Help desk
< May 10	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 12 >

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.

May 11

Democrat Party

What is wrong with calling the the Democrat Party "The Democrat Party?" The party isnt comprised of democratics. Its composed of democrats. Also how is the name "democrat" a slur as I was told?

What a crock of BULLSHIT!!

01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC)01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC)01:04, 11 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldies5161 (talk • contribs)

"Democrat" as an adjective is used as an insult by Republicans. This is pretty well-known. See Democrat Party (phrase). Drmies (talk) 01:13, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. This question belongs on the reference desk at WP:RD RudolfRed (talk) 01:21, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just a disgruntled user. Drmies (talk) 02:09, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Diffs

An excerpt from User:Jfd34/common.css used for diffs:

table.diff {border-collapse:separate; border-spacing:4px; margin:0 !important; width:100% !important;}
td.diff-marker {font-weight:400 !important; color:#009900; width:3% !important; text-align:center}
td.diff-deletedline {width:54% !important; background-color:#FFE9E9; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 2px 2px 5px; border-color:#E20000; 
                     border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-addedline {width:54% !important; background-color:#E9FFE9; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 5px 2px 2px; border-color:#00E200; 
                   border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-context {width:54% !important; background-color:#F0F0FF; padding:4px; border-style:solid; border-width:2px 3px 2px 3px; border-color:#9696A4; 
                 border-radius:0px; margin:0}
td.diff-empty {width:54% !important; margin:0}
td.diff-addedline .diffchange {background-color:#FFC900; border-radius:0px !important}
td.diff-deletedline .diffchange {background-color:#FFFF25; border-radius:0px !important}

However, with this style diffs of blanked pages appear somewhat like this:

Any way how to fix this and make the column widths equal? jfd34 (talk) 04:52, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Inserting an image into text of an article

--Oldteched (talk) 05:28, 11 May 2012 (UTC) My attempt to insert (per available Wikipedia Commons instructions) an image into the text of my Wikipedia article titled "Operation Phototrack" resulted in a box which contains the name of the image file (a file located in Wikipedia Commons) rather than the image. What to do?[reply]

The article is actually at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Enter your new article name hereOperation Phototrack. And the reason it wasn't working was because file names, including the file suffixes, are case sensitive. You had the right file name but you didn't capitalize the ".JPG" at the end. Dismas|^(talk) 05:39, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dandenong Foothills Encounter - A really doubtful new article

Dandenong Foothills Encounter is a new article describing a claimed alien abduction. It was written as if there is no question that the events described actually happened. One of the two sources provided is an obviously biased one. The other is actually a critique of the story, but I don't think the article's creator noticed that. The article is written in appalling English. The event was placed in the wrong Australian state. Overall, it's a disaster of an article. I've tried editing it a little, but the task of turning into something great is one I've decided now is beyond me.

I've come here to ask what should be done about this article. HiLo48 (talk) 08:23, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the article is unbalanced and badly written. Personally I'd say that the subject matter is a load of bollocks and there's no evidence of notability. The whole thing seems to use a brief webpage by someone in the UFO community and a Wordpress blog as its references, neither of which seem reliable. For what it's worth, I think that our article on the Rendlesham Forest incident would be a pretty good standard to use for this sort of thing. Brammers (talk/c) 09:07, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'd disagree on the notability front - searches for "Kelly Cahill Encounter" (the more common name for this event) or "Kelly Cahill adbduction" turn up loads of usable sources in Google Books and a few in GNews. However this article is indeed a horrible mess, and the sources therein are useless. I'm not going to attempt a rewrite myself - not really an area I'm very interested in - but I'd suggest moving the article to Kelly Cahill encounter or similar, removing virtually all of the current content, and rewriting from scratch using different sources. Yunshui 雲‍水 09:47, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the responses. I too think it's a load of bollocks. I have neither the time nor energy right now to address the mess. Do we just leave it sitting there in it's current appalling condition? And, while I've heard this story before, I've remembered the other geographic problem with it since I first posted. Dandenong, Victoria "is a suburb and major urban centre in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia". Mount Dandenong "is both a mountain and small township/suburb of Greater Melbourne", 25 kilometres away. They are related only in name. "Dandenong Foothills" is an ill-defined defined area around the mountain, covering perhaps 800 square kilometres. It's a crappy name. HiLo48 (talk) 21:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I note that the article is now proposed for deletion. A wise move. Thank you. HiLo48 (talk) 22:17, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

In your guidelines on citations, you write:

Controversial, poorly-sourced claims in biographies of living people should be deleted immediately.

