Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 April 8

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April 8

how do i create an entry about myself?

I am an award winning costume designer and would like to create a biographical entry. How do I/can I do that? thank you, Christopher Lawrence — Preceding unsigned comment added by Toph838 (talk • contribs) 00:37, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Autobiography. It's seldom a good idea. Jim.henderson (talk) 01:04, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Also see WP:COI. Omahasian (talk) 14:29, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Can I use pictures (photos) off wiki for use on my own website?

Just wondering if I can use photos on wiki articles on my own website? will copyright allow me to do this legally?

Thanks in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.219.174.213 (talk) 01:26, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

If you click on the picture, it will tell you how it is licenced. Many of the pictures on Wikipedia are licenced in a way that you can reuse them, but some are not. RudolfRed (talk) 01:45, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Obama campaign ads are blocking article content.

How do I get rid of these ads? They're too wide to fit in the left side tool bar. They block article content. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dianewms (talk • contribs) 01:31, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not have ads. You might have a virus or other malware on your computer. RudolfRed (talk) 01:47, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Forgot this link: Wikipedia:RFAQ#ADS RudolfRed (talk) 01:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Read the above link, don't forget it. Roger (talk) 08:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Neighborhood Unit article

In the article the Neighbourhood Unit, I was cited and my name was misspelled. I attempted to correct it but the change was made to reference 3 instead of my article, cited as #4. My name is Lawhon, L. 2009. The Neighborhood Unit: Physical Design or Physical Determinism. Can you fix my inadvertent correction? Larry Lawhon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.179.163.229 (talk) 01:56, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Working on it... Dismas|^(talk) 04:07, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Fixed. Thanks for bringing this to our attention! Dismas|^(talk) 04:10, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Intelligent Energy

Why would you do a re-direct from "Intelligent Energy" (a fuel cell & hydrogen technology company in Europe) to "Integrated Operations" (a bunch of useless information promoting the wonderful method of operations of BIG OIL)....??????? Why??? In fact, EXACTLY WHO IS IN CONTROL OF WIKIPEDIA??? I think I have a real understanding of how things work now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 153.24.130.60 (talk) 07:15, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

To answer your third question first, nobody is in control of Wikipedia. It's a collaborative effort where thousands of editors follow agreed guidelines to create and maintain articles. That means that from time to time stuff is missing or you end up in unexpected places. Dunno if you noticed, but we also have a link called Intelligent Energy Europe which is a redirect to Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (of the European Commission). It simply seems that the company you refer to has never had an article written about. Want to do it yourself? HiLo48 (talk) 07:23, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I have nominated the redirect Intelligent Energy for deletion at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2012 April 8#Intelligent Energy. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:42, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Editing 2012 Chicago White Sox game log

Can anyone help me edit the game log so I can have the rowspan/colspan work correctly? I have been trying for a while now (just check out the previous edits) and have had no luck. I went to the help page for rowspan/colspan and that did not help at all. PLEASE HELP! Thank you. Carthage44 (talk) 11:27, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I do not understand what you are trying to achieve. Von Restorff (talk) 13:14, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Correcting Vandalised articles

I'm new and came across an article on Pennsylvania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania where inappropriate words have been substitutude in the Geography section. What is the best way to report or fix it? BlackKilt (talk) 14:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

It's already been  Fixed by a bot in this edit.--ukexpat (talk) 14:43, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

For future reference: You can report obvious and persistent vandals at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Before posting there, a final warning in an escalating series should have been posted to the user's talk page (for example {{Uw-vandal4}}, {{Uw-spam4}} or {{Uw-speedy4}}), and the user must have vandalized within the last few hours, including after the final warning was given. Various warning templates can be found at Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace. Your block request is unlikely to be acted upon unless you follow these steps. Cases that are not simple vandalism can be reported at WP:AN/I. Of course, in conjunction with warning against and reporting vandalism, you have the ability, mandate and are encouraged to revert all instances of vandalism you find yourself.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:11, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Loosing session data when trying to edit

When trying to edit, I repeatedly get the message

Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still does not work, try logging out and logging back in.

