Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 June 4

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< June 3 << May | June | Jul >> June 5 >
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.


June 4[edit]

Getting A Message On The Watchlist[edit]

Hello, I was just wondering on how I can submit a request for a message to appear on everyone's watchlist. Does anyone know?--Dom497 (talk) 00:54, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I can't imagine anyone who has that capability (admin level or above; might need to be a developer) actually agreeing to this, because I can't imagine anything that you want to push to lots of people that is so unique that anyone would agree to this. If, for example, you're hoping to recruit editors for a particular purpose, please note that there are dozens and dozens of general WikiProjects that would want to do similar recruiting, not to mention editors concerned with various backlogs, editors working on specific types of errors, etc., etc.
And, to answer your question directly, I believe that there is no way to submit such a request, because - as far as I know - nothing other than administrative messages (and fundraising appeals) are 'ever pushed out widely to editors, and that's not likely to change. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 03:45, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The page you need is Wikipedia:Watchlist notices, but you'll need to show significant support for displaying whatever notice you have in mind. Notices and requests are also displayed at the Wikipedia:Community portal. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:14, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

sending a notifications to thank someone for their edit[edit]

Is there a way to disable this idiotic and incredibly badly placed function (sending a notifications to thank someone for their edit)? I must have hit it accidentally 5 times in the last day or so when I meant to UNDO a bad edit by an spa, troll or vandal. I mean, seriously, why put those two functions next to each other? Heiro 01:00, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a link I found from a similar question. Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks#How_to_turn_off_this_feature. RudolfRed (talk) 01:32, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank YouHeiro 03:32, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I just found it annoying but iut never occurred to me I could click on it accidentally.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:27, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I need help with my signature[edit]

Can someone help me make my signature a little more interesting? I basically want to make the letters different shades so that the word "CarringtonEnglish" looks slightly lighter and lighter blue as you go through each letter, but I am not advanced enough to make this on my own. Any help would really be appreciated. CarringtonEnglish T C 01:26, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:EIW#Sign. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 03:48, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Perfecto :p CarringtonEnglishTalk 04:22, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

searching Mormon church in Dubai[edit]

Hi everyone have good day This is prem originally from Nepal. Nowadays I am working in Dubai. My traditional religion is Hindu. so I like Mormon that's way I am searching people for guide me Mormon organization.

warm regards prem — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.49.88.66 (talk) 05:58, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia doesn't seem to have any material related to Mormanism in Dubai, but this news story and this blog may be helpful for you. This map here seems to indicate that there are no official Mormon temples in Dubai itself, but if you are interested in Mormonism in general, the main website of the LDS Church is at http://mormon.org, and if you contact the people at that website, I am fairly confident you can get more direct help with your question. --Jayron32 06:04, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Muhammad Ghori.[edit]

Muhammad Ghori's invasion changed the course of 'Indian History' . do you agree with the statement ? if yes give reasons to support my answer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.178.129.203 (talk) 10:00, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please do your own homework.
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here not to do others' homework, but merely to aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:12, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Quality scale.[edit]

I would like to know who rates Wikipedia articles on the Quality scale, please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.49.203.239 (talk) 10:47, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Initially, members of Wikiprojects; see WP:Quality. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:51, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
With the exception of the "Good" and "Featured" assessments, any editor is welcome to help out with Wikipedia's quality assessment process, by putting an initial rating or updating a rating on any articles. (There are some WikiProjects - Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history is perhaps the best example - who prefer that only their own members handle ratings beyond "stub" and "start", but I suspect this is well beyond what your question was about, unless you're a registered editor who forgot to sign in.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 14:35, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How to create a new page that will contain My company Services & Information???[edit]

Dear Wiki,

Kindly provide me the guideline & steps to create a company page. What are the parameters of Creating a company page?? How can I publish the same in Wikipedia??

Is there any restrictions??

What are the rules of SEO here??

Is the same can be edited by others too??

Please advise...

Manish... — Preceding unsigned comment added by ‎ Manishsinghon (talkcontribs) 12:54, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia isn't a business directory. There are no "company pages" - there are some articles about companies, written from a neutral perspective by (as far as possible) independent editors with no conflict of interest. If your company meets Wikipedia's inclusion requirements then someone will write an article about it sooner or later - that someone should not be you. You can make a request for an article to be create here. Yunshui  12:58, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
And to add to what Yunshui said and answer some of your other questions: there are no rules of SEO here: Wikipedia does not care in the slightest about SEO; and with very few exceptions all articles may be edited by anybody. That is why it is called the Free Encyclopaedia. --ColinFine (talk) 14:36, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Most edits that are intended for SEO will be removed as they constitute promotion and/or vandalism (in the latter case I'm thinking of things like hidden text). --Orange Mike | Talk 14:52, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

images flagged by bot[edit]

