Help desk
< July 8	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 10 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

July 9

weird click errors

Okay, getting weirded out here. When I

click or double click on a word, like to select it for copying, one of two things happen.
1. .php extension pops up, and I am asked (in Mac or PC) what programme I want to use to open that .php?
2. Firefox 3 goes nuts! It keeps trying to open pages all over the show and piles .part files up the Mac desktop.
try to find a simple way to report these errors, I get every possible permutation of programming pish, but no simple links like report an error or submit an error or an email for webmasters or anything.

thanks,

jas

avaiki (talk) 00:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No help, but I fixed your numbering. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I cancelled an index.php download. I forget what I was asking for, but I seem to remember being in the upload interface. My system doesn't do php, as far as I know. BrewJay (talk) 06:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, that does sound like a strange error. You might want to try posting at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing; they get a lot of bug questions. — Pie4all88 (talk) 15:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Internet Archive

The two most important sources for Exelon Pavilions were 2005 press releases. The company just dumped the 2005 news releases from their archives. How can I find internet archives of these press release articles?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 00:30, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Archive.org? bibliomaniac 1 5 00:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They have one of the two. I also need need the following http://www.exeloncorp.com/aboutus/news/pressrelease/corporate/Press+Release+121505a.htm --TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 01:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here you go. It's an alternate, perhaps better way: look at Google's cache of the page by searching for "cache:<URL>". Most of those should return Google's cache of the page. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 01:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Run LinkChecker on the article and it can search Archive.org and update the links for you. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 10:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Inserting footnote?

This is undoubtedly Wiki-101, but I added material to a brief entry (Donald M. Nelson) and a footnote with a Web address, as the entry lacked any citation. When I saved the article, the new version had a superscript (1), but I didn't see a footnote below. What did I do incorrectly?

DonDiegoVega (talk) 01:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You have to place {{reflist}} or <references /> in a section called "References" at the bottom. I do believe using {{reflist}} is preferred over <references />. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 01:20, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:FOOT for the detailed instructions. --Teratornis (talk) 06:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Accessing deleted content

An article I recently created, Charles Bryant (actor), was deleted because some of the content had been taken from another website, even though I took sufficient care to paraphrase each sentence so it was not copied verbatim. I would now like to re-create the article and edit it so that it does not infringe WP’s copyright policies, and was therefore wondering how I can gain access to the previously deleted article as I had undertaken a fair amount of research on the subject which I would ideally not like to have to repeat. Flaming Ferrari (talk) 01:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can ask any administrator, but note that if it is a copyright-violation (hopefully it isn't), they can't give you the text. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:02, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Because of the copyright issue, I cannot provide you the deleted text on a public forum. However, I will email you the deleted article's text if you enable your account's email function. Go to your preferences, type your email address into the space listed under User Profile, save, drop a note here that you have, and you'll have it in a short time. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've done it. Thanks. Flaming Ferrari (talk) 02:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Email sent. Don't forget to check your spam folder if you don't see it. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:25, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

[redacted]

Courtesy blanked, see history. Daniel (talk) 13:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Question

What does destination filename mean? — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheOnlyOne12 (talk • contribs) 04:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you're uploading a file, it means what you want the file to be called on the Wikimedia servers. The general guideline is (a) don't replicate the name of an existing file (you may also want to check on Commons) and (b) make the filename something descriptive, since digital cameras tend to give such helpful filenames as DSC35978.jpg Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 05:57, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using index.php

I was looking at {{Documentation}} when I realized that one of the mechanisms that the template used (as the create link) was to use a &preload= option of index.php to preload one of the template pages onto the new page. I tried a technique using a page as a variable (this fulfills my previous request Action Buttons) and tried to use the preload option to set the data of the page (to switch the traffic lights state, to tell users NOT to edit, etc...), but found that it didn't work. Is there a similar &load= option or something? Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Uhh... no. Preloading is only for creating new pages/sections. For appending/prepending such and such to articles, there's a user script that takes a URL parameter, not sure which script it is though... 05:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Whatever it is, it needs to be a link. This is one main criterion for my action button. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 06:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Monitor width template

