Help desk
< January 27	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 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.

January 28

Need help deleting category

I don't know which template to use in order to delete Category:Volcanoes of South Dakota. As far as I know, there are none, and the category doesn't link to any.DandyDan2007 21:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Plain language?

Can you please tell me how to query Wikipedia or the Wiktionary so that I get a response in "plain language"? I've heard this is possible, and would be useful for English learners. Thanks, Michael Crowe—Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.25.217.36 (talk • contribs) 00:30, January 28, 2007

Well, first, what do you mean by "plain language?" Most Wikipedia articles are in standard English (though a few need editing), and Wiktionary is in the standard format you'd find in any English dictionary. There's no way to make a Wikipedia search give you a more simple version of the article, which might be easier on non-English speakers.

Best thing to do is post a request on the Talk page for the article, and ask someone to explain it better; or, request that someone translate the article to the language you want (such as French Wikipedia or German Wikipedia. -- Kesh 00:43, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you referring to the Simple English Wikipedia and the Simple English Wiktionary? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:48, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. First time I heard of that one. Learn something new every day! -- Kesh 01:08, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Are you referring to the plain wikitext that you should get when you edit articles? Yuser31415 (Editor review two!) 01:29, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tool for Education or American propaganda

Is Wikipedia a resource for education and carrying FACTS or a tool for American propaganda? I have edited out reticules claims by Americans in the Land speed record for railed vehicles and Empire State Express only to have arrogant Americans delete them and accuse me of pov can we have a neutral observer look at these sections Oxyman 02:20, 28 January 2007 (UTC) also I am accused of insulting Americans for putting correct facts Oxyman 02:32, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, but inserting commentary on how something isn't widely believed outside the US is biased. -Amark moo! 02:34, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree. Oxyman, your own edits are POV. Unless you can cite your claims, you're inserting anti-American POV into an article. -- Kesh 02:49, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In any case this Help Desk is not for content disputes. You should follow the steps outlined at Wikipedia:Dispute resolution when issues like this occur. — coelacan talk — 03:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

HELP...We need a fair article...1st World Countries

It seems as if Seong0980 is deleting everyone elses edits. He is adding only a long list of Asian countries as first world countries. Even European countries are not being named, yet he puts Tiawan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, etc. We only need a couple examples!!! Also, I suggested that Argentina and Mexico have high HDI's, that's all! Though they are closer to being 1st World countries than alot of others, I didn't specifically say that they were 1st Worlds...Please bring equality to this article. Each regions best should be mentioned at least. Please Help. Thank You Cali567 02:53, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You should both be following the steps at Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. — coelacan talk — 03:28, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help, anyone who can!!!! These people are making Wikipedia a Dictatorship! Cali567 03:56, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, Wikipedia is not a democracy either! ;) Still, I see you're dealing with a difficult edit war. The problem is, you're close to violating WP:3RR, which puts you in a bad position as well. Just work with folks on the article's Talk page to find a resolution. -- Kesh 04:08, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank You, I will. I just want a couple people to help in that article. As I'm not an economy major...I don't know all the facts. I'd like to invite others, so that there will be some equality in the countries listed and such. Again, I thank you for warning me. Cali567 04:37, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Article Titles

How do you change or modify the title of an article?

On the line of tabs at the top of an article, that includes "edit this page" and "history", there is a tab that says "move". This is the tool you use. Please follow the instructions at WP:MOVE and make sure that the new title adheres to our official policy on article naming, WP:NAME. If it does not, someone else will change it in the future. — coelacan talk — 03:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Simple Thing...How to Change a Letter in the Title to a Capital

I need to know how to change the title "Randy gill" to "Randy Gill" (replace the lower case g in Gill with an uppercase G).

Everything about editing or requesting help seems wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too complex for something this simple, so please foreward to me the simple answer...the 30 second answer so I can avoid spening an hour or more trying to interpret your complex and time consuming instructions.

Thank you.