I suggest you make it clear whether the first comma means 'and' (ie Controversial and poorly-sourced claims...) or 'or'.

Morten Berg — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.107.101.42 (talk) 08:52, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please specify which page, I searched that on a few I thought it might be, and couldn't find it. CTJF83 10:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

My search indicates this text appears in Wikipedia:Citation needed and Wikipedia:Verification needed (this is not found using the internal search engine but by using Google with site:en.wikipedia.org).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:19, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The meaning of the comma is unambiguous: multiple adjectives should always be separated with a comma. __ Gareth Griffith-Jones (talk) 11:48, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page notifications

I have my alternate account talk page redirected to my main account. Is there a setting or a bot that will let me know I have messages on my main talk page when I log in to my alternate account? CTJF83 10:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone? CTJF83 20:13, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would ask at BOTREQ. Perhaps someone there can make a bot that monitors your main accounts talk page and leaves a message at your alternate accounts talk page. I believe for the more experienced bot coders this would be an easy coding task although this is not meant to imply that I could do it. =P -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 20:43, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! CTJF83 23:56, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

microprocessor design

i need pin architecture block diagram of my microprocessor(intel celeron M) wid details.... PLS HELP!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by TZRINZ (talk • contribs) 11:12, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried the computing section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:56, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CSD'ing Vector.css

Resolved

I replaced my vector.css by {{db-userreq}} but it is displaying as code rather than a template. Is there another way to get it deleted or will this show up to the admins still? --lTopGunl (talk) 12:46, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can requset an administrator to delete it by posting a message on his/her talk page. See Special:ListAdmins for a list of administrators.

An admin did it, though I never found out if it showed up in their panel or through this discussion. --lTopGunl (talk) 13:23, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Further replied by Fuhghettaboutit at my talkpage - the CSD still does show up to admins, if some one else wanted to know too. --lTopGunl (talk) 22:39, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Signature problem

A new editor has asked me on my talk page about the strange result of his attempts to sign his posts with the usual four tildes. Basically the correct text is produced but without links to his user and talk pages. (The signature button gives the same result) The autosign bot then arrives and does it's thing even though the broken signature is visible in the post. Please take a look at the post on my talk as I have no idea what the problem might be. Roger (talk) 13:32, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If he created a custom signature and ticked the checkbox below it in preferences, those aren't linked automatically -- he would need to code the link himself. Or simply remove the custom signature in preferences, which will generate the usual username-user talk signature with proper links. Equazcion ^(talk) 13:36, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For more info see WP:SIG

'cite this page'

Didn't wikipedia articles used to come with a link on the left for 'cite this page'? WP:CW seems to still think it's there. Is it gone, or am I just not seeing it? Llamabr (talk) 14:01, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You probably need to click "Toolbox" to expand that submenu. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 14:58, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If my memory is correct, "Cite this page" was put into the "Toolbox" when we changed to Vector skin. I've updated WP:CW accordingly. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also it only appears on articles that are in the main namespace. benzband (talk) 15:20, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Citing studies in medical articles

Hello, I work with Clear Passage Physical Therapy, a network of physical therapy clinics treating chronic pain, infertility and bowel obstruction. I attempted to post information to pages relating to conditions we treat but the information was removed for the following reason: "We should be using secondary reviews, not primary studies."

I understand that there are guidelines for the types of sources we can cite on Wikipedia, however the studies I was referencing are from recognized leaders in mainstream medical research – namely mainstream medical journals and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. These journals require independent peer-reviews by experts in the field. Several of the journals (Medscape General Medicine, Fertility and Sterility, Contemporary Ob/Gyn), are among the most respected journals in medicine.

