Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 August 3

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August 3

Singapore Airline Flight No. SQ 915

Good Morning Sir,

I am book for Singapore tomorrow at 0740am, 04 Aug '14, under flight no. SQ 915. My eTicket Receipt departing information says that I will be reporting at NAIA Terminal 1. Just to clarify if I will be reporting at Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 3 as reported changes in the new Terminal assignment for SINGAPORE AIRLINE. Please advise me of where really I will be reporting. Thank you for the efforts extended to this inquiries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.203.249.24 (talk) 00:15, 3 August 2014 (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. SpinningSpark 01:12, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Or dial 1 (800) 663-3046. Tell them you're a customer and you need service. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:41, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

If you prefer using a computer, here you go. But that number's quicker for people leaving tomorrow. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:43, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Fredrick Douglas Patterson of Greenfield, Ohio

Good Day: On your page on Greenfield, OH you list a Fredrick Patterson who manufactured the first automobile however the gentleman who was the first to graduate from Ohio State U.and the first to manufacture the automobile was Fredrick Douglas Patterson. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.77.156.182 (talk) 04:18, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

I've corrected the link. There appear to be two famous African Americans called Frederick Douglas(s) Patterson: Frederick D. Patterson and Frederick Patterson. Rojomoke (talk) 05:37, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Help with editing article

Hello, I have a page in my drafts at present and I was wondering how I could go about having editors of Wikipedia look at it and give me impressions on how it's looking. I'm wanting it to be a good page so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Creaturefromthehauntedsea (talk • contribs) 11:43, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

If this is about Timeless Journey (Musician), the main concern must be the absence of any references to independent reliable sources that verify the subject's notability. Maproom (talk) 11:51, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

So a couple more independent articles would be required (album reviews / interviews etc)? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Creaturefromthehauntedsea (talk • contribs) 11:53, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Spam or Malware Links?

I moderate at a blog. Spam comments have been posted, but they link only to Wikipedia. I mentioned it before: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&oldid=619145112#Malware_check

That time the comment linked here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departments_of_the_United_Kingdom_Government

This time, it links to here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese

Why are spammers linking to Wikipedia? There are no other links in these comments, nothing pointing to a commercial website. So what purpose do these comments serve? It only makes sense if the Wikipedia articles are somehow the target.

Am I reporting this in the right place? Anonamod — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.247.150 (talk) 11:58, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

There is very little we can do about spam on your site at the Wikipedia end. I couldn't say why it is being done, but you might want to read 50 Cent Party in relation to the second one. Without more context I don't know what we can do for you. If you have evidence that someone is inserting spam or malware links into Wikipedia articles then we will certainly do something about that but we need the details of the specific case first. SpinningSpark 13:13, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

It is very difficult to convert a Wikipedia page into a malware page, because HTML elements such as <script> are caught by the software and have no effect. The worst that can happen, as far as I know, is that links can be added to a Wikipedia page leading out of Wikipedia to infected third-party pages. I can't guess what your spammers are trying to achieve. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:21, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Nevertheless, we would still want to know about any links to spam or malware pages in our articles so that we can remove them. However, this does not seem to apply to either of those pages. As I said, we can action it if a specific case of a malware link is identified, but at the moment there does not seem to be any. SpinningSpark 13:45, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

---

This is not directly related to the above; however, I sometimes come across links that my pre-fetch security identifies as being blacklisted; e.g.: there is an 'External link' in the Dutar article that has been identified by nGran and Yandex as being infected with Mal/VB-ALO. What, if anything should I do?  —71.20.250.51 (talk) 00:13, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

In general, remove the link. External links are peripheral to our mission and it is better not to have them than to risk linking readers to malware. They can always be restored later if the site is cleaned. SpinningSpark 00:55, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

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From Anonamod: thanks to all. Spinningspark, thanks. I'm not looking for help at the blog I moderate. I'm also a Wikipedia editor, and I reported this in case Wikipedia articles were being targeted somehow. Another spam comment arrived over night; it links here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCL_Chinese_Theatre -- Anonamod — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.112.19.143 (talk) 07:38, 4 August 2014 (UTC) The blog in question is the UK political / human rights blog of a single individual in the UK, hosted in the Netherlands. It is written in English. Subjects are mostly UK/US domestic policy and foreign policy, especially policy regarding the Middle East and the Israel - Palestine conflict. Not much about China at all, so I don't know why the 50 Cent Party would be interested. -- Anonamod

I believe the 50 cent Army get paid for every positive post about China. It's pretty irrelevant to them whether or not they posted it in a suitable place. SpinningSpark 16:36, 5 August 2014 (UTC)

Blurry wikipedia page

Dear wikipedia,

About 10% of my wikipedia websites load up and stay blurry. Only on my ipad 1 . Doesn't happen on other devices and doesn't happen for other Organization web pages and only a small percentage of wikipedia but always the same pages and condistently over time. ??? I dpeculated that it's combination of my iOS at 5.0 and unuogradable and wikipedia coding going through particular servers , same pages going through Same servers? But...don't kniw if ttat's sensible andnif anything can be economically changed?

Philip — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.82.243.16 (talk) 17:39, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

when you say blurry, are you referring to the text as being blurry? As I don't know how that can happen, if the browser is loading it correctly. Does it do this with both safari and chrome? Jab843 (talk) 17:59, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Help please , I have a major problem with the se accounts , VENTURA THE BLOWOUT BRUSH , VENTURA BRUSH, VENTURA the Blowout brush

Please help fixing my dizzy mistake. I see the words just telling the history ... I was not trying to advertise Been taking interferon and mix bag of side effects feelings. And we want to keep the internet clear and free as much as possibly Please can we pick the now traded market sideline "VENTURA the blowout brush" I am the designer of the brush. My self George Alan and SPORNETTE the brush maker, that this first first ever is making the brush, will as in my cc account . This is what is happening other then my ny life, between seeing clients, renovating my apartment being happy ... Truth I have to exercise. Many thanks Alan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.71.27.221 (talk) 18:09, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Is this a question about a Wikipedia article? If it is, which article? Maproom (talk) 21:45, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

This person may have confused us with the spam wiki whadu.com. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:32, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Presumably connected with the spamming accounts VENTURA the blowout brush (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), Ventura Brush (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), and SPORNETTE VENTURA BRUSH (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), the latter two of which have been indefinitely blocked. --David Biddulph (talk) 09:48, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Epilatories

I want to propose a new topic for research but I don't know how to do that and am unlikely to ever do this again. The subject is "Epilatories for Men". Please note that the subject is NOT "Depilatories for Men". There is much on the internet on Depilatories but I can find none on Epilatories. The difference in the two terms is that Depilatories remove hair on the surface of the skin whereas Epilatories destroy the root of the hair follicles leading to the loss of the follicles.

Women use both Epilatories and Depilatories all the time but there are separate Depilatories for men. The men's product is much stronger. Because men's hair is much coarser I suspect that Epilatories for men would also have a different chemical formulation.

I would be grateful if the author of such an article could notify me when the suggested topic has been submitted, whether or not is appears in Wikipedia. My name is Stuart. Thank you for any effort any author might make in creating an article on this topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cityguy08 (talk • contribs) 20:48, 3 August 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not concerned with "topics for research", indeed, it rejects anything that it regards as original research. It consists only of articles about topics which have already been written about in reputable secondary sources. So if, as you say, there is nothing on the internet on epilatories, they are not a suitable subject for a Wikipedia article. Maproom (talk) 21:48, 3 August 2014 (UTC)