Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 September 15

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September 15

Changing the name of a page

I have tried to build a page for GPSports but it is listed under my username (Fatch1965).

All I want to do is to rename the page GPSports Systems.

I was contacted by a staff member but I couldn't understand his instructions.

Can someone just please change the name to GPSports Systems - that is all I require,

thanks

Adrian Faccioni — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fatch1965 (talk • contribs) 00:43, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

If I understand you correctly, you are trying to move the article you created at User:Fatch1965 to GPSports Systems. This is easily done. However, the article as it stands at the moment is, IMO, a candidate to be quickly deleted as blatant advertising. Wikipedia articles must be neutral and cite substantial coverage in independent reliable sources. I would strongly suggest you review our notability criteria before spending much more time on this. If you then feel the company meets those criteria, you'll want to address the lack of neutrality and sources before moving the article. Thanks. - SummerPhD (talk) 02:10, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Contacting another user

I would like to email a user whom I believe I know. The directions I found say to go to his user page and if he has email enabled, I will be able to do that there by following the rest of the directions. However he does not have a user page. Neither, it turns out, do I, even though I have email enabled. I did not see anything when I set my own preferences about having to create a user page to get email. Is one actually necessary for this? I prefer to send email rather than edit his talk page, since who knows when he will be back here. Thanks. Karen Anne (talk) 02:22, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello Karen Anne, thank you for your question. It's possible to e-mail an user if they do not have a user page. Go to their talk page and on the drop-down menu "Toolbox", you can see a link called "E-mail this user". You can do this only if they have have the e-mail setting enabled, which can be found in your preferences. Hopes this helps. You can read more information about e-mailing here. -- Luke (Talk) 02:59, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps you already know this but when you are on a user or user talk page (whether it has been created or not), the drop-down menu "Toolbox" also has the link "User contributions" which shows when they last edited. If it was recently then chances are they will soon see a talk page mesage. Most active users probably prefer to be contacted on their talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:20, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Help requests - COI/semi/PER

• 10 COI edit requests: Talk:Ahmed Omed Khpulwak , Talk:Column Technologies , Talk:Jonathan M. Gregory , Talk:Libya lobby in the United States , Talk:Mark Boerebach , Talk:Peter Scott (educationalist) , Talk:Product Red , Talk:Ravidassia (caste) , Talk:Stevens Institute of Technology , Talk:Unique Identification Authority of India

• 43 semi-protected edit requests: Talk:Africa , Talk:Anna Hazare , Talk:Armenian Genocide , Talk:Atomium Culture , Talk:Attachment therapy , Talk:Attila , Talk:Benny Hinn , Talk:Bosniaks , Talk:Capital punishment , Talk:Charles Manson , Talk:Constipation , Talk:Diamond , Talk:Dina Lohan , Talk:Elton John , Talk:George Clooney , Talk:Harry S. Truman , Talk:Into the Wild Tour , Talk:Iran , Talk:Jamaica Defence Force , Talk:Just Go with It , Talk:Karjat , Talk:Kashmir conflict , Talk:Leeds United A.F.C. , Talk:LGBT rights by country or territory , Talk:Lil Wayne discography , Talk:Liverpool , Talk:Mahabharata , Talk:Mathematics , Talk:Maya Angelou , Talk:Mel Gibson , Talk:Mormonism , Talk:Moses , Talk:NBA 2K , Talk:Pittsburgh Steelers , Talk:Pratapaditya , Talk:Rob Schneider , Talk:Skrillex , Talk:Steve Biko , Talk:Tau , Talk:Texas , Talk:The R.E.D. Album , Talk:Vietnam , Talk:Wales

• 9 protected edit requests: Talk:Singapore , Template talk:Cite journal , Template talk:Find sources , Template talk:Jcttop , Template talk:Sandbox heading , Template talk:WikiProject Comics , Template talk:WikiProject North Carolina , Template talk:WikiProject United States , Template talk:YouTube.

