Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 May 8

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May 8

IX 127 World War II ship

I actually have a photo of the ship that my father had taken during the war and am willing to post it. Your procedures are so onerus, that I need help to do so. I think the remaining veterans deserve to see it before they pass on. HELP !!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.68.44.203 (talk) 01:45, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Hello. If it has not been published anywhere before, then the procedure is rather simple. Go to Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia's central repository of free media), make an account, and upload it. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 04:49, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

After that, you can go to the talk page of an article that you think should include the photo, and ask that it be put in (if you're not confident that you can add it yourself). Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 04:52, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I have uploaded over 50 images to Wikimedia Commons, and I still find that "onerous" is a more accurate description than "rather simple". And I know how annoying it is to be told that something is "rather simple" when it patently isn't. I wish the OP fortitude and success in his struggle with the bureaucracy involved; but I am not the best person to offer help. Maproom (talk) 07:16, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

requesting archive bot check

Hello, I put a bot on an article talk page here. Can someone check to make sure I did that correctly? I'd appreciate it. Thanks. Malke 2010 (talk) 01:47, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

To editor Malke 2010: I admit I don't have much experience setting this up, but I think it looks good. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 04:50, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

@Anon126: Thanks for checking on it. I thought it best if someone else looked at it. I appreciate it. Malke 2010 (talk) 06:37, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Reflinks

Question has been archived so I have updated P123cat1's link — Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:40, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

On 30th April, the Help desk told me about Reflinks as a way of entering footnotes in an article (see my query.) I have just tried to use Reflinks when editing the Wikipedia article on Addison Cresswell and entering a new footnote, but have got into a tangle. The Help desk referred me to WP:REFLINKS, which has reams and reams of information on Reflinks, but no clear instructions on the actual steps one needs to take when using this method. I did my best and made a workable footnote (#10), but it is clearly not a Reflinks footnote, which is much neater and I know looks quite different.

(1) I would like to know how to use Reflinks properly, so can you tell me the steps I need to take, please?

(2) As you will see, in place of footnote #8 there is now a red error message. I cannot understand this, as I did not touch this footnote, and I don't know how to put it right.

(3) Is there a simple way to revert edits one has made? I ask this because I sometimes change my mind about edits I have made in an article and want to restore the original, and that can sometimes be very tedious to do manually.

Can you help, please? --P123cat1 (talk) 17:20, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

The way to revert is to click the article's "History" tab, select the appropriate versions before and after the revision(s) concerned, click "compare selected revisions" to check the difference to be sure that you have the right change(s), then click "Undo", and supply a suitable edit summary.

The reason for the error message on ref 8 is that it uses the named reference "Radio Times", but you deleted the definition of that ref in your edit. The idea of named references is that they are defined once and used more than once, so if you delete its definition you need to check that it isn't used elsewhere.

I will let someone else answer your reflinks question, as it isn't a tool which I use. As I said at Sky Blu (2) above, you can use {{cite web}} without using Reflinks. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:07, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Question has been archived so I have updated David's link — Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:40, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I cannot understand how my edit deleted anything re "Radio Times" in footnote #8, for as I said I never touched that footnote, but maybe there was something in the code in my footnote #10 that overrode it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, because I see from "View history" that AnomieBOT has now straightened this out. I assume AnomieBOT is a machine, and that Anomie is a person. Is that right? I glanced at their Talk pages and it looked like that.

I hope my query about Reflinks does not get overlooked when these HD requests are gone through! --P123cat1 (talk) 19:12, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

If you look at your edits, you will see where you removed the "Radio Times" ref definition. --David Biddulph (talk) 19:26, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks again. I didn't think of looking there, though it seems so obvious now. I am still learning. --P123cat1 (talk) 20:11, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is the way that most people use it but this is the way I use Reflinks.

First, I have the script installed on my common.js page. Yours would be at User:P123cat1/common.js. You can just copy and paste the code right into that page and save. Then there will be a Reflinks link in the toolbox to the left of every article.

When I am adding references to a page, I find the URL that I want, place that between ref tags, and save the page. Then when the article reloads, I hit the Reflinks link in the toolbox and let the tool fill in what references it can. Look at the preview and save if everything looks good.

Some links Reflinks has an easier time with than others. Sometimes it can't work out who the publisher or title should be, so it fails on those links and I have to type the info into the {{cite web}} template myself. That's where knowing how to use the template without any tools is helpful.

