Help desk
< December 30	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	January 1 >

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.

December 31

$now

for things like timelines, is there a way to set a value $now which automatically sets to the current date/time? (eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Timeline_of_iPod_models ) Nicoli nicolivich (talk) 02:34, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki has several "magic words" dealing with time, which are listed on the linked page. When inserted, they are recognized by the software, which automatically replaces them with the appropriate information. Magic words should work in templates, such as your situation requires. This example is constructed using magic words and should update upon refreshing the page:

The time is 16:16. Today is Monday, 30 December 2024. It is week 1 of 2024. Wikipedia has 6,932,291 articles.

The time is {{CURRENTTIME}}. Today is {{CURRENTDAYNAME}}, {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}. It is week {{CURRENTWEEK}} of {{CURRENTYEAR}}. Wikipedia has {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles.

Xenon54 / talk / 03:53, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

These tags should be used with great care. Articles are not always kept up-to-date, and these tags can give a false impression that the article is up-to-date when it really isn't. --Jc3s5h (talk) 04:27, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nuclear Core Bonding

You use to have an article on Nuclear Core Bonding. What happened to it and can I get a copy of it?

(Email removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.189.86.173 (talk) 05:36, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find any evidence that WP has ever had an article with that title (or any obvious variant). A bit of Googling suggests that the term "nuclear core bonding" is used, rarely, to refer to the topic treated in our article Nuclear force. Is that article, along with the articles linked therein, of any help? Deor (talk) 15:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps Atomic nucleus? It isn't really clear if the query refers to physical processes in the nucleus or to some nuclear reactor design or operational technique.LeadSongDog come howl 17:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Margins on articles in general

Default margins on article pages are too wide for Aunt Tilly's aging eyes! Is there a way to shorten the line so that my eye doesn't lose it in wrapping back to the left margin? Aunt Tilly couldn't be the only one with this problem, although looking through the site for a solution makes it seem that way! Do I really need to sic my Java-speaking son on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.83.66.249 (talk) 07:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds like a browser issue. You can resize the browser window horizontally to decrease line lengths, or you can increase the zoom in on the browser page (with numeric keypad: Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out and Ctrl and * to reset in Internet Explorer; Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out and Ctrl and 0 in Firefox). If everything in general is always too small, you could increase your computer's screen resolution as well. — Bility (talk) 07:33, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Search box suggestion

This is a suggestion rather than a question, and nowhere on Wikipedia do I find a "suggestion box". That in itself may be worth doing, but now to my original (design)suggestion: I would suggest you highlight/outline/present the "search" box on the left, the part in which the search word needs to be typed, more prominently (darker or navy blue or black outline?). For regular wikipedia users it's easy to find and use, since they know where to go, but for newcomers it's difficult to identify the actual block in which they need to type. I notice this when I direct newcomers (mother in law, friends) by phone to a wikipedia search. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.189.43.172 (talk) 08:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You might try Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals), which is a place to make suggestions.--SPhilbrick T 23:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

RfA

Resolved

by SoWhy (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) Aditya Ex Machina 14:46, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Could someone close [1] properly? Aditya Ex Machina 09:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have I found the right help desk?

Sorry to have a question in the subject bar but you do seem to have a number of help desks.

I would like to write a page on the Othona Community as you do not have one and I think it is worthy of a mention. I help as a volunteer with the Community, so I would not want to have a conflict of interest. However, reporting the facts would not be a conflict - would it?

Jonney a (talk) 12:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm...be mindful of it, and stick to information that has reliable sources and is verifiable and you should be fine. I suggest using the the article wizard as a step by step guide in creating the article. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 12:39, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Search Wikipedia with Google for: Othona Community finds a mention already in Church of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, which states one sentence about an Othona Community, with no sources. The sentence links separately to the articles Othona and Community, which I think are rather poor link destinations for the component words in the term "Othona Community". I.e., it would be better to have a specific article to link to. Note that on Wikipedia, we don't use the term "worthy" to determine what should have an article - instead we use the term "notable". Since the Othona Community has been around since 1946 and meets in a clearly notable church building, it probably meets the standard of notability here, but the burden of proof is on you to show it by finding reliable sources. See WP:ORG, Wikipedia:Advocacy, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not here to tell the world about your noble cause, and WP:FAQ/Organizations. --Teratornis (talk) 23:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Orphan

Some of the articles are tagged orphaned. It seems there is a method to watch the links to an article. Is it a previlege of the admins or is it possible for a user to watch the links; if so how ? Nedim Ardoğa (talk) 14:36, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you look on left side of the page, there is a section marked "toolbox". One of the options is "What links here", which will show all of the incoming links to a page. TN X Man 14:40, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Undoing Cluebot

Hi,

I split an article ("Binary tree") into 3 pages ("Binary tree" "Binary tree (data structure)" and "Binary tree (graph theory). Because "Binary tree" became short, Cluebot killed the revision to that page (but left the others). I don't want to "undo" Cluebot, because I believe it will just return the undo of my change. What do I do? Mike <blanked> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdnahas (talk • contribs) 15:02, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can undo Cluebot, as it will only revert your edit once. TN X Man 15:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Composers births/deaths

How can find composers born/died in 1711/1761/1811/1861/1911 withouth searching whole the lists? 88.112.93.159 (talk) 18:41, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

1711 in music, 1761 in music, 1811 in music, 1861 in music, and 1911 in music should include musicians and composers who were born and died in those years. Intelligentsium 18:46, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

index.php

Dear Wikipedia Tech support help..

