Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 August 14

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August 14

No section editing of my sandbox page - why?

My sandbox page - User:John Broughton/sandbox - doesn't have "Edit" links for its sections. Other sandbox pages do: see, for example, User:Fadookie/sandbox; also, the sections of my user page - User:John Broughton - have edit links. I'm baffled as to why, and would appreciate help. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:56, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

@John Broughton: Your sandbox contained the magicword __NOEDITSECTION__ which removed all edit links. Now fixed. - NQ (talk) 02:11, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

@NQ: - Thanks muchly! -- John Broughton (♫♫) 04:26, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Uploading a new headshot/image to Matthew Le Nevez

Hi there,

I'm wanting to upload a new default image to the wikipage: Matthew Le Nevez.

It won't let me do so through the upload file page as it says my account hasn't been "confirmed" as yet but I don't want to make 10 edits before I can do so.

Are you able to upload the image for me?

Many thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Unitedmanagement (talk • contribs) 03:45, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Please note that the picture must not be copyright, which excludes almost all images that you find on the internet, in magazines etc.
Assuming you took the picture yourself, please upload it to Wikimedia Commons, by clicking the "Upload" button on the top RH corner of this page You do not need to be autoconfirmed to upload to Commons, and the image can then be used on any Wikipedia project.
Please understand that, by uploading a picture, you are releasing it so that anyone can use it for any purpose, including commercial, altering it etc. - Arjayay (talk) 08:05, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Are google maps fair use?

Question. I am writing an article about about a wildfire in California (Gap Fire). If I make a custom map on Google Maps that shows the perimeter of the fire and take a snapshot of it, is that considered an original work? I did make it after all, but I am using google maps to do so... --Zackmann08 (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 06:47, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

If you use OpenStreetMap instead of a Google map you won't have any copyright issues. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 12:20, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Just to answer the question directly, no Google Maps are not fair use. Even if you make a derivative work of copyrighted material, it does not affect the copyright status of the original work. In order for the derivative work to be entitled to copyright protection it must have "some originality of its own. It cannot be a rote, uncreative variation on the earlier, underlying work. The latter work must contain sufficient new expression, over and above that embodied in the earlier work for the latter work to satisfy copyright law’s requirement of originality". See derivative work. --ukexpat (talk) 12:48, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Problem copying a list of articles so that it is a column, not a mess

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Skepticism/List#Pseudoarchaeology. I was so pleased when I was able to wikilink all the names using Excel, but then made a mess when copying! Thanks. Doug Weller (talk) 13:35, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

If you look at any of the other sections, you will see that each line starts with an asterisk - which produces the bullet points - Arjayay (talk) 13:39, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia articles no titles.

How to make one of my articles no titles aka title bar is blank, like a picture mentioned?UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk) 13:37, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure you can't, as it would not be helpful - but why would you want to? - Arjayay (talk) 13:41, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

It mean article without a title, as mentioned as in prctpre on the right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk • contribs) 14:05, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Title in blank as picture on the right side.UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk) 14:12, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Why do you want to create an article with no title? AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:07, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Some article I think no proper title nor either worth only a random string like jgfuhfHH75h423buRGY4, lt look at offensing, so I decided to keep the title blank.UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk) 14:12, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

See WP:NOTCENSORED. And it is impossible to create an article with no title anyway - the title is necessary to find the article. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:14, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

@UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ: You can add .ns-0 .firstHeading,.ns-1 .firstHeading { display: none !important; } to your Special:MyPage/skin.css to hide titles in all article and article talk pages. If you wish to hide the title from a specific article and its associated talk page - say for eg. Puppy, you could add .page-Puppy .firstHeading,.page-Talk_Puppy .firstHeading { display: none !important; } to your Special:MyPage/skin.css. NQ (talk) 15:18, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

You can put {{DISPLAYTITLE:}} somewhere on the page. Ruslik_Zero 19:44, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

A DISPLAYTITLE must normalize to the real title and work if it's copy-pasted to a wikilink so an empty {{DISPLAYTITLE:}} has no effect. There are still ways to manipulate it but it shouldn't be done for articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:20, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Odd behaviour of user

