Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 March 1

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March 1

Boilerplate prose copied from another article

Moved discussion to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Roads#Boilerplate prose copied from another article --Chaswmsday (talk) 01:22, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm looking for the specific policy or guideline about making boilerplate copies of prose from one article which repeat fundamental points about that article into tangentially-related articles (not daughter pages where a summary might be appropriate). This seems very simple, but I can't find a good reference. Thanks. --Chaswmsday (talk) 20:10, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Does WP:COPYWITHIN help?--ukexpat (talk) 20:13, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

WP:COPYPASTE looks like it applies. See the bottom section -- it covers copying from one Wikipedia article to another. You must preserve attribution. RudolfRed (talk) 20:15, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Of course another consideration, aside from the above, is whether the copied text is being used in an unacceptable WP:FORK.--ukexpat (talk) 20:28, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

WP:COPYWITHIN seems to talk about attribution, WP:COPYPASTE says that you can/may copy from another article, but not whether that is advisable. It's sort of a WP:FORK, but it only duplicates a piece of the article, not full duplication. I'm concerned about unnecessarily creating {{Sync}} problems and the plain fact that details about a tangential topic don't belong in articles linking to that topic.

Here's an example: The last paragraph in Ohio State Route 444#Route description talks about the defining characteristics of the National Highway System (United States), the overall maintenance responsibilities of the Ohio Department of Transportation and the definition of average annual daily traffic. These facts, IMO, should be left to those articles; a reader wishing to learn more could easily navigate to those articles.

The editor in question has changed several articles in this manner. I could address with him/her individually, but I wanted to find specific guidelines first. --Chaswmsday (talk) 20:49, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

I agree with your position. One approach would be to use {{Main}} or {{See also}} templates to link back to the more general stuff making navigation easier and getting rid of unnecessary bloat.--ukexpat (talk) 21:03, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, but it's not even a summary-type article, so Main wouldn't really apply; there is appropriate content, just too much that's tangential, so See Also probably also wouldn't apply. When I searched though the Help pages, I was rather astonished this topic wasn't clearly addressed. --Chaswmsday (talk) 21:12, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It's not boilerplate prose copied from another article, per se. It's a half-sentencen or single sentence explanation/definition in the form of a paraphrased quotation offered inline and quoted to its original source. In the case of the NHS definition, standard practice is to quote the Federal Highway Administration's page that explains the NHS, so we are not truly copying text from one article to another. Rather we are repeating a standard quotation and citation across multiple articles. If the reader wants more detail about the background, legal foundation and detailed designation of the subsystems of the NHS involved, the link is provided.

As for ODOT's maintenance responsibility, that must be mentioned, and not implied, in the text of the article. The infobox at the top right corner of the should already be mentioning the maintaining agency for a roadway, and all information in the infobox, like the rest of the lead, should be repeated elsewhere in the body of the article. The infobox would not serve as a good summary of an article if it mentioned unique details not supplied in the prose someplace.

As for the short definition of AADT, good writing says that we can offer a short explanation inline to avoid sending a reader to another article. This practice was upheld in several articles I took to FAC, including U.S. Route 2 in Michigan. I agree that if we delved into more technical explanations of the AADT concept that it would be tangential, but the summation and explanation of the concept offered in the articles in question is fine.

In short, I disagree with the notion that there is a problem, and I would submit that if these articles are taken higher up the assessment scale, these shorts of details being removed by Chaswmsday would need to be reinserted to satisfy expectations of good writing. Imzadi 1979 → 01:09, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

uss ward dd139

if genetics repeats we need the uss ward dd139 artcle altered for the family code name REDODOD roger earl davidson outerbridge also known as thomas jefferson davidson thus REDODOD we are the owners of Harley Davidson genetically speaking grandmother is 103 years old...

