Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2009 October 28

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October 28

Camp Stone Afghanistan

My son just went to Afghanistan. I would like to know by what city is Camp Stone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lulu5965 (talk • contribs) 00:20, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

This page is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. You might get a better response from Wikipedia:Reference desk, where there are people who answer more general questions. --BelovedFreak 00:24, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Awards in lead sentence of biographies

I've seen the "...Grammy Award winning..." bit of the lead sentence in biographies taken out before. Where is this spelled out? I've looked over wp:mos, wp:lead, and wp:blp but haven't seen anything about it. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 00:36, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Mmm, well Wikipedia:Avoid_peacock_terms mentions "award‑winning" as something to watch for.--Commander Keane (talk) 02:33, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

It does, but it also specifies that "unsourced or unexplained" peacock terms are the problem. "Award-winning" is certainly overused for promotional purposes, the award in question often being an obscure accolade by a minor, non-notable body which may or may not be impartial and could just be the recipient's Auntie Muriel, in theory. But I'm not sure why "Grammy Award-winning" would merit removal, particularly if the phrase were sourced to an authoritative list of Grammy winners. That would make it both sourced and explained. In fact, the notability criterion 8 at WP:MUSICBIO specifically says: "Has won or been nominated for a major music award, such as a Grammy, Juno, Mercury, Choice or Grammis award". I'm not sure there's a case for automatically removing the phrase from any lead section. Karenjc 12:35, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

In need of consensus

Lately, I've been trying to pick up the pieces of User:Neogeography who has been changing the word "geospatial" into "geographic" in many articles. It wouldnt be such a big deal, except that he's started changing the content of articles with "geospatial" in the title. I need some help in a) policy and b) explaining the concept of consensus. I've left a message on his talk page as well as one on the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency talk page. Any insight would be gladly appreciated. Qb | ^{your 2 cents} 00:44, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

First do an WP:RfC on the issue. Also see the policy on WP:Edit warring. That should get you started for now.--RDBury (talk) 14:40, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Contest the impartiality

I completely disagree with an article. Citations are either false or inaccurate since they are generalizing particular cases. I understand that this can be someone's vision, so I don't want just to erase. How can I contest the impartiality of this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.240.236.188 (talk) 01:15, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Template messages/Disputes. Please write specifics on the associated talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:18, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Image noticeboard

Is there a noticeboard for problem images? Such as improper licensing, improper source, etc. ς ح д r خ є 01:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Most images with an obviously improper source or license (e.g. clearly copyrighted image that is released to public domain) can be speedily deleted. Otherwise, I would say Files for deletion. (By the way, the contributions link in your signature contains an error.) Xenon54 / talk / 02:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

There is also Wikipedia:Media copyright questions.--Commander Keane (talk) 02:12, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

But for improper licensing, you would want Possibly Unfree Files. Intelligentsium 02:31, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Article about Alexander Pope

Pope birthyear is shwn as 1688. And so is his mother's, which means she would have been her husband's junior by some 40 years. Mistake? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.214.103.137 (talk) 04:03, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

 Fixed Some IP address vandalized the page and it was never caught.  Btilm  05:55, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I can not edit the Microsoft article

How come I am unable to edit the Microsoft article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.167.67 (talk) 06:49, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Its because that page is protected from editing by anonymous users. Only registered users can only edit that article. E Wing (talk) 07:16, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

work cited wikipedia?

How would I work cited Wikipedia APA style? Where can I get the info? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.166.75.166 (talk) 07:20, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

In the left sidebar there is a toolbox, and for articles one of the items there is "Cite this page" link which gives details. —teb728 t c 07:56, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

A critical study on the relaiablity of the Ancient Indians' Cosmological Theories.

Dear Sirs,

I want to present a research paper on the subject referred above. Kindly let me know the next step to proceed further.Thanking you.---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mannaiswami (talk • contribs) 08:06, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but Wikipedia does not publish works of original research. Wikipedia, as a tertiary source, only reports what has already been published and vetted elsewhere by reliable sources. Someguy1221 (talk) 08:18, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Sigmund Freud photo

“I” Empowerment Institute Inc. <contact info removed>

October 28, 2009

Dear sir,

May I ask your permission to use the picture of Mr. Sigmund Freud illustrated in http://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

for my book called “I” Empowerment Therapy for free provided I give your URL address as reference?

My institute is a non-stock, non-profit corporation engaged in psychological therapy.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

Gonzalo B. Misa Executive Director —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gonzalobmisa (talk • contribs) 08:58, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

That image is in the public domain in the United States, as it was first published before 1923. As such, were you in the United States, you could use the image without any restrictions and without need for permission. I don't know what copyright laws are in the Philippines, but the photo was first published in 1914 and the photographer died in 1940. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Use of Picture

“I” Empowerment Institute Inc. <contact information redacted> October 28, 2009

Dear sir,

May I ask your permission to use the picture of PATANJALI illustrated in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pata%C3%B1jali

for my book called “I” Empowerment Therapy for free provided I give your URL address as reference?

