Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 December 10

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December 10

Proper forum for notice to admins

As admin Justlettersandnumbers notes here, Unfortunately the copyright problems board is badly back-logged. Where is the appropriate venue for placing a notice about this backlog at Wikipedia:Copyright problems to other administrators who may be able to help, but are unaware of the problem? --Bejnar (talk) 19:05, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Just to keep things clear, I'm not an admin, Bejnar; I am however a copyright clerk, so I would in theory be able to process that particular article. But since it was I that listed it, and since what's really needed there is a review of whether there's a wider problem beyond that one page that might require admin attention, I prefer not to be the one that deals with it. I think the best place to ask for help with the backlog would be the administrators' noticeboard. There is a small handful of admins who devote a lot of time and energy to WP:CP; it would be great if one or two more could be inspired to join them. In any case, thanks for raising this. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 19:53, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• @Bejnar: Is this a question regarding only this particular backlog, or is it a more general question about where one can notify ADMINs on any topic? Ottawahitech (talk) 17:39, 13 December 2015 (UTC)please ping me

@Ottawahitech: No, it was just for the copyright problems board backlog. In general {{Noticeboard links}} is quite comprehensive. Thanks for asking. --Bejnar (talk) 18:26, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Want to contribute

Header added by ColinFine (talk) 00:01, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I would like to contribute. Because I use the site often. It's really one of the best parts of the net. My problem is the way Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria are described. I checked out some places in northern Cyprus and there is nothing there about them being occupied and it being against international law. Then I checked Lahsa the capital of Tibet. Nothing. Something has to change. And then I will definitely send money. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.181.92 (talk) 23:56, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you: it is always welcome for people to contribute. It is always difficult to get consensus on what the encyclopaedia should say where there is territory in conflict, because there are often two sides, each completely certain that their view is right and the other wrong, and demanding that Wikipedia should represent only their view. Wikipedia does not take sides.

I haven't looked at the particular cases you are talking about. The general principle is that Wikipedia should say what the reliable sources say. If there are reliable published sources which describe them as "occupied" then the article should say this. If there are reliable published sources which say otherwise, then the article should say that. If there are reliable published sources which give two opposing views (which I guess is the case), then the article should summarise both positions, but should not make any attempt to decide between them.

You say "something has to change". You are very welcome to make suggestions on the talk page of the relevant articles - but on a contentious issue like this, check the talk page to see if the question has already been debated; and remember that our aim is to reach consensus on articles, not to get our own way.

If you wish to make a financial contribution to the Wikimedia Foundation that would be great, and if you choose not to, that is fine too. But if you decide that you are only going to contribute when the encyclopaedia is perfect, then you never will. And if you decide that you are only going to when it accepts that you are right and everybody who disagrees with you is wrong, then you probably never will either. Your choice. --ColinFine (talk) 00:14, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I guess you refer to Israeli settlements which were created after the Israeli conquest and are overwhelmingly Jewish, while others want the whole settlements destroyed. The very existence of these settlements is a major element in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and hard to ignore in the articles. I haven't heard of a comparable situation for cities in northern Cyprus and Tibet. Certainly not your example Lhasa. The articles Northern Cyprus and Tibet do mention the controversy. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:31, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Personal File (page)

Dear Editor, Up to days ago I could locate my personal file (page) under my name Manolis (Emmanuel) Algizakis...I can't find it any longer. Why?

thank you for your attention to this...you have my email, because I just donated a few dollars o your organization not long ago. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.70.160.72 (talk) 00:31, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I think this is the page you are looking for: User:Manolis_(Emmanuel_Aligizakis) RudolfRed (talk) 00:37, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

But please note, Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis), that the people you are talking to here are volunteers who edit Wikipedia. We have no knowledge or information about who has contributed to the Wikimedia Foundation, or how to contact the people who have. --ColinFine (talk) 18:29, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Content and licensing re: "Laguna Blanca School" page

Hi there, not sure whether or not this is the best way to contact the site regarding content that has been "unedited." I am working with Laguna Blanca School (which is the title of the page) with the communications department and was specifically instructed to edit our page and replace the information with the contents from our website. (www.lagunablanca.org). I am under the impression that the site "unedited" my updates due to the fact that I directly copied information from our site to the Wikipedia page. Please get back to me as soon as possible so that I can quickly make these changes. Thank you,