 Chzz  ►  04:32, 15 September 2011 (UTC) <updated 05:26, 16 September 2011 (UTC)>

List of professional cyclists who died during a race

Resolved

I've come across an out of date ref, [1]

It's from The Durango Herald, and I don't know how to bring it up on the wayback machine

The CitationBot fixed things up but looking the fixes over I've realized that the Durango Herald/Dale Strode source has gone bad.

But the information was really good and it's referenced all over the article.  Chzz  ►  04:50, 15 September 2011 (UTC) (on behalf of...someone anon - passing this q to HD

I found a valid URL for that on The Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20061019232122/http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=sports&article_path=/sports/05/sports050624_1.htm . Shearonink (talk) 05:06, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

New account setup not happening :(

New account here, but I can not log in as I keep getting a message :

  Password and/or Words in the box have been entered wrong (or some such message).

Ive used this same name and password for numerous other website log ins. Now my name is taken & it is impossible to log in. I have never used this function of your website, however, certain aspects in your science areas esp. polypeptide bonding, quaternary protein structures, and scientific methodology are in need of some corrections(citing current publications of course). Is there anyway to accurately attribute these corrections to my web alias (ie, my name) ? Quite frankly, if I can not log in to this site accordingly I will not even bother. I did not leave an email addy as I never do, for obvious reasons. I do not believe I am typing my password incorrectly. I keep getting a message to retype in the security word in the box. I am certain I am not a BOT and am correctly typing the 'box' word. Any advise or help in this area would be appreciated. I only wished to help this site be factual and specific in several areas happenstance brought me read. Now I just hope I can remember later to come back and check for helpful advise, heh.  :)

P.S. So this post will list my IP addy? Weak.... Thank God for IP Spoofing :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.108.94.228 (talk) 05:19, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I can't tell from this whether you have managed to create the account or not. If you're having trouble with the CAPTCHA then I suggest you try Wikipedia:Request an account; the volunteers there will either create the account for you, or tell you that your chosen account name already exists. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:30, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

What is the username? Many people make a free webmail account with an address they can just abandon if it gets abused. See Comparison of webmail providers for some options. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:56, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Adding an article

Hello, Can you help me to add an article speaking about a company named United Broadcast and Media Solutions (www.unitedbroadcast.com). It is an important distributor of broadcast and professional audio/video equipment in the Middle and Africa. I m not a writer here in Wikipedia, but I can give you the information. Best Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sahlbeldi (talk • contribs) 06:07, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi, perhaps a good place to start for you would be Wikipedia:Article wizard. It guides you through the creation of an article step-by-step. Feel free to come back here to the help desk if you have any further questions (or ask me on my talk page at User talk:Toshio Yamaguchi if you like). Best. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 12:42, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Toshio. I have to start learning now. I think it will be good for me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sahlbeldi (talk • contribs) 13:38, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Rename page

I want to rename a page. What template do I use? I tried this: {{db-move|page to move from|reason for move}}., but it is not what I thought it was. Please reply to this talk page please. 213.107.74.132 (talk) 08:16, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I think you are looking for the {{Requested move}} template. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:35, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

"Show" buttons redirect to unrelated (including CONTACT section)

Hi.

I am attempting to report that most of the "Show"" buttons on the following page do NOT expand text, but instead re-direct to other totally unrelated Wikipedia pages (in the mobile edition). http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulating_concrete_form

I attempted to submit this via the Contact Us section, but the same thing had been done to the "show" buttons there (!), so I could not locate the correct method to submit this.

I hope this is helpful.

Roberta — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.53.144.162 (talk) 13:11, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

The "Show" buttons are working for me on that article. Is it still happening? Is it happening on other articles?

