Help desk
< July 27	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 29 >

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.

July 28[edit]

Size of my talk page[edit]

Where can I see what the size of my talk page (in bytes) currently is? --A guy saved by Jesus (talk) 04:34, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just click on the "View history" button, the size of each revision is shown just after the name of user making each edit. Rwessel (talk) 04:37, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@A guy saved by Jesus: A tool I like to use is Prosesize. Installing the script at User:A guy saved by Jesus/common.js will add a link to the 'Tools' list. Clicking the link on any page will show you the page size, word count, and other interesting stats. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 04:40, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting help? Anyone who knows about sports...[edit]

I'm making an article on a basketball tournament, and my table comes out like this:

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	Qualification
Cuba	5	5	0	449	209	+240		Championship Game
Dominican Republic	5	3	2	358	368	-10	+6	Championship Game
Mexico	5	3	2	297	273	24	+5	3rd place game
Puerto Rico	5	3	2	325	363	-38	-11	3rd place game
Bahamas	5	1	4	241	335	-94		Eliminated
Guatemala	5	0	5	246	368	-122		Eliminated

How do I change it so that the ends don't pop out like that? I've never experienced this specific problem. Thanks! Charlie the Pig (talk) 04:53, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Remove the extra cells from the second row of the rowspan cells: —Cryptic 05:15, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	Qualification
Cuba	5	5	0	449	209	+240		Championship Game
Dominican Republic	5	3	2	358	368	-10	+6	Championship Game
Mexico	5	3	2	297	273	24	+5	3rd place game
Puerto Rico	5	3	2	325	363	-38	-11	3rd place game
Bahamas	5	1	4	241	335	-94		Eliminated
Guatemala	5	0	5	246	368	-122		Eliminated

Thank you! Charlie the Pig (talk) 13:50, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

blocked from loging on[edit]

My request for help is about my attempting to login and/or register where I'm greeted with 'you've been blocked' or words to that effect. I would love to know why, hopefully with some specific incident that caused this.

I use Wikipedia daily if not more often and have been doing so for years. Although my style of communicating is very uncensored and I hold strong views, I can't recall ever forcing anyone to agree with my views.

I also can't recall a time when I have submitted an entry or correction of an existing one, without serious credible evidence. Frankly, I'm very surprised to encounter this 'block' and although I can use Wiki without 'logging in', I would love to repair any violations that might have been attributed to me.

I'm presuming my request will be considered by those without social, political or religious biases. I highly value Wikipedia and would love to retain my respect for it; please help! Thankyou, James Preston Thomas (siccarii)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:646:c101:2ae7:11ef:ef4b:327a:465e (talk) 05:39, 28 July 2015‎ (UTC)[reply]

As stated in red lettering at the bottom of that message:

If the block notice is unclear, or it does not appear to relate to your actions, please ask for assistance as described at Help:I have been blocked.

We can't tell why you were blocked either unless you at least tell us who was blocked. It's almost the first thing in the message, and appears like "Editing from [somewhere] has been blocked (disabled)..."; we need to know exactly what's shown in place of "[somewhere]". —Cryptic 06:15, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I guess from the end of your post that you are User:James Preston Thomas, User:siccarii and User:siccarii the source but none of those accounts have been blocked and they have a single edit between them so maybe it's about a fourth account. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:42, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Also you should understand that if you respond with your username here in this discussion, you will be indirectly revealing the IP address currently associated with your username (and all that goes with it, i.e., geographic location, Internet provider, etc.), since the IP appears above. Some folks are sensitive about such things, and there is otherwise no way for editors (other than selected admins called checkusers) to know this association. I wouldn't describe it as something to fret over, and it may be necessary to do to answer your question, but in the interest of full disclosure you should be aware of it. General Ization ^Talk 18:51, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Unaccredited institutions[edit]

I was just looking through the List of unaccredited institutions of higher education mentioned above, and see that many of those institutions have Wikipedia articles. Some of those articles mention, quite rightly, that the institution is unaccredited, but many (Adams College, American National University, Anglo-American University just among the As) do not; indeed they have articles that make them look quite impressive. Should all these places be flagged as unaccredited within the lead paragraph? Or does it not matter that much?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:25, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In my personal view, it does matter, a lot. They should definitely be flagged as unaccredited in the lead. People are being conned into paying money to fake universities, after reading their Wikipedia entries and forming the impression that they are accredited. Maproom (talk) 10:58, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

While I want to agree with Maproom, it is no part of Wikipedia's purpose either to expose anyone, or to warn anyone. If the information is reliably sourced, then it can be added, as an important fact about the institution - but be very careful to make sure that it is properly sourced. --ColinFine (talk) 16:09, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It looks like the ANU is properly accredited and I have removed it from the list. I might or might not get around to trawling through all the others.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:52, 29 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Mainspace editcount[edit]

How do I count my mainspace edits? Eat me, I'm a red bean (take a huge bite)^{i've made a huge mess} 10:52, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Eat me, I'm a red bean, you can use this counter. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 10:55, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wanted - an editor fluent in Chinese[edit]

