Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 May 12

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May 12

Is This Man Notable Enough for a Wikipedia Article?

Would serving on a city police court (such as what Robert A. Early did) be notable enough for creating a Wikipedia article for him? As a side note, he (as far as we know) lived to age 111, and he is already mentioned on the Oldest people Wikipedia page as the (possible) oldest living man in 1960 (and possibly before). The reason that I'm asking is that I am willing to create a Wikipedia article about him, but I do not want this article to get deleted afterwards. Futurist110 (talk) 01:06, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

How much source text has been written about this man's life? That's the only question worth asking. If there's enough reliable text written about his life to use as references to write a reasonably complete Wikipedia article about him, then go for it. If there is not enough really good, reliable source text, then don't. --Jayron32 03:52, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

He has been covered in several different newspaper articles, but all of these newspaper articles were written when he was between age 100 and age 111. Some supercentenarians previously had their Wikipedia articles deleted despite these supercentenarians having large media coverage, since some people felt that these supercentenarians were not notable enough to have their own Wikipedia articles. Thus, I am wondering if being a city police judge is notable enough to have one's own Wikipedia article, especially combined with the fact that a man being a supercentenarian in the 1950s and 1960s was an extremely rare occurrence. Futurist110 (talk) 04:38, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Meherban Govindrao Patwardhan

The reference to Meherban Govindrao Patwardhan of Miraj being the eldest of the 3 mentioned is wrong. It was Trimbakrao, Govindrao & Ramchandrarao. Refer the Patwardhan Family Tree/website:kurundwad-junior.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hariharrao Patwardhan (talk • contribs) 03:32, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

I can't find any reference to Meherban Govindrao Patwardhan anywhere in the English Wikipedia. Can you tell us which article you're referring to ? Rojomoke (talk) 04:52, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

If there is an error in an article, the article's talk page is the appropriate place to discuss the facts. Please do not edit the article yourself if you have a conflict of interest. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:19, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Access to GeoHack from wikipage coordinates

I teach a course in archaeology at my college, and up until this time I routinely had my students use the long/lat coordinates on various Wikipedia pages to find major archaeological sites on Google Earth (e.g., Maiden Castle, Dorset, England) by simply clicking on the coordinates on the wiki page. That would normally take my students automatically to GeoHack, where they could then copy and paste the GeoHack coordinates into the Google Earth search window. This generally obviated the need for students to learn GIS in order to participate in the class. However, I noticed this evening that an attempt to do this (to click on the coordinates on the wiki page and go directly to GeoHack) is no longer working. This link has apparently been broken. Would you be able to explain why this is so? I would like for my students to be able to use this wonderful link option.

In order that you understand how I am using this activity in the classroom, I've attached an instruction file that I give my students at the beginning of the semester. Again, this is to facilitate the participation of students in the class who are not familiar with the use of UTM, lat/long or other coordinate systems.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

John — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnww12 (talk • contribs) 03:57, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

I removed the duplicate question. Can you provie a link to an article where this feature isn't working? RudolfRed (talk) 04:53, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The coordinates link uses the "Toolserver". There's an opinion at the technical help desk that it should be working again "before long". -- John of Reading (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Authors

How do you find the authors on wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.46.150.156 (talk) 05:34, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

If you click on the history tab for any article, it will show you all the editors that have contributed. RudolfRed (talk) 06:29, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Often when someone is trying to find the authors (or publication date, etc), they are trying to cite Wikipedia for a school paper. For that, please see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. If you're just trying to find out who put some bit of info in an article, then yes, the history tab is what you want. Dismas|^(talk) 06:44, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Clicking on coordinates on a page give me a 404 error

The links to the toolserver.org/~geohack page is getting a 404 error on all pages I click on the coordinates

One example is on the page for Santa Fe Trail Remains

This is the example link from the page https://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Santa_Fe_Trail_Remains&params=37_47_31_N_100_11_49_W_region:US-KS_type:landmark

I also tried some other pages with coordinates and they also give me a 404 error

Here is another page that the coordinates link doesn't work: Thistle, Utah — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cadfile (talk • contribs) 05:40, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

How do we go to the page with the links for the various maps to view the coordinates? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cadfile (talk • contribs) 05:37, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The error page has an e-mail address. I suggest you use that to report the error. RudolfRed (talk) 06:21, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The toolserver problems are discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#FYI: Toolserver web tools and bots down. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:10, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Links not up to date

Journey and Steve Perry links are not up to date. Please fix. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.20.137.40 (talk) 08:26, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

There must be over 100 links altogether in the two articles. Which ones need fixing? Maproom (talk) 10:39, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Userbox Template:Travel

Is there a real template for this? (You know, a template to show which places you've been to before.) QM 400032 (talk) 10:23, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

There are many in Category:Location user templates and Category:Travel user templates. You can also make your own, for example with {{Userbox}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:52, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Year of foundation of American Apparel

I think article American Apparel has some problem with the information about year of establishment. I have changed the information in the infobox, but not in a paragraph.

