Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 February 2

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February 2

Renaming Users

How long does it take for a 'crat to rename users here? There are some outstanding requests. That is including mine. Thanks! Swirlboy39 (talk) 00:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Please be patient; it should be acted upon soon.   jj137 (talk) 00:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wait patiently and you will get it one day! Ftbhrygvn (talk) 11:44, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Why don’t administrators just rename users with inappropriate usernames to a collection of random numbers and letters and autoblock the ip address of the person behind it rather than just blocking the usernames and leaving them unchanged?--Fang 23 (talk) 01:57, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

While I'm not an administrator. From what I can see due to the use of dynamic and shared IP addresses autoblocking of users, and the fact that normal admins are FORBIDDEN to see what IP addresses are used by what users (only Checkusers can. Feel free to correct this if there are any mistakes. Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 05:01, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

What is Wikistalking?

If I'm aware of a user who's making a lot of spelling and usage errors, as well as inserting subtle POV language into articles, is it "wikistalking" to run down his contributions page and correct those problems? Is it better to just let the errors stand? --Hyperbole (talk) 01:01, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The spelling and usage errors are easy to fix and doing so would not be wikistalking at all. You may want to get a second opinion on any possible non-neutral point of view language to make sure it is not a difference of personal opinion. As long as you remain civil and assume good faith with the user and his/her edits, then any improvements would be great! Hope this helps! --omtay38 01:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Harassment#Wikistalking. As I understand it, if your intent in following the other user around is to annoy the other user, then it's wikistalking and is a very bad thing; but if your intent is to correct the user's errors, then it's a normal Wikipedia editing process and it's OK to use the user's contributions history that way. It's helpful to correct spelling errors. It's probably advisable to be extra careful not to annoy the other user, so that your intentions are not misunderstood. You might want to post a (carefully diplomatic) friendly message to the other user explaining what you're doing. --Coppertwig (talk) 02:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I understand the need to protect the hypersensitive and so on, but a poor speller has a problem that may cause him or her to lose respect and potential income in real life. In various books on technical writing, I've seen claims that people who write poorly have a difficult time getting promoted in their careers (this certainly seems intuitive - communication skill is fundamental to functioning in an organization, and even more critical to leading others). If everyone is afraid to tell the person with a problem that he or she has a problem, how is that person going to improve? On Wikipedia, a poor speller wastes the time of other users, by injecting errors that others must clean up, and by lowering the quality and thus the credibility of Wikipedia articles that contain uncorrected misspellings. I think Wikipedia works best when every user takes responsibility for the quality of his or her own work, and tries not to waste the time of others. That does not mean everything we do needs to be perfect, but we should thank others for pointing out our mistakes and giving us an opportunity to improve. Wikipedia has 48,344,229 registered users, so we can probably do just fine without the few who spell poorly and are content to stay that way. Wikipedia is hardly the place for shrinking violets anyway; all of our work is subject to "merciless editing" by others, and we must all continuously learn from other users who have more skill in various areas. --Teratornis (talk) 17:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Creating special characters within page title

I'm trying to create a page for an album that has "->" in the title... when I insert a link to start off, [[ladida -> hello]] doesn't work... how can I code it so that the eventual page title is "ladida -> hello"?

Thx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.106.82.156 (talk) 01:03, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

A page title cannot contain # < > [ ] | { } in it's title per the naming technical restrictions. However, it is also impossible to create a page without first creating an account. Hope this helps! --omtay38 01:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Deleted page

Resolved.

Hi, one of my pages was deleted, Cyrus Belt, and I contacted Lectonar to consider restoring it, and I told him that I would like to discuss it with him. He has not replied since, and I am dissatisfied with his delay. He edited in the time between the time I talked to him and now, and I am getting the impression that he is ignoring me. What should I do? Am I able to post on the deletion review page anyway? This is the third time I've tried to contact him, but nothing has happened yet. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, I think that he hasn't been on since. However, I'll still try to contact him. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

If we are talking about this page then please do not bother Lectonar. The article went through the Articles for Deletion process and the consensus was that the page should be removed. The place to go at this point is WP:Why was my article deleted. —Noah 04:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

But when I recreated it, I fixed all of the problems with it. I added a notability aspect, and it sounded less news-y. I read the page already, and I feel as if nobody's taking me seriously. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 04:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