Is there a template, class, or magic word that detects the user's monitor size and displays it as a numerical value? I know it's possible in Java Script (screen.width), but how is it done in Wikipedia? ChyranandChloe (talk) 05:34, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why do you need to know? Most box templates (like {{Divbox}} and {{Ambox}}) do this for you automatically. The only other use I can see is saying "your screen width is %d". Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 05:38, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure there isn't one. There probably is, however, a way to fix your problem (whatever it happens to be). Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 05:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In other words, could you be more descriptive? Gnorthup

Is wikipedia gonna be around for a while?

Cos i've put a lot of work in on here and I hope it's not gonna all fade away in a few years. 79.75.226.93 (talk) 07:06, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I was hoping to find something relevant in Wikipedia:Replies to common objections, but nothing jumps right out. Other than maybe the section about growth. At least the project funding looks pretty solid now; see:

Also, the major search engines such as Google rank Wikipedia articles high in their search results. This suggests the search engines regard Wikipedia as central to their business models. As long as that remains true, Wikipedia is probably about as durable as, say, Google. However, we know that everyone and every thing will someday be forgotten. See Heat death of the universe and Ozymandias. In the meantime, if you want to be sure not to lose your work, see Special:Export. --Teratornis (talk) 07:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:There is no deadline sort of implies Wikipedia will be around for a while, or at least whoever wrote that essay seems to think so. --Teratornis (talk) 07:35, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle

I'm using Twinkle to (among other things) nominate articles for Afd. However, the last couple of times, I've seen that the notice in the offending article is redlinked, even though the Afd page exists (see St. Olaf, Minnesota). Any idea what the problem is? Or is there a better tool? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:54, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The red link went away after I did a null edit on the article. (I find that null edits often fix inconsistencies like this. — teb728 t c 08:22, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think Twinkle creates the debate page and tags the article in a slightly odd order, so the tag is placed in the article a second or two before the debate exists. Hence, when that edit completes, the link is marked as red because the target doesn't exist (though the link does actually work). The page then does come into existence, but often the server still caches how the page looked after the most recent edit to the article page. A null edit to the page does indeed solve that problem. ~ mazca ^{t | c} 13:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Purging the page cache works too and avoids having to do a null edit. I use the clock gadget (available in one's User prefs) to do that. – ukexpat (talk) 14:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It has nothing to do with the order. It's just that they are created almost at the same time. This combined with caching by Wikipedia can cause this "issue". Not really much that can be done about that, unless we start introducing timers and consecutive processing of the request in Twinkle (which heavy users would find highly annoying). --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to centre a gallery

Hi, I would really like to centre this image gallery here, but I’m not quite sure how to. Thanks. Flaming Ferrari (talk) 08:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

done. Harland1 (^t/_c) 10:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Looks much neater now! Flaming Ferrari (talk) 10:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlisting categories?

I was wondering whether it is possible to watchlist categories? The reason I ask is because I am currently working on an article List of King's College London alumni as an accompaniment to the category Category:Alumni of King's College London. The problem is that it is difficult for me to update my list as new alumni are added to the category, thus I was wondering whether it is possible to track changes made to this category. Thanks Flaming Ferrari (talk) 08:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can watchlit a category, by clicking watch, but I don't think there's a way to be notifie when an article is added to it. Harland1 (^t/_c) 10:10, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Using 'Related Changes' [1] from the Category page might help. More so if the person putting article into category left note in edit summary.-Hunting dog (talk) 10:27, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Another way (and one I use myself for a similar alumni list) is to use what links here for King's College, London, on the basis that someone creating a new page about a KCL alumni might wikilink KCL but not add the alumni category. Newest pages are at the end of the list: digging back a bit, I found Peter Hofschröer for you! Bencherlite ^Talk 10:36, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for for all your suggestions. Flaming Ferrari (talk) 10:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

for watching "additions" to a category (which Special:RecentChangesLinked does not detect), you can also use User:Ais523/catwatch.js. It works reasonably well. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting question

