Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 September 5

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September 5

OVERBOARD

To whom it may concern,

The producer credits for the motion picture,'Overboard' are incorrect. Roddy McDowell was an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - NOT a producer of the film. The bona fide screen-credited producers on the print of the film are: ALEXANDRA ROSE and ANTHEA SYLBERT. Kindly fix this error at once. There are myriads of online sites where you can check this information; or you can simply check the screen credits on the film,itself.

Warmest regards and thank you for publishing the corrected screen credits.

Alexandra Rose Chair, Industry Initiatives and Special Projects DODGE COLLEGE OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.211.147.167 (talk) 01:22, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

There's no need to be insistent, we're all volunteers who are looking out for the articles. But on to the article for Overboard. There is no field in the infobox for "executive", "associate" or any other type of special producer. There is simply a producer field. I've gone ahead and added the other three producers to that field. Dismas|^(talk) 02:51, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

HTML Error, cannot revert

Known browser/markup error: html class=funny characters (cannot describe details, catch-22 cannot save!) I unfortunately saved the page Lament Bass with this error, using <a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="#"><a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="#">Firefox</a></a> 15.0.04619. Revert or re-edit did not work with either FireFox or IE 9.0.8112. I attempted to report the problem but my login did not work on the support link (see separate problem below). I attempted to describe the problem on the "talk" tab but hit the same problem when I tried to save it!

• • Lament Bass needs to be reverted to version 02:03, 20 August 2012‎.

P.S. The html/browser autocomplete error also ocurred on saving this error report!!! Catch-22*2 <g> But then I re-edited it and deleted the weird content & the problem went away. Go figure.

P.P.S. apparently on pages with this error, the normal editing buttons e.g. 'B' 'I' etc. don't <a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="#"><a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="#">work</a></a>. I edited a page using the buttons OK but once the unwanted markup code appeared in the saved version the buttons were non-functional. Not completely confirmed that this is problem. Anyway, the buttons are not working on this page for me right now (IE 9.0.9).

D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 02:06, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Lament bass (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

The article has been fixed. I suspect that a browser add-on is responsible for the damage to your edit. One of the other volunteers here may recognise it, or you could make a test edit with your browser add-ons disabled. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:06, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

A Google search on "string-replaced-as-would-not-save" gives me about 18000 hits so it's a common problem but I couldn't find the cause. We would like to know more so we can tell users the cause at MediaWiki:Abusefilter-warning-malicious-a-tags. Which add-ons do you have in IE 9? Can you disable them and find if one of them causes the problem? See http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows7/How-to-manage-add-ons-in-Internet-Explorer-9? PrimeHunter (talk) 10:25, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I am almost certain the faulty code happened with both my IE (9.0.8112) & Firefox (15.0.1), which have totally different plugins. Someone earlier suggested a "improvement" to autocomplete in the browser was at fault. If I'm right, and the error occurs in both browsers, it would require a simultaneous update - not beyond the bounds of possibility. But my impression is that there are 2 stages of corruption, stage 1 adding the unwanted code to the marked-up text (may be tied to specific browser/release), then once the corrupt code is in the html any editor, IE, Ff, or whatever, will perpetuate the problem. D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 06:48, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

UserId/password not accepted

Attempted to report error above using link for markup problems. Was asked for UserID & password, but they were not accepted (I verified them several times), even I though I had already signed on normally. Possibly error results from spaces in my UserID. Note: using IE 9.0.9. D Anthony Patriarche (talk) 02:09, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Which link is this? It's possible that you ended up at Bugzilla (Home page), which has its own set of user names and passwords. Can you post the URL of the page where you were unable to log in? -- John of Reading (talk) 06:57, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Free Use of Newspaper and Magazine Materials

I read and heard that some databases gave a certain number of Wikipedia users free accounts to use them. What are the odds of something similar happening in the future with certain newspapers and magazines, or with websites like Social Explorer? Futurist110 (talk) 02:32, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

If you need help with finding some information at a specific newspaper which costs money, you can try WP:REX, which is a section of Wikipedia where you can get sources from behind paywalls, among other things. --Jayron32 04:10, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Hat, Hab, Collapse Bottom, Collapse Top

