Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 October 30

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October 30[edit]

Can someone clarify the Anchor link help section?[edit]

I cannot for the life of me understand the Anchor/Linking Help section that wikipedia provides for cross-page, section linking. It reads like a dutch chemistry equation to me.
I think I need a real-world example, so I made something up real quick from real wiki articles to help you help me (no, it's not supposed to make sense).
Page A: Chocolate; link location: in the "Tempering" section, let's call it "Sugar Chemistry"
Page B: Sugar; "Sugar Chemistry" points to "Chemistry" on this page

Show me what I need to do to make it work, please?

Thanks, Ablomberg (talk) 02:59, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a link that takes you to the "Tempering" section of the "Chocolate" article - Chocolate#Tempering - that's [[Chocolate#Tempering]]. A piped link will make it look neater - chocolate tempering - which is coded as [[Chocolate#Tempering|chocolate tempering]]. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:24, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How do I submit an article for publication?[edit]

Hi, sorry to ask such a dumb question, but I've composed an article on my contributions page and I think it's OK to be put up. However, I can't see how one actually submits it for approval and publication. Can someone help me with this please. Cheers, Declan Declan Palmer (talk) 01:31, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Transport Integration Act 2010. Copy and paste the page source into that and save.----occono (talk) 01:36, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Conserving Wiki content is free- but takes just a bit of thought in advance- Why not offline copy- one a year?[edit]

Dear Help, and Wikipedia, 1) Your front page was invisible to me, your number one promoter, until yesterday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page As it is so useful, giving it any prominence will kick up use of Wikipedia, which I assume is good. 2)Why not make an offline copy of Wiki, leave forever untouched, this way as Wiki is not sure to improve, if a lot of abuse and political or commercial intrusion causing Wiki to falter, the prior year can be installed. This would tend to enhance the hardiness and permanence of Wiki intentions as more learn to spin words into supposed fact telling. Mike

(e/c) Can you give more detail on the "invisibility" of the Main Page? Your IP address suggests you are in the United States, so you should not have had any trouble.
If you don't like the current version of a particular page, you can explore the page history by clicking the "View history" tab at the top right. There is no need to make an annual snapshot of the whole thing, though you can if you wish - see this page. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:11, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Please forgive my verbiage, I mean only that I have complained for some time to find a central website for news or home page or center point of Wikipedia (always used Google as center point of Wiki, just type Wiki (no quotes) before a search string in Google.

I intuit many do this, so Wikipedia could benefit from actually advertising it's OWN home main page (news page)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and even give it some icon or means to recognize it as THE primary page.

My rationale is I like smart people, smart people support Wikipedia and help others find both knowledge (data, Wikipedia) and wisdom (what do do with the knowledge).

By self promoting the relatively "invisible" main page of Wikipedia, much good for everyone, empowerment, versatility, movement AWAY from mere Google searching, will happen.

This could reasonably raise the continental IQ (and wisdom and power) a few points collectively in two years.

Thanks for taking time, am appreciative of your generosity.

PS: I barely know how to post or edit in Wikipedia, but WOW how much smarter I have got!

Mike, disabled jarhead in Bend , Ore

People may approach a website in different ways but I think most readers know the Main Page. Our domain http://en.wikipedia.org redirects to it. The globe logo and text "WIKIPEDIA The Free Encyclopedia" in the upper left corner of every page links to it. Below that, every page has a link saying "Main page". Traffic statistics at http://stats.grok.se/en/201010/Main_Page show around 6 million main page hits per day. http://stats.grok.se/en/top says that only Special:Search (which Wikipedia searches are routed through) gets more hits. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:35, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Question[edit]

How do you make a word blue so as to connect to the page related to that in wiki? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sushil10s (talkcontribs) 13:16, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

do you mean an interwiki link? just put square brackets like here: "[[Example]]", see here for further informations-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:21, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Full instructions for making links are at Help:Link. Adrian J. Hunter(talkcontribs) 06:13, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

orphan pages[edit]

How can I de-orphanage a page which has now more than three relevant links?