I want to have a bulleted list like this, and then some text:

Item one
Item two
Item three

Text element one
Text element two
Text element three

How do I make text element one indented to the same degree as item three without giving it a bullet? - Richard Cavell (talk) 09:22, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use a colon instead of a asterisk. It's not perfect, but I think that it is as close as you can get. Paragon12321 (talk) 14:57, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

<div style="padding:0em 1.5em;">Text element one</div> seems to indent the text to match that of the bulleted list, at least on my browser. For the "padding" parameter there, the first value (0em in this case) refers to the vertical indentation, and the second (1.5 em) sets the horizontal indentation. Here's what

*Item one
<div style="padding:0em 1.5em;">Text element one</div>

will output:

Item one

Text element one

Hope it's what you're looking for. Cheers! — Pie4all88 (talk) 14:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect web address for link in article on Harlem, Georgia

The correct web address for the Laurel & Hardy Museum which is mentioned in your article is www.laurelandhardymuseum.org The address you have listed is the old website which has incorrect hours and information. Please change. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.217.253.39 (talk) 12:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there, I edited the link on the bottom of Harlem, Georgia with the one you provided. If you find a mistake like this in the future, feel free to click "edit this page" at the top-middle of the page to change it yourself. Wikipedia:How to edit a page has some more information on how to do this if you need help. Cheers! — Pie4all88 (talk) 14:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Removing a Flag

After edits are made to a page to respond to a content concern, how does one go about requesting that a flag be removed from a page? Such as "This article needs additional citations for verification." Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.156.194.3 (talk) 13:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's added by the template {{refimprove}}. You need to remove that code from the article. Algebraist 13:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c)Edit the page and delete the relevant template from the article (usually they are at the top). Also note in your edit summary why you have deleted it and add a message to the article's talk page noting how you have dealt with the concern. – ukexpat (talk) 14:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How would you?

Put this into correct Wiki en/em space etc: "The festivities included a 20 foot (6 metre)-high Whomping Willow" Thanks!--seahamlass 16:45, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use {{convert}}:

{{convert|20|ft|m|0}}

which gives:

20 feet (6 m)

-- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

offering help to edit the "Adstream" profile

I have noted that wikipedia is not happy with the recently posted "Adstream" profile. I am a business studies student and would be prepared to help produce a non-advertising profile. Could you give me some guidance please...

is the problem that the article is too long? or is it the content? do many companies of similar size get articles removed for similar reasons or is it perfectly reasonable for such sized companies to have factual entries about themselves.90.59.76.24 (talk) 16:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Before you start, please read WP:CORP and WP:SPAM. Wikipedia has articles not profiles because it is an encyclopedia not a directory of businesses. Notability verified by reliable sources are some of the key principals of WP. I will post a welcome message for you with more links. You will also need to create an account and be autoconfirmed before you can create articles. Hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 17:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism on Gregory Peck?

