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April 9

Background is blue

Wikipedia's background on articles is suddenly a light blue color. What is going on? — AMK152 ^{(t • c)} 00:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There is a bug in the latest version of Google Chrome which shows blue background if the browser zoom level is set below 100%. Reset the zoom to 100% with Ctrl+0 or adjust it with Ctrl++ and Ctrl+-. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. — AMK152 ^{(t • c)} 00:53, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Arabic language

why i cant find arabic language in most of the articles in this great site? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.173.228.104 (talk) 01:42, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Arabic Wikipedia is at http://ar.wikipedia.org/. It has fewer articles than the English Wikipedia so many English articles will have no matching Arabic article. Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and there are more who know English. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:51, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User:TheLongTone/Grande Semaine

Somebody, with no editing history, has slapped an articles for creation tag on the above article I am putting together in userspace. Can I simply remove the tag, (& leave a note for the editor who inserted it), or does this create a problem? I'm dilatory by nature, & some articles I've started lurk in userspace for a long time before I transfer them, btw. TheLongTone (talk) 08:26, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Just take it off. I find explaining stuff to IPs with no history to be a waste of bytes. Roger (talk) 08:36, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Done.TheLongTone (talk) 08:42, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Bot request...

I've been left the following message by a bot: "Hi! I would like to inform you that the Articles for Creation submission which was previously located here: User:Hchc2009/Sandbox4 has been moved to Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Sandbox4, this move was made automatically and doesn't affect your article, if you have any questions please ask on my talk page! Have a nice day. ArticlesForCreationBot (talk) 08:59, 9 April 2012 (UTC)" - it hasn't been requested by me, and the sandbox work isn't finished, so I'd be grateful if someone could switch this off. The talk page for the Bot leads here. Many thanks. Hchc2009 (talk) 09:27, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It was moved because of [1]. Special:Contributions/207.216.236.146 shows several such taggings so it may be an odd form of disruption if it wasn't you or on your request. I have reverted and moved back. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:24, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers - much appreciated. Hopefully, and assuming good faith, its someone trying to be helpful by adding the tags... Hchc2009 (talk) 13:41, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have sorted out the existing tags and asked the IP to stop at User talk:207.216.236.146#Other users draft. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:49, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Talk pages and images of references

Hi, I was wondering whether it is allowed to upload images of small sections of references from books/articles to talk pages as a means of proving what the references exactly say. In cases where references are grossly misquoted or distorted or when there is a need to provide comprehensive presententations of arguments, this will greatly help the discussions. --SriSuren (talk) 09:35, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See the paragraph directly under the WP:NFCC#Policy heading. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 10:00, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Regards --SriSuren (talk) 10:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

what does "bar" mean?

Hello,

I'm trying to find out what the instruction "bar:" means in an article.

There is an example in the International Securities Identification Number article.

the code is:

bar:International Securities Identification Number

Thanks for any tip.

Richard — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgnewbury (talk • contribs) 10:03, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could you be more specific about where you see this? I just did a text search for the word "bar" and didn't find any instance of those three letters in that order. Dismas|^(talk) 10:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Thanks for coming back so quickly. If you go to the article I quoted (International Securities Identification Number) and view the history, you'll see a change on 2 April which added the line. qhb (talk) 10:16, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This edit? That is just a bot adding a link to the corresponding article in the Bavarian Wikipedia. In this case "bar" is the shorthand for the Bavarian Wikipedia. Just like "en" stands for the English language Wikipedia, "de" for the German, "fr" for the French etc. etc. --Saddhiyama (talk) 10:20, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) It's there at the top of the list of links to the different language versions. bar: goes to the Boarisch (Bavarian) Wikipedia. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:22, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See more at Help:Interlanguage links. All language codes are at meta:List of Wikipedias. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

thanks everyone. I had assumed (wrongly) that only ISO language letters were used in language versions. qhb (talk) 08:44, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

bar is in ISO 639-3 at ISO 639:b but not in the shorter ISO 639 variants ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:27, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Traditional Chinese pages containing Simplified Chinese

For the traditional Chinese version of Wikipedia for Hong Kong and Macau, there are constantly some characters being simplified Chinese. Please try to rectify it for these are lots of inconsistencies in those pages. We do not use simplified Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau.

