Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 March 9

Help desk
< March 8	<< Feb | March | Apr >>	March 10 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

March 9

Add or modify stated attendance in US for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

" On November 2, 2007, the band performed at the University of Florida's Gator Growl, the world's largest student-run pep rally, in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – also known as "The Swamp". The event's 50,000-person attendance marked the largest crowd that Lynyrd Skynyrd had ever played in front of in the United States, until the July 2008 Bama Jam in Enterprise, Alabama where more than 111,000 people were in attendance.[18] On January 28, 2009, keyboardist Billy Powell died of a suspected...." is not correct. I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd at JFK stadium in Philadelphia the summer of 1977 maybe 1976 when the attendance was 105,000. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.191.236.107 (talk) 00:05, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Do you have a reliably published source? We cannot use your personal experience. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 04:06, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

How can I make charts?

How can I make charts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.60.229.53 (talk) 10:00, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

If you mean a graphic presentation of numerical data, see Wikipedia:Graphs and charts.

If you mean tables of data (like this one: Help:IPA for French), see Help:Table.

If you mean anything else, please specify that in details. --CiaPan (talk) 10:11, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Acceptable links

Hello, I have a query about what are acceptable links. I publish a website www.visitCleveleys.co.uk which is a thorough and popular site and ages ago it was linked to the Wiki page about Cleveleys. It was removed and we were told it was because we weren't the 'official' website from the tourist board. Looking at the Cleveleys page today Thornton-Cleveleys there are several links there to other independent websites on various subjects, one of which is a spoof. I'd like to edit the page and put my own back on, we also publish other similar sites about towns in the close-by area which I'd like to include in the relevant place if that's acceptable. Can I do that? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SeaBirdSoars (talk • contribs) 11:28, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

External links attract spammers like magnets and are often removed, better avoid them ("official" is of course okay.) Your chances are better if you find or add a statement, where your site can be used in a reference. For details see {{cite web}}, a minimal variant could be <ref>{{cite web|url=http://example.org|title=The example site|publisher=[[IANA]]|accessdate=2015-03-10}}</ref> –Be..anyone (talk) 13:03, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

In general, these sort of links are not acceptable. We're not here to promote the area, but to report on it as any other encyclopaedia would. I've removed the parody site, but I'll leave the others for someone who has more time to check them out. Rojomoke (talk) 13:00, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Actually, I've removed two more links, as neither the rugby club page nor the timeline page appear to be active. The official council page should stay, but your "Things to do in Clevelys" page would not be appropriate. Rojomoke (talk) 13:07, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, that's a big help and clarifies the position. Is there a reason why www.thornton-cleveleys.co.uk is acceptable when it's an inferior independent site? — Preceding unsigned comment added by SeaBirdSoars (talk • contribs) 13:28, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, I was confusing it with the council site used in the References. I'll remove that one too. Rojomoke (talk) 17:50, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources.

What can I do to get my English page fully accepted like my German one? Imdb and a lot of other pages in the Internet prove my curriculum vitae, isn't that enough? Please let me know what you need as proof! Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnhawke (talk • contribs) 12:56, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I guess this is about Karl Riedl. English Wikipedia has different rules from German Wikipedia. It requires articles to have references to reliable independent published sources that verify their subject's notability – just verifying the subject's existence and CV are not enough. IMDB is not considered reliable. Maproom (talk) 13:20, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) For English Wikipedia, the subject of the article must meet meet some basic requirements : the simple version of the requirements, the full version of the requirements. In addition Wikipedia is not a directory and because you have a conflict of interest you should not be writing about yourself. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 13:23, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I see that the article currently cites only two sources: a film review which does not mention the subject of the article, and a Wikipedia article (Wikipedia does not consider itself reliable). Someone will have to find some better citations if the article is to survive. Maproom (talk) 13:24, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

You may want to look at this page Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources which explains about which sources are considered reliable. RJFJR (talk) 13:57, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

editing a typo in a reference

The article on nectar robbing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nectar_robbing Citation 12 is to

Roubic, D. V. (1982). "The ecological impact of nectar robbing bees and pollinating humming birds on a tropical shrub". Ecology 63 (2): 354–360. doi:10.2307/1938953.