Could you please check it with a pair of fresh eyes? Thanks, New worl (talk) 11:11, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

I have reverted your edits.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 12:12, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, PrimeHunter. You said there that 'A Google search on American Apparel 1989 finds lots of reliable sources saying 1989. It moved to Los Angeles in 1997, your source probably confused that with the foundation'.

Did you search "American Apparel established 1997" v. "American Apparel established 1989". The former has results from americanapparel.net (official site), NY Times, etc. It also has 209.000 results v. 148.000 New worl (talk) 13:24, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The Internet in general has more mentions of 1997 than 1989. The hits for 1997 at americanapparel.net are copies of press stories by independent parties. The founder says 1989. See for example http://www.dovcharney.com/. http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=187 uses the formulation "Founded (in earnest) in 1997". Maybe it's a matter of interpretation whether to count the years before the Los Angeles establishment in 1997. Our article discusses the company history going back to 1989 so it would be odd to say in the same article that the company was founded in 1997, at least without some clarification. It's possible (I don't know) that "American Apparel, Inc." was founded in 1997. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:07, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, PrimeHunter. The founder said generally that: 1990 marked the beginning of my manufacturing career. It was in 1989... I think we can not use that info to interpret that AA was founded in 1989. Just my 2c. I am rather new here so that's why I go to the help desk. New worl (talk) 14:36, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Surely the founding of a company involves legal-administrative actions, so there should be a definitive specific date for it - "in earnest" is meaningless waffle because a company either does or does not exist - its a binary, like pregnancy. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 15:16, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

I agree with you, Roger (Dodger67). New worl (talk) 16:24, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Your quote continues "It was in 1989, during my second year of school at Tufts". The same page also says "It was during my freshman year at Tufts, that my T-shirt company took on the trade name American Apparel". So company and name goes back to 1989. I don't know when it became "American Apparel, Inc." where "Inc." means Incorporation (business), but I don't think this should determine when we say the company was founded when the founder says 1989 and there may just have been some sort of official restructuring later. If it's run by the same guy under the same name and producing the same product then it seems like the same company for encyclopedic purposes. For some legal or trade purposes it may be a different matter but we are an encyclopedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:56, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

TV show contestant sources

Hello all,
Ok, so I've got an article that I'm working with that is about a contestant on the TV show survivor. I was wondering if we have a policy about A), the reliability of interviews with a subject as a source, and B), the reliability of CBS, the host network of Survivor, in this situation. Howicus (talk) 12:19, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

P.S. I haven't stated the name of the article because the article has been the subject of quite a bit of tension, and I don't want this to be construed as an indirect form of canvassing. Howicus (talk) 12:19, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Interviews with a subject are primary sources: they can support that the subject said something, but not that the something is true (obviously it often will be true, but this is still not a reliable source). As for the reliability of the network, it depends. Reliability of a source depends on many things, including what it is to be used to support. I rather think that information aired by a TV network will range from the solidly reliable to the wildly speculative, depending on the kind of programme and the particular presenter. The best place to ask is at WP:RSN. --ColinFine (talk) 14:23, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Unable to add interlanguage links

Linking a page to the equivalent page in another language used to be easy -- it involved placing the link code at the end of the article alongside the other interlanguage links. But now the interlanguage links have been separated from the rest of the article. And every time I try to add a link and save it, I the following message: "An error occurred while trying to perform save and because of this, your changes could not be completed." When I click on "details", I am told: "Site link [enwiki:x] already used by item [Qy]". What is going on? Kallionae (talk) 12:33, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

The new system makes it easier to coordinate links at different languages. Which link are you trying to add to which page? Does it literally say "[enwiki:x] already used by item [Qy]", or did you replace other names with "x" and "y"? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:57, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

)ec)Those links are now provided by another branch of Wikimedia called WikiiData. You need to add it to the data structure there. I am not sure if your particular case is the result of some other English Wikipedia page already being linked to the new article name you created, though. Rmhermen (talk) 13:02, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Only one article in any particular Wikipedia may be linked to a signle entry in Wikidata. When you get that message, it says that another item in Wikidata is already linked to this article. Usually this means that the two Wikidata entries in question are really the same, and should be merged; sometimes it turns out that the other one is less appropriate for this article, and you should edit the other item to remove the link to this article; then you will be able to add it to the original item. --ColinFine (talk) 14:29, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Where is the "Wikidata for dummies" manual? I need paint-by-numbers-level instructions on how to add an interwiki. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 14:39, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Have you seen Help:Interlanguage links#Wikidata and Wikipedia:Wikidata? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:39, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! It's vastly improved since I last looked at it. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:06, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

