Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 January 13

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January 13

Canadian researcher William Sommers

This is my first time using the help desk so I'm not sure if I'm in the right place. This was the most readily available forum that I could find though. If there is somewhere more appropriate please tell me.

His name appears in a number of animal articles (shown in this search ) usually uncited. In the case of the oarfish article where there is link, the news article that is cited makes no reference to anyone by this name. Does anyone know who this is? Given that the name belonged to a famous court jester there is the possibility that this is some form of vandalism. Sxoa (talk) 14:58, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Well spotted! I did a quick check through the articles and it appears that all (or at least a good number) are done by 64.83.194.182. It also appears that most of the articles have seen extensive changes since then, so this vandalism would need to be reverted by hand (unless anyone has any better methods).Naraht (talk) 16:44, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Very peculiar. This may be the oldest addition, from 2007. I'm currently skimming the Tapir conservation newsletter to see if it can be sourced. If these additions are accurate, this individual appears to have made a number of discoveries across a fairly large swathe of the animal kingdom, and I would expect to see his name mentioned in journals, which I so far haven't. These edits may be correct, but pending confirmation with a source, I think it might be a good idea to change them back to the more vague "scientists" or similar. I've changed one, and will try to go through the others. Good call, Sxoa. --Kateshortforbob _talk 17:16, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Oh, duh. Newsletter's from 2002, addition mentions event from 2003. Removing that one...--Kateshortforbob _talk 17:19, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

For the record, the IP addresses involved include:

199.17.4.74 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) 199.17.46.80 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) 206.11.94.219 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) 64.83.194.182 (talk · contribs · WHOIS). I think all the mentions remaining the articles are gone, but I'll have another look. --Kateshortforbob _talk 17:54, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Reference list

Hay. this is aechayselove and i dont know if this web site is a good source because many people can get on and change whatever they feel like. i honestly think you should have the people add a reference list so we know that people arent making up stuff! i dont mean to be picky or anything i just thought i could share my opinion.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aechayselove (talk • contribs) 00:57, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

All articles should have reference lists, although there are admittedly some articles that do not have references at all, and others that are poorly referenced. You are encouraged to cross-check with other sources regardless if there is a list of references or not -- cf. Citing Wikipedia and Academic use. Xenon54 (talk) 02:34, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

See the various sections under Wikipedia:Replies to common objections#Wikipedia can never be high quality. Also see Wikipedia:Flagged revisions. Maintaining quality in an encyclopedia that anyone can edit is indeed a problem. See Wikipedia:Disclaimer. You should never undertake any important decision using only Wikipedia as your guidance. Instead use Wikipedia as an introduction to a subject, and look at all the sources an article cites, as well as more sources that you find by searching the Web or visiting a library. Also check the history of an article to insure it has not been recently vandalized. --Teratornis (talk) 03:45, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Please reconsider how you post this article ...

Adding this article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner - may present the problem of other mentally unstable individuals or groups committing horrific crimes, based solely on the idea that they can live in infamy and receive fame by receiving their own personalized autobiography on this and other sites. I suggest that you consider instead attaching only a very brief and simple description of this individual to the article on the horrific event. To summarize, it is my opinion that you should not give this individual any fame by allowing him an autobiography here on wikipedia.

Sincerely, JP Baker 72.223.50.245 (talk) 01:38, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I understand your concerns, but this is a encyclopedia, and thus should include notable, even infamous, people. CTJF83 chat 01:43, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I agree with you, but JP Baker may have a point, after all this may be a case of WP:BLP1E. Just something to consider. It may or may not apply in this case, given the amount of information availible on this person, but the concerns of the OP should not be dismissed out of hand. --Jayron32 02:08, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I think there is more than enough coverage. Obviously we wouldn't delete Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, can't think of any more right now. They are all 3 infamous for one event, the only reason Loughner is being brought up is cause it is recent. CTJF83 chat 02:32, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

For what it's worth, Copycat crimes says:

• "It has been shown that most of the persons who do mimic crimes seen in the media (especially news and violent movies) have in most cases prior criminal records, prior severe mental health problems or histories of violence suggesting that the effect of the media is indirect (more affecting criminal behaviour) rather than direct (directly affecting the number of criminals)."

