Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 January 10

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January 10

Business

how do you get your business mentioned on your town's wikipedia page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.232.195.206 (talk) 01:52, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

If the business is a major factor in the town's history and has been covered as such by reliably published third party sources, it might be mentioned. However, you should not be the one deciding and adding content about your company to any article, because you have a conflict of interest. You should post the sources which cover the relationship of the business and the town on the talk page and see if an uninvolved editor feels the content is appropriate. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:53, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

There are ref tags on this page, but the references will not show without a reflist template (see the help page).

Thanks can you help i am a novice here and i have made some strange error messedges apear on the Highams Park wikipediea page. Can you help me to remove them? they say There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page). thankyou— Preceding unsigned comment added by John Johnstone Smith (talk • contribs)

I have fixed the error. I have also removed the content you added as it was not properly sourced and it appeared to give too much weight to a small group in relation to the history of the subject of the article, the town. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 03:55, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The Article: "Harold Y. McSween"

Good evening. This is my first time being intensive with Wikipedia. Someone mentioned there was an article about my father here, and there was! The problem is that it's the wrong name as the heading. All of the other information is correct within the article. I tried to edit, but I didn't know how to edit the title. It should be labeled as Harry Y. McSween as listed in the information sidebar. Please help.

Thank you, Lindsay McSween Lamcsween (talk) 03:01, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The kind of change you suggest is not done by editing a title, but rather moving the page. The page is now at Harry McSween. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 03:36, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Visual problems

I'm getting a visual problem from last night only when I'm logged-in. I checked it by logging-out and it is good then.

The problem is when I'm logged-in, I'm getting shrunk pages size in width, like in half size. Fonts are bold and large enough. But when I logged-out it come to its original size. Now this page is also shrunk to half size but only until I'm logged-in. --Captain Assassin! ^{«T ♦ C ♦ G»} 04:01, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Same same. The article etc. is squashed in the left half of the display with the right side being whitespace. Is there something wrong with the Vector skin? It occurs only when I am logged in and, even more confusingly, the screen displays normally during edit preview! It is baffling and it is starting to drive me batty? -- Mattinbgn (talk) 04:09, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Displays correctly in MonoBook and is squashed to the left in Vector? Is this a known problem for others? -- Mattinbgn (talk) 04:13, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, the same is happening to me. --Captain Assassin! ^{«T ♦ C ♦ G»} 04:19, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

This has been going around. Disabling the "Typography refresh" beta feature seems to fix it. Howicus (Did I mess up?) 04:47, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

That has improved it - article text is now displaying across the who screen but navbox templates are still squashed to the left. Thanks for your help. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 05:15, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

If you like the other aspects of the "Typography refresh" you can add something to your CSS page to disable the maximum width - see mw:Talk:Typography refresh#Max width / Narrow pages opt out option or my common.css page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:23, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

It solved mine too, thanks guys. --Captain Assassin! ^{«T ♦ C ♦ G»} 16:44, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Yeah the templates are going left, what's that?. --Captain Assassin! ^{«T ♦ C ♦ G»} 16:51, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

@Mattinbgn: Now, by unchecking "Near this page" at Beta features preferences has solved the template problem. --Captain Assassin! ^{«T ♦ C ♦ G»} 04:12, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Got it, thanks! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 04:46, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Sticky findings

Hello,

I'm, seeking advice in how to proceed with unexpected new information. See my talk page for Actes and Monuments. It may be getting more urgent to hear,b/c I will be going public with a few essays--that will contradict some info, and will show that the title 'Book of Martyrs' may have been common, but was not 'popular', and by the 19th c, when that title did start to be more used, it had become an historicized literary fiction. The book never existed prior to 178th c.

Thanks for anuy suggestions, and i MAY BE OF ASSISTANCE to commons' projects.

