Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 September 14

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September 14

Reuse of Wikipedia data

I have opened a site which shows timelines using information taken verbatim from Wikipedia pages. It can be seen here: http://www.timelinecontinuum.com/Default.aspx

I have read the page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content, but not being a lawyer, I have difficulty understanding it.

I think I have covered my copyright liability by:

1. Including these phrases in the Sources section of my page:

 "The data in this timeline is from Wikipedia's daily listing of world events."
 "The data was automatically converted from Wikipedia.org licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License." 

2: All hyperlinks from the Wikipedia text are maintained in my data.

Any comments or assistance you can give me on this would be much appreciated, as I am keen to "do the right thing". The intention of this site, where Wikipedia information is used, is to make it even more useful and accessible.

TIA

ZermattMan (talk) 00:03, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi, ZermattMan. You're doing well, but there are two issues that remain (both of which are addressed in the section of reusing Wikipedia content titled "Re-use of text under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike":

• Share-alike means you have to release your own work that modifies Wikipedia text under the same license. So, you should include "These timelines are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License", with a link to it (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). (You can also use a later version, such as 4.0 International.)
• The notice about Wikipedia's license should include a link to the license (again, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). (I say "should" instead of "must" because the Wikipedia pages are already linked, and those have a link to the license already, so this may be enough.)

(While I try my best, the above is not legal advice.) Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 06:22, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

ZermattMan, I'm not a lawyer but I have spent a lot of time researching copyright law. I guess I'll copy the "not legal advice" used above :) Basically, we have three things here. We have the Wikipedia content, we have your software, and we have the processed output. Your software is an independent work and I think it's safe to say you can license (or not license) your software any way you like. Putting your software under a Creative Commons license would be cool, but almost certainly not required. The concern here is that the output generated by your software still carries the Creative Commons "property" that was carried by the input. I think you probably need to say somewhere that the results you are displaying are licensed for other people to reuse, under the same Creative Commons licensing terms. Alsee (talk) 14:25, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Dick Oatts

Reference help requested. It seems that I have caused an error, but I don't know how to fix it. How can I fix it? Thanks, 129.32.224.85 (talk) 00:43, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Looks like you added |title=Film & the BB's | Biography. The extra pipe | is the start of the new parameter, and Biography is not valid thus the message Text " Biography" ignored. Replace it with a colon. --  Gadget850 ^talk 01:08, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Pakistan Air Force

HOW DO I FIND OUT THE EXACT DATES THAT I JOINED & LEFT THE PAKISTAN AIR FORCE? — Preceding unsigned comment added by LIONEL CULLEN (talk • contribs) 04:34, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

To editor LIONEL CULLEN:

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about 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. I hope this helps. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 06:11, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Ping LIONEL CULLEN Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 06:11, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Interaction tool thingy

There is (or was - most of the useful tools seem to have been banned in order to "improve" Wikipedia), some sort of tool to find on-wiki interactions between editors. Is it still available and if so where do I find it? Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 05:05, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

To editor DuncanHill: Is the editor interaction tool what you're looking for? Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 06:08, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

To editor Anon126: - Yes, that's exactly the one, many thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 06:14, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Why am I never "randomly selected" to comment?

I've been an active editor for over 7 years and I've logged over 40,000 edits but I have never received a "randomly selected" invitation to comment on something. I've seen even raw newbies get such invitations, admins get them, all sorts of editors get them, but I've never got one. Is there a setting or option I need to change to be included in such invitations? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 07:12, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Roger (Dodger67), please add your name to Wikipedia:Feedback request service.--Skr15081997 (talk) 07:22, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Excellent! Thanks Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:36, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

SCHLOS EGENBERG

I CAN NOT FIND ,IT SAY THAT THE HERBERSTEIN WHERE LIVING IN THE SCHLOS IN 1938. I KNOW BECOSE I WAS PLAYING WHIT THERE SOHN ABOUT SAME AGE LIKE IM [ NOW 81 ],I WAS LIVING NEXT DOOR IN GASTHOUSE MATEL RIGHT THROUGHT WW 2. SO I LIKE DO FIND OUT WHY THERE NO ANY INFORMATION . I KNOW THEY WANTED COME BACK DO AUSTRIA ,BUT THE GOV. DID NOT AXEPT THEM

