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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 April 2

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April 2

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Princeton High School, princeton West Virginia

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I was reading information about Princeton High School class of 1981 as being the last class to graduate in the old high school which is now the middle school. The fact is the last graduation class was 1982 which is the year I graduated high school. From 1982 (fall) to present day it is called Princeton Senior High School. Please change when you get a chance. You may contact the school directly to verify but my class was the last class to graduate NOT 1981.

Thanks,

Cheryl Walker — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.76.145.118 (talk) 02:45, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which article are you referring to? Princeton_High_School_(New_Jersey) does not mention anything about being converted to a middle school in 1981. RudolfRed (talk) 03:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Princeton, West Virginia doesn't mention any schools. Dismas|(talk) 03:08, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Well since the OP said they were talking about a Princeton High School in West Virginia, they are probably talking about, Princeton High School (West Virginia). I have removed the info since it was unsourced and not really that important. GB fan 03:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Ooops. Thanks for finding the right page and fixing it. RudolfRed (talk) 03:16, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

movie missing in article on film noir

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Your article on the list of film noir classics does not include the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock classic "The 39 Steps." It really needs to be added. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.181.92.3 (talk) 03:06, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

In Wikipedia's defense, the list of film noir titles does have "Film noir is not a clearly defined type, so composition of this list may be disputed" as its lead sentence. Dismas|(talk) 03:10, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Possibly that's because it isn't film noir? A 1935 film isn't part of the classic period of film noir in the 40s and 50s, and the article says British noir didn't really get going till 1947, so unless you have some critics/authors agreeing with you, I'd be wary of adding it. --Colapeninsula (talk) 15:24, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Watching sections of pages

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I really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY enjoy the "watchlist" feature, where you can keep track of edits to pages you want to follow. Tell me, is it possible to just "watch" a particular section of a page, as opposed to the whole page? For example, I've commented in some Redirects for discussion debates, and I'd like to be able to see how those debates turn out without my watchlist getting overrun with material related to other redirects being discussed on that same page. Is there any way to just watch one section? Thanks. User:Davidfreesefan23 (talk) 03:37, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, there is no way to watchlist a section of a page. You can only watchlist whole pages. GB fan 03:47, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Many people would love this but it's not yet possible. See Wikipedia:Perennial proposals#Allow watchlisting individual sections of a page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:49, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Duck Tape®

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The lead in the WP Duct tape article implies that 'duct tape' is synonymous with 'duck tape; however Duck Tape® is a registered trademark of Duck® brand products; trademarks are "...property of ShurTech or other members of The ShurTech Group, LLC" -- On the one hand, companies are understandably protective of their branding; on the other, adding "®" seems like promoting a product.
What is policy on this? What, if anything should I do? ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 03:57, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Duct tape (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Adding a link to the article for everyone. Dismas|(talk) 04:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
WP:TRADEMARK says not to use the Registered symbol unless it can't be avoided. Dismas|(talk) 04:07, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
[further discussion on talk page.] ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 06:03, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

commenting on the mistake in an article

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How do I tell the author of an article that a mistake has been made in a table? I can verify my information but am unable to change the table. The URL that I'm comment about is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitman_shorthand Pitriter (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:54, 2 April 2012 (UTC).[reply]

Wikipedia is written by many people and so there is no the author. There are many authors. You are one of them if you edit anything. So if you like, you can change the article yourself and cite your reference for the changed info. See Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners if you need help with that. If you are not up to the task, you can put your information with source on the talk page for the article in question. In this case, it would be at Talk:Pitman shorthand. Or you can put the info and reference here and one of the volunteers that read this desk will correct the information. It's up to you. Dismas|(talk) 06:13, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The tables in Pitman shorthand are images. If you click on them then you are taken to their file pages: File:Pitman Short Forms.PNG and File:Pitman Consonants.PNG. They can only be changed by creating a new image externally and then upload it. The creator of the images can be contacted at User talk:Xanthoxyl. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

NCR

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The numbers of Revenue and Net income are wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.195.62.108 (talk) 05:01, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The figures in the infobox in NCR Corporation appear to be referenced, but I haven't managed to navigate the corporate site to find whether those particular figures are right or not. If you have a source that shows different figures, you can change them in the article. --ColinFine (talk) 09:53, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Language setting

