Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 March 9

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March 9

What are some respected publishing houses on history?

I would like to do some research regarding our 9/11 terrorist attacks article and want to use the most reliable sources I can find. Can someone recommend which publishing houses are considered respected on history topics? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:30, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you read Identifying reliable sources? If you have, and are still unsure, I would suggest that you ask this question at Talk:9/11 terrorist attacks, as the editors who follow that will generally be more knowledgeable in the area than the average Help Desk editor. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:34, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Because of the redirect, Talk:September 11 attacks would be the place. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 15:12, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia toolbar

Hi,

can you please tell me how to upload the wikipedia search toolbar. I'm not sure if thats what it's called, but basically you can use it even when you're not on wikipedia. It looks like the wikiglobe on the top left corner of the page with a gray search box roughly two and a half inches wide right underneath it. I think it floats on the top right of your screen and you can use it to make a quick search.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.88.241.94 (talk) 07:35, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Is this the one you're looking for? Instructions are on the page. It only works with firefox. Someguy1221 (talk) 07:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

T Table

How would I go about making a table like this: [1]?174.3.110.108 (talk) 08:11, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

{|class="wikitable"
!Melon
!Color
|-
|cantaloupe
|orange
|-
|honeydew
|green
|-
|watermelon
|red
|}

gives...

Melon	Color
cantaloupe	orange
honeydew	green
watermelon	red

Is that what you are looking for? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:37, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Um, I was looking for just a T table, so no color, no border, just the headings separated by the rest of the cells and by ea other.100110100 (talk) 09:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't believe there's a way to remove just the outer border and keep the inner border, so you won't be able to display a table on Wikipedia exactly like this one. You can put the melons in one cell and the colors in one cell with this markup code:

{|class="wikitable"
!Melon
!Color
|-
|
cantaloupe<br>
honeydew<br>
watermelon<br>
|
orange<br>
green<br>
red<br>
|}

which produces:

Melon	Color
cantaloupe honeydew watermelon	orange green red

If you remove the class="wikitable" part and use this markup code:

{|
!Melon
!Color
|-
|
cantaloupe<br>
honeydew<br>
watermelon<br>
|
orange<br>
green<br>
red<br>
|}

it will instead display this:

Melon	Color
cantaloupe honeydew watermelon	orange green red

I think that's the closest you can get to what you're looking for. Help:Table has all the information there is about building tables in Wikipedia. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:43, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

{| rules=all frame=void
!Melon
!Color
|-
|
cantaloupe<br>
honeydew<br>
watermelon<br>
|
orange<br>
green<br>
red<br>
|}

renders as:

Melon	Color
cantaloupe honeydew watermelon	orange green red

This gives what you want in my Firefox but I don't know how stable it is. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:51, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Ah, no way to remove the <br />'s?174.3.110.108 (talk) 06:03, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Melon	Color
cantaloupe honeydew watermelon	orange green red

Closer example174.3.110.108 (talk) 06:05, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Side-note, you can align the text to center it within the cell as such:

{| rules=all frame=void 
!Melon
!Color
|- align=center
|
cantaloupe<br>
honeydew<br>
watermelon<br>
|
orange<br>
green<br>
red<br>
|}

Melon	Color
cantaloupe honeydew watermelon	orange green red

Bevstarrunner (talk) 10:20, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

wikipedia toolbox...continued

that's not really what i was looking for...I drew a pic of it on paint, but i'm unable to paste it up here. thanks again! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cardiowikiologist (talk • contribs) 08:34, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Have you looked at Wikipedia:Toolbars to see if it's there? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 08:39, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for helping me out on this, but is there anyway I can send you a picture of what I'm looking for on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cardiowikiologist (talk • contribs) 10:01, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

sorry, i just figured how to add the image:

File:Wiki

Caption text.

hope you got the right image as i'm unable to view it myself.

