Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 September 8

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.

September 8

Translations

I heard a phrase used to describe a situation. It was a French phrase...pay de ser (I believe this is the spelling). What is the translation? 00:32, 8 September 2008 (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. Algebraist 00:34, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Query on Neutrality(???) Policy

As I can recall wikipedias policy is to refer to countries under their legal name as it is accepted by the UN. however if one looks at the todays 7/9/08 first page/on this day section on will propably see "independence day of Republic of Macedonia"... however there is no such state as this. THE OFFICIAL NAME IS: Former Yugoslavic Republic Of Macedonia F.Y.R.O.M. May I remind you also that the are currently negotiations taking place for the removal of continuation of the "Macedonia" bit in the name. Wikipedias neutrality policy dictates that the temporary official name should be used.... If so possible I propose the creation of a bot to undertake the job of fixing this isue. As unimportand as it might seam to you:

1. it is a breach of the wikipedias neutrality policy
2. it is malinforming and incorrect
3. it means a great deal for the current countries in the dispute
4. it is disrespectfull towards the citizens of those countries and the UN

thank you very much for your attention 79.166.26.188 (talk) 03:11, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

As it happens, we have a page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Macedonia-related articles). I haven't waded through it to see how it applies to your suggestions. However, it does appear that the issue has already attracted attention on Wikipedia. I suggest that you read that guideline, and if you don't like something on it, you could discuss it on the talk page: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Macedonia-related articles). If you agree with the existing consensus, but some articles do not comply with it, then WP:SOFIXIT applies. Wikipedia has 6,932,288 articles, and many if not most of them have problems; the only way problems get fixed is if the people who care about the problems do the work to fix them. --Teratornis (talk) 05:58, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I skimmed through part of Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (Macedonia-related articles). It reminds me of the article: Balkanization. I'm not sure many Help desk volunteers would be sufficiently familiar with those specific disagreements to offer good advice. The folks at Wikipedia:WikiProject Republic of Macedonia might have better advice, or at a minimum they should have more experience with whatever the disputes are about. --Teratornis (talk) 06:28, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Did anyone bother to check the article Republic of Macedonia?

The Republic of Macedonia […] often referred to as Macedonia […] was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional reference the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia […] pending resolution of a naming dispute with Greece. Many other international institutions and countries have recognised the country under the same reference, although an overall majority of countries recognise it under its constitutional name.

Its constitutional name is "Republic of Macedonia". You can see at Macedonia naming dispute#Lists of countries what various countries officially call it. Basically, Greece is pissed that the Republic called themselves Macedonia because of the Greek region Macedonia. The full region of Macedonia, while not perfectly defined, stretches beyond the current Greek borders, and obviously the people of the Republic have a good reason to call their nation "Macedonia". — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Any PDA Version of Wikipedia

Is there a PDA version of the Wikipedia for use on Mobile Windows 6? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.86.164.36 (talk) 06:42, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org/ . See Wikipedia:Mobile access. You can also use Wapedia. Nanonic (talk) 06:56, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Uploading photos please

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 15:17, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

My DYK on La Princesse, the giant mechanical spider is on the front page right now. A user helped me put one photo up but I can't contact him/her again. I have found some more photos of her on Flickr that are acceptable for licensing, but can't upload them as I haven't been registered for 5 days. Could someone help me please? The images are of the spider on the move (more exciting than her crouched on the side of the building, and you can see just how massive she is) - any chance I could bother someone to upload them and add them to the page? I particularly like [1] because you get a sense of its scale and how it moves, and[2] because of the colours and you can see the puppeteers well. Any chance someone could oblige? Sorry to be a pain. Thanks again, Roisterdoister (talk) 08:08, 8 September 2008 (UTC) PS Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask!

All done. thanks to everyone for their help. Roisterdoister (talk) 08:36, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

searching for information about authoritative article guidelines

Is there any guidelines in making an authoritative wikipedia article as in making a article of academic standard? 59.154.209.47 (talk) 11:21, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

It varies what people would call authoritative and academic standard, but see Wikipedia:Good article criteria and the harder Wikipedia:Featured article criteria for two terms used in Wikipedia with specific meanings. Far less than these is acceptable in most articles. See Wikipedia:Your first article if you consider writing a new article. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Also Wikipedia:The perfect article. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 21:22, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Freedom Of Press In India

Why India rank 120 in worldwide free prees index —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.239.200.202 (talk) 11:24, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you referring to a Wikipedia article that may contain wrong information? If not then: Have you tried the Humanities 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) 11:40, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Upload article unsuccesfull

Dear Helpdesk,

I've uploaded an article with links and pictures last week but if I look for the article now I can't find it. The title of the article is La Perla International Living. I know that the text is case senstive and that it will take 30 hours. Please help me.

