Jump to content

Wikipedia:Help desk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Kukkie (talk | contribs) at 14:37, 14 April 2015 (→‎Vandalism). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

    ↑ To top of page
    Shortcuts
    Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)
    Ask a question

    April 11

    Stray whitespace at top of page

    Today I advanced three pages from Stub to Start by greatly expanding the lead sections: 1952 NBA Finals, 1953 NBA Finals, 1954 NBA Finals. Both before and after my work, the 1953 page displays (via my Firefox browser) about six blank lines at the top, in contrast to both the 1952 and 1954 pages which display without leading whitespace. I don't see the difference and need another pair of eyes. --P64 (talk) 00:18, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Something to do with |radio_announcers=. -- Gadget850 talk 00:40, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    One article had the network list in announcers instead of network. Have fixed it - but would have to ask one of the infobox maintainers, why the display was corrupted to begin with. GermanJoe (talk) 00:50, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Non-Latin characters in article name

    Is it OK for an article in English Wikipedia to have a name in non-Latin characters (e. g., "三河")? --Djadjko (talk) 00:45, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    See Wikipedia:Article titles: "On the English Wikipedia, article titles are written using the English language". AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:49, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    However, we can (and probably should) create redirects for the non-English titles, if they are in the native language. --Jayron32 01:57, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Disambiguation pages are different. Here, numerous locations are referred to by the same two Chinese characters, so it makes sense to have a disambiguation page for those locations. Making it part of Three Rivers wouldn't help as much, because the characters are irrelevant to most places called "Three Rivers". Nyttend (talk) 12:10, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Off-wiki statements

    Suppose you had a discussion with an editor through email. Are you allowed to reveal those statements on-wiki? As long as they can be evidenced and they are not personal in any shape or form. OccultZone (Talk • Contributions • Log) 01:33, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    • See WP:EMAILPOST. As a first principal, no, you should respect the privacy of the off-wiki communication unless given permission. But there is a fair amount of wiggle room there, to either solve the problem, or get yourself in a lot of trouble. Monty845 01:42, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @Monty845: And what when that person had also revealed your off-wiki statements without permission? OccultZone (Talk • Contributions • Log) 11:27, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    I think that the answer would be: Doesn't rule out that you should respect the privacy. Am I correct? OccultZone (Talk • Contributions • Log) 11:37, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Within the past few days, I've suddenly had a link to my sandbox (currently a redlink since I've set up my sandboxes at a non-standard title) show up in my personal toolbar at the top of the page. I remember this used to be a gadget (as described on this page), but I never liked the link due to it pointing to the wrong place, so I had the gadget disabled. Now it seems it's enabled automatically? It doesn't show up in my preferences/gadgets screen, so I can't get rid of it. I could probably write a short javascript function to get rid of it, so it's not that big of a deal, but I'm more wondering what changed globally and where was the discussion to make that change. Or am I the only one experiencing this?--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 05:01, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @Dudemanfellabra: It's not just you. There's a long discussion which may help you at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Sandbox link. As a simple solution, I have User:SchreiberBike/sandbox as a redirect to my usual place where I keep notes etc., so it isn't a distracting red link for me.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  05:15, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Table codes

    I need to learn a few things. I was trying them out on this table, but couldn't figure out the codes. I need to make the type face much smaller, and i need different colors in the header row and other rows. How to do that simply? Aditya(talk • contribs) 14:37, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Referencing errors on Tutuila

    Reference help requested. I cannot see where I made a reference error. What I do know is that the information I added to the article is accurate. It is unfortunate that a minor technical error can get in the way of the facts. Please help me better understand. Thanks, Lvpapa (talk) 17:17, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    You deleted a chunk of text that included the named reference <ref name=Dragicevich>...</ref>:

    The island is also known popularly as the "Rock".<ref name= Dragicevich>{{cite book|last= Dragicevich|first= Peter|author2=Craig McLachlan |title= Lonely Planet Samoa & Tonga|pages=84–85|accessdate=December 18, 2010|url=http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Uvtoe6kC-BkC&pg=PA82&dq=Fagatogo&hl=en&ei=mdDgTP3kKYmKvgPy_5HFDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Fagatogo&f=false|publisher=Lonely Planet|year= 2009|isbn=978-1-74104-818-6}} </ref>

