Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 25

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March 25

Nonsense Editing Code

Is there any way I can get rid of those ps that show up between greater and lesser symbols? There (sorry, they're) driving me insane! MR.PreZ 00:12, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

:Do you mean in this edit? I don't know what caused it but did you copy the text into another program for editing and then back to the browser? Some programs can make unwanted changes. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:43, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

::Ah, I'm not quite sure what you mean, but these things are now now attacking my talk page! Please, please, pleaaaaaaaaaaaase HELP!!!!!!!! MR.PreZ 20:38, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

They are all introduced in your edits: [1][2]. Somewhere a piece of software is trying to turn source lines into html paragraphs (see HTML element#Basic text). You have to identify and avoid that software. Which browser are you using? Do you use other software than the browser while editing? Try to disable any editing gadgets at Special:Preferences. wikEd has been known to sometimes add unwanted html to edits. Or try to log out and see if it still happens. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:14, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm using Safari… why? MR.PreZ 21:42, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I've now checked out my preferences, there's nothing there that would lead me to believe that some gadget would be controlling some nuisance editing code thing. MR.PreZ 21:48, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Some things may not be tested properly and not reported frequently with a browser with a low market share like Safari. In order to isolate the cause you could try another browser for a period to see if the problem goes away. Or try disabling things under Gadgets at Special:Preferences even if it sounds unlikely that they should cause this problem. This type of problem may be an unfortunate interaction between a combination of a gadget or script and a specific browser version. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:00, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks, I'll try using Mozilla Firefox. MR.PreZ 15:19, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

uploading my own photos to a page

I received a message sayin gpictures I uploaded will be delated. I took the pictures os there are no copyright issues, though they are not intended for reuse by the public.

i can't figure out the correct way to tage the photos so they stay on the page.

Mckingsf (talk) 01:05, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

You may release File:LaMesaVerdewikipedia.jpg for use on Wikipedia by adding {{pd-self}}, or, for disclaimers, {{GFDL-user}} or {{GFDL-self-with-disclaimers}}. However, by releasing it for use on Wikipedia you agree to allow it to be copied and redistributed, used commercially or non-commercially, and to be modified by anyone for any purpose. If you use one of the second two templates, it is required that the image credit you and that derivative images be released under the same license.

The second image, File:SHCSlogoForWikipedia.jpg, is a logo and would be better uploaded under the logo license. When uploading, click "The logo of an organization" rather than "entirely my own work"- unless the organization would allow it to be released under one of the conditions I discussed above. liquidluck✽talk 01:18, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

And note that non-free logos (tagged with {{logo fur}}) cannot be used in draft articles while they are in userspace, they can only be used in mainspace. – ukexpat (talk) 01:25, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia screwed up

Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org isn't displaying correctly today (neither in Firefox, Google Chrome nor Internet Explorer. I cleaned cache and stuff but nothing changed. Screwedupness includes:

1. No images
2. Simple format instead of monobook.css

somewhile before was even worse: wikipedia was only accessing throug google cache

router? server problem? any suggestions? Mdob (talk) 01:44, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

See #Problems with Wikipedia display and down. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:57, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Mdob (talk) 02:05, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

new user who only wishes to upload photos and doesn't wish to add or edit text (yet)

G'day, as I was browsing through the Big things in Australia page, I saw an opportunity to add a photo of the big pelican at Loxton, SA. As stated above I don't wish to edit or create any pages yet. My only ability lies in photography and I can add a photo here & there to fill out the relevant page/s. However I note that I don't have the authority to upload images until I have edited 10 pages/items etc. how can i overcome this dilemma? thanks Fairv8 (talk) 02:33, 25 March 2010 (UTC) It's OK, I found I have to upload to Wikipedia Commons first, and then I suppose I can edit the page with a thumbnail & link to the photo on Commons. Cheers, Fairv8 (talk) 03:03, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

If you're going to be concentrating on image uploads at commons and your edits here will be adding them to articles, it would be really great if you were aware of the need to add Alternative text for images so that visually impaired readers can share in the images as well. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:07, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