Dvora G.Docdev (talk) 06:17, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

When you say you will be "going public" with some unexpected new information, what do you mean? If this is information that has been uncovered via your own original research, are your essays being published in a reliable source - a peer-reviewed journal, for instance? If (and only if) they can be referenced to such a reliable source, it should be OK to cite that source in article once published, as long as you don't give undue weight to your own work and the material it supports. If the changes are in any way controversial, it would be better to suggest them on the article's talk page, declare your conflict of interest as the author of the cited publication that supports them, and request the opinion of other contributors. - Karenjc (talk) 12:40, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Reference list

I made 6 citations in School-Based Family Counseling/ gerrardb but after saving the page could not find them in a reference list at the bottom of the page. Can you advise? Gerrardb (talk) 07:09, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I've made an edit to Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/School-based family counseling, and the references are now showing. The correct form of the reference tags is <ref>...</ref> - note the position of the "/" character. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:29, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

please i want know how much is the pay for watchman for watching a ship for twelve (12) hours?

please tell me what is the pay for ashore agent's watchman for eight (8)hours  ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.66.224.3 (talk) 11:18, 10 January 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. Samwalton9 (talk) 11:29, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Removing tags on a German Wiki page

There is a problem tag at the top of a page on SICPA on the German Wikipedia. There was two problems. The first version of the content seems to have had a unreferenced mention of Hidden Champions. The second was that the original translation was dreadful! Both issues have now been sorted but I can't seem to see how to remove the tag. It could be that I don't have the editing rights for German pages but all the content on this says that I should be able to do it. What am I doing wrong? The page URL is:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicpa_Holding Many thanks,

Iain

Iainplunkett (talk) 11:37, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

This is something that should be discussed at de:Diskussion:Sicpa Holding. In my experience, German language Wikipedians are just fine with questions asked in English, and will reply in English. Go ahead, ask in English! Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 12:33, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

yes, Shirt58 (talk) is right in his sense. you should contact them they will guide you even more better. Nechlison (talk) 14:09, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Commercial site that contains encylopedic information

I have a question to ask, and I am wondering where would be the best place to ask it. The basic gist of it is, I have an established author who has written detailed histories of other people's books in the same genre; these histories include what was happening at the publishing company at the time, other works those authors were involved in, where the books fit in with the genre and the publisher's overall history with the works, what purpose the books were intended to serve, and other insights that are not available anywhere else. The info itself is detailed, well researched, and would be very valuable to Wikipedia articles on the books, authors, and related subjects. However, the problem is that these histories are currently hosted on an independent commercial site that exists to sell products, and the histories are on the same page used to sell the respective products. The histories are not written by or for the publisher, but the website that they are used on are likely benefiting from the histories. I will go into more specifics, but first I want to know where on Wikipedia (a noticeboard, project talk page, or wherever) I can go to discuss this further and get some feedback. Thanks. BOZ (talk) 16:14, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

1) Pick an article 2) construct content that fits the article using the source 3) take all that to the RS/N, with your proofs of expertise etc. (See WP:RS for what to look for). Alanscottwalker (talk) 16:26, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict) While it is generally preferred not to link to vendor sites, when the site has unique and reliable info I don't believe that there is any absolute ban on doing so. If there is doubt on whether this site can be used as a reliable source (due to possible conflict of interest) then WP:RSN would be the place to ask i would think. Otherwise, I would merely post on the talk page(s) of the article(s) involved, describing the source. If there are several such articles perhaps you should draft a common explanation on a page in your userspace and link to it on each talk page. DES ^(talk) 16:30, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks - I had been considering RS/N but was not sure, so I shall go there. If acceptable, it would be more than several articles we are talking about, so yes I would need some form of easy answer to ease any concerns. BOZ (talk) 18:10, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Illeagal movie review Drishyam

Today I searched on google about a malayalam language(in India) movie "Drishyam" and google direct me to Drishyam. The movie is only released only a few days back and running sucsessfully on theatres. All of us know, the main attraction on thriller cinema's is the suspense till the end. But your poor/waste reviewer don't know about that he write full story from starting to end in the title "Plot". As it drive away audience from theatres and rresult is financial damage to producer. So as a movie lover, I request you to please remove it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.213.7.122 (talk) 16:33, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

We do not censor plot spoilers nor are they "illegal".--ukexpat (talk) 16:44, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Spoiler has some more information about this. Arthur goes shopping (talk) 16:44, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Template:Greece-journalist-stub

Does this template also refer to ethnic Greek journalists from other countries (e.g. a a Greek in Turkey), or only to Greek citizens regardless of ethnicity? 86.127.10.228 (talk) 16:58, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the article is actually about the Greek communities after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey 21:07, 10 January 2014 (UTC)Nechlison (talk)

Operation Redwings

Your discussion that Marcus Luttrell was "left unconscious and rescued by Pashuns" is like saying Jennifer Lopez is a Hispanic Woman. The harrowing experience of Marcus evading the Taliban and finding the Pashtuns who gave him refuge is far from your description and is a disservice to that brave man and what he did. Just sayin. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.65.136.154 (talk) 18:07, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

The great thing about Wikipedia is that YOU can FIX IT by providing reliably published sources to support your suggested content. But be advised that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and we do not attempt to stir people's emotions. That type of writing is for other venues. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 18:17, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Inappropriate username

Resolved

 – HiLo48 (talk) 22:54, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

What should I do when I see an inappropriate username?