Can someone go check Gregory Peck? There's an "Avril Troll" vandalism, and I can't seem to find it in the revision history. I can't seem to get rid of it either. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 18:43, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see it. It may have been vandalism to a template that has been reverted. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 18:49, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's odd, I still see it. It's essentially a banner across the screen that moves with my screen as I scroll. It says "Avril Lavigne Rocks My Socks" and then "Brought to you by the Avril Troll- back from wikibreak". I don't think It's a template, but perhaps it's just my computer. Does anyone else see this?Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 18:54, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see it as well. I'm not sure where it is though. TN‑X-Man 18:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see it either. That is very strange. I can't seem to find a user Avril Troll (AvrilTroll) either. Scottydude _talk 18:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(unindent) There's an interesting thread at Wikipedia Talk:Reference Desk with this link here.Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can it possibly only show in firefox or something? I'm using Explorer and I don't see it. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:05, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in ie too. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in Firefox. I can see it in the page source too. I'm sure what that means though. TN‑X-Man 19:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see it now at Clannad. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:08, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(outdent) It appears to be fixed at Gregory Peck. TN‑X-Man 19:11, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the thread that had that link? ~ Bella Swan^? 19:13, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It was fixed at Clannad as well, but no edits in the history. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:15, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia talk:Reference desk#How disappointing... <- is the the thread, I think. TN‑X-Man 19:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's removed, but how? There's nothing in the diffs.Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:18, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How did that user at that thread know about that page in photobucket? Isn't that kind of weird? I'm doing searches for it on photobucket too, and it's not showing up unless I click the link. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:20, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to this, it's supposed to be at Jules Verne as well. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:23, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's his own work. Look at his signature, then look at his name in the screen shot. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's at Jules Verne. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 19:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see his username now, but I still don't see at Jules Verne. The user who created the photobucket image saw it just a minute ago though. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:29, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For those of you still seeing the vandalism, try WP:PURGE, then try WP:BYPASS while viewing the page in question. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 19:45, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

While I'm sure it's a good thing that the vandalism is gone, do we know how it happened? If we don't try to figure out, we might very well have more than one complaint scattered across the wiki about an avriltroll in the future. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:47, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

...speaking of which, an IP has just spotted it at Coldplay. ~ Bella Swan^? 19:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I no longer see it after using the purge command on the Coldplay page. Laenir (talk) 19:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK- if there is someone who can still see the vandalism: do not purge. View the page source and paste it into a user subpage. We should be able to pull it from that. I went through the templates and the .css, but did not see anything. It could have been in a Mediawiki message. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:19, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I may have part of the solution. I just blocked User talk:Wasy Ples, who had created the Avril vandalism on his talk page and was transcluding it onto pages. See his talk page for the history and code. I haven't searched for sockpuppets yet.- Trevor MacInnis (Contribs) 20:34, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. There was HTML code showing in the infobox, so it appeared to me that the problem was there. The code stopped where {{image class}} was used. That template in turn uses {{image class names}}, which was vandalized by transcluding User talk:RockerTed. The template has been protected and the user blocked. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you - Nice detective work, I couldn't figure it out! – ukexpat (talk) 21:02, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That made my head hurt. Took me a bit to figure out the talk page since he had the mess enclosed in a <includeonly>.[2] -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's a shame that someone like this vandal would choose to use their skills to vandalise rather than improve the project, but maybe some day they will see the light. – ukexpat (talk) 21:35, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Starting my own wiki

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question, but I need help. Where can I find good information on starting my own wiki? I've already got the newest mediawiki installed, but I noticed it does not have an "upload file" feature, which I would like to have. Where can I find the XML Help and Special pages, and such to import, and where is a better place to find this type of information? Mac Davis (talk) 22:37, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This help desk is only for Wikipedia. Maybe you can find something useful at mw:Sysadmin hub. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:50, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Default sort

I'm having a strange problem with the default sort. I have created a page (title: Antonin Sertillanges), and marked it as a stub in three categories (Roman Catholic, philosopher, theologian). I have the Default sort to be under S (for Sertillanges), and it is listed under S int he RC stub and the theologian stub categories. But it is still listed under A in the philosopher stub category. What gives? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Theloavesandthevicious (talk • contribs) 23:40, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First clear your computer's cache, and if that doesn't work, purge the category page's cache. I think one or the other will take care of it. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:53, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For category caching issues, do a null edit to force a refresh. -- — — Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 23:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a caching issue. It's because {{philosopher-stub}} includes [[Category:Philosopher stubs|{{PAGENAME}}]] in it, which forces the page to be sorted by its actual name, rather than the default sort. I think you should ask at Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting what their standard is for the templates. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:08, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]