Help desk
< May 2	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 4 >

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.

May 3[edit]

Adminship questions[edit]

I have two questions about adminship:

If an editor has read up on the RfA process and guidelines/criteria but is still unsure if they're ready for RfA, is there some sort of preparation? Like a peer review before FAC, but for people?
Would it be dumb to request adminship if (assuming you passed) you knew you were going to have to take a long wikibreak/semi-wikibreak after becoming an admin?

I'm not planning on requesting to be an admin anytime soon, even though I asked the second question as though I were (I won't have regular internet access for the summer). These questions are, at this point, largely out of curiosity. Thanks for any input. - Purplewowies (talk) 00:37, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Editor review should serve your purposes nicely. I think if you just plan on being away for a summer that's no big deal, but in that case, why wouldnt you wait? Equazcion ^(talk) 00:42, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I would wait. It was just a random, burning thought/question that ran through my mind. Thanks for answering my questions. :) - Purplewowies (talk) 05:28, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read Wikipedia:Advice for RfA candidates? You might try Wikipedia:Admin coaching before you apply.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 09:19, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

But the admin coaching page says it is inactive (and apparently points me to editor review). And yes, I did read the advice page. - Purplewowies (talk) 17:07, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

St. Anthony High School Milwaukee[edit]

The President is not Terry Brown it is Zeus Rodriguez.

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.139.169.36 (talk) 00:59, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are you asking for someone to change that information? Hghyux (talk to me)(talk to others) 01:49, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can. Just make sure you provide a source.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:47, 7 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

saints in Saint Peter Basilica in the Vatican Rome Italy[edit]

Heading text[edit]

Did you have a question? RudolfRed (talk) 02:14, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you're asking what saints are in St. Peter's Basilica, try the Reference desk. My first gues was that you were asking about statues, and those are St. Helena, St. Longinus, St. Andrew, St. Veronica. More here. — Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:56, 7 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Moving test page from my sandbox to mainspace[edit]

I drafted a new Wiki article using my user sandbox, then followed the steps to move the article to the mainspace.

There is now a redirect on my user sandbox page to the new article that I moved to the mainspace. Is this just temporary? I wanted to create a new standalone article in the mainspace, not just redirect it from my sandbox.

This is all the text that my user sandbox now contains: #REDIRECT Carl Bass

This is the page that I moved into the mainspace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Bass

Please help. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JNorman704 (talk • contribs) 02:14, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The article now exists in mainspace; the redirect is left over from the page move and you can remove the redirect code from the sandbox page.--ukexpat (talk) 02:20, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) A page move automatically creates a redirect at the old title. It remains if an editor doesn't change it. You can remove the redirect code and use the sandbox for other purposes. This will have no effect on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Bass. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:22, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both very much for your help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JNorman704 (talk • contribs) 02:24, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page vandalism?![edit]

Is it reasonable for someone to delete almost the entire content of my talk and user pages? Admittedly most of it could go, but it seems somewhat rude to me. Possibly has somthing to do with the fact that my user name is Kwerty and he's (or she's) set up as Kwerty2!!? Kwerty (talk) 02:52, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Seems odd to me, especially with no explanation in the edit history or on the page itself. You should leave a message on that user's talk page asking for an explanation, and if that doesn't work undo the changes. RudolfRed (talk) 02:57, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Log/Kwerty2 shows the account was created 1 minute before it started the deletions in your userspace, and afterwards it posted Happy "The crap is gone" to Special:FeedbackDashboard/31649. It looks like either vandalism or a mistake where Kwerty2 thought it was their own userspace which was prefilled when the account was created. Ask them. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:30, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

will do - thanks for your help (so far...?!) Kwerty (talk) 01:31, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Saeed Younan[edit]

