Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 September 23

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September 23

New to Wiki

Hello.

As you can see, this is my first time using Wikipedia as editor. I haven't used HTML or any similar programs for a long time and I heard that Wikipedia is somewhat different to them.

I've heard that Wiki editors uses conventions such as formatting, spelling, and grammar, as well as more general principles that go by acronyms such as NOR, NPOV, or even V. Also I plan to consult, and quote, other sources, in case I have to use them. I would like to learn all these on how to use them.

So if possible, can you help me to get started? That would be appreciated.

Thanks,

MrUnusual — Preceding unsigned comment added by MrUnusual135 (talk • contribs) 01:43, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

• Hi MrUnusual135, I put a welcome template and cheat sheet on your talk page. Ward20 (talk) 02:13, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

• You can usually find the meaning of a Wikipedia acronym by entering it in the search box with "WP:" in front, for example WP:NOR, WP:NPOV, WP:V. There is a long list at Wikipedia:Wikipedia abbreviations. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:23, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Sadako-Angels of the World

I summited info about "Sadako-Angels of the World" Motion Picture. I added reference link sadakomotionpicture.com why was it deleted? Thank you for helping. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.171.3.79 (talk) 05:49, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Your edit was removed here by user MarnetteD who gave an edit summary which said "source does not meet our criteria for verifiability or credibility". The best place to discuss this with them in on their talk page or on the talk page of the article. Dismas|^(talk) 06:18, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia New User Registration Email Confirmation Link

Hello my name is Cloid, with a new Email registration confirming password from Wikipedia to my Email account not working to verify the URL link : hhtp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Confirm Email/ba7d28964afc86e71595e7663199b45, would not click to verify? How can I confirm my Email address and password to log in? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.67.111.221 (talk) 07:02, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure the url started with hhtp instead of http and had a space in "Confirm Email"? Try again and if it doesn't work then use your computer's copy-paste function to copy the url to your browser. You don't need email confirmation to log in. You only need a working password for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:14, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The URL worked fine for me when I put https:// at the beginning and removed the spaces, but it had expired. You need to request a new code from your preferences — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdann52 (talk • contribs) 13:30, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Adding categories without support from the body of the article

In working for another project and trying to compile a list of LGBT musicians, I've been trawling through categories such as Category:LGBT musicians from England. I was surprised to find a number of articles with this category, which had no mention in the body of the article that the person in question was LGBT, let alone quoting any reliable source. What is the general policy about this? One example out of many is Micachu --rossb (talk) 09:34, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I've always thought that this falls under WP:BLP and that unless there is support in the article for the LGBT category, that we should remove the article from it. It is, after all, making a potentially controversial claim about a person which may be wrong. Dismas|^(talk) 10:53, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I would agree completely with Dismas. If a person's sexual orientation has not been reported in reliable sources, or even if it has been reported in passing but is not a matter that either the person or the reliable sources have given significance to, then it should not be mentioned in the article, and they should not be categorised by it. --ColinFine (talk) 15:12, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Thirded - this is clear per WP:BLP.--ukexpat (talk) 15:26, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I've removed the two LGBT categories at Micachu. I believe both were added by non-registered (IP) editors, but I didn't do a thorough review of the article history. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 20:03, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Internal links won't work

In trying to set up an internal link I always get a "Page does not exist" alert in the box, but of course it does exist - I just came from there to get the address! If I push it through regardless then the text comes out in a bracket with an attached link arrow, and if there were two names to be highlighted, only one name, the last, gets displayed. So I cancel the link. External links are OK. Why? Orthotox (talk) 10:05, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

That second sentence seems to be a bit of a run-on. Could you maybe post an example? Also, are you trying to use the visual editor or just the source code? Dismas|^(talk) 10:51, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

It sounds like you are trying to use the url to make an internal link. You should use the page name displayed at the top of the page, for example "Johnny Guitar" for Johnny Guitar. See Help:Link#Wikilinks. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:29, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Searching for talk pages with a specific template

Dear editors: I would like to use CatScan to make a list of articles which have this template: {{AfC postpone G13|1}}. These should all be in Wikipedia talk: space. The documentation for CatScan says that it will search for templates, but after choosing the proper space and entering the template, both with and without the parentheses, I got no results.

I then entered the following to see if I could find some of the items in another way:

Depth=5

Categories=AfC submissions by date/2011

Negative Categories=G13 eligible AfC submissions

Namespaces=Wikipedia talk:

..and sure enough, some of the ones I wanted were on the list, for example, "Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/The Voice From the Edge, Volume 1: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" (which was declined as a non-notable musical work, by someone who is obviously not a science fiction fan).