And in Hawaii right now, this is getting a lot of coverage on the news. I understand that the 23 month old baby's not a rocket scientist, doesn't have three gold records or even completed high school for that matter, but it is notable in the sense that the government of Hawaii will pass a law regarding domestic violence because of the death of Cyrus Belt (and the death of Janel Tupuola). Thus, he does have some notability now, doesn't he? — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:02, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You should probably re-read the arguments in the Article for Deletion discussion. Making it less newsy does not address the points people brought up there. One thing you might try is to create a user sub-page and work on the article there. Then go to the editor assistance page and ask some experienced folk to take a look at it. —Noah 05:06, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The only other apparent argument made there that I can see is that he's not notable, but I took care of that in the article that he deleted. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Alright then. At the very very least, can you give me the code for the page and let me work on it in one of my subpages first? I read about that on here, that I could ask an administrator to receive the code for me. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:11, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Odds are very high that within a few hours an admin will wander by here and help out. Be sure that when you have someone review the article that you point out the previous arguments so that they are aware of the history. Good luck. —Noah 05:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you so much for helping out! — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 05:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(unindent)Cuyler91093, do you still need the info from this article? If so, I could create a subpage for you from your user page and paste it there. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 05:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC) Thank you. I saw it, and I'd like to thank all of you guys for being more supportive. — Cuyler91093 - Соитяівцтіоиѕ 07:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Created material - how does it get posted (subject: Pickering Ribfest)

Not used this resource before, so created material and now I'm wondering how it gets promoted into production like the Burlington Ribfest material?

Thanks ... June —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbug morrison (talk • contribs) 05:39, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Noah Salzman (talk • contribs) 06:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

June, first go to Help:Starting a new page - there's a box on that page where you can enter Pickering Ribfest and, as it says, click "Go". However, a couple of points: 1. I see you're a new user you might not yet have the rights to create a new page yet - your account has to be at least four days old before you can create pages (this is to discourage vandals etc. creating all junk). 2. Noah above perhaps has a point - the subject of your article has to be notable, so there's a danger your work could end up being deleted. (I have no idea whether the Pickering Ribfest is notable enough so can't help on that point). I think you should just go ahead and try, and see what happens. Cheers, --86.149.54.19 (talk) 10:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

New accounts can create pages right away. They must be 4 days old to move pages and edit semi-protected pages. User:Jbug morrison would be unsuited as an article. It reads like an advertisement written by the organizers and it doesn't demonstrate notability of the subject. See Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. I guess the Burlington Ribfest material you refer to is Canada's Largest Ribfest. That article currently only has references from the subject's own website and isn't a good goal for a new article although it's much better than User:Jbug morrison. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

problems scrolling utilyzing the touch-pad

on my new laptop touch pad i seem to have disenabled the scoller on the touch pad and cant seem to figure out how to re-enable it.. some help would be much appreciated! thanks email me at [ email removed ] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.72.27.244 (talk) 05:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

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 is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps.Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 05:57, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Also, they will likely want to know what type of laptop you have and what operating system it's running. And please don't post your e-mail address here. We don't answer questions that way, and it will just attract spammers. Bovlb (talk) 06:38, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Sigma Phi Epsilon Colorado Alpha

On the list of Sigma Phi Epsilon chapters it says that number 10 Colorado Alpha is SEC which is incorrect because Colorado Alpha officialy recieved a charter in November of 2007. You can contact Sigma Phi Epsilon nationally to verify this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.177.195.89 (talk) 08:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi 67.177.195.89 - I've looked at List of Sigma Phi Epsilon chapters but unfortunately I've no understanding of Sigma Phi Epsilon to enable me to see what has to be fixed. Could you go ahead and fix it yourself? Thanks.--86.149.54.19 (talk) 08:49, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

my contribution to Origin theories of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have tried to contribute with my knowledge to above subject but all I have written has been deleted. my problem is I dont know why. in HISTORY i have found the following: (cur) (last) 01:10, 2 February 2008 Lambiam (Talk | contribs) (19,846 bytes) (Undid revision 188371898 by Pedpau (talk): fails WP:V, WP:RS and WP:NN. Take it to talk) (undo) I dont know if LAMBIAN is a USER or a ADMNISTRATOR but I accept I may have made some mistakes which are prohibited The problem is I do not know which ones ? USER : Pedpau

yours truly Pedro d´Orey Kopernikusstrasse 22 D - 10245 Berlin - Germany Pedpau (talk) 12:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Note that Lambian's edit summary has 3 links: "fails WP:V, WP:RS and WP:NN. Take it to talk". Talk refers to the talk page at Talk:Origin theories of Christopher Columbus where material can be discussed with other editors. Lambian is not an administrator but that shouldn't be important. Lambian is an experienced editor and has already posted at Talk:Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Portuguese theory redux where you can comment. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

