Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 October 21

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October 21

Dubious Bio

I came across a bio that's clearly mostly self-written and of dubious importance re: an exec at a TV network. He's a producer at Nickelodeon, so it's likely significant enough for the " WikiProject Nickelodeon" project, but it's cross-posted to "WikiProject Biography", for which it's clearly not. It contains transparent embarrassments ala "education: "Attended various classes at Harvard University". Lots of plugs for his wife's web site. Etc.

I'm from the old days of wikipedia; how is something like this handled these days? I'm not sure, for instance, how the "quality scale" feature works. And I'm reluctant to edit out the more egregious bits of obvious self-promotion, because that would make the entire bio appear to have greater credibility. Probably better to let the evidence remain pending a decision on worthiness? O. Pen Sauce (talk) 15:11, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

If you provide a link to the article we can take a look at it. – ukexpat (talk) 17:18, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, here it is Dan_Schneider_(TV_producer)....though I'm actually more interested in understanding the protocol in these situations than in getting a ruling on this one case.O. Pen Sauce (talk) 01:51, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Would Like to Create!

Hi Wikipedia:Help desk, how are things? I've got a question. Would like to create an article from scratch , but would like to use a Wiki-Croatian article as a template (all ready have done some work [1]). This would mean the articles would be more uniformed. Is this ok, to do? Regards Sir Floyd (talk) 00:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I assume you mean to translate a Croatian article into English? This is perfectly fine, but take note that there may be some discrepancies between the Manual of Style at the Croatian Wikipedia, and that here. Intelligentsium^review 00:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Intelligentsium! Sir Floyd (talk) 00:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

This is a test

I am testing a new feature on my toolbox page to make sure it works. Please disregard this Intelligentsium^review 00:36, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

"Gay serial killers" or "LGBT serial killers" category

Shouldn't we create this category considering that there are a lot of LGBT serial killers including Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Aileen Wuornos, Ronald Dominique, Dennis Nilsen, etc, etc --190.50.86.22 (talk) 00:39, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Read through WP:CAT (epecially this section) and WP:OVERCAT. In my opinion (this is based on about 5 minutes of reading through these articles and the ones you posted, so don't put much stock in it), this would seem like a notable distinction to make, among serial killers. Though you should check Wournos, because the bisexual category seems to be unaddressed in the article. —Akrabbim^talk 00:52, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

You may get more specialized feedback at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Criminal Biography/Serial Killer task force or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject LGBT studies. I suspect it could be controversial to cross categorize between criminals and a sexual, ethnic or religious group. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Hep editing an article for class

I am trying to add content to an ancient king's article for a class assignment and I have not idea how to do this. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.131.103.74 (talk) 01:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! You should first read the Tutorial; that should take care of editing basics. If you have any further questions, feel free to come back here. Xenon54 / talk / 01:45, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

If this is an organised class project, please also see WP:SUP. – ukexpat (talk) 17:15, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Jim LeMunyon draft - seeking approval

I have created a draft for the James LeMunyon article and posted it on my subspace. In order to avoid any conflict of interest (the subject of the article is my father), I am seeking another editor to review the draft, offer feedback, and if deemed acceptable, integrate it with the existing article or grant me permission to do so. I am striving to avoid any conflict of interest; please let me know if there are any further steps I can take to do so. I would welcome any feedback. --Marklemunyon (talk) 01:51, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

It looks good to me, although I have one question: What happened to being an adjunct professor at George Mason University? Is that no longer current? Someguy1221 (talk) 01:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Correct. The cited link from the article reads: "Jim was an adjunct faculty member of the George Mason University international transactions graduate program during the 1990s." --Marklemunyon (talk) 02:04, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

question

Im not getting any answers on wp:feedback or wp:an. So I'll post here:

Im an admin on the dispute infested Persian wikipedia. There are only 8 admins. Our laws are basically copies of EN WP. I need advice from you. My question:

An admin gets involved in a content dispute in an article with some users (7 or 8 other involved editors I reckon). Some r against him, some side with him. Anyway, after a while, he leaves the dispute and quits editing the article entirely, and the fight of course continues and the article is heavily edited every day one way or the other. A month later, the fight heats up again between the same parties. Edit wars break out. The admin (who has not been involved for a month now) jumps in and (citing disruptive behaviour and edit warring) blocks the main responsible user for 24hrs. It turns out this blocked user was the same person the admin was involved with in their intense dispute a month ago. Now some ppl are crying foul, and claiming that since the admin was involved a month ago, and has therefore conflict of interest, he was hence not justified in blocking the user, whether he was right or not.

