Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 May 6

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May 6

Migrating project templates

Some time ago I changed the name of "WikiProject Fishing" how do i to "WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing". Since then there have been problems with the assessment templates, such as Template:WPFISHING. I don't know how to migrate them. Can someone walk me through this please? --Geronimo20 (talk) 02:43, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Could you specify what problems? You can simply Move the template by clicking Move at the top, and then it will be redirected to the new title that you choose. Gary King (talk) 03:20, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Well Template:WPFISHING is not nesting properly, as in this example. As I recall it was nesting okay before the name change. The other problem is with the assessment grid. This is not updating, as you can see if you click on one of the subtotal headers. --Geronimo20 (talk) 03:46, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Is it okay if you move "WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing" back to "WikiProject Fishing"? That's the easiest way to fix the templates to my point of view.--RyRy5 (talk ♠ Review) 04:31, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Date format inconsistency

Resolved

At the bottom of every page you have the 'last modified' date using the logical format (d:m:y); smallest to largest. This format is used virtually everywhere in the world. Yet in many date based articles (like 'what happened on this day') you use the illogical format (m:d:y). Shouldn't this be made consistent? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.149.164.14 (talk) 06:45, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I think you should have a look at Manual of Style Its basically using your common sense to the format you use depending on the situation. Either way i dont think its harming anyone, its when users do the 6/5/08 or 5/6/08 that gets confusing. Hope that helped. Roadrunnerz45 ^{(talk 2 me)} 07:53, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

(e/c) They're all logical; it just depends on your perspective. None of the systems are used virtually everywhere in the world. A larger division of the world uses the d:m:y but both m:d:y and y:m:d are used and not in tiny isolated pockets either. China, for example, uses y:m:d. That's 1.3 billion people; approximately 20% of the world. Ever user who has an account can change their preferences so that linked dates in any of the standard date formats will display as they choose. The date modified you see below as defaulting to d:m:y, I see different ly based on my preferences. As for the consistency issue, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 08:13, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Tools gone

Resolved

Hi, for some reason I've lost the use of all my extra tools (Friendly, HotCat, Twinkle etc), and my preferences is now formatted in a long line down the page, without the navigation buttons at the top. Also, probably related, the "show" button on talk page shells have gone and displays the extra information anyway. Anyone got any ideas about this? I edited my monobook.js this morning, and I've tried reverting my changes and bypassing, but they're still not there. Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 08:06, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

That's odd The show buttons are working fine for me, I can't check twinkle and friendly because I'm at school and stuck with IE but the navigation buttons are there, have you tried purging your cache? Harland1 (^t/_c) 08:21, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Yep, it's worrying, because now my edit toolbar is gone as well. :S PeterSymonds | talk 08:23, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Update: Basically, I've tried restoring my monobook. When I Ctrl-F5 it, I can see the tools; but as soon as I navigate away from the page, either by purging or clicking elsewhere, they disappear. On your userpage, Harland, those dropdown boxes don't have a "show" on them, so I can't see their contents; I'm not sure what's going on! Seems really weird. PeterSymonds | talk 08:32, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

If you haven't yet, try restarting you computer. I know, not exactly earth shattering advice, but every time I have some kind of major functionality or display bug I can't figure out that I know isn't a virus, a reboot solves it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 08:50, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Seems so simple when you think about it...!! Thanks, you're a star! PeterSymonds | talk 08:57, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome!--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:16, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

How to post question related to an article.