Should be Roubik, D. W. Thanks. David Inouye

I don't see how to correct spelling of an author's name in a citation. The DOI link in the citation is correct, but the spelling of the name in the citation is wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwinouye (talk • contribs) 9 March 2015‎

Help us, to help you. If you tell us which article it is, it will be quicker than us looking through the other 4 million until we guess correctly. - X201 (talk) 15:04, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

It depends on the used citation system. The most common is that a citation is written where it's used in the article text and not where it's displayed in a references section. But there is a good reason the edit window says "Please give the exact title or URL of any page you want help with." PrimeHunter (talk) 17:09, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for adding the article and citation to your post. Fixed in [1]. Next to the citation it says "^{a b}". The letters are links to the two uses of that source. The citation text was given at one of the uses. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:58, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

wiki/google

how do I connect my wiki page to a google search? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mkd314 (talk • contribs) 15:07, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello Mkd314 - Firstly, please sign your posts on talk pages with 4 tildes ~~~~ which will add your name and a timestamp.
Secondly, please understand that you do not have a "wiki page" Wikipedia has a page, which you may have started, but it is not "your" page - please see WP:OWN
Thirdly, we have no connection to Google. Google set their own parameters and make their own decisions, you do not connect to Google, their "crawlers" search the web, find things and add them. They usually find Wikipedia articles within 2-3 days, and our articles tend to come near the top of many Google searches, but not all of them - Arjayay (talk) 15:26, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

If you mean Jeffrey V. Ravetch then it already appears in Google search results. If by "connect" you mean a box to the right of a Google search results page then it's made by Google with no control by Wikipedia. See also {{HD/GKG}} which is the stock answer to people who complain about errors in such boxes. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:17, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Texts in the Firefox timeline seem to overlap each other

I have a problem. Lately the Firefox updates become too fast... so fast that the texts in the timeline chart overlap each other. Somebody needs to do something about it. --Angeldeb82 (talk) 16:09, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

"ImageSize = width:1600" is already the highest allowed as you may know. One option would be to insert some blank entries in the Firefox 25.0 barset, for example:

 from:09/05/2014 till:09/05/2014 text:"29.0.1"
 from:09/05/2014 till:09/05/2014 text:" "
 from:09/05/2014 till:09/05/2014 text:" "
 from:09/05/2014 till:09/05/2014 text:" "

It would be a little confusing to readers who may wonder whether numbers are missing, but I think it's better than the current overlap. If the updates continue at the current rate then more blank entries will be needed later. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:45, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Well, Claw of Slime has added line break "\n" to 31.1.x (e.g. 31.1.0esr -> 31.1.0\nesr). In his environment, 31.3.0esr and 36.0.1 are still overlapped a little, however, this is much better than before. --Angeldeb82 (talk) 18:01, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

That's a similar option. It's a less confusing layout but probably already breaks down at the next update where there will not be enough "esr" to make the needed extra lines. The timeline extension produces an image so everybody sees the same, currently https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/5baf6296cdd2832b9ff7058aff48ace9.png. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:20, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I misread the image. I see "\nesr" doesn't actually move down the following entries like my suggestion but just shortens the entry. It still looks like a short-term solution. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:30, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

External link has no 'http' or 'www' in address

I am trying to update the dead link at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Charles,_Prince_of_Wales,_and_Camilla_Parker_Bowles#Engagement_and_preparations (second of three links in this section) to point at the correct archive site page which has the address royalmirror.coraider.com/output/page3742.html (note, no 'http' or 'www'). However the edit seems to add 'http' to the link each time which causes the link to fail.

