Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2008 May 30

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May 30

Organisations editing their own entries

Hi, I am looking for clarification on Wikipedia's policies on individuals or organisations editing articles on themselves.

Can you please confirm (or point me in the direction) of the rule that says you may edit articles on yourself. If the answer is "yes you may" obviously this does not give one the right to delete correct information simply because it is deemed undesirable. I would like confirmation that you can correct incorrect information about oneself or one's organisation.

Cheers Matt (talk) 00:45, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello. It may depend if the article passes WP:BIO. In most cases that usually happen, articles about yourself is speedy deleted because of it's notability. May I have a link to the article you found this situation in?--RyRy5 (talk) 00:49, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

As an example, if I were the Communications Manager of a Government department, and there was incorrect information included in the article on my organisation, is there any rule against me correcting it or indeed adding to it? Matt (talk) 00:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

No. You are free to edit the article no matter if you are part of it. But if it is about a real person, it's different depending on WP:BIO.--RyRy5 (talk) 00:55, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

There could be conflict of interest concerns.. have a look at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest for general advice. The best way to avoid trouble is to source anything you add to it. Friday (talk) 00:56, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Another good idea is to instead discuss your concerns on the Talk page of the article. In many cases, other editors are watching and will respond to your valid concerns. That way, you have less to worry about in the conflict of interest arena. The specific guideline is within the article Friday has pointed you to, here. Franamax (talk) 02:31, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I cannot see why there should be any impediment to a person or organisation creating or editing articles about themselves. The obvious danger is that such material might not have a NPOV, and could be intended for propaganda purposes. The less obvious, but no less real problem comes about through WP’s regulation that material presented must derive from previous and published research, and not from private research or personal reminiscences, communications and the like. It would be a disciplined writer indeed who could discriminate between objective and previously published material concerning their public and private affairs and their own autobiographical recollection of the same, and favour the former whilst disarding the latter, no matter how compellingly it might loom in their minds. Myles325a (talk) 01:17, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Non free use image in template problem.

The non free use image NSWPF logosmall.jpg is in the template {{New South Wales Police Force}} and was botted as per User:SoxBot VIII/logfile#470000.

This template DOES use the image in ACCORDANCE with the rules relating to the fair use of images relating to an organisation, in this case solely to represent the organisation holding the rights to the image.

How do I stop this image being botted again ?

Peet Ern (talk) 00:54, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

It needs a Fair Use Rational (FUR). A good one for this is {{Logo fur}}. The bot will keep botting it until one is placed, as it is required by law. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 01:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Calvin is partially right. It does need a fair use rationale. However, it is unevitable to stop the bot, because it is enforcing one of the NFCC criteria, that states "fair use only in mainspace". I have removed the image once more, because it is violating the NFCC policy in the template namespace. WP:FUE states, "They should never be used on templates (including stub templates and navigation boxes), portals, user pages, categories, Help, MediaWiki, or the Project namespace." Only under extreme circumstances does the bot skip it, and it needs to be taken up with me so I can program it in. Soxred 93 02:04, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

*bonks self on head* - must remember that rule... Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:43, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I've found being corrected by others on the Help desk to be a marvelous aid to memory. The more glaring my gaffe, the more clearly I recall it. This is actually related to how the brain forms long-term memories. If being corrected feels too traumatic, one possibility might be propranolol. --Teratornis (talk) 07:59, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

marriage

IF YOU MARRY ONCE MORE,YOU TO THE MARRIGE ARE? HOW DO YOU MANIFEST YOUR LOVE? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.109.203.32 (talk) 02:14, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello. The help desk is used for questions related to USING wikipedia. Your question is not related to wikipedia. Please consider asking at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Thank you. --RyRy5 (talk) 02:16, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

My account seemed to be hacked

My account User:NordicFire will not let me log in with the password I set. I made sure I got the random verification code correct. This is the second time my account password has seemed to be changed and now it says I do not have a e-mail address listed so I can recover the password. I did, thats how I got a temp. password to chage it the first time, but now it says I do not. What is going on? Can I get an admin to reset it for me? How can I verify that the account is mine so this can happen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.197.94.171 (talk) 04:34, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Um.. the email and password only the account controller can see and change. And administrator can permanently block the hacked account, if you can prove it really has been taken over. Then you will have to make a new account. On this new one, you may want to secure it by placing a {{Committed identity}} on the userpage. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 04:41, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

It's made no contributions since January so I don't think it's been taken over. If you've lost your password and have no email addres then I'm afraid you won't be able to access your account. Only the account holder has the power to change their details using Special:Preferences. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 07:29, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