The reference cited does not say what it claims

How to I add an inline template to mark a citation when the cited does not say what it claims to say. I cannot find it. ^{Carlaude:Talk} 03:08, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

{{Failed verification}}. See also Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:16, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Editing window scrolls automatically if certain keys are used

Editing has suddenly become very difficult for me because of a cursor/scrolling problem in the article editing window. Whenever I press a keyboard control such as backspace or the space bar, the whole window automatically scrolls one row upwards until the cursor is lowered right down to the bottom of the window. Something similar occurs if copying and pasting, say, citation text for multiple uses: the window scrolls upwards several lines. This constant jumping within the editing window makes it almost impossible to keep track of the text to be edited unless I happen to be working on a single section of an article. Up until just recently scrolling did not occur unless I did it manually - e.g. via mouse. Could this be something to do with my Wikipedia preferences, or is it a wider problem to do with internet browser settings? My current browser is Internet Explorer 8. Many thanks for your time. SuperMarioMan 03:38, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Does F7 fix it? – ukexpat (talk) 04:00, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

No, sorry, I forgot to mention, whether Caret Browsing is on or not seems to have no effect. The problem must originate from my IE settings, because having tried the editing window in Firefox it is perfectly static on that browser. SuperMarioMan 04:16, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

This is happening for me too. I don't know what changed. Even moving the mouse pointer into or out of the edit window can make it scroll. IE 8.0.6001.18882 John of Reading (talk) 21:05, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, Internet Explorer suddenly changed for some reason. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a very simple solution, but I'll be damned if I knew what it was. SuperMarioMan 21:36, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

<smug>Firefox or Google Chrome?</smug> – ukexpat (talk) 02:22, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for alerting us to this issue. We will be working to resolve this issue ASAP. --Parul Vora (talk) 03:09, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Seems like some aspects of an old problem have come back... somehow! See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 60#Weird behavior when editing and the follow up Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 61#Weird behavior when editing (part 2). Astronaut (talk) 03:46, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

D'oh, nothing happens on IE7. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:57, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this was an old problem that came back to haunt us. We were aware of it and believed we'd worked around it, but it turned out to be subtler than we thought. Fixed now. --Catrope (talk) 13:20, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Music Template Question

So I'm not sure if a user is doing the right thing by removing stuff from a Singer's template, but I want to double check the rules before an edit-war potentially starts. However, I have been searching and can't find anything. IS there a page that shows the rules for Music Templates? --Shadow (talk) 03:49, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Is it {{Infobox musical artist}}? If so there is a documentation section on the template page, that should help. – ukexpat (talk) 03:53, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

No, sorry I forgot about that one, should have been clearer. This is the kind I'm talking about. --Shadow (talk) 04:04, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean the edit on Feb 18 by User:Rodhullandemu - if so that looks correct to me. In any event the place to discuss such changes is the relevant user's talk page, or on the template talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 04:14, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

That's not the template I was referring to, that's just the one I had open on the computer screen at that moment. :) --Shadow (talk) 04:21, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Well it's a little hard to opine without specifics but if we are talking about navboxes, they should be just that, an aid to navigating to related articles (and they can contain external links too). I have seen navboxes with redlinks where it is pretty clear that the redlinked subjects are notable, but just do not have articles yet. Are we on the right track here?! – ukexpat (talk) 16:15, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Well that sounds good enough for me. Basically a user was removing an EP on the navigation template because it doesn't have reviews or "media attention", but it is still a EP by an artist. It's on Britney Spears's navigation template. --Shadow (talk) 02:12, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

I would imagine that template has an active talk page, so you should probably open a discussion there if this is likely to develop into an edit war. The above is just my view, the consensus in a targeted talk page discussion may be different. – ukexpat (talk) 02:20, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Post deleted for copyright when I wrote the copy

I have updated our Wiki page today with information from our company's press releases and fact sheets. Other sources throughout the world have obviously had access to this and have used it on their sites either in part of full. My post was removed for copyright issues. How can I prove that we wrote the content and have the right to use it?203.149.67.226 (talk) 03:51, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

The issue is one of proof - we only have your word that you are who you say you are, and in any event the company owns the copyright, not you personally. See WP:IOWN, but also see WP:COI, WP:CORP, WP:SPAM (corporate press releases are inherently spammy) and WP:FAQO. – ukexpat (talk) 03:55, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Letters after name

I have a question about the neurolgist i am currantly seeing after his name is M.D. FABHP. I would like to know what these letters mean. 173.58.2.42 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:28, 25 March 2010 (UTC).