Lindsey Davis Lbsinfo (talk) 00:42, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Hey there, just passing by, so don't take my answer too seriously, but you may want to read WP:MYTEXT. It seems to have some relevant info to your situation! --allthefoxes ^(Talk) 00:45, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

First, the page Laguna Blanca School is not the school's page but Wikipedia's page about the school. Wikipedia has almost no interest in what the school wants the page to say. Second, your edit was reverted not only because it was a copyright violation, but also because it was unacceptably promotional. So there is no way you will be allowed to make that changes. Finally, please read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest: because of your connection to the school you are strongly discouraged from editing that page at all. Please see also Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure —teb728 t c 01:03, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Lbsinfo. I echo everything teb728 says. If there is information in the article that is incorrect, you are welcome to post a request on the talk page Talk:Laguna Blanca School, with references to reliable published sources, and somebody else will decide what edits are appropriate. --ColinFine (talk) 18:32, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Ross Bay Villa

Finally wrestled my page online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Bay_Villa . But the InfoBox has disappeared in the process. How, please, do I insert an InfoBox, once the page is up? (I have it all sitting in a coded Word file, ready to load.)

Thanks, Nick Russcomm (talk) 00:52, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You removed the infobox from the draft in this edit. I have added it back in this further edit. I have added a section heading before your question, and removed the leading spaces which caused your question to be malformatted. Note also that rather than a url it is better to refer to a Wikipedia page by a wikilink, as Ross Bay Villa. --David Biddulph (talk) 01:09, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Murrurundi

The temperature information on this page is incorrect. It cites information for Murrundi a completely different town in a different part of Australia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.165.173 (talk) 03:58, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• If you can find correct information from a reliable source that can verify the temperature information, you are invited to fix it yourself. Remember, you are on Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. --Stabila711 (talk) 04:23, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Meanwhile, I've removed the climate details which were for THREDBO VILLAGE, much further south. They were added by an anon editor from Sydney nearly two years ago, and I'm surprised that they have not been challenged before. Dbfirs 09:14, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

The climate figures in the article were not Thredbo village. Thredbo is an alpine resort. I suggest asking for assistance at WP:AWNB. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 02:07, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Or you can find the data here -- Mattinbgn (talk) 02:11, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

It seems that it was only the link to Thredbo data that was faulty. Thanks for correcting it. I've checked and updated the max & min temperatures. Would someone like to update the averages? I don't know how they are calculated. Dbfirs 09:29, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

How to do username mentions

Hello, What's the right way to do a username mention so that the other person gets a notification that someone replied to them? And what's the right term in Wikipedia lingo? Tagging? Username mention? Ping? Thank you! Permstrump (talk) 04:16, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• @Permstrump: The technical term is pinging and there are a few ways to do it. {{ping}}, {{re}}, and {{u}} will all send a notification. Ping and re will add an @ symbol to the front and allows you to ping more than one person. U is just for a single mention and is usually used when you mention someone in the middle of a sentence. Please note that notifications will only send if you sign your post. If you forget to sign your post it will not send and you will have to redo the entire template and resign to fix it. --Stabila711 (talk) 04:20, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• Stabila711, thank you for the reply! Can you tell me if I did this right and you got pinged? :) I'm so glad you thought to mention it won't work if I don't sign it, because pretty regularly I hit save and then realize I didn't sign it, so I quickly re-edit it to add my signature. Woops. So if that happens, is it enough if I delete the original ping and just type the same thing again in the same place when I add my signature? Thanks again! Permstrump (talk) 04:26, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• @Permstrump: Yep. I got pinged. If you forget it is probably better to just add another line below with the new template and your signature. That way you can be sure that it sends correctly. --Stabila711 (talk) 04:27, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• @Stabila711:, thank you again! Permstrump (talk) 04:30, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Permstrump: mw:Manual:Echo#Technical details has detailed requirements. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:41, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Perfect, thank you! I tried to do a search for directions a couple of times, but I was calling it tagging and username mention, so my searches turned up a lot of red herrings. (Obvi I've spent more time on facebook and reddit.) Ping didn't even occur to me until I was composing this question. I honestly didn't think that was going to be it. Permstrump (talk) 04:50, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Permstrump: And then there are those of us who have to keep from adding tildes to the end of things that we post elsewhere. :) So, the ones in the middle of those two extremes are pretty happy with themselves. Dismas|^(talk) 12:49, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Dismas: Oh no... I'm sure I have that to look forward to. That's pretty funny though. Permstrump (talk) 14:34, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I wish my word processor would parse wikimarkup. Creating a heading with ==Heading== is so much easier and quicker than a bunch of mouse clicks on a toolbar. The same goes for indent, bold, italic, etc. I also catch myself signing emails with 4 tildes! Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:43, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Edit and Upload Photos and Photo Captions