There are maybe a few reasons:

1. The content is not appropriate to the article
2. Lambiam vandalized the article
3. Lambiam thinks you vandalized the article

You can report this as a vandalism if 2 or 3 is the case Moreover, I THINK PrimeHunter is right!
Ftbhrygvn (talk) 11:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

How to suppress the TOC

I seem to recall seeing an article where a template was used to suppress the table of contents. Now I'd like to do the same myself (short article, but several sections), but can't find the template. Thanks. --RenniePet (talk) 12:37, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{TOChidden}} is what you want. XENON54 | talk | who? | 02 Feb 2008 12:38_GMT

The other way is not a template as such, but a magic word, called __NOTOC__, although I'm not sure what the guidelines on using it on articles are, as having a TOC or not may be a matter of personal preference. • Anakin ^(talk) 12:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wow, that was fast, thanks. But I think the template I'd seen before completely suppressed the TOC. Your suggestion reduces it to a small box, but it still distracts, and is unnecessary in this context. --RenniePet (talk) 12:44, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, the second suggestion (which I hadn't noticed when I wrote the above) does what I want. Thanks! --RenniePet (talk) 12:46, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Table with "not-bold" header

Hello, could you please explain to me how to create a header in a table, in such a way that the header is not bold ? I have searched in the MoS and in Help:Table but I have not found the solution. Part of the problem is that I also want the table to be collapsible, so I would like to avoid "brute-force" like HTML markup. SyG (talk) 12:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Depending on the circumstances, you can just omit a header row indicated by ! and make a normal row with | instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that is an idea, but in this case I cannot use the "collapsible" as the normal row will be hidden as well, can I ? SyG (talk) 16:21, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Monobook.js

I've recently installed a a number of Tools, into my monobook.js file, some of these tools adds (Block this user) into the toolbox section, am i able to block IP user's with this tool, or is it only administrators who are allowed to. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 12:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Only administrators can block users, I can tell you that without even looking at your monobook.js! I hope this helps, --The Helpful One 13:05, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Only administrators can block IP's and other users. The tools may make the link that administrators can use to block but the software will not allow you to use it. Just click it to see what happens. If you are afraid of accidentally committing an offense then try Special:Blockip/Terra (administrators have to do more so you will not be blocked if an admin accidentally clicks that link). PrimeHunter (talk) 13:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I've tested it on my user, and it said it was limited to only Administrator's and i wasn't able to do so. At least now i know, i'll leave the script on my monobook.js and will remove it if it conflicts with my other scripts which i've got. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 13:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Reassigning contributions made when logged out to user ID?

I have made several changes to pages when I thought I was logged in, only to find that I wasn't. Is there any way to consolidate those into my User ID, given that the IP address matches? Thanks! NjtoTX (talk) 12:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

IP edits cannot be assigned to your account. If you are the only who has edited with that IP address then you can write on the IP user page that it is you (I suggest creating the page with your account and then signing a confirmation while logged out). If it's a recent edit in the page history then you can make a dummy edit saying the edit was by you in the edit summary. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Adding map to infobox

Hi.I have tried without success to add a map to the infobox at South Raynham, Norfolk. Similar to the one at East Runton. Where am I going wrong? Thanks Northmetpit (talk) 12:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm..coordinates need to be added to the infobox, and then it should show the map automatically, but I keep getting an error message. Arthena^(talk) 13:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Ahh, found it. There was a problematic space in one of the infobox parameters. You can add the map now by placing the right coordinates in the infobox. Arthena^(talk) 13:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

18- edit

may people under 18 edit wikipedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.104.189.237 (talk) 13:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh yes, absolutely you can. Please take a quick look at Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia before creating any articles. Good luck! SpinningSpark 13:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I edit Wikipedia, and I'm under 18 stone. --Teratornis (talk) 16:48, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