If that is true, then Wikipedia and other media might inadvertently influence the types of bad things that nutjobs do, but we are less likely to create new nutjobs. A better (if currently impractical) approach might be to filter what the nutjobs get to see, rather than censor the news for the vast majority of people who aren't going to copy these horrendous crimes. Hopefully the sciences of mind will progress enough to be able to actually repair the brain defects that lead to violent antisocial behavior, instead of simply diagnosing it. --Teratornis (talk) 03:19, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Bookmarks - or other easy tracking idea?

Does anyone else find they can't keep track of things they have commented on but want to revisit the article(s). You can watch a topic but if no one comments it's of no use. Is there some sort of solution to this issue? I am finding going back over my contributions to find things more and more time consuming. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 02:15, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

You can make user subpages to keep track of things you are editing. This is useful if you start an editing task you cannot finish in one session, for example because you are waiting for someone else to reply. Wikipedia's talk pages lack any way to notify you when someone replies to a comment you left. You can only watch the whole talk page. If you are watching many talk pages, it can be difficult to find replies to your messages in the flood of other traffic on those pages. mw:Extension:LiquidThreads might someday help with this. In the meantime your options are not too good. In addition to keeping a page of notes, you can also:

• Request that someone ping your user talk page when they reply to your comment on another talk page. That only helps if the other editors will take this extra step.
• Leave messages on the user talk pages of editors who have edited the articles you want to comment on, inviting them to look at your comments on the article talk pages. You can find these editors by looking at the histories of the articles. Maybe you are getting no responses because the interested editors aren't paying attention to the articles you are commenting on.
• Try to edit in ways that reduce your need for feedback from other editors. Learn Wikipedia's rules in detail so you know what to do more of the time. Get better at finding reliable sources so you can be more confident you know when an article needs a change.
• Ask questions about article content on the Reference desk where you might be more likely to get quick replies.

--Teratornis (talk) 03:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Email

Why isn't my email address letting me confirm it after a few times I tried to confirm it and it still doesn't work? WAYNESLAM 02:19, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Please be more specific about the problem. Do you receive a confirmation mail? If so then what happens when you click the link in it? If you get an error message then quote it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:24, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I've tried to help him before, it seems when he sends the confirmation email, he doesn't get it, which means he can't email. Nascar1996 02:27, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I see you have discussed at User talk:Wayne Slam#Email. His posts there don't say whether he has received a confirmation mail but maybe he said it somewhere else. He said "Done" when you asked him to watch for replies here but he hasn't responded to my reply which was there at the time so I don't know whether "Done" means his problem is fixed or what. Without knowing more I will only point to Help:Email confirmation. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:20, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Could it possibly be that you are getting all emails but they're going into your spam folder? Have you checked?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:18, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't have a spam folder as far as I know. I sent multiple email confirmations and it still won't let me email. WAYNESLAM 20:45, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

You still haven't said whether you receive the confirmation mails. After receiving it you must click a link in it to enable email. Maybe the confirmation mails are blocked by your ISP. Some editors have to use an alternative email account. Comparison of webmail providers may be useful. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:15, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't have an email address in general expect Facebook and something else. WAYNESLAM 18:48, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

USS Stickell DD888 How do I contact someone to get statement corrected

'Bold text' In the information Concerning The Ship USS Stickell DD888 I says Operated in Korean Waters Late in the year of 1950, This is Not Correct- The Ship was in Korean Waters in Jan/ Feb 1950 I know this to be Fact,because I was on Board when We steamed up the East Coast between Korea and Japan in the Japan Sea- I cannot say for sure How far bt I can Say , we where underway for more than 24 hours when we 1st sighted land to our Port Side,That being on the west and the East Coast of So. Korea. It is My Opinion we where close to The Russian / N Korea / China Borders. Should You want to get further Information re this: (email addresses removed) Jim Baker —Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.2.208.4 (talk) 03:52, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

To correct this information simply click "edit" at the top of the page and correct it, Be Bold!. Sumsum2010·T·C·Review me! 04:12, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

But do so only if you can cite a reliable source. Personal knowledge and reminiscences are not reliable for Wikipedia purposes. – ukexpat (talk) 16:16, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

However, if information you believe to be wrong is not reliably sourced in the article, you can remove it, even though you may not be able to put anything else in its place without independent sources. --ColinFine (talk) 19:20, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

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

Under the heading Early life and career it says "Van Winkle never knew his real father..." and then in the very next sentence it says "Because of his parents' divorce, he grew up moving between suburban Dallas, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, and suburban Miami with his father."