Any assistance much appreciated. Clivemacd (talk) 16:43, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Your browser may omit to display http:// but it is part of the url and should be included in external links so I wrote http://royalmirror.coraider.com/output/page3742.html in [2]. The page history had confused versions with www or with double http://http://. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:01, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Change my organizations name

I am trying to change my organization name in the header but cannot edit it. Can someone help me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmccoy.2 (talk • contribs) 16:45, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

It's most likely because you're not auto-confirmed—haven't been around four days and made at least 10 edits—and so you wouldn't be able to move the article which is the action required to change the name in the header. Also, I recommend that you please read WP:COI as you may have a conflict of interest here. On another note, and I know you don't mean it like this, but it's best not to use words like my here in talking about article subjects as people will start screaming about ownership. It's best to talk about changes to that article on its talk page. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 18 Adar 5775 16:52, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Agree with everything stated, but the move itself should be uncontroversial (see airport website). Moved the page to the new airport name. GermanJoe (talk) 17:10, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Watchlist History

Is it possible to see a kind of watchlist of your watchlist, i.e. to see a history of what has been added/removed recently? I have installed a script in my vector.js which adds a link to each item in my watchlist to unwatch each page inline rather than having to visit them individually, and I accidentally clicked to unwatch one of them without realizing which one I had just clicked (I was on a mobile device, and it registered my touch in the wrong place). The script does not have an undo button or anything built in (I will be looking for a replacement that is less accident-prone), and because I don't know the name of the page, I can't just visit it and re-add it to my watchlist. The only way I could think of to determine the name of the page would be to have a history of my watchlist. Can this be found anywhere? If not through a special page or something like that, I'm fine with scripting or external tools if required. Thanks!--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 19:55, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

There is no watchlist history. If you cannot recover the information from the browser history of your device then you would have to remember what is missing at Special:EditWatchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:35, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

photo taken by non-professional

I am a little confused about my uploaded photo of Jan Fawcett. Someone in his department snapped a photo of him and gives permission to post it. I am not clear what category that is, and when I try to put it in the text, it doesn't show up. Drtopel (talk) 20:46, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Drtopel. The image you uploaded is called File:Jan-fawcett.jpg - you must get it precisely right, including punctuation and case. However, that image is likely to be deleted unless you sort out the copyright. You appear to have claimed in uploading it that "This file is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship", but this is manifestly not true. The copyright lies with somebody - probably the photographer - unless they have explicitly either released it into the public domain (relinquishing all rights to it), or released it under a licence such as CC-BY-SA (whereby they would retain ownership, but irrevocably grant anybody the right to use it for any purpose as long as it is properly attributed). "Permission to post" is not enough. If the copyright holder is willing to do one of these, have a look at donating copyright materials for the procedure they need to follow, and when they have done so, you can change the copyright statement on the uploaded picture accordingly. Otherwise, the picture will be deleted from Wikimedia commons. --ColinFine (talk) 21:20, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

@ Drtope. The easiest way, is to email the 'someone' (who took the photograph and thus owns the copyright) and request he/she to email “permissions-commons@wikimedia.org” with this template: [3] Then upload the image to Wikimedia Commons. All Wikipedia projects can use that image. If this is your first attempt at uploading an image whilst trying to be a proxy (i.e., doing it for someone else) that requires you to be familiar with all the gunk that the above reply tells you. It is really very simple. Email the photographer with the Wikimedia Commons link and ask him to fill it in and email it. Then upload the image to there.--Aspro (talk) 00:08, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

REQUESTING EDIT

Hello

I am requesting an edit in your entry under 'West Adams Preparatory High School'. West Adams Preparatory High School

I am Bradley Ratcliff. There is an entry under this entry regarding me that states - In early 2011, Brad Ratcliff, the former dean of West Adams, was arrested and pled guilty for possession of child pornography.[4][5][6]

I now have a Court Order reversing my plea to not guilty as well as dismissing the case. I emailed a copy of this court order to info-en-q@wikimedia.org

May you please remove this sentence regarding this issue from your entry. I am also contacting your references as well.

