Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 July 9

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July 9

Godzilla: Unleashed

I'm having a problem. Lately this guy, 76.218.28.177, keeps changing the words in the Godzilla: Unleashed article from "a Mutant" to "an Mutant"! I keep changing it back, but he keeps reverting the article as if "an Mutant" is not a grammar problem when it actually is! He keeps insisting that "an Mutant" is correct, but it isn't! Which wording is correct? Is it "a Mutant" or "an Mutant"? I'm dying to know, okay? If "a Mutant" is correct, can you contact the guy who keeps changing it to "an Mutant" and warn him about this? --Angeldeb82 (talk) 02:18, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

@Angeldeb82: Hey Angeldeb82. The rule for a/an is that a precedes a word that is pronounced as starting with a consonant (regardless of whether the first letter is actually one), and an precedes a word that is pronounced as starting with a vowel (regardless of whether the first letter is actually one). So, "a mutant" is correct (and "an mutant" is painfully incorrect) without any ambiguity (there can be ambiguity here; certain words, such as some beginning with "h" can go either way, and which feels right may depend on your speech. Another ambiguity can arise when it is unclear whether the reader will be pronouncing the letters of an acronym or interpreting it to what it stands for. Real world Wikipedia example: I saw a minor dispute of whether it is properly "an RFC" [an arr-eff-cee] or "a RFC" [a request for comment]).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:31, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

• Support an arr-eff-cee. InedibleHulk (talk) 05:00, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
• Support an arr-eff-cee. See A and an#Distinction between a and an Naraht (talk) 16:19, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Have you tried contacting the IP yourself? Or pointed them to the talkpage for discussion? I don't see any evidence that there has been an attempt to communicate. Please do that first before asking for outside help. SpinningSpark 10:29, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

There. I've contacted the guy with a warning not to keep using improper grammar or English. Hopefully the guy will understand my warning. --Angeldeb82 (talk) 15:42, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Changing Username...

I have a question. I am thinking about changing my username, but if I change my username, will my password change as well or does that get transferred? --Radiokid1010 (talk) 02:46, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Radiokid1010 You can login as usual just use the new username. See here: WP:CHU for more infomation. Mlpearc (open channel) 03:31, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Ah! Now I see it. Thank you. --Radiokid1010 (talk) 03:33, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Page deletion

Hi - If we set up a page which is accepted are we able to delete this page ourselves at a later date if we no longer want it to be showing or does it stay up permanently once set up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Conveyornetworks (talk • contribs) 09:49, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

No. First of all, only administrators can delete pages. More importantly, material uploaded to Wikipedia is released under a free licence and you cannot then prevent publication of it here (or elssewhere). However, articles that have no substantive contributions to them other than the original creator are usually deleted on request of the original author as a courtesy. But please also note that anybody can edit an article once it has been created and it will then no longer be deletable under this rule. Judging by your username, you should probably also read our guidelines on notability and conflict of interest. SpinningSpark 10:42, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict ) Hello. The answer is, in general, no. When you save an edit anywhere in Wikipedia, you are agreeing to the sentence "By clicking the "Save page" button, you agree to the Terms of Use and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License and the GFDL with the understanding that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient for CC BY-SA 3.0 attribution." at the bottom of the edit screen. Note the word "irrevocably". Once a page is in Wikipedia, it may be deleted only in accordance with one or other of the procedures for deletion, and the fact that you created the page does not carry any particular weight in that decision.

Forgive me for going beyond your question, but some things you have said make me think that you may be about to try and do something that will risk infringing various of Wikipedia's rules, and cause you some grief. I suspect that you represent a company, and are contemplating creating a page about that company. If this is true, please be aware that:

• Any such article will not belong to you, and you will have no control over what it says
• Any such article must be written in a neutral tone, with no hint of promotional language; which may be difficult for you to achieve, because you have a conflict of interest
• Any such article will be acceptable only if the company meets our criteria of notability, which require that it already have been written about, at length, in reliable sources independent of the company, such as major newspapers.

Also, please note that Wikipedia accounts are required to be personal accounts used by individuals: sharing an account is not permitted, and nor is an account name which suggests that it represents an organisation.

