Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 June 8

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June 8

Requesting unblock of User:45g

Hi, some smartass called Snaisybelle intentionally harassed me and got me banned. Prior to that there were NO issues between myself and Wikipedia. This Michael guy who knows her then tagged heaps of my accounts, as seen here. User:Floatstinger, User:SynchPedro86, and User:TetraJuiz69. He has clearly abused his rights. He also banned me on ED today, and is a stalker on Bulbapedia and Wikia. He is a trolling annoyance to every wiki site. I don't think he has a life outside of the internet and is probably a potential poster boy for what is wrong with free online services.SpongeBathWithBlondie (talk) 00:42, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

See, if you were banned, but created a new account anyway, that's called block evasion (and isn't allowed). I've blocked this account. TNXMan 01:58, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

CheckUser seems to agree with Michael; the only person doing anything wrong is Grace Saunders. Nyttend (talk) 14:33, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

i can't add pictures

Hello Wikipedia, I am a freelance photographer and would like to submit pictures but it says my account is not "confirmed." I have hit confirm when I received the email so I am not sure if there is something wrong or if I am missing a step.

Thank yoU! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rosylicious (talk • contribs) 01:22, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

To be autoconfirmed, your account needs to be at least 4 days old and have at least 10 edits. If you need to be "confirmed" now, go to Wikipedia:Requests for permissions and request for the "confirmed" status. Make sure to state why you need the permission. —MC10 (T•C•GB•L) 01:28, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

D

can your organization: Help me build this next Billion dollar Business: gpsplates.com see and reply —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.179.167.8 (talk) 01:54, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but Wikipedia is a neutrally written encyclopedia, not a marketing vehicle. TNXMan 01:55, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Also see WP:UPANDCOMING. --Teratornis (talk) 02:26, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Citing an Image

Hi I am currently writing a paper I am confused about how to properly cite images I have pulled from Wikipedia and plan to use in my paper. First of all, if I am using images that are licensed to Wikipedia under public domain, do I even need to cite them. Secondly, how would I cite them? Wikipedia has a (extremely helpful) citation generator but that seems to only work for articles and not for images. Thanks a lot

-sam

[redacted] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samfishman (talk • contribs) 02:23, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

It is not necessary to provide your email address—answers will only be provided on this page. I have redacted it to prevent your becoming a victim of spambots. If work is public domain, it is technically not necessary to cite the source (but you cannot, obviously, claim or imply that you created it). For images, which on their documentation pages have a CC-BY-SA licence, you can view attribution requirements at WP:CC-BY-SA, especially regarding the section 4. Restrictions. For images which on their documentation page have a GFDL licence, refer to WP:GFDL, especially regarding the section 2. VERBATIM COPYING. These three are the most common; for the attribution requirements of less common or modified licences, refer to WP:ICT/All. You can find what licence an image is under by going to its documentation page, usually by clicking on the image. Intelligentsium 03:01, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

ok thanks for the advice. I really just wasn't sure if I needed to cite content that is from the public domain but you answered that. thank you Samfishman (talk) 20:14, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

missing determination

Thx for wiki link for opening my eyes - here is a bigoted article embedded without the usual controversial disclaimer! It says

"In 2000, Israel unilaterally withdrew its remaining forces from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon. Several thousand members of the South Lebanon Army (and their families) left with the Israelis. The UN Secretary-General concluded [100] that, as of June 16, 2000, Israel had withdrawn its forces from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425."

No ref is made to sheeba farms claimed by Lebanon, still forcibly occupied. Makes UN report controversial, never mind who is right, and hence article controversial.

arun Arya —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.163.26.223 (talk) 02:44, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure what your point is. You don't mention a specific article but your quote is apparently copied from History of Israel#1999—2001: Ehud Barak and withdrawal from South Lebanon. The following sentence says: Lebanon claims that Israel continues to occupy Lebanese territory called "Sheba'a Farms" (however this area was governed by Syria until 1967 when Israel took control). PrimeHunter (talk) 03:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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.--monosock 05:43, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Create a biography

How can I create an biographical article on a person?TheTShirtLady (talk) 03:49, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Please see Your first article. If you'd like help going through the steps below, try the Article Wizard.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. monosock 05:39, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