Please use a descriptive title in future questions. I have added one

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --ColinFine (talk) 08:25, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

As I know the answer to your question, I will answer here, even thought the Reference Desk is the proper place to ask! FABHP means that he is a Fellow of the American Board of Hospital Physicians (see Certified Health Physicist) - "A certification by the ABHP is not a license to practice and does not confer any legal qualification to practice health physics." -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:28, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Mixed content: HTTP mixed with HTTPS

When using Wikipedia in SSL mode, I keep getting warnings from Firefox that all the pages I visit on Wikipedia have mixed content. I tracked it down to two links that are present in every page: <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/apple-touch-icon.png" /> and <a style="background-image: url(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/Wiki.png);". These links are forced to non-SSL (HTTP) transfer and Firefox complains that the page is mixed secure and non-secure items. How can I set Wikipedia to always give HTTPS links and thus remove the annoying warnings? Note: That I know I can simply turn off the warning in Firefox but I don't want to do that since that will lower my security. I prefer to keep the warning so that I know when something bad is happening. It is preferable if Wikipedia can be set to not generate mixed content. HumphreyW (talk) 06:31, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

This would probably best be handled at the village technical pump, where they answer the more in-depth technical questions. TNXMan 20:50, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I have asked there. HumphreyW (talk) 23:06, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

This is a long-known issue and when I asked at VPT about 6 months ago I was told there were not any plans to fix it. I dunno whether that is the case now, though, so I don't think it would hurt to ask again. Xenon54 / talk / 21:47, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

It sure is annoying, and it makes Wikipedia feel like an amateur site. HumphreyW (talk) 23:06, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Amateur compared to what other free online encyclopedia with similar content? Wikipedia is built almost entirely by unpaid volunteers, so by definition we are an amateur site. However, the issue you mention might be the work of Wikipedia's small paid staff of developers. For more information about what they do, see the Wikimedia Technical Blog. --Teratornis (talk) 19:04, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Regular Expressions in AWB

What regular expression (Regex) do I use to find {{fnb}} templates and replace with {{note}} templates. Any help will do. Thanks Paul2387 10:10, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I expanded my answer on my talk page. You can't just replace the template, you also have to replace the matching markup for the incline cite, which has over a dozen variants. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:06, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Uploading photos

Hi, I want to update some nice photos related to Guwahati. May I know how to upload photos to wikipedia page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 20.142.120.34 (talk) 11:26, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

• If you want to add an existing image to an article, add [[Image:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text.]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information.
• If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must find out what the proper license of the image is. If you know the image is licensed under a free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure what license the image takes, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 12:10, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Unimplementable merger

This morning, I happened on the article Nancy Duarte, which was the subject of an AfD last November, where the consensus was to merge the article into the article Duarte Design. However, the latter article was deleted about a week later as a result of another AfD; so Nancy's article has been sitting there ever since with a tag requesting that the content be merged to a nonexistent article. I'm presuming that the article should be deleted, but none of the speedy criteria seem to match this situation, and I can't prod an article that's already been through AfD. What's the best way to handle this? Is another AfD really necessary? Deor (talk) 15:26, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Interesting one! It looks like another Afd is the only option, unless I am missing something obvious. – ukexpat (talk) 15:59, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

The original AfD at WP:Articles for deletion/Nancy Duarte included some links to sources which never got added to her article. The sentiment in that AfD was (a) the current form of the article wasn't very good, (b) at most one article should exist. If anybody wants to go to the trouble of adding the sources to the article it might avoid an AfD. Her book slide:ology is published by O'Reilly and seems to have got good reviews. Except for that, I would not have much enthusiasm for keeping the article. EdJohnston (talk) 20:25, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Latest MySql articles dump

Hi I am trying to downlaod the latest mySql article dump http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2

For the past few days the size of the archive is 1.7GB, whereas it is supposed to be around 5.*GB. The archive is corrupt. could someone look in to the problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.242.130.236 (talk) 16:45, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

You should probably post this at WP:VPT where the techie types hang out. – ukexpat (talk) 17:19, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Munky Uk

I was trying to write an article about www.munkyuk.com but I'm not sure if i can as I work for the company? If I cant because of my role within the company, do you have copywriters who are independents who can write and review it.