Why did my use of {{hat}} and {{hab}} blank everything in this edit, not just the content between the templates? I thought that they were simply the same as {{collapse top}} and {{collapse bottom}} with a different title. Looks to me as if {{hab}} is simply |} and I don't see why that would blank everything. Nyttend (talk) 03:51, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

For some odd reason, you must have line breaks between the templates and the enclosed content. You did {{hat}}{{Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents/GeoSwan and AFDs}}{{hab}} instead of

{{hat}}
{{Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents/GeoSwan and AFDs}}
{{hab}}

Goodvac (talk) 04:15, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

{{hat}} starts a table with {|. {{hab}} ends the table with |}. MediaWiki requires a table start and end to be at the start of a line (spaces may be accepted). If {{hab}} is missing or misplaced then the table is never closed. Perhaps {{hab}} should start with a blank line to ensure a line break before |} when it's not placed at the start of a line, but I'm not sure of the consequences. There are several similar table end templates. If one is changed then they should probably all be changed. Otherwise it could just increase incorrect use when people get used to some of them working without being on a new line. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:54, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

"For some odd reason" Any time newlines are mandatory for parsing to work, the most likely explanation is that the parser was programmed in perl or awk or bash or similar old-school unix sysadmin command-line-oriented tools. XML and XHTML parsers, by contrast, never need newlines between nodes. They also tend to be standardized, and faster at runtime than shell-scripting (although a line-oriented parser hand-tuned in C will wipe the floor with a generic any-style-of-whitespace-you-like markup language parser ... see also SAX which is the fast way to process XML). Maybe look into the guts of the templating system, and see whether it can be upgraded to work without needing newlines? Might make processing templates for display to readers faster, and editing pages easier since whitespace will be optional, as a bonus. Since the *output* of wikitext is non-line-oriented XHTML, it also makes sense that the wikitext itself should be non-line-oriented, methinks. 74.192.84.101 (talk) 16:55, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

my permanent block on swedish wikipedia

I have been permanently blocked on Swedish Wikipedia after a three-year edit war. I do not know why I was blocked - or rather I know why and there is no valid reason. Here is my question:

Swedish administrators have engaged in conflicts with me, and then subsequently erased the contributions on the talk pages. Is there any way I, or someone else can get back the History of what was written to be sure what was said and who said what?

Thanking you in anticipation, RPSM (talk) 07:46, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

"I've been blocked after a 3 year edit war, I don't know why I was blocked." Ummm, I think your statement very clearly gives some idea of why you were blocked. I notice also you've discussed this before here User_talk:Niklas_R#Hello. In this case it's something you'd need to discuss with the blocking admins and the Swedish Wikipedia, English wikipedia is independent of that. Valenciano (talk) 09:07, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

How exactly was it removed? You can't find it on the page history page at all? They might've contacted someone who had usage with the oversight feature. 119.224.75.20 (talk) 09:10, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Looking into that a little further, based on this discussion, you were blocked for personal attacks and POV pushing. I don't edit so much on Swedish wikipedia so don't know the background to that but again it's something to take up with the admins over there. English wikipedia has no jurisidiction there. Valenciano (talk) 09:13, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

May I ask you to please help me?

I have submitted the article which took me too long to complete. My concerns are: 1) How to uploaded a profile summary with a picture of the subject person; 2) How to put the header of the main page The article is about Mayor Michael Rama — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sayitlouder (talk • contribs) 09:36, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

You should use {{Infobox officeholder}} for "profile summary". Ruslik_Zero 10:07, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "How to put the header of the main page". If you mean the page heading in big bold letters which is currently "Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Mayor Michael L. Rama" for Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Mayor Michael L. Rama then it's done automatically and will change to "Mayor Michael L. Rama" if the article is accepted with that name (the reviewer should actually remove the "Mayor" part from the article name according to our guidelines). PrimeHunter (talk) 10:35, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Symbol looks ugly

Is it possible to somehow enhance the appearance of a symbol, if that appearance is related to the browser? The symbol ≢ looks extremely odd in Safari. In Firefox it looks much better, where you can actually distinguish the three horizontal lines in this symbol. In Safari, the upper and middle line get squashed such that the top and middle line appear as a single thick line. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 10:53, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I think this depends not on the browser itself, but on the browser's settings, for font and for character encoding. You could try changing those. Safari calls one of them "text encoding". Maproom (talk) 13:12, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

City Partnership

Since October 11, 2008 the Spa Cities

Moree, NSW, Australia Moree,_New_South_Wales (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

and

Jesenik, Czech Republic Jeseník (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

are Partner Cities.

