Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 February 18

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February 18

edited / fixed broken link, replaced with good link, but page still shows old/broken one?

See "reference" #3 at bottom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wodaabe

Link pointed to http://iws.ccccd.edu/mbailey/wodaabe.pdf which is broken -- apparently ccccd.edu has been changed to collin.edu.

I edited link to point to http://iws.collin.edu/mbailey/wodaabe.pdf -- which I've verified is a valid link, and goes to the proper .pdf file.

Still, the link on the page points to ccccd.edu.

Why?

I know the edit "stuck" because when I look at history, the edit is there, and when I compare versions my edit shows the proper URL...

So why does the "read" page - even after reload - still point to the wrong place?

Thanks!

DD Dedicated Dad (talk) 07:10, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

You appear to have fixed it in the second bullet-point (you edited the second line line beginning with an asterisk in the References section). But the actual citations in the numbered footnotes (the ones cross-linked into the article itself) are embedded in the text. The {{Reflist}} token in the References section tells the wiki software to "put here all the citations collected from within the article". WP:INCITE is the description of this syntax. Looking through the article, I found where that footnote #3 was defined, and changed it. DMacks (talk) 07:33, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

is that possible to create privately held company page

i am working with an IT company which is private limited. and i just want to know the possibility to create company page or want to create company profile on Wikipedia.

if its possible then please let me know "how". if its not possible then please let me know "why". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.172.28.16 (talk • contribs) 07:18, 18 February 2011

No, see WP:OWN and WP:COI. [[CharlieEchoTango]] 07:59, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

If you post the name of and other information on the IT company, we would be better able to tell you the possibility of creating a company page on the IT company. In general, Wipedia covers notable topics—those that have been "noticed" to a significant degree by independent sources (here, sources that are not connected to the IT company). The company will need to have received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources. How to create a company page on the IT company is best covered at Wikipedia:New contributors' help page. Also, Wikipedia:Requested articles is a place to request a new article. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:28, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

A company not suitable for Wikipedia is probably still suitable for Wikicompany, which has no affiliation with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 11:35, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Behind the voice actors poll

Good day help desk, I have a question. With your high standards would this website’s poll count as a Wikipedia approved reference? Here’s a link to it.

I noticed Wikipedia at least uses behindthevoiceactors.com to cite what roles an actor did.

But, would such sensitive material truly be acceptable? I already contacted BTVA and they confirmed that the current poll results are accurate.

But, they also said that a forum on another website did a campaign to bolster votes for a particular actor. Would that also affect its usability?

Thank you for your time, help desk. Viceroy kai (talk) 07:27, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Polls are opinions, therefore they probably wouldn't be reliable, unless you're putting something like xx% of people on xx.com/co.uk/au said that xx was the best/worst or something like that. For more info, see here. Dokter Zombieman ^brains.../_{the infected} 08:35, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

You may want to post a request at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. There is a prior discussion on behindthevoiceactors.com here. -- Uzma Gamal (talk) 09:16, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, I’ll post a request right now. Viceroy kai (talk) 15:36, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

incorrect Burmese font

The link below is having a font problem. The font is no longer used while Zay Gyi (font name) is now being used by the whole Burmese user. I would like to volunteer to fix it. May I know how.

http://my.wikipedia.org/wik — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tonyflightable (talk • contribs) 08:50, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I changed my mind now. I will not fix it having the respect to the original authors. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tonyflightable (talk • contribs) 11:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Self resolved, it seems. I'm not sure what the issue was, but if it's not related to the English (en) Wikipedia, going to the equivalent on the other Wikipedia may be of more assistance. Rehevkor ✉ 13:15, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"Kyle XY" website area

I have been the Admin for KyleXY.wikia.com for a while, enough to have made changes in the website format, including introducing a large number of screen shots. I am asking about migrating the content from wikia.com to wikipedia. That would entail uploading many images and adding pages for characters, which do not now exist. All images include the abc logo as copyright notice, because I put it there. Please go to Tom Foss to see what I do and would consider doing here, and let me know before I take time that might be wasted. - Thumlyly (talk) Feb. 18, 2011

I haven't worked with many TV character pages but my first impression is that only one or possibly two images could be used. There's no need for so many here. Oh, and the policy that covers that would be at WP:FAIRUSE. Dismas|^(talk) 13:08, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

(ecx2)Uploading copyrighted images en-mass would probably not pass our non-free content criteria. Individual characters in the series probably aren't notable, you would need to provide reliable third party coverage of the characters, rather than simply plot details, we already have List of Kyle XY characters which serves as a summary (although that too lacks sources). Rehevkor ✉ 13:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

