Help desk
< April 16	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 18 >

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.

April 17

Wikipedia
	Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Name change.

Hello friends! I joined this site almost a year ago, but never was actually active. By any chance could I change my name? From now on, I'd like to be a part of the wiki and help out. :) [[User:Fennekin&Eevee]] (talk) 00:38, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Fennekin&Eevee. See Wikipedia:Changing username. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:58, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Import image from other language Wikipedia

I want to use a fair use image at hu:Fájl:Bulányi György.jpg on György Bulányi. Do I need to download it and upload it again, or is there another way? Daask (talk) 01:25, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately Daask, you will indeed need to re-upload it locally on en-wp (Special:Upload). Pictures can only be taken from the local website or from Commons, and Commons is only for free pictures. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 11:46, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way to make the caption go to the side of a photo, instead of always underneath it?

I have a small image with a caption larger than the image itself, that forces it to be no longer next to the text it applies to in certain zooms. I am interested to find out whether there is a way of making the caption text go to one side or the other of the image.

Thank you! Chrisdevelop (talk) 01:37, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hey Chrisdevelop. Yes, it is possible to do this using comparatively complicated markup. See below for two examples. The problem is, it's probably going to take a lot of tweaking to get it to display exactly like you want it, and you probably need to check it in an couple of browsers and on mobile to make sure it displays right for everyone. Hope this helps more than it confuses. For more information on how all this stuff works, see Help:Table. GMG ^talk 12:49, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@GreenMeansGo:Fabulous, thank you! And the wordwrap seems to be lock solid on all zooms on all devices I've tried it with so far.

This is how I used it:

Derek Williams (R) with Nigel Osborne (C) and Mimi Serbedzija (L) at Echo Arena for Bootleg Beatles and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performing Osborne's arrangements of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

I did have trouble getting the second format to move holus bolus to the left hand side of the screen, and take both the image and the text with it. Any thoughts on that for future reference?

Thanks again, and regards Chrisdevelop (talk) 19:37, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Chrisdevelop. Honestly no. The second is harder to use and so I haven't worked with it very much. The first is just using standard tables, but in a way that makes it look kindof like a custom version of our normal image display. It's much better for customization. Like I said though, make sure to double check all of this, especially on mobile devices. You've got a lot of pretty custom designed image layout in that draft, and mobile may display it completely different than PC does. GMG ^talk 19:43, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Amro Elgeziry

This Athlets name is spelled wrong on most publications and internet sources. He is now a USA Modern Pentathlete and is living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TigermodpenEvans (talk • contribs) 03:18, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Courtesy link to our article Amro El Geziry. As you'll see, this athlete's name is spelled three different ways (El Geziry, El-Geziry and Elgeziry) in the sources used as references for the article. The article's title uses the version published by Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne, who would seem as authoritative an entity for this as one could imagine, other than the athlete himself.

The problem is that there is no single "official" way to transliterate Arabic script into English script, as detailed in Romanization of Arabic. Consequently, different publications (such as newspapers and magazines) will likely follow their own preferred methods (i.e. as laid down in their own Style guide), and none of these are "wrong" as such: even a person's official documents may differ one from the other, sometimes not as that person themself would prefer.

Can you point us to a Reliable Source in which Mr El Geziri himself states how he wishes his name to be spelled in English? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.218.14.51 (talk) 13:30, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Danish translation

Hello, I'm working on an article about the song "U Don't Know Me", and I'm desperately needing help to translate this portion of a Danish review:

Og så er der de to nye tracks. ‘Oh My Gosh’, et exceptionelt housenummer, der vækker minder om de store hits fra Remedy og ‘U Don’t Know Me’. Det holder ikke helt samme klasse, men det er svært at begå sig blandt kvalivarer af ypperste kvalitet.

The full review is here. Please help! Beyoncetan 2 (talk) 04:01, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Beyoncetan 2 I'm not danish, but:

"And then there are 2 new tracks. ‘Oh My Gosh’, an exceptional housenumber, that awakes memories about the great hits from Remedy and ‘U Don’t Know Me’. It's not quite the same class, but it is..." Can't make sense of the rest, but fairly sure it's praise. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:55, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm Danish and would say:

And then there are the two new tracks. ‘Oh My Gosh’, an exceptional house number, that awakes memories of the great hits from Remedy and ‘U Don’t Know Me’. It is not quite the same class, but it is difficult to assert oneself among quality goods of the highest quality.

PrimeHunter (talk) 10:02, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both @Gråbergs Gråa Sång: and @PrimeHunter: so much!! Beyoncetan 2 (talk) 10:24, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

To clarify a little: The whole review is written with some unusual terms to sound cool. My English is insufficient to convey the writing properly. The quote praises the two new tracks but says they aren't nearly as good as the great hits from Remedy and ‘U Don’t Know Me’ which the writer praises even more. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:06, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting a Page

Hi, A page has been created with my name without my consent. I wish to delete the page. Please clarify the procedure for the same.