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Dear Wikipedia, I am a user who reads traditional Chinese. But the default for any Chinese Wikipedia page currently is simplified Chinese. Therefore, everytime I click on a link or do a search, I need to reset the language setting. I think this is unacceptable as it seems to me that there are political reasons behind it, but I am simply going to ask for a way to set my language preference permenantly to traditional Chinese. Also, I believe that keeping track of each user's prefered language is not a difficult task. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.83.193.221 (talk) 05:05, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is the help desk for the English Wikipedia. You'll need to ask your question at the Chinese Wikipedia. - David Biddulph (talk) 06:39, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
See Chinese Wikipedia#Automatic conversion between traditional and simplified Chinese. You can make an account and choose a content language variant at zh:Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:34, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Don't feel persecuted; it's not a political decision but simply because the vast majority of Chinese readers use simplified forms. --Colapeninsula (talk) 15:27, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Athletes changing name after winning an event

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In an article listing winners of a particular sports competition (X): if an athlete wins while having name A, and later changes her name to B (usually due to marriage), which name should be used in article X? Bear in mind name A would be on the trophy and in news reports at the time, but her personal article is B. Is there a policy or guideline on this? Adpete (talk) 06:04, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The applicable policy WP:COMMONNAME says the name to be used is the name used by the majority of sources about the athlete. If a common name cannot be determined (for example because two names appear to be used equally often by news and media organizations or other sources, the policy says a consensus should be reached taking WP:CRITERIA into consideration. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlkctb) 12:31, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
When linking to an article one could easily use a pipe to display name A and link to article B, or there may well be a redirect if both names are likely to be used. - David Biddulph (talk) 13:30, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biographies#Changed names says: "If a person is named in an article in which they are not the subject, they should be referred to by the name they were using at the time of the mention rather than a name they may have used before or after the mention." You can use a piped link as David said. For example [[Lindsey Vonn|Lindsey Kildow]] to produce Lindsey Kildow. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:09, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Primehunter, that's exactly what I was looking for. Adpete (talk) 00:25, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
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I'm new at using Wikipedia, and find that there's no "back" button to return to the last page I looked at. Am I missing something or do I have to remember how I typed in my search terms to get back to the exact page if I need to? I'm also looking for info on an artist I know someone else has found in Wikipedia recently, and I can't find a word about him with the "search box". What next? Now I hope I can figure out how to find the page any answer shows up on76.220.33.57 (talk) 07:06, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your browser has a back button which should get you back to whatever you were reading. Also, your browser keeps a history which you could go through. Using the Wikipedia search isn't always as easy as Google, so you might use that. Adding the word "wikipedia" to a Google search normally helps me narrow down the search results to just pages here. Dismas|(talk) 07:16, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Cointreau photo upload

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I spend time adding to Cointreau page, I want to upload a photo, then I am FORCED to do that through Wikicommons, I add it and then I can not get back to my edit page on Wikipedia. Why take some away and not put them back where they were? Surely that's common sense...

This is all you need to do, you just have a button, "upload photo" see facebook for examples, you sourcec your file, then ask all your questions and tick boxes, press a button called Upload and it uploads and then takes you back to your Wiki post, you have another button called "Done" or "post", you press it and the text and photo are uploaded -don't make it hard guys, please — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael Partington (talkcontribs) 10:54, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed your "how to" section from Talk:Cointreau on the basis that talk pages are not for general discussion and Wikipedia is not a "how to".--ukexpat (talk) 14:55, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Note that you're only "forced" to upload to Commons because you're not yet autoconfirmed. - Purplewowies (talk) 15:03, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to make suggestions to improve how Wikipedia works, the village pump is the place to do so. But "why can't you do it the way Facebook does" might not be a good way to make your point. In particular, the point of using commons is that images can then be shared over hundreds of different Wikipedias, which isn't a issue facebook has. Also, facebook doesn't worry about copyright the way Wikipedia does. --ColinFine (talk) 15:22, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

HTML Displayed in all Wikipedia Titles

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In just about all Wikipedia titles, the HTML is now displayed. This seems to have been going on for a week or so, I'm surprised it's still going on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.238.166.33 (talk) 13:31, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is this the StumbleUpon problem reported a week or so ago? - David Biddulph (talk) 13:35, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Username conflict

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Whilst attempting to upload an image file today for the first time, I found that I could not log in to Wikimedia Commons with my usual English language Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) login credentials (i.e. with my usual username Peter b (talk)).