Thank You — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.173.228.198 (talk) 21:34, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

You need to provide a published news source to that effect. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:40, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I see that the LA Daily News reference in the article, numbered 6, states "The Order for Dismissal reduces the felony offense to a misdemeanor and sets aside Ratcliff's guilty plea, replacing it with a not-guilty plea and dismissing the case." I have accordingly deleted the entire paragraph. If this is the wrong way to handle it in the context of a BLP, someone else can put it right, I am no expert in BLP issues. Maproom (talk) 23:30, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

I could begin to imagine a case to include both the statement and the retraction, but I WP:DGAF as long as the decision is backed by sources. Ian.thomson (talk) 23:35, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

It doesn't say "Reduces the felony..." anymore, which makes sense. I'm pretty sure the Order for Dismissal refers to what's commonly known as having your record expunged, as opposed to him being declared innocent on appeal or something. When you ask to have a charge expunged in CA, you're literally asking the court to let you change your plea, and then dismiss the charges. I don't think this compels wikipedia to expunge his record from our pages. It's not like he got a superinjunction from the court or something. I don't think this should be removed unless it didn't meet the standards for inclusion in the first place. As for including the dismissal, there's multiple RS for conviction, only one (if LADN is RS) for dismissal. However, I think the spirit, if not the letter, of BLP says include it. Dingsuntil (talk) 04:31, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Edit War - Max Ehrich page

I'm involved in an edit war involving the displaying of actor Max Ehrich's birthday and age on his wikipedia page. Someone or some people want it eliminated. Some of these editors have claimed to be Max Ehrich himself, and have registered a new wikipedia name for the sole purpose of removing the birthday. They have used reasons such as 'it's illegal', 'no reliable reference', and 'I cannot get an acting job if you display my age'. I need advice as to what to do. It almost seems surreal that this is happening. I have seen pages where an individual's name is totally not sourced, yet this page is being place on a higher standard. I am leaning towards leaving the birthday out as a favour to the actor himself, but then, how do I know for sure he is the one making the request? Help! Juve2000 (talk) 21:38, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

As I said above, I am no expert in BLP issues. But I have read that contentious unsourced information should be removed from a BLP. Maproom (talk) 23:32, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Cancel that – I see his d.o.b. is now sourced. Maproom (talk) 23:37, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Proper External Links policy for Fraternity chapter lists?

Presuming a list of the chapters of Mu Mu Mu fraternity, either as a stand alone article or as part of the Mu Mu Mu article, what is the policy on each chapter being linked to the website for that chapter. In many cases that means 50 or 100 external links, but I can't find what's appropriate in WP:EL (which I'm unclear as to whether it deals only with an external links section or whether it applies as an article wide policy).(Similar question applies to a list of Greek Letter Organizations at a University, where each fraternity is linked to )Naraht (talk) 21:54, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

See WP:NOTDIRECTORY. Surely the fraternity maintains an online directory; linking to that would be appropriate. --  Gadget850 ^talk 22:19, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Some do, some do not. Does that make a difference in whether it is appropriate?Naraht (talk) 00:33, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Naraht, it does not, I'm afraid. Wikipedia is intended to provide certain types of information, and this is not part of that, regardless of its outside availability. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 00:48, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

@Anon126: Thank you. I'll take a look at tools for cleaning them.Naraht (talk) 21:29, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Notability confirmation: VOSH

Hi there, I'd like to write an article about VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity), an international non-profit organization. Before I begin, I'd like to confirm that this is a suitable topic, and would greatly appreciate any input on the matter. I know suitability depends on several factors: 1. Conflict of Interest: I am not affiliated with the organization; I am simply interested about optometry and volunteerism and decided VOSH would be an interesting topic to write for my class assignment. 2. Notability: I read on a previous post that Googling the topic to look for third-party sources is a good way to check for neutrality. Because VOSH has many chapters and members, a search of "VOSH International" came back with mostly first-party information. However, searching "VOSH International news" reveals much more variety in terms of sources. 3. Neutrality: Again, I am not affiliated with VOSH. My goal is to write a credible Wikipedia for my course and for the community. If anyone has comments and/or suggestions for my project, please let me know. Thank you again for your input! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jen zed (talk • contribs) 23:52, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

the criteria needed to have a stand alone article are outlined the simple version here and the complete version here. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:12, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Using a general google search is not a good way - that just provides websites most of which do not meet the guidelines for appropriate sourcing.

using news.google.com or books.google.com however, filter down to sources that are much more likely to be usable. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:31, 10 March 2015 (UTC)