How much under? - perhaps more cycling and less writing about it are in order SpinningSpark 23:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Teratornis' one-liner above is unusual. He makes many help desk posts so long that the finger exercise may be equivalent to other people cycling ;-) PrimeHunter (talk) 23:25, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia also has administrators under 18. Note that Wikipedia is not censored and Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Galactic Dominance

Is this page ok now? Because an admin added a prodwarning to it... —Preceding unsigned comment added by KI114 (talk • contribs) 13:36, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

On a summary look over it, my reckoning is that it fails to assert any Wikipedia:Notability, is unsourced, and from the tone and person of the writing, is purely original research. If it survives the WP:PROD, somebody may take it to WP:AFD for those reasons. • Anakin ^(talk) 13:48, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Looking at the article, I would say not. The reason given for the proposed deletion is that the article does not assert notability. None of the edits subsequent to the prod do anything to assert notability. Even if you were to assert notability in the article, this will only prevent speedy deletion. The article may still be deleted if notability cannot be proved. If you can prove notability, by for instance, a review of the proposed game in a gaming magazing or newspaper, then you should insert the reference in the article. SpinningSpark 13:54, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Nav-Header

Could someone explain to me why two of the images on my Nav-Header has vanished, i've checked the coding and everything hasn't been changed. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage} 13:40, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That's strange. The images do still exist but they don't even work if put in a position that has a working image, so I think you must be right it is not the code. My guess is that this is connected with the move to the new pre-processor and should be reported there (link a the top of your watchlist page)). SpinningSpark 14:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Even stranger, it is back ok now. Wasn't me though, I did not save any of my preview edits. SpinningSpark 14:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It might be the upload servers playing up again. They've been excruciatingly slow (taking several minutes) at resizing images for the last few days. Just have to wait sometimes. • Anakin ^(talk) 14:31, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to be sorted out now, the two images have returned as well as the image of the Terra's Night Watch userbox which vanished had re-appeared. Terra ^{Terra's talkpage}

Getting rid of unwanted watchlist item.

The last entry on my watchlist is:

Wikipedia:SOURCE

It is marked as a dead link, but it isn't, of course. When I look at the redirect page, it does not have an "unwatch" tab. When I check it and click on "remove titles" it still remains on my list.

When I "edit raw watchlist" and delete it, it is still on my list.

I tried "watch" then "unwatch". It is still my list.

How can I get rid of it? --Softtest123 (talk) 13:47, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That sounds very strange. It's only possible to make general suggestions, not knowing what's causing it, but try "edit raw watchlist" again, making sure to hit the "Update Watchlist" button, and try clearing your browser cache. If that does not fix it, post at WP:Village pump (technical) - in case there is some strange database issue the devs should know about. Hopefully this will help. • Anakin ^(talk) 13:56, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It also sounds strange to me. The general treatment of WP: has changed. I don't know whether this can cause watchlist problems if you were watching a WP: page like WP:SOURCE. Does http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=WP:SOURCE&action=unwatch or http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:SOURCE&action=unwatch work? PrimeHunter (talk) 17:55, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

This may be some side effect of the WP: to Wikipedia: "namespace alias" feature change in the MediaWiki software. Some discussion about this change has appeared on the Help desk: Search Help desk for: WP: Wikipedia: namespace alias. Speaking for myself only, I have not been too fond of this change where I have noticed it. It seems likely to break some things that subtly depend on the previous way things worked. Wikipedia is so intricate that it's hard to change any basic feature without breaking something. --Teratornis (talk) 19:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't tried clearing my cache, so I did, though it seems that when I have had cache problems with Firefox before all I needed to do was simply reload the page. The problem persists.

I get:

Your watchlist has been updated.

1 title was removed:

    * Wikipedia:SOURCE (Talk)

Your watchlist contains 25 titles, excluding talk pages. 

and

...
Voluntary Voting System Guidelines
Voting machine
Wikipedia:SOURCE
User:WimdeValk
Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
Wikipedia:WikiProject Citation cleanup
...

every time I delete it

I'll submit this section to WP:Village pump (technical).--Softtest123 (talk) 22:51, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Traffic Details

Is it possible to get traffic details on a specific wikipedia page? Will wikipedia provide any information regarding traffic? Cowboys08 —Preceding comment was added at 16:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

See the FAQ in Wikipedia:Very Frequently Asked Questions, number 12. SyG (talk) 16:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Two questions