I started taking note of the odd behaviour of a user (User:AgustinusHal) who issued me with a level 4 warning for no apparent reason - [1] (his edits has got nothing to do with mine on that page), and it seems that he randomly accuses users of vandalism, for example here (the user does not appear to have made the edit he was accused of) and here in the edit summary. His own page appears to something copied from someone else's where he claims to be an administrator among other things. It seems that he wants to appear to be someone of greater authority than who he really is. Is there something that can be done about someone like this? Hzh (talk) 15:13, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

This should be reported at WP:ANI. AndyTheGrump (talk) 15:18, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I think warning can be issued for each of his individual actions, but I'm not sure what rule he has broken to warrant WP:ANI to saying that he is an administrator (he could well be an administrator in his working life outside Wikipedia), or claiming the things he did in his user page (for example claiming that he is a native speaker of German as well as American and British English, or a member of the counter-vandalism unit). Also how do I check all the claims he made? Hzh (talk) 15:30, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

It clearly states 'Categories: Wikipedia administrators' at the bottom of his user page. He is not a Wikipedia administrator (either here or on any other Wikipedia, under the name he is using here). As for other claims, they really don't matter that much - statements in userboxes don't need to be verified. If you don't want to report this at ANI, I suggest that you try discussing it with him first. AndyTheGrump (talk) 15:39, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah, I hadn't notice that at the bottom, thanks. It's not so much about not willing to take it to WP:ANI, rather that I'm not quite sure what exactly he is guilty of. It seems very unlikely that he is all those things he claims to be, but I'm not sure I want to make accusation without a firmer basis (I have no idea how to check the validity of someone's claim). Hzh (talk) 15:48, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

If you click on 'user rights' at the bottom of someone's 'contributions' page, you can see whether they are an admin or not: [2]. AgustinusHal has also edited the Indonesian Wikipedia, but isn't an admin there either. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:02, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Is pretending to be an admin a notifiable offence? Sorry to be ignorant on this, it's just something new I haven't come across before, and I'm not sure how to assess this situation. Hzh (talk) 16:25, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

The claim to be an admin has now been removed from AgustinusHal's user page. I suggest that we wait to see whether it is restored. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:29, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

See this diff. Shows where much of the userpage was cribbed from but the admin template is not from there.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:34, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

View history button of one article locks up browser

Whenever I go to Nonagon, when I click "View history", it does not open but instead after five or ten seconds locks up my browser. Since this doesn't happen with any other page, I suspect the problem is not with my browser but rather is on Wikipedia's end.

Am I reporting this to the right place? Loraof (talk) 19:15, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Works ok for me in Firefox 40.0.2.--ukexpat (talk) 19:25, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

@Loraof: Which browser/version are you using? Does the same happen when you log out and visit the page? - NQ (talk) 19:27, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Works fine on IE11 - Arjayay (talk) 19:31, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Works for me in Chrome Version 44.0.2403.155 m. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:39, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Fine on Chrome 44, seems like a computer-related issue to me. Joseph2302 (talk) 19:41, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone. It still isn't working on my iPad Safari browser. But I tried it on a different computer with Foxfire and also with Chrome, and it works fine. Might be my browser, but I still wonder if there's a Safari-specific problem with that particular page. Anyone have Safari? Loraof (talk) 20:01, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Loading fine in Safari both on my ipad and mac. Do you have many tabs open? Have you tried clearing your cache in settings and trying again? - NQ (talk) 20:06, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, loads OK for me in Safari with several other tabs open. Dbfirs 20:22, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I cleaned out the cache--good idea--but it still locks me up at that one page. Doesn't matter any more though, since I got on that page with another browser and I'm done with it now. Thanks. all! Loraof (talk) 20:44, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

CAPTCHA is not working while editing an article in beta.

I am trying to edit an article. I made my changes and click save page. Opened a new box afterwards. When i clicked save page in that box. Adds a new CAPTCHA section in the box. And I cannot save my page even I am entering correct words. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yurci (talk • contribs) 21:21, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

The above user might be getting caught by the edit filter, judging by the log. I don't seem to be able to view the actual edits though. –146.200.32.196 (talk) 21:50, 14 August 2015 (UTC)