Am looking at article on Helix Aspersa, and want to post a question about it. How do I do it? Have spent a long time on site and can't find the answer. Not in FAQ Ruth555 (talk) 08:37, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

When on the article, at the top of the screen, there'll be a tab that says "discussion". Click this, and then press the "new section" tab. Type a brief summary (question or something) into the smaller box, and then your complete question in the bigger box. Then save it, and voila! Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 08:40, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

The talk page in question is Talk:Helix aspersa. You can start a new comment on that page by clicking here. Please read Help:Talk page and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Note that an article's talk page is for discussing improvements to the article. If you have a general knowledge question about the article's subject, and you don't want to change the article, then you should ask your question on the Reference desk. --Teratornis (talk) 05:28, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Foreign Language Templates

Resolved

Could anybody tell me how to use a template from a foreign language version of Wikipedia? I want to include a userbox from the Spanish Wikipedia in my English userpage. Thanks. --MQDuck 09:23, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Um, I think it's probably best to get the template markup (which will be on the template's page with the prefix Template:, in Spanish) Then create a new template page on the English W, copy the source code and translate. That should work, because wikimarkup is the same globally I believe. PeterSymonds | talk 09:26, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

That would certainly work, but there's a way to link to foreign language articles, right? There has to be a way to use foreign language templates. --MQDuck 09:44, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh yes. In the wikilink, just put the country code followed by a colon. Eg. for the English Wikipedia, it would be [[w:en:Spanish language|Spanish language]]. Pipe it with the | to hide the identifier. PeterSymonds | talk 09:47, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I know how to make a link. What I want is to use a template. The one I want is in userspace (therefore technically not a template?): http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:Felipnator/Chavez. I tried things like {{w:es:Usuario:Felipnator/Chavez}} but I haven't found anything that works. --MQDuck 12:18, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

{{User:Mqduck/Spanish template}}.here Is that what you wanted? The userbox has been created in your userspace, and to use it, those brackets will transclude it wherever you want, eg. your userpage. PeterSymonds | talk 12:23, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I didn't need help doing that, but thanks. :) I take it that what I was asking just isn't possible. --MQDuck 12:56, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, interwiki templates, sorry. I was struggling to realise what you meant. As far as I know that isn't possible, because separate userboxes are local and not global. PeterSymonds | talk 12:58, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

No, you can't transclude inter-wiki, for the same reason you can't redirect inter-wiki. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:09, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

See mw:Manual:$wgEnableScaryTranscluding. The feature is available in the MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia, but the people who decide such things decided to disable scary transcluding on Wikipedia, I think. --Teratornis (talk) 05:23, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

About Bots

I am a user in [ http://te.wikipedia.org telugu wikipedia]. I am learning to write a bot in python. when i tried to run a bot written in Python. I am getting the following error message

  E:\python\pywikipedia>python login.py
  Checked for running processes. 1 processes currently running, including the current process.
  Password for user Ravibot on wiktionary:te:
  Logging in to wiktionary:te as Ravibot
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "login.py", line 277, in <module>
   main()
 File "login.py", line 273, in main
   loginMan.login()
 File "login.py", line 225, in login
   cookiedata = self.getCookie()
 File "login.py", line 144, in getCookie
   response, data = self.site.postForm(address, predata, useCookie=False)
 File "E:\python\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py", line 3137, in postForm
   return self.postData(address, data, sysop = sysop, useCookie=useCookie)
 File "E:\python\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py", line 3160, in postData
   conn.endheaders()
 File "C:\Python25\lib\httplib.py", line 860, in endheaders
   self._send_output()
 File "C:\Python25\lib\httplib.py", line 732, in _send_output
   self.send(msg)
 File "C:\Python25\lib\httplib.py", line 699, in send
   self.connect()
 File "C:\Python25\lib\httplib.py", line 667, in connect
   socket.SOCK_STREAM):
 socket.gaierror: (11001, 'getaddrinfo failed')