    And later in the content the reference is used again: <ref name=Dragicevich />. This causes the message Cite error: The named reference Dragicevich was invoked but never defined (see the help page). -- Gadget850 talk 17:49, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Default sort key overriding errors

    A number of pages (List of minor planets: 79001–80000, List of minor planets: 77001–78000, List of minor planets: 78001–79000, and others) have a series of warnings along the lines of Warning: Default sort key "List of minor planets 79101-79200" overrides earlier default sort key "List of minor planets 79001-79100". Is there any way to get rid of these warnings? —Granger (talk · contribs) 17:53, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Never saw that error before. But the list is transcluded from other lists, all of which have their own DEFAULTSORT. Try wrapping the DEFAULTSORT for the transcluded lists in <noinclude>...</noinclude>. -- Gadget850 talk 18:02, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    That does the trick—thanks for the help. —Granger (talk · contribs) 18:09, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    noinclude works. Another possibility is {{DEFAULTSORT:sortkey|noerror}} which will prevent that particular DEFAULTSORT from producing an error if there is an earlier DEFAULTSORT, but it doesn't prevent earlier or later DEFAULTSORT from producing their own errors so you would still need to do something for nearly all DEFAULTSORT. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:46, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    how to get rid of a vandal of my talk page?

    How do I get rid of a vandal of my talk page... without having to confront the vandal myself?

    Hi. I really couldn't find a better place to ask this question, even after looking thru FAQs and searching "vandal".

    Some user have repeatedly vandalized my own user page [1] and [2].

    How do I stop it, without having to interact with the vandal myself? I assume nobody else is patrolling my user page, so unless I flag this myself, nobody else is going to. But I don't want to initiate a conversation - this is what he wants based on his his edit comments, so I'm not going to do anything else than reverting his changes.

    Specifically, I do not want to talk to this guy, not on my talk page, nor on his, nor anywhere else. I do not want to warn him: putting up a warning template will probably only encourage him. I don't want to give him any indication I am responding to him.

    Please do not respond on my talk page. Please do not use talkbacks or anything else that might clue the vandal in on this discussion.

    I am looking for a reply along the lines of "report the vandalism at xyz, they will deal with it; unless he stops he's going to get blocked, all without any further intervention from you"

    What options do I have? I feel almost stalked here...

    Again, apologies if this is asked at the wrong place.

    CapnZapp (talk) 18:44, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Maybe you know something of his previous history. But his edit history with that user name, just those two edits to your user page, suggests to me cluelessness rather than vandalism. Maproom (talk) 21:04, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    First, I agree with Maproom that the user is probably clueless rather than a vandal. He posted to your talk page, which in general is available for posting by other editors. Second, if you want to report vandalism, it is normally reported at , WP:AIV, administrator intervention against vandalism. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:03, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Wikipedia and penalties for off wiki cyber bullying.

    This page is only for questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia.
    The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

    I was wondering if there's a history of cyber bullying, particularly doxing unpopular or popular editors by other Wikipedia editors; and how this would be dealt with if it was all done off wiki. Does Arbcom ever work with law enforcement and does being a doxer on other sites make one a cyber criminal on wikipedia? I'd think educators would care if their students were fighting off campus. Bullets and Bracelets (talk) 19:34, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    How do I upload an updated image?

    The photo in the Heather Bresch article is dark and muddy. I've Photoshopped it to make it more pleasing to the eye, but I can't figure out how to upload my new file. It should certainly be in the same place as the old one, so people can compare them and see who uploaded what. Who can help me? Lou Sander (talk) 23:50, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    I don't work in this area so others may know more about practices but do you have a link saying "Upload a new version of this file" at commons:File:Heather Bresch.jpg? Note that this process will make it impossible to display the old version on other pages although it will still be visible on the file page in the "File history" section, like commons:File:George bernard shaw.jpg#filehistory where clicking a version shows the full resolution. It appears from current examples at commons:Commons:Graphic Lab/Photography workshop that it is also common to upload it with a new name like "(retouched)" added to the old name, and link the file pages to eachother with templates. Both versions can be displayed anywhere with that method, but if you want the new version to be displayed then you have to change the file name in pages using the old version. See also commons:Commons:Picture retouching. Commons has a help desk at commons:Commons:Help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:30, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    April 12

    chicago blackhawks current roster

    Hello,

    I am seeing via the final regular season blackhawks game that number 81, Marian Hossa, is wearing an "A" on his jersey and it doesn't say it on the blackhawks page. The last time the roster was updated was 3/28/15. I hope you can fix that.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Toews1994 (talk • contribs)

    Who is this "you" that you speak of. You are Wikipedia. If you see a mistake and don't fix it, it is only your fault and your fault alone that it is still wrong, and you have no one to blame, and no one to ask for help, except yourself. We're all waiting. --Jayron32 02:21, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Anonymous edits count?