Kind regards,

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.132.249.70 (talk) 12:01, 8 September 2008 (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.Chamal ^Talk ± 12:31, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

As for the article, it doesn't seem to have been created. There is a disambiguation page called La Perla and 3 articles; La Perla District, La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico and La perla. Searching for 'La Perla' also doesn't show any article with that name. The article has not been deleted or it would be in the logs. I think this article has not been created at all. Maybe you didn't save properly? Chamal ^Talk ± 12:45, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I just checked for deleted articles starting with "La" with no results.[3] You can't create an article without an account, so you must have a user name that we can check contributions. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:55, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

If you don't have an account then you made the article in a wrong place. Do you remember where you might have placed it? If you have the same browser then the browser history may show which en.wikipedia.org pages you visited at the time. Or do you have an idea what your IP address may have been at the time? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:16, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Images not displaying

It seems that png and svg images on WP aren't being displayed (I'm not sure if this problem is on my side) but jpgs are working correctly. -- 212.219.0.20 (talk) 12:02, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you give an example as to an image you can see and can not see? It might be your broswer or just your computer. Might be a technical problem then it would be best to ask your question at the reference desk Monster Under Your Bed ^(talk) 12:35, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I was having similar issues yesterday, but it is working now. Probably server issues. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:57, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

asking for peer review

What are the steps involved in asking a person to peer review my article? I am seeking a law minded person to review "Maguire v SOCOG 1999" article. thanks 59.154.209.47 (talk) 12:27, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I think the page Wikipedia:Peer review is what you are after. Good luck Monster Under Your Bed ^(talk) 12:29, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Krishna Das Swami

(long article-like text removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Radharamandas (talk • contribs) 13:33, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

This page is only for questions about using Wikipedia. Do you have a question? You may be interested in Wikipedia:Your first article, but your text would require big changes to become a proper Wikipedia article. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:38, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

How do I insert an image within an article?

I am a relatively new user of Wikipedia and am trying to put an image into an article I've written. I see where/how you upload an image, but I need to know how to upload that image into an actual article.

PAHouseGOP (talk) 14:04, 8 September 2008 (UTC).

Take a look at Wikipedia:Picture tutorial for starters and you also might be interested in Help:Images and other uploaded files. Good luck Monster Under Your Bed ^(talk) 14:06, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

If you tell us the name of the article, we can tell you if there are any gotchas, such as an infobox template that has its own image syntax. --Teratornis (talk) 15:43, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Tight tabs

Does anyone know any code that could be used to lessen (or remove) the space between tabs - on some pages they overflow, even on my computer's highest resolution. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 15:01, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Try digging through m:Gallery of user styles. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:19, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Scripts could also be used to alter the text of tabs or remove some tabs. --Random832 (contribs) 15:45, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I know there's javascript that can do it, but I can't recall where. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 16:07, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

It's easy to write such scripts anyway - I wrote one just now to change "discussion" to "talk" and "edit this page" to "edit" (and replace the unprotect tab with icons showing the protection status) - Also see the last line of my User:Random832/monobook.css for a simple line to reduce the padding on each side of each tab, this cuts down the size of the tab list significantly. --Random832 (contribs) 16:16, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I just started using that code to reduce tab padding. It looks quite nice; thanks! Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 19:59, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Black gospel redirects to Urban contemporary gospel

I'm not sure how to handle this. If I put a link to black gospel in an article about a radio station which plays traditional black gospel music, it redirects to urban contemporary gospel. Some of the historical background material in the second article is helpful, but the name of the article, and the box, give the impression that all black gospel stations play contemporary music, which of course they do not. Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:36, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You can link to a section if there is an appropriate one. Your article could for example say [[Urban contemporary gospel#Original music (1920s – 1940s)|black gospel]] which renders as black gospel. I don't know how well that fits your music but you could also consider editing Urban contemporary gospel to get a good section as target. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:51, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, there's not much about contemporary music in the article. It looks more like the problem is its name. Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

"Urban contemporary gospel" is what the Grammys call Black gospel. "Traditional gospel" is what they call country and western gospel. Corvus cornix_talk 20:05, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

NavFrames

Can a <div> NavFrame be put alongside another? (All I ever saw is one beneath another.) -- Mentisock 18:11, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You'd need to put them both into a table, or float one. Probably the table method's easiest; you do it the same way you'd make any other table, but put divs into the table rather than text. --ais523 21:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Please avoid using tables for layout, wherever possible; tables are for tabular data. Thank you. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 21:58, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

translating into Welsh Language

My daughter has just started at a Welsh medium secondary school. She has to to some Art homework based on the artist Claes Oldenburg she has found a very good article in your English version which gives her all the information she needs, but when searching for the same article in the Welsh medium encyclopedia it comes up with nothing to be found! Any ideas how I could find this in Welsh please 90.210.81.133 (talk) 19:35, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

The English Wikipedia is by far the largest Wikipedia, with over 2.5 million articles. The next 20 or so Wikipedias all have between a hundred thousand and a million articles. Most Wikipedias are significantly smaller than that, and the Welsh Wikipedia is not especially high on the list. It has about 18,500 articles; thus, most articles on the English Wikipedia do not exist on the Welsh Wikipedia. You could see if the Welsh Wikipedia has some information on the artist in a more general article, but otherwise you'll have to look in other sources. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 19:53, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. "Anyone" includes you and your daughter. An article comes into existence because someone decides to write it. Since you (and perhaps your daughter?) are clearly fluent in English and (I assume) in Welsh, perhaps you would consider adding an article on Claes Oldenburg to the Welsh Wikipedia. To do this, first create an account, and then read up on how to create an article. Since we use the GFDL, you are free to simply translate the article from the English Wikipedia. This would be a great way for your daughter to learn more about the artist.If you are interested and cannot figure out how to go about it, please come back here and ask for help. -Arch dude (talk) 23:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