Hope this helps, Dismas|^(talk) 20:48, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Dismas, following your instructions, I have tried to copy-and-paste some Reflinks code into my User:P123cat/common.js page, but I think it is the wrong code, because I cannot make it work thereafter.

(1) I definitely saved the code on the .js page - it showed up as saved - but no new "link" symbol appeared on the article's edit box at the top left as you said it should. (Before inserting the code into the .js page, I think I noticed there were two link symbols on the edit page already, called "link" and "reference", but assume this has nothing to do with Reflinks. (The "links" symbol is a small rectangular button and the "reference" symbol looks like an open book with a red marker.)

(2) I tried (separately, of course) the two codes at WP:REFLINKS on the "User:Dispenser/Reflinks" page under "Usage - simple", but neither worked. What is the code I should copy-and-paste into the .js page?

(3) You said to place the URL in the text between ref tags, by which I assume you mean "< ref >then the URL< /ref >". Is that right? (I have put gaps round the "ref"s here to stop it showing up here as footnote "⁽¹⁾"!) There should be no problem Reflinks finding the publisher in this case, as it is the Daily Mail, and the footnote reference is to an article in it. I assume you meant put this ref/URL/ref in the text on the article's edit page. I only ask because at some stage - I can't remember exactly when, but definitely after loading the .js page and trying out Reflinks - a box popped up saying to enter the URL there, but perhaps this has nothing to do with the Reflinks method you described.

(4) You then said to save the page - did you mean click "Save", or "Show preview" at the bottom? - and then when the page reloads, hit the Reflinks link in the toolbox. I am not sure what you mean by "when the page reloads". Do you mean as it is saving, or at what stage do I do this?

I am sorry about this! I hope I have been clear and that you can show me where I went wrong. I feel like a fly caught in treacle, but having started on this, I am determined to get it right. --P123cat1 (talk) 22:48, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

You have to copy the code setting up the portlet in your sidebar, not just teh link to the webform. That is, at User:Dismas/common.js you have to copy all the code from "// Add WP:Reflinks" to the end of the page. SpinningSpark 23:51, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Spinningspark, I don't think that P123cat1 can view my common.js page. I can't view theirs.

@Dismas: Huh? You can't? I can see the .js pages of both of you even while logged out. Anyone can copy code, even IPs. They just can't edit it unless it is in their own namespace (except admins). SpinningSpark 07:56, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Okay, this is weird. Spinningspark, I just did the exact same thing now as I did last night only now I can see the code. And when I click on View Source, I can see it as well. Which I couldn't do last night either. I guess I'll just chalk it up to the lack of sleep that I've had this week. Sorry for any confusion on your part caused by confusion of my own. Dismas|^(talk) 11:29, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Pcat (may I call you Pcat?), on the WP:REFLINKS page, scroll to the bottom where the user script is. Copy the code (starting with //Add and ending with the last semi-colon). Go to User:P123cat1/common.js. Edit the page, paste the code, and hit save. Once that is done, you will have a link that says "Reflinks" in the tool box on the left side of articles. It is not "on the article's edit box". The tool box is on the left of articles where there are also links to "What links here", "Related changes", "User contributions", etc. The Reflinks link will be the last in this list. There are no buttons.

I don't know what popup you saw but it doesn't have to do with Reflinks. And yes, you have the ref part right. It should look like <ref>bare URL</ref>. Save the page like that. Once the article is saved and you are reading it (NOT editing it!), click on the Reflinks link in the tool box. Give the tool some time to run and check its work. Click "Show preview". The "Save page" button will be greyed out. After previewing, you can save the article and the references should be filled in.

Again, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. As this section is getting higher on the page, it might be best to put your questions on my talk page. Apparently someone moved this down the page since it's still continuing. Hadn't seen that done before, to my knowledge but then I don't pay too much attention to timestamps. Dismas|^(talk) 01:35, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I knew they did this on The Teahouse but I never saw it done on the Help Desk. And the result was (although this question would have been archived anyway, making the links not work) some links to another help desk question were to an archived question that was no longer on the page.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:19, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Change article title

Hello,

I have searched articles regarding this issue. I wish to change the display title of the article I created. The title siplayed is proceeded by my user name, how can I change this please?