If you are planning to write about the person and company named TheTShirtLady, using the text that was on your user page, then you almost certainly shouldn't. See the guidelines on autobiography and conflict of interest. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:00, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Lost account... help

Resolved

 – John of Reading (talk) 07:52, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

A while ago I had an account created for me. It was called Icanhasaccount. I never did much with it. Now I lost the password and my reset e-mails don't seem to be getting through (don't laugh - that e-mail address can be rather schizophrenic at times. Don't know why.) Where do I go for permission to create a totally new account and edit with it? 72.35.111.63 (talk) 04:32, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Scratch that, I was using a totally different email than I thought. Sorry sorry sorry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Icanhasaccount (talk • contribs) 05:06, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Creating a new personal page on wikipedia

Hello. I am a new user, i have mainly signed up to create a new page on a special person. How do i go about doing this so when it is put in search with their name i can click on them and go to them as i would any other topic/person. So this person has their own page created by myself.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Deaves26 (talk • contribs) 06:31, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Please see Your first article. If you'd like help going through the steps below, try the Article Wizard.

1. Ensure that you have an account and you are logged in. If you don't have an account, create one
2. Make sure the subject is notable enough to have their own article
3. Find references
4. Make sure no article on the subject exists under a different title by typing the subject into the search box to the left (←) and clicking 'Search'
5. Type the page name in the search box to the left (←) and click 'Go'
6. Click 'Create this page'
7. Create the article, including all your references, making sure you adhere to the Manual of Style and our article layout guidelines
8. Be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles for failing to adhere to our policies and guidelines. New articles by new users are at extra risk of deletion, due to new users' unfamiliarity with our rules. Consider gaining experience by editing existing articles before attempting to create new ones. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:49, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm a bit concerned by what you mean by "special person". Is this person someone you know in real life? Are they famous or important in a particular field? Would they meet our notability guidelines for inclusion? If not, such an article would be deleted. Regardless of notability, if you know this person in real life, please be aware that you have a conflict of interest.--BelovedFreak 12:00, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

A Conflict of Interest doesn't mean you absolutely cannot create/edit said article, but it does mean you'll need to be extra-cautious, stopping at every turn. But more importantly, as previously said, you'll need your special person to be notable, By the definition linked here Riffraffselbow (talk) 12:26, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today

Why is this two days behind? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.196.236.42 (talk) 10:25, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

If you mean the day/date at the top of the page, it appears current to me. What do you see? TNXMan 11:53, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

The page uses a command to get the current date. It may sometimes have to be purged to update. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Freemont

Someone has trashed John C. Freemont Page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.112.155.190 (talk) 12:24, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Are you referring to John C. Frémont? The page looks OK to me. What do you see? TNXMan 13:26, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

File:Ye Htoon.jpg

This image is tagged with one of those "this .jpg should be a .png" templates. Why is this appropriate here? It's a photograph, so it seems to me that it's best rendered as a .jpg. Nyttend (talk) 14:27, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion regarding File:Ye Htoon.jpg. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). monosock 18:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Template's all well and good, but I did it anyway; it's an easy fix. Riffraffselbow (talk) 12:23, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Wrong link to Miles Davis album on 'Miles Davis Discography' Wiki page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Track has a different Miles Davis album (a French soundtrack Davis recorded) linked instead of the 'Jazz Track' album. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.28.206.59 (talk) 15:14, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

There is no article on the English Wikipedia about the album titled Jazz Track. Since that album consists of ten songs from the soundtrack for the film Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud, Jazz Track redirects to the soundtrack article Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (soundtrack). --Mysdaao ^talk 16:53, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Siggy problem

Hello. I've typed it in right in my sigbox, but for some reason, my contribution page on my signature (when shown as not in the "editing position"), it links to "Special:Contributions/Velociaptor888". Can you help me? Velociraptor888 15:52, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

It's just on the talk page for the Crabeater Seal article. Velociraptor888 15:53, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

