Help desk
< March 24	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 26 >

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.

March 25

Messages above watchlist

Who puts those messages above the pages in our watchlists? I would guess developers but I don't think they're that active. --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@ 03:22, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Any administrator. They just need to edit MediaWiki:Watchdetails. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 03:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I need help!!!!!

hi there, i´ve seen some customized signatures, with different colors, different kind of letter, and more cool stuff, can anyone tell me how to change the color and the kind of letter of my signature?!?!?! please, answer me in my talk page, thanks the sweet girl xoxo 03:35, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go to this tutorial. Cheers. Real96 03:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What's new at Wikipedia

Hey, Just wondering, is there somewhere I can see what is new at Wikipedia? By that I mean changes to Wikipedia itself, such as how it shows specifically the info regarding an archived page, orhow the left menu has been split up now. Thanks! Baseballfan Talk 03:54, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The MediaWiki: namespace controls many aspects of a MediaWiki wiki's user interface. MediaWiki:Sidebar controls the left menu. To see what has changed with that page, view its history. Special:Newpages shows the new pages in any namespace, including the MediaWiki: namespace (select the namespace from the list). Special:Recentchanges&namespace=8 shows the recent changes to pages in the MediaWiki: namespace. I don't understand what you mean by "the info regarding an archived page." Please link to an example, like this: [[the name of the archive page you are talking about]], so I can see what you mean. --Teratornis 11:26, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I meant this: "This is an archived version of this page, as edited by (Talk | contribs) at 00:00 Month 00, 0000. It may differ significantly from the current version." Subtle changes to the appearance of wikipedia itself. The basic stuff is no problem. Seems like there isn't really a discussion about stuff like that, at least that isn't very prominent anyway. Baseballfan Talk 05:40, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Spacing within points

How do I get spaces between paragraphs within points?

If I start a new paragraph, the indentation is wrong.

But if I use "<br>"
I don't get enough separation between paragraphs. Clarityfiend 04:00, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If you have paragraphs, you probably shouldn't be using a bulleted list. Lists are for short things, not whole paragraphs. —Bkell (talk) 05:59, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Income levels

I was looking at the Ishikawa prefecture of Japan where it said that the (median?) personal income was 2,700,000 Yen. Is this annual income? If so, why doesn't it say "annual". Or is ther somewher on Wikipeida that I coul not find that says that all such data assumes "annual"?

Willywump 07:50, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure which page you are talking about but it will be a good idea to clarify by asking on the article's talk page. — Lost^(talk) 12:32, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Taking a wild guess here: Ishikawa Prefecture#Economy. That came up as search result number 2. The talk page is: Talk:Ishikawa Prefecture. --Teratornis 15:23, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist a category

Is there any type of script I can use to watchlist a category? I mean, not to watch the changes made to that particular category, but to check whether there are new articles being added to the category. S. Miyano 08:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Here you are — Lost^(talk) 12:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I've copied the code into User:S. Miyano/catwatch.js. Please see if I did it right. S. Miyano 12:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Tutorial. You need to add the script to your monobook page — Lost^(talk) 13:18, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I didn't know. I've just added the script to my monobook as you said (here). Is it all right this time? S. Miyano 13:36, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Using commas around dates w/o interfering with date format conversion

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I didn't see the info I need in the Manual of Style.

I know that we're encouraged to link full dates (month/day/year) so that they can be displayed according to the user's preferences. I use a comma after the year, as is correct in the American format: "He said January 1, 1989, was his birthday." Unfortunately, that's bad when it displays as, "He said 1 January 1989, was his birthday."

I'd like to ensure that the comma appears after the year in the American date format but not in incompatible formats. Is this possible?

Thanks so much for your help.

