Help desk
< January 10	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 12 >

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.

January 11

Image quality problem

I have used Wikipedia for a good while but have rarely worked with images. Today I uploaded an image and placed it in the article Nigel Payne. On the image upload page, the image looks exactly like it does on the source site, but in the linked article the image is too big and blurry. I can't figure out how to resize it and couldn't find anything in help. Help here? SmartGuy 03:18, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The problem lies in the Template:Infobox_Celebrity box. It's designed to display an image at 220px. That's larger than the source image so it gets pixelized when stretched. Can you find a higher res source image? Alternatively, you can copy the template's source code and change the value of 220 px. Mitaphane _talk 03:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Straight away I can't find a higher res image with clear copyright or fair use status. I'll try messing around with the template later, thanks. SmartGuy 03:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Editing section zero

I had modified my profile page, or whatever you call it, so that I had a tab at the top of articles to edit section zero. As of a couple days ago, this tab has dissappeared. Does anyone know why this is? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 03:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You could try the updated version at Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Add edit section 0. I assume you are talking about your User:Dismas/monobook.js, I did hear someone complaining about something breaking in their monobook.js a couple of days ago, something to do with a change in MediaWiki somewhere I suppose.--Commander Keane 04:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I meant monobook.js. I couldn't think of the word to save my life... Anyway, I'll try the updated version, thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 05:21, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What's wrong with my signature?

I get the "Invalid Raw Signature" error message, but it works properly in the sandbox...

This is the code. Can you please tell me what's wrong with it?

'''- [[User:Miriam The Bat|Miriam The Bat]] ([[User talk:Miriam The Bat|Talk]])'''

Edit: changed it slightly, still doesn't work.

Thank you. Miriam The Bat 04:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is text , not text . The actual tag code is the span part. The style is a parameter within the span tag; as such, when closing tags you always use the tag name, with no parameters. I have debugged your signature code, and it saves in my preferences with no errors. Here is the raw code:

[[User:Miriam The Bat|Miriam The Bat]] - [[User talk:Miriam The Bat|Talk]]

Which produces:

^{Miriam The Bat - Talk}

I hope this answers your question. If you have any additional questions feel free to inquire. Have a wonderful day, and happy editing. Kyra_~(talk) 04:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I ended up fixing it myself by changing it to a font tag (I don't know why I didn't think of it first) but now I understand where my mistake was. _{- Miriam The Bat} ^(Talk) 04:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest to you (and, well, everyone) to avoid using the font tag and use CSS in one way or another (the span tag will do) instead. BigNate37_(T) 19:11, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Report a user

How do I report a user for inspection by someone who may temporarily ban the user?--WhereAmI 06:39, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you are referring to a user who is vandalizing, and they have received the appropriate series of warning templates and have vandalized after the final warning, then you would go to Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism and add their name their using the template that is within the comments. So, for example, if user JohnDoe had vandalized after a final warning template, then you would put * {{vandal|JohnDoe}}, and then a short explanation of why you reported them. There are also separate noticeboards for WP:3RR violations, suspected sock puppets, and many more, so be sure to select the one that pertains to your issue. I hope this answers your question fully, and if you have any more questions, you are welcome to ask me or here if you wish. Have a great day, and happy editing. Kyra_~(talk) 07:02, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you find yourself reporting vandals a lot, you might want to know that you can use the shortcut WP:AIV for Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. --ais523 09:12, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

using LaTeX to create articles.

Hello.

I would like to write some articles for Wikipedia in my field of work, but I have a technical problem of mathematical symbols - I wouldn't like to learn you language of notation. I use Latex in my work. Can I give you a latex text to compile on the cite? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Yshtok (talk • contribs) 08:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

You're in luck. Our formula syntax uses a lot of LaTeX. See Help:Displaying a formula for help on how to format formulas. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Missing article on "Queen's Scout Award"... where did it go?

Searching for "QSA" or "Queen's Scout Award" used to bring up a page detailing the Queen's Scout Award, a Scouting award obtained in the UK and several Commonwealth countries similar to the Eagle Scout award in America.

However I can find no trace of the page anymore. Searching for "QSA" now links to a page called "Quaker Social Action" and searching for "Queen's Scout Award" fails.

Where did the "Queen's Scout Award" page go? Can somebody please bring it back?

Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.111.188.198 (talk) 11:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

It's still there: Queen's Scout. It's just that Wikipedia's search function is down at the moment. You could help the search function out by creating a redirect, but you would need to create a username in order to do that. --ais523 11:34, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Next time, use google, and type in "Queen's Scout Award Wikipedia". It's better at finding Wikipedia articles than we are, just that it's usually out of date. | AndonicO ^{Talk | Sign Here} 11:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"site:wiki.riteme.site Queen's Scout Award" should work even better. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 13:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found the problem. QSA used to be a redirect to Queen's Scout. Somebody threw in an extra link to Quaker Social Action instead of changing the page to a proper disambiguation page. Later someone thoughtlessly removed the original link. Try searching "QSA" now ;-).Circeus 17:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mdash in article names?

In the name of article War in Somalia (2006–present) is included an mdash -- that makes problems with printing or storing it locally in other Windows versions than plain US-english. Could one please correct that? --213.155.224.232 12:09, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've changed it to a hyphen, and corrected all the double redirects accordingly, per this request (you can't move pages, because you don't have a username). If anyone wants to change it back, I recommend they get an admin to mass-rollback my double-redir-fixes. --ais523 13:09, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Is there a problem with using m-dashes in article titles? I think just about all of the Canadian Parliamentary constituency articles have m-dashes in their titles. User:Zoe|(talk) 17:12, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is there an official WP policy on this? --213.155.224.232 19:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Found it: At WP:MOSDASH is mentioned: Hyphens and dashes are generally rather avoided in page names (e.g., year of birth and death are generally not used in a page name to disambiguate two people with the same name). (...)If hyphens and dashes are needed to write a page name correctly (e.g., Piano-Rag-Music, Jack-in-the-box, Nineteen Eighty-Four), prefer simple hyphens, and avoid hair spaces, even in the odd case of a range forming part of the title, e.g., History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991). --213.155.224.232 20:35, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good job finding it, yeah it is an Manual of Style thing. Arjun 20:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, we're going to have to do something about all of the articles at List of Canadian federal electoral districts. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:39, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

hi

What is the meaning of computer? What is the four basic components of computer?

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. You might also want to try reading computer. --ais523 12:24, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

This sounds a lot like a homework question. Try reading the article on computers and then come back if you don't understand something. I'm pretty sure you will find the four basic components in there. I'm not sure what you mean by "the meaning of computer". - Mgm|^(talk) 12:31, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You might get better luck by asking the question at the Computing Reference Desk itself. --JDitto 03:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Email obfuscation

I add a picture taken by a friend and I gave their email address without obfuscation it by writing dot for . and at for @. The page with the email address is here http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Image:RealityCheckpoint.jpg#Summary

I tried to change the email address but now its in the File History section.

Help! how do I get rid of it and save my friend from spam?

Thanks in advance. JP —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joosypigeon (talk • contribs) 13:31, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

The only way I can think of is to have the file deleted, then reupload it with a different summary. If you add {{db-author}} to the page, an admin will come along and delete it, and you can reupload the file. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 13:35, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've tagged it with a customized {{db}} to request its deletion and reuploading. --ais523 13:43, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Unexplained deletions of posts on discussion pages

Twice now posts have been deleted from discussion pages and the edit history shows that I did it. Neither time did I do anything that should have had this result, at least as far as I know. Is this a common bug in the Wikipedia program or am I making a common mistake? SmithBlue 14:21, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Most likely, you're going to the page via the history or a diff, and your timing's sufficiently unlucky that you open an old version of the page just after a new one's been saved. As this is the method used to revert an edit, the software removes the previous edit. You then add your comment and save, and apparently nothing is wrong (because reverts can't lead to an edit conflict). In order to stop this happening:

Use the 'edit this page' button or a section-edit link if you're editing a page, not the (edit) links on a diff, and
Check for a warning above the edit box that tells you you're reverting (it looks like this:

You are editing an old revision of this page. If you publish it, any changes made since then will be removed. You may wish to edit the current revision instead.

and will be quite obvious on many, but not all, browsers). --ais523 14:36, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Thanks - I'm lucky this is virtual or I think I'd eventually be lynched if I kept up doing things the old way. SmithBlue 14:51, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Quicky

I'm editing List of United Kingdom locations and some of it's children articles. I have split the Ha-Hh article into two articles, but I need to change the little banner at the top of all these related articles to reflect the new division. I do not know how to do this. --Acewolf359 16:59, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you edit a page with the banner on and scroll right to the bottom of the page (past the box of characters), you'll see a list of all the templates used on that page. You can click on one in the list and edit it from there, and it will change on all the articles that use it. --ais523 17:18, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

prefix

In the word preserve is pre- a prefix?65.70.71.125

No. It's a derivation of preserve as in to preserve something. For future reference, questions such as this belong in the Reference Desk: the Help Desk is about solving Wiki-related issues. Adrian M. H. 17:08, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WP:AN/I programming question