<<apparent nonsense removed>>

...went to the top of the washington monument and ford theater larray caverns with grandmother — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.140.14.26 (talk) 21:52, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Do you have a question about using Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia? -- John of Reading (talk) 22:08, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It looks to me like machine-generated text. Maproom (talk) 13:52, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Now that it has been hidden from view, I can safely mention that there was an email address and, apparently, a couple of account passwords hiding inside it. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:25, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Heinz Tomate juice 50% les sodium

Hi I'm a client at Metro. I'm very disturbed that I'm unable to find any Heinz tomato juice with the 50% less Sodium. At a time when people are searching for products which are less salty this product is not carried by your your Metro stores in the Heinz name brand. A store such as yours with such a high magnitude of products dos not have a place in it for your this product. Unbelievable I believe that a primary concern even if it would be only for a few clients would be to supply them with wanted brand! Could you tell me of the problem or the reluctance to supply this product

Merlin Emslie — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.57.145.241 (talk) 22:15, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 4 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. FrigidNinja 22:17, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Saisha

I tried to submit an article:

Saisha comes from the Indian word which means, "God." Unknown word which means, "meaningful life-truth of life." Indian word which means, "with the grace of God." Unknown word which means, ""The girls name Saisha sa(i)-sha is of Sanskrit origin, and its meaning is "meaningful life-truth of life". The name of a Hindi princess, and a name that appears in religious chants." Someone also suggested the name is an Marathi word which means, "Flower of God."

I cannot get it to work online. Please help get information on the name and origin of Saisha posted. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.12.161.158 (talk) 00:00, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for your attempt to contribute, but I'm sorry that what you wrote above is not suitable for use in Wikipedia, which is a collection of information from reliable sources. It must be verifiable, and requires proper English grammar, spelling, coherence, etc. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 23:07, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

A bot not archiving my page properly

Howdy all. Does anyone know why ClueBot III isn't archiving my talk page properly? I've asked the bot operator twice (once in December 2012 and once in January 2013) but I haven't gotten a response. I know this may be a long shot asking here, but it can't hurt to ask.--Rockfang (talk) 00:14, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

If you're having problems with ClueBot III, you might want to try another bot, such as MiszaBot III. FrigidNinja 01:31, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for replying. I have previously used that bot, but it stopped archiving my page for some reason. I left a message for the operator of that bot as well, but never got a response.--Rockfang (talk) 05:02, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't know the bot's code, but I can't see anything wrong with your talk page. As you'll see from the history, I had no problem saving the edit that the bot should have made. How about re-doing today's archiving by hand and then turning archiving back on to see if it recovers? -- John of Reading (talk) 22:26, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Cardiac dysrhythmia

Are you aware of how convoluted the process is for reporting an edited page? Anywho, I was on Cardiac dysrhythmia page and noticed an abnormal sentence. Please review it. Something about choking on something long and hard, that could be black or white. I'm guessing this has been edited and is a penis reference.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.151.118.4 (talk • contribs)

Childish vandalism reverted in this edit. If you see such vandalism again, please pitch in and fix it yourself!--ukexpat (talk) 01:27, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Page wiggles?

what is wrong with this page:

Charlie Greene

It "wiggles", see? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.83.191.192 (talk) 02:34, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I added a header to your question to seperate it from the one above. The page doesn't wiggle for me, it looks fine. RudolfRed (talk) 02:37, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

No wiggles for me, either. Are you sure you aren't wiggling and the page standing still? (See first sentence of Motion (physics)). Rivertorch (talk) 06:47, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

This may be the problem I ran into a couple of days ago: pages would load and then a line or two of text would go fuzzy. This was Firefox 17; it's gone away after I upgraded to Firefox 19. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:47, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Merge or combine two user accounts

Is it possible to merge or combine two user accounts? I apparently opened a new, duplicate account after forgetting that I had previously created one years ago in college. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Myc3 (talk • contribs) 03:45, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I don't think so. If you can still login to your old account, then just stop using your new one. RudolfRed (talk) 04:18, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia doesn't merge user accounts or contributions (it was possible in the past, but not anymore). What you could do is chose one account, discontinue using the other, and mention on your userpage that you have also used the other account both for attribution purposes and to avoid sockpuppet accusations. You can read more about legitimate alternative accounts here Chamal ^T•C 04:45, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Sockpuppetry is the use of multiple accounts for deception. As long as you use only one account, or as long as you use both accounts while mentioning on their user pages that they're used by the same person (e.g. "[accountname] is also me"), you clearly won't be attempting to deceive people, so you'll be fine. Nyttend (talk) 13:00, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Leading space in if statements

Is it possible to make the output of an #if formula include a space as the first character?