DAB John Billingsley

Resolved

There is already an article for John Billingsley an american actor but I've recently been reading about John Billingsley (1747-1811) of Ashwick where he is buried.[1] He was the writer of the 1794 Survey of Somerset, and a leading agriculturalist who was one of the founders of the Bath and West Society, known today as the Royal Bath and West of England Society. There is a whole chapter on him in Atthill, Robin (1971). Old Mendip (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715351710.. I realise a disambiguation page would be needed but which should be the "primary" article & how should the Somerset John Billingsley article be named.— Rod ^talk 08:57, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Probably unnecessary as there are only two. I suggest putting a dablink at the top of the actor's page (when the article exists). Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 09:01, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

OK Thanks I can do that (when I've written the article), but do you think "John Billingsley (Somerset)" is a suitable title as it looks a bit like a place name - would "John Billingsley, agriculturalist" be better?— Rod ^talk 09:31, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Have a read of WP:NCP - that should help. Has John Billingsley got a middle name? In which case John Xavier Billingsley might be a possibility. However, given the choice of agriculturalist or Somerset, I would go with agriculturalist (with it written in parenthesis, not after a comma), as it is a description of what he was, not where he came from - much more informative from an encyclopedic point of view. StephenBuxton (talk) 14:24, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks John Billingsley (agriculturist) now created (will do further work) - dablink added to both articles.— Rod ^talk 15:00, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

And nice job too if I may say so! – ukexpat (talk) 13:59, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Text overlaps infobox

Resolved

 – Purging fixed it...... Dendodge .. Talk^Help 10:24, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

on Skype. I never know how to fix these, could someone else take a look? Thanks...... Dendodge .. Talk^Help 10:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

What exactly is the problem. I've had a look and nothing looks wrong, however it may be my browser. StewieGriffin! • Talk 10:15, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah, purging fixed it...... Dendodge .. Talk^Help 10:24, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

How do i get collapsible tables on my wiki?

My wiki doesn't support them yet. How do i update it? Any help much appreciated. Not sure if this is precisely right place to ask this, if not, where should i go? Thanks 92.21.165.55 (talk) 12:26, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "my wiki", but here's how you do it here on Wikipedia:

This is a collapsible table!
Here's some stuff inside that table that you want to collapse!

The trick is the class="collapsible" part at the top of the table. You might also be interested in the class keyword "collapsed", which defaults the table to its closed state. Also, if you want the table to span across, you might want to also use the "navbox" class too. More information can be found at Help:Tables and Wikipedia:Collapsible tables. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 12:43, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

If you are interested in how to do this on MediaWiki software outside of Wikipedia (which is technically outside the scope of this page), you might be interested in m:Help:Collapsing, which indicates that it was accomplished through JavaScript additions to MediaWiki:Common.js -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 12:55, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Aha, thanks! So I should able to just copy and paste MediaWiki:Common.js to replace my wiki's Common.js? And that'll give collapsible tables? That's what i did but i think i buggered it up. It's not actually 'my' wiki but here it is: [2] (and yeah, apologies for putting this question in the wrong place - feel free to move it if it's more appropriate) 92.21.165.55 (talk) 13:51, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I would stick to copying only the collapsible table part, which is about 30% down in the script. YMMV. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 16:47, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

mw:Project:Support desk is the appropriate place to ask questions about MediaWiki administration for wikis other than Wikipedia. However, the Wikipedia Help desk gives faster response, even to inappropriate questions. Of course, the less appropriate a question is for the Help desk, the less likely that the answers will help. You can find a lot of how-to information for MediaWiki by using the various {{Help desk searches}}, especially the searches on Meta-Wiki and MediaWiki.org. --Teratornis (talk) 17:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Moved articles

When an article is moved by the "move" tab, are all previous edits kept intact and moved to the new article name? Isn't this confusing for someone who never edited say article X, which was moved from article Y, but who's contributions show that they have? Is this in compliance with the GFDL? Plasticbounceman (talk) 14:29, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

When the page is moved, a redirect is formed, so the pages are still linked. Yes, all the history is preserved, and the new name will show up in every page history, including watchlists, contributions and so on. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 14:33, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