Regards,

Martin Stock —Preceding unsigned comment added by Munky UK (talk • contribs) 17:22, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

You can try the Articles for creation process, but you will have to register for a new user name - your current one is a clear violation of the user name policy. – ukexpat (talk) 17:27, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

And your request at WP:AFC will have much more force if you find and mention the multiple independent reliable sources that cover the company, which will be needed to establish that it is notable and therefore merits an article. --ColinFine (talk) 22:47, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Also, please read the business FAQ, to avoid problems down the line.  Chzz  ►  11:17, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

External linking

My page is in danger of being deleted and I figured that if I linked the page to the bands myspace and you could see that this is a real band then it would help but everytime I try it just says that the link doesn't exist. http://www.myspace.com/lostautumn. Is a real website yet it doesn't work for external linking. What am I doing wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ajsenn (talk • contribs) 18:25, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi Ajsenn. Wikipedia doesn't generally accept MySpace links to show notability. Do you have any other sources you could use? --NeilN ^{talk to me} 18:29, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

To elaborate, existence is a necessary, but not sufficient, criterion for inclusion in Wikipedia. Has your band been mentioned in, for example, newspapers or magazines? A MySpace page isn't sufficient, because just about anyone could have one. I exist, and I could have a MySpace page if I wanted to. (I do have a Facebook page but it's not public to just any random people.) But I don't harbour any delusions of being world-wide notable solely because of that. JIP | Talk 20:33, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

(e/c)It has been deleted per A7 of the speedily deletion criteria. Before you attempt to re-create it, please read WP:BAND. The vast majority of bands are non-notable and do not meet Wikipedia's inclusion criteria - a self-created MySpace page is not evidence of notability. – ukexpat (talk) 18:32, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Your deleted article was mixing notation for internal and external links. You wrote [http://www.myspace.com/lostautumn|'''Lost Autumn'''] but should have written a space instead of '|' to give Lost Autumn. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:51, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Question about photographs

In regard to this question I asked earlier, I also have photographs of the protest. Should I upload some to Wikipedia? I was thinking of using them in the body painting or PETA articles. Is this a good idea? JIP | Talk 19:44, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Be bold and courageous :) ▒ ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ ▒ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 19:55, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

If you own the copyright to these images please consider uploading them to Wikimedia Commons so they are available to all Wikimedia projects. If you have not yet enabled single-user login, head over to WP:SUL and follow the instructions, then you can log in to Commons with your En Wikipedia user name and password. – ukexpat (talk) 22:15, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

See Commons:Commons:Photographs of identifiable people. --Teratornis (talk) 02:01, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Did the information help JIP? :) ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 09:57, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

As for the issues about identifiable people, I am fairly sure I have the right to upload the photograph. I don't know either of the women, but they were in a public place, and by being painted as foxes and carrying signs, it's likely that publicity was what they were after in the first place. I am aware that even in a public place, specifically portraying people in a derogatory manner is not allowed, but I don't think this applies, otherwise the women wouldn't have get painted as foxes in the first place. If either of the women as a private person, or PETA as an organisation, takes issue about the photograph being published, then I will of course delete it. JIP | Talk 19:25, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

v:Musamba Village - Kenya

Could an admin import this page so we can delete it on WV? -- Jtneill - Talk 06:43, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

Apparently admins don't have import for WP, so I've pasted to Musamba, Kenya and for now soft redirected v:Musamba Village - Kenya to it. -- Jtneill - Talk 08:50, 28 March 2010 (UTC)