I'm not sure how to proceed -- I don't want to keep re-posting the information and have it taken down each time. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Anna — Preceding unsigned comment added by Annaclear (talk • contribs) 14:30, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I left a note on your talk page.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikilinks to redirect pages

Resolved

The page Tweening has been renamed Inbetweening. There lots of wikilinks that still direct to tweening. Is it important that these all get fixed, and can it be done by a bot?--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:05, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not important. See Wikipedia:Redirect#Do not "fix" links to redirects that are not broken. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 15:08, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I was confused. I had earlier messages from a bot about my links to dab pages, not redirect pages. I won't bother reverting the few that I did change.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:19, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Stray bracket symbol below infobox image

The image located at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brennan_Gilmore_at_Solly%27s.jpg is used at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker%27s_Run at Wikipedia (in the infobox at top). Just below the image appears a stray right bracket symbol ("]"). I've looked over the code both in the image file page at Wikimedia, and also in the infobox at Wikipedia and don't see what could be making this happen. Can anyone tell me what I might be missing? Artaxerxes (talk) 15:10, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed The caption had an external link. Captions do not include credits; see WP:CAPTION. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:24, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Right. For interests sake, I discovered this workaround that permitted the external link without breaking the formatting, though I've no idea why that worked. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 15:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your help on this. The specific reason why it worked may not be clear, but it does seem to me that leaving out the line break code (as I did) might lead to some kind of problem. Hope I can catch it by myself next time . . Artaxerxes (talk) 22:52, 13 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bolded pages in watchlist

I noticed that several pages in my watchlist were displayed in boldface type. I hadn't seen this happen at all until yesterday, so I guess it must be a new feature on the MediaWiki interface. Would someone tell me what the bolded pages on the watchlist exactly mean? Thanks. User:Davidfreesefan23 (talk) 16:26, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It means you have not looked at the page since the last change. Roger (talk) 16:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We currently have a discussion on this at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Watchlist_bolding.--Deathlaser : Chat 17:06, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Watchlist_-_bold_letter_article_titles.21 is longer, has far more participants, covers the issues more comprehensively and was started first. Roger (talk) 17:26, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting details of a lawsuit which is dropped by the Plaintiff

What is Wikipedia's policy regarding the deletion of content detailing a lawsuit which has been dropped by the Plaintiff. A suit with damaging and contentious information about living persons. A Wikipedia contributor added 3 long paragraphs with alleged causes, which has since been dropped. Is it permissible to delete this information, and replace it with an encyclopedic statement that a suit was filed, but dropped. A basic statement of events, without all the 'he said', 'she said'. As is, the content reads like a tabloid. Thank you for your guidance on this matter. Ellen Brichetto — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ellen Brichetto (talk • contribs) 17:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Generally, I agree with what you just said; however, this is something that differs on a case by case basis. Can you please refer us to the page you are referring to? Ryan Vesey Review me! 17:41, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Adding info to an article

I'm a very old lady who doesn't understand many things. 2 years ago I corrected an article. Can't even remember how I did it.-- I want to add my father to West Point Alumni. I also don't know under what heading as he had diff titles-commanding officer of bases etc.... Is there any way someone would help me by going step by step? I don't even know if I'm doing it right on this page!18:54, 11 May 2012 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Imperlette (talk • contribs)

Who was he? Do we have an article about him here? If not, should we? --Orange Mike | Talk 19:02, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Would Category:United States Military Academy alumni work, or one of the more specific ones?--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:51, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That only works if there is an article about him. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:02, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oops. I misread the OP. I assumed you had edited the article on your father. You may wish a new biographical article that is possibly COI, may be BLP and may not meet NOT. You may wish to get help from your family and read Wikipedia:Your first article. All those terms should have links from there. --Canoe1967 (talk) 20:18, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The bit that Canoe and OrangeMike haven't spelled out is that he should only appear in that list if he has, or could have, and article of his own, i.e. he meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability. If everybody who has ever attended West Point could appear, the list would be so long as to be nearly useless. --ColinFine (talk) 21:25, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think that two years ago you attempted to make the correction, but for some reason, your edit never posted. Because you think you actually corrected the article, what I suspect happened was that after you wrote your edit, you pressed the show preview button button rather than save page. The reason I think this is that you created this account on August 4, 2010, just about two years ago, but it has no live or deleted edits. Anyway, as above, you need to tell us who your father was in order for us to give you targeted advice.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:24, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Need help with adding new heading to existing page