Thank you in advance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatiana155 (talk • contribs) 09:30, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Assuming you mean User:Tatiana155/Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights please read the very top line which clearly states "This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's work in progress page".
If you wish to submit it for review, please press the green button, however, as it currently stands, it almost certainly will be rejected. All articles require significant coverage, in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. The only reference in your article is to the institute's own mission statement, which is clearly not independent. You need to provide references to reliable third party publications which give significant coverage to the subject.
You also need to remove all the external links from the bodytext. Some of these can be made into references, (please see Help:Referencing for beginners) but they do not appear independent of the subject, so cannot be used to justify the articles existence. - Arjayay (talk) 09:47, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

You will also need to remove promotional phrases such as "dynamic international environment". Maproom (talk) 10:21, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

It has now been deleted as a copy-vio - Arjayay (talk) 16:56, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Editing save after a few hours the edit is finished

would like to edit the page in wikipedia Daska. Can I edit,then i editing matter save after a few hours the edit is finished. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.132.34 (talk) 10:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm not entirely clear on what your asking, but if you mean, "can I enter text and then hit the Save button several hours later?" then the answer is: technically yes (depending on your browser settings), but you're likely to encounter an edit conflict if another editor changes the page during that time. Yunshui ^雲_水 10:30, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Also, if you wait a significant amount of time you will often get an error message that says something like "We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data". In practice this means that it always a good idea to copy your edit before saving so that if this happens you can click edit again and paste your changes in, and it's especially prudent if you've dallied.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:46, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Largest 100 pages with *one* editor?

For review purposes, I'd like to be able to see the 100 largest Wikipedia pages with only one editor, is there any way to do that. For the Maraschino cherry on top, I'd like the list to not count changes made by bots in this.Naraht (talk) 14:13, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I don't think there is any way of doing that through the interface. You need to run an SQL query on the database to do that. SpinningSpark 19:31, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Submitting a Draft Article for Review

Now that I have my article in the shape I want it, what do I need to do to move the draft article from my Sandbox to the approval/review queue?

Thx,

/b — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartacus1704 (talk • contribs) 14:16, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Add the text {{subst:Submit}} to the top of the draft and save.--ukexpat (talk) 15:45, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Single/One Source question.

I know there are problems with an article being referenced entirely from a single source. Does this apply if the references for the article are all from a major newspaper over a wide time period? For example, the Washington Post does a story about an event in Washington DC and then does followup articles about the event 6 months, 2 years and 10 years later?Naraht (talk) 14:20, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

My thoughts: Three articles over a period of time are an improvement over one single article, but not as convincing for notability as reports from three separate reliable sources. It would also depend on what was in the followup articles. Are they just a repeat of the information in original article, or do they include new information that shows that the topic has continued to develop and be of interest over time? Are the three articles written by different journalists?, etc. —Anne Delong (talk) 16:47, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Frank E. Petersen

Hello Wikipedia. I am a newbie at this and require assistance. I am an avid Wikipedia user. Having perused the Wikipedia cites of all of my favorites, I copied how they included information.

After getting the birth records of myself and my siblings, I entered them onto my Dad's page. When I entered the family life section, it was later taken down because of copyright infringement. I thought public birth records were not public information and not subject to this rule. Can you please tell me why this section was taken down?

I think I understand why the other sections were taken down and I am working on correcting that now. Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated! 199.128.94.40 (talk) 14:26, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Copyright infringement is not the normal reason for taking down children's names, the most common reason I've seen is simply that the Children are non-notable and as such may not be suitable. For example, if Michael Smithson just won the 2014 Noble Price, the fact that his children are Manny, Moe and Jack may not be suitable for the article.Naraht (talk) 14:39, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Futhermore, we try to protect minors, by not using their names, dates of birth, etc. as WP:MINORS, unless that information is already widely and freely available e.g. some sportspeople who compete in age categories. - Arjayay (talk) 14:59, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

It probably wasn't removed for copyvio. It got caught up in this edit which reverted the article to a previous version because it contained copyright violation, the removal of the family section was probably collateral damage. However, as pointed out above, this is not really suitable material. Note that birth records are primary sources and we do not normally rely on these for verification. That is not the way Wikipedia works. We mostly rely on secondary sources for our information and most particularly we rely on them to ascertain the accuracy, importance, and meaning of the primary information. SpinningSpark 15:30, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Contacting a contributor?

