Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 May 26

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May 26

Movuy article

I am ready to move my article so it is live on Wikipedia. Do I delete my user/<username> in the new title field so that just the title shows, or will Wikipedia delete the user/<username> automatically when I move it? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Htcrane (talk • contribs) 01:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

When you move the article, in the field where you type the new name, just enter the name as the exact title you want the article to appear under. Please be sure to follow Wikipedia:Naming conventions when chosing a name for your article. --Jayron32 02:40, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Pioneer 11

TRW was in the Pioneer 11 space program. There was a daily news announcement by a young woman.was this an advertisement or done by NASA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.107.117.147 (talk) 01:54, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

First, this is the help desk which deals with questions related to editing this encyclopedia. The Reference Desk is for factual questions about various other subjects. So you should repost your question there. Second, you may want to better explain what you're referring to. I, for one, have no idea what "TRW" is with relation to the Pioneer 11 project. Dismas|^(talk) 02:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

When Pioneer 11 didn't mention TRW, you could have tried whether TRW mentions Pioneer 11... But it doesn't answer the original question. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:34, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, though my point is still valid. This is the wrong place and some additional background will help people understand the question. Dismas|^(talk) 05:22, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Repeat vandal

The user at 76.90.52.75 (Contributions) has repeatedly vandalised an article. Shall I warn them and if so what do I need to use to warn them of their bad edits. Thanks! Chevymontecarlo 06:32, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The user has been given a level-one warning, and the vandalism reverted. This page explains more about warning vandals, and how to respond to vandalism generally. Does that answer your question? Gonzonoir (talk) 07:56, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's great! Thanks. I'll bookmark the link. Chevymontecarlo 11:47, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Help in changing Text display size!

Hi, as a frequent user of Wikipedia, I have used several computers which display ALL the text on Wikipedia at a huge size where you literally have to scroll left to right 5 or more screens to read a single line! How is this amended? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.105.29.142 (talk) 06:41, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Try hitting Ctrl + the minus key (-) or, while holding down the control button moving your mouse's scroll wheel down. In most browsers you can also go to something like "view" in the browser menu and "zoom" in or out.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:48, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you're using Firefox, you can hit Ctrl and the zero key to return the text to the default size. Dismas|^(talk) 10:51, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a widget or a web gadget?

Hi,

I am a regular reader of your online encyclopedia and am particularly pleased about the content. Except in some rare cases, I find wikipedia a lot resourceful and hence rely on the information obtained therefrom. However I find a hitch, while many such information hubs have come up with their own widgets and addons to browsers or toolbars to make the search process more user friendly, yours I suppose is slightly short of one. Could you consider this and please work on this?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.192.197.156 (talk) 07:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you use a Mac (which you probably don't) the Dictionary application has the ability to search and view Wikipedia articles with the most basic formatting. There have been a few problems with the Dictionary app with the new Wikipedia design though, so keep that in mind. If you use a Windows computer (which you probably do) I don't think there are any Wikipedia widgets or addons that you can use, except there may be an addon for Internet Explorer somewhere... Chevymontecarlo 11:46, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There are search engines for Firefox that should be available in the Firefox seach bar when you are on any en Wikpedia page. The same may also be true for IE 8, but I cannot confirm that. – ukexpat (talk) 15:20, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Uploading a Picture with permission given by the UN

Hi,

I'm trying to upload a picture that I've gotten permission from the UN.

Please advise,

T —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.178.107.12 (talk) 08:08, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The advice on donating copyrighted materials here probably applies, if the picture is copyright. In a nutshell, you must be aware that only the copyright holder can donate the material, and that donating it means permitting it to be changed and used outside Wikipedia too. Practically, if the material is already online then you'd need to add compatible licensing notices to the site where it's already displayed, or if it's not yet online you'd need to upload it to Wikimedia Commons with a suitable license, or create an OTRS ticket confirming that permission is granted. Does that page supply the information you need, or do you have any more questions? Gonzonoir (talk) 08:16, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

phonetic words

Hello people,

when I type the word 'khela' which means game I found it on Wikipedia. But most people in write it in Bengali the word 'Khelaa' with 2 aa's. Is it possible to change this at wikipedia or to make a new page.

Again, most people use khelaa and not khela —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.130.97.35 (talk) 11:59, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I reverted your edit to Khela. This is an article about a film called Khela according to every source I found. It is not an article about a Bengali word called khelaa, and Wikipedia is not a dictionary. If Khelaa was a common misspelling of the film title then a redirect could be created at Khelaa. Do you have evidence of this spelling being used about the film? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Also note that Khela displays File:Khela.jpg, a poster for the film which clearly spells it Khela. It was odd that you changed [1] the file name to the non-existing File:Khelaa.jpg and wrote the title as "Khelaa" where File:Khela.jpg had been. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

social upliftment funding for western cape south africa

Hi Everyone We need finicial help in South Africa especially in a small village in Villiersdorp Western Cape where we need funding for social upliftment for farm workers and transients. We require land and a new large community hall ,as these poor peaple suffer from alchohol/drug/women and child abuse.If anyone can redirect this message of hope to someone who can help us the community would be very greatfull.

kind regards Lynne and George

Christian Familly Open Door Fellowship

<email redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.4.130.20 (talk) 12:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry. I'm sure it's a worthwhile cause, but Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a bulletin board, and it doesn't permit advertising or appeals of this type. I've removed your email address per the header on this page, as spammers harvest such details from this high-profile site. Karenjc 13:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

My username does not work i Think

I get this message everytime; "Login error There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please hit "back" and reload the page you came from, then try again."