My institute is a non-stock, non-profit corporation engaged in psychological therapy.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

Gonzalo B. Misa Executive Director —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gonzalobmisa (talk • contribs) 09:06, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

That image may be used as long as proper attribution is given. The actual location of the image is at this link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patanjali.jpg For any future image permissions requests, you can click on the image that you see in the article. This will take you to the image's own page, where you will find the license under which it is released, and will contain information on the conditions of its use. Someguy1221 (talk) 09:10, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:11, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Today's Featured Article problem

In the infobox for today's featured article I am seeing a line displayed as Designated [[{{{nrhp_type3}}}|{{{NRHP_TYPE3}}}]]: December 19 The code isn't supposed to showing, especially on a featured article linked on the main page. Does anyone know where the problem is? 75.41.110.200 (talk) 13:08, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Someone removed |nrhp_type3= but left |designated_nrhp_type3=. Fixed. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:29, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Deleting multiple revisions of an image without deleting the image itself?

As I cleaned out Category:Rescaled fairuse images more than 7 days old, I found several images with more than two different versions, which in general were all too large except for the current revision. Not wanting to have to delete each too-large version separately, I've had to delete the image itself and restore the proper size. Is there a way that I can delete multiple old revisions at the same time, so that I can avoid both deleting the entire image and deleting each old image separately? Nyttend (talk) 14:20, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Note to other readers: Only administrators can delete files. I don't think MediaWiki can do the requested. There is no mention of it at mw:Manual:Image Administration#Deletion of individual revision. I don't know whether any tools can do it. Here is an example image with multiple versions: File:VCDlogo.svg. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Embedding Items

Can we embed items on our Wikipedia page? For example, if one of our members did a You Tube tribute to the subject, would we be able to embed a You Tube screen on the page we've created?

Thank you for your help. I couldn't find this anywhere!!YumiFan (talk) 15:39, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

You cannot embed images, videos or other files outside of en.Wikipedia or Commons. This would be a licensing issue since we cannot control outside content. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:57, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Updating picture already on page

I need to update a logo that is posted on our company's page on Wikipdeia. I am not sure how to remove the current logo and add a new logo. Please advise. Thanks.

You need to wait 4 more days to become Autoconfirmed, which is required to upload images. You can instead ask for the Confirmed flag here. Be advised that you have a conflict of interest, so please take caution when editing the article about your company.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 15:52, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Removing a URL from black list

I would like this site (http://www.mybefana.it) removed from the black list. It is a site which provides friendly information about an Italian tradition. It is a simple site that helps children write letters to "la Befana" who is like father Christmas in Italy. The site is also for the aid of a charity which helps children in Africa. It would be nice to list it on the wiki page about the befana. It is already on the english version but can not be added to the Italian version as it reports the site as being on the black list.

Thanks for any help

The url you mentioned is not blocked by either the global or the English wiki blacklist. It seems that the Italian wiki added the page to its local blacklist instead. As each language wiki operates independently there is little the English wiki can do to help, as administrators are appointed on a per wiki basis. The only advice i can therefor give you is to submit a request at the Italian wiki. Either at the help desk there or at a more specialized page. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 16:57, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Ok Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.244.157.130 (talk) 16:59, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

404 File not found?

Hi. I'm getting bizarre result when I try to access the article Seizure: it says, "404 error: File not found". I can read it when I go through the redirect at seizures. Anybody else get that result? What does it mean? I've never seen this before. :/ --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 16:44, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I get it too. pop ups can read it, and the redirects can retrieve it, but the direct permanent /wiki/Seizure link doesn't work. This is weird. —Akrabbim^talk 16:47, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

It seems to work for me - perhaps a server hiccup? Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 16:49, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

It's still happening for me. Massively puzzling. :/ When I refresh the page, it seems it will come through. But I can't read it through following a direct link or shooting for it through the search function. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 16:54, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I can't submit an edit the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous page either, without getting a "ERROR The requested URL could not be retrieved" —Akrabbim^talk 16:57, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Odd, for me this works fine as well, so i assume it is not a server issue. Also, since you both face the same problem it would be quite the coincidence if it was caused by any settings or browser issues on your side. Perhaps you reside on the same network \ ISP which has some technical issues? Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 17:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Category:People from Barnet, Vermont is also not working... this is bizarre. I'm not sure how it's working for you, since it's dang near impossible for it to not be working for the rest of us.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 17:04, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

As soon as I say that, it starts working again.--Unionhawk ^{Talk E-mail Review} 17:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I get a 404 error too (strange)--NotedGrant Talk 17:07, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

It's normal now (any one knows what's happening)--NotedGrant Talk 17:08, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

←I can't edit Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous, either. Or access Category:People from Barnet, Vermont. :) I'm on the east coast of the US, below the Mason-Dixon. Seems like there must be something situational going on, but it is well beyond my capabilities to diagnose! I'll check WP:VPT. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 17:11, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

OverlordQ at VPT says:

They're looking at it, a good purging seems to fix it though. Q ^{T C} 17:22, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

It does seem to temporarily override. Not sure if it will help with editing the reference desk, but I could view seizure. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 17:27, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Then maybe, just maybe your web provider caches pages accessed to save bandwidth used. This could have temporally faulted causing it to mis cache and therefor serve broken pages - a purge would solve that as the host would have to fetch the page again then. But this guess is just as likely as any other :) Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 19:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Trojan Virus?