Within the last week, several of my images have been flagged by a bot with "Flagging file as potentially eligible for transfer to Commons." Do I need to do something? Kmzundel (talk) 14:01, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, you don't. But you might consider putting pictures that you upload in the future directly on Commons, and save the bot some work. Commons is the preferred place for media, because then they are available to other-language Wikipedia projects. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 14:40, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. I think the most recent image that I uploaded was uploaded to Commons. I didn't know to do that on ones that I uploaded previously, but now I do.  :-) Kmzundel (talk) 15:16, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

KOT and BOT[edit]

dear sir, please import claera about hotel control system KOT ( kitchen order ticket) and BOT (bar order ticket with format. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.212.91 (talk) 14:18, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are asking something about details of a particular software system (EzeeFrontDesk). Wikipedia does not have an article on that system at present. If the system is notable - that is, it has been written about in reliable places like newspapers and magazines - then Wikipedia could have an article on it, if somebody wanted to write one; but even then it is unlikely that the article would contain technical details about features of the system. Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 14:45, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Unblock[edit]

I have changed my username to my real name, please can I be unblocked? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gordon61 (talkcontribs) 15:12, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your account Gordon61 is not blocked and has not been blocked previously. It does not need unblocking. - David Biddulph (talk) 15:19, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
And you haven't changed the username of Gordon61. You have created a new account an hour ago. Maybe you have another account which has been blocked but you haven't told us a username so we cannot see it. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:13, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How do you edit the title of a page?[edit]

Our brand has a page on Wikipedia & we'd like to edit it. Any insight? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rstuppy (talkcontribs) 15:52, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The title of a page can be altered by moving the article to a new name (see WP:MOVE for more info). However, if you're attempting to edit an article about yourself I suggest you read our conflict of interest guidelines. While not forbidden, it is discouraged. — Richard BB 15:56, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Edit count?[edit]

Where has the link to my edit count gone from the bottom of the user contributions page? It was there recently, now gone. Anyone know? Thanks Jenova20 (email) 16:18, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know; I see it in the bar at the bottom of Special:Contributions/Jenova20. You could try a Ctrl-F5 to bypass your browser cache, maybe. But here is a direct link to your edit count page if you need it. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:54, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It is broken and has been removed. A new version is in the works. --  Gadget850 talk 19:20, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the replies Jenova20 (email) 21:12, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot the name of an article[edit]

I am searching for an article, but I don't remember the name of it. I only remember 2 words that were in the article: tiger and lion. There was also an image on it. I have described the image lots of times, but just let me know if I'm allowed to describe it again. Any way, how can I find this article?--Peta8 (talk) 17:07, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried the search facility? [1] AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:10, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If you are still looking for the same article that you asked about in February, then this search might be better - articles containing the words "lion" and "tiger", with the words "list" and "characters" in the name of the article. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:16, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Undo redirect page[edit]

Right now, Keel laying redirects to a section of the Keel page. I want to create an article on Keel laying that uses the appropriate material from Keel, as well as some new material. The new article will be much more useful than the existing redirect. I know how to create a new article, but I don't know how to deal with the existing redirect. Who can help? Lou Sander (talk) 18:49, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can go here: [2] to land on the redirect page without getting redirected. Then, just edit it like any other page. Remove the redirect code and add in the material for the article. RudolfRed (talk) 19:10, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
More generally, you can get to a redirect page this way: in the Wikipedia search box, put the name of the redirect page (let's say "A"). When you run the search, you'll end up at "B" (because of the redirect). Just under the title for article B will be the words " (Redirected from 'A'.)" The word "A" will be a link. When you click on that link, you'll be on the redirect page, and able to edit it. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:17, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Download a page in ODT format[edit]

Hi, folks! The right bar in Wikipedia lets users to download a page in PDF ("Download as PDF") or HTML ("Printable version"). How can I download it as ODT? Or to be more precise, can you change the system to a single button called "Download / print", so users can choose the file type? Thanks! --NaBUru38 (talk) 19:02, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I somehow fail to see the usecase for this proposal. Why would somebody want a wikipage in ODT format? And can't applications like LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org import the HTML of the printable version anyway? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 19:51, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
While Wikipedia could, in theory, add yet support for yet another format, there would need to be demonstrated demand for that feature - the programmers here have enough on their plate without being asked to implement things that only a very few users want.
In this case, there seem to be plenty of pdf to odt converters out there (I did a Google search on "pdf to odt") to accomplish want you want, albeit with some extra steps.-- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:07, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How to I caption a picture[edit]

How do I caption a picture to list everyone who appears in the picture? 108.0.244.168 (talk) 19:45, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Adding the parameter |alt=put the names here to the end of the [[File:Photo...]] will solve this. jcc (tea and biscuits) 20:05, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
AFAIK the text one places after |alt= is invisible in displayed images to sighted readers (though it may be displayed when images are switched off or non-working), and is generally for the use of screen readers by the visual impaired. See WP:ALT.

The typical method for adding a caption under the picture is to use the wikimarkup for a thumbnail and include a caption, in a form like:

[[File:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text]]

You might identify the people in the photo's caption with words indicating location therein, e.g., "...George Harrison (right) ... John Lennon (middle) ... Ringo Starr (left)..." For an image with many people, barring making a truly bloated caption, I don't know of any solution, unless you can talk about the people in the image in the prose of the article.

Just a sidenote but there is a great tool at the Wikimedia:Commons (where free images should be uploaded; images hosted there can be used here natively) for annotating images, which would be one good solution to naming everyone who appears in a picture, where there are many, but it has not been enabled for display at Wikipedia. See Commons:Help:Gadget-ImageAnnotator.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:51, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Where is Paul?— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:04, 7 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

CSS hover states[edit]

Hi, I'm working on the article Chloroplast, and am trying to add some interactive elements like clickable gene maps, etc. I want to know how to specify a hover state in wikimarkup CSS, so that when a user hovers over a molecule or something in a diagram, it will display some hover indication, and be a link to the article about that molecule. I already know how to stack images and make links (in fact, I think it's very possible to do this without the hover states), I'm just asking specifically how to specify a hover state, because I find image maps very hard for users because you never know where what you click on will take you.—Kelvinsong (talk) 20:03, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You should never restrict content to users based on their CSS support. In cases of text that might be seen as extraneous to the point of impacting navigation negatively, you could use something like {{Hidden}}. In this case, though, I suggest you just add the information normally without obstructing it in any way. Scarce2 (talk) 20:06, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think you understand what I mean. Here's an example without the hover states. When you hover over a molecule, and click on it, it will take you to the molecule's article. What I want to do is make it so the images of the molecules change opacity or something whenever a user is hovering over it, so people know what they're clicking on.
Also, I'm not sure by what you mean by "normally or "obstructive".—Kelvinsong (talk) 21:23, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Edit count is not showing deleted edits[edit]

I see that the user edit-count tool has moved from Toolserver to something called tools.wmflabs.org, and is now at http://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/pcount/index.php. That is fine, but it is now showing every editor's count of deleted edits as zero, even for editors with thousands of deleted edits. Does anyone know why? Does anyone know if anything is being done about it? Does anyone know who to contact about it? JamesBWatson (talk) 20:07, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The footer on that page links to User:X!, and it appears they are the person responsible for the tool. Scarce2 (talk) 20:09, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think cyberpower678 is working the migration of the tools. GB fan 20:15, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
See WP:VPT#Toolserver issues. The "deleted edits" issue is mentioned about two pages down that thread. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:21, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Image hovering to reveal the secrets[edit]

How do i add parts to an image (a map in this case) so that hovering the mouse over certain highlighted parts shows text or another image? I assume this is done via wikipedia and not a photoshop feature (although i may be wrong). Thanks Jenova20 (email) 21:16, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:EIW#ImageMap. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:00, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Info box question[edit]

Another editor designed this box and I've added to it. Thing is, it stays to the left and we need it to go to the right. Can you take a look and tell me where I'm off? [3]. Thanks. Malke 2010 (talk) 22:24, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Like [4] with "float: right"? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:59, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that's it then. Thanks. Malke 2010 (talk) 23:10, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

New account question[edit]

Hello,

I would like to edit the information on Wikipedia for myself. How do I do this? Regards John Blain

You can edit at any time. I just welcomed you to Wikipedia here: [5]. That is your IP address. Read the instructions for editing/account setting. Malke 2010 (talk) 22:40, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Read this page for info on account creation: [6] Malke 2010 (talk) 22:42, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If you are referring to editing either of the articles listed at John Blain, please don't - we strongly discourage people from editing articles about themselves. Please use the article's talk page to suggested changes and provide reliable sources in support.--ukexpat (talk) 14:59, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page?[edit]

If someone doesn't have a talk page is it okay to comment on his user page? Charlie the Pig (talk) 22:51, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No. You can create the talk page by clicking a red link to it, write something and save. You can also use the "New section" link to create the page. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:55, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Category:2007 films[edit]

There's something wrong with Category:2007 films. The list of years in the box jumps from 2012 to 2017.76.14.86.123 (talk) 23:07, 4 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Category:2007 films uses {{Filmyr}}. It's deliberate it shows five years to each side and then jumps to 10 years. There is a bullet to indicate a difference when it makes the jump. I guess it's a compromise between making a limited number of links and making it possible to quickly jump decades by clicking through multiple categories. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:38, 5 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]