    As can be simply seen from the edit history of Conversion therapy, an editor warred with me. Then an anonymous user came and changed the version; does it even count? as far as I know from the Hebrew wiki, anonymous edits don't effect edit conflicts and there are many reasons for that. What is your stance? Ben-Natan (talk) 04:32, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Ben-Natan does not provide a full account of what happened at Conversion therapy. He has attempted repeatedly to remove material about President Obama's support for banning conversion therapy for minors, despite two users (an IP address and myself) agreeing that the material has to be included in some form. He has accused the IP address of being a sockpuppet of mine, falsely and without evidence. FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 04:40, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    I engourage other users to go and see if your acquisitions are true; btw I didn't make such accusation but presented a question - "Sign up if you want to influence - Maybe it's FKC from another PC?" you didn't read well... Ben-Natan (talk) 05:04, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    See boomerang. Maproom (talk) 07:13, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    User:Ben-Natan, yes you reverting an IP is counted as edit warring if done enough times. So if I make an edit and you revert it, followed by someone else restoring my edit and you then reverting them. Then finally an IP restores my edit and you revert them, then yes you are edit warring and you have now reverted 3 times. It does not matter what other Wikipedia's do as each one has their own rules. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 05:26, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Referencing errors on NTV (India)

    Reference help requested.

    The article NTV (India) seems to have a problem with references. I don't know what is wrong with it. can you fix that problem??

    I referenced it as I would normally. There is no problem with me Ok. See my edit


    Thanks, Supdiop (talk) 11:50, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Hello @Supdiop:, unfortunately I had to remove the added section for now. Please don't copy material from copyrighted sources into Wikipedia (see WP:Copyrights). Information needs to be phrased in your own words or put into short attributed quotations. Adding "Controversies" sections is difficult in general: it's probably best to look for additional sources about this incident to provide a balanced and neutral summary (see WP:NPOV). Regarding your reference question, Help:referencing for beginners contains a summary about this topic. You can also click on the "help" link in such error messages to show some basic information about the problem and possible solutions (in your edit 2 previous "ref" tags had no content and no closing "/ref" tag).GermanJoe (talk) 12:45, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Tag filter on log page

    I've never figured out the point of having the tag filter at Special:Log — why would you use it there? And how do you use it? I told it to filter for HHVM, the first entry at Special:Tags, and it gave me a page I've never seen before:

    A database query error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software.

    • Function: IndexPager::buildQueryInfo (LogPager)
    • Error: 2013 Lost connection to MySQL server during query (10.64.32.25)

    So I still don't know what it's supposed to do or to look like. Nyttend (talk) 12:16, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    HHVM may be a poor exsample. The HHVM filter was slow for me but eventually gave a page where all entries were from 10 December 2014 but did not say "HHVM". I guess the tag stopped being applied that day and is still searchable but not displayed, at least not on log actions (I can see it in some edits before 10 December). mw:HHVM/About says "The tags were hidden from the default view on November 10." I'm not sure how to interpret that. It was added on 10 November so it's not meant to say 10 December. Try "mobile edit" instead. That gives meaningful results (but only uploads) for me. Most of the tags will never be applied to a log action. "self-renaming and bad user talk moves" is one that does. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:43, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    But why would I want to search tags by log entry anyway? Isn't it easier just to go to Special:Tags, pick the tag you want, and look through its items? After all, the tag filter requires that you specify a tag; you can't have it present you with all tags at once, or even two or three. Nyttend (talk) 14:32, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    The tag filter option is in many places like logs, page histories, user contributions, recent changes, new pages. I see no good reason to remove it from one place just because it may be more useful in the others. Some users may not know where else to find the option or that it even exists. There may be other wikis which apply more tags to logs. The tag filter on logs of course only finds log entries with that tag so other pages don't have the same functionality in some cases. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:01, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Demetriss Tapp and Person County N.C.