I am trying to edit an existing page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tarasov. This page currently does not have a section for External links and I would like to add it. In editing mode I have added line == External Links == for the new heading and saved the page but the new heading is still not seen at the bottom of the page. What am I doing wrong? Thank you for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatiana.grehan (talk • contribs) 21:17, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You had added the header inside some commented-out text. I have moved it after the comment ended, and removed the two test links you inserted. Adding more inline citations to the article is more urgent than adding some external links. --ColinFine (talk) 21:35, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Botched move from sandbox to mainspace

DJ Mell Starr/sandbox is a botched move. DJ Mell Starr is the correct article. The first needs to be deleted, please help. Roger (talk) 21:17, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I tagged it with {{db-g6}} Ryan Vesey Review me! 21:28, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to reset password

So I wanted to log in to Wikipedia. To my knowledge I don't have an account yet, so I went to create one. But after filling in the details Wikipedia said an account with that username already exists. OK, no problem, I guess I must've created an account before and forgot about it. Of course I don't know my password anymore, I tried a few I've been known to use and none of them work. So I tried using the password reset page, but after entering my username, I got the message:

The username XXX is not registered on this wiki, but it does exist in the unified login system.

So what can I do now? It doesn't make sense that I register again, I would rather just use the account I already seem to have. Also not sure what the said message even means to me. How come your "unified system" can't send me an email to reset my password anyway? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 23:27, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, when you create an account on any Wikimedia site, it becomes a global account. That means, someone must have tried to create an account with that name on another site so it isn't available. You have two choices, try to create an account with a different user name, or request it at Wikipedia:Request an account. Ryan Vesey Review me! 23:30, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We can say more if you tell the username. Maybe it was you who created it at another wiki, or maybe you can usurp it at that wiki. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:42, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for responding. I tried using the page suggested to request the username, but I got this message:

I'm sorry, but the username you selected is already a part of a SUL account. Please try another username, or look at this page for more information on SUL.

Please note that Wikipedia automatically capitalizes the first letter of any user name, therefore User:example would become User:Example.

So clearly that won't work. It could've been me who created that account or it could've been someone else - who knows, sadly I have no recollection of it. Either way, I'd much rather use my usual username, the one I use most other places, than have to create a new account. My (desired) username is 'ravilov'. Hope I can get it back. :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 23:55, 11 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Special:CentralAuth/ravilov shows that the username was created at the French Wikipedia in April 2009. The user has not stored an email address so you cannot attempt a password reset to see if it was you. The user has no edits so you have a chance to usurp it. This has to be requested at the French Wikipedia at fr:Wikipédia:Demande de renommage de compte utilisateur/Usurpation. You can write English in the request. There may be a waiting period. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:06, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)So the account exists on French Wikipedia. It hasn't made any edits so I will leave a note there. You should be able to usurp the account there and then merge your account using Special:MergeAccount. Ryan Vesey Review me! 00:08, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I did a little research of my own and came to the same conclusion - originated on French Wiki, no edits. I left a note there requesting an usurpation. Thanks for all your help, cheers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.207.35.169 (talk) 00:24, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Still problems I'm afraid. I've requested usurpation on the french Wiki as is visible here [1], they granted it (allegedly renamed the other account to 'ravilov_old') and now Special:CentralAuth/ravilov says Home wiki: unable to determine, but everything else is still the same, and I'm still unable to register, it says the username is taken. I tried registering both on english and on french wiki, no luck on either. What now? Would it help if I go request the username now?

88.207.35.169 (talk) 15:43, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Try to create the account later. It can take time to propagate the French rename information to the right places. http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Ravilov mentions a server is down. I don't know whether this problem affects the time. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:01, 12 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Still no luck. Now http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Ravilov no longer reports SQL servers are down and actually displays user info, but apart from that nothing else has changed - the username is still taken and I can't register. I'm sorry this has turned into this endless soap opera... Not sure what to do now, guess I have no other choice but to wait some more...

88.207.35.169 (talk) 16:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I contacted a steward (a user with high permissions) who has deleted the remnants of the old Ravilov account. Try creating the account now. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:17, 13 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes! Success! Thank you for all your effort, I'm glad this is finally over. :-)

Ravilov (talk) 22:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

−	{{User sandbox}}
−	<!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE -->
−	{\|
−	\|
−	<div style="position:absolute; top:20px; left:10%; border:1px solid #000000; background-color:#FFD567; color:#FFF0F0; height:50px; width:50px">12345</div>
−	\|}