I then added Templates=AfC postpone G13|1. If the template search were working, there should be some items on the list, at least the one above, which clearly has this template. I tried it with and without the parentheses.

This is a complex tool, and I am likely overlooking something. Can someone explain how I can make this work for me? I would like to create and save this search so that I can work on improving some of the old stale Afc drafts which have been saved from deletion as having possibilities for improvement. —Anne Delong (talk) 13:33, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The problem is that the template is called "{{AfC postpone G13}}", not "AfC postpone G13|1". CatScan only knows how to scan for the template name, not the template name plus particular parameters.

But I've just verified with AWB that all the pages currently transcluding this template all have "1" as the parameter, so the pages you are looking for are these. Five are in the Wikipedia namespace and the other 73 are in Wikipedia talk.

The 73 are also listed in Category:AfC postponed G13. The template uses the "1" parameter as the category sort key, and all are listed under the "1" subheading. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:36, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Hi Anne. Luckily, John is pretty smart, but FYI for next time, editors often post questions like yours at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). Cheers. —Prhartcom (talk) 14:59, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I didn't realize that "What links here" had anything to do with templates, since in my mind they are not links. Will it pick up both transcluded and non-transcluded templates? Is there no end to the complexity of Wikipedia? —Anne Delong (talk) 18:13, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Question one: By default, Special:WhatLinksHere lists both transclusions and ordinary links, but once you've got a list of results it shows a "filter" box near the top. Using that, you can hide the transclusions or the ordinary links. Question two: Probably not. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:43, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Search index updating

Usually, the search index seems to update about 02.00-03.00 UTC - this is based on a typical latest time/date in a common search
Today, however, it updated sometime between 10.00 and 14.00 UTC - this confuses us WP:WikiGnomes trying to clear spelling corrections
Is there some log that shows when the index was last updated? If so, where is it? If not, why not? and can we please have such a log? - Arjayay (talk) 16:08, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

You seem to already know when it was updated. Can you clarify your question? RudolfRed (talk) 00:16, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Q - Is there a simple log, which can easily be consulted, that gives the actual date and time of the last search index update? Arjayay (talk) 07:49, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

Uploading an image of an obituary

Dear friends,

I'm working on an article regarding Major Adam Davie (Commander of the Kandyan Garrison of 1803 expedition) who died in 1812 as a prisoner of the Kingdom of Kandy. I'm considering to add an image of his obituary to the article. It was published in the "Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany" in 1815. I can even type it as a quote but I think an image would increase articles's value. Is there a consensus or a official policy regarding adding obituary images to an article. Thanks. Nishadhi (talk) 17:57, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Images are considered undesirable as a replacement for citations, as there is greater potential for manipulation and falsification. Just cite the actual text of the actual obituary; a picture of a reference does not add value to the article.--Orange Mike | Talk 20:26, 23 September 2013 (UTC). --Orange Mike | Talk 20:26, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

@Orangemike: Understood and I agree with you. Thank you very much for the kind advice. Greetings. Nishadhi (talk) 09:22, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Injury

I was injured in chevron on 23th Lonsdale. North Vancouver in BC.CANADA in last June, 2013. The chevron adjuster believes, my injury is subjective and they aren't responsible. It's interesting, they hurt people' health and then say it is subjective. I'm following up my case if you ( chevron doesn't want to to take responsibility, I'll go to newspaper and also news on TV. Please let me know. Thank you

Fatima — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.7.58.246 (talk) 18:40, 23 September 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. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:46, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Whitespace

Comet#Notable_comets has whitespace. I don't have time to fix it right now but being a good article someone may wish to.--Canoe1967 (talk) 22:57, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I see nothing wrong with it. Though there have been quite a few edits today, so maybe one of them cleared it up. Dismas|^(talk) 00:10, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

@Canoe1967: I also don't see any whitespace problem; I also don't see any edits to the article that were after you posting here, or edits just before that were to this section, and looking at a version of a day earlier showed no problem. Are you still seeing too much whitespace? If so, are you using Chrome? (There are reports of whitespace issues with that, though I'm personally not seeing those.) Or a screen narrower than those typically found on a PC or Mac? -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:03, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

e/c I assume you mean the large whitespace in "Notable comets" which I have removed by changing the format to a gallery
If, however, you are referring to white-space at the bottom, this is probably because you are using Chrome - please see "How do you remove the extra space in the bottom of an article" below, Arjayay (talk) 19:14, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

I have a PC with Win7 using IE10. It is fixed it now by Arjayay converting the image format to a gallery.--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:13, 24 September 2013 (UTC)