Dear Sir/Madam,

I need to add photos and edit the photo captions on the Oslo Times wikipedia page. AS these are photos of theexlcusive interviews we have conducted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oslo_Times

I have tried uploading the photos but I cant I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.

06:29, 10 December 2015 (UTC)Prabalta (talk) Prabalta (talk) 06:29, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Prabalta. Your account needs to be more than four days old and you must have made at least 10 edits to upload files. If you want to have files uploaded before that, you can submit a request at: WP:FFU. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 06:32, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

IMHO there are already enough, probably too many, not particularly interesting, pictures on The Oslo Times page.
As stated at WP:NOTGALLERY "Wikipedia is not ... a repository of links, images, or media files"
Images should only be used to add to the readers understanding of the subject, not to promote the subject, or get the staff's names and pictures included - Arjayay (talk) 09:10, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion please

Dear Help Desk, I have created an article of an Australian cricketer Gar Waddy whose full name is Edgar Lloyd Waddy, but he was and is known as only Gar Waddy. But I want people to find the Gar Waddy article when they type in Edgar Lloyd Waddy. How should I do that? Shall I create Edgar Lloyd Waddy and copy the Gar Waddy article into it? I don't know how to do this. Is there any way? Please help. Xender Lourdes (talk) 13:47, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

No please do not do that - what you need is for Edgar Lloyd Waddy to be a WP:Redirect - see that page for "how-to" - if you get stuck. please come back - Arjayay (talk) 13:50, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) A great question @Xender Lourdes: - what you're trying to describe is called a "redirect". Create the article Edgar Lloyd Waddy, and place only the following text (without quotes): "#REDIRECT [[Gar Waddy]]", then save it. Come back here if you need any more help -- samtar ^whisper 13:53, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Es bueno. It works very well. Thank you Samtar and Arjayay. Xender Lourdes (talk) 14:02, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Some enthusiastic inexperienced editors think that creating a copy-and-paste of an article with a different name is a reasonable way to deal with a naming issue. Thank you for asking what to do rather than doing it. The biggest problem with copy-and-paste copies is that the two articles soon become different, because editors edit one and not the other. As explained by Samtar and Arjayjay, redirects work well for the purpose. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:39, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Karl Gützlaff

Reference help requested. I don't understand what's wrong with this citation: The scandal erupted while Gutzlaff was in Europe on a fundraising tour. Please be more specific. Thanks, Eve Fisher (talk) 14:02, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

References

The word "help" in the error message is in blue, indicating that it is a wikilink, in this case to Help:CS1 errors#param has ext link. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:17, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Eve Fisher. The problem is this line: |publisher = https://www.marxists.org/admin/intro/index.htm. It shouldn't include a url. You can leave |publisher = blank in this case, since you've already specified Marxists Internet Archive as the work cited. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 14:19, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

How to use sandbox

If I want to add a section in an already existing article, where can I save a draft so that I can get some second opinions before publishing it? Does the same thing apply for a regular article and a non-mainspace page? Permstrump (talk) 16:34, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Permstrump: Which article? -- samtar ^whisper 16:37, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Samtar: It's this page User:Rhododendrites/Chaney. I apologize in advance. Not sure what you were planning to do with the rest of your day. Permstrump (talk) 16:44, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Samtar: Pssst before you fall down the rabbit hole, do you know how I can add a draft section? :) Permstrump (talk) 17:08, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Permstrump: you could draft at User:Rhododendrites/Chaney/sandbox but you'd need to ask the user's permission first -- samtar ^whisper 17:14, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Samtar: Thank you! Sorry if it was annoying that I pinged you again. I was just teasing b/c I could imagine myself getting sucked in and forgetting why I was there. Permstrump (talk) 17:20, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Response to your request for donation

