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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 July 23

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July 23

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Family Tree Direction

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Not sure where to ask... Just wondering if there is a reason why when listing ancestors in a family tree they would ever run right (oldest) to left (youngest), as with the family tree of William III of the Netherlands. It seems like a place where consistency would make it easier to follow. Or, am I just too used to reading left to right?

Chronologies usually run from left (oldest) to right (youngest), for example, in time-lines.

This is something "style-wise" which could use some consistency and clean-up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.247.249.162 (talk) 14:14, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I know it is a little odd, but Willem III of the Netherlands is not the exception. All those ancestor trees I have seen have been in this older-to-the-right format. Looking further, I see they are all based on Ahnentafel so there does seen to be some logic behind it. Astronaut (talk) 17:12, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Editing

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Do you have to pay to edit Wikipedia pages? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shantelcox13 (talkcontribs) 02:17, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. Your time is payment enough.  :) Cyphoidbomb (talk) 02:55, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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Dunno if this is the right place for this. I've looked around and couldn't find an obvious place, nor evidence that it was happening to anybody else.

If I see that it is a new editor making a change when I click "Compare selected revisions" in an article History, I like to click the "welcome" link to say hello in a formal way to that new contributor. I've been doing this for years.

Now, most times when I click it I get a screen that says "Page not found", or similar. But sometimes it works.

I don't think anything significant has changed in my environemnt.

Any ideas? HiLo48 (talk) 03:11, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see a "Welcome" link when I choose Compare selected revisions. Do you have plugin or gadget enabled that gives it to you? RudolfRed (talk) 03:16, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe. I don't go looking for these things. Maybe it was something granted to me. But whatever it is it recently stopped working reliably. HiLo48 (talk) 03:22, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
This is a Twinkle feature. See Wikipedia talk:Twinkle#Welcome button issue? PrimeHunter (talk) 10:20, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah. That's it! Thanks PrimeHunter. HiLo48 (talk) 10:57, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yearbooks

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What is the policy on posting photos of celebrities from yearbooks? Are the photos copy righted, or are they public domain? I tried to post a photo of Ira Glass that I scanned from a copy of his high school yearbook, but it was taken down. What do I need to do to upload that photo without breaking the Wikipedia rules? Judgmentalowl (talk) 03:18, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is very likely that the photos are protected by copyright. They might belong to the school, or the photographer, or someone else. In the front or back of the yearbook, it might tell you. In order to upload that photo, you must get the copyright holder to release the photo under a licence that works on Wikipedia, or it must fall under WP:FAIRUSE or other non-free criteria. RudolfRed (talk) 03:22, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I checked, and there is no copyright information. If the book isn't copyrighted, does that make the photos public domain? I spent 2 hours on google trying to figure it out, and I couldn't find a definite answer. What is Wikipedia's policy on this? Thanks Judgmentalowl (talk) 03:40, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just because there is no copyright notice, it does not mean the work is not covered by copyright. Most things get covered by copyright automatically, due to the Berne Convention. You should ask for guidance at WP:MCQ. RudolfRed (talk) 03:48, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, thank you for the help Judgmentalowl (talk) 03:52, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

image not displaying

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Good day

I am creating a page called 'FAMACHA'. However, the image I am trying to insert there does not display correctly (just box with red hyperlinked text that takes me back to the upload wizard). I have uploaded the file in commons and locally. nothing works. What can be wrong?

Thank you in advance Brand — Preceding unsigned comment added by Burnmeister (talkcontribs) 08:08, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've fixed it for you, you had an extra file: and some extra text after the file name which I removed here. Sarahj2107 (talk) 08:54, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Line numbers in diffs

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When one clicks on a diff in a watchlist, the article displays a comparison between versions. Each change is identified by a line number, which is different between old and new version. This line number identifies where in the document that specific change has been made. If the diff covers a large number of changes, it can be extremely tedious to track down exactly where in the text each one is, The line number, one would expect, would help in this quest. However, there is no display of line number either in the edit window or the article, so what is the line number for, and is there any way of getting line numbers to display in the article or edit window? • • • Peter (Southwood) (talk): 10:50, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I ignore the line number and often do a Ctrl+F browser search for a string in the right side of the diff. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:58, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that works, but it seems odd to put the line numbers in the diff display if they serve no useful purpose. • • • Peter (Southwood) (talk): 13:15, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I would still like an answer to my actual question. • • • Peter (Southwood) (talk): 06:03, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Many external editors display line numbers and/or have a feature to go to a specified line number. I think AutoWikiBrowser also has something like that. But for most users, I agree the line number has very little value. It may hint whether it's early or late in the wiki source, but I don't expect anyone to manually count line numbers in the edit box. There is a related suggestion but no activity at bugzilla:2313 - "diff should provide anchors to start or related paragraphs". PrimeHunter (talk) 11:46, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I was intrigued by the comment "I don't expect anyone to manually count line numbers in the edit box", so compared the same diff with a wide edit box, and then with a narrow edit box - I get the same line numbers appearing in the diff. As it doesn't relate to the lines in the edit box, what does it relate to? Arjayay (talk) 19:42, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It ignores line wraps in the edit box. The same line number is displayed to everybody. Line x means the line after there have been x-1 newlines. Finding this in the edit box for x>10 will be very tedious in the browsers I have tried, unless the lines are short enough to avoid line wrap. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:50, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I want to know about it why bahti are Social group of Himachal .It is also social group of Punjab?