Do u guys agree? Is a month enough time to not be considered involved? When does one become de-involved? A month after you leave the article? A year after? Was this admin justified in blocking the edit warring user?

I'll read your input. As always, I'm grateful to the wealth of advice u give me.--Zereshk (talk) 21:22, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Administrators should avoid even the appearance of bias and this trespasses far beyond that. A month or a year, if an administrator is involved in a dispute over content, regarding the same article, and with the same user, they should not be using their administrative tools in that dispute at all. An admin cannot become "de-involved" (that's not how humans work); this is a bell-once-rung situation. However, that does not mean necessarily that the admin can never act with regard to that user but certainly not with regard to the very content they were in a dispute over. Besides the link you posted, see Wikipedia:Administrators#Misuse of administrative tools, but note the caveat at WP:UNINVOLVED (which I don't think is applicable the way you've described this). Numerous admins have been sanctioned or warned by the arbitration committee for acting in their administrative capacity where they are, or appear to be, involved in the content of the dispute. That having been said, I don't think you can draw such clean lines for a Wikipedia with only 8 admins. There may be times, for example, when the admin around is the only admin available and may have to act urgently even where involved—hell, I can even imagine, with those numbers, there existing an article where all the admins that exist have been involved.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

emailing and article

How do I email an article to someone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Big8brain (talk • contribs) 02:03, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Why not just provide the URL of the article in the body of the email? For example this page is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk, which you should be able to copy from your browser's address bar or in other ways such as right clicking and choosing "view page info" or equivalent depending on your browser.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:28, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

If you want to send the link to a specific version (Fuhghettaboutit's advise will give you the link to the most up-to-date version of the page), look at the toolbox at the left-hand side of the screen. One of the options is "Permanent link" - if you click on that, then follow Fuhgettaboutit's advice, the address will be for the specific version of the article. Alternatively, in the "print/export" box at the left hand side of the page, there will probably be an option "Download as PDF" - click on that, wait for the PDF to be created, download it, attach that to the e-mail. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 07:17, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

There is also a way to add an E-mail icon to the toolbar to e-mail articles, if you use FireFox. It is a bit technical, so ask on my talk page and I will help set it up. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Problem merging accounts

I have an accout on Polish wikipedia pl:User:Mulat and I succesfully created an unified login. With one exception: English wikipedia. There is no account called "Mulat" on enwiki, but I can't log in using my password nor create new account with this name. Please help to spread my original account to enwiki. mulat^(dysk.) 07:04, 21 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.187.244.67 (talk)

There is a user with that name; he simply never made any edits. Please see Wikipedia:Changing username/SUL to take it. Someguy1221 (talk) 07:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

How to improve an article in wikipedia

Hi,

Please tell me how to improve an article written in wikipedia.Is there any standard which we need to follow or we can simply use our own knowledge to improve it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fozia izhar (talk • contribs) 10:51, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

This page WP:IA can be helpful in developing new articles --NotedGrant Talk 10:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I think the OP was asking about current articles. If that is the case, a useful source of information is the Manual of Style -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

You should also read our policies on verifiability and original research. Adding information to articles that comes only from your own knowldge or experience and is not backed up by reliable sources is strongly discouraged. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Reverting edits

Some of my edits (about the alternative names in different languages of some historical people shown in parathesis) have been reverted by a Wikipedian who claims that my edits are irrevelant. I don't like on line quarrels. But there must be a limit to such impolite behavior. What does Wiki suggest me to do without being too offensive and yet being able to defend my edits ?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Nedim Ardoğa (talk • contribs)

Are the alternative names that you are adding sourced? If not, I would suggest that if they are cited with reference to reliable sources, then they would have more chance of staying! If they are sourced, then you might want to go to WP:DR -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:12, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Having read the message on your talk page, where the editor in question has explained their reasoning, I am inclined to agree with them. However, if the alternative names you are trying to provide have references at reliable sources, then that would probably be a different matter. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 11:17, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank for your interest, I have a messege for you in your talk page.

Where can I get a copy of the "This article needs an expert opinion" tag?

