Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 April 19

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April 19[edit]

Does anyone know where I can stream season 2 of Exes and Ohs online? It's a LGBT Canadian showhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exes_and_ohs: Thank you! Neptunekh2 (talk) 00:59, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You already asked this at the Entertainment Reference Desk which is the correct place. This desk is strictly for editing questions. Dismas|(talk) 01:17, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have written a highly significant contribution for your subject of frontier gambler "Chalie Storms." It is excerpted from an unpublished biography I have written on Storms, replete with dozens of contemporary sources (Documented sources covering the complete work number in the hundreds). Meanwhile it has become impossible to find a "user name" with which to log in. After 12 tries something must be wrong with proceedure for creating an account - user name coupled with a specific password. 12 user names submitted cannot all be rejects. ?? KV —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.27.77.85 (talk) 03:03, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Request_an_account may be able to get around the issues you are having with account registration. CaptRik (talk) 08:59, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Special:UserLogin says: "Don't have an account? Create one." If you don't have an account already then you have to click the link on "Create one". Are you doing this? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:47, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Contributions from an expert in a topic are always welcome, but please be aware that Wikipedia does not publish original research, including synthesis of published sources. It is likely that what you could write in Wikipedia will be very limited compared to what you might write in a biography. If you get the biography published by a reputable publisher, it can then itself be a source for a Wikipedia article.

Template:Non-free DVD cover[edit]

Template:Non-free DVD cover is a soft redirect. Is there some reason why that should be? —teb728 t c 03:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure. You could ask the editor who did it: [1]. Based on [2] I guess the editor removed all transclusions at the time and wanted to discourage new transclusions. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:33, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, so it was the result of Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2008 March 7#Template:Video disc cover. I'll say that on the template talk page. —teb728 t c 23:54, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Latest News[edit]

Why the latest news (in arabic) are not updated ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.229.241.176 (talk) 09:04, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you could provide a link to the page about which you are asking? - David Biddulph (talk) 09:11, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
And if you're referring to the Arabic version of Wikipedia, we have no control of that here. You'd have to bring it up on the Arabic Wikipedia Help Desk, wherever that is. Dismas|(talk) 09:20, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Main page is at ar:Main Page. – ukexpat (talk) 14:35, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Translation[edit]

Hello, I would like to know how to translate an article from french to english.

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Max73000 (talkcontribs) 10:05, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Translation. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:16, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki SDK for internal use[edit]

We are looking to create wiki pages for our internal purpose. Is it possible to host wiki on our local IIS server and utilize all the wiki format. If it is possible how do i do it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.134.137.75 (talk) 10:20, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you are thinking of using the MediaWiki software, you could look at MediaWiki. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:41, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

False copyright claim on image[edit]

File:Sajith Premada.jpg I don't think this image is owned by the uploader as he has claimed. A simple google image search [3] shows that this image is one that is very frequently used by Sri Lankan media to illustrate Sajith Premadasa, before and after this was uploaded to wikipedia. For example, this article from The Island [4] (dated 2009/03/26 - check url) has used the image almost an year before it was uploaded here. Somebody please take the appropriate measures for this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.255.8.16 (talk) 13:13, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This needs to be asked at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:29, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Note that a previous version of the file had been deleted as a copyvio and it has been recreated. Note also that the same uploader has had numerous other copyvio queries on images, most have which have been deleted. - David Biddulph (talk) 15:48, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I've WP:CSD#F9ed it. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:37, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Need Your Help[edit]

I have written lot of news and articles in www.sportsencounter.com and also working in news one tv islamaabad as reporter.. my pet name is Babar Malik so you can find my articles at sportsencounter.com with the name of Babar Malik... i want to know how should i add this reference in my article of Qamar Shaheen Babar. Please donot delete my article but put the reference if you can becoz its hard to find the way for me to add a reference in here. You can help me and can reply me in my mail at (Redacted)

Best Regards, Qamar Shaheen Babar(Babar Malik) NewsOne TV Islamabad Office# (Redacted) Cell# (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Babar.journalist (talkcontribs) 15:01, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you want them to be permanently removed from the page history, please email this address. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:23, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It appears you are writing an article about yourself. Please read Wikipedia:Autobiography before continuing. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:26, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is this a joke?[edit]

I somehow got to Category:Infobox templates. Why is Template:Infobox creator listed under I, while Template:Infobox paintball marker is listed under P. Also I notice Template:Infobox encounter is also incorrectly listed under P. Is this category just a hoax or am I missing the point of categories? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 15:02, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

View the source of {{Infobox paintball marker}} and you will see [[Category:Infobox templates|Paintball marker]]. The piped Paintball marker is the text used to sort the template in the category. Those without sortnames are bulked together by Infobox. It is a good idea, but only if all of the templates have a sortname. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:17, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(ec):See Wikipedia:Categorization#Sort keys. Infobox paintball has a sort key of Paintball, Infobox Encounter has a sort key (once you get to the transcluded documentation) of "Paranormal Encounter". For a category like that, my guess is that most of them should be given sort keys (not many should end up with "I"). However for infoboxes, the use of <noinclude> to make sure that pages that the infoboxes are transcluded into don't end up in the category as well can complicated.Naraht (talk) 15:18, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)Then there is {{Infobox face-uniform tiling}} which had a sortname of Polyhedron, probably as a cut & paste error— I fixed that one. You can also set a default for all categories on a page using {{DEFAULTSORT:}}. See Help:Category. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) talk 15:21, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Seeking a guideline for alphabetization of "notable people" lists[edit]