DoorsAjar 10:16, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Excuse my ignorance, but why do you need a comma after the year in the American format? -- Chairman S. Talk ^Contribs 11:00, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A Wikipedia user gives references here. The Chicago Manual of Style also supports using a comma after the year. I believe the MLA style guide does as well, but I can't check that right now. DoorsAjar 12:06, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

User:124.185.157.217

User:124.185.157.217 has been making unencyclopedic (but not quite vandalistic) edits to many Harry Potter pages. I can't keep up, and need to get to work. Apologies if this is the wrong place for this post, but WP:AIV didn't quite seem right either. Matchups 12:12, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You can report the non obvious vandalism edits to WP:ANI — Lost^(talk) 12:31, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've done that, and things seem under control. Matchups 15:32, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help, i need to know about wiki policy

whats wiki policy prevent user to add web site for ads? and whats that notablity all about? and please this page is too long already can people archive it?--Towaru 13:01, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:SPAM and WP:N. Both of these are guidelines and not actually policy — Lost^(talk) 13:05, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This page gets archived periodically. You can search the Help desk archives. The page is long, but you can start a new question at the bottom by clicking the tab at the top that has the "+" character in it. Wikipedia's policies and guidelines are astoundingly complex, because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia about pretty much everything, so there must be guidelines to cover every conceivable situation; see: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia to look up whatever situation you want to know about. --Teratornis 15:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Harry Potter VII article needs a serious revamp, but it is locked...

The entire article is disorganized.
The talk page is going well, but the article itself just sits there...neglected...can someone (not me, I'm new to this; someone with experience who isn't obsessed with HP7) edit it? Please!? It's a top-importance article, but is B-class. It could be so much better.Within the Veil 13:09, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The article is protected because there is an ongoing dispute about it (I dont know the details) and possibly editors took to edit warring. Please suggest changes on the talk page of the article and if you think the dispute has died down please request unprotection here — Lost^(talk) 13:12, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Registering User:Lil' Wayne

Given that User:The UPN Vandal was trying to vandalise pages by creating information under this identity, is it possible to register that username for the purposes of preventing it from being used?

If you want need diffs as proof to do this, there's more than one that can be dug up. --Sigma 7 13:24, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The UPN Vandal has been indefinitely blocked and it cannot be used until unblocked. IPs are generally dynamic so cannot be blocked for longer durations. In case you want to register Lil' Wayne to prevent it being misused, please do so and place a notice on the userpage. Does that answer your question? — Lost^(talk) 13:28, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ryan Spirit of St.Louis

A "Sister ship" of the Spirit of St.Louis was owned by the Folk Candy Company of Portland Maine in 1928. How many Spirit of St.Louis Sister Ships were produced by Ryan? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.254.96.170 (talk • contribs)

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. — Lost^(talk) 13:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Spirit of St. Louis#Museum display mentions a "large number of replicas". You might ask on the Talk:Spirit of St. Louis if anybody knows an actual count. --Teratornis 15:36, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Google Earth's Wikipedia layer linking

Which is the proper way of entering a place's coordinate, for it to be in included in Google Earth's Wikipedia layer? I've seen very different coordinate labeling templates on articles so this issue is a bit confusing for me.Kilroytech 15:53, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use Template:Coor dms. — coel acan — 21:00, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some references for the details:

User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Map - a good place to start looking for everything to do with editing on Wikipedia
Wikipedia:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#Google-Earth-Tool with the help of geonames.org
Geonames in Google Earth
Wikipedia in GoogleEarth (en)

--Teratornis 21:40, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion question

This is probably already answered in one of the many help pages, but I'll be lazy and ask anyway: are articles or files ever deleted irrevocably, or are they forever potentially undeletable? And if the answer is the latter, how do you save server space? $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 16:20, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

All pages deleted through normal processes are retrievable. See Wikipedia:Viewing and restoring deleted pages by sysops. Images used to be permanently deleted but no longer. Also there was a database crash early in 2004, and all deleted revisions prior to that time are lost. I believe deleted pages are compressed, but you'll need someone more computer savvy than I to answer the specifics on that issue.--Fuhghettaboutit 17:13, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think this comment from Brion Vibber, Chief Technical Officer, answers your question. matt br 17:49, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the responses. "Subject to being cleared or removed AT ANY TIME WITHOUT WARNING" sound serious. Is there a system the developers/beurocrats have for proposing/officiating permanent deletion, or is it really as capricious as that sounds? Not that I would have too much of a problem either way, I'm just curious.

\sim

Lenoxus " * "

How do i find portal subpages?

I'm reworking a long neglected portal, and occasionally have typed in a subpage expecting a redlink only to find that a page already exists and was just taken off the main page at some point in time. I'd like to find all these pages and either get them deleted or utilize them in the current portal. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 17:54, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use Special:Prefixindex. Enter everything after the "Portal:" fron the name in the top box, and select "Portal" from the drop down box. Mart inp23 17:59, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alternate title for link in template parameter?