The permanent link to my page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prachee_Prakash_Javadekar

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:204:9004:CA66:3CD7:5F94:9507:7C9D (talk) 08:03, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have nominated the article for deletion. Maproom (talk) 08:41, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Your best course of action is now probably just to wait. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:49, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Article deleted

Good morning,

I've posted an article [Lomepal (English version)] but it has been deleted straightaway. I guess I posted it in the wrong place but I abolutely need to get this article back (as I created it here on wikipedia and I don't have any trace of it anywhere, not in my sandbox nor in my drafts) because I have to give it back for school.

How can I get my article back?

Thank you in advance,

Emeline NHL — Preceding unsigned comment added by Emeline NHL (talk • contribs) 10:03, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Emeline NHL: I see that you created User:Emeline_NHL/sandbox after asking that question.

Your article was deleted because you created it on the French Wikipedia. You should therefore request its content to be restored or sent by email on fr-wp, NOT on en-wp (here). See fr:Aide:Suppression_de_page#Obtenir_une_copie_de_la_page. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 11:30, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is a "valid source"

I am in the process of getting a book published. My publisher Balboa Press, division of HayHouse, has stated that I can't use Wikipedia is a "valid source." Stating the following:

Copyrighted Text from Wikipedia
Wikipedia will not be acknowledged as a valid source by Balboa Press because anyone can make an account and modify the information found in the site without authenticated sources. To resolve this issue, you can paraphrase the texts you got from Wikipedia.

Question #1: What is a "Valid Source?"
Question #2: Why isn't Wikipedia one of those?
Question #3: Will I get into any copyright problem if I do quote from Wikipedia?
Question #4: How is the Integrity of the information in Wikipedia maintained?
Question #5: Does my publisher have a point, is the information in Wikipedia Untrustworthy therefore unquotable and unusable?

Mike Faff Mmfaff (talk) 10:54, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Mmfaff: Hello, obviously we cannot comment on what your publisher might consider to be 'valid source'. On Wikipedia we woould use the term 'reliable source' and you can find out more about how that applies at WP:RS. The reasons why Wikipedia is not considered reliable are explained at WP:UGC. You can use content from Wikipedia, it is freely licensed, but you must attribute it appropriately. Wikipedia content is maintained by the use of reliable sources and the vigilance of the community. Yes they have a point, editors of Wiki articles cannot use Wikipedia as a reference. Cheers. Eagleash (talk) 11:04, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) You will have to ask your publishers what they consider a "valid source" for their purposes. For the articles that I look at, I find that Wikipedia is about 99% accurate (your mileage may differ). All wikipedia articles should contain references to WP:Reliable sources so that readers can check the accuracy of the article. Text in Wikipedia is released under a licence that allows reuse. See WP:Copyrights for details. Integrity of information is maintained by ordinary editors checking against published sources. Occasionally incorrect information or deliberate vandalism doesn't get noticed for some time, so it is up to you to check against the references provided. I think your publisher has a valid point. If you write a book, then you have an obligation to check the facts, and not to rely on volunteer editors here to do your checking for you. I think paraphrasing is a good policy if your book claims originality. If you do find some errors in Wikipedia, we will be very grateful if you point them out, or even correct them yourself. Best wishes for your publication. Dbfirs 11:13, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Mmfaff.

1:In context, a source Balboa Press thinks is good enough for their purposes.
2:See "Disclaimers" at the bottom of this page. More at Reliability of Wikipedia.
3:...depends. Probably not legal ones (but don't take my word for it), but many people, like publishers, object if you just copypaste stuff and claim it as your own work.
4:See 2. More at Wikipedia:Introduction.
5:For many purposes, absolutely. More at Wikipedia:Press coverage 2018. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:13, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

On (3): Wikipedia is under a "free" Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA. While you need not pay royalties or request agreement to copy-paste or closely paraphrase it, you still need to give appropriate attribution (the "BY" part), and any derivative material you distribute must be under a similar free license (the "SA" part). Failure to do either would technically be a copyright violation, although one unlikely to lead to prosecution. Whether it is plagiarism is another matter entirely; whether you pull something off a respected author's masterpiece or off the depths of internet forums, and whether your respect any copyright doesn't matter for that; what matters is whether you correctly cite the original source or try to imply it was your own thoughts and writing.

If you are using Wikipedia as a source of information (rather than as text to copy), you can substitute citing Wikipedia by citing the sources Wikipedia uses in its articles. That is the common trick for classrooms, and actually encouraged by quite a few professors. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 11:41, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Mmfaff: Wikipedia has an article at Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia which explains among other things the problems with citing Wikipedia.

In general I'd agree with your publisher: referencing Wikipedia is pretty much always a bad idea. Wikipedia is a good general reference for looking up information; but it can be edited by anyone, even anonymously, and does not always have enough editor attention, especially on more obscure articles, to ensure reliability. See, for example, the Jar'Edo_Wens_hoax, which existed on Wikipedia for ten years before being noticed. I've found numerous other examples of either deliberate or accidental incorrect information in Wikipedia, which sometimes has been online for months or years before being picked up.