How can he not know his father but be living with his mother and stepfather in Dallas and also with his father in Miami? He either knew his father or he didn't. Which is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.81.87.156 (talk) 06:16, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

It's a good question, but you need to ask this at the article talk page. Go back to where you read the article, click the "discussion tab" and raise this same issue there. --Jayron32 06:19, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

You skipped an important part in your quote. It actually says:

"Van Winkle never knew his real father, and was given the name of the man his mother was married to at the time of his birth. Because of his parents' divorce, he grew up moving between suburban Dallas, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, and suburban Miami with his father."

Without researching it, I assume "real father" is the unknown biological father while "parents" is the mother and the man his mother was married to at the time of his birth. If the man adopted him (I don't know whether this is the case but it sounds likely in the context) then I think it makes sense to call him the father, but it could have been phrased more clearly. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:52, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Hypothetical

Regarding Article Probation Notifications. Lets say an editor (#1) had sent out an inordinate amount of templated Article Probation Notifications. Within the last month. Lets say a dozen. Lets further say that an administrator (#2) has given that editor (#1) a similar notification, which the editor (#1) did not accept as valid. So, lets assume that the editor (#1) opens an ANI thread about the Admins (#2) actions. My question is this---would it be within the rules of Wikipedia to inform the dozen or so editors that an ANI thread has begun that is pertinent to their recent edits? Thank You.Buster Seven Talk 06:40, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

• This can't go well. You obviously have a specific situation in mind, why are you going through such lengths to obfuscate it? --Jayron32 06:52, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
  • I'm glad you are the one to answer. Who should I ask? The parties involved? And if I was specific, here, wouldn't I open myself up to attack and the like. I obfuscate to protect myself and them. If your advice is to leave it alone I will. Again, I saw a potential act but I didn't know who to ask if it was proper.Buster Seven Talk 07:02, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Giuseppe Palica

I have nominated the article above for deletion, but now I am unsure as to where to administer this deletion proposal. The procedures seem to be very different from nl-wikipedia, where I know my way.. RJB-nl (talk) 12:26, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The article appeared to have been OK, apart from one vandalism edit in 2008, which I have now reverted. I have therefore removed the PROD template. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! RJB-nl (talk) 12:37, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Citing things where a well referenced link is already provided.

Question:

If I was to say something like: "Stephen Fry, the presenter of QI..."

would I need to spend 10 minutes finding a reference that confirms the fact that Stephen Fry is indeed the presenter of QI, when all the reader would have to do to find a source for this would be to click on the link provided? It seems like unnecessary overkill to me. Py0alb (talk) 13:29, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

WP:Readers first, so yes, I'm afraid. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:31, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

2 further questions:

1) What if the relevant citation is already on the same page? For example, what if further up the page there was a comment "Stephen's Fry's tv career Would I need to cite it again?

2) Is it permissible to use other wikipedia pages as sources if they contain the most useful information? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Py0alb (talk • contribs) 13:35, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