It's correct in your signatures on this page. If it happens again there may be a problem with what you put in your signature preferences, but if not, it was just an unexplained glitch that you shouldn't worry about. --Mysdaao ^talk 16:45, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I suggest that you change the yellow colour in your sig - it is impossible to read against the background of the old monobook skin, and that kind of defeats the object of a signature. – ukexpat (talk) 18:18, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I definitely agree with the need to change the yellow! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:43, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

help with the virtual retinal display article.

it seems that people are constantly editing the above article to add the iphone 4's "retina display" while said display is NOT a virtual retinal display. considering the iphone was launched yesterday, i would simply recommmend locking this article for a month or 2. or else i will end up on here ever couple minutes to correct them.

the iphone's display is NOT a virtual retinal display, it is simply called retina display because its resolution (326 dpi) exceeds that the human eye can see at a distance of 10-12 inches. in short retina display means nothing and is only a marketing buzzword, and it should not be included under virtual retinal display

Thanks a bunch!

Keaven —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.226.68.201 (talk) 15:53, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not lock articles unless there is a great need, like excessive vandalism.

Thank you for your suggestion regarding iPhone. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this: . Do NOT sign in articles.

Read more: WP:PROTECT

monosock 18:02, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

ethics

I have a Wikipedia account. I would like to do two things: 1. Submit an article about the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists. This probably would be placed in the journalism ethics and standards section. Assuming I'd use the article wizard for this, now that I have an account. 2. List the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists as a source for guidance on journalism ethics. Don't know the procedure for this. Please advise me on the best way to do this.

16:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)16:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)16:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)16:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)Cbukro (talk) 16:04, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

There is already an article at Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists. In regard to "listing it as a source for guidance", I guess what you mean is placing links to it in other articles. That is probably not a good idea, particularly if you are connected with it and so have a conflict of interest; read WP:External links for more advice. JohnCD (talk) 18:17, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

If you can demonstrate that the service is notable by Wikipedia's standards, and have the multiple independent reliable sources required, and you have checked that it is not already covered somewhere in Wikipedia, you can consider creating an article. The article wizard would be a good place to start: your account will need to be WP:autoconfirmed, which means that it has existed for at least four days and has at least 10 edits.

But judging from your question, I have a concern that the article you want to write might not be encyclopaedic: please see what Wikipedia is not, specifically the sections about soapboxes and directories. But if you can write a neutral encyclopaedic article about it, fine.

One final caveat: if you are in any way associated with this service, you have a potential conflict of interest, and need to read WP:COI. --ColinFine (talk) 18:22, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

How to watchlist an article

There used to be a tab which said "Watch this article." I no longer see that feature. With the "New Improved" appearance, how do I add an article to my watchlist without going in and editing the raw watchlist? Edison (talk) 16:40, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

At the top right of a page is a small star sign. Click that to add the page to your watchlist. --Mysdaao ^talk 16:42, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! Wow, that's obscure and poorly designed. I looked for several minutes, and finally just started tediously adding them to the raw list. If I can't figure it out after 5 years and 34,000 edits, maybe more is needed than just a star symbol which has no obvious meaning with respect to a watchlist. Where do I go to suggest that it be put in words as it used to be? Edison (talk) 17:39, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Gotta learn to hover over those new fangled symbols ;-) hydnjo (talk) 18:01, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

On a related note, does the new design remove the ability to use Twinkle? I tried it and it seemed to not support it so I switched back. TastyCakes (talk) 17:55, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

You'll have to move it from your monobook to your vector.js. It should resume working after that. monosock 17:58, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Ah fantastic, thanks a lot. TastyCakes (talk) 18:49, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

If you click "New features" at the top of the page, the page on the new features will have a link for giving feedback. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:07, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

How do I post a biography?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Suganique (talk • contribs) 16:55, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

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

Thank you.