I am very annoyed by this!! Please make my user work again. I feel like im being sen censored. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.98.231.105 (talk) 13:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Try closing the browser and open it again. Or restart the computer. If you are asked to enter words written in a strange way (a CAPTCHA) then do it. Does this help? If not then what is the username and browser? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:35, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Mysteriously, the last edit in this page does not show

http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AList_of_cities_by_quality_of_living&action=historysubmit&diff=364295266&oldid=362926090 --94.69.80.118 (talk) 13:31, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It shows for me. Try to bypass your cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:37, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

That edit showed up. Because of the formatting, it was put on the same line as the previous comment, I have fixed it so it display properly and is easier to read. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:40, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Show only BOT edits

Is there a way to show only edits made by BOTS when viewing article history.--intraining ^{Jack In} 13:37, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There is none that I know of. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 14:19, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think bot flags appear in page histories; they only appear in Recent Changes and Watchlist. Gary King (talk) 14:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

This might or might not be "duh advice", but as a method of searching for edits by bots (which in almost all cases have "bot" as part of their name), I would suggest expanding the page history to 500 revisions, then using your computer's find function (Ctrl+F) to search for "bot".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:28, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

"Adding To What ForgetAbout It Said" If you have firefox, you can just type "Bot" when on the page, but not in a text find and It'll quick find\highlight everywhere on the page with it. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:03, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

help so my text is not delete

i have just posted an information about the competitor felipe costa, using atext from my website, now im afraid it will be delete, since that is a message saying that>

> > > my user name is felipepcs> > > > please help me as im new on that and the explanation was too complicated to me (im really stupid) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Felipepcs (talk • contribs) 15:49, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You seem to be saying that you are the author or publisher of the web site that the information was copied from. There are ways for you to grant a copyright license to that the copy can be used on Wikipedia.

But first, read the guideline, WP:ATHLETE, about how notable an athlete must be for there to be an article about him. If your website is considered to be an authority on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then the article on your site may allow the article to appear in Wikipedia. If not, you must cite other reliable sources that describe the athlete's importance in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:05, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Felipe costa has been deleted as a copyright violation of this site. That site does not contain a copyright release or license acceptable to Wikipedia so the text cannot be used here. Assuming that the subject is notable, you will either have to rewrite the text in your own words or ask the copyright owner to release the copyright as explained on this page (or you release it as described there if you own that site). However, if you are the subject, please read our advice about creating an autobiography or if you are connected to the subject please read our advice on editing with a conflict of interest. – ukexpat (talk) 16:06, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Deleting old username from talk page

I've changed my username, however my old username still shows up in an (unwanted) post on a talk page whenever you click the 'diff' button. I've tried to manually edit it, but it still keeps showing up in the old version upon clicking the 'diff' button. Is there any way at all to make that change? Help! Qwerty24601 (talk) 16:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)Qwerty24601

I'm not sure that you can, and my view is that that's correct behaviour for a diff - a diff shows a snapshot of a moment in time, and at that moment in time you were using your old username.

For what it's worth, I changed my username (from "This flag once was red"), and I simply acknowledge the old username on my userpage.

For the most recent version of the talk page, could you simply archive or delete/move the comment? Obviously that won't affect diffs, but I'd advise against trying to alter the past!

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 16:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You can ask for the revision to be oversighted but you will have to have good reasons for doing so, a mere change of name/new account would not usually be enough. – ukexpat (talk) 16:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Suggestion box

Does Wikipedia have a "suggestion box"? I have a suggestion that a flaw be fixed in the article search process. Duoduoduo (talk) 17:15, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Feature requests and bug reports should be posted to BugZilla. – ukexpat (talk) 17:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

If you start by posting here then we might say whether it's a known issue and maybe has a known solution. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:24, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

The Village Pump has places to discuss bugs, policy corrections and numerous other suggestions. Livewireo (talk) 18:58, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

A concept with double meanings

Resolved

If a concept (in this case Domain specificity) has two different meanings, and an article has been written about only one of them, how do I add the second meaning to the article? (This second meaning would only require two sentences, so it's not worth an article, but just knowing what "domain" and "specificity" means is not quite enough to understand the meaning of the combination "domain specificity". Lova Falk talk 18:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I would recommend an "Other Uses" Section within the main article - something like - "Domain Specificity can also refer to a __ which ___. This is widely used for___."
~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 01:01, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Full Page History Download

Resolved

I don't understand the reasoning behind the restriction on number of revisions in an article export. I am trying to set up a research project using a couple of hundred wikipedia articles and have run into the history export restriction on a couple of them. I would prefer not to have to download the entire Wikipedia since that would tax bandwidth and almost certainly overtax my system and storage capacity. However, the restriction on length of history poses a significant problem for the research program I have in mind. I may be able to kludge something with cURL, assuming I can get it to open the pages (as yet a failure, alas), but it seems there must be a simpler solution. If, indeed, there is no solution, can someone explain the logic of restricting history in the manner it is restricted through Special:Export? Thanks in advance. Nobboddoddy (talk) 19:30, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Not sure how asking a question about downloading full page history is construed as "intended to be disruptive". If the person who deleted it thinks it doesn't belong on this forum, that may be a reasonable contention, but that isn't the reason given. If that is the case, is there a more appropriate forum for more technical usage questions?