What could cause this? Is it a problem with my browser? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 15:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, when I just hit 'Save page' a second time after I got that message, it saves the edit. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 15:33, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I have the same issue, but only when I leave the edit window open for a long time. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:08, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Please help me understand more of the culture of Wikipedia

User:Peridon has a page that is his own self promotion and he is trying to take my page down for the same reason? At least I'm trying to find out how to change my content so that it can remain up. Thanks for the listen. Take a peek at Peridon's page and you can see what I'm talking about. I have many articals that have been written about me that I need to chase down that I can link to but need time. What is the speed that is needed on my part on the part of Peridon? Annette Coleman — Preceding unsigned comment added by AnnetteColeman (talk • contribs) 16:06, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I seems to me that most of the problem on your part is that you didn't understand the difference between a User page and an article. If you intend writing an article about yourself you really need to first read WP:Autobiography and the various policy and guideline pages that it links to. We have strict rules about Notability, Neutral Point of view and Self promotion - please read these guidelines too.

Take a look at my userpage, I believe it is a reasonably representative example of what a User page is suposed to be used for. If you wish to work on a draft article without being hassled by too many rules use your Sandbox - there is a link in the top menu. The sandbox gives you as much time as you need to chase down sources, etc. Roger (talk) 16:20, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

What Roger says is true – but he is being modest when he describes his userpage as representative. It is in fact unusually helpful and informative. Many editors have far less helpful user pages. If you want to put material on your own user page, you are pretty much free to write what you like, there is no standard that you have to follow.

Incidentally – all the sections around here are missing their "Edit" links, I have no idea why. Maproom (talk) 23:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I have fixed the edit links by adding nowiki tags to displayed template code in a post.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 00:31, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Bio information for Deryl Dodd

The wiki bio for Country Singer Deryl Dodd has him being raised in Prosper, TX. That is partially incorrect, I dont know where he was born but I do know that he was raised in Dallas, TX and he attended Dallas Skyline HS. I attended High School with him and his sister(Cheryl), — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.175.147.4 (talk) 16:26, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Somebody made that change just a few days ago, but the source referenced in the article says Dallas, so I have reverted the change. (It may have been vandalism, but it may have been in good faith, and one of the guidelines of Wikipedia is to assume good faith).

Resolved

--ColinFine (talk) 16:53, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Trying to determine why a number list is disappearing

I've edited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_disciplines due to the fact that I noticed the list wasn't showing 3.8 Political Science. At first I noticed a blank line between {{Main|Political science|Outline of politics}} & {{col-begin|width=95%}} which I removed. The previewed then showed 3.8 Political Science in the contents box. Now when I go to the page it shows up and then reverts back to not being shown. I'm thinking there's another template being invoked which isn't allowing the number list to display correctly. I would like to fix the problem (the numbering in the contents list) but more importantly how the problem was fixed because I'm curious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Plachert (talk • contribs)

I don't see a problem with section 3.8 Political science in List of academic disciplines. It appears in both the table of contents and the section List of academic disciplines#Political science. Try to bypass your cache. Please use <nowiki>...</nowiki> tags around code you want to display without activating it. Your post caused misformatting of the help desk until I fixed it in [2]. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:51, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

article on Moshe Feinstein

I am unable to make any corrections to the article on Moshe Feinstein page. As a Jew I find it in extremely bad taste that a leading Nazi collaberater as Moshe Feisnstein was should be given a complimentary report. I am a former Israeli soldier and find it reprehensible that someone calling himself a Jew and a Rabbi should never live in his ethnic homeland yet demand that I die defending his grave. I also find it reprehensible as a Jew that someone that turned down a proposal by Adolf Eichman to restttle the Jews in the ethnic homeland that then resulted in 6 million Jews being killed should be given a positive writeup. I also am unable too make any corrections in the facts of his libelous writeup since the edit button does not work for his page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.172.141.251 (talk) 18:46, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, the article is locked, you can make requests for changes on the talk page Talk:Moshe Feinstein. As for the other, I see nothing in the article indicating any interaction with the Nazi regime at all, being forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1936. For the addition of such an interaction with Adolf Eichmann, a reference would be needed.Naraht (talk) 21:06, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Citation Invisible Children, Inc

• I cannot make the following reference appear properly in the References section of the article, Invisible Children, Inc

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118275/Kony-2012-video-director-Jason-Russell-suffering-reactive-psychosis.html

• This is my effort...!

<ref name=Spagat /><ref>{{cite news |http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118275/Kony-2012-video-director-Jason-Russell-suffering-reactive-psychosis.html |date=April 8, 2012 |accessdate=April 8, 2012}}</ref>

... N.B. It shows up as Ref. [25] at the end of the section titled Response.

• Can somebody put me right, please? Gareth Griffith-Jones (talk) 19:02, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
  • Fixed. You forgot to add the url parameter.--GoP_T^C_N 19:09, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
    • ... and I've added title and publisher parameters. - David Biddulph (talk) 19:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Hello David,

Once again you have come to my rescue with amazing speed.