Hi I'm Saeed Younan marketing manger. I have prepared a wikipedia page for him. Wasn't to happy with my work, as it wasn't near formate of other big name deejays. I wanted to see if I could get help on how to make the background information category with his image above it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Djsaeedyounan (talk • contribs) 03:27, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The subject must be notable. Please read the conflict-of-interest polict at WP:COI. If you can satisfy the requirements of both policies, then WP:YFA will explain how to create an article. RudolfRed (talk) 03:34, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Committed identity[edit]

Is it possible to change a committed identity? As you can see from my userpage, I already have a committed identity, but I've changed my Wikipedia email. The current committed identity contains the previous email id. So I want a committed identity that would include my new email id. Can I change committed identity now? Does any policy or guideline prohibit change of committed identity?--SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 03:39, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can change your committed identity at any time, but FYI, it should probably be something tougher to figure out than your email address... Equazcion ^(talk) 03:41, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! --SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 03:53, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Why I'm not allowed to create a page?[edit]

I wish to create Theorem_of_Bohm-Jacopini as a redirect to Structured program theorem but the message "Unable to proceed" appears --151.75.39.16 (talk) 04:40, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Only registered users can create pages. GB fan 04:49, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Done LeadSongDog come howl! 04:50, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. --151.75.39.16 (talk) 05:10, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Quoting from Wikipedia:Editor assistance/Requests: 'IP's can only create pages in talk namespaces. That's why AfC is in Wikipedia talk.' Dru of Id (talk) 13:05, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Logging in.[edit]

Hi, I edited a page but I didn't realize I wasn't logged in. It gave me a warning about my IP address, are there "Dangerous Consequences" to having it publicly displayed?

Dartpaw86 (talk) 11:11, 3 May 2012 (UTC)Dartpaw86[reply]

Don't worry about it. It's not important in almost all circumstances. If your ISP gives you a new IP address each time you connect to the internet, or you access via school or university or a corporate network or any kind of proxy network where the IP address is shared, then it's not going to damage your privacy - people may be able to tell roughly where the edit was made from, but there's no way to identify you without access to private logs from your ISP/school/college/company. If you have a fixed IP which is yours alone (which some ISPs will make available) then the edit might be traced to you (if there is information elsewhere online identifying your IP address), but most people don't have this.

But in practice, nobody is going to bother, even if they know your IP address. What use is it to anyone to know you edited an article on topic X? There are a vast number of IP addresses in Wikipedia's histories, and the very very vast majority of them haven't suffered at all from this. The only exception is that if you're breaking the law, or violating the policies of whoever's giving you internet access, they'll be able to locate you more easily.

You may be able in certain circumstances to have your IP address removed from the edit history; see Wikipedia:CBLANK#Partial_deletion and Wikipedia:Revision deletion. But normally this is not necessary. --13:13, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Occasionally a registered editor will edit while logged out. While not usually an egregious issue, there can be some concerns about attribution and privacy.

If you made an edit without logging in, you cannot go back and directly tie that edit to your account. If your desire to account for the edit overrides your desire for anonymity, you can log in, make a dummy edit, and add a note in the edit summary about the previous edit.
If you make a comment on a talk page without logging in, then your signature will include your IP address. You can log in and edit the comment by replacing the signature. Be aware that the WikiScanner tool will retrieve these actions from the database and record them at the Poor Man's Checkuser, thus connecting your username and IP address.
If you feel that the connection between the IP address and your username is an issue, then you can request that the edit be removed; see Wikipedia:Oversight#Policy and Wikipedia:Requests for oversight.
Wikipedia does show a message box when an unregistered or logged out user edits a page. This may not be obvious— as a visual reminder you can make the Save page button green when logged in by adding this rule to either Special:MyPage/skin.css or Special:MyPage/common.css:

/* Turn the "Save page" button green when logged in */
INPUT#wpSave {
    background-color:#88ff88;
}

If you use FireFox, you can disable the Save page button while logged out by installing Greasemonkey and the MediaWiki: Prevent anon editing script. This must be applied to each computer you use and will not be available on public computers.