Background: I have a template (Template:Canadian election result/top) that creates a link based on several parameters (year, jurisdiction, and election type). I want to add another parameter that will change the link from [[existing formula]] to [[existing formula ballot {{{ballot}}}]]. The problem is that the #if statement ignores the space before the word "ballot", and there doesn't seem to be an html code to insert a normal space, and I wouldn't want a non-breaking space in an article title. I could resolve this by adding a comma before the word "ballot", but I'm curious about whether there is any way to force the #if statement to recognize the leading space. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 04:16, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Check out the {{Sp}} template. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:54, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Mathematical formatting and illustrations

Resolved

I recently created stub articles Stadium (geometry) and Capsule (geometry) which contain a few brief mathematical formulas written in "plain" text. Can someone who knows how please apply the correct formatting. Graphical representations of the subjects would also help improve the articles but I don't have the necessary tools to produce the drawings. Unfortunately I have not been able to find freely usable illustrations to import. Roger (talk) 07:25, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Do you think these are correct? I have applied them to those pages. These are the formulas in Stadium (geometry).

$P=2(\Pi r+a)$

$A=\Pi r^{2}+2ra$

And these are the formulas used in Capsule (geometry).

$\Pi r^{2}({\frac {4}{3}}r+a)$

$2\Pi r(2r+a)$

If there is any mistake let me know. --Ushau97 ^{talk contribs} 09:57, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! I'm not a mathematician by any stretch (I just barely managed to survive high school algebra half a lifetime ago!) so I'm not sure if it really makes a difference, but in the cited source for the Capsule (geometry)'s volume formula the 4/3 is enclosed in parentheses, which iirc means the formula reads as "four thirds of the sum of r and a" as opposed to "four thirds of r is added to a". Roger (talk) 11:27, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I believe that the formulae are correct (and in agreement with the cited sources). But I wonder why you use an upper-case pi? I believe that $\pi$ is usual for this ratio, while $\Pi$ denotes "product" in the way that $\Sigma$ denotes sum. Maproom (talk) 11:53, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I think that 4/3 enclosed in brackets is the same as 4/3 not enclosed in brackets (as far as my knowledge of mathematics is concerned) in this equation. 4/3 means it is multiplied with r, so it is the same thing. And User:Maproom, yeah I agree that lower case should be used. I have corrected the pi. Cheers.--Ushau97 ^{talk contribs} 12:00, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

"πr2((4/3)r + a)" is the same as $\pi r^{2}({\frac {4}{3}}r+a)$, so it was a proper format conversion. Nyttend (talk) 12:56, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! Where should I go to request illustrations - pictures being worth a 1000 words each? Roger (talk) 13:16, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I will create and add an illustration for Stadium (geometry). I don't know how to do 3d things, nor where to ask for them. Maproom (talk) 13:59, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Graphics Lab/Illustration workshop is the place to go for requesting the creation of new illustrations. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 14:03, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

how to publish an articel

Hi, I'm a new wikipedia users, I've just made ​​the first article about Riri Fitri Sari, please help how to articles can be read by everyone .. thank you .. :) --Trisand23 (talk) 07:56, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi there! Welcome to Wikipedia! Believe it or not, the page you have created can ALREADY be read by everyone. Congratulations! However, you seem to have copied a significant portion of the page from the website that is shown in the header that hangs above your article. Where possible, kindly rephrase the sentences. Thank you! ★ Oliverlyc ★ ✈✈✈ Pop me a message! 08:04, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi, Oliverlyc, I have seen articles that I created but i found no the 'copied' is. Can I ask your help to correct my article? : ) thank you very much..--Trisand23 (talk) 08:31, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I have deleted the page; it was a word-for-word copy of her University profile, which is copyrighted by the University. Yunshui 雲‍水 08:35, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