MattiaFoc —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mattiafoc (talkcontribs) 16:26, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

These article tags are at the top of the page, and can be removed by editing the page in the usual way. For example, the "orphan" tag might look like {{Orphan|date=October 2010}} or it might be part of a {{Multiple issues}} tag, {{Multiple issues| ... | orphan = October 2010 .. }}. Remember to fill in the edit summary, and do not mark the edit as minor. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:38, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How should I ask a question?[edit]

Dear Wikipedia Team, I would like to ask questions about specific topics. Where should I ask? How do I it? Please reply as soon as possible.

My regrades, ruqaya this is my email, friendly--- <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.178.143.152 (talk) 18:01, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Wikipedia:Help desk/Are you in the right place will help you find the right place for whatever question you have in mind. I have removed your email address to protect your privacy; replies, like this one, will be written just below your question. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:19, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Image upload: privacy, metadata[edit]

I have found public domain files I need to upload to add to articles, but I am leary of including metadata or other information which might be included with the images, since I want to keep my identity private. I started to upload a file from Adobe Photoshop as a jpeg, but the "browse" feature included the folder (with my name on it ) on my computer. How do I load an image which says nothing about the owner of the computer from which it was uploaded, and which includes no invisible metadata? Should I just copy it to a dummy folder labeled "uploads" or some such? Edison (talk) 19:38, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think the "browse" folder name is only used to locate the file to be uploaded, and it is not saved anywhere. File:Landmark Plas Uchaf south side.JPG is one I uploaded, and there is nothing visible there about the computer I was using. I don't know about the metadata, but a Google search for "photoshop remove matadata" suggests there may be a Photoshop command "Save for web" to do this. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:52, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

List of concerts at US Bank Arena[edit]

I want to create an article listing the past concerts at US Bank Arena. I want to list them in a "box" within the main article (US Bank Arena) that can be utilized with "open" and "hide". How do I do this? Aesopposea (talk) 21:08, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a couple ways to do it, one is to use the pair:
{{Collapse top}}
List
{{Collapse bottom}}
However, the use of collapsible boxes in the main article is strongly discouraged. It is OK in nav templates at the bottom and appears to be OK for extended material in an info box. In some cases, long galleries of images are also enclosed in collapsible sections, but that is controversial.--SPhilbrickT 21:25, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

my biography - David McReynolds, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McReynolds[edit]

Unresolved
 – John of Reading (talk) 21:48, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I confess I'm am baffled as to how to reach someone there. I appreciate your function, use Wikipedia often, and did once manage to correct the error in the data about myself.

I was NOT the long term lover of Alvin Ailey. (And if, as had happened earlier, the same reference is in Alvin's bio, it should be corrected).

I met Alvin at UCLA in May of 1949. We had one and perhaps two or three sexual relations. He was a friend who had a profound influence on my life, introducing me to the poetry of e.e. cummings, William Carlos Williams, and Kenneth Patchen. I saw him a number of times in those years, visited him once when he came to New York City, and saw him in London on one occasion.

But it is very unfair to Alvin to burden his memory with the nonsense that we were long term lovers (or lovers at all). I might have wished otherwise, but in fairness to history, if this reference occurs in Keith Stern's book it is wrong.

David McReynolds <redact> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.68.154.54 (talk) 21:46, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

David McReynolds (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)
I see that you brought this up on the article talk page some years ago. At least as I read the Wikipedia rules at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Help, because this information is referenced to a reliable source it cannot be removed (Google books link).
This isn't the answer you want to hear, and in this instance this Wikipedia rule seems unkind. I hope that other, more experienced, editors will jump in here with more comments. Failing that, an email to info-en-q@wikimedia.org will definitely be seen by editors with great experience in this area. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:48, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple personal watchlists[edit]

I have about 1,500 articles in my watchlist. Of these, there are about 30 that I want to keep a particularly close eye on.