Try WP:VPT. Johnuniq (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, that looks like a good place to ask :) --Nobboddoddy (talk) 09:11, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

I quit!

I created my first page and i was unable to come back to edit it when i got back it was completely different and whenever i try to add a new thing to it it is just deleted right away and when i made a new page it is nominated for deletion and i don't want to waste my time on something that is just going to be deleted and changed by careless people how can i quit Wikipedia? --A.m.c.1.9.9.9 (talk) 20:06, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You can just stop editing.

There are some other ideas at this page, but to my mind the easiest thing is just to stop and not sign in again.

Incidentally, when you created the page (this one, presumably?) you would have been shown a warning advising that all pages here can be edited by everyone. You don't "own" the page you created.

Cheers, TFOWR^propaganda 20:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It can be very frustrating when you first start editing Wikipedia. Perhaps you could start by editing articles that already exist. Creating new ones (that don't get deleted!) can be a tricky thing at first, there are certain policies and guidelines you need to adhere to. Unfortunately lots of articles get deleted every day, and it can be disheartening. It's easier to "practise" your Wikipedia skills by making small changes to articles, and watching what others do. Do bear in mind though that edits don't always "stick". As TFOWR says above me, this is a wiki, and anyone can change what you've written. Even the most experienced editors find that. From your talkpage, it looks like you've run into trouble with our Notability guideline, so it might be worth reading over that. And feel free to ask any questions here if you need to.--BelovedFreak 21:55, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Unsuccessful adding links

I created an account today and tried to add external links for several individual pages (Gordon Parks, Stella Stevens, Martin Woodhouse) to articles/interviews at legitimate online sites that provide additional context to the main text. The new links appeared briefly, then disappeared, and Wikipedia then logged me out. Can you tell me if this is because I made formatting errors? Thank you.Dean Brierly (talk) 20:23, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

One user undid all your edits, perhaps either because they considered the links to be WP:LINKSPAM or because you removed the ==External links== section heading from each article. I don't think the logging out is related; you might have HTTP cookie problems. Gary King (talk) 20:46, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Gary. Two more questions, if I may. 1) When I try to add a link, I click on the word "edit" to the right of External Links, then click on the the link symbol, add the Target Page or URL, insert Text to Display, and hit Insert Link. That takes me the Edit section, where Edit Summary is highlighted above a text bar. What exactly should I type here? Something like: Added external link? And is there anything else I should be doing as part of this process? 2) When I tried adding links earlier today, and they appeared briefly, the header External Links had disappeared. Was that due to a formatting error on my part? Thanks in advance.Dean Brierly (talk) 21:32, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

It appears that when you added the links, you overwrote the bit that says ==External links==; that's the text that produces the header. Typing "added external link" is a good edit summary, you could also say why you think it's a good addition. You need to be brief, but if you want to write more you can use the article talkpage. Before you start adding more links, please read Wikipedia:External links and What Wikipedia is not to understand a bit more about which links we tend to add and which we tend to remove. Many editors start off at Wikipedia by adding useful links, because it's quite an easy way to start getting involved, but find that their edits are reverted. It's important to make sure that articles don't end up becoming long lists of external links. Also, have a look at some of the links provided on you talkpage, they'll help you learn the ropes.--BelovedFreak 21:49, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Cheers!Dean Brierly (talk) 21:52, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

There may be a Conflict of interest issue here, because Dean is posting external links to interviews that he conducted himself. -- John of Reading (talk) 04:44, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

May be? Most definitely a COI. – ukexpat (talk) 17:28, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Not necessarily if you read the whole text of COI. Using material you yourself have written or published is allowed within reason, but only if it is notable and conforms to the content policies. As long as the article subject has independent notability, and Dean's interview is a reliable source of information and isn't just spam or self promotion, then the fact that he conducted the interview is irrelevant. Its not a conflict of interest at all in that case - although I do appreciate that's a lotta ifs.Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:59, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

General Aristide Razu(can't find the article I made)

Hi,my name is Andrei Radu Georgescu,I made an article about my ggrandfather General Aristide Razu and I cannot find it on Wikipedia.Any ideeas?

Kind regards . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aristiderazu (talk • contribs) 22:57, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I can check for you if you please write the exact page name below. ~QwerpQwertus |_Talk_| |_Contribs_| 23:02, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

You posted about him extensively here however, the post here is the only post you have made to Wikipedia, under this name. --SPhilbrickT 23:22, 26 May 2010 (UTC)