The image was not uploaded. The only toolbars which I can find reference to are the ones at the link provided above. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 10:29, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Number of successor states

Is there a limit to the number of successor states which can appear in a "former country" infobox ? I'm trying to fit all the successor of the Ottoman Empire (there's quite a lot of them) but the last three (Yemen, Hejaz, Kars Republic), while included, do not appear. Could anyone give me a hand of this ? Jean-Jacques Georges (talk) 09:15, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The documentation at Template:Infobox_Former_Country#Preceding_and_succeeding_entities says that you can list 5. The notes there say It is not the intention here to list every single previous/following entity – that would make the infobox look very silly in many cases. Here are some guidleines for what to do (and what not to do). - you might want to read that! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 10:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Actually, the infobox is wrong (or not updated), as it is perfectly possible to list far more than 5. Considering listing everything makes the infobox look silly is a matter of personal opinion; I tend to think it's informative. Jean-Jacques Georges (talk) 13:44, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The documentation is not updated. It was increased from 12 to 15 in 2008 [2] and is still 15. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:28, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Viewing articles with other browsers

I just noticed that articles can seem very different in other browsers/operating systems. Like image sizes throwing things out of whack, in what i had thought were neat looking articles. I was wondering if there is a way to view articles, as they would appear in another browser/operating systems? Like a form of proofreading.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 10:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe there's nothing resident in Wikipedia, but I know of some browser rendering tools that let you see how a page you're working on will appear in a range of browsers without requiring you actually to launch those browser. I'm aware of Browser Shots, Cross Browser Testing and (requires paid registration). There's also a list at DesignM.ag here. Does that help? Gonzonoir (talk) 12:19, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Yep, that was the kind of thing I was talking about. Thanks Gonzonoir. Another question (haha), are there statistics of the browsers etc. of people viewing Wikipedia (I can't find that type of thing here)? I assume Windows/IE would be the most used, but I think it'd be cool to see for sure.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 08:24, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I've never come across any, but maybe someone at the Village Pump (technical) (our more technical discussion board) can give you a pointer. Gonzonoir (talk) 16:40, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

OK, thanks.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 06:29, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Is the account transferable ??

I want to ask.Can I use my account in another wkipedia's site ??? (included different language) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paujan (talk • contribs) 11:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

If you unify your account, it can be used at all of the WikiMedia Foundation's projects, including all the different language Wikipedias. For more details of how to do this, see Wikipedia:Unified login -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 11:40, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

What part of the code makes editnotice work?

Resolved

 – ▒ ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ ▒ _―Œ ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 16:43, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, what line of code actually causes the text to appear above the edit box? I tried putting text inside this tag from {{Editnotice load}} <div id="editnotice-area" class="editnotice-area" style="clear: both; width: 100%;"></div>, but that didn't put it there. I promise I'm not trying to circumvent your editnotice organization, I'm just trying to teach myself how Wikipedia is set up. --198.103.172.9 (talk) (AKA Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs)) 14:11, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I finally solved my own question. Anything that appears on MediaWiki:Editnotice-0 through MediaWiki:Editnotice-15 will show up as an editnotice. Someone should put that information on MediaWiki's website or something. --198.103.172.9 (talk) (AKA Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs)) 16:22, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Those are only the editnotices for the specific namespaces. They can actually be added to almost any page, but not by everyone. See all the information gathered Wikipedia:Editnotice. There are also a few editnotices that get loaded using Javascript (The BLP one for instance). —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:13, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, the page-specific editnotices are added via the namespace-editnotices mechanism using {{editnotice load}}; it's a neat workaround. I haven't noticed the Javascript-based ones yet, I'll have to look into that. What triggers the BLP editnotice? Is it "{{WPBiography|living=yes}} on the talk page or {{Persondata|date of death=}} on the article? Thanks for your input. --Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 18:34, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that is what the loader does yes. The BLP notice is triggered by the presence of the category "Living people" in the article. The other JS editnotice is one for disambiguation pages. See the bottom of MediaWiki:Common.js. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:15, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

User box and delated image

In one of my user boxes I had used a historical flag (added by another editor.) But two days ago, the flag is found to be unsourced and it is delated from the commons. Now can I still use the flag in my user box ? (Of course, its usage in the articles is out of question ). Thanks. Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 14:33, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

It would depend on the image. In general, an image can be used on your user page if it is free and not a copyright violation in any way. If an image is copyrighted and only allowed on Wikipedia under fair use, then it is only allowed in articles and not on user pages. Please see Wikipedia:User page#Images for more information on this policy. Most likely if the image is not allowed in articles then it is not allowed to be used on Wikipedia at all. It would be helpful to know the name of the image, so we can give more specific help. --Mysdaao ^talk 14:41, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The name of the file is Flag of Gokturks.png.The delation log is [3] Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 15:57, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Userboxes and other things in userspace is more restrictive than articles about copyright issues. Specifically, fair use images are never allowed in userspace but sometimes used in articles. The software only makes it possible to display an image which has been uploaded (and not deleted) to either Commons or the English Wikipedia. You cannot display the deleted Commons file and you cannot display versions at the Turkish Wikipedia. If a version was uploaded to the English Wikipedia under fair use then you would not be allowed to use it in a userbox. See Wikipedia:Userboxes#Caution about image use. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:18, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Information Box