The signed "Declaration of Moree" can be provided in English and in Czech as JPG files.

How can this arrangement be included as references in their opposite Websites? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.255.11.189 (talk) 12:04, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Anybody may add this information (to both articles) if there is a reliable published source for the information. "The declaration can be provided ... as JPG files" is not a verifiable source and is not adequate to support adding the information. --ColinFine (talk) 12:22, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

If the signed JPG files are available on the internet it would be verifiable. Ryan Vesey 12:28, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Approval workflow to get my new page approved?

Am trying to understand is there any workflow to get my new page approved, or it is automatically taken care.

1. I had created a Article about a Trust and its headhing shows as User:Zenpkvijai/Agam Charitable Trust. Please let me know what needs to be done to remove the 'User:Zenpkvijai/'

2. While I try to search with Key word 'Agam Charitable Trust', my page which is created is not listing. Please let me know if anything need to be done from my end.

3. I need to have a table on the top right side, with Logo and other core details. Please let me know how do i update.

URL: User:Zenpkvijai/Agam Charitable Trust — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zenpkvijai (talk • contribs) 12:52, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Your proposed article still needs a lot of work done to make it acceptable. Its worst problem is that it gives no third-party references to establish its subject's notability. Maproom (talk) 13:16, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

(e/c) You should follow the process at WP:AFC to submit your draft for review, there is no automatic process. At the moment however it is copyright violation from http://www.agamtrust.org/ and should be rewritten in your own words otherwise it will be deleted. If rewritten it will also need citations to third party reliable sources - the org's own website and Facebook pages are not reliable sources.--ukexpat (talk) 13:18, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Resubmitted articles

Roughly how long does it take resubmitted articles to be approved and checked - I appreciate this is a variable time but some idea would be helpful - as I am still working on my first contribution I wouldnt like to think I have done something that leaves it sat in limbo

Cocklecanoe (talk) 15:13, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Your draft article Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/The Donnington Collection is indeed in limbo, because you added some sources to it on 16 August but did not click the "click here" link in the second pink box at the top. But you may find that someone will see your post here and review the article. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:39, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

second pink box at top ?? sorry completely lost on that - cannot see a first pink box can you possibly offer any guidance? Cocklecanoe (talk) 09:04, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

It's the box at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/The Donnington Collection with heading "Submission declined on 7 August 2012 by Eclipsed (talk)."

Has my submission been accepted?

Several weeks ago I submitted an entry for ZPI Inc., a business in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. I was told that my submission was #603, but nothing since. Has it been accepted? Sghoffius — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sghoffius (talk • contribs) 15:34, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Where did you submit this entry, through Articles for creation? I can't find any proposed articles under that name, and AFC doesn't number submissions in the manner you describe. Are you sure you sent this to Wikipedia? Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 15:56, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

You created your account on 3 August and it has made only 2 edits: a test in the sandbox and the question above. If you submitted a draft article, it must have been under a different account name, or when you weren't logged in. Alternatively, you may have left the site without clicking on the "save page" button to save your edits. - Karenjc 17:29, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Questionage