Q1: I have uploaded a file into Wikipedia, but do not know how to provide a link to it in an article I want to submit

Q2: I want to add a new section to an article, but all it seems to let me do is edit existing sections —Preceding unsigned comment added by CycleTimeChart (talk • contribs) 16:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

For question one (assuming the file is an image; Wikipedia is not a file-hosting server), type [[Image:<Imagename>|XXpx]], which will produce an image which is XX by XX pixels. For example, typing [[Image:Example.jpg|250px]] will produce an image that is 250 by 250 pixels. For the second question, click on an edit link and type:

• == Section title ==

You can create different levels with a different amount of equal signs. For example, === Level 3 section heading === will produce (surprise) a Level 3 section heading. See Help:Section and Help:Images for more. XENON54 | talk | who? | 02 Feb 2008 17:09_GMT

See more about images at Help:Images and other uploaded files. Click the "edit this page" tab at top to edit the whole page. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:41, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

IP Confusion

I'm logged into my Wiki account, and yet when I clicked on "Talk" next to one of the items on my watchlist it came up with a list of warnings for edits I haven't made.

http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/User_talk:150.176.79.10

Alexannah (talk) 17:13, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That 'talk' link is to the talk page of the user who made the relevant edit on your watchlist, in this case User:150.176.79.10. You can get to your own talk page by clicking 'my talk' in the top right of the screen. Algebraist 17:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Rex Gildo

User:Euroadonis keeps making destructive edits on the article. I revert them when I'm online, but if some others would put the article on their watchlists that would be helpful! --Lamme Goedzak (talk) 17:15, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You meant Euroadonis1... and it looks like user omtay has given an appropriate warning. —Noah 18:58, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The user has repeated his additions after the previous warning, I have given a final warning. If he/she continues, a report will be filed. Best regards! --omtay38 19:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

User repeated vandalism, so I have reported them to WP:AIV. -- Kesh (talk) 04:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

New article

how do i write an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jinkygav (talk • contribs) 20:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.--Kerotan^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) 20:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

After all that, to actually start it you can see Help:Starting a new page. --Coppertwig (talk) 21:23, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I am trying to discourage references to Help:Starting a new page because it doesn't tell people what to do and what not to do. If they read Wikipedia:Your first article, which provides much more information, then there is no reason to go to Help:Starting a new page. Sbowers3 (talk) 22:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Edit counter tool

At this tool I entered Wicked (musical) and for some reason my name did not show up in the count even though I have numerous edits. What is going on?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:33, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm just guessing, but maybe since it uses "intelligent caching" and your edits are relatively recent, maybe it doesn't show the most recent edits yet. You could ask the user who wrote the tool --Coppertwig (talk) 21:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

That has never been a problem before in using the tool. I contacted the writer but it is at German WP. I am not sure if he understands my english request.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 19:32, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Convert template imprecision

At Tyrone Wheatley something seems to be wrong with {{convert}}. What might it be?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 21:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

You can't do 'stone' (st) and 'kg' with just a space between them. I'm not sure but I think you need to pick one or the other. —Noah 21:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

"st kg" is an allowed parameter. What is the perceived problem? Are you aware of Template:Convert#Rounding? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Whoops, thanks for the clarification PrimeHunter. —Noah 22:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Does [1] give the result you wanted? PrimeHunter (talk) 23:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to be working now.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTD) 19:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

editing tables

I am working on fixing up the links in pages and there are some tables that have the reference in them that I can't work out how to edit. Example {{EP99Results}}. I need to redirect "Regionalism|Regionalists" to "Regionalism (politics)|Regionalists". There are dozens of these tables - one for each year there are result. I can understand why these results are difficult to change, but hope you can help. Stellar (talk) 21:38, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{EP99Results}} is a template and can be edited at Template:EP99Results. If you click "edit this page" on a page where a template is used then there should be link to the template at the bottom of the window. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:42, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Not necessarily at the bottom. At European Parliament election, 1999 for example, the link to the template (in double curly brackets) is at the top of the page. A template link can be anywhere on a page. --Coppertwig (talk) 22:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I think what PrimeHunter is saying is that when you edit, below the edit box is a list of templates that are used on that page. That is an easy way to navigate to the page for a template if you want to edit that template. Sbowers3 (talk) 22:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Exactly. The template use can be anywhere in the edit box but the place of use doesn't have a link to the template page. That link is at the bottom of the window. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:49, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I learned something. I had seen the list of templates but never had the sense to actually use them. What I did time after time was copy the name of a template, paste it into the search box, then click Go. Duh! Sbowers3 (talk) 23:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all. much obliged. Regards Stellar (talk) 03:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

