Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 January 1

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January 1

Good enough references

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Vanmodhe/Moz5a#Our_Culture_Records.282014-.29

I am writing this article and I am wondering if the references are good enough to make it be published. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vanmodhe (talk • contribs) 11:27, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

@Vanmodhe: It does not look like there is significant coverage by 'third party sources which are not related to the subject and have a reputation for fact checking and editorial oversight. We are looking for things like reviews by major national newspapers or music magazines, in depth profiles by the same etc. Not just mere existence on commercial platforms. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:22, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Excessive/irrelevant detail in image captions

I have occasionally come across long image captions that contain a lot of unnecessary detail. For example in articles about a piece of military equipment I have seen captions such as "Corporal Somebody of Company B of the 123 battalion of the umpteenth infantry brigade busy cleaning the super-optoreflecto-whatsit sight of his M789 GeeWizzBang wonderweapon at Camp Hillofbeans in the western mountains of Afghanistan during March 2009". The actual object of the image is to simply show the reader what the M789 GeeWizzBang looks like. My point is that even though the full details of who/what/when/where/why of the image is available on the Commons page it is not necessary to regurgitate it all in the article, but my opinion has sometimes been met with opposition. Is there some guidance on this issue I can refer to? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:31, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Captions#Succinctness and the end of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Captions#Tips for describing pictures are relevant. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 18:32, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

That excessive detail is probably not needed in the article, but there are times when I would like to know all that detail for a newspaper photo, so I would hope it is recorded somewhere.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:51, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Indeed, I usually discover that such long detailed captions are simply direct copy/pastes of the description on the image's Commons page - which is the proper venue for such detail. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 22:02, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Article maintenace template question

The article Joonas Kovalainen lists "Ilmonen 1926, p. 113" as a reference but never states what "Ilmonen 1926" is. Is there a maintenance template I could use to tag the article about this? JIP | Talk 11:39, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

{{full citation needed}} perhaps? The book source is probably this one found at Amazon by S. Ilmonen (1926). But my Finnish is non-existant, so not 100% sure. GermanJoe (talk) 11:51, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Writing about oneself

Is it acceptable to write or start a biographical page about oneself please? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.28.145.33 (talk) 13:20, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Strongly discouraged; see Wikipedia:Autobiography. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:43, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

The usual answer is that someone will eventually get around to creating an article about you if you're truly notable. Unfortunately, due to systemic bias, Wikipedia does tend to over- and underrepresent certain topics. If you feel that you satisfy our inclusion criteria, you might consider posting a request to Requested Articles or at the appropriate WikiProject. Be sure to include an in-depth article from a prominent newspaper (for example, The New York Times or The Guardian). Another route is to go through Articles for Creation. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 17:36, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

A prominent TV/radio show, book, magazine or website are also fine places to be featured. InedibleHulk (talk) 18:47, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Volney Howard

I recently edited the page on Volney Erskine Howard, my great-great-grandfather, to add facts and correct some copy. My question is how do I add a photo to the page? I have a mug shot of the subject, but found no way to upload it to the page. Mark Howard — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark H. Howard (talk • contribs) 20:46, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Mark. It depends. Who took the photo, and when? Has it been published before? When and where? We need to know this because it determines the photo's copyright status, and the copyright status determines if we can include it here. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 21:25, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Hello Mark H. Howard. Since Volney Howard died in 1889, copyright has expired on any photo of him published during his life. All copyrights on works published before 1923 have expired. If it is a photo not previously published, from a family archive, for example, it could be used under WP:NFCI #10 if no free photo is available. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 21:51, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Mark H. Howard. Anon126 and Cullen were right to point to making sure about the copyright, though as Cullen says this photo is almost certainly in the public domain. However, they haven't answered your question. You need to do it in two steps: first upload it to Wikimedia Commons (so that it will be available to any Wikimedia project) and then you can put it on the page. See User:Yunshui/Images for beginners for details. --ColinFine (talk) 23:09, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Pauline Adam de la Bruyère

Hello,

My name is Robyn and I've been researching a famous hat designer. Have you heard of Madame Paulette? I was wondering whether someone could put a page up for her, as she was arguably one of the most iconic figures in millinery, and now it is tough to find any information on her.

I wish I could donate and help with your funding, but I'm not in a good enough position at the moment to help you.

Good luck, and thank you :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.97.202.147 (talk) 22:27, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for the information, you could help, just by starting the page yourself. Happy New Year. Cheers, Mlpearc (open channel) 22:36, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

In order to do that, she will first have to create a registered account and become auto-confirmed. Creating new pages is one of the pages that unregistered editors do not have. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:46, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Actually Robert McClenon that's not really necessary - a Userspace Sandbox or Draftspace page is available to IP or non-autoconfirmed editors. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 22:05, 2 January 2015 (UTC)