More generally, an enormous portion of material that you may have found useful or interesting in your own specialty wiki would simply not be acceptable in Wikipedia (a general reference encyclopedia), as being non-encyclopedic. Some will be too trivial, of the sort we dismiss as "fancruft"; some will be inadequately sourced, written in an inappropriate tone of voice (lacking in impartiality, too gushing, etc.), or otherwise not useful here (and we never included copyright or trademark symbols). --Orange Mike | Talk 14:33, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Mother Teresa

The information you have entered abouth Mother Teresa been born in Kosovo now known Skopje Macedonia is not correct, you can check your self in the history books. Skpje Macedonia have never been Kosovo or Albania.I will advise you to check the information before you publish it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.168.93.234 (talk • contribs) 13:28, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion regarding Mother Teresa. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). Kayau Voting IS evil 13:36, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

And I would recommend you to write four tildes and read WP:MOS; for internal links you should add two brackets before and after the subject, for example [[Mother Teresa]]. Also this is not the right place to discuss this, instead use the talk page, for example Talk:Mother Teresa.-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 13:39, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

The OP should note also that nothing in the article says that Skopje was in Albania. It also doesn't say that it was in modern-day Kosovo, but refers instead to Vilayet of Kosovo. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Random Articles by Topic(s)

Hi Would it be possible to select random articles with a particular topic(s)?

e.g. you might be interested in one or a few topics and would like to just get random articles from a limited range rather than "everything" Cheers John — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.184.240.186 (talk)

I haven't heard of such a tool, and not sure if there's one out there. Anyway, you could always browse the main categories of those topics you are interested in, and randomly select a page there. DARTH SIDIOUS 2 ^(Contact) 14:22, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Random, which will lead you to User talk:GregU/randomlink.js. -— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk

Transwikification

Could somebody transwikify simple:Penetrometer to Penetrometer? I've tried reading meta:Help:Transwiki but it wasn't particularly helpful! Then I tried using Special:Import but it doesn't support transfer from the simple wiki AFAICT. Thanks SmartSE (talk) 16:24, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

ehm, "done". I moved back the content from the userspace... mabdul 18:35, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Well no, it isn't because we should copy the history of simple:Penetrometer to here - thus transwiki, rather than copy + paste. But thanks. SmartSE (talk) 19:36, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Ah now I understand. But isn't that the wrong place for request? I didn't realize that you removed the page... mabdul 21:52, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I tagged the article... mabdul 18:25, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

How to revert multiple edits in one step?

Resolved

We have a vandal at the talk page of September 11 attacks.[1] We have enough people watching the page so I'm not worried about the vandalism. I'm sure somebody will revert the vandalism and block the editor. But I was wondering if there's an easy way for me to undue multiple edits. As I type this, the vandal has made 6 consecutive edits. The revistion history page has undo links on a per edit basis. I don't want to have to click on them one at a time. Instead, I'd like to revert back to the last good edit. How do I do that in one step? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 17:09, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Twinkle automatically reverts all edits by the same user. The traditional method is choosing the last non-vandal revision for editing and save it. Happy editing! Zakhalesh (talk) 17:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

...In other words, in the page history, click the date next to the last good version, then click edit, then save. You could also request WP:ROLLBACK at this page, which can rapidly revert multiple edits with one click, enter an automatic edit summary, and then show the contributions history of the vandal. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 17:19, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I went ahead and gave AQFK rollback. SmartSE (talk) 17:29, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 18:01, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Another option for consecutive edits is to select the relevant range from the history and show the differences, then "Undo". This will usually allow you to revert consecutive vandalism, even if good edits have been made after the vandalism. Editing and saving the "last good version" would lose any good edits after the vandalism. [The only problem is if good edits have affected material affected by the vandalism; in such situations it may not allow you to undo.] Remember to include an appropriate edit summary. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:11, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

PDF printing

I have a program to look at web pages and print them out in PDF format, however when I do this page a blank page is automatically added to the end. I didn't put anything in the coding to make it do that and it does not happen on other Wiki pages. I think it is probably a problem with the program itself but maybe someone knew otherwise? Abraham Schulte (talk) 17:27, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Why not printing page 1 - 6 (with the exception of page 7)? mabdul 17:31, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

...Or better, why not use MediaWiki's native PDF-generating program, which has no such problem. If this happens on pages other than Wikipedia pages, then it would be a question for the Computers reference desk, and you might want to specify the nature of program you're using. Intelligentsium 17:34, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh I didn't realized that he didn't used it o.O mabdul 18:20, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