That's exactly what turns me off here at Wikipedia: A new editor comes here with good intentions and politely asks for help, and before she even gets a word in, her work is deleted. And yes, she put quite some work in beyond the original: The article was completelyextensively wikified. Such an article could serve as a basis for improvement. Of course I know WP:CSD, and it may meet several of them. But why bite the newbie with such rabid haste? This is the Help desk, after all! — Sebastian 08:50, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Because the prohibition against copyright violations is not simply an "internal" rule dreamt up one day by a cabal of admins with nothing better to do. It is in fact one of a handful of rules that if violated can have serious legal consequences. Such violations break the law (of the United States in this case as the Wikimedia Foundation's legal address is in the state of Florida AFAIK) and cannot be allowed under any circumstances whatsoever. Roger (talk) 09:02, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

↑ What Roger said. I might add that the page was not "completely wikified"; when I said it was a word-for-word copy, I was being completely literal. Both the original and the version that Tristand23 recreated a few minutes after deletion were identical in text to the source, which is clearly and unambiguously labelled as being copyrighted by the Information System Development & Services department of the University Of Indonesia. Yunshui 雲‍水 09:12, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

That actually illustrates my point. A collaborative effort can not solely rely on laws; one needs to apply a minimum of common sense, as well. Does any of you seriously believe that the copyright holder in this case would immediately sue Wikipedia if this article were kept for a reasonable time, so that the new user gets a chance to at least get a word in edgewise before she is presented with a fait accompli? With a little bit of WP:AGF, this could have been solved in a humane way. — Sebastian 19:04, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Regarding the wikified/identical question: I just looked at the deleted article; it did contain extensive wikification, including an infobox, categories, interlanguage links, templates such as {{Indonesian name}} and a lot of links. Admittedly, some of these aren't very helpful, such as the repetitions of "Prof. Dr.", so I'm taking back the "completely wikified". Still, there evidently was a lot of wiki work involved; I don't see how you can deny that. This clearly was an effort by someone with great potential. — Sebastian 19:46, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

This page is very helpful: Wikipedia:Your first article. --Guy Macon (talk) 08:37, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Trisand23, I have started User:Trisand23/Riri Fitri Sari. It includes references to sources about Professor Riri Fitri Sari. They are written in my own words, not copied from the sources. I hope this helps you. Peter in Australia, Wikipedia username --Shirt58 (talk) 09:54, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

How to find templates?

Resolved

Recently, I noticed a certain inline template (like {{convert}}) in an article, and I just realized the need for it in another article. Since I didn't remember where I saw it, I tried to find it. But neither WP:Template nor WP:List of templates were of any help; they both just redirect to WP:Template messages, which only covers householding messages such as {{disambiguation needed}} and {{misleading}}. Is there really no WP page that lists non-message templates (templates intended for the article text itself), such as {{convert}}, {{lang-it}} and {{main}}? As I am writing this, I am remembering the article, and found the template in question: {{Formatprice}}, so I'm making this a general question. — Sebastian 08:06, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Browsing around Category:Wikipedia templates would hopefully help. Roger (talk) 08:41, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you! Doh, I could have thought of that! — Sebastian 08:51, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Search>Advanced>Template and search for a keyword. Alternatively, if you think you know what it starts with, just typing Template:Foo in the search box gives a drop down of templates that start with Foo. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 22:47, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

My other account

I created account "Okklahoma", but now created "Oklahomma" to avoid misunderstandings regarding the Ku Klux Klan. Can anybody delete that account? Thank you. Oklahomma (talk) 12:01, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi. Unfortunately, accounts cannot be deleted as your contributions to the project stay recorded forever. Usually, you can have your old account's name changed by putting in a request at Wikipedia:Changing username. You can usually request a change to a random string of letters. Hope that helps, iComputerSaysNo 12:42, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Also relevant here is WP:Right to vanish. - Purplewowies (talk) 12:50, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Redirect or section link