Any good Wikipedia article should have references to reliable sources for every significant fact in it - if it doesn't, it's a bad article and definitely shouldn't be cited. If it does, then use it as a pointer to those sources instead; check the books out of a library or view articles online, and cite those books or articles in your article, rather than Wikipedia itself.

Quoting from Wikipedia is a bit of a different matter - it may be separately notable and interesting how Wikipedia describes a topic (for example, "mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change" was coined on Wikipedia and has since been used as the title of a published maths textbook); so you could include quotes if you thought they were relevant - although most publishers would still probably prefer you to quote published books, for the same reasons as above. If you do quote Wikipedia, the rules are much the same as for quoting any work - make sure it is properly credited, don't pass it off as your own work. TSP (talk) 11:46, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As others have said above, Wikipedia agrees with the publisher that you should not cite Wikipedia. Instead, use a Wikipedia article to get a good overview, and then go read the sources cited by Wikipedia and cite those sources in your book. As a payback to Wikipedia, please consider editing the Wikipedia article to reflect any discrepancies you find during your research. Now, the actual reason the publisher does not want you to copy/paste from Wikipedia is different from this. They don't want to bother with the required attribution that our copyright license requires, even when you have carefully validated all of the information. That's why they recommend that you paraphrase. -Arch dude (talk) 15:16, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps, also your publisher is just ethical, don't charge someone for something they can get for free on Wikipedia. Alanscottwalker (talk) 15:38, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

spam-like data-URLs in articles

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T192401

Maybe your spam-fighters take a look at this search pattern. Or look at an excellent example Special:Diff/831758546#References of this kind of spam. I have no idea what caused it or why, but it is interesting, that all such spam I have seen is tagged with "Visual edit" --Wurgl (talk) 13:58, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Seems like the sort of thing the Wikipedia:Edit filter is designed to handle. --Jayron 32 14:01, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea what it is (you can copy the line into the address line of the browser and you see the image, but this does not help much). In the german wikipedia it shows up too and there all the edits I have seen, are marked with tag "Visual edit" too. So it smells like a feature of this editor. --Wurgl (talk) 14:07, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Could be something to file a phabricator: report about then; perhaps a bug or something like that of the visual editor? Something inserted into auto-generated references Galobtter (pingó mió) 14:23, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Seems like some sort of safe web scanner by an antivirus tool, that is mucking up the edit surface. I'll file a ticket. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:27, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Seems to be fixed, just a few more days to watch until they release/distribute the change: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T192392 --Wurgl (talk) 20:13, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

ping Kevin9217, for posterity's sake, can you perhaps identify what browser extension you have installed that adds this image ? Maybe we can then also follow up with the extension manufacturer. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:06, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Article title

I have created a wikipedia page sandbox draft, Now the title shows User : username/sandbox, when do I change the Article name and how? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.9.123.121 (talk) 14:34, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You can submit it for AFC review by adding {{subst:submit}} to the top of the draft. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:56, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Help

Please help me. 85.76.99.177 (talk) 16:27, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello anon. There's lots of folks around to help, but I'm afraid you're going to have to give us a better indication of what exactly the problem is. GMG ^talk 16:30, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how to make edits on pages. 85.76.99.177 (talk) 16:33, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Check out Help:Getting_started. It has lots of helpful links and info, including tutorials and the Wikipedia Adventure to help you learn. RudolfRed (talk) 16:59, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Annoying images

For some reason whenever my cursor crosses over a highlighted word (which is linked to another page), an image pops up. I can’t seem to make it stop. It is annoying me. Can anyone help me make it stop? I want to go back to the way it was before — no large images with a brief summary of the link. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:98A:200:CE30:4FE:8D08:37AA:24F1 (talk) 21:09, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Registered users can disable it at "Page previews" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:12, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Can you provide me with specific directions of what to click on? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:98A:200:CE30:4FE:8D08:37AA:24F1 (talk) 22:42, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You have to create an account and be logged in. It's free and easy to create an account at Special:Userlogin/signup. Then click Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering, click "Disable" at "Page previews" (if "Enable" is selected now), and click "Save" at the bottom. Registered users have many other settings and benefits. See Wikipedia:Why create an account? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:58, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have an account already. When I am logged in the problem goes away. But when I'm logged out the problem is still visible. Is there any way for me to fix the problem for when I am logged out (and simply browsing around)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:98A:200:CE30:4FE:8D08:37AA:24F1 (talk) 23:15, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Get one of the pictures to pop up. There should be a gear in the bottom right-hand corner. Click it. A menu titled "Page preview" will come up. Click "Disable" and then click the blue "Save" button in the top right-hand corner of the menu (not the X). Ian.thomson (talk) 23:20, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both for helping me out. Both of you offered me helpful advice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:98A:200:CE30:4FE:8D08:37AA:24F1 (talk) 23:28, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]