A dispute has arisen as to the proper way to alphabetize lists of notable people, particularly in the article Harvard College, and is under discussion on its talk page. I find myself defending the common practice in WP of giving "first name last name", listed in alphabetical order of last name, and have cited examples, typical of what I see everywhere I look, except where the lists have not been organized. Another editor asserts that that sequence is "annoying to the eyes" and unacceptable. I have not been able to find a relevant policy or guideline in the MOS. (Please note that this is not about Default Sorting.) There is obviously wide consistency in following what I term the "common practice", which suggests that the rule is spelled out somewhere. If it's not an official guideline, am I at least correct in describing it as the norm? Am I justified in resisting a change to the established practice in the article in question and huge numbers of others? Hertz1888 (talk) 16:31, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The dispute referred to has subsided, hopefully for good, due to the helpfulness of other editors. Still, it would be useful to know if there is a citable policy governing the algorithm for such alphabetization. Hertz1888 (talk) 08:08, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
All the guidelines and MOS entries say you can alphabetize, but don't give further specificity. I take that to mean it's up to consensus at the article or list. — Bility (talk) 09:08, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Foldable template[edit]

If I want to show an infobox which can be closed or opened by clicking somewhere to show/hold some general text which should I use? AshLin (talk) 16:44, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Template:Collapse ? - David Biddulph (talk) 16:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Will do. AshLin (talk) 17:03, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unknown source of quote in popular book[edit]

Wikipedia has a brief article on "Oswald Chambers" at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Chambers. A daily devotional compiled from his works is titled "My Utmost for His Highest", which has been in world-wide circulation for nearly a century now, in Christian literature. The brief article on that is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Utmost_for_His_Highest.

For April 19 in the daily devotional, there is a quote from some work, probably of the very early 1900s or late 1800s. The quote is: "retired sphere of the leasts". Bing and Google searches have not yielded a source for this quote. Unfortunately, without knowledge of the source, and the related context, the particular daily devotional that includes the quote becomes inscrutable.

If someone can locate the context of the quote and provide a brief article on it in Wikipedia, and linked to Chambers and "My Utmost" it would surely receive searches by many others over time.

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Humanities 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. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:27, 22 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox image[edit]

I do not know why the commons image will not show up in the infobox for Paul F. Gorman. Can someone tell me what I should do? Alugh (talk) 17:34, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

 Done Per Template:Infobox military person/doc the image must be formatted like "[[Image:Example.jpg|300px]]". Rehevkor 17:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Is the formating for military person different from non-military person infoboxes? Alugh (talk) 17:55, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know off hand, but I don't believe there is a standard format for infobox formatting. Rehevkor 18:07, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Correct. There is no standard. frustrating as it is... Dismas|(talk) 18:31, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Pending changes[edit]

I must admit haven't been following this very closely. Can someone point me to a page where I can see what the current status of Pending changes is? (I mean has there been consensus in favor or against it). I only know there seems to have been a test run on a limited number of articles. I would appreciate some pointers in order to get an image of the whole thing (What exactly does it? When has or will it be implemented? Where is the discussion where consensus to implement this has been reached?) I would appreciate to have some wikilinks to the places where this has been discussed and where the outcome of these discussions can be seen. Thanks. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 18:20, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

From Wikipedia:Pending changes/Request for Comment February 2011 it seems a trial was run, but that this is not currently implemented. Does that mean it will not be implemented, or is it allready and I simply missed it? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 18:28, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Pending changes has links to everything. — Bility (talk) 18:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Somehow I didn't realize that the RfC I linked to actually is a subpage of the one you wikilinked to. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 18:50, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Comparing two versions of a page[edit]

(I ask this as I have not edited much recently.)

Previously, when comparing two versions of a page, the format was two columns of equal width. Now I see varying widths.

Also previously, changed words were always highlighted and could be found easily. Now this is not always the case.

Also when I logon, my contributions link & watchlist link, etc are SOMETIMES right at the top of the window and other times right near the bottom left so I have to scroll to find them.

Are these changes under my control? If so, how? Thank you. Wanderer57 (talk) 20:30, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What skin are you using? — Bility (talk) 20:40, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. I'm apparently using Monobook now. I may have changed the skin inadvertently by confusing "show" and "preview" when comparing skins. (I'm not clear if "show" means "show temporarily" or "show from now on.") In any case, the system is currently behaving in the manner to which I used to be accustomed. Wanderer57 (talk) 23:39, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I "spoke too soon". I think the intermittent behavior changes I'm seeing must be due to some combination of using two different browsers, effect of different skins, clearing (or not clearing) the cache, and the planetary alignment. I will try to find out if the behavior is consistent if these factors are kept stable. Wanderer57 (talk) 00:10, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looking through your user CSS and JS pages, I don't see anything that would affect the diff widths. If you are using the correct skin and aren't using any outside stylesheets, the style shouldn't be affected. If it's a browser issue, it might not be importing a stylesheet for some reason, like syntax it doesn't like in the HTML or something. If you don't figure it out, viewing the source and telling us which browser it doesn't work in would be my next suggestion. — Bility (talk) 02:45, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Clear your cache again or maybe it is a problem that the pages don't load quickly enough. What browser do you use(and version). Alternatively try another skin to check if this a problem by the monobook/vector skin. Or maybe copy and past these skin design to "your own css" and the problem solves (maybe). mabdul 11:11, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you both. I will do some more research based on your suggestions. The behaviour is quite variable. Wanderer57 (talk) 16:44, 20 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]