I was wondering how I can create the box that appears at the right hand side of certain topics. For example, some companies keep all their information such as key people, revenue, website, etc. in the box. Take a look at this for example: FrontRange Solutions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harshdave50 (talk • contribs) 16:50, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

You are looking for what is known as an infobox. The one in the example you mentioned can be found at {{Infobox company}}. TNXMan 17:16, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

For lots of fun facts about how they work, see Help:Infobox. When you want to know how something in an article works, click the "edit this page" link at the top and look at the wikitext. Some of the wikitext is obviously plain text, but you will also see a bunch of funny characters that do not correspond exactly to the appearance of the page. And that is where all the fun stuff is. --Teratornis (talk) 09:18, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Road Conditions for Hwy 84 in Louisiana

Help....I am travelling Highway 84 (east to west) and cannot find ANY road conditions information for Louisiana....help please. Connie ... <blanked> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.82.9.16 (talk) 17:09, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly 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 a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand 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. TNXMan 17:15, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Since there are both state and national highways in the US, you should mention which one you refer to, for example you probably refer to U.S. Highway 84#Louisiana. As you can see, nobody has written any content for that section yet. Perhaps you will consider helping out after your trip. You might also contact the Louisiana Department of Tourism. Did you try asking the friendly Google? --Teratornis (talk) 20:57, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Redirecting links from Edible Landscaping to specific plants already referenced.

I am trying to save a link redirecting fruiting shrubs to the general "fruit" wikipedia page and it says that the edit is blacklisted because of vandalism. I don't understand why this would be a problem I would think that the link is relevant and adds depth to the page being developed without me duplicating information that I would think should be cross referenced. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paul Royle-Grimes (talk • contribs) 17:34, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

You'll have to be a little more specific. Which page in particular were you trying to edit? TNXMan 17:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The question might refer to the spam blacklist. However, I seem able to link to this Edible Landscaping site. In any case, the Fruit article would not be a good place to add a link to a vendor site, as it is the most general article for its topic area. See WP:EL, WP:LINKFARM, and WP:SPAMHOLE. A better place to add procedural knowledge (how-to) about edible plants might be Appropedia. --Teratornis (talk) 21:11, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Need to publish a story -- but have no "move" tab

Hi, I have posted a new article. It's found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crboisseau/Roger_Duncan

But I have no "move" tab, which is a step to publish it live.

How can I put this out there and have my user name removed from the URL?

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Charles Boisseau

crboisseau

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Crboisseau (talk • contribs) 17:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address.

The move tab appears when your account is autoconfirmed, which happens automatically when your account is at least four days old and has made at least ten edits. Your account is old enough now, so you will be able to move pages when you have made five more edits to any page on Wikipedia, including Wikipedia:Sandbox. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi Crboisseau, I'd recommend first filing a request for feedback on your new page at Wikipedia:Requests for feedback, this page is monitored by experienced users and can offer advice and informtion on improving the page before it goes live and any steps that may need to be taken before moving the page into Wikipedia's article space. Jeffrey Mall (talk • contribs) - 18:10, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Question

need your help we have a friend who has started a site and is in hosp. while they are there we are getting spams and want to remove them for our friend dont know how to do this in relation to contacting Ning pleas can you adivse. chris. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.168.54.15 (talk) 18:08, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

We cannot help you. Please contact Ning directly at http://help.ning.com  – ukexpat (talk) 19:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Separate tables in separate sections being unappropriately associated when page is published

Hello, I've just worked on the page "FIFA_World_Cup_Qualification" in order to include tables of national teams records. I created section "National teams results in World Cup qualifying matches 1934-2010" then I created my table there, but when I publish the page, my table is unappropriately linked with the table of the section below "Qualification spots by continent", which already existed. What can I do to separate these tables ? Have I done something wrong when creating the section ? I have many soccer statistical tables ready for publishing in wikipedia so I'd really like to know how I can add a table properly in an existing page.