If it is not still doing it, I suspect there may have been a temporary fault on the server. If it is still happening, and especially if it is happening on other articles, I would suspect that something has happened to your mobile device. Beyond that I don't know, but WP:Village Pump (technical) would be the best place to ask. --ColinFine (talk) 22:13, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Removal of a specific template from an article

Resolved

 – I substituted the template with {{Dynamic list}}. --Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:28, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

If a list article has been tagged with {{Expand list}} and the list article in question is one for which "Completeness" is hard to prove, is that template supposed to simply keep sitting on that article or should I simply remove the template and drop the user (in IP in this case) a message notifying him/her of the removal? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 13:43, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Which list is it? Have you seen Wikipedia:WikiProject Lists#Incomplete lists? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:59, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

The list in question is List of prime numbers. What criteria for "Completeness" should be applied in order to determine whether the template is still appropriate or not? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:02, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

A wonderful example. Perhaps you can let us know when the article does eventually list all the prime numbers?  :-) - David Biddulph (talk) 14:07, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Ah, that one. See the mouseover at http://www.xkcd.com/899/ ;-) It might use {{Dynamic list}} instead and inclusion criteria can be discussed at Talk:List of prime numbers#Expanding the list? where I see you posted last month. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:16, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

The problem is that the article is misnamed. It should be List of Lists of prime numbers.Naraht (talk) 20:35, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I think you are mistaken. "List of lists of ..." articles are supposed to be category like articles simply listing multiple "List of ..." articles. The lists of prime numbers in List of prime numbers are embedded lists. The articles the section titles link to are not "List of ..." articles themselves and thus the article can be regarded as a normal "List of ..." article. Therefore your suggested title would be incorrect. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 20:54, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Whether or not embedded lists qualify, the fact is that that is actually what is there. Regardless of what Wikipedia makes the title say, it is *not* one list of primes.Naraht (talk) 01:48, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

What Naraht says is true—perhaps it should be called Lists of prime numbers? —Bkell (talk) 01:56, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I *like* that. Cleaner than mine with the same sentiment!Naraht (talk) 02:47, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

A title of the form "Lists of ..." usually signifies a list of list articles. See Special:PrefixIndex/Lists of. It would be confusing to use it here. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:52, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

sharing with social sites?

Can info off Wikipedia be shared to Facebook, etc. for example?

Thank you, ikijimi. 14:26, 15 September 2011 (UTC)14:26, 15 September 2011 (UTC)14:26, 15 September 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ikijimi (talk • contribs)

Yes, info from Wikipedia can be shared anywhere as long as it is attributed back to the appropriate article. GB fan 14:29, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

There is a tool for this (see Wikipedia:Sharebox and the instructions there for how to install it). Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:31, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Bosnian War

In your site about the Bosnian War, you didn't mentioned my book, "In a Bosnian Trench: A Wartime Memoir of a Muslim Bosnian Soldier" by Elvir Kulin with Maury Hirschkorn. Please do so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.129.12 (talk) 15:29, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

You can suggest it at Talk:Bosnian War, if an editor without a conflict of interest sees it as a viable resource they can include it in some way for you. Although, the book was published through Trafford Publishing, a print on demand service, I'm not sure it'd be considered a reliable source, see WP:SPS. Яehevkor ✉ 15:46, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Bare URL Message

Hey Everyone,

I'm trying to prevent link rot on the following 2 pages:

http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Jonathan_Hsu http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Ian_Yolles

After running reflinks, I'm still getting the bare url message. I've seen other entries that don't cite their sources, and no bare url message pops up there, so I'm a bit confused.

Any help with this issue is appreciated!! Chanelno5ive (talk) 16:03, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

The tag was manually added, and you can manually remove it if you've cured the problem. Just include an edit summary so that it's clear what you've done. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:07, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, how do I manually remove it? Thanks!

