Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 July 27

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July 27

Insects

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I have some insects that are black and thin and a little long in my toilet, we don't use it because a roll of toilet paper got flushed down, and the bleach is not killing them. what are they and how do I kill them?~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.87.69.156 (talk) 02:02, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 02:48, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Unlink tab

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

What does the unlink tab do? I'm assuming it came from Twinkle. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 02:57, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

It removes links to the current page from articles. Algebraist 03:02, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

That is a fantastic tool • S • C • A • R • C • E • 03:11, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Wrong info or right one? Please answer!

Hello How ru? I noticed that on that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Chu#Profile

That you said (or whoever added it) that Ken is a Buddist...I'm not sure about that...I've included photos of the other 2 (Jerry Yan, and Vic Zhou) wearing crosses...

<<Jerry>> http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2710/jerry.png <<Ken>> http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6519/kenuju.png <<Vic>> http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/958/vicm.png

On nearly every site they say that the 3 are buddist but I really don't know. Hope you can help, or you might find this information handy. Thanks a lot Nancy

PS: The source of these photos is http://gallery.asianfanatics.net

PSS: Please contact me on my email because I dunno how to get to this page again: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.234.25.97 (talk) 04:10, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Have you began a discussion on this on the talk page for the article? • S • C • A • R • C • E • 20:47, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

--> Yes! But I still have no answer! Is there any other way I can check it? I dunno who would know! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nanspellian (talk • contribs) 21:33, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Jimmy Alvarez

Resolved

 – Article speedily deleted. – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I am new to wikipedia. I started to write my article, before I knew it I had a deletion notice? I would like to continue to re-vamp the article in a format that is acceptable. I am not sure how to contact the editor that put the article in possible deletion status. Jimmy D. Alvarez 04:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimmy D Alvarez (talk • contribs)

The deletion discussion for Jimmy Alvarez is at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jimmy Alvarez. You could post there, or you could continue to work on the article; it should be several days before a decision is made on whether to keep the article. But you should be aware that the problem is not so much format as the subject matter and content. The subjects of Wikipedia articles must qualify under the notability guidelines at Wikipedia:Notability. And even if the subject should be notable, articles are not allowed to be promotional, but since you seem to have a conflict of interest, it may not be possible for you to be sufficiently neutral in writing this article. —teb728 t c 04:53, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

By the way you signed your post incorrectly please type ~~~~ or press the signature button on your toolbar when you edit () to sign properly. Do not sign anywhere else but talk pages. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 05:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Fraternity articles

I've stumbled across a number of fraternity articles, but I've not sure whether they're notable or not. (I thought they weren't and marked two or three for speedy deletion but then stumbled across some better referenced ones.) Could someone with a better idea of the notability requirements check them? The two I marked for deletion should be in my contribs list unless they've already been deleted. Vltava 68 04:38, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I think the two articles you mention have been deleted. Ideally, what you are looking for is news stories, but any source that is considered reliable will do. For example, if I was writing an article on a University of Virginia fraternity, I would look for articles in The Cavalier Daily or The Daily Progress or perhaps WCAV's website, but not a student blog. References to the fraternity's own website, if it exists, do not usually establish notability. Flat Hat Club is a good example of an article on a "college society". Xenon54 (talk) 13:26, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Template:Infobox NFLactive

Resolved

How can I link the term Super Bowl XLI in the caption at Cato June?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 05:51, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Done, I think that's what you wanted? Just simple linking? Gary King (talk) 05:54, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

It seems very simple. If it failed for you then maybe you accidentally tried to link in the image name which is almost identical to the caption. PrimeHunter (talk) 06:09, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes that is something I would do and probably did do.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 06:59, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

question

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

What is the only word that is pronounced in exactly the same way in all modern languages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.212.214.196 (talk) 05:58, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried the language section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 06:03, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I screwed up the formatting of an article

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I screwed up the formatting of the infobox in the article Camden East, and I can't seem to fix it. I don't want to revert because the information contained before was incorrect -- I researched through Statistics Canada and put the correct information in the infobox (as I've done before with other infoboxes and templates), but for some reason, this time, the reference I added screwed up the Population field in the infobox, putting in "UNIQ1a6a73e87bf66e68-ref-00,000,005-QINU?" and not the reference itself. Interestingly enough, that reference did, however, appear where it was supposed to at the end of the article. After messing around with it and previewing, I still can't seem to get it to work. If anyone who knows what I did wrong could fix it and explain it to me, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, Peace and Passion (talk) 07:20, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