"cite error" message

Hello, I have inserted references using Wikipedia's instructions but the error message "Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a <references /> tag " persists. However, the references are on the page anyway, so I cannot understand why the error message persists. Please help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by User:Impressionistic (talk • contribs)

Presuming you are referring to Lee Bracegirdle. You have <ref> tags after the <referenences /> tag. <ref> tags are placed in the content to support the preceding statement. --  Gadget850 ^talk 13:30, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Hello gadget850 - thanks for your help; all fixed Impressionistic (talk) 15:00, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Now it's really fixed. I've removed the unnecessary repetition of references after the reflist. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 15:10, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

SHOTGUNS FOR THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE

Hello there. I am lost. I was looking for some information on the firearms used by the ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE. I have a shotgun made by Mossberg it looks just like a model 500A but is marked ( LAKEFIELD MOSSBERG MADE IN CANADA 400G 12GA ). And on the side it has ( PROPERTY OF THE MINESTRY ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE ). I don't see it listed as a firearm that is used by the ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE. Can you give me any information on this shotgun? The ser. num. is #G543xxx . The shotgun has a 16 inch barrel and is pistol griped at both ends like a tommy gun. Thank you very much for anything you may be able to do for me. I would also be interested in volunteering and we can discuss that at another time — Preceding unsigned comment added by OUTLAW1911 (talk • contribs) 13:27, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Hi, please kindly see information at the top of the page: This page is only for questions about using Wikipedia, not for general knowledge questions. If you have any factual questions, please use the search box or post them on the Reference desk. Best, New worl (talk) 14:05, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

They may be able to help you at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. The reference desk specializes in answering fact based questions while the help desk answers questions about editing the Wikipedia. RJFJR (talk) 14:25, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

My One Desire

is a song that was originally done on Ricky Nelson's album Rick Is 21 and covered for Stray Cats' eponymous debut album and their UK #9 hit Runaway Boys, and then covered by Freakwater on their album Old Paint, written by Dorsey Burnette. Is it worthy of an article?--Launchballer 15:12, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

See WP:NMUSIC -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 16:06, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Current status of Toolserver

Where can I see the real-time current status of Toolserver? Does anyone here know why it's been so flaky lately? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 16:23, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Toolserver status
Last update	10:00, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
MySQL rosemary	up
MySQL daphne	up
MySQL yarrow	up
Replag s1	0h 0m 0s
Replag s2	0h 0m 28s
Replag s3	0h 0m 21s
Replag s4	0h 0m 4s
Replag s5	0h 0m 2s
More status	Available here

{{Toolserver}} displays some statistics and links to pages that may help you. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:31, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

connect to espn3

please tell me how I can get espn3 service online — Preceding unsigned comment added by Msmith9171 (talk • contribs) 18:42, 12 May 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. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:24, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Woodpecker Wooliams article

Hello; I've recently added a fully extensive refernce list to an article in creation following a decline (for this reason). I am really struggling in navigating how to resubmit this article for review... I can't find any 'resubmit' buttons *anywhere*! Could someone point me to the right place / the best procedure, please? the article in question, is here:

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Woodpecker Wooliams

Many thanks DC — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dv8create (talk • contribs) 18:58, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

You removed the content at the top of the page that included the submit link. I've restored it. In the box it says "When you are ready to resubmit click here". RudolfRed (talk) 19:13, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you- very kind.

I recommend that before resubmitting, you make the article much more coherent. The first sentence says that the subject of the article is a "project", leaving the reader to wonder whether it is a score, a performance, or what. The third, fourth and fifth paragraphs appear unrelated to the subject. The final paragraph reveals that the subject is in fact a band. Maproom (talk) 20:29, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for the advice. I've hopefully made it more coherent now.

Is this website notable enough to deserve an article?

Is howtogeek.com notable enough to deserve an article? Alexa's global ranking for it is 2,371 and in the US it is 1,773 and 11,656 sites link into it. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/howtogeek.com. Thanks, Chihin.chong (tea and biscuits) 20:14, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Ranking is irrelevant, all that really matters is the availability of independent reliably sourced information about it. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 20:18, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

You should read over WP:WEB. Dismas|^(talk) 23:00, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Sorry and thanks for the brilliant welcome (sarcasm intended). I'll have a look. Chihin.chong (tea and biscuits) 15:50, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

The players championships

It says balls in my mouth for winner of the 2013 tournament. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.3.122.36 (talk) 23:21, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Gross. Care to give a link?--Launchballer 23:41, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

It was The Players Championship. The vandalism was quickly reverted. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:26, 13 May 2013 (UTC)