Thank you very much. Kind regards, Gareth Griffith-Jones (talk) 19:38, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Good evening GreatOrangePumkin,

Thank you very much for your amazingly fast response to my citing problem earlier this evening.

I would have replied earlier, but initially had mistakenly read your posting together with your (very attractive) signature as the first part of David's reply to me. He had not left a line break. It was only on going back to it just now that I realised my misunderstanding.

With kind regards, Gareth Griffith-Jones (talk) 23:28, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

How do I create a page rather than editing it?

It's probably a dumb question.. But heh, I need help. ^^" — Preceding unsigned comment added by KounKotoGakko (talk • contribs) 19:17, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Regarding your userspace draft: it'd be best not to. With the best will in the world, it's simply not notable. It might be once it's released, if it attracts sufficient media attention, but at the moment it's not even got a release date. More details at Wikipedia:UPANDCOMING. Additionally, Wikipedia is not for commercial purposes, which the phrase "This article is for commercial purposes only" in your draft contradicts. But thank you very much for deciding to contribute – I hope this doesn't deter you and that you stick around :). As for making a new page, you can either go to the address of the page you want to create, then hit the "create" tab, or use the article wizard. Regards, Brammers (talk/c) 20:04, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I need help.

Or, failing that, the phone number of a good therapist. I am working at List of monuments of the Gettysburg Battlefield. One of the things that needed doing, since this is a "list article" was to spin off some of the longer sections on individual notable monuments into separate articles. Which I did, creating Alabama State Monument (Gettysburg), North Carolina State Monument (Gettysburg), and Virginia State Monument (Gettysburg). Someone else came along and redirected those to the same names, but with out the "(Gettysburg)." That is (my opinion) needed because there are many Virginia State Monuments on different battlefields, and probably other places as well. Also, for some reason, the talk pages on the new articles (for example, Virginia Monument) all refer one back to the List of monuments of the Gettysburg Battlefield. I would like for someone who understands this to recreate Alabama State Monument (Gettysburg), North Carolina State Monument (Gettysburg), and Virginia State Monument (Gettysburg) with their own talk pages. All of this, and more, is also being discussed at Talk:List of monuments of the Gettysburg Battlefield. This is an important project that we are working on (aren't they all?) and we want to get it right, but it is getting tangled and I don't quite know how to fix it. Thanks, Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 19:34, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia only uses disambiguations like "(Gettysburg)" when the name conflicts with already existing Wikipedia articles, not when it conflicts with subjects without an article. See WP:PRECISION. The talk pages leading somewhere else are redirects. See Help:Redirect#Creating and editing redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:22, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Bob Pirie entry vandalized

The entry for Bob Pirie at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Pirie appears to have been vandalized. The dates for this Canadian swimmer are given as being in the 1300s; there are references to a "Japaniese Cake Sale Games" which makes no sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.9.65.16 (talk) 19:34, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Fixed. Aran36 was the culprit. Bielle (talk) 19:37, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Viewing code of an article's past form

Hi, recently an IP editor made this edit and made another one soon after. The edit I've linked to is a pain because it removes a wikitable and it can't be undone since the subsequent edit has been made. Is there anyway I can view the "source code" (don't know the real term) of the article as it previously was, so that I can paste the table back in? The alternative is pasting the difference in the link I've posted, but then I'd have to delete the ndashes that appear on every line, which is hardly ideal. Hope this makes sense. Thank you. mgSH 19:45, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Check and see if it is right now. I used "rollback". Bielle (talk) 19:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC) If I didn't use it correctly, let me know. Bielle (talk) 19:53, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

That's perfect; thank you very much. I assume "rollback" is an add-on of sorts? It seems bizarre that this isn't built into the site's code somewhere! mgSH 19:55, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Revert for how to revert to a prior version. If the edit was of the type that you could not do a normal reversion on (usually because there was later intervening edits), which was not at issue here, you could work from the diff to manually place back content. Please note that the edit by the IP, while it did blank some content, was not blatant, simple vandalism, but may have been made in good faith. and so use of rollback on it was iffy. See Wikipedia:Rollback feature#When to use rollback.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:09, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

In fact, the second edit he made did make it impossible to use "undo" on the first one. And to respond to the point about manually placing back content: that would've been a little laborious in this case because of the wikitable, so, although the rollback feature might not strictly be allowed in this case, I am glad and thankful that common sense prevailed. mgSH 20:15, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

