Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 November 1

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November 1

Help with infobox.. What is Template:CPDM/meta/shortname?

I'm trying to add a template for the results of Cameroonian presidential election, 2011. Under the party of the candidates, I get " Template:CPDM/meta/shortname Template:SDF/meta/shortname" I'm simply trying to add CPDM and SDF as the party. I used the non-abbreviated version as first, because I thought that was causing the problem. Is making an election infobox with a party not as simple as typing the party name? What did I do wrong? I'm including in here the infobox. Feel free to take it off this section as you type the answer if you know it.--Xxhopingtearsxx (talk) 02:46, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Cameroonian presidential election, 2011

9 October 11

Nominee Paul Biya John Fru Ndi Party RDPC SDF Popular vote 3,772,527 518,175 Percentage 77.99% 10.71%

President before election Paul Biya RDPC Elected President Paul Biya RDPC

party1 and party2 should be the name of the Wikipedia articles: Cameroon People's Democratic Movement and Social Democratic Front (Cameroon). I fixed that in the infobox here. That created red links to Template:Cameroon People's Democratic Movement/meta/shortname and Template:Social Democratic Front (Cameroon)/meta/shortname. There I saved the "short name" of the parties to be displayed in the infobox. You can consider changing them to acronyms if that is how the parties are normally known. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:18, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Squeegee_man article talking false thing about me

Hi, this is the link to the article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeegee_man

The problem is : On this article, they talk about an incident ( in the : Canada section ) where this squeegee kid attacked a person in his car.

This story is about me. and I didnt attack the person, the driver attacked me. He was 3 time bigger than me for crying out loud. No one takes my story because I am the "evil" squeegee kid that the media turn. The toronto sun story ( that they quote as proof ) is completely biased, and is the version of the driver only. No one ever ask me to tell the story.

I tried editing and giving a more complete and less biased information about squeejee kids but it keeps deleting itself. I am asking to please remove this : "A few days later, on June 7, a man was attacked with a squeegee by a 23-year-old at Queen Street and Spadina Avenue. The alleged attacker was charged, and the driver admitted to hospital, to deal with the gash.[6]" from the : Canada section.

This is just to make people hate on squeegee kids and their only intention is to make us look bad. The driver attacked me, yet the toronto sun keep saying im the bad one for defending myself. The judge even told in court that it was the drivers fault, but the only reason I am being punished is because I went to far. wich is understandable, but its also understandable I was afraid and reacted accordingly when someone 3 time my size came to, and I quote "Kick my dirty ass" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Neogodhobo (talk • contribs) 05:49, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I don't see how inclusion of that information could be interpreted as an attack against you. Nobody is named or otherwise identified in the text about the incident, or even in the cited source so unless you actually tell people it's about you, nobody would ever know. Roger (talk) 14:09, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry if you feel the article misrepresents what happened. Your edits are not "deleting themselves" - they are being removed by other editors, because they are unsourced. The problem for Wikipedia is that that account is referenced to a reliable source (CBC), while yours is an account from an anonymous person on the internet: see WP:Verifiability for why we cannot use that. If you can find a reliable published source which gives more of the story, you could add it - though since you tell us you have a conflict of interest it would be better to post on the article's talk page. --ColinFine (talk) 17:21, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Editing notices

I have received a message stating that my current IP address made a modification to an entry that was reverted due to its non-constructive nature. I also noted that my IP has also been banned due to a multitude of vandalism throughout various entries. I have never made any form of modification to any Wikipedia page, save for maybe a grammatical correction on the rarest of occasions, and find this troubling. Looking at my IP history the modifications are all stupid, nonsensical, and highly immature interjections and revisions; these are not modifications that I have made. I was wondering if there is a possibility that this is a mistake and would like to know of any possible course of action I could take if someone is somehow using my IP address to do such. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.8.226.80 (talk) 07:49, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

If your IP address changes from time to time (see Dynamic IP), or is shared with other users, the messages which you are seeing will probably refer to other users of that IP address. The safest bet is to register an account and use that. - David Biddulph (talk) 08:56, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

It looks like your IP address had already changed before you posted here. There are no messages to that IP address, it hasn't been blocked, and Special:Contributions/66.8.226.80 only shows one edit before your post. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:33, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I have submitted my article, no one reviews it!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Datangtt (talk • contribs) 10:12, 1 November 2012‎

Content of section deleted, as it was a straight copy from Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Datangtt.