Lhyeason (talk) 10:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks but, this is the English Wikipedia. Few of us go to the Chinese language Wikipedias, for obvious reasons. You might want to, though. If there is a problem with the rendering of Chinese characters in an English Wikipedia article (i.e., the Chinese characters denoting the name, for example), the best way to deal with that is to drop a note on the article's talk page--Wehwalt (talk) 10:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has automatic tools for converting between traditional and simplified characters, and there may be errors in these. You'll get better information at Chinese Wikipedia. --Colapeninsula (talk) 14:37, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

TARGET attribute

I would like to use the TARGET attribute of <a> tags to open an external link in a new window. Wiki doesn't have <a> tags, but can I still use TARGET? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.64.10.104 (talk) 12:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia does not permit this. If you have another wiki in mind and can change settings or install extensions then see mw:Manual:$wgExternalLinkTarget or mw:Extension:LaunchExternal. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:27, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Any external link (including Commons) already opens in a new tab for me. Not sure if that's a browser setting or a WP setting though. Either way though, it's best to let the user decide how they want their links served up instead of changing it in just the article that you're working on because you feel it should be one certain way. Dismas|^(talk) 12:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets has the option "Open external links in a new tab/window". Browsers also have settings for default behaviour. Wikipedia does not permit links to open in a new tab or window if the user hasn't chosen it. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple references from same source

In Charles Robert Cockerell the main editor has cited numerous page numbers from the same source, each as a separate reference. Whilst this is clearly very precise, IMHO it gives an over-long references section, as 47 of the references are to the same book. I know how to group all the identical references (e.g. page 14) together, but I wonder if there is a neater or easier way of handling such a scenario, or whether grouping the references together, e.g. pages 1-10 or chapter 1 (if you have the book), would be preferable. Arjayay (talk) 15:40, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Citing sources#Citing multiple pages of the same source. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:44, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How do I allow people to search for my article by full-name

How do I allow people to search for my article by full-name (Committee on Sustainability Assessment) or acronym (COSA)? Right now, you can search the article by full name but I also want it to show up if someone types COSA into the search box. Thanks for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jd327 (talk • contribs) 16:06, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's called a re-direct. Take a look first and see if there is already an article called COSA. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Since there was, I created what's called a disambiguation page, which tells people where to go if they are looking for Circles of Support and Accountability, or Committee on Sustainability Assessment, or either of the towns called Cosa. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:17, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Richardville house

The Richardville House page has a photo of the house in Huntington and as the marketing coordinator of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society dba The History Center, I, this afternoon, uploaded a photo of the house at 5705 Bluffton Road as this is the house that was recently named a National Historic Landmark.

While the property in Huntington was owned by the Richardville family, it is confusing to have a photo of just that house when the information on the page also refers to the Bluffton Road property.

If both photos are on the page, with proper reference as to location, this will make it clearer to the reader as to which properties are which.

Nancy McCammon-Hansen Marketing Coordinator — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.115.121 (talk) 17:45, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see no photos in that article at all. Are you looking at the current version of it? Also, where did you upload the photo to? Assuming its copyright situation is satisfactory, you can certainly add it to the article. --ColinFine (talk) 17:06, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Don Peake

Hello, My name is Don Peake, and I am the guitarist who created the introduction for Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". The personnel information in Wikepedia is incorrect. I have the original union contract which shows me, Don Peake and Arthur Wright as the guitars.The new Motown cd does show me as guitar. How can I correct this error? Thank You, Don Peake — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.120.89.110 (talk) 17:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The contract would be a Primary source; a Secondary or Tertiary Source would be preferable; can you point out a Reliable Source (RS) that reported the correct information? Dru of Id (talk) 18:56, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The problem with the contract is not that it is a primary source. Primary sources are fine. The problem with the contract is that it is an unpublished source. However, the liner notes from the recording are a perfectly usable primary source, and are perfectly acceptable for who plays on the record. If the liner notes say he plays on it, then we can say so too. --Jayron32 19:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dashes

Is there a rule regarding in which situations to use

&ndash;

and in which situations to use the – symbol directly? Am I allowed to change it in an article from one to the other? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:12, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Start here: Wikipedia:MOS#Dashes RudolfRed (talk) 19:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could I ask a supplementary follow-up? The instructions linked by RudolfRed specify inserting an en dash (for example) either by typing – thus: –, or by using the character insert menu below the edit box. Through long habit I usually type en and em dashes by using alt+0150 or alt+0151, thus: –, —. Is this impermissible in article space? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.34 (talk) 20:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's perfectly fine when it works on your computer. It gives exactly the same result as using the character insert menu. It's one of the methods at Wikipedia:How to make dashes#Long explanation. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:25, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that, PrimeHunter. I must admit that I haven't yet tackled tracking down and reading all of the copious guidance material, which is why, although I've been contributing to the RefDesks and Article Talk pages, and making very minor Article Edits, for at least 5 years, I haven't felt ready to register a User Account. (It's a personal, commitment issue – I'm too much of a performance perfectionist.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.44 (talk) 03:11, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Editing, removing, etc my contributions

How do I go about editing, removing, etc my contributions in a better way then what I have been doing up to now? Somehow always have trouble putting my siggy in the right place as well?--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 20:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You got the signature just fine this time. But why would you want to remove your contributions? Could you be more specific about what you want to do? Dismas|^(talk) 20:58, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Basically, I just want to know how to edit them better then erased them and etc.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 18:43, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In the past I've seen you post questions at the reference desks and then erase them before anyone has a chance to answer them. When you post a question to those desks, it creates a section on the page. You can edit that particular section by clicking on the "Edit" link to the right of the question. You can change the wording or whatever else you want to do without having to erase the entire question. Is this what you're referring to? If not, could you tell us what article you've edited and we can look and see how you could have edited it better? Dismas|^(talk) 18:56, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, again for your response and etc. Yeah, you got what I was asking.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 22:23, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Editing Deleted!