Resolved

When linking to a specific section from an article, should I directly link to that section using the section header like [[Article#section name]] or should I create a redirect to that section and link to the redirect instead? Is one of the two methods preferred over the other and if so, why? -- Toshio Yamaguchi 12:42, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You may be safer creating an anchor & linking to that, just in case someone changes the section title. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:55, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I created an anchor at the target page and linked to that one. Thank you. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 13:24, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Citing a website based on a book

Resolved

If a website I want to use as a citation is based on a book which I cannot access, should I cite the website or the original book? This is important, because whether I should use {{Cite web}} or {{cite book}} depends on that. This is the website I want to cite. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 13:01, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You should cite the Web site; one never cites a work that one hasn't seen. In this case, the author says that the information is only "im Wesentlichen" derived from the book in question, so there may be differences of wording etc. Deor (talk) 14:22, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I changed the citation in my draft to a website citation. Thank you. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 14:40, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

French speaking editor

I'm looking for an editor to help upload a logo to the French Wikipedia.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:13, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Is that logo copyrighted? It seems to me copyrighted images generally cannot be used on the French Wikipedia per a poll held in 2011. This Google translation of Wikipédia:Exceptions au droit d'auteur says that logos are an exception to that rule. I found Fichier:Burger King.svg and it seems they have copyright tags but no non-free use rationales like EN Wikipedia, though that is just a guess based on this single example. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 14:30, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I'd suggest that you ask for help at the fr:WP:HD, fr:Wikipédia:Questions techniques. Write your question in English (being sure to specify that you don't speak French, so they don't wonder why you're using English) and either copy/paste an automatic translation or say "Someone please translate this"; there are plenty of people who speak English, so you should be able to get help rather fast. They'll also be better equipped to help you with their policies on copyrighted logos than most French-speaking editors here would be. Nyttend (talk) 14:58, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. On the one hand, I was assuming that they would have a counterpart to non-free rationales, on the other hand, the very reason I'm asking is that I understand the process may be different. The image is a copyrighted logo, I recommended that they not license it with a free license, because of the non-free rationale option on en Wiki. We'll have to see what makes most sense on fr Wiki.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 15:13, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

editing ISDA page

I really need admin help in preventing changes to Wikipedia page “ISDA” (International Swaps and Derivatives Association).

My username on Wikipedia is ‘prokurator’. However I work for ISDA headquarter in New York and in January made significant changes to our company page to reflect all news and current state of the company.

User ‘ukexpat’ reverted it to old version which is outdated.

I just made all my changes back and would like to know how I can prevent someone who does not work for ISDA to alter this page.

Your help is highly appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Prokurator (talk • contribs) 14:14, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

As Ukexpat has told you, you cannot prevent other people editing the page. You don't own the article. In fact, you ought to read Wikipedia's position on conflict of interest before you even touch the article. If the article is out of date, then start a discussion on the article's talk page with links to updated information; someone else can then assess the changes that are needed.

Please remember that Wikipedia isn't here to advertise the ISDA, which your version of the article did, nor can Wikipedia use text in breach of copyright. Bencherlite^Talk 14:20, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You may be surprised, but we would prefer just the opposite. Anyone working for ISDA has a conflict of interest, and should propose changes on the talk page. Changes to the article should be made by editors who are NOT employed by ISDA.--SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:23, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

This user ended up reverting the article repeatedly, and so was blocked. I've asked them to give us the inaccuracies in the current text, so that we non-employees can have a look - but, yeah. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 15:17, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Removing a Reference on A Page

HI, I need to remove a reference link under the "References" section of my company's Wikipedia page, but when I click the "edit" button, the link does not show up to remove. Any ideas?— Preceding unsigned comment added by Tkbranno (talk • contribs)

You generally should not be removing content on a page about your company. You don't own the article. In fact, you ought to read Wikipedia's position on conflict of interest before you even touch the article. If the reference is incorrect, then start a discussion on the article's talk page with links to corrected information; someone else can then assess the changes that are needed. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:27, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

But the answer to your technical query is that references are edited in the section where they are used, not where they are displayed. --ColinFine (talk) 19:59, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

What are these watchlist notices?