You didn't need to copy the content here. Your draft was reviewed, and justifiably declined. If you want your revised draft reviewing again you could resubmit it for review, but I can assure you that it would be declined again. Please read Wikipedia's advice on your first article. - David Biddulph (talk) 10:31, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Your article is not currently submitted for review; you need to add the text {{subst:submit}} to the page. It will not be accepted in its current form, as you have failed to address any of the problems raised by previous reviewers. In addition, your username violates our username policy, and should be changed as soon as possible to avoid your account being blocked. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:32, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I can understand why it was declined.

The first two paragraphs have some spelling mistakes, but could easily be improved to an acceptable standard. But the four longer paragraphs are criticism of its rivals, and of the Chinese government. This criticism, however just, does not belong in an encyclopedia article. Maproom (talk) 10:34, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Specifically, the submission seems to be written in a promotional tone (see WP:NOTPROMOTION), and it does not cite any source whatsoever (see Wikipedia:Verifiability). To ensure that articles meet our inclusion criteria (set out in Wikipedia:Notability), we expect to see citations of sources that are independent of the article's subject (further explained at Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources). If you add those citations, you may be able to get the article accepted. PleaseStand (talk) 10:38, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Chris Merritt

Hello.

My name is CHRIS MERRITT. I am in need of help. There is a biography about me on Wikipedia which is full of untruths and mistakes. I need to find some way for this to be corrected. These mistakes and untruths must be completely removed. The reason for this is, the Wikipedia biography about me is constantly used as source of information for other articles concerning me and is very often quoted.

In accomplishing this, I find it necessary to ask for help.

Thank you. Chris Merritt International opera, concert and recital vocal artist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.198.216.252 (talk) 13:09, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I added a title to separate your query from the one above. Rojomoke (talk) 13:31, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

For reference: Chris Merritt
Chris, I have removed a negative comment which, IMHO, is not adequately supported by the one review cited. If you would like to list the specific errors, preferably with references, on the article's Talk page Talk:Chris Merritt, other editors will incorporate the corrections into the article. Rojomoke (talk) 13:31, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

That negative comment does appear to me to be supported by the review cited. I wish the worst anyone could say of me was that I did something not very well 22 years ago, and made up for it the following year. Anyway, Rojomoke is right, the proper place to discuss this, and maybe mention more recent accomplishments, is the article's talk page. Maproom (talk) 14:48, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Citations

I am currently reading and editing the Wikipedia page for Paul Collins (Artist) and have a few questions about corrections that have been flagged. At two separate points in the article, it has been suggested that citations need to be added. One of them occurs after a statement about the attendees of the unveiling of the series "Great Beautiful Black Women" and the other is about the executive boards the artist has served on. I feel like I have read through the information about citations and biographies of living persons quite well, but there is a lot of information and I was hoping for some clarification. I know the information that needs citations to be true, because it came from the artist himself. My question is, how do I cite this? I know there are certificates to prove that he served on these boards and somewhere is probably an article about the unveiling of the series, so do I need to cite these sources? Could I speak to the artist and cite an interview with him even if it is an unpublished interview? I just want to make sure I am citing correctly, so if you could clarify what needs to be done I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance,

Becky McBride — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.11.60.227 (talk) 14:51, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

No. Personal knowledge and unpublished sources are not acceptable to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is looking for verifiability by references to published reliable sources. I would recommend that you read WP:Referencing for beginners. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:59, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, but to go into Wikipedia information must be verifiable by other parties, which means it must have been published by a reliable source. Obviously, personal recollections, interviews, and the like are not going to meet our criteria. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:08, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Treatment of citations made by a quoted author

At Mind-body problem a difference of opinion has arisen regarding citations in quoted material. For example, a citation occurs in an excerpt quoted from an article by Robb and Heil as follows:

"Some philosophers (e.g., Davidson 1963; Mele 1992) insist that the very notion of psychological explanation turns on the intelligibility of mental causation."

In the bibliography of this article is found the information:

Davidson, D., 1963, “Actions, Reasons, and Causes”, Journal of Philosophy 60: 685-700. Reprinted in Davidson 1980, pp. 3-19.

––––, 1980, Essays on Actions and Events, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

The query arises as to whether it is appropriate to replace the reference (e.g., Davidson 1963; Mele 1992) in the quoted text with a footnote containing the bibliographic information, or whether, as suggested by MachineElf, it is preferable to leave the citation in the quotation as it is, and leave it up to the reader to seek out the original article and search its bibliography.