I downloaded the bot frame work from the link u have given on the bot help page. I access internet through a proxy server with firewall. Will it cause any problems. I would be happy to know whether there is any alternative for running the bot. Ravichandrae (talk) 10:55, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid I cannot be of any help with the technical side of things, but can I just check that the bot you are creating is going to be approved? WP:B lists the bot policy - if you haven't already done so, please could you have a read of it? There is also a link on that page to the Bot approval group. That page lists all the users who can approve Bots - it is probable that one of them will have the technical knowledge to answer your question. StephenBuxton (talk) 15:41, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Another page that might be of help: WP:CREATEBOT. There is a section on there about new bots in python. StephenBuxton (talk) 15:44, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Also see WP:EIW#Bot. This Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia. Bot programming is a specialized skill, and not many of the people who read the Help desk and answer questions may be bot programmers who could answer these kinds of questions quickly. WP:VPT seems to have a higher percentage of technical people who might know something. I also see some troubleshooting discussion on m:Talk:Using the python wikipediabot; you might try asking there. If that doesn't get results, you could see Wikipedia:Bots/Status and start asking other pywikipedia users if they can help you. In general, if you want to venture into the cruel world of bots, you need to know computer programming and in particular debugging. In a large percentage of cases, when a relatively popular computer program emits a distinctive error message, one can {{Google}} for the text of the error and find various Web pages where people have reported the error. So let's try it: pywikipedia getaddrinfo failed; that finds four distinct mentions of this error. Read all those pages and maybe you'll find the answer, or more keywords for further Googling. I know more about Perl than Python, so I'm fairly comfortable at debugging Perl scripts (although scripts I download from other people can get gnarly fast). Are you a Python programmer? Running Python scripts is not like running a consumer-grade application program (such as a Web browser). Scripting languages require the user to be more technically inclined and self-reliant. --Teratornis (talk) 19:23, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

References

Resolved

Is ther some policy which says that you shouldn't add too many refs? I mean if you have two for each statement in an article is that overkill or is it a good idea? Harland1 (^t/_c) 12:48, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Not really, but you can sometimes have a ref "overkill". For example, if you had a paragraph of information from one source, and you gave every sentence a <ref name=Jones/>, then that would be considered unnecessary. As for duplicate refs, I would only add more than one if there are two sides (eg. X said this and Y said that), or if the information is controversial and has to be backed up by multiple sources. Some people put about six references for some things and it just looks unprofessional! (Although it is necessary sometimes, albeit rarely). PeterSymonds | talk 12:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Would you say that 2 references would be only needed if it was a contraversial statement? (I didn't mean 6 references, I was thinking of 2 or at very most 3). Harland1 (^t/_c) 12:57, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Two should be fine. What's the sentence? PeterSymonds | talk 12:59, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

It's not a particularly controversial statement in Borthwick Castle about Mary Queen of Scots escaping disguised as a page, some places say man and some say page so I wondered how many I would need. Thanks Harland1 (^t/_c) 13:05, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah okay, I would've thought one would be enough, but two would be fine on that one. "Man" is ambiguous, and I would generally go with the specifics if they're available. Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 13:09, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Ads

talk 17:31, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

 – PeterSymonds

Is there a way to remove all the ads that the top of the screen? The ugly "Learn more about citing Wikipedia", "Early regisistration for Wikimania 2008" and "Help us improve Wikipedia" ones are getting on my nerves -62.172.143.205 (talk) 13:47, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, the early registration one can be hidden by pressing the [hide] button which appears to the right of the message. Where are you seeing the others? I don't think those ones can be hidden, but if there's a hide button there, it gets rid of it. PeterSymonds | talk 13:50, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I think those messages (except the Wikimania one) are for unregistered users only. Creating an account kills them. Algebraist 14:09, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Yep, just logged out and seen them everywhere! To 62, the only way to get rid of those is to create an account for yourself. There's no way to hide them while logged out unfortunately. Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 14:15, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Thx. Logging in it a pain though... Wiki should seriously reconsider putting all the ads if it wants to encourage new users -The user formerly known as 62.172.143.205 (talk) 15:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I came online about lunchtime today (11:30 UTC) and spotted them while logged out. They're horrendous and I've started a topic at WP:VPM. Please voice your own opinions...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 16:00, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Now you've got an account, yay! To avoid hassle (and providing you're not on a shared PC), you can set your preferences to keep you permanently logged in. Click on "my preferences" at the top, and at the bottom of that screen, there'll be a box saying username and password. Beneath it, there's a tick box that says "remember my login on this computer". That way you'll stay logged in. Best, PeterSymonds | talk 16:00, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Someone is misusing my name or email address.