YOURS ALFRED PEER — Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.5.251.155 (talk) 08:21, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alfred. Are you saying that you want us to add or remove something from the article Schloss Herberstein? (or possibly Eggenberg Palace, Graz?) Please note that our touchstone for adding content is whether the information can be found and cited to reliable published sources (and often removal involves the inability to find the content therein). If you're just looking for information, you can ask at the reference desk, but I must say I find your post a bit hard to follow. By the way, typing in all capital letters makes it harder to read and is considered by online convention to be SHOUTING. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:45, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Author affiliation in citation template

I am using citation templates for the references of an article. I want to note the affiliation of the author of a published piece which is cited, specifically an "op-ed"-type piece, as this would be important for readers trying to assess the reliability and objectivity of the statements made in it. I do not see in the "cite news" template a clear way to note an author's affiliation with a particular institution. How is this best done? Davidhof (talk) 09:41, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi Davidhof. Add to the cite news template:

|last=InsertSurname|first=InsertGivenName

You can note it's an op-ed piece by adding

|department=Op-ed

Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:22, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Fuhghettaboutit, thank you for your response. However, that was not my question. I did not ask how to include an author's name in a cite news reference; that is very clear from the template's documentation. My question was about how to note "an author's affiliation with a particular institution". For example, if the president of the American Cancer Society wrote an op-ed published in the New York Times, urging that the US government change its approach to supporting cancer research, the Times would add a line at the end of the piece, reading "So-and-so is president of the American Cancer Society." If I want to report the fact of the advocacy, I would write in the body of the article, "In 2014, the American Cancer Society's president urged that...." etc., etc., in which case it is not essential to note the affiliation in the footnote because I already did so in the article itself. But if I am just using the op-ed as a reliable source for some factual statement for which it could be relied on, e.g. "From 2003 to 2013, US government spending on cancer research increased by X%," I don't want to put a description of the source in the body of the article, but I do want to note it in the footnote, so that the reader doesn't think that this fact comes from reporting by the Times itself. My question was, Is there a standard way to do this? Davidhof (talk) 04:47, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

@Davidhof: Ah, Sorry. Just add to first=, e.g. first=David (president of the [[American Cancer Society]])--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:30, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Adding descriptive text to a CS1 parameter corrupts the citation's COinS metadata. In this example, '(president of the American Cancer Society)' is not part of David's name. CS1 does not provide a mechanism to identify an author's affiliations. If it is necessary to somehow note an author's affiliations, that information can be placed between the CS1 template's closing }} and the closing </ref>.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:03, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

In my view that's the tail wagging the dog. Citation template output is for readers; for proper attribution to sources and verification. Placing this after the closing code results in a less well formatted citation in which the attribution is not as accessible. Of course, the citation can be done manually. And if there is a better way to place this information next to his name using the template without the metadata issue coming into play, that would be superior. But weighing the secondary function of metadata against citation clarity, I choose the latter by a very wide margin.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:23, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Close. The purpose of the citation template output is twofold: primarily for editors to WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT and secondarily to present that information in formats usable by readers whether they are human or machine (which will be read by humans later). An author's affiliation has nothing to do with WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT; if it did, then every scientific journal citation would also need to list the affiliation of every scientist who contributed to the research or the paper. Of course, editors are free to hand-craft citations if CS1 (a general purpose tool) isn't the right tool for the job.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:42, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Thank you. Davidhof (talk) 17:37, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Oh no, not even close. Say where you got it is barely a footnote here. Verifiability, no original research and neutral point of view and by virtue of them, good attribution is the lifeblood of the encyclopedia. Every thing we do that makes a source's use better attributed utterly dwarfs any concern over metadata.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:29, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

All of that is more or less true except that WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT is much more important than you suggest. Without editors adhere to WP:SAYWHEREYOUGOTIT, readers can't verify, can't check for original research, can't be assured of a neutral point of view. But none of that is grounds to require or even encourage editors to provide author affiliations in citations.