Hello,

I recently gave a donation after seeing the banner on your site. However, in response to the banner today --I believe I would like to challenge you to be more responsible concerning the racist comments that seem to creep into you articles by night and disappear by day. I am referring specifically to the account of the Michael Brown incident. I never received any response from you with regard to a complaint I made about the comments. Very obviously racists organizations are editing your material and until you take measures to prevent this I do not believe I can donate again in good conscience. Just sayin' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.57.139.94 (talk) 19:06, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

The most fundamental aspect of Wikipedia is that it is "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit". It says so right there on the top of the front page.

Unfortunately, that means that racists can edit it too: there is no practical way of always preventing this in advance. What we can do, and do do, is to have most articles (and remember, there's over 5 million of them) on someone's "watch list" (many are on several people's watch lists) so that when the article is edited in any way, they are notified and can check out the edit. If the edit is then seen to be racist vandalism, or undesirable in various (many) other ways, they can amend or revert it. This goes on constantly, a lot. If someone on the internet, whether a Registered User or just someone on a particular IP, vandalises persistently the IP address of the computer they used can often be blocked from further editing, but it's trivially easy to just obtain another IP, or use another computer.

In the event of such vandalism being missed, people such as yourself who notice it can alert us to it, as you say you did with the above example, and we are always grateful for such alerts. Any response to your alert should usually appear immediately after your message, wherever that was. However, it's possible, even likely, that someone else independently noticed and corrected the vandalism without having seen your message (or maybe the person who fixed the problem just forgot to acknowledge your report because something else came up): however, no-one will ever respond directly to you by email, if that's what you were expecting.

The thing to remember about all this is that there are no paid staff working regular hours, or covering the full 24 in shifts, to do any of this. None at all. Every single person who does this and all other work on the content of Wikipedia is an unpaid volunteer, logging in from their home (or work, or library, or whatever) computer to do such "housekeeping" merely because they want to. This means that there can be a little delay before the correction is made, particularly when the bulk of such volunteers are offline because they're asleep. Although Wikipedia is read and edited world-wide, because this is the English Wikipedia, a large proportion of them are in the US, so during the early morning hours in the US, fewer volunteers will be around to notice and respond to vandalism.

Hope this helps. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 19:45, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Using Material Presented as Public Information on a Legislative Assembly Website

Hi

I have been corresponding with a Wikipedia editor about the appropriate use of biographical material. It is housed on the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (LAO) website - www.assembly.ab.ca. It was developed by LAO communications staff. I requested permission to use material from these bios to update Wikipedia. Below is the response:

---

From: Rhonda Sorensen Sent: Wednesday, December 9, 2015 11:03 AM To: Eric Rice Cc: Murray Langdon Subject: RE: MLA Bios Hi Eric,

Counting the days to Christmas Break as I am sure many are.

The Bio information on the LAO site is actually developed by LAO Communications and in most cases, approved by the Member prior to post, but is there for public use. The one caveat you should be aware of is that it changes frequently. Last week alone we had updates to over 20 bios.

In case you are also not aware, we make their “approved” photos available for download on Flickr. Those photos are also updated from time to time although less frequently than bios

Rhonda Sorensen, Manager of Corporate Communications and Broadcast Services Legislative Assembly of Alberta 3rd Floor, 9820 -107 Street Edmonton, AB T5K 1E7 p 780.427.1653 c 780.908.8360 f 780.427.5688

---

Eric Rice cont.

I suspect that the part of the bio most likely prone to changes is the listing of the committees on which they serve.

Given that they are "for public use" as the LAO office has identified above, would the following be acceptable as an alternative to either quoting or re-writing?

Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shepherd_(Canadian_politician)

Current info: David Murray Shepherd (born 1973) is a Canadian politician who was elected in the Alberta general election, 2015 to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Edmonton-Centre.[1]

(Recommended text): "The following is provided courtesy of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and was last updated here (date). Please see (<link>) for full current text.

Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Shepherd worked in the communications field as a communications adviser and writer for organizations such as the North Edge Business Association, the city of Edmonton and the government of Alberta. Before his career in communications, Mr. Shepherd held a variety of employment positions such as taxpayer services agent and salesperson in support of his work as a musician and studio engineer.