A subtlety of this question is the following: the authors' provided bibliography provides some information about the source, but typically a WP footnote contains more information, for example, in this case one might find:

Davidson, D. (1963). "Actions, Reasons, and Causes". Journal of Philosophy. 60 (23): 685–700. Reprinted in Davidson, D (2001). "Chapter 1: Actions, Reasons, and Causes". Essays on Actions and Events (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 3–19. ISBN 0199246270.

It is the view of MachineElf that this extended WP-style footnote is a violation of the spirit of a quotation, amounting to an editorial revision of the original authors' views. In this connection, notice that the WP footnote refers to the second edition of the Oxford text, not the original edition cited by the authors.

What are the nuances in handling these matters? Brews ohare (talk) 17:15, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

My own view on this matter is that introducing links to on-line versions of sources is an aid to the reader to be encouraged, and a switch to more recent editions of works than those actually referred to is OK provided the updated source does not include serious modifications of the original text. Where some concern over content is warranted, the WP footnote can be supplemented with a caveat such as This is a later edition of the source cited in the original work, and has been somewhat revised (condensed) (supplemented), or some such disclaimers. Brews ohare (talk) 17:59, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Add incoming links for orphaned article

I have been contributing to the Boss School of Music article recently, and its not linked from other articles and is therefore an orphan. Where should I add incoming links to point to this article? in "See Also" sections? from which articles?. And what navboxes can I include it under considering the school was a music education institute and went through a highly controversial period with court cases etc. Thanks. Nikhil D. Gupta (talk) 17:53, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Infobox image not working

I have just tried to add the unit insignia to the Infobox of 105 Squadron SAAF but instead of displaying the image is displays the file name. What is the cause of this? Roger (talk) 18:26, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

The documentation at Template:Infobox military unit says the value for the image parameter must be given in the form [[File:Example.jpg|300px]]. I fixed it with this edit. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 18:33, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm used to infoboxes that want only the file name without any formatting - I suppose Wiki-wide consistency would be too much to ask for :) Roger (talk) 18:37, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Michael Licona

My father-in-law is Michael Licona. Someone is impersonating him on Facebook and has edited his Wikipedia page to state falsehoods about him. For instance, my father-in-law was not born on November 25th, 1995. His actual birthday is 7-17-61. Can you please prevent this person from having access to editing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.142.60.166 (talk) 19:56, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Hello, we cannot do anything about the impersonation on Facebook since we are not associated with them so you should try contacting Facebook. However, there are editors keeping up with removing the false modification of his birthdate on the Wikipedia article and I will have my eyes on it as well. Thanks for letting us know. Cheers, SassyLilNugget (talk) 20:53, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

And of course, it's also possible that the person on Facebook is another person, also named Michael Licona. I know there are other Mike Lowreys there besides me. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:24, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Format of initials in titles of biographies

I have noticed that articles about two current South African Test cricketers who are known by their initials have been moved from what I would consider to be the correct format, involving the use of periods and spaces, to an abbreviated form utilising no periods and no spaces. I cannot see anything in the style guidelines that clarifies standard format. The articles in question are JP Duminy and AB de Villiers which, in my opinion, should be titled J. P. Duminy and A. B. de Villiers, the latter currently a redirect. In both cases, the use of initials is correct per WP:COMMONNAME and it is only a question of formatting. Please advise. Thank you. --Old Lanky (talk) 22:10, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I agree with you (and see for example J. K. Simmons) so I have moved the former to J. P. Duminy and will make a request at WP:RM to move the latter.--ukexpat (talk) 13:30, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

On reflection, the J. K. Simmons analogy doesn't apply as this is a hyphenated name, so I have moved it back.--ukexpat (talk) 14:20, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

Jump the queue? (doi)

I've been waiting patiently (more than "a few minutes") for the doi-bot to do its thing. Should I "jump the queue"? Does that mean jump to the head of the queue? - jump out of the queue? -or- ? (Re: Tarantula#References) ~Eric F 74.60.29.141 (talk) 22:48, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Looks like someone already has done it for you ([1]) but in the future by all means jump the queue if you like - nobody's going to tell you off! SmartSE (talk) 23:18, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, ~E:74.60.29.141 (talk) 00:14, 2 November 2012 (UTC)