If you are not in the position I've assumed, I apologise for my assumptions; but if you are, please read the links I have given before proceeding. --ColinFine (talk) 10:49, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Foreign Wiki picture

How exactly does one use a GNU-licensed picture on a foreign-language wiki? I only speak English, do I just add it to the relevant article and not worry about it? This is the picture in question: https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail:Cik_Siti_Wan_Kembang_%28U%29.jpg Asarelah (talk) 14:22, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Do you want to use that image somewhere other than its "home" Wikipedia? If so, it will have to be uploaded to Commons. It certainly appears to meet Commons' licensing requirements. There used to be a tool available to make that process easier, not sure if it still works as I haven't used it for a while.--ukexpat (talk) 15:26, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The Commons Helper script, which is probably what you used, is yet another thing that wmfLabs has broken in the transfer from Toolserver. SpinningSpark 16:27, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I didn't upload that picture, nor do I speak the language. Is the the fact that its under the GNU license enough to put it under the commons? Asarelah (talk) 16:30, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes, GFDL is an acceptable licence. You can use this form to upload to Commons. You will have to download a copy to your local computer first unless the Commons helper tool miraculously gets fixed in the meantime. SpinningSpark 16:41, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

@Asarelah and Spinningspark: I have moved the file to Commons, so you can use it on any WMF project. --Mdann52talk to me! 14:08, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Thank you! Asarelah (talk) 20:09, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Writing an article for a charity

Hi I am trying to create a Wikipedia page for a well known charity associated with various existing pages but when I went to write one I realised I might be in violation of the Conflict of Interest clause as I am employed by the Charity. Various other charities have their own page and I was wondering how I go about getting us one? Sorry to sound so basic but I am new to this.

Your help would be much appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheHCF (talk • contribs) 15:39, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I need to warn you that your username may be in violation of our policy that disallows you from having an account for an organisation rather than a person. That aside, if you're sure the charity is notable and doesn't already have an article, you could start a request at WP:AFC, or you could post on related talk pages to see if someone else can get an article started. The key policy here is WP:COI. AlexTiefling (talk) 15:43, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I don't want to seem picky, but I think it will be helpful for you to realise that the other charities do not have their own pages. Nobody has a page on Wikipedia. Wikipedia has pages about subjects, but the articles in no sense belong to the subjects. --ColinFine (talk) 23:02, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Using text from a government document

I wish to copy verbatim some paragraphs from an official Request for (Grant) Application from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to the University of Maryland. Do these sort of documents fall in the public domain?

Here is a link to the document on NIST's site: Request for Application

Flimsyhat (talk) 18:56, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

I believe that publications of the US Federal Government are automatically public domain, see Template:PD-USGov. The NIST statement on reuse is here which says;

These World Wide Web pages are provided as a public service by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). With the exception of material marked as copyrighted, information presented on these pages is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

SpinningSpark 00:02, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Ahhh, cheers! I couldn't find that NIST statement for the life of me. Flimsyhat (talk) 13:13, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

on 6/27/14 someone may be using my accout emails etc. doug h. i need your help.how can i, we,fix and find out whos this doing roblem because if i know i never postwd anything

  doug,

i emily burgos was playing on my device but im a female that needing all your help.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.187.25 (talk) 19:40, 9 July 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. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:37, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Ralph Garman

Reference help requested.

Thanks, Cokie Da Clown (talk) 20:47, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

You added some content with badly-formatted references, for instance the first one ended <Ref/> when it should have ended </ref>. I tried to correct this, and found that I had indeed got rid of the error messages but had added 333 characters to the article. So I undid my edit, and was surprised to find that the article was back to the size it had before I started but the red error messages were still gone. I cannot explain this. Maproom (talk) 21:06, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Look at the page history. The error was introduced on 6 July and AnomieBot repaired it about two hours later. --  Gadget850 ^talk 21:09, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Rating location

Where are the ratings located on the page of an article? Where would I find Stub or Start or the letters (C,B,A,GA,FA)?Mmrandolph (talk) 21:00, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Not every article is rated in such a fashion. That said, those ratings are normally provided by WikiProjects who specialize in various areas like biographies, military history, Finland, etc. And those grades are put into the WikiProject templates on the talk pages for articles. So, if you're reading an article, click on the "Talk" link at the top of the page and you may see the banners have been added with grades. If the article is determined to be a Good Article or Featured Article, then those actually do have little tags at the top right of the article. See Pink Floyd for example. The star in the upper right shows that it is a featured article. Dismas|^(talk) 21:09, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

World Cup on frontpage

Hi there,

I don't get involved with the frontpage much, so just a bit confused - there isn't a link to the World Cup anymore,but there was earlier. What happened? It's getting to the latter stages now, so seems odd it's disappeared.

--iamajpeg (talk) 21:25, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

There's a link to it under the In The News section. RudolfRed (talk) 21:46, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

If you mean the "Ongoing" link then it was removed [1] because the FIFA World Cup was already mentioned in the main template – although not with a link specifically to 2014 FIFA World Cup. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:03, 9 July 2014 (UTC)