After then working out that I was required to unify my login credentials across all Wikimedia Foundation sites, I attempted doing so. However, this attempt failed at the first step with a big pink notice saying...

The home wiki for this account (listed below) has a different password to the one you entered. Please enter the password for the home wiki.

Then I was advised that the Home Wiki for my login username was the Dutch language Wikipedia (nl.wikipedia.org), and that I needed to login there first.

Naturally I was both surprised and confused by this, as not speaking or reading any Dutch, I have never so much as visited any page on that Wiki. Investigating as best I could, I determined after some considerable searching (and with lots of help from Google translate), that there is indeed a completely different registered editor with exactly the same login username on the Dutch Wikipedia site, who apparently began editing the Dutch language Wikipedia about three years after I began editing the English language site.

At this point, I am in completely over my head and have no idea what to do next. Would somebody who knows what is going on here please help out.

Many thanks. Peter b (talk) 13:41, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Different Wikimedia wikis and language editions had separate accounts until 2008. Users could choose a username which already existed at another wiki, and the software did not register whether it was the same user. The account with the most edits has the right to the unified account. http://toolserver.org/~quentinv57/sulinfo/Peter_b shows the Dutch user has 44917 edits. The user is still very active and will probably not change username on your request. Then you have to choose another username at Wikimedia Commons. If you want a unified account then you can request renaming of your English Wikipedia account. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:00, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Add info

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how do i add info under a section and same year — Preceding unsigned comment added by Capricorn91 (talkcontribs) 15:38, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be clearer about what you're asking? For example, which page you want to edit? --ColinFine (talk) 18:34, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
User:Ukexpat fixed the table problem in Karan Tacker.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:28, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
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Why does a Wikipedia Mobile link come-up in a Google search, even though not using a Mobile device?

Thanks . . . — Preceding unsigned comment added by OCGriffin (talkcontribs) 17:52, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You'll have to ask Google. Wikipedia has no control over what Google searches do. --ColinFine (talk) 18:34, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
There has been a recent change in the behaviour; see bugzilla:35233. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:49, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Change of page name

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I am writing about article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Angela_Smith. This article is about myself and I can provide necessary information. My previous stage name was Megan Angela Smith. I have decided to continue my career using my legal name - Megan Angeles. Its very important to my future career that I am known by the name I plan to go by for the rest of my life, I do not want "Megan Angela Smith" as the page title. I have some major filming in the future, and it will cause confusion for people to see Megan Angela Smith. My imbd has been changed, twitter, facebook etc, I would appreciate if someone can help me change this.

Angelesmeg (talk) 18:09, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are there published reports of this change? 1. We don't know whether this is the real Smith/Angeles sending us this message; and 2. We need verifiable citations to reliable sources. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:30, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I have filed this as a Requested move; see Talk:Megan Angela Smith. Dru of Id (talk) 18:36, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The WP:BIOSELF process exists for the poster to verify that they are indeed the subject of the article.--ukexpat (talk) 18:43, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Userbox Float

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I'm sorry to ask this simple question but how do you float a Userbox. I want to make my user page look neater by sending all my userboxes to the right.The Trini Flyer (talk) 19:22, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Probably the easiest way to do it is to wrap your userboxes in {{userboxtop}} and {{userboxbottom}}. You can add an |align= parameter to force them left or right. TNXMan 19:39, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

HOW DO I GET MY SCHOOL LISTED IN WIKIPEDIA?

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I am trying to get my school's information on wikipedia for easy access by a lot of people but I don't know how to get it online. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.87.92.52 (talk) 19:46, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We don't "list" schools; but some schools are notable enough that somebody has written articles about them. What is the name of your school? Where is it? Why do you think it is notable enough that somebody should write an article in an encyclopedia about it? What books, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. have been written about it? --Orange Mike | Talk 19:51, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, it seems we do: List of schools in Ghana. Dru of Id (talk) 21:32, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Being Confirmed

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Hi There,

I am having trouble uploading a file because I apparently have not been "confirmed", I have however, manually requested to be confirmed and on that page I am listed as confirmed, but I am still denied the ability to upload a file. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tjcore (talkcontribs) 20:26, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You are not confirmed, and Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed#User:Tjcore makes no claim that you are confirmed. You will however be autoconfirmed when you make two more edits to any page, for example this help desk or your sandbox. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:39, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Also, please read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest & Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_soapbox_or_means_of_promotion so that your first article doesn’t get speedily AfD'ed.--Aspro (talk) 22:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]