reliable sources which discuss it it will be deleted as a neologism and a non-notable concept. If you have access to reliable sources which discuss the concept, feel free to create the article yourself, or alternately request that someone else create it at Wikipedia:Requested articles. --Jayron32 18:53, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

uploading picture

how to upload picture which i have in my hard disk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.224.25 (talk) 18:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

First please read the image use policy. The upload page is at WP:UPLOAD, but you will need to create an account and be autoconfirmed. – ukexpat (talk) 18:54, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) First, you need to register an account. Secondly, you need to determine if the picture meets Wikipedia's Image use policy. Generally, you may only upload pictures that you yourself have created and thus own the rights to; pictures you have taken from elsewhere on the internet are generally not allowed at Wikipedia except in very limited circumstances. After you have a registerred account, you will gain the option "Upload file" in the left-hand menu at Wikipedia. That will walk you though the upload process. More info is availible at Wikipedia:Uploading images. --Jayron32 18:56, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Julian

I'm behind your leader Julian after his arrest. Hope the website doesn't go down! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.105.57.240 (talk) 19:01, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

—Half Price 19:04, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Curtis J Hopfenbeck

Greetings,

My book club is a huge fan of the author Curtis J Hopfenbeck and we have submitted a page under the Subject/Headline - Curtis J Hopfenbeck - for your review, but we weren't sure what the process was or what we might need to do to substantiate references or sources or whatever. Should we create an account and start over or should we just wait to see the page once it is set up?

Thanks much,

Pete Spampinato

Buukwurm (talk) 21:28, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

• Responded at user's talk page. --Jayron32 21:40, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Posting Company Information

I have noticed that there are wiki pages about General Motors and other corporations which help self promote the companies.

We have a company that makes medical testing equipment. There are wiki pages on similar equipment. Likewise, there are numerous wiki pages about other cars not made by GM. Can I produce a wiki page to discuss our company?

My page would tentatively cover the following...

Who we are.

How we got started.

The need for the testing equipment.

Discuss the theory of operation.

Cite some published papers.

Discuss some other standardization groups such as NIST.

Yes, there will be some self promotion. For example, when a product is discussed, there may be a link to my web sites.

Thank you.

Graemeian — Preceding unsigned comment added by Graemeian (talk • contribs) 21:45, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

A big difference between your proposed page and the General Motors page is that the latter was not written by General Motors. It was written by volunteer editors using material published about that company in reliable sources such as books, newspapers and magazines. I recommend that you read this FAQ page. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:56, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Please read the following pages: WP:BFAQ, WP:CORP, WP:COI and WP:SPAM, before you try to create the article. If you read the edit histories of the articles you mention, you will see that they have been heavily edited by a multitude of users (not principally by representatives of the companies) to remove any hint of promotional material and they are all pretty much written from a neutral point of view. In view of your conflict of interest you are strongly advised not to create such an article yourself. If the company really is notable, someone will write an article about it sooner or later. You can also try Articles for creation. You may also find that WikiCompany suits your needs better. – ukexpat (talk) 22:01, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

I have also reverted your recent spamlinking at Functional magnetic resonance imaging. – ukexpat (talk) 22:05, 7 December 2010 (UTC)