About 2 months ago, I requested a SFTML back up check for my friend User:Valenciano, however by the time Wikicommons ruled this obsolete, we had to submit forms to Jimbo Wales regarding the renewal of various codeshare agreements within the Wikicommons/Wikipedia structure. So my question is: With these agreements between Wikicommons and various Admins/Users being null and void, to what extend does this apply to myself and my friend User:Valenciano? Many thanks! --Wordytttttrijiji (talk) 15:48, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Wordytttttrijiji appears today for the first time under this name. What is an SfTML back-up check, and why would Wordytttttrijiji be doing something on behalf of his friend, Valenciano who has been around for 7 years? Perhaps this is all clear to someone else here. Bielle (talk) 16:06, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure what Wordy is talking about either; I don't recall Jimbo ever receiving forms of any sort for anything, the only "codeshare agreements" I'm aware of are between airlines, and I've never heard of a SFTML. I'm wondering if this is in fact a legitimate question. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 16:25, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I've left a question on Valenciano's talk page. Bielle (talk) 16:39, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Actually, don't worry about this. My spidey sense was correct, according to the auto-unblock request on Wordy's talk page. Would a passing admin mind blocking him directly? I'm logged into the wrong account. Hersfold non-admin^(t/a/c) 17:36, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

 Done. I was working this from the pther end, as soon as I saw that unblock request it looked like autoblock was doing just what it was supposed to. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:01, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Purely for the record I've never heard of that user, much less befriended him! I'm a bit mystified by all this, but will put it down to Wikipedia being a weird and wonderful place. Valenciano (talk) 18:36, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciations

Hi, I am unable to hear pronunciations on wikipedia. I have made sure that my speakers are on and my volume is up, but when I try to press the pronunciation button nothing happens.Is there something I need to download to hear it? Thanks for your help, Natalie — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.81.66.252 (talk) 15:55, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia uses the OGG standard for its media. See Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg) for help installing the relevent software. --Jayron32 16:45, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

How do I get my biography posted?

Although I am not want to want to promote myself, I would like to know how to get a proper bio posted on your site - as are the bios of several of my industry peers. As I have never posted content on Wikipedia, please help me figure this one out. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anyckturgeon (talk • contribs) 16:23, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia contains encyclopaedia articles about many subjects, including some people who are judged notable enough to warrant an article about them. Our general notability guideline is here and our specific guideline about what makes a person notable is here. You would need to satisfy one or the other in order to be the subject of a Wikipedia article. Any article must be supported by references to information that has already been published in reliable sources; this is particularly important if the subject of the article is a living person. You should not write an article about yourself, because you have a conflict of interest. You can either wait until someone else writes an article about you (if you satisfy the notability criteria), or you can gather your information and references and post a request at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. - Karenjc 17:25, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

History updates

Sir, There seems to be no record of clan elders, kings in exile , famous personalties displaced during the Russian Revolution / Stalin invasions into Russian Turkmenistan i.e Georgia / Uzbekistan / Kargezia / Kazakstan - especially during 1925 to 1935. Migrations to British India, China need emphasis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.190.181.43 (talk) 17:37, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

You are invited to make the necessary additions. All of Wikipedia was written by people exactly like you, and if something is missing, there's no one more qualified to add it than you. --Jayron32 17:38, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Tiny interface

On Michelle Branch, the MediaWiki interface is showing up incredibly small for me. It doesn't do this in edit mode, and I can't find anything in the text doing it. What happened? - Purplewowies (talk) 18:10, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

All looks fine to me. What browser (and version) are you using? benzband (talk) 18:43, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Try to bypass your cache. And try Ctrl+0. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:02, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Huh. Just went to the page and it was fine. I use IE9. - Purplewowies (talk) 21:57, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Just a quick note

Hey there, just to say that the B2432-Z server has been repaired and corrected and I have submitted an input report to several admins and of course Jimmy Wales.