Kristal Miller

Because your account isn't four days old yet, you can't do it. This is an anti-vandalism measure, that keeps ill-intentioned users from changing article titles to things they shouldn't be. I've made the change for you. In another 24 hours or so, you will see a "move" tab appear on the line with "edit this page" and "history". That is the tool I used. — coelacan talk — 03:18, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In the meantime, you can list it at Wikipedia:Requested moves If you are sure that a move won`t be disputed, you can put it under "uncontroversal moves" on that page and someone should move it soon.--24.20.69.240 04:20, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's true in the future if such issues arise for other users. I've already performed this particular move at this request, however. But thanks for bringing that up. I'll try to remember to tell others next time (we seem to get a lot of these requests here). — coelacan talk — 04:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I should have read more carefully before posting. :) 24.20.69.240 09:40, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I forgot to mention, when you make moves, please follow the instructions at WP:MOVE and make sure that the new title adheres to our official policy on article naming, WP:NAME. If it does not, someone else will change it in the future. — coelacan talk — 03:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

MoS capitalisation question ANSWERED

Should the word shakespearean, used at the bottom of Moshe Katsav in the quote, be capitalised? Anchoress 03:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unless there is a clear Wikipedia MoS policy to the contrary, defer to an external style guide. The Associated Press style guide, for instance, says "Capitalize words that are derived from a proper noun and still depend on it for their meaning"[1] and then gives the specific example of "Shakespearean". So, yes, capitalize it, unless you can find some part of our MoS that is clearly telling you not to (and I doubt this). — coelacan talk — 04:09, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Coelacan. Anchoress 04:37, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

=) You're welcome, Anchoress. I'm glad to have helped. — coelacan talk — 05:04, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Any way to bring back deleted article?

Hello!

Quite a while ago (before I knew what I was doing) I created an article without any sources. It was promptly deleted. Now, older and wiser, I have some sources and would like to try again. Is there any way to bring back this article, or shall I start from scratch?

Thanks in Advance! Russia Moore 07:01, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If it was deleted via prod, you can get any admin to do it immediately. Otherwise, you should probably use WP:DRV, explaining why the original deletion reason is now invalid (i.e. sources are now available). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can also opt for "userfication". That's where you ask an admin to copy the deleted page to your userspace where you can work on it to get it ready to put back into the article namespace. There's an extensive presentation on deletion at the Virtual Classroom. See the box in the next message on this page for the links to it. The Transhumanist

If you want a copy to work on, in your user space, see specifically Wikipedia:Deletion review#Content review. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 01:21, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How can I create a VandalBot?

How can i create a VandalBot? --125.236.134.110 09:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, no one is going to let you create and run a bot under an anonymous IP. You have to have a user account to do that.

Second, are you sure you want to create a bot? Or will an anti-vandalism program be sufficient for you? Wikipedia:VandalProof is sufficient for most anti-vandalism purposes. See the discussion on vandalism at the Virtual Classroom. Here's a template you can post on your user page or talk page to keep track of the "curriculum" there:

The Rambling Man is an adept vandalism fighter. Check out his comments in his lesson listed above. You might find the other topics there of use as well.

How to create a bot is covered at Wikipedia:Bots.

The Transhumanist 09:56, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Call me suspicious, but 'VandalBot' usually refers to bots doing the vandalising. The bots cleaning it up are 'antivandalbots'. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:15, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Seeking capable editors

I'm looking for editors to help complete the Glossary of philosophical isms.

The help needed is to fill in missing definitions. The method I've been using is to follow the link of each term, and cut and paste its definition from the lead section of its article. The next step is to edit it down (or even rewrite it) to be less wordy and easier to follow, and make a judgment as to the size of the entry based on the understanding it presents. For major and difficult terms, try to keep them down to six lines. Others down to 3 or 4.

If you're interested in philosophy, this is a great way to expose yourself to some new terms. And even if you're not, I could sure use your help. I hope to see you there...