I just edited several things and saved everthing. After an hour or so of doing it, everything went back to how it was prior to my editing. Why did this happen and can I make it go back to how it was with my edits or do I have to start all over again? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Laumeier12580 (talk • contribs) 21:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you are referring to the article Laumeier Sculpture Park. You can click on the "View history" link at the top of the article to see what has happened. A user called Jac16888 has changed the article since your last revision, with the explanation "(rv brochure style content)". I have no view on whether his action was justified. Maproom (talk) 21:32, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also, an admin called Darkness Shines has left a message on your talk page stating that your account has been blocked, and explaining why. Maproom (talk) 21:35, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(E/c) 1) Your username violates Wikipedia:Username policy (see Wikipedia:Changing username) 2) You removed sourced content 3) You added unsourced content 4) You added words we avoid (see Wikipedia:Wikipuffery) 5) You added overly detailed items 6) You have since reverted the reversions, rather than discussing at the article talk page or with User:Darkness Shines (see Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss cycle, Wikipedia:Disruptive editing, & Wikipedia:Edit warring) 7) In the time it took me to respond, you have been Blocked. Dru of Id (talk) 21:36, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile site in Google

I recently searched for a term in Google (on my computer, not my mobile device) and the mobile site popped up, but not the regular Wikipedia article. Any idea why this happens? HtownCat (talk) 21:20, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are you going through a dongle connection? i.e. you have a connection that is provided by a mobile phone provider, for example Vodafone? If so, this could be the reason. Mr little irish 09:05, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

wikigraphist uploads

I have converted one of the jpg files listed in the top 4 of the illustrations workshop into svg by redrawing(mostly tracing). With what name/license/summary should it be uploaded?? Roshan220195 (talk) 21:29, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone teach me how to edit

thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Salmonpate (talk • contribs) 22:12, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You seem to be doing fine so far, but take a look at Help:Editing and then WP:EDITING. Hope this helps. "Pepper" @ 22:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would start with the Wikipedia:Tutorial.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:24, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

hierarchy

What's the hierarchy like on Wikipedia. Who do I have to listen to — Preceding unsigned comment added by Salmonpate (talk • contribs) 22:41, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is run by consensus. See WP:CON Can you be more speficic with your question? RudolfRed (talk) 22:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:User access levels describes the different types of users with different privileges (Bureaucrats, Administrators, Stewards, etc). Wikipedia is owned and administered by the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), and that article gives more info on the foundation (in theory, the Wikipedia community is entirely responsible for Wikipedia's content, not WMF). --Colapeninsula (talk) 14:42, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Removing age from Background info.

Hello guys:

I figure that wikipedia automatically calculates age based on date of birth. I find this kind of info "December 1, 1945 (age 66)" redundant, and would like to remove "(age 66)". Is there a way to accomplish that, please?

Thanks, Magazine 23:07, 9 April 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Magazine1212 (talk • contribs)

Many people are not quick at math. I would hazard that a significant percentage of readers, given a birthdate, would need at least 30 seconds to translate that into an age and unless actively looking for an age, would not even bother and so not be provided with the information. This is all the more true where there are dates of birth and death in an article so people do not have the current date as a familiar terminus for the calculation. Anyway, these are usually automatically calculated by templates such as {{Death date and age}}.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:30, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That would be part of Template:Infobox person in most cases I believe. You could bring this up for discussion on the talk page there, although my instinct is that the consensus would be to keep it, not everyone is great at mental math and people often visit pages to find out how old individuals are (I know I do). MyNameWasTaken (talk) 23:32, 9 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's part of Template:Birth date and age and it's been discussed in the past. You're welcome to bring it up again, though I personally don't see it changing anytime soon. Dismas|^(talk) 02:49, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Fuhghettaboutit and MyNameWasTaken. Given the highly-successful dumbing down of America achieved by our "Education" system.... I should have known better. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Magazine1212 (talk • contribs) 02:36, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think this is universal and timeless. People have vastly varying math abilities. This is an international encyclopedia by the way.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:42, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly. I'm very, very good at math; however, I royally stink at calculating ages. - Purplewowies (talk) 05:02, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Likewise. As a teacher in this field, I find myself explaining that my degree was in mathematics, not arithmetic. HiLo48 (talk) 05:06, 11 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]