punctuation in lists

In the following List of constituent assemblies some of the items in the list have a period at the end and some do not. I'm assuming that only items in a list that contain a complete sentence should have a period in them and that all others should not. Am I correct? Sjmcfarland (talk) 22:08, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's a standard guideline on it but I would put a period at the end of every item there for clarity and consistency. There aren't any very short items there anyway - they're all sort of sentence length. • Anakin ^(talk) 22:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

TV show link boxes

At the bottom of some TV-related articles is a collective of related links. I'm not talking about the "see also" lists, I'm talking about the boxes that you can choose "show" or "hide." I don't know what these link boxes are called, so I can't look them up in Wikipedia guidelines, but my question is, how do I edit these boxes? You can't access them through the "edit this page" option, but there has to be a way. Specifically, I created a page for the "Homicide" character Ed Danvers, but how do I add him to the list of characters that appears in those little link boxes at the bottom of all articles related to Homicide: Life on the Street? And what are those link boxes called, anyway? Minaker (talk) 22:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

They're called several different things because their internal workings keep changing and there's also some funny rumour going around that they're not supposed to be used any more (nonsense). But anyway, they called Navboxes and most have little "v • d • e" links in the titlebar. Those links refer simply to View, Discuss, and Edit, for the box, which is how you normally get to it. That particular box doesn't seem to have those links, but if you look at the source of a page with one on, you can see the code {{Homicide: Life on the Street}}. That refers to Template:Homicide: Life on the Street, and you can edit it from there, and then it will update on all the pages that use it. Happy editing! • Anakin ^(talk) 22:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Note: I've also added the "v • d • e" links to it now to make it easier to edit. • Anakin ^(talk) 22:31, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Anakin. I actually figured it out just before I read your response, but your advice is much appreciated anyway. Minaker (talk) 22:34, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

If you click "edit this page" then the bottom of the whole window (not just of the edit box) has links to the transcluded templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Technical question about Wikipedia's parser.

Resolved

 – Stwalkerster's code works. Thanks, that's all. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 23:47, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

How do you check undefined parameters using this wiki's parser?

I saw on M:Help:ParserFunctions that it looked like I needed to use either #ifeq: or #ifexpr:, but I was kind of confused about the correct syntax.

This is about my plan to re-vamp Wikipedia:Bots/Status. See the talkpage comments there.

To get an idea of why I'm asking, check out User:Zenwhat/Sandbox and Template:Botstatus.

For the Template:Botstatus, I would like to have an optional sixth parameter.

If the sixth parameter is left blank, it should output: [[Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/FIRSTPARAMETER]]

If the sixth parameter is not left blank, output: The parameter entered. ☯  Zenwhat (talk) 23:28, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

{{#if:{{{6|}}}|{{{6|}}}|[[Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/{{{1|}}}]]}} - should work for the last request.

To check for undefined params, (I think) use {{#if:{{{1|}}}|param used|param empty}}, where that is param 1, and "param used" is the code where the parameter is used, and "param empty" is the code when the param is not empty. This should work, but it's not a guarantee, as it's been a while since I coded parser functions. Stwalkerster [ talk ] 23:39, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Policy breaches

What is the maximum number of Wikipedia policies and guidelines that can violated in a single sentence? Has anyone ever achieved this? SpinningSpark 23:52, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:BEANS, I think this should be left unanswered. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Can I delete

There are a few items I would like to delete on my user talk page. I am a bit reluctant due to a previous warning (# 3). I would like to remove this warning if I am allowed. Daytrivia (talk) 23:55, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

It is not vandalism to remove threads from your talk page, whoever told you that it is was mistaken. Many editors feel it is "good practice" to put old items in an archive, but as I understand things that is up to you to decide. DuncanHill (talk) 00:03, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

If you do decide to archive your talk page rather than deleting items, pretty much all the information you need is at Help:Archiving a talk page.--Kateshortforbob 00:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks the quick response and the information. Daytrivia (talk) 01:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)