Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 November 30

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November 30

Change the article on the shooting of Mike Brown

The article has been proven to be inaccurate (Mike Brown did NOT steal cigarettes from the convenience store before he was shot) and must be changed so that people can be aware of the truth of the circumstances surrounding his death, and so that false information and conceptions are not perpetuated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.219.154.130 (talk) 02:42, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

The place to discuss the article is Talk:Shooting of Michael Brown. There are already discussions about what to say regarding the cigarillos. The latest is Talk:Shooting of Michael Brown#RFC: Alleged theft of cigars from convenience store? It certainly has not been proved that he did not steal them. His own friend who was with him in both the store and at the shooting has testified that Brown stole them. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:07, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

messed-up articles

The last two times I contributed information, once to the Uri Milstein page and the other the Yitzchak Rabin page, the page at the end of my edit, or after it, was italicized and also moved way off the screen;

Question #1 how do I fix that.

Question #2 how do I prevent it happening in the future.

As an aside, how do you make the names of Wikipedia articles you mention show up as such (in blue type)

Thank YouDale Stern (talk) 02:56, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

I've reformatted your question since you put a space at the beginning of each line. This puts a box around the text and doesn't allow the text to wrap naturally. Dismas|^(talk) 02:58, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

To answer your questions though, remove the space from the beginning of the line. And italics are put in by using two single quote marks ''like this'' which produces like this. And to link something, you put it in square brackets. So, [[link]] will produce link. You can see how to do more with linking at WP:WIKILINK. Dismas|^(talk) 03:02, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Wrong person on google

When a certain name is typed into google, a side bar on the right of the page provided by Wikipedia offers a photo and information about the incorrect person with a similar name. Is there a way to fix this? If so who do I contact, so the correct information is displayed instead of an article of someone's page that doesn't even reach wikipedia's guidelines for notability? Thank you. LifeAquatic42 (talk) 05:17, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

It's not provided by Wikipedia. It's pulled from Wikipedia. Google does that and sometimes they make mistakes. But it's not any of our doing. You'll have to inform Google of the error. Dismas|^(talk) 05:27, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

@LifeAquatic42: If you would like to inform Google of the error, you should see a little "Feedback" link at the lower-right of the side bar you mention. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 06:24, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Solved the problem. LifeAquatic42 (talk) 07:25, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

It may no longer be relevant if you say it's solved but Template:HD/GKG is about the issue. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:54, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

How do I stop the table from being forced to the bottom?

I inserted a table in my edit here[1], but the table is appearing out of place at the bottom of the page for some reason. Could someone please point out what's wrong? Thanks in advance. WinterWall (talk) 09:16, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Is this what you were looking for? Dismas|^(talk) 09:30, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Excellent! Thank you! WinterWall (talk) 09:39, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Default to Desktop view on Safari on iOS

Hi!

I used to be able to make the Desktop View default when viewing Wikipedia pages on my iPhone. Specifically, I use iOS 7 on an iPhone 5S. Is there any way to do this again that doesn't involve scrolling down to the bottom of the page to click on "Desktop" every time I open a new Wikipedia page? Thanks!

Also, Wikipedia's interface is simple enough that most Android or iOS devices can handle the normal desktop version. Why do we even need a mobile version?

Thanks, Kyle 128.135.100.108 (talk) 09:37, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

@128.135.100.108: I access Wikipedia through a laptop and through a smartphone. The phone's screen is so tiny that the desktop version is very difficult to use on it.

While some functionalities are missing from the mobile version, that's a problem to attack, not a reason to not have a mobile interface. I'm using the beta mobile version, and reporting bugs through Phabricator. --Thnidu (talk) 01:24, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Change of company name

Watson, Farley & Williams

Title: Watson, Farley & Williams

Watson Farley & Williams LLP has changed its name from "Watson, Farley & Williams LLP" to "Watson Farley & Williams LLP" (removing the comma after "Watson"). The content of the Wiki page has been updated, however is it possible to update the referencing title of the page?

Many thanks.

Legal68 (talk) 11:02, 30 November 2014 (UTC) Legal68

 Done. JohnCD (talk) 11:08, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

the ISIS/islamic state article needs editing and real change in the way this new state is precived

there is a desperate need for neutral and fact-based view of this group and the whole preception of the term of "state". you can go and read the section "the term "Rebel group controlling territory" is fake term made up in order to replace the term "unrecognized state"" in the talk page if you don't sure about how this group should be treated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wheels of steel0 (talk • contribs) 12:46, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

You should discuss this matter on the talk page of the article in question, provide sources to support your stance, and negotiate with others to arrive at a consensus. --Jayron32 18:15, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

That would be here. Britmax (talk) 19:16, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

How to include a paragraph of a page into another page?

There is a page (A) containing a paragraph (X) of text with 5 lines. I'm going to create a page (B) that will contain some information, and I want to append/include the paragraph (X) of page (A), so I don't need to type the whole text again. This feature would work by creating a global wikipedia variable associated with a paragraph, so other pages would be able to use it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faltur (talk • contribs) 13:03, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Try Help:Labeled section transclusion. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:15, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

@Faltur: This should be very rarely done if at all for mainspace articles. Some reasons include that it makes it inaccessible to editors who want improve it or tailor it to the specifics of another article it is included in; any vandalism to the original page will result in that vandalism showing up everywhere it appears; its copyright attribution is divorced from the source; any secondary citations using named references in the original page will fail on the transcluded pages, etc. I suggest instead you copy and paste the text, providing copyright attribution in the edit summary. See Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 19:13, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faltur (talk • contribs) 16:17, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Bond angle in alcohol is mistaken!

Bond angle of C-O-H id found to be decreased from 109.5degree to 105.3degree due to lone pair lone pair repulsion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Manish1447 (talk • contribs) 14:36, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

You might be better off addressing this on the talk page of the article concerned. Whichever article that is, possibly Alcohol. Britmax (talk) 14:44, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

can I put a link for Council Bluffs, Iowa (wikipedia article) on my Facebook group page?

I am in the beginning stage of planning a family reunion, for which I have set up a Facebook Group page for family members; I have suggested Council Bluffs as the location for the reunion, and would like to know if I may post the Wikipedia article, or a link, or url, there for the purpose of supporting my suggestion. Thank you. MemberOfFamilyReunion (talk) 22:09, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Absolutely! You are free to link any Wikipedia article for any reason. Wikipedia is free, after all ;). Cheers!--A Wild Abigail Appears! _{Capture me. Moves.} 22:13, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

What you do on Facebook isn't generally Wikipedia's concern - though if you copy an article there (as opposed to providing a link) you must comply with the terms of the Creative Commons license, which requires explicit attribution amongst other things. Note that this license covers the text. Images may be covered by other terms, and you'll need to check them individually. I suspect that it might be a lot simpler just to provide a link - and it is possible that Facebook's own terms also restrict what you can do, though you'll have to check that with them, not us. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:19, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Help with conversion template

I've gotten pretty good with the conversion template, but stuck on this one. Can somebody fix this up & make it pretty?: "This was a massive flood, with estimated 1,693 km3 (4.5 × 10^14 US gallons) of water flowing at a rate of 42 km3/hr (1.1 × 10^13 US gallons), over a 40 hr period." Thanks —Gaff ^ταλκ 22:53, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

I would just write out per hour for the second volume:

Markup	Renders as
{{convert|1693|km3|gal}}	1,693 cubic kilometres (4.47×1014 US gal)
{{convert|42|km3|gal}} per hour	42 cubic kilometres (1.1×1013 US gal) per hour

--  Gadget850 ^talk 13:30, 1 December 2014 (UTC)