I am trying to contact Peter Tillman (a frequent contributor to Wikipedia). One of the websites he has helped create & maintain (a site listed in Wikipedia, along with the author [Michael Swanwick] is not working correctly. Soulfulpsy (talk) 16:57, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Try User talk:Tillman, or the email link available from that page. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:17, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Gwinnett Place Mall

Reference help requested. may I rewrite the entire entry? The history is inaccurate, misleading and cumbersome by misrepresenting the fact: Simon Property Group (SPG) owned Northlake Mall, Gwinnett Place Mall and then purchased Discover Mills (renaming it to Sugarloaf Mills) and built Mall of Georgia, then borrowed heavily from banks using the properties as collateral (Gwinnett Place Mall, Sugarloaf Mills AND Northlake Mall) causing all 3 neighboring malls to go into bankruptcy and negatively economically impacted the neighborhoods and communities around each mall

May I correct the article to accurately and factually explain that Simon Property Group (SPG) owned 3 enclosed regional malls - Northlake Mall, Gwinnett Place Mall, and then purchased Discover Mills mall, then used these malls as collateral for loans to develop and construct a 4th enclosed regional mall in the same market - Mall of Georgia, then allowed the 3 original malls to go into bankruptcy. The economic impact of the bankruptcy of 3 enclosed regional malls within a ten-mile radius negatively impacted property values, employment, crime rates for the community which the regional malls serve. Thanks,

Kelly — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kellylcochran (talk • contribs) 16:58, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

You had put all of your text within comment tags, the second of which was unterminated, & therefore the text was invisible, so I have removed the tags. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:08, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

car gaes

Italic text — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.217.208.176 (talk) 17:14, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Your test worked. I just want to let you know that Wikipedia has a place just for tests, called the sandbox. Feel free to experiment there. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 09:44, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface

Dear editors: An editor created an article in a sandbox. I moved it to Afc and it eventually became an article. This left a redirect in the sandbox. The user then reused the sandbox by removing the redirect, and made another article. Now it looks as though I created the article (User talk:Anne Delong#A page you started (Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface) has been reviewed!). Is there anything that should be done about this? (Maybe I should just copy the notice to the correct user's talk page.) Is there a way to prevent this happening in the future? —Anne Delong (talk) 17:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

For future similar cases, you can ask an administrator to move the page. Admins have the ability to move pages without leaving a redirect (essentially, deleting the source page). It is possible to delete your edit so you are no longer the creator but I'm not quite sure what grounds in policy would permit that. You are actually the creator as you created the redirect. Maybe WP:CRD criteria #6 "non-contentious housekeeping" would apply, but I would need to think about it and/or get advice before doing it. Ask me on my talk page if you want that done. SpinningSpark 19:04, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Hmmm... I have moved hundreds of pages are from sandboxes to temporary titles, and a large number of these have then been moved to mainspace, most not by me, and this is only the second time this has happened. There'd be no way to know which one might be accidentally reused, and moving them all without redirects just in case might cause other problems. I think I'll leave it be and hope that the referencing on that article improves and that nobody asks me what "neuromodulation" is. Thanks for taking time to lay out the options. —Anne Delong (talk) 20:46, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Computing reference desk too wide?

Wikipedia's own Computing reference desk is displayed as too wide on my monitor, which has a 1680 pixel horizontal resolution, I can tell by the horizontal scroll bar appearing at the bottom of the browser window. Yet, when I scroll the window all to the right, I still can't see anything that would overflow the standard display size. What is causing this? JIP | Talk 18:09, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Some of the code stuff in the section Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#Javascript Error: "Uncaught ReferenceError: __adroll is not defined" overflows the normal display size (at least for me), though it doesn't seem to go quite as far as the scroll bar goes. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:27, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I created a wiki page on Anastasia S. Fontaines and it was deleted. I need help with this article. New to this.