Collapsible option for navboxes[edit]

Hi all. I've created a template for the author Colin Bateman - {{Colin Bateman}}. I'd like it to show as collapsed on pages such as this: Divorcing Jack (film); however, defining this as {{Colin Bateman|state=collapsed}} doesn't appear to do anything... Any idea where I've gone wrong? Cheers, Nik thestoned 15:44, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I copied in the code from Template:Navbox/doc. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:37, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks John!

Nik thestoned 08:13, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Moving problem[edit]

Route 127A (Massachusetts) must be moved to Massachusetts Route 127A to conform with standards, yet the target page already exists (as a redirect to an incorrect location, but with substantial history). How is this kind of move handled? Thanks. "Pepper" @ 19:42, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Requested moves? - Purplewowies (talk) 20:22, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

~~WP:SPEEDY lists that as a G6 technical deletion. You can put a db-move template on the page to notify an administrator.~~ This may not be appropriate if it has some edit history attached. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:33, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page[edit]

When editing a page, a list of templates or pages transcluded onto the page being edited appears beneath the edit window. I have my preferences set to display the page preview at the bottom, and often this list can become unweildingly long. Is there any way to set a custom css or js code that would make this into a collapsible list? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 20:55, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Try WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:23, 7 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is there an API for collecting Article for Deletion archive?[edit]

I am an M.S. student at University of Southern California. I am currently working on some research regarding Natural Language Processing and dealing with the Wikipedia AfD corpus. Is there any API or something that can be used to fetch the AfD discussions from Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.171.91.150 (talk) 21:04, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps the wizards at WP:Village pump (technical) will be able to help you. Roger (talk) 12:08, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Email issue[edit]

Hi, I received an email when a page on my watchlist was changed, but "E-mail me when a page on my watchlist is changed" was not checked in my preferences. Why is this and how can I stop future emails of this sort? Spencer^T♦C 21:11, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It was a bad server setting for 16 minutes. It has been fixed. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 126#Watchlist notification emails. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:16, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, thanks! Spencer^T♦C 04:37, 5 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Personalized editing dropdown boxes[edit]

Hello. In My preferences, in the gadgets tab, I have the option to "Add two new dropdown boxes below the edit summary box with some useful default summaries" checked, and I was wondering if it is possible to create another personalized dropdown box that contains different edit summaries. Thanks, JJJ (talk) 22:23, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The code is at MediaWiki:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js. If you don't know much JavaScript then perhaps the easiest is: Disable the gadget in preferences. Copy MediaWiki:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js to User:TheJJJunk/Gadget-defaultsummaries.js. Edit it to add your own choices in the code to one of the two existing dropdown boxes (you can probably guess how). Add importScript('User:TheJJJunk/Gadget-defaultsummaries.js'); to Special:Mypage/skin.js. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:51, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I just didn't know where to find the code. --JJJ (talk) 23:58, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I found the code at Special:Gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:02, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Research papers[edit]

Are there any policies or guidance documents regarding adding of material from research papers into articles? The papers I am looking at are not medical related, hard science or maths. Dlv999 (talk) 23:38, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The main policy would be "Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources". The most important factor is likely to be whether they were published, and if so, by whom. Jc3s5h (talk) 00:01, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Did you mean copy it in verbatim? In that case WP:COPYVIO is relevant. Or perhaps you are concerned about the paper's relevance, in which case you might want to consider WP:UNDUE and WP:FRINGE. Spinning Spark 01:48, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No intention to copy in verbatim. The papers are published, but one of the journals charges for publishing [1], and it is not clear that the Journal is entirely relevant to the topic of the paper. The second paper involved an activist organisation, again it was published, but I would like to find out what sort of policies are available to judge if the research is bona fida and suitable for addition to the encyclopedia.

Just on a side note, I read a lot of medical research papers at college and from what I know taking a single paper and reporting the results would not give an accurate picture of any particular research area. It would be relatively easy to cherry pick a single paper that would suite a particular POV but would not be representative picture of overall research. Dlv999 (talk) 12:06, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]