How much vandalism

How many vandalism reverts are made every second? Bot337 (talk) 17:52, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Surprisingly few. I guess vandalism isn't in anymore. By the way, your username is against the name policy, as usernames shouldn't imply one is a bot (unless one is a bot). Zakhalesh (talk) 17:56, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I see so much vandalism though, and it all gets reverted so fast. I'm only half bot. I guess I'll look into changing my name or whatever I have to do.Bot337 (talk) 18:03, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Well yeah, there's a lot, but I did a lot of (constructive!) IP editing about a year ago and I think it was a lot more common back then. I revert a lot of vandalism myself, there's usually enough for everybody willing to patrol recent changes. :) Zakhalesh (talk) 18:12, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

From my experience, vandalism seems to go through phases. It seems to pick up around the start of the US school year. The combination of being bored in school and easy access to a computer seem to be too much to handle for the little so-and-sos. Dismas|^(talk) 18:56, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

You might find something in Wikipedia:WikiProject Vandalism studies relating to your question. See other links under WP:EIW#Vandal. --Teratornis (talk) 18:57, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Clearly, a successful wiki must have some sort of effective strategy to stay on top of vandalism. The longer vandalism persists on a wiki, the more it encourages more vandalism. Conversely, if vandals consistently find their edits reverted within seconds, they probably won't find that very gratifying and will move on to easier prey (less defended sites). wikiindex:Category:Spammed lists some wikis where constructive users appear to have lost the battle. --Teratornis (talk) 19:01, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

True that, but some types of vandalism (attacks on corps, people etc) might actually be less likely to happen if not reverted immediately as vandals don't tend to have very long attention spans and won't be watching the article for more than a few minutes. Well, I revert them anyway. Zakhalesh (talk) 19:03, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Exceptions to the Broken windows theory may be possible, but I like that theory until someone disproves it. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Also see Stigmergy. If human psychology is similar to termite psychology, we feel a tendency to add more of what we see is already there. --Teratornis (talk) 19:24, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

I found the "slow revert" technique effective in boring away a persistent userpage vandal. Not sure if it's a good strategy in article space though. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 02:57, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

I too think it it works best when the vandal is someone who's trying to vent of steam against a specific subject, not when they're just doing that LOL GUISE CHEK OUT MA HAXOR, and as I said, I revert every bit of vandalism I see instantly. Zakhalesh (talk) 07:36, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Hallmark Hall of Fame: Front of the Class

I noticed when I clicked on the movie Front of the Class, it takes me to a link about the character the movie is based on, not the actual movie, like other Hallmark Hall of Fame movies that come after it do.

How do I change this, so I can create a page/link, just for the movie itself? I have a link from The Futon Critic that I can use for some information, since it's been a few years since I've watched it. Thanks! http://www.thefutoncritic.com/moviewatch/front-of-the-class/ GiantTiger001 (talk) 19:11, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

If Wikipedia:Notability (films) is satisfied then you can change the redirect Front of the Class into an article. See Help:Redirect#Creating and editing redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:23, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

How do if I know if Wikipedia:Notability (films) is satisfied and how to I change the article? That's what I need help with. GiantTiger001 (talk) 05:04, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

If you want to create an article then you should try to find and include sources to satisfy Wikipedia:Notability (films). Otherwise it may be deleted or turned into a redirect again. I cannot predict exactly what would be required for the article to survive if it is nominated for deletion. I haven't looked for sources for this film. My link Help:Redirect#Creating and editing redirects explains how to get to a redirect page. Click the "Edit" tab and replace the redirect code with article text. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:00, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Well I think I found the right place to change the title, since I'm not really sure what I'm doing, with anything on here. Even the steps you gave me I don't really understand. GiantTiger001 (talk) 06:38, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Here is an edit link where you can replace the current redirect code with an article: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Front_of_the_Class&action=edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:02, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Some graphical and practical glitches

Resolved

For the last few days, I've been having an issue with the edit tools diappearing and the edit window having some minor bugs (like the way the scroll bar shows up), image is available here. At first, I thought this might be due to some old code in my monobook.js, but after a bit of tinkering, I haven't been able to fix it. Also, I have noticed a grey bar that appeared where a sitenotice would a few weeks ago, and that some of my gadgets are slow to load (like the clock in the upper corner and replacing "new section" with a "+"), and now I'm wondering if they are related to a MediaWiki update or something. I'm running IE7 on Windows XP. Are there any suggestions? bahamut0013^words_deeds 19:20, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Issues with a recent upgrade are discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). PrimeHunter (talk) 19:25, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I cannot find the specific discussion Primehunter mentions above. However, I too had the same strange glitch (a stray line of markup text below the editing window) when using the Monobook skin. I fixed it by removing the tick from "Enable enhanced editing toolbar" in the editing page of my preferences. It removed the so-called enhanced toolbar, but I prefer the old Monobook toolbar anyway. Astronaut (talk) 13:48, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

That did the trick for me. Huh, I don't remember ever choosing to activate that feature... It still runs a tad slow, but now I'm beginning to suspect that may have more to do with IE's memory issues than Wikipedia. Anyway, many thanks!! bahamut0013^words_deeds 22:55, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Collaboration of the week

I have seen that many wikiprojects have a "Collaboration of the month" section, where they choose some important undeveloped article, and try to improve it to good or featured status. I work for Wikipedia:WikiProject Argentina, but I realize that such a section would not work, at least not under the current conditions: there is a very limited number of active users, and the global quality of related articles is really low (most are still stubs). So, I thought it would be more feasible to select an article from Category:Stub-Class Argentine articles, and improve it to B-class.