See WP:MOVE#Page histories. And speaking of confusing, it can be annoying when two similar but nonidentical articles exist, and some particular word or phrase logically links to one and not the other, people make many such links, and then later a deletionist decides to delete the content from one of the articles and make it a redirect to the other. The result can be that some links to the redirect page no longer make as sense as they did originally. An example was the peaknik article, which coherently described the types of people who promote peak oil theory. We had a bunch of links from articles about people who promote peak oil theory to the peaknik article. After the deletionists gutted the peaknik article, without bothering to fix all the links they rendered less coherent, now all those links go to the peak oil article, and from the context that often makes little sense. When someone clicks on a jargon term, they expect to see a concise definition of the jargon term, not some complex discussion about a related topic from which they would have to laboriously infer the definition of the jargon term they saw initially. (If you ever click a link in Wikipedia and find yourself asking "Huh?" because the resulting page is not what you expected, chances are your link made more sense once upon a time, before someone degraded Wikipedia by moving or merging pages without bothering to check the backlinks.) So, basically, when someone moves an article, or guts an article and turns it into a redirect, they should examine all the backlinks and fix all the links that made more sense in light of the previous article content or title. That in turn requires understanding what the original contributors were thinking when they added the links which the later move or deletion degraded. --Teratornis (talk) 17:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. I found your answers helpful and informative. However, my second question was not addressed. Is altering the location and title of an article a user contributed to in compliance with the GFDL? Plasticbounceman (talk) 14:49, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

conversion from weight of sample taken to ppm

how to convert weight of sample taken to ppm.

for example: 0.1598g of lead nitrate for preparation of 100ppm solution —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jagan bandi (talk • contribs) 15:45, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Algebraist 15:47, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You may find some helpful information in Conversion of units, Stoichiometry, Analytical chemistry, and/or Lead nitrate. --Teratornis (talk) 17:05, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

references

If I wrote a page and used websites to back up the facts, what is the proper way to show them? I wrote a page called "Charlie Williamson" and inserted references, but I'm not sure I did it right.

Thanks, Ospreyfan (talk) 16:49, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You added some reference footnotes, but did not create a reference list, so they weren't displayed. I have done so. Algebraist 16:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

See WP:FOOT for the instructions you needed. Also see the related WP:V, WP:RS, WP:CITE, WP:CITET, and WP:LAYOUT. For more, see WP:EIW#Cite. --Teratornis (talk) 17:00, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Found Vandalism

I don't edit Wikipedia. I found vandalism, but do not want to make changes through my work computer. Listed under the article for Chappaquiddick incident, in the section Inquest, third paragraph the word "boobs" is used. It does not belong there, but I do not have any knowledge to fix it. The sentence in question is:

"Under Massachusetts law boobs could have ordered Kennedy's arrest, but he chose not to do so.[8] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions."

If this could be fixed.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.114.40.31 (talk) 17:03, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Fixed. Dismas|^(talk) 17:13, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

(e/c} Looks like Dismas beat me to it. Thank you very much for reporting this! -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 17:15, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I need to change the article on Kazakhstan

Greetings,

I have been a registered user for a long time and I need to edit the Kazakhstan article. Please kindly tell me how I do this? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelryanmccoy (talk • contribs) 18:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Please see Help:Editing, which will tell how to edit pages. Please also take note of our policies WP:Verifiability and WP:Reliable sources, as well as WP:Neutral point of view. Thanks, PeterSymonds (talk) 18:38, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

User:Paul Vogel

I saw that User:Paul Vogel, who was banned originally on May 4, 2004, was to be banned until May 3rd, 2008, for almost 4 years, becuase of repeated ban condition violations. I think the ban is expired, but no one has removed his name from the list. Obviously, the ban has, and should've had expired 27 days ago, yet, no one has removed his name from the list! Can someone check it out? Thank you.Kitty53 (talk) 18:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

From a technical standpoint, I think you're correct since the user was banned by Arbcom, rather than consensus. However, I'm not aware of any consensus to unblock (or any reason to do so, given the history of disruption), so I'm not sure what the point of removing his name would be. (Since if no one's willing to unblock, then he's still banned via consensus, if not via arbcom). Just my $0.02, --Bfigura ^(talk) 18:44, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

WP:ANI may a better place to take this. —BradV 18:45, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about that. Isn't that where you report incidents? I don't think this is an incident.Kitty53 (talk) 19:06, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

WP:AN may be more appropriate, actually. It's where banning discussion often takes place, so I don't see why unbanning discussion can't. However, it's quite possible that the user may remain "community banned" if no admin is willing to unblock him (and, if the user isn't going to come back, any unbanning would be purely symbolic, really). Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 00:58, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Infobox question

Resolved

I saw the map on Dadra and Nagar Haveli and there seems to be some sort of problem on the graphic, at least on my browser, and I couldn't figure out what the issue was. Can someone fix this? Thanks, Spencer^T♦C 19:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I just looked at the page and it came up OK. What are you seeing on your screen? Cheers. TN‑X-Man 19:49, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah ha! I think I saw the problem with the link on the city name. It should be fixed now, but take a look and let me know. TN‑X-Man 19:51, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Looks good now. Thanks, Spencer^T♦C 00:08, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Wiki mini atlas