There are a couple of watchlist notices currently DC edit-a-thon and Legislative Data Workshop that are not the same watchlist notice that can be found at MediaWiki:Watchlist-details. What page deals with the former notices? Ryan Vesey 16:39, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I see only one watchlist notice about a proposal regarding WebCite. That is also the only notice I see at MediaWiki:Watchlist-details. I know that this isn't a very helpful response, but that's all I can say at the moment. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 19:21, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

It's gone for me now too. When it appears, it exists above "Watchlist options and notices" rather than in the box and is written in large font gray text. Ryan Vesey 19:31, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Interestingly, I checked for changes in the MediaWiki namespace since it disappeared and there haven't been any relevant ones. I think it comes and goes more or less (and there's an option to hide it, like a site banner). I'll try to take a screenshot next time. Ryan Vesey 19:36, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Also save the HTML source of the page, as there may be clues in comments or in the names of the HTML elements nearby. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:05, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Here's what I'm talking about [1]. The HTML source is saved in a text file, but I haven't been able to find anything in it. I threw it into a sandbox and it didn't have the notice, but had everything else. Ryan Vesey 02:51, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

It's a Wikipedia:Geonotice from MediaWiki:Geonotice.js. It's displayed to you because your IP address appears to be in the DC area. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:13, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Is it okay to upload a non-free image for an AfC article?

I'm writing an article and want to use a non-free logo that identifies the subject. Am I allowed to upload this logo for an article that's still in-progress at Wikipedia:Articles for creation? Flumpu (talk) 17:29, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

• Non-free images are not allowed outside of the article namespace so no. It's a bit of a burden, but it's an important one (otherwise non-free images might remain in AfC in articles that aren't passed or finished). You can upload the logo as soon as the page is moved. Ryan Vesey 17:40, 1 March 2013 (UTC)
• Many company images are uploaded to commons because they are not eligible for copyright. See: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:TOO You could see if it survives deletion review over there. If it is deleted than upload here as fair use.--Canoe1967 (talk) 17:51, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

• The logo certainly doesn't appear to be PD. Please don't suggest to people that they upload something to commons to "see if it survives deletion review". Nothing should be uploaded to commons unless the uploader knows it's PD. Ryan Vesey 17:56, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

I haven't seen the logo in question and I should have been more clear. What many do is upload them and then ask if they are PD or not. I have actually tagged some of my uploads for deletion review just to insure they have consensus as opposed to yes/no responses from commons/pump/copyright.--Canoe1967 (talk) 18:30, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Porn stars

Can we see porn stars nude and see celebritys nude — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.108.115.47 (talk) 18:18, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You would probably have to ask them very nicely, and see what they say. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:34, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

This is Wikipedia. Try www.boobpedia.com and click on "Celebrities".--Shantavira|^{feed me} 20:41, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Renata Adler. In the non-fiction section. Correction.

After "without proof." (footnote 8) insert

"Adler rebutted that accusation in an article "Court of No Appeal" published in Harper's magazine, August 2000." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.9.222.104 (talk) 20:35, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

[Removed leading space for readability] ~Okay... so fix it!  ;)  This help desk is here to help you do that. If you have questions relating to editing please feel free to ask.  ~Regards,~Eric  — Preceding helpful comment added by 74.60.29.141 (talk) 20:59, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

The syntax for that would be:

<ref>Adler rebutted that accusation in an article "Court of No Appeal" published in ''Harper's magazine'', August 2000.</ref>

It would be good to include a link to the article, if possible. ~I hope this helps, ~Eric — Preceding good-faith comment added by 74.60.29.141 (talk) 21:12, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Help deleting multiple confusing articles about the same person

Hi, can someone please help me to delete two pages and keep the correct version. The articles I'm talking about are these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_T._Sehlberg and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_sehlberg&redirect=no

The Correct article should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_T._Sehlberg without an redirect as it is right now.