1. Yes, but that's easy. If the prior link is named i.e., has the form <ref name="name"> at its start, all you need to do to cite it again is to copy and paste that beginning part of the citation code and add a closing slash, like so: <ref name="name" />. If the prior reference is not named (it starts with just <ref>), replace it with a named version in the form I just provided, <ref name="name"> (last name of author will do for the name to choose) and then follow what I said about using it again later on by adding a closing slash. See WP:REFNAME for more.
2. If you're talking about using other Wikipedia articles as references to be cited, the answer is no. Please see WP:CIRCULAR and also note that wikis in general are not considered reliable sources. If you're talking about using preexisting cited content from an existing article, in another article, that's fine but please provide copyright attribution by noting in your edit summary where you took the preexisting text from and link to that source article. --Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:42, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Is a video off youtube allowed as a source? For example a coaching video or an interview with a well known figure. Py0alb (talk) 13:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Short answer, it depends what the video shows and what you're trying to use it to cite - WP:YOUTUBE has the full details (and general advice about identifying reliable sources). Gonzonoir (talk) 13:51, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

You might also want to see WP:CITEVIDEO. ~ Elitropia (talk) 13:55, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Auto archiving talk page

I set up archiving, with the intention that it should archive when the number of threads exceeds 35, but the number is 69. I don't believe it has ever auto-archived, the existing archives were done manually. What am I doing wrong?--SPhilbrickT 14:15, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

It looks like there was an archiving performed here by MiszaBotIII. It looks like you have it set to archive any entries older than thirty days, as long as there are at least five threads to archive and thirty left on the page. To adjust this, you would need to edit the "minthreadstoarchive" parameter. Is this what you needed? TNXMan 15:59, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm, maybe it is working as intended. I know several of those threads are older than 30 days. The first was misplaced, so it isn't that old; the next is from 2009, but has no date. The third has a date of October 7, 2009 which really prompted this question. Some subsequent ones are old, but aren't dated. Maybe it is working, but just had trouble dealing with the third entry. I guess I assumed the bot would work with the actual date posted, even if the user failed to sign properly, but maybe that isn't the case. I'll try manually archiving the first few. Thanks.--SPhilbrickT 18:45, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The post from 2009 has differently formatted date than the others. That may be the issue. TNXMan 19:41, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Does anyone know if the national merchants association is a publicly traded company?

Does anyone know if The National Merchants Association is a publicly traded company? I cannot find investor info on their site www.nationalmerchants.org but I read in the LA Times and Burbank Leader that they were a public company. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.205.137.176 (talk) 14:27, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.5 million articles and thought we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:33, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Note also that at the foot of each page on http://www.nationalmerchants.org it says: "National Merchants Association is a Registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank" - David Biddulph (talk) 14:45, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

suggestion

Add information from tv news: CBC advises Target has bought Zellers in Canada and will renovate and change stores to Target in the next couple years. Yay! Zellers are not fun to shop in. Target has a good reputation.96.54.173.145 (talk) 14:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

If you have a reliable source for the information (i.e. something which people can go and check on any time, even 20 years from now) which you can probably find easily, please be bold and edit the relevant article. --ColinFine (talk) 19:24, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Requesting assistance

I've proposed a revision to Occidental_Petroleum#Controversies, located here on my user subspace. The Occidental Petroleum talk page isn't very active, so I'm coming here (again) asking for assistance. Due to a potential COI, I'd really appreciate feedback from the community.

If anyone would like to help by providing feedback, please leave here it on the proposal talk page! (My own comments are there as well.) Thanks, --CBuiltother (talk) 15:20, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Sign on problem

When I try to sign on with my user name and password I get a page which says I'm signed on with my correct user name. However, when I go to another page it doesn't recognize that I'm signed on. Even after I refresh the page. I've rebooted and signed in again and the same thing happens. Is this something new? Or does it just apply to me? Any suggestions? --85.2.122.64 (talk) 16:22, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

When you say you go to another page, are you sure that it's not gone from the open (http://en.wikipedia.org) to the secure Wikipedia (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Main_Page)? Some editors include links on an open page which point to a secure page, and thus cause confusion. - David Biddulph (talk) 16:34, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Is your browser set to save session cookies? Even if you don't check the "Remember Me" box, I believe the site still uses a session cookie to maintain your state throughout. Cookie managers and ad-blockers can also affect this. Arakunem^Talk 16:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Check the date on your PC, this can happen if you have set the wrong date. Almogo (talk) 16:39, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the above. I cleared the cache and deleted all cookies and I can now sign on. I don't know which action cleared the problem, but both are easy to do. --85.2.122.64 (talk) 17:03, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

What determines a pages content?