Chanelno5ive (talk) 16:24, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Like so. TNXMan 16:28, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

login not saved

Yesterday and today Wikipedia has not been saving my login, even though I told it to remember me for 30 days each time. What could cause this problem? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:08, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I think this sort of thing is saved in a cookie on your computer; if you have all cookies blocked/disabled in your browser, it wouldn't ever save your login information even if you told it too. --Jayron32 17:11, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Thanks, I unchecked "tell browsers that I don't want to be tracked" in Firefox, and now it saves my login. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:21, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Windows-only free software

Wikipedia,

I use this free Windows PCL Reader product and thought it would be a good addition to the Windows-only free software section. How do we add products to this section?

Regards,

Brad — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bridgeway04 (talk • contribs) 18:09, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

If you are talking about an article, you can simply edit the article (either the whole article or the relevant section). But be aware that if the information you add is not accompanied by a reference to where it has been written about in an independent reliable source, then it is likely to be removed. In particular, for lists of items, the items should usually meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability. It is not enough that it exists, or that you think it is good: people need to have written about it in reliable places. --ColinFine (talk) 22:17, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Click here to buy?

Are "click here to buy" links permitted in Wikipedia, as in this article?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:23, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

No they aren't. I've removed it, thanks for pointing it out. In the future, you are welcome to remove these type of links yourself. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:27, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Indeed, you are actively encouraged to remove such spamming: anything like "for further information, visit our/this website, at www.spammyurl.com" or "click here to buy" or "for further information, contact us/them at spammeremailaddress" or "to join us, call 1-800-SPAMMYPHONENUMBER"' or any other clearcut evidence that somebody's committing marketing here. A grateful public will thank you; hey, I'll thank you ahead of time! --Orange Mike | Talk 18:46, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

If you come across an article that is mostly this type of material—full of advertising language—it may be eligible for speedy deletion under section G11 of the criteria. The tag you can use to nominate an article under that criterion is {{db-spam}} or {{db-g11}}. It is also very common that when you find articles like this, they are also copyright violations. You can check by dropping a unique piece of text from the article into a search engine in quotation marks. This is a separate basis for speedy deletion. See CSD G12 for the criterion and tag using {{db-copyvio}} or {{db-g12}}.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:48, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

My signature

Per User talk:Ks0stm#Your signature being a pretty valid point, is there some way that I can change my signature from the "If you reply here..." message showing up on all user talk pages except my own to showing up only on user talk pages of users who aren't blocked except my own? Basically, ideally, the "If you reply here..." message would only appear if both 1. it was a user talk page other than my own, and 2. the user was not blocked. If these conditions were not met, then the signature would render as it does on this page. Being rather clueless on how my signature works (I wasn't the one who coded the "different page, different signature" aspect of it), can anyone explain to me how to do this or if it is even possible? Thanks in advance, Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 18:52, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Not as it's currently set up, since there are no magic words for "{{PAGEOFABANNEDUSER}}". I think this would require some JavaScript if you wanted something to automatically check for banned users. — Bility (talk) 19:33, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

We've discussed on WP:VP/T and I think bugzilla the idea of having a parser-function or magic-word to detect when a user was blocked. The consensus I recall was "sounds useful" and "not presently implemented" and that nothing has changed in that latter situation. DMacks (talk) 20:31, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

What to do with a paid-for advert

I was about to correct this bad wikilink on [2] and found it is also on [3]. Note: It does not seem to exist as a current article. From Googling around, it appears to be a paid for article originating from here. [4]. Would it be easier just to get an Admin to delete it?--Aspro (talk) 18:59, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

They've all been removed, what's the problem? — Bility (talk) 19:40, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

This looks sneaky. It appears an editor changed UIS to a promotional article, then reverted their edits immediately afterwards. They then added a link to another article going directly to the reverted edit of the article UIS rather than the article itself. It appears to be a form of trying to hide promotional edits from Wikipedia contributors while still promoting the material. It's a good thing that all the edits in question have since been reverted. JIP | Talk 19:56, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I have since revision deleted the edit that included the advertising. If someone feels this was unnecessary or misguided, then the revision can be undeleted. JIP | Talk 20:06, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Me too. [5] --Floquenbeam (talk) 20:08, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