AlexiusHoratius fixed it.[1] See Template:Infobox settlement#Usage. Some template parameters must be numbers only so the template can process them as numbers. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to User:AlexiusHoratius for fixing it so quick! Easy fix; I wasn't used to using this particular template infobox. Peace and Passion (talk) 07:32, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Company Logo change

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi,

Our company Mott MacDonald Group have recently changed our company logo and I need to upload the new logo and change the existing file. How do I do this, I do not appear to have the necessary permission to upload file

Current location is here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mott_MacDonald

Thanks for any help!

Kind Regards, John R. John Rothwell (talk) 11:22, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

This has to be done by an autoconfirmed user. Do you want File:MottMacLogo.png to be replaced by http://www.mottmac.com/images/logo.gif in Mott MacDonald? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:41, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, Please!

How do I become an Autoconfirmed User for future reference?

Many Thanks, John R. John Rothwell (talk) 11:57, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

As the autoconfirmed link in my post says, your account must be more than 4 days old and have made at least 10 edits. But somebody else will probably do it for you. I have to leave now and don't have time at the moment. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:03, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I have now uploaded File:Mott MacDonald logo.gif, added it to Mott MacDonald and deleted the old logo File:MottMacLogo.png. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:11, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

k-box

I have written an article about a speaker called the K-box. It was posted several weeks ago and some editors deleted it by calling it spam (even though it had not been up for speedy deletion and the article had been posted for a couple of weeks). This is the article. I would like to know if it is ok to re-post it or not? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cheaperbydozen/K-box Thanks for your helpCheaperbydozen (talk) 13:01, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I have only had a quick look at it - the kids kinda distract me from working too much on wikipedia - but I have two main impressions: firstly, it is like Advertising; secondly, although it is good that there are citations, none of them are necessarily what would be counted as reliable - they are mainly reviews in magazines, none of which are seemingly world-reknown. However, having said this, my impression is that it would certainly be a good start for an article - if proof of notability was present, which is the other main issue... if I have time later on, I'll have a look at it! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 13:14, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the article definitely seems like it belongs in a catalog. All you need to do is provide reliable sources to prove notability and write the article from a neutral point of view and you'll be set. Xenon54 (talk) 13:19, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

left justification of right-to-left text?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

As Salam al Amiri has a section of Arabic which is written right to left, so is right justified at the right most edge. Is there a way to make it look better when combined with left justified text for other sections? RJFJR (talk) 14:18, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

How does it look now? Algebraist 14:22, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Much better. Thank you. RJFJR (talk) 14:29, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

A nice solution - my one would have been to use {{rtl-lang}} for each line, rather than {{rtl-para}} for the whole paragraph... but Algebraist came up with a much neater solution, so I didn't even try it out... although I'm going to have a quick try on one of my own user pages out of curiousity! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:37, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I've just replaced the {{rtl-para}} with {{rtl-lang}} (no other changes), and it seems to have worked: User:Phantomsteve/Test-bed. Just thought you'd like to know - I still think Algebraist's is a neat solution -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:40, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

It looks good, but maybe it's Wikisource material? Right now it's not an article about As Salam al Amiri as it should be, it is just the arabic language, transliterated, and translated text of As Salam al Amiri. Шизомби (talk) 14:44, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

That removes the line-by-line right-alignment, though, which is probably not desirable. Algebraist 14:46, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Ah, so it does... thanks for that, Algebraist. As I said, even leaving this aside, I like your solution! -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 14:52, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

center aligned userboxes

How do you get a group of userboxes to be center aligned rather than right aligned?