I'm new to this so would be glad if someone could help med doing this.Ovetove (talk) 20:46, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

The article titles policy reminds us that article titles should be recognisable, natural, precise, concise and consitent. Further, we are told that "[t]he most common name for a subject, as determined by its prevalence in reliable English-language sources, is often used as a title because it is recognizable and natural". Our one and only article on Dan Sehlberg has the title Dan Sehlberg, which matches the source in that article. To help readers of the encyclopaedia, we often provide alternate titles as redirects, which is an editing guideline. In this particular case, there are at least two alternate titles, Dan T. Sehlberg and Dan sehlberg, which redirect to Dan Sehlberg. This is normal Wikipedia practice --Senra (talk) 21:13, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Problem with math symbols on Win 8 with IE

I recently bought an HP laptop running Windows 8, browser Internet Explorer. When I open Wickipedia's articles on mathematics, the math symbols displayed are only barely readable if you know what to be looking for. They are very fuzzy and seem made up of dots. Is there something I can change in my machine or in Wickipedia to have its math symbols cleanly displayed? Any advice appreciated. Novice31 (talk) 22:19, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Help:Displaying a formula may provide some guidance. For example, you could try the MathJax renderer (which requires JavaScript) by selecting it in your preferences. You have not told us the model of your laptop nor any specific page or pages that are displaying the problem for you. It is my understanding that the standard math tags (which most of Wikipedia uses) display math symbols fine on most modern browsers, including Internet Explorers 9 and 10. Perhaps it is an incorrect display setting? --Senra (talk) 22:51, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Further information. Your preferences page has three settings in the math section as follows

• Always render PNG (default which is what I use on Safari; works great on iPad and iPhone too!)
• Leave it as TeX (for text browsers)
• MathJax (experimental; best for most browsers)

--Senra (talk) 23:15, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Previewing a redirect edit (again)

Back last April I ran upon a problem with edit mode for a redirect not showing included templates and categories. Well, I've hit it again, but this time I think I've isolated a type of situation where it occurs: Yesterday I edited two redirects that had absolutely nothing but the #REDIRECT statement in them, added an "R from" template and did a preview. The results showed no categories (hidden or visible) nor any list of included templates. Saving the results and re-editing the redirects then showed everything the way it should be. Comments? Suggestions? Cbbkr (talk) 22:43, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:14, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Missing up/down arrows on sortable table

Hi! I've created a sortable table, and I can't get the up/down arrows to show up in the header row. I looked in different places to find info about it but have come up short. Could someone help me troubleshoot or fix this problem? The table is on my sandbox page. Thanks! -- BroJohnE (talk) 23:00, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You can do this by changing the table class to class="wikitable sortable". You have to make sure that the values in the table are properly formatted to allow sorting though, and there are sorting templates you can use in the table to make things easier. See Help:Sorting for a more detailed description. Chamal ^T•C 01:45, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

I had already consulted the page you mentioned and built the table accordingly. The table works. I can sort with no trouble. The only problem is that there are no up/down arrows in the header row to show that the columns are sortable. Please go to my sandbox page and check it out for yourself :-) -- BroJohnE (talk) 15:25, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

how to do a block entry for an article

I am trying to do a major upgrade to a Wikipedia article as an assignment in my undergraduate science class. I find the material i have seen so far to be very confusing and dominated by text editing issues, which distract from the content. I would like to let the class create an article that can essentially replace the present one as a single entry. Are there instructions how to do this? Max Snodderly (talk) 23:03, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

It is not clear to me what you are trying to do. If an article needs a major upgrade, I don't think a classful of undergraduates are the right people to do it. And do you plan to have them all editing the same article at the same time? That sounds like a recipe for chaos.

I assume your main objective is to teach your students about editing, rather than teach them about the relevant science. If I am right, what might be sensible is to have each member of the class create an account; have them each copy an article (all the same article, or all different articles, as you choose) into their own sandbox; and have them each try to improve the version in their sandbox. Once you have vetted the results, you could decide which of their changes merited being applied to the real live article. Maproom (talk) 23:23, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

And generally, see advice for school and university projects.--ukexpat (talk) 02:20, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Do recognize, with the method suggested above, that someone else can edit the article after you have copied it, and you would need to keep track of what time you copied the original. If you want to update the live version of the article, and there have been edits by others since (based on timestamps on the history page), you would need to merge their edits with yours instead of just copying the article back again. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 01:02, 3 March 2013 (UTC)