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Bahti Caste is a punjabi caste . and it is from ancient Pakistan. These are Jatt people In Amritsar,Hosiarpur,Ropar etc. also know as bhaniwal.How did you Publish it that only these people are from punjab.lets chaeck the history of benipal, Pakistan Khanwal village,amritsar jatt....then see who are they...its a forward caste — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.184.196.138 (talk) 12:27, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The answer to a question "How did you publish it that ... " is always "because it was put there by somebody just like you and me, who edited the article." Wikipedia does not have an editor or editorial board: we are all editors. If you can improve Wikipedia, you are very welcome to do so, especially if you have a reliable source for the information you wish to add. I don't know which article you are talking about, because Bhati (which is a very short article) mentions several places other than Punjab. --ColinFine (talk) 15:40, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

help with citing a reference

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hey, I have been trying to get my footnote to correspond to my reference, and i have no idea what I am doing wrong-i am trying to cite a webpage in my sandbox, can anyone help? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Intern-DC (talkcontribs) 15:27, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The first error message is telling you that, in order to get the references you have defined to display, you need either <references/> or {{reflist}} after all of them. The second is similar, but more specific. Please see WP:References for beginners for more help. --ColinFine (talk) 15:43, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) I've made an edit; look closely at what what I did, and at Help:Referencing for beginners. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:47, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Can crown corporations and portfolios have access to gcpedia namely Canadian Tourism Commission

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Can crown corporations and portfolios have access to gcpedia namely Canadian Tourism Commission — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.197.178.2 (talk) 16:11, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The question refers to the subject of the Wikipedia article GCPEDIA. If the answer isn't in that article (I haven't looked), then the two options seem to be to (a) post the question at the article talk page, Talk:GCPEDIA, or ask at the Reference desk. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 16:54, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) "GCpedia is an internal wiki used by the Government of Canada". This helpdesk is for users of Wikipedia. The two sites are unconnected, except in that they both use wiki software. So people here are unlikely to know who has access to GCpedia. Maproom (talk) 17:52, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

retired nascar drivers

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Plese research David Brady who finished 7th in points in 1956 Sportsman division and give him the credit he deserves, drove #00≈≈≈≈ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.77.222.229 (talk) 17:52, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The article List of former NASCAR drivers seems fairly complete to me. But if you think David Brady should be added, I suggest that you post at Talk:List of former NASCAR drivers. Please note that people may not pay attention unless you provide some sources (magazine articles, links to website pages, etc.). -- John Broughton (♫♫) 03:59, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

New way of editing

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Hello, I tried to edit Wikipedia many years ago, now I just realised that there is something else that appears when I click edit on some pages (not on this, for some reason). If I want the normal editing screen that I remember I have to click "edit source". What is this? It is very confusing to me. And for some reason the time is showing incorrectly. It is not 1814 in my time zone... — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChingChongChangCheng (talkcontribs) 18:14, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:Visual Editor. uhhlive (talk) 18:17, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thank you. How do I make a signature like you? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChingChongChangCheng (talkcontribs) 18:19, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can sign by typing ~~~~. You can set your time zone at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-datetime. It doesn't affect the time in signatures. For that, try "Change UTC-based times and dates, such as those used in signatures, to be relative to local time" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:35, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I wasn't aware of the gadget pointed out by PrimeHunter to make signature dates be stated in my local time. I looked at the documentation, and it wasn't clear to me when it would change a time and when it wouldn't. Occasionally times will be mentioned in talk page discussions, and I presume times written by editors rather than generated by the Mediawiki software would not be converted. Therefore I prefer to use only UT while editing Wikipedia. Jc3s5h (talk) 18:46, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find my article

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Hi, I logged in to check on the status of my article that is being reviewed, and I can't find it. Where do I look? Thank you, Marie Trentsgrb — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marie Trentsgrb (talkcontribs) 19:24, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whenever you are logged in at Wikipedia, you will see a "Contributions" link at the top right. That will show you the names of the pages you have been editing recently. The page you are looking for is Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/SAWA - All the Women Together Today and Tomorrow. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:37, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Now in mainspace at SAWA (non-profit organization).--ukexpat (talk) 13:24, 24 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Grouping many inline citations

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On Hezekiah Usher I recently created, I have many inline citations for the first two sentences in the lede paragraph. Can someone group each of these sentence citations bunches into one citation for each sentence that covers the many of each of these sentences? Thanks!--Doug Coldwell (talk) 21:00, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I grouped them together into single footnotes in this edit. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 21:27, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! Looks good....--Doug Coldwell (talk) 21:57, 23 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]