    On your notable people in your article for Person County N.C. I think you should include Demetriss Tapp a Country music singer and song writer who resides in Hendersonville Tenn. And is still involved in Country music and television. Please do some research on her and consider adding her to your notable people list. Thank you and have a great day.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.116.163.245 (talk • contribs)

    Lists of people from X should normally only include people who have their own articles as established "notable" persons. It does not appear that Tapp qualifies. In any instance, content would need to be verified by a reliable source. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 19:04, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    If you think this person meets Wikipedia's standards for inclusion (see Wikipedia:Notability (music)), you might submit that information at Wikipedia:Requested articles/music/Performers, bands and songwriters or be bold and write the article yourself. After the artist has an article it would be very appropriate to include them on the "Notable people" section of Hendersonville, Tennessee.  SchreiberBike | ⌨  19:42, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Reference desk protected from non-insiders

    I would have liked to add some thoughts on the mathematical reference desk, but some of he wikipedia insiders decided to make it only editable to insiders.

    What a pity.

    Wikipedia, which anyone can edit ... anyone "worth of" ... .

    Good bye, everyone.

    95.115.149.121 (talk) 18:51, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    It's not "insiders", it's autoconfirmed users, which only means Wikipedia users with a small bit of editing history rather than none at all. And even that is because of recent constant vandalism. Such an action is only taken when there is no other action available, it's not done on a light whim. The page might be restored to be editable by anyone later, after the vandalism has gone away. It's very often I see reactions like these, people see Wikipedia administrators take action against constant vandalism, and immediately think they're making Wikipedia editable by a select few glorified "insiders" only. It's only an act to prevent vandalism, there's no further agenda involved. JIP | Talk 19:35, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Let me clarify a little. The edit protection is temporary, due to a guy using multiple accounts to commit lots of vandalism (example), and hopefully he'll get bored soon and allow us to end the protection. Unless we want to spend hours hitting "undo" every couple of minutes, we have to choose between protection and having no Reference Desk content at all. Nyttend (talk) 01:46, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Maybe you really believe what you are saying, but being accused of being a sock puppet is a cheap accusation which cannot be disproved. Trying to argue against it will be called trolling. I've been accused more than once, and now it is "never again". Cheers! 95.115.181.232 (talk) 13:57, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Your IP address has changed between edits. The ability to maintain an editing history is one of the various advantages of creating an account. The idea that editing from an IP address is a better protection of privacy than editing pseudonymously is a myth; in fact, registered accounts have better privacy than IP addresses, which can be geolocated. Registering an account has other advantages also. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:21, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    To the best of my knowledge, no one has called the OP a sock puppet here. The page is temporarily protected because it has been constantly vandalised. No one has said the OP here is the vandal. This is just a routine measure against vandalism and only temporary. It's not a personal vendetta against the OP, or anonymous users in general. Don't take it personally and claim "Wikipedia is for insiders only! I'm leaving!" just because one page is temporarily protected. JIP | Talk 19:09, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, no. You cn't get an account from a dynamic IP that changes on a daily base.I tried and the account was instantly blocked based on the fact that some real troll had used one of those IPs in the past. So it is a vendetta against anonymous users. 95.115.146.71 (talk) 10:44, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    There's no issue with short term IP address leases for accounts on Wikipedia. Even if you're stuck in an IP address range that has account creation blocked because of persistent vandalism, you can still Wikipedia:Request an account. Rwessel (talk) 12:08, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    I have different experience. Once your accused to be a troll for having a tainted IP, everything you do or say is taken as proof that you really are a troll. Kind of a witch trial. User:999Bedbugs — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.115.146.71 (talk • contribs) 13:08, 14 April 2015‎

    Update table for Australia under the "Joint Issues" article

    Hello, I would like to update the table for Australia under the " Joint Issues" article but I don't know how. Below is a copy of the table with my amendments and additions. Maybe someone canhelp with this. The references are the Australia Post Bulletins auspost.com.au/stamps