There's an image file too, although it's on commons. Яehevkor ✉ 20:12, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

The article still exists here too.[6]--Aspro (talk) 23:59, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I've revision deleted that too, thanks for pointing it out. JIP | Talk 03:54, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Question about deleted revision

I just found a Wikipedia page whose history shows a revision that I am unable to access at all, even though I am an administrator. The date appears grey and struck out and the selection button next to it is disabled. Does this mean it has been oversighted, which is beyond my powers as an administrator? JIP | Talk 19:42, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Probably, yes. Taketa (talk) 19:47, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Debt - Bondage - happened in Britain

I'd like to know why nothing is written about Debt - Bondage or women who sold themselves into (farm) Bondage in Britain, which went on into the early 1900's. While the rest of the world were cutting slavery trades this one went on which was a very shameful thing. As the women were put to work in the fields which would even put men under strain to do those long hours. Plus there was a stigma attached to this kind of work, which left a sunburnt triangle on the Bondagers face, which if they went to dances or walked without their usual head gear on, were recognized as "Bondagers' because of the sunburnt triangle on their faces. There was a book written by a Pastor (or Minister) about these poor women, but I'm sad to see that their terrible lives are not even register in the 'Debt - Bondage' section of your web site. In fact I saw a ref' saying about ancient 'Bondage' but this wasn't band until the 1900's so it goes into the modern. Which sickens me to think so much was being done for the rest of the worlds slaves, but those in Britain were not being addressed & sometimes I've heard of remnants of this type of trade being used to get money out of people, by making them work to pay of a course which is meant to improve them, but infact can put them into debt & they are not released from a job until this course is paid for in full & sometimes more than full. So this form of slavery is still with us, it's hard to believe eh? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.54.89.16 (talk) 21:29, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is completely a volunteer effort. Just about every word on our 61,857,828 pages was written by a person who was interested enough in some subject to sit down and write about it. There is no central authority making decisions about what topics to cover. When you see a hole in Wikipedia, be bold and fill it, i.e., register an account and write the article yourself. However, in order to write an article that will stick, you will need to cite to reliable sources, write in a neutral tone and follow other policies and guidelines for the writing of encyclopedic content. I suggest you take a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial first, and then write the article using the article wizard. Hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:23, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

(ec) The answer to "Why does Wikipedia not have an article on X" is almost always either "Because nobody has chosen to write one" or "Because X does not meet Wikipedia's standard of notability", or both. If you can demonstrate by multiple references to reliable sources that subject is notable (which seems likely to me), and write about it in a neutral way, you are very welcome to write such an article, or perhaps to add a section to an existing article. However, if your purpose here is to soapbox, then however worthy your cause, Wikipedia is not the place to do it. --ColinFine (talk) 22:30, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I would also suggest that the question could usefully be asked at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities, which is often a good way of getting content editors to take an interest in the subject. There certainly seem to be some sources on the subject, such as this site - there are probably others, though googling for "farm bondage" brings up some (ahem) unexpected results. We have an article on Indentured servant, but there seems to be nothing in it about the UK. Ghmyrtle (talk) 13:29, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Dakota Meyer page

I believe that the awards section is incorrect. The medal of honor should be shown above ALL OTHER awards and decorations on a level by itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.67.209 (talk) 21:42, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I do not understand what the problem is. In the infobox the medal is on a line by itself above all other awards. In the Military awards section the ribbons are laid out the way they would be on his Service Dress uniform. If that is the section you are concerned about, we shouldn't be modifying the layout of his ribbons. GB fan 22:23, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

This is the Help Desk, for asking questions about using Wikipedia. Questions like yours are better suited for the article's talk page or perhaps the reference desk. Interchangeable|talk to me 22:32, 15 September 2011 (UTC)