I have another question:

The term "slider" is commonly used in both cricket and baseball. Yet if you search for slider in wikipedia it takes you to the baseball page rather than the cricket page which is at slider_(cricket) Are there a set of guidelines that determine which usage takes precedent?

Thanks again Py0alb (talk) 16:37, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, at WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. For what it's worth, I've never met the term "slider" in cricket, despite listening to Test Match Special many times over the years. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:21, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The hatnote at the top of slider directs you to the disambiguation page (Slider (disambiguation)) where the cricket usage is listed. So you will get there in the end. There may be a case for redirecting slider to the disambiguation page and listing the baseball article there, but I have to say as a long-time cricket fan and recent baseball fan, that I think the baseball usage is probably more common than the cricket usage. – ukexpat (talk) 17:26, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Yes, the baseball term has been in use since the 70s, whereas the cricketing term was borrowed from baseball within the past 10 years. I agree that the pages should probably remain precisely as they are Py0alb (talk) 18:23, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The term 'Slider' is used for various Pond sliders, this is perhaps the worlds fourth most common pet. In 2005 the US exported 13Million Sliders a year to Hong Kong alone. Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 21:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I may have eaten 13 million sliders in college... Arakunem^Talk 15:42, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Remove the picture of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (SA) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba and all the wikipedia pages

I strongly condemn and request wikipedia team to remove the picture of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (SA). This is a grave insult of the entire muslim community accross the globe. You should respect the freedom of expression but at the same time you should also respect the faith of a community of more than 1 billion people. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bilal81bilal (talk • contribs) 17:05, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

This has been requested and discussed many times. Please read Wikipedia:WikiProject Islam/Images of Muhammad and Wikipedia is not censored. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:15, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Anybody who does not want to see these or any other images can block them. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_set_your_browser_to_not_see_images. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 17:27, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Need help formatting "Article Title [over] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" at top of page of new article

I have a new article completed and I have the title in large bold print at the top, but when I preview it I don't get the Article Title [over] "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" at the top of the page, and the box with the sections summary appears before the article. How can I fix this?

Thanks.

Rittenhoused (talk) 18:04, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

That will be added automatically when you save the article. You don't need to include that in the text you write. Arakunem^Talk 18:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Also, the Table of Contents, by default will place itself before the first header in the article, as the assumption is that the lead will not have a separate header. So if you remove the manually added title (since its an automatic add), then the TOC will place itself in the proper place. Arakunem^Talk 18:12, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Query re character in NCIS

I am a big fan of NCIS and watch it on many different chanels on SKY therefore the continuity is probably suspect.it apperared to me a few months ago that Sean Murray`s character-Agent McGee apperad to be ill or had lost a lot of weight-very thin faced and barely recognisable to my mind-does anyone know if he has been ill or just decided to lose weight?In episodes we are currently watching he seems ok again.YNOT? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.132.55 (talk) 18:12, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

• Hi! This page is just for help with using Wikipedia. Your question would be better asked at the Entertainment Reference Desk, where more specific questions like these are handled. Thanks! Arakunem^Talk 18:15, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

There is a Wikia wiki related to NCIS: NCIS, an external wiki. – ukexpat (talk) 19:00, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Finding what you need

Wikipedia is absolutely horrible. When I say that, I don't mean that the encyclopedic content's quality is terrible, just finding the right infobox, the right template, the right special page, the right policy, the right article--I was trying to find the article on the major T.D. Bank on the east coast recently--and couldn't figure out which one was which. Wikicode is confusing, unless you have been on-wiki for a month or two or more (I have been on here for six months, and yet I can't figure out how to make a picture as a thumbnail, unless I go to another article or commons. There are too many policies to follow--one about this, another conflicting policy about that, an un-understandable policy about something--even if it is a key policy. Even the template help page isn't too helpful. Any way for a WYSIWYG editor? (I saw the discussion on Jimbo's talk page, but it isn't loading.) But wait. I still like wikicode--they should have another thing like WikiEd. --Perseus, Son of Zeus 19:04, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is indeed a complex place. Fortunately, that's the reason the Help Desk is here! I've heard proposals for a WYSIWYG editor several times, but even that sort of editor would not be able to help you parse policies and guidelines. TNXMan 19:13, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