Pepperpiggle (talk) 15:25, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

If you read the documentation for Template:Userboxtop at Template:Userboxtop/doc, that explains that you can only align left or right - assuming you are using Userboxtop...Userboxbottom. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 15:32, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

You can align them more or less to the centre of the page using a table though. See my page if you want an example. ≈ Chamal ^talk 17:17, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Should be abel to use the {{center}} template. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 21:04, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Typing a colon ":" in the search box

Why whenever I use a colon in the search box, I always get some trouble? (e.g. When I type ":" in the search box, I go to the main page, and not Colon (punctuation)?--Mikespedia (talk) 16:13, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

The colon is used as a special character in wikipedia to show a namespace separator. I'm not sure if there is anything that could be done about this. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 16:20, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Pages like ':' and '#' take you to the main page for some reason. This is the case in all Wikimedia projects AFAIK, so I think it's something to do with the MediaWiki software. You can ask at the MediaWiki Support Desk if you like. ≈ Chamal ^talk 17:12, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Live Articles

When does a Wikipedia entry become "live," or available for viewing by the general publi? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.47.251.30 (talk) 16:58, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

As soon as it is created. Algebraist 16:59, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

If it's on a User Page, it wouldn't be generally available through the Search box, but it would still be available if you knew where to look. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 17:02, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Immediately. If you want to prepare an article before posting, make in into Word or something. ConnorJack (talk) 17:54, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Adding book references

I am new to Wikipedia. How do I add a book as an external link? Example: Saint Gaspar del Bufalo ISBN 1580025021 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joe12811 (talk • contribs) 18:13, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Well, to add a book as a reference, place {{cite book}} (with the appropriate parameters) between ref tags. That will produce a good citation. 18:15, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

How do I delete a sentence in a biographical entry?

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s entry: The paragraph headed "Early Life" begins with the sentence: "He is a racist." I want to delete it, even though I feel the police officer in the current controversey acted in a reasonable way. George10027 (talk) 18:45, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Such unconstructive edits are called vandalism. Though it has been removed now, you should click "edit" at either the top of the page or the heading of the section containing the vandalism, then select and remove the vandalism as you would in a wordprocessor. Xenon54 (talk) 18:52, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Medical School Admissions

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Would informing the medical school of alumni relatives improve one's chances of gaining admission? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.102.52.104 (talk) 20:18, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Maybe. It depends on the school. However, this desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. You may find a better answer at the reference desk. TNXMan 20:42, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 20:44, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Nationality category

I don't often use the Help Desk. However, an admin reverted my addition of 'English American' to the entry on Myron E. Leavitt, an article to which I have contributed, as well as to the entry on Mike Leavitt, to which I have also contributed. I have written most wikipedia entries relating to this family, all of whom either descend from two English settlers in the 17th century: John Leavitt or Thomas Leavitt (settler). One branch of the family became Mormons, and this branch produced Myron and Mike Leavitt. I hesitate to have to add a footnote to each article, but will happily do so if that's what it takes. A number of the Leavitt entries I've written have appeared as DYK's. (Check my talk page). Thank you for your assistance. Regards, MarmadukePercy (talk) 20:46, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

"English American" is not a nationality. It is, if anything, an "ethnicity" or "heritage". My issue with all the "X-American" forms is, how far back do you go? How many generations of descendants of the Mayflower are "English-American", before they just become "American"? I don't have an answer, just raising a question. – ukexpat (talk) 21:09, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I probably phrased that incorrectly, sorry. It is however a matter of heritage, which is what I was getting at, and as far as I know these categories are still extant here on wikipedia. Has the subject been brought up for discussion before, I assume? MarmadukePercy (talk) 21:14, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

According to the Recent African origin of modern humans theory, every American is an African-American. --Teratornis (talk) 00:52, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

I'm sware of the origins theory. My point was that if there is such a category for ethnicity, I thought it might as well be used. Sorry now that I inquired about it. Obviously, the category has outlived its usefulness. MarmadukePercy (talk) 01:01, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

The first place to check would be Category talk:English Americans. Note the deletion discussions linked from that page. You could review those discussions and possibly get some insight into the administrator's reversion of your edit. You might also ask the administrator on his or her talk page about why he or she reverted your edit. Some editors will provide a coherent explanation, others will just ignore such questions. In my opinion (which counts for nothing), classifying Americans by ethnicity makes some sense as long as they maintain some easily recognizable ancestral ethnic identity. English Americans probably assimilate faster than any other immigrant group, taking about one generation to become unrecognizable as English. As soon as their kids pick up an American accent, what is recognizably English about them? I doubt that English Americans put as much energy into making their heritage an issue as some other hyphenated Americans do. --Teratornis (talk) 02:32, 28 July 2009 (UTC)