No, you misunderstand. By reversion I do not mean undo, I mean reversion, which it appears you are unaware of given your follow-up. To do so you click on the version in the page's history you wish to revert to, then click edit this page, and then save to that version. That is how you revert. There was no need for rollback. There were no intervening edits that necessitated manually placing back anything. That happens when a third party has edited after the version you want to revert to, so that a normal revert or rollback is unavailable.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 20:25, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the "reversion" explanation, Fuhghettaboutit. I had never heard of it. Next time, for a similar concern, I will use it instead of Rollback -which I knew was iffy. Bielle (talk) 21:30, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Yep, fair enough and thanks for the explanation. No loss through the (wrong) course we've taken though. :) mgSH 21:38, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Anytime, you whippersnappers; why back in my day we didn't even have an undo button dagnabbit.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:43, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not working correctly

Has anyone else had a problem this problem? Wikipedia is extremely slow, if the pages load at all. Also, some of the pages load with the same format as normal; some, however (my watchlist inluded), are "bare bones". Also, the watchlist is loading with each change on a separate line, not grouped together. I usually use Firefox (version 11.0), but I tried using Internet Explorer (version 8) and Google Chrome (version 18.0.1025.151 m). However, I am having the same problem. Can anyone help me? This is the reason I haven't been on here much today or yesterday. Also, did the format of the watchlists change? I would like to have the former format. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 20:50, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

It works for me. Try to clear your entire cache. If you want a grouped watchlist then make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser, Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rc enables "Enhanced recent changes (requires JavaScript)", and Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-watchlist enables "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent". PrimeHunter (talk) 21:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I had the same problem too a few hours back. Most of the pages were not loading at all and if if it did, it was text-only ("bare bones"). However, it seemed to have been resolved now. Hallows Aktiengesellschaft (talk) 22:04, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, I have those settings activated already. Is there anything else that I can do to revert my watchlist to the previous version? Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 22:30, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I get a grouped watchlist in all of Firefox 11.0, Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome 18.0.1025.151 m with those settings. What is your skin? Can you try another computer? PrimeHunter (talk) 00:02, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

As I said, I have Firefox 11.0, Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702IC, and Google Chrome 18.0.1025.151 m. I am using the Monobook skin. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 00:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

MonoBook means you activate all the scripts in User:Morriswa/monobook.js. Your latest addition 7 April was User:Ais523/catwatch.js which manipulates the watchlist so I guess that's the problem. It may be incompatible with your settings. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:39, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I removed the script, but that didn't revert my watchlist to the previous version. The only upside is it seems to load faster (even though each individual edit is on a separate line!). Do you need me to tell you what preferences that I have active on my Special:Preferences page? Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 02:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Did you refresh after removing the script? Try to clear your entire cache. You have a lot of MonoBook scripts. How is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Watchlist?useskin=vector? I'm not sure it ignores your MonoBook scripts so try also changing to Vector at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering and see how your watchlist looks. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:40, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I did. I tried Vector. It is the same.

Yes, I do have lots of scripts on my page. Some edits are just so much easier with scripts. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 23:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Does JavaScript seem to be working in your other scripts? Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, the groupings you want are the arrows described at meta:Help:Enhanced recent changes#Examples? Can you try another computer at some time to narrow down the cause? You could also consider creating an alternative account with no scripts and default settings except those two I mentioned earlier. Or try the Simple English Wikipedia at simple:. Your account should start with default settings and then you can set the two mentioned settings (some things are named differently at simple). PrimeHunter (talk) 01:24, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Most, if not all, of the other scripts seem to be working just fine.

Yes, I want the arrows on the left side. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 02:06, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Noinclude

What purpose does noinclude serve in Michael Wallace? Clarityfiend (talk) 21:12, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I guess it serves no purpose, since according to H:T#Noinclude, includeonly, and onlyinclude this only works on a page that is being transcluded onto another page. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 21:19, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Some other disambiguation pages I have seen (example Parijat (disambiguation)) have hidden tags and the text 'Long comment to avoid being listed on short pages'; don't know if this was intended to be a similar work around or not. Dru of Id (talk) 21:36, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

An edit in the page history [3] said "+<noinclude> to make it suitable for transclusion to Wallace (surname)." The editor transcluded it there at the time.[4] This was later changed. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:41, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I've removed them. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:00, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

User page

On my user page, my full talk page is listed on it, how can I take the talk page off the user page? --Tate Brandley Stockwell 22:49, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Another user redirected User:TBrandley/Bar to your talk page on March 14. Since this page is transcluded onto your user page, it's causing your talk page to show up. - Purplewowies (talk) 22:57, 8 April 2012 (UTC)