Can someone please help me with the article I created on Anastasia S. Fontaines? I don't think I provided enough information or the right information. Any assistance is welcome. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Venus2211 (talk • contribs) 19:30, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

The article was deleted because you didn't demonstrate why Fontaines is notable enough for inclusion in this encyclopedia. Here at Wikipedia, "notable" means that a person has become known in their field enough to be written about or given awards within the industry and so on. For the specifics, you can see WP:NACTOR which gives the notability requirements for actors. If you still feel that Fontaines is notable, the better course might be to go through the process at Articles for Creation which will help you by getting input from other editors before the article goes live. Dismas|^(talk) 19:55, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I can now see that I have more in the way of content to include in my page for Ms. Fontaines (Anastasia S. Fontaines). It's the technical side of things I am having difficulty with. Also the page for James Duval. It asks for "Citations" and this is also confusing. He has an action figure made of him. I am trying to understand how to reference and make a citation and feeling in the dark. The page for Ms. Fontaines is a big project for me. Very daunting but I want to get through it and also prove to myself that I can. I normally give up on or avoid technical things I know nothing about. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Venus2211 (talk) 21:42, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I expect your main problem will turn out not to be the tedious technical stuff of citing a reference in the correct format, but of finding independent reputable published sources which write about her. Something like a review of a play in the New York Times, crediting her performance. (I don't know what an "action figure" is, but I suspect it is not a citable source.) But if you have already found such sources, and are struggling to know how to cite them, just tell us here what they are, and someone here can show you how to do the citing. Maproom (talk) 21:57, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

@Maproom:, it's a toy. Like G.I. Joe. See action figure. Though I'm not sure why an action figure of another person matters here. Maybe Venus2211 is trying to ask how to cite the existence of the action figure? If that's the case, just finding a magazine article that talks about it or something along those lines would do it. Dismas|^(talk) 23:33, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi Maproom}} ::@Maproom:

@Dismas: . I think I may have responded the wrong way. Sorry about that. I asked some questions about citations, referencing and what to do if articles exist but not online. How do I add those? I also gave examples of reputable sources and magazine articles for both Ms.Fontaines and James Duvals action figure Donny Darko Bunny. I wasn't clear on if they are added via a link and how to categorize them. One of the articles featuring Ms. Fontaines in INSTYLE MAGAZINE INSTYLE MAGAZINE . There are others I can try to inquire on getting photographs of the many pages that are not available online. A Donny Darko James Duval article discussing the action figure ATX Music Magazine. Donny Darko Bunny Action Figure played by James Duval. What is more important and what is the difference between a citation and reference? How do I place them on the page. Also. Where can I work on the page I started for Ms.Fontaines and build on it. I can't find it anywhere. I find it challenging to navigate and I get lost. Thanks Thanks Thanks Venus2211 (talk) 07:59, 9 May 2014 (UTC)Venus2211

Hi, Venus2211. Wikipedia can be challenging, but fortunately you can get help every step of the way.

Citations and references are basically the same thing. Sorry if that confused you. To make citation, use the code <ref>Info about the source</ref> Put this right after a sentence to show that the information came from that specific source. The information inside the reference helps identify the source. It should include things like title, author, date, and publication (the name of the website, magazine, newspaper, or whatever). If it's online, then you can include a URL, but if not, the other information should be enough so that someone can check for themselves if they want. (You don't have to post the pages of the magazine online.) The introduction to referencing has a little more detail about this.

Unfortunately, your page was been deleted, so you can't find it anywhere. But you can make a request for undeletion, in which an administrator will restore it and move it outside the "live" article space, probably to a page like User:Venus2211/Anastasia S. Fontaines. There you can continue working on it. After that, you can request a review of it by adding the code {{subst:submit}} to the top.

I hope I covered everything you asked. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 09:38, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

certified latitude and longitude coordinates

How do you make the latitude and longitude show up in the upper right corner of a page about a place (in this case specifically a museum)? Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mandykn (talk • contribs) 21:18, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

You need {{coord}}. Follow the instructions there. SpinningSpark 21:39, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Genuine information blocked

I recently tried to update Alfred Hitchcock presents Page, as it's currently being aired again on FOXcrime HI Asia. However ClueBot removed it, but this is genuine information. Thank you for Wikipedia, we donate yearly as we love your product — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sarstock (talk • contribs) 23:58, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a TV guide and not everything that is "genuine" is appropriate to include in an encyclopedia article.-- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom

Notability notwithstanding, the broadcast history section is for the original run only. A syndication section might be a good idea, but it should have a few channels included with the other to start. A one-item list would look strange. It was on the Sci-Fi Channel and Book TV, too. InedibleHulk (talk) 02:06, 9 May 2014 (UTC)