How do I place an alternate title for a link in a template parameter?

Suppose I have a railway station template with a parameter "location" that automatically makes it a link. So I type:

Unfortunately, Utopia is a disambig page. I want the Narnia railway station's location link to go to Utopia, Finland but be shown as Utopia. In a normal wikilink, I'd write:

[[Utopia, Finland|Utopia]]

But how do I do it in a template parameter?

(The above wikilinks are for example use only. I'm fully aware that Utopia isn't really a disambig page.) JIP | Talk 18:07, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure and it would depend on the template construction. Could you be more specific? matt br 18:17, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, I want the infobox in Kiikala (and other such places) to have a link to Salo, Finland instead of Salo, but still say Salo. Here's the infobox source code of Kiikala:

{{Kuntainfo| fullname=Kiikalan kunta| coatofarms=| status=municipality| map=| province=Western Finland| region=Finland Proper| district=Salo| citymanager=Seppo Koskinen| languages=[[Finnish language|Finnish]]| arearank=312th| area=245.35| arealand=240.12| poprank=359th| popdate=2003| pop=1,875| popchange=+ 0.8| popdensity=7.8| urbanisation=19.7| unemployment=10.0| website=http://www.kiikala.fi/ }}

Note the parameter "district=Salo". The Kuntainfo template has the following source code:

<nowkiki>{| class="infobox geography" style="width: 20em; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" width="300px" |+ style="font-size: large; margin: inherit;"|{{{fullname}}}

| colspan="2"|

{{{coatofarms}}}

|- class="mergedrow"

| colspan="2"|

{{{status}}} in Finland

|- class="mergedrow" | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| {{{map}}} |- | Province || [[{{{province}}}]] |- class="mergedrow" | Region || [[{{{region}}}]] |- class="mergedrow" | Sub-region || [[{{{district}}}]] |- class="mergedrow" | City manager || {{{citymanager}}} |- class="mergedrow" | Official languages || {{{languages}}} |- | Area
- total
- land | ranked {{{arearank}}}
{{{area}}} km²
{{{arealand}}} km² |- class="mergedrow" | Population
- total ([[{{{popdate}}}]])
- change
- density | ranked {{{poprank}}}
{{{pop}}}
{{{popchange}}} %
{{{popdensity}}}/km² |- | Urbanisation || {{{urbanisation}}} % |- class="mergedrow" | Unemployment rate || {{{unemployment}}} % |- align="center" | colspan="2" | {{{website}}} |}</nowiki>

Notice how the "Sub-region" row gets a value of "[[{{{district}}}]]", thus in this case "Salo". How do I make it go to Salo, Finland but still be displayed as Salo? JIP | Talk 18:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thanks. "district=Salo, Finland{{!}}Salo" should work in that case, where {{!}} produces a "|" without affecting the infobox coding. matt br 18:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it works, see Kiikala. matt br 19:10, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

year 2005 & yr 2006

I AM STUDYING LOGISTICS & WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE STATISTICS OF LIST OF BUSIEST PORTS IN TONNAGE /POPULATION IN THE YEAR 2005/2006 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.150.111.61 (talk • contribs)

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. — Lost^(talk) 18:54, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Coming to America

plaese i want go to amiracca so i need have a job in english soiety

Well, if you read and learn every document linked to from this page: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia, you could become really good at MediaWiki editing, and then you could probably get a job editing on corporate wikis. However, you could also do that job from wherever you live now, if you have Internet access, so there's no need to bother with physically moving to America. If you live in a developing nation, you could probably live better where you are by doing remote contracting work for western companies, because you would be paid in hard currency and continue to have your (probably) low local cost of living. Side note: maybe wikis are the technology that can make offshoring practical for small business. There is a lot of grunt work to building and maintaining a corporate wiki, and most people in a corporation already have other jobs, so they could use some help to get their wiki working. --Teratornis 21:48, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The first thing I asked myself when I read your question is why you want a job in America so badly. It's hard enough to get a job and getting one in another country isn't any easier. To maximize your chances, though, you should probably make an effort to learn the language. Your question contained 5 errors in one sentence, which probably won't reflect well on you when you write a job application letter. - Mgm|^(talk) 07:48, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How to handle repeat references so that they do not show up twice in the reference list