The problem is that the "Collaboration of the month" sections I have seen so far work with a system of article nominations and selection, meaning, it is done manually. Is there some automatic way to arrange that some article is randomly selected from a category and linked somewhere, staying for a certain time and then replaced by a new one? MBelgrano (talk) 20:06, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Certainly. WikiProject Video games and WikiProject The Beatles use AnomieBOT to select pages for their collaborations. If you would like a Stub-class Argentine article selected for collaboration on a weekly or monthly schedule, the bot can do that. Reach Out to the Truth 18:13, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. I have prepared a template for this. MBelgrano (talk) 19:24, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

monoboarding

The article for monoboarding was deleted. I think it's an important part of snowsport history. There should be a legit monoboarding page. (PS. I'm not the one qualified to write it.)

It was deleted here for being fan based and no reliable sources. If you can provide reliable sources and don't feel comfortable creating the page, you can request an article be created at Wikipedia:Requested articles. CTJF83 22:55, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Due to the checkered history of the Monoboard page and if reliable sources can be found, a page about the snow sport should be created as Monoboard (snow sport) rather than usurping the current disambiguation page as has happened in the past. However, it is most important that you find those reliable sources first, or the article will simply be deleted again no matter how important you think it is. Astronaut (talk) 13:36, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Or, even better, at Monoboard (sport) on the basis that disambiguating titles should be as simple as possible. – ukexpat (talk) 14:03, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

HIGH SCHOOL PAGE DOES NOT SHOW OUR SCHOOL MASCOT ARTWORK

We are trying to get our High School Mascot Artwork on our school page. Not having this image is causing great confusion on FaceBook because there is no image showing our Mascot which is being confused with another "Cordova High School". I have tried to figure out how to add our image which is copyright free! Anyone has the right to use this image. We are desperate to get our schools mascot image on our page. Can you please help.

Our school is Cordova High School (Rancho Cordova, California). It is being confused with another Cordova High School in Tennessee!!! HELP! WE NEED OUR MASCOT IMAGE ON OUR PAGE TOO! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tgotcha (talk • contribs) 21:47, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not facebook, and if it has articles on schools it will focus on their educative and istitutional aspects. MBelgrano (talk) 22:49, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, we don't control what the Facebook page has, contact Facebook help. CTJF83 22:50, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

"Anyone has the right to use this image" - uh, no. School mascots are normally copyright to the school so can't be used on Wikipedia without getting the appriopriate authorisation to use it. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 22:53, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Just a note, in a way, Wikipedia does control the content of some Facebook pages; Facebook uses Wikipedia for some of its "likes" pages (and I'm not talking about people copy-pasting info onto their Facebook fan pages, but actual database dumps into Facebook. --- c y m r u . l a s s ^{(talk me, stalk me)} 00:59, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

@Tgotcha, I suspect that by "mascot" you mean "logo"; so I uploaded the school logo to File:Cordova HS CA logo.gif and added it to the infobox of Cordova High School (Rancho Cordova, California). Is that what you wanted? (The previous logo was deleted in January 2009, probably because it lacked a {{non-free logo}} tag.) —teb728 t c 10:36, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Bicycle Transportation Engineering

The material presented under this subject is only Bicycle Facilities Engineering. I suggest that this article be retitled. Bicycle Transportation Engineering considers the wider field of bicycle transportation, facilities and including range and speed of travel, effect of hills, skills required, traffic laws controlling bicycling, effects of different urban designs, accident analysis countermeasures, and such. For reference see my Bicycle Transportation, 1994, The MIT Press, John Forester.69.227.95.208 (talk) 22:15, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Post at WP:RM to request an article be moved and retitled. CTJF83 22:56, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

How can I be added to your youngest great-grand mothers page

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

You have a site that lists the oldest known great grand mothers. I made GGM status at age 50. I would like to be placed on that list.

Find a reliable source such as a newspaper or tv news airing, that verifies that claim. CTJF83 23:07, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

List of youngest birth mothers CTJF83 23:18, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.