One of the Five Pillars of Wikipedia is [[WP:IAR|Ignore all rules, which states: "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it." -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 21:26, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Just for kicks, I went to Wikipedia main page, typed T.D. Bank into the search box--your exact request. Match #1 was TD Bank and #2 was TD Bank, N.A.. That second is presumably the one you want, but the problem is that Wikipedia has no way of knowing that (and there actually are other same/similar-named banks in the world apparently). Because I don't know which one I want, I picked match #1, which presents me with an index of all the TD banks, each listed with enough information to know where it is and/or what type of banking institution it is. Match #2 is indeed listed there. I'm curious what sort of system you envision (setting aside how to implement it for now) that would be more efficient or useful here. I tried T. D. Bank (notice space between "T." and "D."), which gave me all sorts of off-topic pages. But still, match #1 was TD, which is a disambiguation page. Searched for "bank" on that page, and the only match was exactly the one you wanted (its Canadian parent corp and its US affiliate). DMacks (talk) 21:16, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Sortable tables with rowspan

I have been working on List of members of the United States Congress killed or wounded in office with some other editors and it has been expanding to a point where it really should be turned into a sortable table now. The only problem is we have rowspan and colspan in the table. I can work around the colspan, but when it comes to rowspan i can not work out a way to get everything to sort in a way that works and makes sense. I have created a sandbox for the article at [User:Found5dollar/[List of members of the United States Congress killed or wounded in office]]. Any help would be appreciated. --Found5dollar (talk) 19:12, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I guess you mean User:Found5dollar/Revision history of List of members of the United States Congress killed or wounded in office. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Ah yes. sorry.--Found5dollar (talk) 23:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

i'll take this as a no...--Found5dollar (talk) 00:22, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Test help

Howdy, Does wikipedia have any resources for practicing analogies, esp. for the Miller analogies Test? Thanks Cleveland88 (talk) 19:31, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were 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 for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right 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. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The article Miller Analogies Test might have useful references or external links. Roger (talk) 20:48, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I NEED TO RESTOTE ,Y FAVORITES

THEY ARE ALL GONE MY E-MAIL IS <blanked> PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO THANK YOU PAUL G. CHASE, JR. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.19.14.26 (talk) 19:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried the Computing 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. TNXMan 19:51, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Image layout bug?

In the article Timeline of ornithology there are a number of images. I did some copy edits recently and one of the images failed to render, appearing instead as [[Image:...]] I tweaked and twiddled with it until it did render in preview but when I saved it, another image failed to render! Is the a bug here that I need to work around? Thanks in advance. --Chuunen Baka (talk • contribs) 19:52, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

They are all showing up for me. Maybe it was a temporary glitch with the image server? – ukexpat (talk) 19:59, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

A Ctrl+F browser search of [1] showed me two [[Image: in the rendered page. The first was mising the ending ]]. I added it and fixed a couple of other link errors in [2] and everything now renders for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:31, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Image description only partially visible

I just added three images to the article New Horizons#Jupiter gravity assist. I added an image description to each image that is to be displayed in the article underneath each picture. However, somehow, only part of each decription is readable in the article. The rest runs out of the textbox below the image. How can I fix that, such that always the whole description is visible? Thanks in advance.Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 23:14, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I just added the figure 3 after the image directions that read "lines=". Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 23:21, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Please Fix

When showing the template group "Links to related articles" in President_of_Germany#External_links, an especially thicker gray line separates the "Heads of state and government of Europe" template and the "{{Orders of succession by country}}" template. All the other templates have the thickness of one line separating them. This needs to be fixed but I don't know how.Bernolákovčina (talk) 23:42, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I have fixed it by moving a </div> in [3]. By the way, if you really think such a detail "needs to be fixed" then be careful Wikipedia doesn't drive you mad ;-) PrimeHunter (talk) 04:02, 14 January 2011 (UTC)