AMybody have an idea what's happened to the globe? ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:31, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You're the guy trying to take over the world— you tell us. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

But to be a bit more serious— what globe? --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:42, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Coordinate links used to have a icon on them which, when clicked on, would pop open a mini map. This is no longer on by default -- and I don't know why. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 22:07, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I really don't know what's going on with the m:WikiMiniAtlas. There's no discussion of removing it on Meta or the {{coord}} page or the WikiProject. I'll take it over to WP:VPT. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 22:15, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Looks like a recent change to MediaWiki:Common.js may have broken this. Continue this discussion at WP:VPT. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 22:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

According to User:brion, its fixed. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. You may need to purge the page to see the fix take effect. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 02:16, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Deleting a Page from My Own Userspace

I created a page in my userspace to rewrite part of an article. It's rewritten now, and the page serves no purpose. I would like to nominate it for speedy deletion; is there a template that covers this situation or should I take some other action? Alinnisawest (talk) 21:29, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

{{db-user}} --Onorem♠Dil 21:30, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

If you note which page it is on my talk I'll delete it for you. See WP:CSD#U1 for further info as well. Pedro :  Chat  21:34, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

User:Alinnisawest/Critical Feedback Alinnisawest (talk) 21:37, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Done (hope nobody minds me stepping in, but as I saw the page...) PeterSymonds (talk) 21:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Alinnisawest (talk) 21:40, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

(outdent) Most welcome. :) PeterSymonds (talk) 21:41, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Another approach is to move the page to <User>/workspace1 and then blank it. The next time you need a workspace, use the page again. This way, you do not need to ask an admin for help. You can work on a few pages at the same time using this technique. -Arch dude (talk) 05:41, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Terrible Article

New Cumnock. This article is terrible is more ways than one, which I think is obvious. What is the best way to alert others that this page needs to be changed. I know I could but know nothing about the place or how it should be done to make it better, I only know it needs improving. :) 81.157.153.221 (talk) 22:26, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah that is bad. You could be bold and work on it yourself. If you need help with it, try WP:WikiProject Scotland or WP:WikiProject UK geography, as it falls under both of those. —BradV 22:30, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I have tidied the images into a gallery, and provided the two (very inexperienced) editors who provided most of the recent content with welcome boxes, which I hope will help them better understand how to contribute more productively. DuncanHill (talk) 22:33, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I've cut it back down to a stub. The rest was bordering on "come and support our town". PeterSymonds (talk) 22:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, the only reason it's like that is because it was on 'The Toughest Villages in Britain' and the locals must be supporting it or something. :P 81.157.153.221 (talk) 22:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I continued the cleanup and added coordinates. Spencer^T♦C 00:03, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Do non-account edits count?

I was wondering if anybody could help me. I have only recently created an account, but prior to this, I have edited many grammar and spelling problems, and only about 3 with my account. Are the previous edits linked to my IP address? Or is it just the account? I am thinking of creating a new page, and I realise that I require 10 edits - I don't know whether previous edits count towards these 10, or not. Please help me, if possible!

Thanks

Itsalive4 (talk) 22:47, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, they don't. Connecting your IP address and account doesn't allow for dynamic IP-addresses, and would pose privacy concerns. You must make 10 edits on your account. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 22:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Fortunately, you don't need 10 edits to create a new page. Any signed-in user can do that. Algebraist 22:59, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, you only need 10 edits and 4 days for things like editing semi-protected articles and image uploads. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 23:12, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:AUTOCONFIRM. Spencer^T♦C 23:47, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You can just edit your own user page 10 times if your desperate to edit. i hope the vandals dont read this:) Roadrunnerz45 ^{(talk 2 me)} 04:40, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that helped! I'll just see what I can keep editing to reach 10 edits!

Itsalive4 (talk) 09:36, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

If you want to reduce your odds of coming back to ask Why was my article deleted?, you could tell us about the article you want to create, and we could comment on its potential notability and other possible grounds for deletion. Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles by new users for failing to comply with our complex and unobvious policies and guidelines, so a little discussion here before you plunge ahead could save you some grief. Some types of articles are deletion magnets (such as: articles about someone's garage band), while other articles are more likely to "stick" (such as an article about a major public work in your area, such as a large dam or bridge). We can at least tell you if your topic starts out with a bullseye on its back. --Teratornis (talk) 18:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC)