Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 October 11

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October 11

Advice sought about tendentious editing

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice. Myself and another editor have both added information to the Current events page about the recent by-elections in the UK, which have received enough media coverage to qualify for an entry, but another editor seems unhappy with its inclusion. He initially claimed it not to be notable enough because it didn't receive international coverage, but when I then found two international sources from the New Zealand Herald and Washington Post, the same person then told me that the event shouldn't be included because there was no information about the deaths from toxic poisoning of several people in Pakistan, and that the election was only being reported by "Commonwealth Realms". I have attempted to open dialogue with this editor, but to no avail as they keep moving the goalposts, and I fear I've encountered some tendentious editing. Also, the editor concerned seems quite happy to enter into an edit war, and I don't want to do that. I'm not sure this is an ANI matter, but would very much appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance. This is Paul (talk) 01:30, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Paul, I think the other party means well. No admin intervention is needed. First thing to do is for everyone to stop editing and talk it through. A talk has been started some time back at Portal talk:Current events/2014 October 9. Please state your arguments there. If you are still unable to get a consensus, try getting other neutral people to give a second opinion. All the best, Taketa (talk) 07:49, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Taketa, thanks for getting back to me. Have replied at the discussion, but think I might open a debate on the main Current events talk page as that may have more traffic. I've no doubt the other editor started off meaning well, but I came away from the discussion last night with the impression that it had descended into a case of I don't like it, but I'll open the discussion a bit later on and see what others decide. Thanks again. This is Paul (talk) 09:31, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

security agency

I had a security agency, the agency had epf and esi registration, but I could not hv the licence and how to get and what are the requirment to run the perfect security serrvieces. pl advise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.19.54.183 (talk) 08:24, 11 October 2014‎ (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 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. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 10:39, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Gujarati language

please give meaning of each sloka in gujarati language , just below the sloka, of Shiv Tandav strotra. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.15.249.158 (talk • contribs) 10:10, 11 October 2014‎

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --ais523 10:28, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Using the Teahouse

I tried to ask a question in the Teahouse (I've used it before with-out problems), but was unable to. After asking my question, I added four tildes, but the submit button was greyed out. I added four more tildes and the button went to black. So clicked on it. But as far as I can see, my entry was simply erased. I went away and then came back and tried again. (I am on a coputer using Windows 7, I think, and ME.) The same thing happened. So, I have two questions: first, what gives? And, second, my original quesiton, which I will passte below:

I uploaded a picture I took. Wiki Commons turned it upside down. There was a box to click to rotate it. I clicked on that. But later on it was upside down and there was a message about having to rotate it, with a suggested site to do that . The suggested site is text-heavy and I couldn't find anywhere in it that explained how to rotate an image (again). Why all this run-around?

In addition, I was totally unable to load the image with the Visual Editor. When I clicked on Media etc., my computer just froze, with no options.

On the other hand, the instructions for the normal editor are opaque. Some-one should something like, "C&P the file you wish to use" and explain the difference on the Wikipedia page between the full picture and the thumbnail. Kdammers (talk) 10:25, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

I don't have a lot of time right now otherwise I'd flip it myself. But the image, File:View of Tapjeong Reservoir from an observation building on a jetty. September 2014.jpg for those who are wondering, is tagged saying that a bot will be by to rotate it. So, you could wait until that happens. I've no idea how long that bot's queue is. Oop... gotta go. Dismas|^(talk) 13:36, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

@Kdammers: There are currently problems with the "Ask a question" feature at the Teahouse. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 131#The Teahouse's ask a question script is broken. You can disable the feature at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:17, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

One of the Commons bots has rotated the image. I am having a hard job figuring out why one would use that image unless there is something special about the view from the observation building.--ukexpat (talk) 12:13, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Editing a template and 'TemplateData'

I was going to go and add an item to this template, something I don't have a lot of experience doing, and I was wondering about the editnotice which made reference to TemplateData and needing to update the documentation. The relevant information didn't really explain much, so I was wondering what my obligations to deal with these were. I would've thought the line "When making changes to this template please be sure to update its documentation" would only apply to functionality and formatting adjustments, rather than just adding an item, so an explanation of this would be appreciated. Thanks! DarkToonLink 13:50, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi DarkToonLink, I agree. You only need to update the documentation if you make a major change. For adding a single item you don't need to worry about it. All the best, Taketa (talk) 14:14, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Ok thanks, it should be fine then, the yellow exclamation mark was just a bit off-putting! DarkToonLink 14:16, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

why i am not autoconfirmed yet?

i don't know where to ask it so i ask it her. i have 12 edits(most of them in an article i made) and registered for four days(4 days and couple of hours) so why i am not autoconfirmed yet? it should be automatic no?. --Wheels of steel0 (talk) 16:00, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

[1] Your account does have the autoconfirmed right. Why do you think that you're not autoconfirmed? --Glaisher (talk) 16:09, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

i wanted to edit a semi-protected article and i didn't see the "edit" tube. anyway it seems i can edit it now so i probably just needed to wait a little more :P --Wheels of steel0 (talk) 17:50, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

The logs show your account was actually 4 days 12 minutes when you first posted here.[2][3]. I guess you viewed the semiprotected article shortly before the 4 days. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:03, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

A proposed high level change to the article layout

I've noticed that many of the article leads are cluttered with a long list of alternate expressions for the subject or alternate language presentations of the subject to such an extent that the first sentence of the lead is unreadable.

It seems to me that that clutter needs to be moved to one side so the reading can flow. I suppose that such a change would require some type of box to one side for those "insertions." That change is obviously something that needs to be addressed at a high level and to include input from the various editor users. Zedshort (talk) 16:39, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Zedshort, I suggest you chose a central talkpage where this discussion can be held. Maybe the talk of WP:MOS, with links to the discussion on several key places like the helpdesks and village pumps. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 16:44, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

As it happens this exact idea is already being discussed at this Village Pump thread! Feel free to chip into the discussion there if you wish. 92.23.6.52 (talk) 20:51, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

My submitted entry is still in draft...how long will it take to go live?

I submitted a new entry but it is still in draft. I think I have done everything correctly and that this has in fact been submitted for checking but I'm not sure. I used the Article Wizard process. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gstarr5555 (talk • contribs) 16:41, 11 October 2014‎

Hi, and thanks for contributing to Wikipedia! There are a very large number of draft articles to review right now; at the last count, there were 2694 currently in the review queue. At the current rate, the median time for an article submission review seems to be around 2 to 3 weeks, so I'd recommend just waiting for the time being.

You also need to write {{subst:submit}} at the top of the article to mark it as ready for review. You don't seem to have done that yet. --ais523 16:51, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Contributing new article

I have started an article on Arthur Koehler, wood expert in 1935 trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of the child of Col. Charles and Mrs. Lindbergh. How should I submit a draft to see if I'm on the right track? Thank you. George E. Koehler — Preceding unsigned comment added by Margeo113 (talk • contribs) 18:19, 11 October 2014‎ (UTC)

@Margeo113: Right now your account only has this one edit: here at the Help Desk. So, I hope you have your work saved elsewhere on your computer. To submit a draft of your article see Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Dismas|^(talk) 19:25, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

And with regard to Koehler, I suggest you read WP:BLP1E; I suspect he is simply not notable enough to justify an article here. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:07, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Inter-language links: indeed must be one-to-one?

I've encountered a wrong inter-language link: "Adage" in English defitely does not mean the same as "Поговорка" in Russian (while "Поговорка" is a term which is meaningful in Russian, but pretty meaningless in English). Actually, there is no one-to-one mapping between the "Adage" and any article in Russian. Anyway, I believe that a link from English "Adage" to Russian "Афоризм" (which has its own link back to English "Aphorism") is an approximate, but still making sense link, and is better than no link at all. But, when I tried to create such two-to-one mapping ( {Adage, Aphorism} => Афоризм ), I've got an error "The link ruwiki:Афоризм is already used...".

Should I go ahead and just delete the misleading link?

And, are there some plans to allow unidirectional many-to-one links, while leaving one-to-one link in opposite direction, i.e. {Adage, Aphorism} may both be linked to "Афоризм", while "Афоризм" may remain be linked just to "Aphorism"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vbortz (talk • contribs) 18:52, October 2014 (UTC)

@Vbortz:, delete with a proper edit summary and if you did wrong, I'm sure someone will tell you. As for the answer to your second question, try WP:VPT and ask about your first situation there too, and maybe someone will have a better answer.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:10, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Layout problem (only here)

Hi. While I was working here in edit mode, I accidentally pused a key (or some keys). For a second i see the page changing and now I see it larger. I've tried to resolve but I had no result. Anyway, I've seen my user page and some articles onto other Wikipedias, on Commons etc. Layout situation is normal, and it is also normal in the rest of Internet. It seems it is a problem related only to enwiki. Could somebody help me to understand what I've done. In this way I can't work. Thanks a lot. --Dэя-Бøяg 21:57, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Note: Aehm... I've seen a thing. I'm seeing the articles (main namespace) in a strange way: the above toolbar (page, discussion, read, edit, view history...), along the left one (navigation, search, interaction, tools etc), disappeared. Or better, they are located below the article, along with the interwiki links. Pages have been extended to the entire screen. Only the article in main namespace. Uhm... Could it be that something is happening to the layout of enwiki? Maybe I've pushed nothing of strange on my keyboard and, simply, I was here while the layout changed? Repeating: I'm seeing this changes (also this other) only onto enwiki. Thanks again. --Dэя-Бøяg 22:06, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Try to clear your entire cache. In many browsers you can press Ctrl++ for larger, Ctrl+- for smaller, Ctrl+0 for default, but this only affects size and doesn't match the description in your second post. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:11, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. It worked with Ctrl+-. About the second post: the all screen articles came back only larger (but normal) 2 minutes later. I dunno, maybe a collateral effect of my push. Anyway, thanks a lot again :-) --Dэя-Бøяg 22:18, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

How do you create single column PDF files from wikipedia pages?

When I use the download as PDF option the PDF conversion always produces PDF's in two column format. Is there some way to force one column output? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.129.197.200 (talk • contribs) 23:56, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:12, 13 October 2014 (UTC)