That most readers consume a citation's information in its visual form, is not justification for intentionally corrupting that same information for readers who consume it in its metadata form. They are all readers regardless of how they read.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 11:41, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

Say where you got it is very important. I did not mean to imply it is not. The issue is that it is generally irrelevant to what we are talking about here. That is, its guidance to say where you got it, is not germane to the nuanced attribution issue here, that will inform readers of something substantive about the particular source's character. Meanwhile, what do you think: is it .01%, .02%, a bit more of our readers that will consume the information in metadata form for the purposes I am talking about? I understand your point. But it omits proportionality, which is phenomenally one-sided here. That is why I stated it previously as a balancing test; that in "weighing" a less well formatted citation in which the attribution is not as accessible, against this metadata issue, "I choose the [in this case, former] by a very wide margin".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:48, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

international detention rules

Can you direct me to a website that can give me information on international rules for the detention of suspects. rights privileges etc — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.161.87 (talk) 10:43, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Have you tried the miscellaneous section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 11:17, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Translation of Wikipedia Articles

Good day I am unable to determine how to access the text of an existing English translation of an article.

The current English article is very small and would like to provide the full Lithuanian article in translation. I have read the translation section and understand what I need to do once I have completed the translation. Do I sign in with my user name and password, select Edit and then place my translation in the code?

Please advise.

Thanks

WarrenWarrenAnthony (talk) 11:41, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Warren. Basically yes. If there's really nothing worth keeping from the original page you can just delete what's there; but consider merging what's there if there's anything which isn't in the Lithuanian, especially if it's sourced. Do bear in mind the remarks at WP:translation about attributing the source. And also remember that everything in the English Wikipedia ought to be referenced to reliable independent sources (English ones if possible, but if they don't exist, other language sources are acceptable): different Wikipedias have different rules on this (and older articles, even in en.wikipedia, may be inadequately sourced by current standards), so if you are going to translate into English, please provide comprehensive references even if they are not there in the original. See referencing for beginners if you are not familiar with this. --ColinFine (talk) 16:05, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Is there another medication like Provigil/Nuvigil/Modafinil?

I have "Refactory" or "Treatment Resistant" Depression. I don't mean to assume you don't know what that is, but the things necessary in order to be diagnosed as such are: 1) Many combinations of anti-convulsants together or combined with anti-psychotics or mood stabilizers, 2) Having had Electro Shock Therapy Treatments, and 3) Having had the Vagus Nerve Stimulator implanted (which device is inserted in major surgery under your arm near your left (in my case) breast and run up to rest in your neck. It then sends brain waves to your brain to stop depression.

I have had all of these beginning in 1983. I have been disabled since 7/31/85. My depression also incudes a lack of motivation to the point of being unable to do anything but lie around a lot of days. I also have other mental illness diagnoses, along with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and a few physical problems.

I live in New Jersey, U.S.A., and have Medicare A $ B plus Medicare Part D for prescriptions plus PAAD--New Jersey's Pharmaceutical Aid for the Aged and Disabled, which cuts the cost of the prescriptions a bit more.

Five or 6 years ago, my Psychiatrist tried me on Nuvigil. It was amazing how it worked immediately and took away the depression and gave me motivation! Then my Doctor got a letter, which I was cc'd on, stating they weren't going to pay for it, try the medication at the end of the letter. It was Provigil. It worked just as well, and then I got a letter the same as the one for Nuvigil, but there was no suggestion for another medication. I went back to the way I was.

I then proceeded with my Doctor's permission to buy Modafinil from Overseas. Three months ago, I got a letter from U.S. Customs that they seized my package and I would be fined and criminally responsible (at the Federal level) if I tried to order it again.

Now I am a mess again. My Doctor put me on Ritalin, but it is not helping. His next move is to put me on Aderall, which he said he has his doubts about since it isn't much different to Ritalin.

Ny question is, has anyone ever heard of something that would work and not be outrageously expensive, that my doctor can prescribe for me.

The reason they denied them in the first place is they weren't approved by the FDA for my diagnosis. The price of each for 30 pills here is between $800 and $1,000.

Needless to say, I can't afford that.

I am not living. My life consists of talking on the phone, playing games on my computer, and doing what chores I can push myself to do, which isn't much.

If there is anything you can suggest to me, I would appreciate it. I want my life back. I had 5 years of life since 1985. I would never commit suicide because I am a Christian, but if someone told me I wasn't going to wake up tomorrow morning, I would be relieve.

I am sorry this is so lengthy.

Thank you for anything you may be able to relate to me to help.