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 with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite 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. You might also look at 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. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. monosock 17:54, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

changing pages' colors to other than white

reading on the pc with a white background hurts people's eyes please enable an option that makes the pages have a grayish color or such it's really annoying to have it so bright for a long time. sorry if my English wasn't so good..I'm a foreigner already. but anyway, we need to get this solved soon..I also wanna make a suggestion here about the contact us thing..why is it so complicated?! I had a very hard time to find a way to contact someone, and when I did; he answered "I'm in no place to be able to change that". so who could?! i just wanna say : i hope my message reaches you. i think it's very easy for any web developer to change the page background. and i really wonder how u didn't think of something like that..anyways..just please please please solve this issue as soon as possible finally, i just wanna say i hope my way of talking is not rude to u at all. i really don't mean anything bad, it's just my english is limited so i can't express much. i hope u slove it asap :) thanks, bye bye (i'll be waiting for any positive reply from the site developers with hope that it can be done! thx in advance) Soona (talk) 17:26, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer 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. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. monosock 17:56, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I think the original poster is talking about Wikipedia pages. I am sure there is a CSS hack fix that can do what they want, but I don't know what it is. – ukexpat (talk) 17:59, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Go to your css page and add:

div#content { background-color: gray; }

or, change it to red or orange or use a code like #bbb. -- kainaw™ 18:05, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

We have this built into the preferences for monobook. If you are using it you can go to your preferences → Gadgets → User interface gadgets, and tick the box for → "Use a black background with green text on the Monobook skin".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:58, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

regarding your communications issues, you might find it helpful to look through the many, many, wikipedians who speak arabic (I'm assuming this is your native language; it's listed first on the article on Egypt) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:User_ar Riffraffselbow (talk) 12:16, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

List of holby city characters

On that page,the name keith greene directs to a another person with the same name. Can someone correct so it goes to this person's page. Gobbleswoggler (talk) 18:59, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Fixed, but I had to take out the {{sortname}} to do it. If anyone knows a better solution, please feel free to put it in. TNXMan 19:06, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

I did. Deor (talk) 19:09, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Audio and video sources

I am sorry if this is in the policies; I couldn't find it. I am asking this because of a discussion I saw in which one party complained of use of Yuo Tube.

Simply put, is audio and video material the same as print? For example, can I cite an audio lecture given by an authority in the field stored at a university website? How about a video interview with a political figure?Mzk1 (talk) 19:43, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

YouTube sources are not automatically unacceptable, but they often involve a breach of copyright (particularly where snippets from films, TV programmes etc. are uploaded) and Wikipedia has a policy of not linking to copyright violations, so that's probably the explanation for the discussion you saw. In other circumstances it is perfectly acceptable to cite an interview or a video, and to link to the content online where it is legally hosted. The templates {{cite video}} and {{cite interview}} may be helpful, and there's also a {{cite podcast}} that could come in handy. See Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:Citation templates for more information. Karenjc 20:19, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

In the case of a university lecture, if the lecturer is an academic, he or she will almost certainly have published the content of the lecture somewhere in print, such as in an academic journal. For example, Naomi Oreskes has several lectures on YouTube and the material is all in her books. Sometimes the lecture videos show illegible slides at the poor video resolution and you cannot read the sources they cite. If you cannot track down the lecturer's source material through Google Scholar or the lecturer's curriculum vitae on his or her university Web page, you could contact the lecturer and ask where to find the transcription or other publication that covers the material. There's no harm in citing a video in addition to the written sources but citing only the video would not be ideal. --Teratornis (talk) 03:35, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I am talking about yutorah.edu (org?), referring to Rabbi Hershel Shachter and Dr. (listed there as Rabbi, which he also is) David Berger, both of whom are noted authorities in their fields, Talmudic study / Jewish Law, and Jewish Studies respectively. Given the amount of output there, it is unlikely everything is in a journal, and many of these journals are not peer-reviewed in any case. (The lectures are audio-only. The quality is quite clear, and the lecturers are good at speaking in way that it is easy to understand what they are saying, at least if you know the jargon.) Nor would it be simple for me to find such material. Given the quality of citations in Jewish articles, I'll settle for "acceptable" rather than "ideal".Mzk1 (talk) 20:27, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Book input

I am writng a book in which I include an anthology on two former, famouse alumnus of mine. I plan to "extract" information for their respective write-up as written on website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Does this require permission from anyone?

Thank you,

Ruben M. Lara —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.248.78.48 (talk) 21:27, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Please see WP:REUSE. – ukexpat (talk) 21:33, 8 June 2010 (UTC)