Where can I get a copy of the "This article needs an expert opinion" tag?PennySeven (talk) 11:31, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

See {{Expert}} and {{Expert-subject}}. Bencherlite^Talk 11:34, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Templates includes an index of article-improvement message templates Sssoul (talk) 11:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)If you mean how can you put the tag at the top of a page simply copy this text into the top of the page code: {{Expert}}, alternatively, if the page belongs to a wiki-project then copy this to the top of the page: {{expert-subject|insertprojectnamehere}}, filling in the parameter with the project name. If you need any further help or if some parts of my message don't make sense then please feel free to ask, kind regards Spitfire^Tally-ho! 11:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Alright, I see that you have posted the template onto the Inflation article. Please explain why you have done this, either here or at User talk:Spitfire, if you cannot provide a good reason then I am afriad that the template may be removed, as you seem to be disrupting Wikipedia to illustrate a point, cheers Spitfire^Tally-ho! 11:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

New Article

I started a new article (International Society of Military Sciences (ISMS)) I also saved it, but when I use the search option on wikipedia it's unable to find my page. What did I do wrong?

Laura —Preceding unsigned comment added by Isofms.Laura (talk • contribs) 12:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

It's still there. See International Society of Military Sciences (ISMS).--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 12:30, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I see, but how did you find it? When I enter 'International Society of Military Sciences' in the search bar I get this message:

You may create the page "International society of military sciences", but consider checking the search results below to see whether it is already covered. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Isofms.Laura (talk • contribs) 12:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The (ISMS) part was important, but I mover it to International Society of Military Sciences, and created a bunch of redirects (as capitalization matters too).--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 12:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

RE: capitalisation, actually it doesn't matter, at least when using the search bar, as this is handled automatically by the software. Links on the other hand, need to be capitalised correctly. For example, if you enter iNTerNatIONal soCIEtY OF miLitARy SCIencEs into the search bar, you will be transparently redirected to the correct capitalisation, whereas using the same text in a link produces a red link, thus: iNTerNatIONal soCIEtY OF miLitARy SCIencEs. Regards, AJCham 15:11, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

How do I report someone for vandalizing an article?

How do I report someone for vandalizing an article?PennySeven (talk) 13:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

You can report vandals at WP:AIV --NotedGrant Talk 14:00, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

However, assuming this is related to Inflation, that's a content dispute, not simple vandalism, so AIV is inappropriate. You need to read about dispute resolution instead. Bencherlite^Talk 14:02, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

HELP PLEASE AHH!!!

I have no fucking idea how to answer a sub answer to someones post i click the "talk " link and type in my answer or a question to someones answer and than it just doesnt appear under the answer i was answering to??? tho i can access it by urling to say wiki/user_talk ip or a username..

What do i do wrong?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.38.154 (talk • contribs)

Aside from the use of vulgar language, which rarely helps, you clicked the wrong link. The "talk" link goes to that editor's talk page. To reply to a comment on an article talk page, use the "edit" link at the top of the section. For instance, to add this entry, I clicked on the "edit" beside "HELP PLEASE AHH!!!" Additionally, if you are just learning to use Mediawiki software, you may find it easier to do so in your native tongue before editing in others. Cheers, LeadSongDog come howl 14:28, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

And read Help:Talk page and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Nearly everything a person could need to know about using Wikipedia is somewhere in the friendly manuals or in the missing manual. (And when you feel an impulse to shout profanity at the computer, just go ahead and shout. Many of us do this routinely, even though computers ignore it. But there's no need to type it, we already feel your pain.) --Teratornis (talk) 16:39, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Create page for my company

I work for a organization which does not yet have a wiki page. We would like to put it on wiki? Who should do it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.192.28.89 (talk) 14:56, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is available to walk you through creating an article, but you will need to create an account to use it. if you don't wish to do so, you can submit a proposal for an article at Articles for Creation. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 15:00, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

To add to what PhantomSteve wrote, please read our FAQ for companies, it should help to answer many of your questions. — QuantumEleven 15:03, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Redirect preventing me from creating an article

I am trying to create an article titled 'Health risk assessment' and whilst there is no existing article with that name, someone has added in a redirect for the term to a section of an article on Risk assessments. The term health risk assessment doesn't even appear in the Risk assessment article (there is a loose connection to risk assessments in public health but it is not the same thing at all). I don't understand how or why the redirect was created in the first place. I would really appreciate some help on how to create this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Threadneedle (talk • contribs) 16:11, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

If you are automatically redirected to another page, the page you end up onto will have a small text under its title saying "Redirected from <Pagename>". The <Pagename> part is actually a link to the intended page. If you click it you will go that page without being redirected, thus allowing you to edit the page. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 16:26, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

misinformation in wikipedia reference in google search

I was taken aback by the text that came up in google's link to wikipedia when I searched for "richard goldstone" - here it is below:

Richard Goldstone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Richard Goldstone is a court jew South African, who is married to Noleen Goldstone. They have two daughters (Glenda and Nicole) and four grandsons (Jason, ... Family life and attitudes on ... - Law - Other activities en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Goldstone - Cached - Simil

How are thse texts selected and how can they be corrected?