Unmotivated1957Unmotivated1957 (talk) 16:58, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

@Unmotivated1957: Unfortunately for legal reasons we cannot and will not give medical advice. Also, your question does not seem to be related to editing Wikipedia, so it is outside the scope of our help desk.--Jasper Deng (talk) 17:02, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Notice that LestorLloyd is vandalizing "John de Ruiter' article and has not ceased after repeated warnings.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Notice that LestorLloyd is vandalizing "John de Ruiter' article and has not ceased after repeated warnings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Planktonium (talk • contribs) 18:29, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

This is not where you report vandalism, so you have not yet done so as far as I can tell, Planktonium. I agree that LesterLloyd is editing disruptively (though I suspect that he believes he is righting a wrong rather than intending to damage Wikipedia, and so it is not vandalism) and I have warned him in more detail, and explained what the issues are with his behaviour. If he continues his disruptive behaviour, he should be reported to WP:AIV. --ColinFine (talk) 20:11, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

The article in question is John de Ruiter. This is a content dispute about a biography of a living person. The place to discuss is the article talk page, Talk: John de Ruiter. I see that neither of the editors has made an effort to discuss on the talk page, which is currently empty except for templates. I disagree respectfully with User:ColinFine that if the disruptive editing continues, it should be reported at WP:AIV, because as ColinFine points out, it is not intended to damage Wikipedia, but is a misguided attempt to impose POV in violation of policy. I would suggest that any further disruptive editing be taken to the biographies of living persons noticeboard instead. User:LesterLloyd should be aware that violations of the policy on biographies of living persons can result in blocks. User:Planktonium would do well to read about dispute resolution in general. His or her concerns about disruptive editing are well-taken, but this is not the place to report disruptive editing, and the editing was not vandalism, although it was improper. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:19, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

File move

At File:Deseased per day Ebola 2014.png, the file name misspelling "Deseased" appears prominently in full-page view, so I suppose it should be fixed. There are a number of approved procedures, but to make a long story short, I got lost in the labyrinth. Art LaPella (talk) 19:10, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

 – Art LaPella (talk) 19:43, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

--Zckjsrbn 21:21, 14 September 2014 (UTC)message posted September 13, 2014 at 16:52

Teodoras Daukantas article

A major contributor to the Teodoras Daukantas article, Teodoras Daukantas appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (September 2014).

A query to talk page allowed event handler to add name as participant to the Wiki Lithuania Project . I believe that I am the major contributor mentioned in message posted September 13, 2014 at 16:52 . If this in fact is the case, I thank the forthright and timely intercession of a competent Wiki Free Encyclopedia source. I assure the source that I am on task with the above mentioned clean up of the Teodoras Daukantas article to include a valid Teodoras Daukantas Image to the Teodoras Daukantas page .

n.b.

I could use help in validating an image for Teodoras Daukantas for proper upload that justifies Wiki Media creative commons and copyright infringement guidelines.

Thank you Jurgis Vytautas Daukantas — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zckjsrbn (talk • contribs) 21:21, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

@Zckjsrbn:

1) for help determining copyright and usability status of that image on Wikipedia, you may find Wikipedia:Copyright problems to have the appropriate subject matter experts to help determine the facts for your specific question for use on Wikipedia.

2) participation in any Wikipedia project is open to any wikipedia editor (unless they prove themselves too disruptive and become subject of a topic ban). I have a feeling though, Lithuania wiki project is probably a pretty small and not very active group. you may find more activity and community help in the Military wiki project. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history

3) the notice is probably referring to you as you identified yourself as having a personal relationship with the subject of the article and have been the majority editor. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 22:23, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

@Zckjsrbn: Actually Wikipedia:Media copyright questions is probably a better a better forum, since the "Problems" forum is related to images currently on Wikipedia. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:07, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

‎MediaWiki message delivery

I have a lot of user/talk pages on my watchlist. Many of those users receive these messages (for the Signpost). Is there any way to hide those messages on my watchlist. I don't want to hide anything else. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 22:06, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Signpost is delivered by a bot. You can block bot edits from showing up on your watchlist. Though that doesn't then show you the next previous non-bot edit on your watchlist. I don't think there's a way to block edits from a specific user (bot or not) on your watchlist. Dismas|^(talk) 00:47, 15 September 2014 (UTC)