I have edited the page on Anubias and added two references. Both get cited in the text twice and this results in a reference list with FOUR entries, both of them twice the same ones. How do I correct this? Crusio 20:25, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use this code:

<ref name="name of reference"> blah blah blah rest of citation </ref>
<ref name="name of reference"/>

The second code will give you the same reference a second time. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Done for you. See Wikipedia:Footnotes#Citing a footnote more than once too. x42bn6 Talk 20:32, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Blacklisted websites

I had trouble unblanking a page because the spam filter found blacklisted websites linked in the page. It wasn't easy to find the problematic links, and I have been unable to find any list of banned websites to check against. Is there such a list?Professor marginalia 21:13, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's at meta:spam blacklist. — coel acan — 21:18, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!Professor marginalia 21:28, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The blacklist warning page you are taken to when you try to save a page with blacklisted links says something like "the offending link is http://www.spamcite.com". Copy the main link name, "spamcite" in this case (highlight, cntrl + c on most keyboards). Then when you go to the article past version, search for the text (cntrl + F on most browsers will open up a search box, hit cntrl + v to paste). You should have little problem finding the offending link(s), even if the article is huge. I think this will be much faster than checking links against a list.--Fuhghettaboutit 21:31, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's good advice. — coel acan — 21:39, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I looked for some clue to identify the website in the spamblock message and couldn't find it. I suppose I missed it somehow. I will try to recreate the problem in the sandbox to get the technique down. This is great because matching links against the list would take a long time whenever there are many suspects to sort through in the article.Professor marginalia 22:02, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm. It may be that there are different messages—maybe if there are multiple blocked links it doesn't list any. In any event, try saving this page for an example of what I was talking about. As you can see, you cannot save but are redirected to a spamblock page which says, in part: "The following text is what triggered our spam filter: http://www...".--Fuhghettaboutit 00:38, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for a special picture concerning free images ...

Hello, everyone, I recently noticed that unfree images cannot be used in the templates with contain personal information on living people. I once stumbled over a placeholder image that says something like "Free images are not allowed her. Have a free one? Click here to upload it." or something like it, however I cannot find it again - it's gone! Anyone out there who could help me with that? Regards, --Plumcouch ^Talk2Me 22:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's Image:Replace this image1.svg. — coel acan — 22:54, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

AFD question

How do you nominate an article (that's been in AFD in the past)? I've looked at several pages, and I havent found anything on it. RobJ1981 22:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

On the three step set of instructions at WP:AFD, at the bottom of the first step, it says "If the article has been nominated for deletion before..." and there is a corresponding note at the bottom of the third step. Nothing special for the second step as long as you use the link provided by the {{afdx}} template. — coel acan — 22:52, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is one difference. In previous steps, use "PageName (2nd nomination)" instead of "PageName".--Fuhghettaboutit 22:57, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting uploaded images

Hi, I was asked to move unlinked images to Wikimedia Commons. While it's easy to upload to Wikimedia Commons, I can't figure out how to delete already uploaded images from Wikipedia. Please help. - Anantashakti 23:22, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Per, WP:IFD, edit the image description here and add {{subst:ncd}} for images with the same name on Commons or {{subst:ncd|image name on Commons}} if the image has a different name on Commons. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:38, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gamma Phi Beta Sorority

The Offical Colors of the sorority are brown and mode not brown and pink. Brown and pink are part of a new marketing initative along with teh slogan connect, impact and shine. This intitative in no way changes the colors of the sorority. You can verify this information at www.gammaphibeta.org the sorority's international website.

Thank you, Tabatha Cyrus Alpha Alpha Chapter

How do I make lists?

Insert non-formatted text here I am trying to combine down the various minor characters in Jojo's Bizarre adventure into small lists of characters organized by parts, unfortunately it doesn't work the way I thought it would. any help would be appreciated.Tensa Zangetsu 23:52, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Use asterisks (*) to make bulleted lists and # to make numbered lists. For example,

*Stuff   
*More Stuff

gives:

Stuff
More Stuff

and

#Stuff   
#More Stuff

gives:

Stuff
More Stuff

See Help:List and maybe Help:Table for more detailed info. Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 23:56, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]