I've seen quite a few which shouldn't really exist, for various reasons. The one that triggered this enquiry is User:Aquinasishorrible. The only edits from this new user are at Aquinas College, Melbourne. Apparently this student doesn't like his school's principal.

I'm presuming there are policies which discourage this kind of choice of username. What are they? And what should I do when I see an inappropriate username? Where do I report it? HiLo48 (talk) 18:13, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

see WP:USERNAME. You can flag the page with the {subst:uw-username|because ....} template for actions that do not require immediate attention or go straight to WP:ANI (see below) for those that do. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 18:19, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

If immediate attention to a username is needed, go to WP:UAA, not ANI. But do not both warn with {{uw-username}} and report at UAA, please. DES ^(talk) 18:23, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks folks. HiLo48 (talk) 22:54, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

How to clear edit history?

I have a shared IP address and I've started getting a lot of notifications lately. Can my edit history be erased. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.211.87.203 (talk) 20:04, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately, no it can't. The history is required to preserve attributions for copyright and other purposes. Your best bet is probably to register and use a free account. If you don't want to do that, simply ignore any notifications that are about edits made by other users sharing your IP address. Of course if one of them does something egregious enough to get the IP blocked, you will be out of luck until/unless you register, or get a different IP address. DES ^(talk) 20:25, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Correct Citation for Stock Info

Hello,

I was trying to update the page on International Flavors & Fragrances because their listed market cap is a bit outdated, but when I tried to cite the NYSE there is an error listed in the references section related to missing/empty title. I assume this is an easy fix and I'm just unfamiliar with formatting Wiki references; I would appreciate some assistance to make sure I have properly cited my source. Thank you!

Mushroom cloud10 (talk) 20:08, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I have added a couple of additional parameters to the template to fix the error.--ukexpat (talk) 20:16, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Templates not updating

Lately, there appears to be a glitch affecting any page with a template. Whenever a change is made to a template, a dummy edit has to be made to any page containing that template in order for the most current revision of that template to show on a page on which it it shown. Is there something that has changed in how editing works that I missed, or is this just a technological glitch?
Ben^Yes? 22:06, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Whenever a template is edited, this change is propagated to the pages where the template is transcluded through the job queue. Until the job queue reaches a particular page, the page will show the old template version until/unless it is forced to re-render via an edit (including a null edit). This has been true for years. What may be different is that the job queue is longer and so the delay involved is larger, as Wikipedia grows and template usage increases. DES ^(talk) 22:24, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

OK, I have just never seen a delay of over 4 days (and still counting) occur. Thanks for the explanation. Ben^Yes? 23:16, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

But there just seems to be a night-and-day difference between how the templates used to update. The templates used to update almost instantaneously, but now they take a much longer time to update, up to five days (and still counting). Pages need to be forced to show these changes via a dummy edit. Ben^Yes? 00:53, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Wonky quotation marks

Hey, anybody know of a tool/script/bot that can help automate the change of “smart” quotation marks to "normal" ones? I just spent more time than I'd care to manually changing some here. (MOS:QUOTE is the relevant guideline]]) Cyphoidbomb (talk) 23:04, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think WP:AWB can be used for that. DES ^(talk) 23:15, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, that looks cool. Any idea if there's anything more browser-native in case I happen to be using a tablet? Cyphoidbomb (talk) 00:33, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Copy the wikitext to the word processor of your choice and use it's "find-replace" function, then copy the cleaned up wikitext back into the article. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:18, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

article still says "needs additional citations for verification"

Hello, I did some edits for Bria_Roberts but the article says "needs additional citations for verification..." There are already a lot of citations on the page and I also added one. Can someone fix this?

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beener3 (talk • contribs) 23:10, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

 Done Mlpearc (open channel) 23:14, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Removing those templates is a manual process. If you feel the issue has been addressed, you can remove them yourself. They're right at the top of the articles. Dismas|^(talk) 23:37, 10 January 2014 (UTC)