After reading through a post by user JzG,[1] I sudenly wondered; is there a flaw in the way we post at AN/I board? What would happen if someone create another account or posted annonymously purposelly impersonating an administrator? For example, let's take my friend JzG. If I user:CyclePat decided to start a new thread called User is Sockpuppeteering and needs block but impersonated my friend by signing at the end his name. I decided to test the theory by doing the first step and starting a new tread (On my user talk page).[2]

The rest of the comments on this subject can be found on my User talk page. --CyclePat 17:04, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Impersonation of an admin would have been a serious offence (if you hadn't gone to the trouble to make it clear what you were doing). The signature in itself doesn't cause anything to happen. If a user did maliciously impersonate someone on WP:AN/I, it's likely that someone would notice (because the user who actually made the edit is displayed in history and on watchlists), and the edit would be marked as having a fake signature (more or less like happened on your user talk page). --ais523 17:16, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Protection

How do I request protection for an article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Saintjimmy777 (talk • contribs) 17:20, 11 January 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Go to Wikipedia:Requests for page protection (WP:RFPP). --ais523 17:23, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Historic Photos in NA Kew - Copyright Experiences?

Historic Photographs in UN National Archive Kew. Relating to this page & discussion - please see:-

http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Talk:Cornwall_Railway_viaducts

This well-drafted artcle that is currentluy bare of illustrations, but I know there are exellent ones in the UK NA Kew. Do any editors have experience of using these? Are there likely to be great Copyright difficulties? They are likely to be more than 70 years old, and orginally possibly copyright of the GWR. Now curated by the NA, of course, who will have their own rules.

If there is a possibilty of using them, I am willing to do the legwork.

Goodbye, Dendrotek 17:23, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Harassment

An inappropriate comment was place in my talk page, most likely by an admin. It was unsigned, and said "Stop being a d***." How do I track down who did this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saintjimmy777 (talk • contribs)

Why do you think it was most likely an admin? Notinasnaid 17:28, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You click on the 'history' tab of your talk page, which lists all the editors who have been on that page. The 'diff' links let you see the individual edit. Strangely, you seem to have added the message yourself, probably by mistake, so you're probably safe in deleting it again. Hope that helps! --ais523 17:30, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Oh, sorry for that. My buddy knows my password to this account. He must've done it as a joke. Thanks for your help.

In that case, I'd recommend changing your password (via Special:Preferences). If more than one person knows a password to an account, it can lead to problems with copyright when it's not certain who made an edit. --ais523 17:39, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

Puerile behaviour reflects badly on you when it looks as if you were responsible, and is not appropriate on Wikipedia (or anywhere else, IMO), so you should certainly change your password and - in this instance - delete that comment. Adrian M. H. 17:43, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Page protection

How do I go about protecting a page from anonymous vandalism? In particular, this page: Tenderloin, San Francisco, California

An individual regularly attempts to sneak in a link to his commercial website (tenderloin.net). This person inserts the link and then makes other edits to hide his sneakiness. It's sort of a chore to clean up all the time, and I think locking this page for anonymous edits would be a good idea. Please help =)

You want to request semi-protection; the page for protection requests is Wikipedia:Requests for page protection (WP:RFPP). Hope that helps. --ais523 17:58, 11 January 2007 (U T C)

However, an article won't usually be protected because of only one link. Warn the user by posting {{test3}} or one of the other warning templates, and if it persists contact an admin to have the user temporarly blocked. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 18:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that it's not a user, per se ... just an IP address.

It's hard to get a semi-protection just to stop one user. If he persists, get him banned. Xiner (talk, email) 19:03, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, it was denied ... but thanks anyway =)

Tenderloin.net is NOT a commercial website. Open your eyes and try reading it before you speak.

Can't colonize a cat

In User:SebastianHelm/watchlist/lk, I have several links like [[‎:Category:War crimes in Sri Lanka]]. I would expect them to show up as normal links, but instead they show up only in the header, as if I had not put a colon in front. What's wrong? (See history for a couple things I tried in vain.) — Sebastian 18:42, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that's weird. Could it have anything to do with the fact that pages in user space act differently? CfD pages contain tons of such links without problems. Xiner (talk, email) 19:33, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found the problem: There were some hidden characters before the colons. The way I found it was: I copied the text in notepad, saved, and then it asked me if I wanted to ignore the Unicode characters. When I reopened the file, it showed question marks before the colons for most of the cats, and after the colon for the one cat that was displayed correctly. Not sure what these characters were, though. — Sebastian 21:04, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Two very different questions..