I have set up a second user - LynbarnList - to hold the second watchlist, which, as I don't intend to edit from it, and hope therefore it will not be seen as a sockpuppet, but this means logging in and out between the two users, which is not ideal.

I would like to add an additional watchlist just for those items. Is there any way to do something like this within a single user? (the articles I want to check are all those in a single category - is there a route through that I could use?)

Regards Lynbarn (talk) 21:48, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can list those 30 articles on a user subpage called User:Lynbarn/Watchlist, and in the navigation pane at the left-hand side of the page you can click on "Related changes".
Wavelength (talk) 22:18, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You can use a website providing change detection and notification (for example, http://www.changedetection.com/).
Wavelength (talk) 22:36, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Here is an idea. Suppose that you could assign each item on your main watchlist to a folder of your choosing. Whenever you are viewing a page on your watchlist, you see, beside or below the tab "unwatch" (in Monobook) or the blue star (in Vector) a field showing the name of the folder that you have chosen. It might say "England" or "railways" or "no folder" or "A" or "B" or "1" or "2", and you can re-assign the page to a different folder instead of the current one. Whenever you view the latest changes to your main watchlist, you have the option to "sort by folders". At this time, this feature is only imaginary, and it would need to be approved by the developers. Also, I do not know how much it would burden the servers. (See User talk:Wavelength/Archive 1#Watchlist folders.)
Wavelength (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You might find the following links to be helpful.
Wavelength (talk) 00:10, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If all the articles are in one category with no other articles, then you can visit the category page and click on "Related changes".
Wavelength (talk) 16:05, 4 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Need help for a larger project here on Wikipedia[edit]

Hi, I came across this Wikipedia category (how can I properly link categories, btw?), IMO, each and every single article included there is pure WP:CRYSTAL and therefore not notable (especially they all fail WP:CORP). How and where should I start a deletion discussion? Per aspera ad Astra (talk) 22:15, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can link a category by adding a colon in fornt of category ie [[:Category:Proposed_airlines]]. It is possible to nominate a group of articles for deletion at WP:AfD. The instructions for doing this can be found here. However if you are going to nominate a group of articles you need to make sure they are similar. I'd say anything that clearly fails CRYSTAL and CORP, could be nominated together in this case but any article that is less clear should be nominated separately. If the articles are sourced and link to different sources it may be harder to evaluate them as a group. --D•g Talk to me/What I've done 22:31, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) Hi Per aspera ad Astra. Let's deal with the linking issue first. Categories and images can be linked by prefixing a colon in the normal internal linking code. Thus [[:Category:Proposed airlines]] would be the link here. A second linking issue: the pipe trick only works with internal link, it does not work with external link, which take a space in parallel spot, so your link to the category above, using a pipe, was broken. The working external version of the link is "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Proposed_airlines this Wikipedia category]". You might get some use out of taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial, and Help:Link has specifics on this.

Regarding the deletion, you would need to take them to articles for deletion (AfD). Please see WP:BUNDLE for how to make a nomination on multiple related articles. However, my experience with mass AfDs is that you shouldn't do them in too large bites; take 8 similar articles but don't try to nominate 30 at one time. If that works out, the next batch could be larger and you can point to the past discussion as a precedential starting point. I would be careful to make sure all the article you batch together are very similar in the considerations that might come to play. For example, if some of these articles have citations to reliable sources discussing their proposed future airline status, but other do not, I would not bundle them together because that will be a crucial issue I would think in discussing their deletion. Of course, please note WP:BEFORE.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:48, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Redirection[edit]

What discussion process should I use if I do not want to do away with an article altogether, but make it into a redirect? Us441(talk)(contribs) 22:58, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You an be WP:BOLD and simply redirect with an appropriate edit summary (note the BOLD, revert, discuss cycle). You can also take the article to AfD, which is not limited to deletion but includes enforced redirection, merge and redirection and transwiking.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:17, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You can also post the suggestion on the article talk page. If you want to merge some of the content into the redirect target then see Help:Merging. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:39, 30 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]