I'm a new user trying to create my user page...I go to...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Peter_Lindener

and get a message stating that this user page does not exist yet and will need to be created... I then click on the link....

Start the User:Peter Lindener page

who's underlying URL would seem to be... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Peter_Lindener&action=edit

I gather this is supposed to invoke a PHP sript on the server side.... My web browser is Firefox/3.5.6, running under MS_windows_7.... I also just installed Greasemonkey as I was preparing to use wikEd..

when I click on the Start link my FirerFox browser instead of responding to a server side reply, asks me if i I would like to save the file "index.php" or open it with a specified program,

I just now tryed the same link from MS_IE_8 and it also responds with the same query as if to save the index.php file....

I directed it to use FireFox, and my browser then goes into an infinit loop creating untitled tab pages.......Help.....

I'm gather your wiki page designers intended to invoke a PHP scrip to create my user page on the wikipedia server....but all does not seem well, be it with Firefox, IE_8 of on possibly on the server side of things.....

see index.php file contents following this message..

Can you help me get up and going so that I can contribute to the Wikipedia??

all the best -Peter Lindener —Preceding unsigned comment added by Peter Lindener (talk • contribs) 19:42, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I restored your post but removed leading spaces from lines because they cause special formatting. Go to Special:Preferences and click the "Editing" tab. If there is a checkmark at "Use external editor by default (for experts only, needs special settings on your computer)", then remove it and click the Save button. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Putting Article Sections up for deletion

Is there anyway to put sections of articles up for deletion as I have found a gallery of logo's on the Toys "R" Us article. Thanks Paul2387 (talk) 20:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on how bold you're feeling, either create a thread about it on the article talk page, or follow WP:BRD. --Floquenbeam (talk) 20:18, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Agree with Floquenbeam about advice on removal from the article, but there's an underlying issue of the images themselves, which are suffering from copyright schizophrenia. They have fair use rationales, but are also marked as possibly in the public domain because they are not original enough to be within the ambit of copyright law (and for some icing on those two irreconcilable copyright statuses, they are also marked as possibly trademarked, though I don't think that matters for Wikipedia's use, but only for reusers). If they are in the public domain then it just comes down to whether they belong in the article for other reasons, but if they are fair use, I don't know that this particular use qualifies and if not, the images shouldn't just be removed from the article, but deleted.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 21:09, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

More information about copyright and trademarks is in Commons:COM:EIC#Trademark and Commons:COM:CB#Trademarks. There are many trademarked logos which are too simple to be copyrightable. For example, logos that consist solely of simple names in standard fonts, with no extra artistic embellishment. I don't know whether that applies to the Toys R Us logos. On the other hand, a photo like File:TOYSRUS Geoffrey Jr 01.JPG probably runs afoul of the prohibition in Commons:COM:CB#Comic and action figures. --Teratornis (talk) 23:49, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How do I find a page I edited in the past?

Some time ago, maybe more than a year, I edited a page. I don't remember the subject. Is there a way to enter a search for pages edited by a specific person? If not, do you have a way of finding a paged edited by me? TIA- CR —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.33.55.222 (talk) 21:53, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Picking your (IP) signature goes to Special:Contributions/99.33.55.222, which is a list of all contributions made by that IP. Unfortunately, this question is the only contribution listed, so when edited you it a year ago you must have been on a different IP address.

I'm afraid that if you cannot remember any details of the page there is absolutely no way of identifying the edit.

This is one of the many advantages of creating an account: it only takes a moment, and doesn't cost anything, and then all the edits you make from that account will be traceable together. --ColinFine (talk) 22:07, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) You are currently editing by your IP address. IPs are often dynamic, switching from person to person. This is the only edit the particular IP assigned to you right now has ever made. If your past edit was also by an IP, and you don't have some record of the IPs that have been assigned to you, then there is no way to check what edits you have made. If, in the other hand, you had signed up for an an account in the past, and made the edit using that account, you can then access the edit history of that user account. Otherwise, the only way to retrieve the edit is to know what article it was you edited and check the article's page history.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:07, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Logged in users have a link saying "My contributions" to a list of all their edits (except to deleted pages which can only be seen by administrators). If you were not logged in then the edit was registered to your IP address at the time. Special:Contributions/99.33.55.222 shows no other edits by the IP address used to post here. Many browsers keep a history of pages you have visited but probably not a year back. If you were not logged in and don't know the IP address of the used computer (which may have changed IP address since then), then I cannot help. If you have an idea which pages it might have been then you could try clicking the "history" tab and look for your old edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Music - popular children's song

Who originally composed the children's tune Wheels on the Bus? Does anyone hold the copyrite?

I'm not concerned with who has arranged it or performed it - many people have. I want to know how one gets to have the rights to arrange, perform and record another arrangement of the tune> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.136.91 (talk) 22:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You might find what you are looking for in the articles The Wheels on the Bus, Copyright or Intellectual property. If you cannot find the answer there, you can try asking your question at the Entertainment section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except about how to use Wikipedia, which is what this help desk is for).For your convenience, you may click here to post your question. I hope this helps. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:05, 31 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]