Thank you,

Cynthia whitehead —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cynwhitehead (talk • contribs) 19:24, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, that is Google's information. They took a snapshot of the page at a certain point in time and it had that vandalism listed. There's nothing we can do on this end until Google refreshes its cache. TNXMan 19:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Just so you know, Richard Goldstone no longer lists that at the top of the article. TNXMan 19:34, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)x2 The information has already been corrected on Wikipedia, which is as much as we can do here. Google's index is out of our hands. The text in question was removed within 5 minutes of being added, and it seems to be a matter of dumb luck that Google's database entry for the page was updated during this brief period. Hopefully, their index will be updated again soon. AJCham 19:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)x3 That is the page that Google "saw" at 20 Oct 2009 15:16:24 GMT. Google will re-check the page at intervals (that Google decides). Google decides what text to show with the page entry. As far as I know, Wikipedia has no control over Google.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 19:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The vandalism from yesterday in the article Richard Goldstone has been removed. It showed up in the Google search because Google updates their cache at specific times, and they must have done it within the four minutes it was there. Once they rescan, the correct version will pop-up. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 19:36, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Theoretically, we could have software temporarily add a robots instruction to the html that would tell Google's spiders not to index recent IP editions. That would vastly reduce such cached vandalism instances. IIRC there was a particularly nasty similar incident on Barrack Obama shortly after his election. Shortly after that, Google started refreshing that cache more often. LeadSongDog come howl 20:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

How do I make my article available on Wikipedia?

I created an article for Randolph Street Gallery (RSG). How do I make it available for others to read and edit?

Thanks, Cynde —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cshauper (talk • contribs) 19:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

It explains it all at Wikipedia:Starting an article. However, you can probably save yourself some frustration if you make sure you have some good references to it before you create the article. Otherwise, it's likely people will delete it. TastyCakes (talk) 20:12, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The draft at User:Cshauper/Randolph Street Gallery (RSG) can be moved to the main article space when it is ready, but a quick glance would seem to indicate that it is not ready yet. I would suggest, however, that you move it to User:Cshauper/Randolph Street Gallery - if/when it becomes an article in main space, an entry could be added to the disambiguation page at RSG to allow people to type in RSG to find it. I will leave a message on your talk page with some of the issues that I feel your draft currently has. -- PhantomSteve (Contact Me, My Contribs) 21:15, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Someone vandalised my talk page...

And there's a reason I'm reporting it here rather than the page for reporting vandalism; the person has no warnings about vandalism and this is the first time there's been vandalism. I can't let something like this go; how do I approach this situation? What do I do? --LordNecronus (talk) 20:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

A simple warning would have been sufficient - bouncing back the offending word on their talk page was not appropriate. – ukexpat (talk) 20:43, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Yep, a simple warning would've been highly sufficient here. You can't get offended by vandals and lose your head, next time just give a simple warning and report to an admin if the behavior continues :). thanks. ~ Arjun 23:02, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Image

Does anybody here know how to rotate an image through 90 degrees? It's the one of crossed fingers on Truce term and I want the fingers to point upwards. Thanks.Fainites ^barleyscribs 22:25, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

To my knowledge this cannot be achieved through wikitext (there is no mention of a rotate feature at Wikipedia:Extended image syntax). However, as the image is freely licensed, it is possible to download it, rotate in an image editing program and then upload the new version as an alternative - which I have done here. Enjoy! AJCham 23:15, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Are you aware of any software that would allow you to rotate an image 45 degrees? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

22.75 degrees? Hey thanks AJCham. Very kind of you.Fainites ^barleyscribs 06:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Baseball Bugs, Inkscape for svgs and the GIMP for jpgs etc can do a rotation at any angle, including 45 degrees. In both programs you have to look around for the option, in Inkscape skip over "Rotate 90°" and go to the "Transform" diolog box (in the Object menu). In GIMP go Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation... I guess you would have a different sized canvas after you did this. Maybe ask at Wikipedia:Graphic Lab for better info.--Commander Keane (talk) 03:21, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

How many hits does an article receive?

Is there a way to tell how many hits a specific article has received? thanks GloverEpp (talk) 23:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The tool at http://stats.grok.se won't give you a full total, but it can give you traffic numbers for a particular page in a given month, with a daily breakdown. Unfortunately, it only goes back as far as December 2007. Regards, AJCham 23:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)