To verify the sourcing of a draft currently pending review at AFC - Draft:Huang Jian (sculptor). Please post comments on the draft's talk page if you do not wish or know how to do a full AFC review. Thanks. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 12:02, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Can't help you myself, despite the username, but posting at WT:CHINA would probably net you a response more quickly than here. Yunshui ^雲 _水 12:53, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Dodger67: I am perfectly fluent, and I can assure that if you're asking about the quote it is quite directly translated. I am also a reviewer so perhaps I could help, but what were you planning to do originally? The Average Wikipedian (talk) 12:56, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

By "reviewer" I meant AFC reviewer, sorry for any confusion caused. The Average Wikipedian (talk) 12:57, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As for the sources, I may need some time to go through all of them. The Average Wikipedian (talk) 13:02, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've declined it because the some sources are not independent. The Average Wikipedian (talk) 13:26, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Search function does not work[edit]

Search function in wikipedia english does not work — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:1812:d30:b900:a419:e44e:8225:6dd3 (talk • contribs)

It works as expected for me. Please describe the perceived problem. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:17, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Got a suspected spamming message[edit]

Hi

I have recently been added some links to my DVD and Blu-ray releases of films listed on Wikipedia, and received a warning that it was suspected as spam.

The posts are genuine and were entered manually.

I own Panamint Cinema www.panamint.co.uk

Russell Cowe— Preceding unsigned comment added by Panamint Cinema (talk • contribs)

You are very clearly spamming Wikipedia with links to your site. Your username also violates Wikiepdia's username policy. I have blocked your account, since it's clear that your only interest here is in using Wikipedia to promote your business. Yunshui ^雲 _水 14:16, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Whoosh!--ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Removing my user page[edit]

Good afternoon,

It appeared to me that I was wrong creating my userpage when first registered on Spanish Wiki. I have recently realised that if I have a userpage on Meta, it is displayed everywhere. Is it possible to delete my userpage? If so, could you please tell me what to do for it.

Thank you in advance!

Takiq (talk) 16:44, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Takiq: Each Wikipedia language works separately and page deletion requires an administrator at the Spanish Wikipedia. It looks like you can request deletion by placing {{Destruir|U1}} on es:Usuario:Takiq. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:32, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter:: Thank you very much indeed for your help. I will do as you have told me.

Thank you! Takiq (talk) 17:46, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Apostrophe in italicized title[edit]

'47 (magazine) has an apostrophe at the beginning of the page title that isn't (visibly) being italicised by {{Italic title}}. Is there a known fix for this? Cheers —jameslucas (" " / +) 16:46, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You could always try this apostrophe instead: ′. If that's not enough slant, try this: ^׳ (made using wiki code ׳). (Either would requiring renaming the article, by moving it.) StuRat (talk) 16:59, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate the inventiveness, but I'm leery of replacing a piece of punctuation as fundamental as the apostrophe with either a prime or a geresh. As an American architect I know (to my eternal disdain) that there are many issues rendering prime characters and I can only imagine that support for Hebrew is as bad or worse. If the solution were to be a substitution, I think a right single quotation mark ’ would be the only one I'd feel even semi-okay with. Having said that, I think fixing the rendering without changing the character is the ideal. —jameslucas (" " / +) 17:11, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You are right that replacing the apostrophe would be bad. I have italicized it with DISPLAYTITLE.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 17:24, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks so much. Any idea if the lack of effect by {{Italic title}} on the apostrophe is a feature or a bug? —jameslucas (" " / +) 17:40, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Surely a bug/limitation caused by the italics syntax double '' fusing with the initial ' in the name to produce a triple ''' which has another meaning. I have posted to Template talk:Italic title#Doesn't italicize an initial apostrophe. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:23, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Edit flagged as promotional[edit]

Hi - I've made edits to the Dyn Wikipdea page Dyn (company). The page had been flagged as promotional. Removed all promotional lingo, cited with third-party references, etc. Now that these changes have been made, I'm wondering if the alert banner at the top can be removed.

Please let me know what I can do to remove. Thanks!— Preceding unsigned comment added by Choedl (talk • contribs)

For starters, you could avoid removing other's posts on this board. Ian.thomson (talk) 16:54, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Corrected link: Dyn (company). It still seems promotional in that it only lists positive things. Hasn't anything negative ever happened there ? (Layoffs, a lawsuit, a discontinued product, a bad review, a quarterly loss ?) StuRat (talk) 17:04, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have tagged it as POV, see my comments on the talk page. DES ^(talk) 17:19, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ian.thomson I apologize. I'm new to editing and didn't realize I removed your post. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Choedl (talk • contribs) 18:32, 29 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

how to get assistance in distributing results of 12 years research about what is wrong in american[edit]

I am a novice computer operator. I wish to talk, on secure phone. can you give me a number to call? Hugh Johnston — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.235.60.83 (talk • contribs) 13:18, 28 July 2015‎.

No we can't. Wikipedia does not have any office staff to answer phones, secure or otherwise. This board is answered by volunteers, and open postings here are the only way it works. Responses are not made by telephone or email, as a rule. Nor is Wikipedia a suitable medium for distributijg your views or research about "what is wrong in american" or about anything else, see WP:OR. DES ^(talk) 17:22, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

edit count[edit]

When I go to my user contributions and I select Edit Count I see that that my edits are broken down according to type of namespace. (Talk, User space, ect.) The top category, which should be mainspace, or Articles, or something like that, displays these foreign (perhaps Korean) symbols: 일반 문서. What's wrong? -- Naytz (talk) 20:20, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There are replies at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 138#edit count language where you also posted. Please only post in one place. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:43, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Offensive and false statements about his wife on Phil_Spencer_(Microsoft) English Article[edit]

Link here: Phil Spencer (Microsoft)

Spencer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife < obscenity removed > and two daughters.[1]

The Bolded part should be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.91.28.111 (talk • contribs) 20:29, 28 July 2015

Thanks for reporting this; I've removed the vandalism. However, you could have fixed this yourself. Wikipedia is "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit"; just press the "edit" button on a page and you can change its contents. — Bilorv_(talk)^(c)(e) 20:32, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In the case of vandalism it's often better to examine the page history and revert the vandal like Bilorv actually did. Many vandals (not this one) also remove valid content or vandalize multiple parts of the article. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:50, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just as an FYI, the page should probably moved to a title with a more general disambiguator - usually disambiguators are as general as possible so that if, in this case, he goes to work for another company, pages don't have to be moved again.--ukexpat (talk) 13:22, 29 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Now moved to Phil Spencer (business executive).--ukexpat (talk) 17:26, 29 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Editing a page through someone else[edit]

Hi- I'm looking to contact someone who is responsible for editing a page. Is there a way to do this? I do not want to edit the page myself, I would like this other party to make the edits. Is this possible? 64.73.59.192 (talk) 20:50, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Here on Wikipedia, no one is "responsible" for editing a page. We are all volunteers, and any page may or may not be "adopted" by any editor as a project. If the article you are asking about has been or will be so adopted, you can communicate with those editors and/or make a suggestion for improving the article using the article's Talk page. General Ization ^Talk 20:57, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) It is easy to contact another user. For example, if you wanted to contact me, you could leave a message on my talk page. If you wanted to leave a message on Xyzpqr's talk page, you could click on that blue link to my talk page and then replace the "Maproom" by "Xyzpqr" to get to his. But it is not clear to me whether you have a particular user in mind, or just "whoever is responsible" for editing some page. That's not how Wikipedia works: anyone can edit (almost) any page, and people aren't responsible for pages. If you have a suggestion for editing an article, and you don't mind who does the edit, you should leave a message on the article's talk page, there's a "Talk" link right at the top of every article. Maproom (talk) 21:04, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a wiki page for my company[edit]

I am trying to create a new Wiki page for my consulting firm and cant see how to do so. Please tell me how

You shouldn't write an article because you have a fundamental conflict of interest in doing so. Wikipedia is not a place for promotion. In any event, if the consulting firm has not been the subject of detailed publication in reliable, secondary sources, entirely independent of the consulting firm, then Wikipedia cannot have an article on it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:44, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Along with the items that Fuhghettaboutit has mentioned you need to see the policies and guidelines mentioned here WP:ORG. MarnetteD|Talk 23:16, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Article "El Toro High School" Incomplete[edit]

Hello! I do not have a Wikipedia account, but I like to spend time browsing through Wikipedia pages to learn about various topics. I noticed that the page on El Toro High School is missing a few details. First of all, the "Extracurricular Activites" section makes no mention of the regular, chamber, or symphony orchestras. It also makes no mention of the Early College Program (ECP) between ETHS and Irvine Valley College. Finally, the "Awards" section mentions 15 National Merit Finalists but does not indicate that there is a 2015 National Merit Scholar (I don't know if this distinction is important enough to include). I would like to make these changes, or maybe someone else (a registered user) could make these changes. Thank You!— Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.25.3.74 (talk) 23:08, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@75.25.3.74: Hello! You don't need an account to edit (almost all) articles. You can edit the article and include the missing information. But, you should be aware of the Wikipedia's policy on WP:VERIFIABILITY. Every statement added to an article must be supported by a reliable independent source. So, if you want to improve the article, you should first try to find some reliable independent sources (see here to learn what are reliable sources: WP:RELIABLE). Or, you can request a specific edit and provide sources at article's talk page (Talk:El Toro High School) and wait for somebody else to make the edit. Vanjagenije (talk) 23:17, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

75.25, as said above you don't need a Wikipedia account to make any of these changes. However an account can be very helpful. It gives you a consistent talk page, lets you have a watchlist to monitor pages you are interested in, protects your IP address from public view, and helps people to recall you from one encounter to another. It is also free, and there are other benefits.

Vanjagenije, pings don't work when the recipient is not logged in. See ~~WP:Notification~~ Wikipedia:Notifications. DES ^(talk) 23:23, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@DESiegel: Oh, thanks for pointing that! I've never thought about that. Vanjagenije (talk) 23:25, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There's no such thing as a "complete" article on Wikipedia. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 23:27, 28 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]