1) I am under the belief that a wikipedia article on a certain amateur song maker is an autobiography..it isnt written by one but the original creator of the article has the same name as the article. also one of the links is to myspace. anything i can add the article (i couldnt find a tag)?

2) Is there a way to be notified when an article is changed..like one that is often changed so i can see them easily..like an expanded watchlist (which i dont find too useful)

many thanks Fethroesforia 19:03, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uncontraversial articles that should be deleted can be tagged with {{prod|reason for deletion}}. Otherwise, you can bring it to WP:AFD. WilyD 19:09, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

{{Autobiography}} also exists as a maintenance template. If the biography has no assertion of notability at all (as autobiographies often do), {{db-bio}} may be used to tag it for deletion.

I don't really understand 2) - showing when an article has been changed is exactly what the watchlist does. Could you be more specific about what you want? --Sam Blanning^(talk) 19:11, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to see every change to some articles, rather than just the most recent, then you could make links to them on a page (possibly a user subpage) and use the 'related changes' function of that page. --Cherry blossom tree 19:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Editing

How do I add a superscript referencing a web page?

If you're asking about how to cite a source after a sentence, have a look at WP:FOOTNOTE. A variety of templates for citing different kinds of sources are also available at Template:Cite. Trebor 21:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The simple answer is to put your URLs in <ref>...</ref>, but yeah, to be more helpful to other editors, read those pages. Xiner (talk, email) 23:02, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nightmare

Hello. I have been working on an article called Portrayal of Women in Comic Books. After making an edit, I found something horrible. If you scroll down on the page, the font size gets smaller and smaller. I do not know how this happened. Your help is desparately needed!!! Maple Leaf 21:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Look for problems like this one

<blockquote>'''Odin:''' "Now rise God of Thunder. In thy heart of hearts, thou knowest godhood was not for one such as she." <ref>”A World Gone Mad”, Journey Into Mystery, Stan Lee, 1965 </blockquote> <ref>”To Become an Immortal”, Thor, p .12, Stan Lee, 1967 </ref>.
Two ref tags, /blockquote inside the reference. Notinasnaid 21:56, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Erm, isn't writing Women with a capital letter a WP:MOS violation? I think it should've been called Portrayal of women in Comic Books. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:19, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- So is writing Comic Books. Portrayal of women in comic books is where it should be at. And there it is! Zun aid ©® 09:20, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Signitures

How do I make one of those signitures that can link to my talk page and look diffrent than normal ones? Thanks--ASDFGHJKL 23:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Read this page, but you can always hit the "edit" button and copy the signature you like, then change the names from that person to yours. Xiner (talk, email) 23:13, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

(after confict):

Have a look at WP:SIG#Customizing_your_signature, basically you just use regular wiki markup like you do when editing, and paste it into the box at Special:Preferences :) — D e on555^talk_desk^{sign here!} 23:15, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Don't use images! Arjun 23:22, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As of - template or similar?

Is there a template or something to mark facts "as of (date)?"Ga rr ie 23:23, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't it be simpler to just state the date and not worry about the formatting problems associated with templates? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xiner (talk • contribs).

I understood (maybe wrongly!) that it's purpose was to help track down time-sensitive facts which may need to be re-confirmed periodically. Hey, if I knew what I was talking about I wouldn't be here!Ga rr ie 23:53, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Generally, that's only necessary for internet links used as sources. In which case, the reference link at the bottom would just have that info appended to the description. There's no special template for it. Take a look at the Wendy's References section for an example. -- Kesh 01:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I hope that's what I remember seeing... at least you seem to have confirmed, I haven't been doing anything wrong!Ga rr ie 01:54, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:As of. PrimeHunter 02:06, 14 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting history

Is there a way to delete my history? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.15.67.23 (talk • contribs).

Generally, admins do not do that. Xiner (talk, email) 23:29, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you are talking about the history of an article, this is vary rarely done. See Wikipedia:Oversight. Dar-Ape 23:33, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Admins however are generally happy if you are the author of a revision to delete just that specific revision. It's similar to oversight, except oversight hides the revision from everyone. Admin-delete-restore hides it from editors only (admins and above can still see it on demand) — D e on555^talk_desk^{sign here!} 23:38, 11 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]