Thanks again. Keith --KeithMcEnnisLtd (talk) 19:45, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

This account was created 25 minutes ago and has been blocked for trolling. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:07, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

See WP:Help desk#Questionage five items up - same troll. JohnCD (talk) 20:10, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

This one, too? WP:Help desk#Application/дадатак --Robert Keiden (talk) 01:20, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Yes, and several more - see here. JohnCD (talk) 09:29, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Another??? User:鹿目圆 Text at the top isn't too suspicious. The list of "my favorite WP users" (none of which exist) is a little curious. Or my translator is broken. --Robert Keiden (talk) 04:05, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Editor statistics

If I want to find out which editor had the highest number of edits on a Wikipedia version (not necessarily English Wikipedia) during a certain period of time (e.g. "2008"), what's the easiest way to do it? /Tsentral (talk) 19:56, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Statistics has a ton of internal and external tools used to analyze Wikipedia editing statistics. I have no idea how many of these are applicable to other languages, or to English Wikipedia only, but that's probably the best place to start looking. --Jayron32 19:59, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I tried that first. /Tsentral (talk) 20:00, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Could be that the answer is somewhere on said page or on any of the sites it links to, but if so, I failed to find it. /Tsentral (talk) 20:01, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Does This page help? What about Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits for English Wikipedia? I also found http://stats.wikimedia.org/ which looks like it may be able to help you find what you want by specific project. --Jayron32 20:05, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much for trying. The first two lists are the total amount of edits since registering, rather than for a specific period of time. Of course, if the Wikipedia versions in question had something similar from the period of time I wanted to check, I suppose I could simply compare [date] of [year] and [date] of [year], but for most Wikipedias, that's unlikely to be the case. The one thing I've found for http://stats.wikimedia.org/ is this, but that's a total count, as well, and I see no way to specify any period of time. /Tsentral (talk) 20:24, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

One last place to check is at Wikipedia:Tools or Wikipedia:Toolserver. If that isn't fruitful, you may get better responses from the right sort of people if you ask your question at WP:VPT. --Jayron32 20:29, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

The best way to find this information out is to ask somebody to query the toolserver for you. Graham87 08:23, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. /Julle (talk) 09:15, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Wikicommons

Hey there, can someone refer me to a Wikicommons/Wikipedias technician? Thanks. --CroekBennet (talk) 20:21, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

You can likely find help at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). --Jayron32 20:24, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Printing

Can I print an article on my printer? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Patty1169 (talk • contribs) 22:30, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Yes. Just use your browser print function. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:48, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

codec for WMP windows 7

Hi......I have tried everything except you're knowledge to find a way to play media on Wikipedia. I have tried this page (which is not a link) Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg). Can you help or direct? thank you...jerry — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.200.91.111 (talk) 22:58, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

What is it you are not finding on Wikipedia:Media help (Ogg)?— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:48, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

Image conflict

On the page John Clark (actor), a BLP page, I changed my picture to a later one without a beard, which I took myself with my IPhone. It shows fine in Firefox. But in Safari (Lion OS) the old one still shows. But then it you click on the picture, the new one comes up. I don't feel qualified to fix it, because it could create new problems, but it looks like there was some kind of Bot interference, possibly vandal action, but doesn't happen in the Firefox browser. Would be most grateful if someone could fix it, and thanks in advance. Hope it's not my machine. Lion and the Cloud has been tricky. JohnClarknew (talk) 23:29, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

I see the new image in both Firefox and Safari. Try to bypass your cache in Safari. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:19, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Thanks PrimeHunter. Works fine now. I just installed Mountain Lion, while holding my breath! And your tip I'm going to bookmark. JohnClarknew (talk) 02:41, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

Egypt Map is Wrong !

I've just seen that the wikipedia page for "Egypt" shows a wrong map for Egypt. This is the page link Egypt This is the picture link File:Egypt Topography.png The red border line in the south east is incorrect. it should be a straight line instead of the curve. This part of land does not belong to Sudan. This link shows the correct boarder line for Egypt: 1) http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Story.aspx?sid=6 2) http://www.sis.gov.eg/newVR/map.pdf

The previous pages are from the Egyptian official government website. So how can I correct this map?

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.69.138.170 (talk) 23:53, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

The Hala'ib Triangle is claimed by both Egypt and Sudan (I suspect you knew this). The Egyptian government naturally shows the Egyptian claim but that doesn't mean Wikipedia should. Most sources I have seen show the same border as Wikipedia. We have a neutral point of view policy and prefer independent reliable sources. I see your IP address is Egyptian. Please don't try to "correct" Wikipedia to promote the views of your own country over others. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:14, 6 September 2012 (UTC)