Sincerely,

The Transhumanist

Meeses

Hi, For people interested in mouselessness, is it possible to make the Home Page so that on loading you can tab straight to the search box without having to reach for the mouse, or is there a good reason for having it the way it is? Douglas A D

Wikipedia:Keyboard_shortcuts and stuff. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 10:31, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's great. Douglas A D 10:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Location Maps

I was looking at the Location Maps used in infoboxes that are used to show the location of a town. Is there anything similar that can show multiple locations on one map? --jmb 11:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect those maps are custom made. You could also ask at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) or on the article talk page. Xiner (talk, email) 19:37, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Bot Set-Up

How do I set up a bot? - Patricknoddy 7:39am, January 28, 2006

See Wikipedia:Bots and the pages linked off of it. Dismas|^(talk) 14:15, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Searching for occurrences of a link

I have seen someone point out that you can search for occurrences of a link on the site and I was wondering how to do it. For example, if I wanted to search for all articles with http://news.bbc.co.uk in them or something? Cheers, Localzuk^(talk) 14:12, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Database_queries#Possibilities_for_asking_SQL - Mgm|^(talk) 14:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers, thats very useful! -Localzuk^(talk) 15:19, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I would think Special:Linksearch would be as good or better. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 01:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Color in an image

Is there a way to find out the web color code of the shade of green used in this image?--Rudjek 14:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's easy to examine an image to find out the RGB value used at a point in an image: any decent image editor should do that. But I'd be very wary of doing anything at all with that value. For instance, it would be wrong to say in an article "the flag uses a green of RGB xxyyzz", because this may be an arbitrary designer's choice among similar greens. Many flags use standards other than RGB and don't have a standard conversion to RGB. What do you want to do with the value in Wikipedia? Notinasnaid 14:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed this is the case. The image commentary says that the green is an approximation of Pantone 370C, and the article that "the exact shades have not been determined by either law or decree". Notinasnaid 14:48, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, I'm trying to find the right shade of green for the banners at User:Rudjek/Portal:Belarus (I'm redesigning Portal:Belarus). I also didn't understand a word of your advice, I'm not good with technical details :-( --Rudjek 14:50, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, different take. Download and install the free image editor Irfanview[2]. Then, in your web browser, right-click on the image you want to examine and select "copy" or "copy image" (depending on the type of browser you're using). Then start Irfanview and paste the copied image (using Edit -> Paste). Finally, point your mouse at the green area and hold down your left mouse button. In the window title bar, you'll see the colour codes you're looking for. Hope this helps. --Plek 15:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I'll try that.--Rudjek 15:53, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Let's try and simplify. Using this color for decoration or design is fine. But please don't say anywhere that "the color used in the flag is (whatever you find out)", because this isn't the official color. Notinasnaid 18:19, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Changing attribution for an edit

Hello, I have made a small entry but it does not appear in my contributions list. This is probably because I wasn't signed in when I made the change. Is there a way to update my contributions list to include my entry? Thank you. Rgrant1741 14:42, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid that's no longer possible, see Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit. You have to be logged in for a particular edit to be attributed to your account.--Rudjek 14:45, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another option is to revert the edit with your anon IP, putting "revert self to reattribute to username" in the edit summary, and then revert it again with your username account. If somebody else edits in the meantime, you'll have to go in and remove it manually under your anon IP, and then revert with your main account. The Transhumanist

Tip: the two most useful shortcuts

WP:START takes you to Wikipedia's master table of contents page.

WP:DIR takes you to Wikipedia's department directory page.

The Transhumanist

Where/What are the instructions for archiving this page?

I'm not familiar with the archiving format used for Wikipedia:Help desk. How is that done? The Transhumanist

The archives mention that they are maintained by a bot at User:RefDeskBot. Other than that, I know no more than you. Adrian M. H. 19:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Article ranking?

Hi

I was wondering if there is any way to find a ranking of the articles on wikipedia based on the frequency of other articles linking to them. (It would be more effecient to read articles based on the frequency that they are referenced than to read articles from the "random article" link for instance, because they would presumably have a higher "yield" in daily life).