    (Year / Postal Administration / Topic / Note / Date of Issue) ADD 1983 /New Zealand /closer Economic Relations Agreement/ Stylized Kangaroo and Kiwi? Feb 2, 1983 ADD 1990 / USSR / Scientific Cooperation in Antarctica / / June 13, 1990 ADD 1994 /Thailand & Laos / Opening of Friendship Bridge between Thailand and Laos / Views of Friendship Bridge/April 8, 1994 AMEND 1999 / Canada / Maritime Links /“Marco Polo” Joint Miniature Sheet / March 19, 1999 AMEND 1999 / Ireland / Maritime Links / “Polly Woodside” Joint Miniature Sheet / March 19, 1999 AMEND 2000 / Greece / Sydney and Athens Olympic Games / Sydney Opera House, Parthenon and Olympic Flame /September 15, 2000 ADD 2009 / Norfolk Island & Cocos (Keeling) Islands & Christmas Island & Australian Antarctic Territory / Species at Risk/ Joint Territories Issue, including Joint Miniature Sheet / August 4, 2009 ADD 2010 / Papua New Guinea / Kokoda Trail / / April 20, 2010 ADD 2011 / Cocos (Keeling) Islands & Christmas Island & Australian Antarctic Territory / World Wide Fund For Nature 50th Anniversary / Joint Territories issue / August 30, 2011 ADD 2013 / Israel / Battle of Beersheba / / May 30, 2013 ADD 2013 / Germany / Ludwig Leichhardt / Explorer / October 10 &15, 2013 ADD 2014 / Norfolk Island / Centenary of Australian Territory / Norfolk Island Pines / July 22, 2014 ADD 2015 / New Zealand / ANZAC Centenary / / April 7, 2015

    I assume this about Postage stamps and postal history of Australia. I have copied it to that article's talk page, where someone may deal with it. Maproom (talk) 21:15, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    It's actually probably for the Joint issue article. Rojomoke (talk) 04:01, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    April 13

    Referencing errors on Centration

    Reference help requested.

    I was trying to input a citation for a textbook entitled invitation to the lifespan, but was told I did it incorrectly. I was hoping for guidance on how to fix the citation.

    Thanks, Epershing (talk) 00:22, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Fixed in these edits. 2 hiccups: You do not need to specify whether its ISBN 10 or 13 (just plug the ISBN number itself into the field), and the Accessdate field did not recognise the exact format you used (it either needs to be ISO Date format - YYYY-MM-DD - or written out in full). As an aside, the accessdate field is only for web-based / electronic sources which can rapidly change ... the publication date field is sufficient for deadtree sources. -- saberwyn 00:36, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Dear Administrator, I need to replace the company logo (Telin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telin) to the updated ones and unfortunately I could't succeeded. How can you help as the company logo that currently used is the red font small orbital as seen in www.telin.co.id.

    I have the hires logo and if you need it please contact me.

    Thank you, Melani — Preceding unsigned comment added by Melani828070 (talk • contribs)

    @Melani828070: I've uploaded the company logo that I found on the home page of the company you referred to and placed that new image in the infobox of the Telin article. Dismas|(talk) 03:51, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Thanks Dismas Ela (talk) 04:30, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Find differences in a diff

    Resolved

    Is there a way to find what actually changed in the paragraphs of an edit such as this? In this case, the paragraphs after the table are not aligned because an empty newline was inserted, which, as Help:Diff#Simplifying_diffs explains, prevents the matches.

    One way I can think of would be copying the whole text of before the edit in the sandbox, then editing that by replacing the whole text with the text after the edit, with the exception of leaving out the change that caused the misalignment, as the added newline in my example. If there are still paragraphs misaligned, search for other causes and repeat as needed. Obviously, this is prohibitively cumbersome for any but the most suspicious cases. — Sebastian 05:01, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    You could try something like text-compare.com. If I'm reading its results correctly, the only change to that para was the inexplicable change of [[Bawang]] to [[]]. (The same IP subsequently corrected that, and we now have a bluelink where a redlink once stood.) ―Mandruss ☎ 05:09, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Hey Sebastian. There is a script that is perfect for this. Just add to Special:Mypage/common.js this text:
    // install [[User:Cacycle/wikEdDiff]] enhanced diff
importScriptURI('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Cacycle/wikEdDiff.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
    Save, clear your cache, and then when you look at a diff you can toggle on an enhanced diff view by clicking on a button that looks like this: , which will appear above the regular diff view. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:18, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Wowie, I already had that installed and didn't know it would be a solution to this problem. Thanks. ―Mandruss ☎ 05:21, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    That works - thanks a lot! — Sebastian 06:03, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @SebastianHelm:, you can select that as a Gadget from your preferences as well btw. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:54, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    The gadget appears to be called wikEdDiff and is fully documented on this user page. ―Mandruss ☎ 09:25, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Referencing errors on Grand Prix Sunbeams 1922

    Reference help requested.