For centuries, languages with many speakers have been eating away at languages with few speakers, for the very type of reason we can see on the list of {{Wikipedias}}: the more people who speak a language, the more information there will be in that language, and thus the more useful the language is to know. Small languages such as Welsh have a desperate need for their speakers to write more information. Otherwise the big languages will tend to eat them up. This tendency has grown with each advancement in transportation and communication throughout history. The Internet has taken the pressure to a new level. If you are interested in helping to translate articles from the English Wikipedia to the Welsh Wikipedia, and thus to help preserve the Welsh language, see WP:EIW#Translate. --Teratornis (talk) 00:45, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

cant find what im looking for Help Me

hi my name is melissa and i am trying to do research on the association cortex part of the brain i have tried different ways to look it up and nothing is working can u please help me —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.165.152 (talk) 20:05, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Science 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. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 20:09, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here to not do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.

Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. Dendodge|Talk^Contribs 20:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

She said she tried to look it up already. We didn't have an article on association cortex but I just created a redirect to the appropriate section of cerebral cortex. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 21:15, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

She isn't asking anybody to do her homework, she's asking for help with finding information on the encyclopedia. Corvus cornix_talk 20:07, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Facts and information on articles.

I am compiling a website that needs certain information. Let's say for instance I am busy building a site that gives information on all the trees of the world. Their, age, length, color , etc. If I find useful information on Wikipedia, for instance "willow tree grows 10 meters tall and 5 meters wide. Am I allowed to put this statistical information on my website? If yes, can I post the exact information on my site, or do I have to change it? Do I need to put a reference as to where I obtained the used information to the party that submitted the info, or do I just credit Wikipedia. As my site will contain useful information more towards an indigenous perspective, which wikipedia has little or no information, you are welcome to use my information to fill in those gaps.

Thank you. Mortec. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.240.163.20 (talk) 20:23, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for information on ... well, I think you can figure that out yourself. It's a mix of "how to do it" and "why to be careful when doing it". You can also look at the articles you want to get the information from, and look for the sources cited there - everything in Wikipedia articles is supposed to be verifiable, and if you can go back to the original source you can use it to gain greater confidence in the data. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:52, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

no color samples when printing "color list" page

I am trying to print your web pages resulting from the "color list" search. I can print the text but the color samples for each color listed prints BLANK (no colors) I am using Windows internet exporer. Is it possible to have these colors print with the text?? Thanks in advance Manny —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.163.19.146 (talk) 20:26, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I think most browsers don't print coloured backgrounds of pages, which is how the colour list is made. I suggest making a screenshot of the relevant part of the page; scroll to it, then press Print Screen, then paste into a program such as Paint (given that you're using Windows), and print that instead. Hope that helps! --ais523 21:56, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

In IE you need to check Tools → Internet Options → Advanced → Printing → Print background colors and images. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 01:10, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

a question

Hi,I'm not sure if this would be the right place to say or ask this, but I was looking for info on things I might want to study, and I'm looking for career or job opportunities in those fields and I noticed that there is no info on that as I can see. So I was wondering if You could help with my question.What career/job opportunities are there in western or eastern civilization study? P.S. if you can't help with my question,I would appreciate it if job opportunities can be added as a new section of these things.Anyways,thank you for the time you took to read this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.16.45.173 (talk) 20:44, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry if you got confused, but Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. We do not offer information on careers or studies. You can read some articles on certain careers (like Historian or Curator), but we do not have lists of career opportunities, only encyclopedia articles. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 20:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

help

How can I delete an article that I created? Apaulalvarez (talk) 21:27, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

If you're the only one that has edited it, place the code {{db-user}} at the top of the article. Xenon54 21:31, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Political groups

What are two political groups and how do they compete? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.216.37.31 (talk) 23:45, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities 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. Algebraist 23:50, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

That looks like a homework question. The Reference desk will not do your homework for you. —teb728 t c 08:29, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Usurping user name failure

I hope this is the right venue to pose this question. I recently successfully usurped the username Phrenology, and, presumably, my previous account, jacobhodgen, was deleted. However, I just noticed that even though I log in under Phrenology when I sign new posts, it still shows up as my old name. As you can see at the conclusion of this post, it is signed jacobhodgen, even though I am logged in as Phrenology. My whole purpose in changing names was to be more anonymous, and it would seem my atttempt is in vain. Perhaps I misunderstood how usurping an account works? Thank you for your help. As you can see, this is signed with the wrong name. Jacob Hodgen (talk) 23:51, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Check your signature at Special:Preferences. Algebraist 23:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. Phrenology (talk) 00:07, 9 September 2008 (UTC)