I visited the site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crasher and received a trojan virus warning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.21.196.66 (talk) 17:10, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

What anti-virus software do you use? Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 17:12, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

McAfee Host Intrusion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.21.196.66 (talk) 17:14, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Since we are talking about an IDS (Or rather IPS) i do not think there is a real worry. I have not worked with McAfee software from this category but i do have a bit of experience with the snort IDS.

One of the issues with this type of software is that they depend on heuristic analysis and signature recognition, which mean they are prone to false positives every now and then. Similarly user generated rules can have adverse effects at some time. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 19:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

aplogies

please can you send, or tell me how to send an apology to toledo at the language desk-i mistakenly erased someone elses narrative while trying to make a response. when i edit my response seems to go to the wrong question. apologies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Slimeylimey09 (talk • contribs) 17:15, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

The user who gave you the warning about unintentionally removing content is Tevildo. You can write a message at the user's talk page, which is User talk:Tevildo. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:01, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I noticed this morning that a reply I posted a couple of days ago was attached to the wrong question. This surprised me, but I assumed it had been my mistake. But if somebody else has had a similar problem, I wonder if there is a systemic issue. --ColinFine (talk) 21:43, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Title Change

Is there a way I can change the title on my Wiki article from Uprooted, to Uprooted! the Japanese Americans during WWII?? I have that in the box where the article is. However, when people search for it I want the full name to be used, NOT just Uprooted to take them to my article. Thank you in advance! —Preceding unsigned comment added by CMFHWA (talk • contribs) 19:15, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Just WP:MOVE the page to a new title. The old name will be used as a redirect so the new article will be known under the new name, while the old name will take everyone entering that particular title to the desired page. Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 19:26, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

How to find new articles of interest?

How would I go about finding new articles of interest. For example, I am presently writing articles on the Canal du Midi. How can I find new articles, or better yet be notified, when new ones are created? I can watch the category for the Canal du Midi or do a search periodically and check off the ones I've seen before. There must be a better way! thanks GloverEpp (talk) 19:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

There is suggest bot. That bot recommends articles based on your contributions.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 19:34, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

How would I find suggest bot? GloverEpp (talk) 19:47, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

User:SuggestBot :) Excirial ^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 21:02, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

You may want Special:NewPages. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:35, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

IMO, Wikipedia is more in need of improvements to existing articles than new articles. My suggestion is to find stubs in the subject you're interested in and expand them.--RDBury (talk) 14:27, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Citation template for historical documents

I have a need to directly cite a historical document - in this case, a royal charter from the 1600s. Does a prefered citation template already exist for this purpose, and if so, where I can find it? I have already checked Category:Citation templates; the closest one I could find for intent is the press release template, but that does not quite carry the weightiness of the document. What would you use? Blue Rasberry 19:41, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

The catch-all {{Citation}} template should be adequate, I would assume. AJCham 19:53, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, of course. I just wanted another opinion. I will use that. Blue Rasberry 19:59, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Remember that {{Citation}} has a slightly different style from the cite xxx templates, so you should not mix them in an article. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 21:26, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

If possible, try to include a source where someone might find a copy of the document or quote the passage you're using. It's hard to verify your statement if your only source is locked up in a vault somewhere.--RDBury (talk) 14:32, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Can a company or individual start a wikipedia page about themself or does it have to be generated from someone within the community

Can a company or individual start a wikipedia page about themself or does it have to be generated from someone within the community.

I've hear that if a company creates their own wiki page it will be deleted because its innately going to be opinionated information instead of factual based. Is this true even if the wiki page is totally factual encyclopedia like. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.170.133.204 (talk) 23:22, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations and Wikipedia:Autobiography. Lots of articles written by somebody from a company are indeed deleted for badly failing Wikipedia policies, also when the author claims to just have neutrally stated factual information about the company. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:04, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Creating external link with URL containing square brackets

Trying to add an external link to:

http://www.dublinmountains.ie/news/latest_news/read_article/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[pointer]=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=88&tx_ttnews[backPid]=45&cHash=82e6d3c024

But all I get is:

[pointer=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=88&tx_ttnews[backPid]=45&cHash=82e6d3c024]

Seems to be because the URL includes square bracket characters which is confusing the formatting. How do I fix?

- Joe King (talk) 23:48, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

See meta:Help:URL#URLs in external links. Replacing [ by %5b and ] by %5d gives [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:00, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

That's it! Thank you! - Joe King (talk) 00:06, 29 October 2009 (UTC)