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Yes there is. Click on "Special pages" on the sidebar to your left. You'll see it and some other useful ranking methods on the list.

The Transhumanist

What's going on here?

I was browsing the New User log and noticed some odd behavior. Some new users have as their talk page an allegation of vandalism. However, it's not a template I've ever seen, and it's asking the users to add something to their monobook.js under threat of banning.

What exactly is going on here?

Here's a link to an example: http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/User_talk:Drambarishpadhee

Here's the contrib log of the user who's doing it: http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Special:Contributions/KiWiWi

Note that the user doing it was created today. .V. _[_Talk|Email] 15:56, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's a trojan. I've notified admins. The next time you come across something like this, bring it to the attention of admins right away. You can do that at: Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism and WP:ANB. --The Transhumanist 17:13, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And thanks for taking the initiative to ask the question - you may have helped stop a lot of problems before they started. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 00:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia cheatsheet and other stuff

Hello,

I've had a look on the Wikipedia:Cheatsheet but it is very limited and doesnt have what im looking for. If there is one, where is the page that had al the advanced editing stuff like templates, and instructions for doing all the advanced stuff.

Templates have their own namespace. You can find the london infobox at Template:Infobox London (The naming of templates goes Template:name in the brackets). Be careful and use the "show preview" button when editing templates. There's a great deal of info on editing, so if this doesn't solve it for you you should ask more specifically about what you want. You could also try Wikipedia:Tutorial, help pages, Help:templates, or WP:ADOPT to get a mentor to ask specific questions to. (Let me know on user talk:delldot if you'd like me to adopt you or if you have further questions for me). delldot | talk 18:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Linked at the top of the cheatsheet is Help:Editing. That page has links to advanced info about every part of the wiki syntax. —Mitaphane _?|! 22:28, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Time userbox

Is there any way to like put the current time in a userbox? - Patricknoddy 1:12pm, January 28, 2007

You could play with Wp:magic#Time. Xiner (talk, email) 19:35, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a User Page.

Hello:

I am attempting to create a user page. I have registered and selected my preferences but, after spending about an hour following various and assorted links, I cannot figure out how to create the page. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Mark

You should be able to access it at User:Motish. If this doesn't directly bring you to an editing screen, you should be able to get to the editing screen by clicking on "Start the User:Motish page". Alternatively, you should be able to use this link to start your page. In the future, if you want to modify it, you should be able to get to this page by clicking on your username at the top of the screen (while you are logged in). To edit, click "Edit this page". Hope this helps.--GregRM 19:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PS...for more detailed information about user pages, you may want to read Wikipedia:User page if you haven't done so already.--GregRM 19:39, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I also just found this page:Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_Page_Help. Looks like it should provide some help if you need assistance in designing your user page.--GregRM 19:44, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My opinion: I would advise against doing it just yet, as you have no other contributions to your name. Some would argue that making a user page before doing anything else is doing things the wrong way round. Start by making useful edits, and then your user page can reflect what you are finding out about Wikipedia, what you have to say about the articles you have worked on, and how your specialist skills can help Wikipedia. (Your user page should only be about things relevant to Wikipedia). Also, the skills you build up in editing will make creating your user page a breeze. I hope this helps, Notinasnaid 11:46, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

hi

how can i join this university

Not a university. {{welcome}}. Xiner (talk, email) 19:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You may be thinking about Wikiversity. Kamope · talk · contributions 19:42, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

removal of poorly sourced contentious material about living persons

From [Wikipedia:Reliable_sources] under Biographies of living persons:

Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons should be removed immediately and should not be moved to the talk page.[1]

I recently removed some material because I felt it was poorly sourced and courteously placed it on the talk page not knowing about the above guideline. The matter has been hotly disputed since and has resulted in a RfC.

My question is: if this guideline is followed for poorly sourced contentious material, where and how is any discussion supposed to take place if not on the talk page? I think this guideline may be in need of updating in this case. -- grokking 19:58, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The material, if it is potentially libellous, should be absolutely nowhere, since in all cases Wikipedia is potentially liable. Probably the discussion should begin with a link to a diff, and thereafter be referred to obliquely. Notinasnaid 20:24, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Finding articles by author?