    Hello, I have had an automatic message about a cite error in a new page I have created, but it doesn't tell me what the error is! I am happy to fix if I know what I need to amend. How can I see what the error is though? This is the first page I have created, so please excuse my ignorance if there is an obvious answer to this.

    Thanks, Hannahmarymartin (talk) 05:50, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    It does say "Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).". This is because you forgot the slash in front of the closing tag. I'll change this.
    But there is another problem: There is apparently a garbled headline "==Design". Since we usually don't have a reference right after a headline, I assume this is an error, and I'll delete it. — Sebastian 06:22, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    While I was writing this, Someone else already made the change. — Sebastian 06:25, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Transcluding a Category

    Is there a way to transclude the content of a Category into another page? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 08:55, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    So that it creates a list? Give us an example of what you want to do, it'll make answering a bit easier. - X201 (talk) 09:00, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    I would like to keep an eye on Category:Draft-Class Disability articles by transcluding the list of articles into my user page - or if the other members agree, even display it on the WikiProject page. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:03, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    This {{Category tree all|Draft-Class Disability articles|mode=all}} will produce the following
    To display all pages, subcategories and images click on the "►":
    Draft-Class Disability articles‎ (51 P)
    Is that any use? - X201 (talk) 09:20, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @X201, That's perfect, It's even already collapsed. Thanks Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 13:08, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Corrections and edits constantly deleted

    I manage the rock band Anavae. We inherited a wiki page set up by a former vounteer.

    The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anavae is problematically innaccurate, poorly written and is actually causing professional damage to the band by misleading readers and the BBC as to the band’s status etc.

    I have tried to edit the page on three seperate occasions now and each time when I go back to make sure all is OK my edits have been deleted and the page has reverted to its former innaccurate condition.

    What can I do or who can I get in touch with to remedy this please.

    The BBC are using the Anavae wiki page for their information source and so all the information they broadcast on air and on line about the band is innaccurate!

    Help please

    Dave Wibberley Davewibberley (talk) 14:35, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @Davewibberley:I don't have a lot of time for a lengthy answer but in short see WP:AUTOPROB. Dismas|(talk) 14:47, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    There has been no discussion at all on the talk page, Talk: Anavae. The place for discussion of issues with the article is the talk page. If discussion on the talk page fails (and it hasn't been tried yet), read the dispute resolution policy. Also read the conflict of interest policy because you have a conflict of interest and are discouraged from editing the article (but are encouraged to post to the talk page). Robert McClenon (talk) 15:01, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    And, Davewibberley, it may help you understand what is going wrong if you realise that you did not "inherit" the page, because you do not own it in any way at all. It belongs to Wikipedia, and may be edited by almost anybody in the world as long as they follow Wikipedia's principles. You are one of the few people who are discouraged from editing it, because of your conflict of interest. We are keen that the article be accurate according to reliable published sources, and as Robert McClenon says, you are welcome to post requests and suggestions on the talk page; but if you cannot back them up with published references (and, apart from uncontroversial factual information, the references must be indepedent of you and the band) then they will probably not get acted on. --ColinFine (talk) 17:33, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Renaming of an article

    Hello, I want to rename the article "James Gill (artist)" into "James Gill". The article "James Gill" doesn't exist yet, there is only a link to a rock band which had a member named James Gill. The article "James Gill" exists also in DE and FR. Futher languages (ES, PT, SE, FI) will follow. Could you please help? Norbert Schott (talk) 17:14, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    @Norbert Schott: Huh? James Gill is a disambiguation page for eight people. James Gill (artist) could get the title if he was the primary topic but he doesn't appear to be more searched or significant than all the others put together. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:24, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    James Gill is a disambiguation page, it helps people find other people called James Gill. I can't see that any of them (including the artist) is worthy of being a primary topic. - X201 (talk) 15:27, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you for calling our attention to the current state of that article, which distinctly fails to meet our standards with regard to neutral point of view, promotional language and proper sourcing of articles on living persons. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:40, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    When Norbert Schott wrote "[t]he article 'James Gill' doesn't exist yet", I think he meant that there is no template of that name. He had tried moving the article to "Template:James Gill", and it had been restored. Maproom (talk) 21:19, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    can't find page