His educational background includes diplomas in music performance and in live sound recording from MacEwan University. He also has a bachelor of arts in professional communications from Royal Roads University, where he received the Royal Roads University chancellor's award in 2014.

Mr. Shepherd leads an active lifestyle in Edmonton. He is an avid cyclist and has volunteered for the Edmonton Bike Coalition as a spokesperson and organizer. He also enjoys live music, film and playing the piano.

---

Please let me know if this is acceptable?

Thanks

Eric — Preceding unsigned comment added by EricRiceAB (talk • contribs) 20:32, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

• Not acceptable. "For public use" is not an explicit release under any free license that would be compatible with Wikipedia's CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. For all legal purposes, "for public use" is just a nice phrase with no legal effect. The copyright notice on LAO sets restrictions that are incompatible with Wikipedia's license (namely, non-commercial use only and no derivatives). We reuse materials from many sources (like the 1911 version of Encyclopaedia Britannica) that are in the public domain and attribute them more or less the way you describe it. Sadly, LAO biographies are not in the public domain. Neither are their Flickr photos. If you think they should be, you should ask them to re-license their content. Instructions: Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 20:48, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

In any case, Eric, material "approved" by the the subject is not usually appropriate for Wikipedia. Wikipedia is only interested in what people with no connection with the subject have published about them, in reliable places such as major newspapers, or books from reputable publishers. Official records like those can be used for uncontroversial factual data such as places and dates (though birth-dates, for examples, can be controversial for public figures!), but the bulk of an article must be based on independent published sources - sometimes including sources which the subject would definitely not approve. --ColinFine (talk) 09:02, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Can’t log into my user account

For several days now I have not been able to log myself into my enWP and deWP user accounts, both user:Lesabendio. The Log-in page keeps returning the following uniform one-line message:

Exception encountered, of type "Exception"

This happens from both of my workstations and from my wife’s workstation, while she is well able to log herself in under her username on both of my work stations . Tried all customary remedies: cleared Firefox cache, restored Firefox, cleared cookies, reset the router, typed standing on my head... Nobody at the deWP help desk seems to have encountered a similar problem. So I would be be very grateful for either help or forwarding this request. Lesabendio ―146.60.215.144 (talk) 22:31, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I tried to look up your account information at Special:CentralAuth/Lesabendio and meta:Special:CentralAuth/Lesabendio, but this also gives the quoted error message. Weird, I haven't seen that before. My own meta:Special:CentralAuth/PrimeHunter works fine. I have requested help at meta:Steward requests/Username changes#Lesabendio@global. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:17, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, Prime Hunter. Let's wait and see. Lesabendio aka --146.60.215.144 (talk) 12:03, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

What can I do if I am getting this error? --user:Туча --109.252.208.225 (talk) 18:18, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

How to search for misspelled words within template references

The other day while "recent changes" patrolling I saw someone goof up a template reference, adding {{flagiocn|CAN}} (and of course not checking afterwards). After fixing it, I thought I'd look for other instances of this (most every misspelling is a multiple winner). I couldn't figure out how to search for this. Using variations on "flagiocn" or ~"flagiocn" just didn't find anything.

Just now I was able to find several instances of another kind of typo, {flagicon|IRE}, instead of the correct {{flagicon|IRE}} = . But no matches to the correct isolated usage of 'flagicon' inside double-brackets.

How can one use search to find misspelled words in template references within articles? Shenme (talk) 23:00, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

@Shenme: insource: should search the source instead of the displayed text. See more at Help:Searching (which mentions but doesn't explain insource). I don't get hits on insource:flagiocn but that probably means there are no errors of this exact form. Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Flagiocn is also empty. Other searches indicate insource: is working. A wrong template name gives a red link like {{flagiocn|CAN}} so such errors are usually fixed quickly. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:31, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you! It is very reassuring to try "insource:flagicon" and get "Results 1 - 20 of 178,148". So far I only get a one hit on "flagion" and "flagicom", but the first is from Feb 2014, so typos still need eyes to see them. :-) Shenme (talk) 00:19, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

There are some more help about searching here, here and here. Most probably there is more complex information than is needed in this case. --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 09:07, 11 December 2015 (UTC)