talk 17:37, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

 – Shared IP addresses explained. PeterSymonds

First, I would like to say that Wikipedia is one of the best uses of internet technology I have ever seen. I love it. However, I am not a member nor an editing member. I do not contribute to editing in any way. But, today, I used Wikipedia for the first time in about a month and received three notices that my editings have been deleted. I don't edit. Is someone using my name or email address?

This concerns me because: A) I don't edit. B) I use Wikipedia frequently and do not want that privilege revoked. C) I am in public education and do not want a bad name for myself.

What can be done to reslove this issue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.158.132.234 (talk) 13:58, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah, yes, you're on a shared IP address, which means other users are also contributing. Are you at a school? Basically, every institution has an IP address, and the same IP could represent hundreds if not thousands of users. Therefore, the person behind an IP address receiving a warning is most likely not the person who committed vandalism. See your contributions; that's how many edits your IP address (not necessarily you) has made.

Secondly, no one can be blocked from viewing Wikipedia, only editing it. Your name is never disclosed, and no one's trying to impersonate you. It's just some vandal operating from the same IP. :) Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 14:06, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

The worst possible case scenario is that your ip address would be blocked from editing, that is if the vandalism from it is especially high. But you will still be able to use wikipedia to find information exactly the same way and no one will ever know anything about your personal identity, so your concerns are fine. On the other hand, we would hope that you might come across something in the future that you think needs to be fixed and do to your love of this site and for education you may want to be bold and fix it to better the experience for everyone. If you want to do this at some point but your IP address is blocked it would be difficult which is why I would recommend you simply register an account now, could use your real name or just a screen name if you like. That way if it ever comes up, you can still have access not only to read wikipedia, but to help improve it. Chris M. (talk) 14:27, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Yep, stick around. :) PeterSymonds | talk 14:30, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

We have some templates we can add to the talk pages of shared IP addresses: {{SharedIPEDU}}, {{SharedIP}}, and {{SharedIPPublic}} (I found these by browsing to the Editor's index and searching with Ctrl-F for "shared"). The user did not say whether he/she is using Wikipedia from a school. One way to guess is by looking at some of the links on the bottom of User talk:12.158.132.234 such as the WHOIS link. The resulting information shows what looks like an Internet services provider (Blue Valley Telecommunications), rather than an identifiable organization. Thus the general-purpose {{SharedIP}} template does not seem appropriate for User talk:12.158.132.234, since that template requires an organization name. There seems to be a geographically coincident Blue Valley Unified School District, but I don't see anything to indicate that the user's IP address originates from a school in that district. However, I'm by no means an expert at IP address divination, and I defer to anyone who is. --Teratornis (talk) 18:58, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah this was my thinking as well, especially as the edit history didn't show a mass of edits like they would normally with a school. I thought that it must be a street/household using the same IP, or maybe an internet cafe. PeterSymonds | talk 19:11, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Whistleblowing Resource

Resolved

PeterSymonds | talk 17:38, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Can you place the following website resource (a totally free service to the public that has existed for almost 10 years) into your article on "Whistleblowing":

Father and Son Whistleblowers Website www.whistleblowing.org —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.244.92.69 (talk) 15:36, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

See WP:EL, if you still think the link sould go in, do it yourself. Please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box (as shown to the left ←). Do NOT sign in articles....... Dendodge..Talk^Help 15:40, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Another image question

Image:Aprilmayjune.gif
Image:Aprilmayjune2.png
I received a message about the image about April, May, and June Duck, which I had altered, saying that it did not have sufficient licence information. The image is an edited version of an image already found on Wikipedia, edited by myself. The licence issue is difficult because the characters depicted are under copyright. What kind of licence can I use? JIP | Talk 15:59, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