    Hi there. I was working on two different articles at once, and not long ago asked the help desk how to do that. The respondent moved one of the pages I was working on to a different page oter than the Sand Box. Now I can't remember/locate where the first page I was working on is. Can you help me with that? Suzcommun (talk) 17:05, 13 April 2015 (UTC) Suzanne[reply]

    Hi @Suzcommun: You can always view a list of your past contributions at Special:Contributions/Suzcommun. It looks like the two pages you've been working on are User:Suzcommun/sandbox and Draft:Daniel Schwab. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:09, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict)There is a draft article you have worked on at Draft:Daniel Schwab and one in your sandbox at User:Suzcommun/sandbox. The only other on you have worked on is D&H Distributing. It is not a draft but an article. -- GB fan 17:10, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]


    April 14

    request edit

    Tom Apple (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

    Hi, I have come across a wiki page on which a contributor has added a slanted comment which I believe was added to make the subject of the page look bad. I am related to the subject of the page, so can't really modify the page myself. What can I do? Thanks, Kukuinut

    @Kukuinut: What is the article's title? ―Mandruss ☎ 00:33, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @Kukuinut: The advice at WP:AUTOPROB applies equally well to a case like yours. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:25, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    The page is 'Tom Apple'. The slanted comment which was added last July was posted by someone using the moniker of a man who has an axe to grind with the subject of the wiki page. I tried several times to post information which corrects the statement inserted by the contributor in July--I was trying to upload the information to PVMoutside's user page using the 'talk' feature, but just couldn't get it to work. Kukuinut

    Questions about guidelines

    I had some questions about if there are certain rules to the guidelines that support certain edits.

    First, is there anything to the guidelines that could argue photo collages for ethnic group articles, such as the 30-man collage in Poles, is beneficial to Wikipedia? Or guidelines that could be used to support the existence of the collages in any way.

    Second, are there any guidelines that support using certain different names for events or places depending on the subject of the article? For example, the fact that World War I/II are called so mostly on American articles, but are called First/Second World War on most European articles. This also goes for more controversial issues. For example, if Israelis and Palestinians call a city by a different name, could the respective preferred name be used for both kinds of articles?

    Third, is there a general guideline for alternate language names of a location? An example would be Thessaloniki and all the alternate names under etymology. What kind of significance must an alternative language name have in order to be on Wikipedia? Is there a guideline that goes over when an alternative language name is not significant enough? --Steverci (talk) 01:39, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    I think that WP:ENGVAR and WP:COMMONNAME will answer not only the last two of your questions but also many that you haven't considered yet. I'm sorry but I don't have an answer for the first. Dismas|(talk) 01:44, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    WP:GALLERY and WP:MONTAGE cover some basic aspects of the first question to get you started, but don't go into finer details. GermanJoe (talk) 01:56, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Lastly, most of these examples have probably been reached through forming a consensus. You could take a look through the archives of the talk pages to find discussions over some of these. CaptRik (talk) 07:29, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    What's the template?

    what is the template for informing article creator in their talk page that their article has been proposed for Speedy deletion? I couldn't find any template for that particular purpose. does anyone know that template? Supdiop (talk) 06:34, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    This is in the first section at WP:CSD. It says to post {{subst:CSD-warn|csd|Page name}} to the creator's talk page as well as any other editors who have made major contributions. That's my quick summary of it.
    That said, if you use Twinkle to tag the article, it will automatically notify the page creator. Dismas|(talk) 07:09, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    @Dismas: I must have missed it while reading Criteria for Speedy deletion. Thank you, that helps me a lot. Supdiop (talk) 07:18, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Emereo Pty ltd and Emily Smith

    Resolved
     – Skr15081997 (talk) 07:30, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Emily Smith has published more than a 1,000 books "XYZ Handbook - Everything You Need to Know About XYZ". These books are copied from Wikipedia and now are being used as RSes. Has the author or published entered into some sort of partnership with WMF? At Googe Books they say that "a portion of the proceeds of each book will be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation to support their mission." Is this true? Are they donating anything to WMF? Further discussion at Amazon.com, Review at Google Books. Thanks, --Skr15081997 (talk) 07:08, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    See WP:REUSE, it's allowed so long as they comply with the licensing correctly. I don't think anyone here would be able to confirm whether they were truly donating money to the WMF but there's no requirement to. I think it could be considered a problem if material that was sourced from Wikipedia was then in turn used as an RS in a controversial area. Not sure how we would handle that,Reliable Source Noticeboard perhaps? CaptRik (talk) 07:25, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Defaultsort clarification

    Hello all,

    I'm looking for a bit of clarity on the use of {{defaultsort}}. I was told recently that defaultsort is only to be used in biographical articles. I have previously used it in articles (of all types) to prevent them from being sorted by the "A" or "The" at the beginning of the title; as an example, The Wind in the Willows is listed in it's various categories under "Wind in the Willows, The".

