Wikipedia talk:Reference desk

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RefDesk help icon displays in bad position

{{RefDesk help icon}} displays on top of the notifications icon for me in mobile: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Mathematics. It was reported at Wikipedia:Help desk#Display problems with File:Screenshot of notifications fail.png. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:07, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

You could maybe reverse-engineer it and create another one which sits in a better place? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:40, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Now archived to Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018_June_29#Display problems DMacks (talk) 19:12, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

I hacked on it a bit. It's now (for me, anyway) in the same horizontal region as the "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia < Wikipedia:Reference desk" subtitle rather than just below it, which also closed up the large whitespace before the actual helpdesk header boxes. I checked it on desktop and mobile, both with and without protection. WP now has three (so far that I have found) different templates that implement this same type of top-of-page help-icon link, and all three are now implemented differently. Will move to VPT to get some consensus later today. DMacks (talk) 19:43, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

...Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Position of help links. DMacks (talk) 06:14, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Header

"We are not a substitute for actually doing any original research required, or as a free source of ideas."

What does this mean? I'm guessing the first part means "we'll help you find references, but you have to use them yourself"; is that correct? And I'm not clear to what "free source of ideas" refers, since we do freely give out ideas if you ask for references on a certain subject. Nyttend (talk) 01:35, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Who created that sentence, and when? It sounds like a sentence designed by a committee. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:03, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Added in this string of edits, in case you're wondering. Nyttend (talk) 04:10, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Possibly prompted by this question-thread (particularly the hatted part), and see also this user talk page mini-exchange.

Pinging ShakespeareFan00 who might have more to add. ---Sluzzelin talk 09:02, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

There was a concern expressed in the hatted part, as I understood it that the reference desk was intended to find 'existing' reference or research material, not necessarily generate new material. There are other sites that are better suited to 'ghost-writing' or academic "synthesis". It's the difference between answering a question on say economic trends in the US , by linking US Treasury reports and projections, and writing entire an entire essay saying "My view is... "

That said, in some refdesk questions, there have been helpful academic asides that have resulted. A question from way back about 'determining' the temperature of boiling water in a repeatable way, lead to some links and disscussion on matters I hadn't been aware of previously concerning calibration standards for something as simple as Water ;) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 09:37, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the input :-) ShakespeareFan00, what do you mean by "a free source of ideas"? I'm thinking of redoing the first part; please revert me if you don't think it helpful. Nyttend (talk) 01:14, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

The reference desk isn't supposed to be a substitute for actually thinking ;) There's a reason researchers in some fields get paid a lot for not doing very much. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 12:00, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

I had assumed it was supposed to give an explicit reason to hat open-ended "give me some ideas" questions.

You know the ones, the ones that go "I'm writing a time travel story. What are interesting things to do in the 1800s?" or "I want to start an online business. What are some ways to make money online?".

Such questions used to be common. ApLundell (talk) 18:06, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Chemistry text book questions

I am currently doing a review of my entire BS (chem) undergrad curriculum, rereading the text books from the 4 main branches (organic, inorganic, physical and analytical) to get myself ready for grad school. I'm running into a lot of questions where there are either incomplete or ambiguous explanations in the texts or suspected errors. I've posted a few of them on the ref desk here and basically always get satisfactory and helpful answers that help me to progress in my review (examples are this org chem one, this inorg chem one, this one, and this phys chem one. But I've been holding back a bit because I'm a bit concerned about annoying the answerers with a flood of similarly themed questions or violating rules about homework, etc. I'm not enrolled in any educational institution right now. Does anyone take any issue with me posting these types of questions here? 202.155.85.18 (talk) 01:03, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

• Do not worry about it.

The "rule" about homework question is because homework questions are supposed to make you think. Imagine the chemistry question is "draw the Lewis structure of N2H2". A bad RefDesk question is "what is the Lewis structure of N2H2?" - even if it gets answered, you do not learn a lot by copy-pasting questions and answers around. A good RefDesk question is "my homework asks to draw the Lewis structure of N2H2, but how do I handle the possibility for cis-trans isomerism?". Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 07:31, 7 September 2018 (UTC)

Vote X?

This bears all the hallmarks of Vote X, but the IP address is from Romania, whereas most Vote X IPs are from the London area. Any thoughts? --Viennese Waltz 07:24, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Probably not Vote X because that IPs edits were interlaced with edits from Vote X. That is, Vote X would have had to have been swapping IP addresses back and forth over the past hour or two. Seems unlikely. Also, after Vote X's latest IP address was blocked, perfect to form she got a new IP address to complain about it, and the Romanian was also editing consistently from that IP address over that time period. It is probably not VXFC. --Jayron32 15:11, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2018

Please post the following to the section "Number of roads passing through a single point":

There is a place in London called "Seven Dials" which has seven roads radiating from it. 2A00:23C0:7F00:C401:E179:D971:1694:CF9C (talk) 15:05, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Since you are the person from whom the desk was protected, I doubt your request will be granted. --Viennese Waltz 15:29, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

If you really cared one iota about Wikipedia, you would appeal to have your ban overturned instead of continually flouting the rules. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:24, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2018

Could someone please add the following in an appropriate juncture under the query Number of roads passing through a single point?

I can contribute an example of 7 – the well-known Seven Dials junction in London. There is another of the same name in Brighton. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.253 (talk) 16:32, 11 September 2018 (UTC) 2.122.60.253 (talk) 16:32, 11 September 2018 (UTC)