The same as the other image...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 16:01, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

You should also use it in an article, or it will be deleted as orphaned fair-use...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 16:06, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, but which article would it be? Alternative versions of Disney characters? =) JIP | Talk 17:50, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I'd put it in the April, May, and June Duck article...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 11:45, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

It was already there, but it was removed. JIP | Talk 06:04, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Racism blocking

Resolved

Do we have a policy for blocking users who make racist edits? (I mean before the normal warnings have been gone through.) Harland1 (^t/_c) 16:02, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't have thought so, other than vandalism or personal attacks...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 16:04, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

This is quite good reading material regarding personal attacks. PeterSymonds | talk 16:07, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Aha thanks Peter I knew there must be something like that. Harland1 (^t/_c) 17:24, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. :) PeterSymonds | talk 17:25, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Admin 2

How do I get an administrator account?? Tribe12 (talk) 17:40, 6 May 2008 (UTC) --Tribe12 (talk) 17:40, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Applications are made through Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. However, editors usually require a high level of activity, some article building and admin-related work, for example commenting on AFDs. I recommend, if you were considering running, at least four months of solid work before applying. Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 17:52, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

As an example, I nominated myself after having made normal contributions to Wikipedia for half a year. I got a fairly positive response, most of the votes were in favour. In the end, I was made an admin. JIP | Talk 17:53, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

(e/c) This essay is good to get some idea of the community's expectations. Everyone has different criterias, but this is a good general start: User:Balloonman/How to pass an RfA. Best, PeterSymonds | talk 17:55, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

One thing you need to ask yourself is why you want to become an admin. What is it you want to do now that you can't? --MQDuck 17:56, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Public domain image

How do I know if a picture is public domain? MMMMMMMM (talk) 18:03, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Public domain. Did you have a particular image in mind? PeterSymonds | talk 18:04, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

How do I change the case of a title?

Resolved

I created the page Vidya subramaniam, want to correct the capitalization to Vidya Subramaniam, how do I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blaft (talk • contribs) 18:13, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

• Click the tab at the top of the page that says "move" and then enter in the properly-capitalized title. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells•Otter chirps)} 18:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

• I moved the page for you. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells•Otter chirps)} 18:16, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

NowCommons Template

How can I keep Image:20070616 Chris Young visits Wrigley (4)-edit3.jpg from being deleted not that it has a {{NowCommons}} tag. It is a WP:FP.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 20:44, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

If it a FP here, nominate it there - the critera are the same - then it won't matter if it gets deleted...... Dendodge..Talk^Help 20:46, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I suggest nominating at the Commons, explaining that it's a FP here but was deleted during transfer. The nomination will be surprisingly quick because, as Dendodge says, the criteria are no different. Thanks, PeterSymonds | talk 20:49, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

It has not been deleted and I would like to keep it that way. What do I do?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 23:05, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

There's no point keeping it here if it's on the commons (hence the nowcommons tag). -mattbuck (Talk) 16:15, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

You can add the {{keepLocal}} tag. Angus McLellan (Talk) 23:31, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

lists

How do you add a name or object to an existing list on a page?

Indigo33 (talk) 22:40, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you're talking about Category:Operatic tenors, then just add [[Category:Operatic tenors]] to the bottom of the page. The software will automatically add and alphabetise the new listing. Xenon54 22:46, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Category pages display the names of articles that have the category added to the article page, as Xenon54 describes above. You can't add to the category by editing the category page itself, as you had tried to do. Accordingly, as there is no article on Eric Barry, he cannot be added to any categories until an article is created about him. If you'd like to create an article about him, please visit Wikipedia:Article wizard/biography. If you get stuck or have question, do not hesitate to drop me a message on my talk page-Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:02, 6 May 2008 (UTC)