    I'm somewhat rusty, and don't want to go around adding defaultsorts inappropriately! WP:SORTKEY suggests they can be used in articles other than biographies, but perhaps the guidelines have changed since I became less active. Would anyone be able to help me out?

    Many thanks,

    --Kateshortforbob talk 09:04, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    First I've heard of the "bios only" rule. Where did you see it? As far as I know, it can be used on any article for the reasons you mention. You'll see it being used at the TWitW article that you reference as well as at The Number of the Beast (novel). (the first novel with a "the" at the beginning that I could think of.) Dismas|(talk) 10:19, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Thanks for the reply, Dismas. My edit to add a defaultsort to an article about a band was reverted with the edit summary "defaultsort is only for biographies". It looks like the article itself will be deleted, so I'm not too concerned about that. I had always thought one of the uses of defaultsort was so category pages didn't have dozens of articles listed under "A" or "T" incorrectly, but I didn't want to create more work for others removing my incorrectly added templates. --Kateshortforbob talk 10:39, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Formatting help needed

    List of universities in Bangladesh - here the top most series of images should show up by the side of table, like the two other tables. But, it is not doing so. I can't find the problem. Can someone help? Aditya(talk • contribs) 09:05, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    I see four tables, with images to the right of the tables as follows:
    • Table 1 - Public universities - 12 images
    • Table 2 - Special universities - no images
    • Table 3 - Private universities - 5 images
    • Table 4 - International universities - 1 image
    No other images, except the one in the lead.
    This is in Firefox under Windows, with the browser window maximized. The format does get messed up when I reduce the width of the window by about 10-15%. Seems like poor page layout to me, but fixing it would be non-trivial. I'd suggest raising the issue on the article's talk page. ―Mandruss ☎ 09:58, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Publishing from the sandbox

    I finished my article in my sandbox and now want to publish it. My status is "user". What should I do? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Valik gord (talk • contribs)

    Being addressed at the Teahouse. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:39, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Citation Error Can't Fix

    I Need help fixing a citation with error message "was invoked but never defined" from this page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Dirk_van_Daele

    You invoked a reference: <ref name="Companies In The UK" /> but you have never defined this reference. See WP:REFNAME. -- Gadget850 talk 11:35, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Images from the German Wikipedia

    I would dearly love to use an image from the German Wikipedia (where it is freely available without restriction) in an article I just created in the English Wikipedia. The usual approach, in this case surrounded by two sets of square brackets, does not work, maybe because the image is not in the Commons? What can I do to get this useful image into my article? Many thanks in advance for any help!--Remotelysensed (talk) 12:22, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Yep you will need to move it to Commons before it can be used here. This page details the process and also any restrictions. CaptRik (talk) 14:03, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Personal Autobiography

    Is Wikipedia an appropriate place to write a personal autobiography. I am retired, not looking for work and not interested in using social media. But I'd like an online record of my career and family connections. Bob Orr

    Bug?

    I just clicked on the "gymnasium" link in the first sentence of Joseph-König-Gymnasium, and I got to the disambiguation page Gymnasium, but in the wiki-text of the school's article it says [[Gymnasium (Germany)|gymnasium]]. Why then, am I going to the disambiguation page? I'm using Wikipedia with the Android alpha app version 2015-04-02 right now. -- Metrophil44 (talk) 14:22, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Vandalism

    How do I warn an anonymus vandalistic user? Kukkie (talk) 14:27, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

    Go to WP:WARN, choose a template from the Vandalism section, copy it, paste it onto the IP's user talk page, fill in the article/page name as parameter 1, sign, and save. Later you can look into tools such as WP:TWINKLE and WP:HUGGLE. ―Mandruss ☎ 14:34, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm an experienced user on the Dutch wikipedia (more then 7000 edits). Am I allowed to use it now? Kukkie (talk) 14:37, 14 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&oldid=656443712"