If I know the username of someone who contributes to Wikipedia, is there a search you can do to find all articles done by that user? Filajoe 21:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not that I'm aware of, but the next best solution is to look through their contributions for pages marked with a bold N. And hope that they don't have thousands of edits. Adrian M. H. 21:21, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

New pages are not marked by a bold N in the contributions page. I think User:Interiot can create lists of all articles started by a particular user on request. --Cherry blossom tree 23:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the user's page. Yours is User:Filajoe. His would be User:WhateverHisUserNameIs. Then, click on User Contributions in the toolbox on the left. --Kainaw ^(talk) 21:23, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Newpages is designed to list new pages by user. But it looks like it only pulls information going back to something like January 1, 2007. I have no idea why it has such a limited history; otherwise it could be much more useful. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 00:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I takes time, but the Toolserver Table of Contents linked on the bottom of my userpage contains a tool for this. - Mgm|^(talk) 00:33, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

symbols

what does the square or box next to the numbers describing temperatures as in your page about the north pole, mean?4.247.61.87 22:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any sort of boxes that you're referring to in the article north pole. Could it be that your web browser is not displaying the degree symbol (°) correctly? —Mitaphane _?|! 22:25, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox

Is there an infobox I can use for the following characters (all are characters of Magnum, P.I.): Thomas Magnum, Orville "Rick" Wright, Theodore “T.C.” Calvin and Jonathon Higgins? I was thinking of one that lists their name, image, height, occupaton and the seasons they were in, maybe including first and last appearances. ~Gatorgirl623~ 23:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Where would you get reliable sources for a character's height? - Mgm|^(talk) 00:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- The IMDb, since all characters are still living. But that's beside the point. Is there an infobox I could use? Or, would I need to create one? If so, how do I do that?~Gatorgirl623~ 03:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
- You'd probably copy another template and adjust its contents. IMDB relies on user input just as we do, so you'd have to ask yourself where others get the height to submit it to the site. It doesn't come into play here, but with young characters it's a changing value as they still grow. Makes getting a reliable value for it kinda hard. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  - I'm assuming you're talking about the height of the character in the series and not the height of the actor who plays the character? In that case if the height is not officially mentioned in any canon (fiction) source (the pseudo-equivalent of a reliable source for in-universe facts) and is NOT important to the plot-line of the series then leave it out. This type of detail usually qualifies as cruft. This goes for all details such as eye colour etc. Zun aid ©® 11:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    - If you only need this for a few pages, don't worry about making a template. Just add class="infobox" to table parameters, like this:

{| class="infobox" style="font-size: 90%; width: 20em;" (or whatever width you like)
| Character name || Joe Bloggs
| Actor || John Smith
Add other fields here in the same style
|}
See Formula BMW for an example of how this works. Adrian M. H. 17:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Edit

When you edit sometimes, will it stay there? Or will be gone? 65.34.163.120 23:40, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It will stay there unless someone reverts it. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 23:54, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

When your content is saved, you release it into the public domain - therefore anyone can edit your edit. However, if you can verify your content, then yes, it is very likely it will remain, although others might improve the wording, fix typos, and do other work on it. Cheers! Yuser31415 (Editor review two!) 00:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect: you release the edit under the GFDL, not Public Domain. —Dark•Shikari^[T] 02:46, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whoa don't read the help desk not logged in guys trust me. I only saw Dark Shikari's comment after I just logged in. Not being logged in made me over 6 hours behind on this page. I'm guessing it's to do with the way the Wikimedia's servers serve pages or something, maybe there are servers that only update so often and then there's the main one editors connect to. Am I on the right track here? (I know it's offtopic). --WikiSlasher 08:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. There's the Squid cache and the Apache servers, each handling different types of load. See m:Wikimedia servers for more info. Titoxd^(?!?) 04:03, 31 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]