Thank you already Bruno Brunolenny (talk) 18:20, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

I have fixed it. A table needs to end with |}, and because it didn't, it was combining that table with the one below it. For further help with tables, please see Help:Wikitable and Help:Table. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:26, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

external links editing goes to further readings category instead

I'm trying to attach external links when editing. Instead, what I just added goes to "further readings" category instead. Why does it do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hutchings.ge (talk • contribs) 18:58, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The term "category" has a different meaning on Wikipedia than you probably intend. You seem to refer to a section. See Help:Section#Section editing. However, also see WP:EL, WP:LINKFARM, and WP:SPAMHOLE. On Wikipedia we have rules for the allowable external links. In general it is better to add reliable sources as footnote citations. Also see WP:LAYOUT for instructions about the correct order of standard article sections. --Teratornis (talk) 20:47, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

You must have clicked the edit link below the External links section. You should have clicked the edit link to the right of the External links heading. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:35, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

What?

I just reverted an edit that was clear and obvious vandalism using twinkle, and than it said (without me inserting it) in the edit summary: Reverted good faith edit. How can this be? Immunize (talk) 19:10, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

You chose the wrong Twinkle option - you get three: [rollback (AGF)] || [rollback] || [rollback (VANDAL)]. You must have chosen the first, when really you want the last. - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 19:15, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Does the fact that it says "rollback" indicate I have been granted rollback rights? Immunize (talk) 19:57, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

No, Twinkle rollback isn't the same thing as "proper" rollback. You don't have rollback rights. Bencherlite^Talk 19:59, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

How are "proper" rollback rights different than twinkle rollback rights? Immunize (talk) 20:19, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Twinkle is a script created by a user, while Rollback is part of the MediaWiki software. –Turian (talk) 20:22, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:ROLLBACK#Rollback and Twinkle. Bencherlite^Talk 20:25, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Claps and Boos

Hi

I have a group of friends who run Claps and Boos, a Tamil/Indian Movies rating website, www.ClapsandBoos.com. This is a completely self funded venture and we do not publish fake news or fake reviews. We are similar to Rottentomatoes in that we collate user reviews and ratings and present an aggregated score/rating. We also have some technicians in the industry who give us interviews and some content like Pictures and Posters of movies.

Senior editors in Wikipedia have been black marking this website classifying that as a fan site. They told me that only Admin users can determine the admissibility of the website. They have been accepting other websites which have been known to put up fake news, just for getting hits and they also have Pop-Ups and Malware being launched.

http://clapsandboos.com/

http://clapsandboos.com/about

Interview with a Tamil Movie director: http://clapsandboos.com/mindspeak/in-conversation-with-director-vishnuvardhan

Interview with another director: http://clapsandboos.com/mindspeak/selvaraghavan-speaks-claps-amp-boos-special

http://clapsandboos.com/mindspeak/gautam-menon-on-life-after-vinnai-thaandi-varuvaya-

My talk page where I was advised: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Karthiksriram Karthik Sriram (talk) 20:53, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

See WP:EL, WP:PROMOTION, and WP:RS. If you need opinions about the reliability of a source, see Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard. --Teratornis (talk) 21:17, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Search box dropdown list

Previously, the dropdown list of matching terms used to keep in sync with my typing in the search box. Now the list seems very "sticky", only refreshing when I press space at the end of a word, or, strangely, when I press backspace. Does anyone know anything about this? Has there been a change in the site's behaviour or is it a local problem with my PC? 86.134.30.112 (talk) 21:43, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Eliott Spitzer

I was not able to log in to change an obvious error in the posting about Eliott Sptizer. It includes some babble about a divorce, marriage to David Letterman resulting baby! Can someone please remove the offending passage which appears at the top of the page?

I am also curious about a way to see what my log in information is. I wrote down the name and password with some care but it's not working. I can't imagine I did anything for which I'm banned. I'd rather not create a new account unless absolutely necessary. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.18.224.227 (talk) 21:50, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Reverted by Bencherlite. – ukexpat (talk) 21:54, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

(e/c)As far as your login info is concerned, when you're banned or blocked, you aren't prevented from logging in, just from editing, so that's not the problem. If it's just the password that's messed up, and you had email setup, there's a link on the login page to have a new password emailed to you. If you didn't have email setup on this account, then there's no way to recover the password. If you can't remember your username correctly, you could look at the article history of an article you know you edited, and see if you're spelling it right. Otherwise, I know of no way for you to login with your old username. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:00, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

What is the username you wrote down and what happens when you try to log in? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:28, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Please know that everything is case-sensitive, so typing the right letters isn't sufficient. Nyttend (talk) 02:38, 10 March 2010 (UTC)