Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 November 16

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November 16

How to avoid an edit war?

I made edits on two pages, in one case to remove lots and lots of OR and in another case because information on the page did not match what was in the references. Both of these edits were reverted by IP editors as vandalism, with no edit summary and no comment on either my or the article's talk page.

Because they were IPs, I can't engage in discussion about their reasoning. Should I just re-revert, or is there a good way to find another editor to do that?

The specific examples were Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand; my edit had the comment "Removed three sections that seemed to be entirely OR; one had been tagged as such for six years. Another section is also tagged, but seems close to being redeemable." The other was List of largest peaceful gatherings in history with the comment "Changed numbers on December, 2014 and January, 2013 Arba'een to match references. Removed future event per WP:CRYSTAL." Ma^t_chups 00:33, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Start a discussion on the article talk page, as I have now done. Make the points you have made above in that thread. Optionally, try to find some sourced criticism of the novel which can replace (or perhaps support) the OR sections. I will be re-reverting if no relevant discussion occurs in a day or two. I have posted on the IP's talk page, the editor may or may not see it, but it is what we can do. A post on the SF project's talk page would not be amiss, either. DES ^(talk) 01:06, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Resolved

Thanks. I'll take the same approach on the other article. Wish I had time to find and integrated sourced commentary on the book, but will take your suggestion and post on the SF project. Ma^t_chups 01:36, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Help with Edit Warring

Hi, a week ago I filed an edit warring report [1], but nothing has happened with the report, and it has been archived. I fear it has slipped through the cracks, do you know how I can ask an administrator to check out my report or comment on it? The report is still valid, as the editor I reported continues to illegitimately delete my edits. Thanks. Capuchinpilates (talk) 04:13, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Your archived report was too long, didn't read. However, to avoid edit-warring, read the dispute resolution policy, and discuss on the article talk page. If the other editor persists in reverting rather than discussing, your options are to follow one of the content dispute resolution procedures listed in the dispute resolution policy, but they don't work with an editor who won't discuss, or to request page protection, or to report the other editor at the edit-warring noticeboard without filibustering, or to report the other editor at WP:ANI. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:12, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon: I apologize for the length, I can redo it in a shorter length if that is necessary. I have tried the article talk page many times, tried 3rd party, tried dispute resolution, nothing has worked. This editor has edit warred with me over many months on multiple pages, can you please either read the edit warring report I filed or let me know I should redo it or something. I can't stop this editor from deleting my legitimate edits over and over again. Capuchinpilates (talk) 19:27, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

I am not an administrator. Perhaps one of the administrators here can take a look at the edit-warring report. My first advice would be to request page protection, citing edit-warring. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:30, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon: Yes, please, how can we ask an administrator on the edit warring notice board to consider my report? I think I did it right, if not, can someone on the edit warring notice board please tell me what I did wrong? Capuchinpilates (talk) 22:49, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

You haven't filed a new edit-warring report. Your previous one has been archived. Either file a new edit-warring report or request page protection. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:16, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I redid the report and got a response, thanks. Capuchinpilates (talk) 14:53, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

stahler88

There is a very embarassing article posted on here tagged to my name. I want this removed please god. My peers have used this page to ridicule me please remove it thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.15.65.142 (talk) 08:41, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Do I understand correctly that you are User:Stahler88 and you want to delete all or part of your user page? If so, you can login and add {{db-user}} (including the braces) to the top of the page. —teb728 t c 09:56, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

... or is it that one of your "friends" has created this account and user page pretending to be you? Dbfirs 10:15, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Note that the user page was created in 2007, so it isn't that surprising that the content is now embarrassing or that the user no longer has the account password. I have blanked the page as a courtesy. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:23, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Your {{Inactive userpage blanked}} tag is good to know about. It is a solution whether it is a stale real userpage or an attack page as Dbfirs speculated. —teb728 t c 11:39, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

As John of Reading pointed out, my guess was wrong because I hadn't noticed the old creation date. Does the subject of the page have to remember their old password before they can use {{db-u1}}? Dbfirs 16:33, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Dbfirs: I think so; I don't think any admin would act on a {{db-u1}} without being completely sure that the tag was being placed by the account owner. -- John of Reading (talk) [not an admin] 17:55, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, that's what I thought. If 108.15.65.142 and 96.244.123.238 are both stahler88 then perhaps they have an old e-mail address that they could use to get a new password. The instructions are: "Click on the "Log in" link in the upper-right corner. Enter stahler88, and click the button near the bottom of the page called "Mail me a new password". You should receive an e-mail message with a new random password; you can use it to log in, go to your preferences, and change your password to something you'll remember". If the old e-mail address is no longer valid, then there's not much that stahler88 can do, though the sensitive information is now an extra two clicks away and casual users of Wikipedia might well not know how to find it. Dbfirs 22:51, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Template 'Cite book' with a 'format=Wikipedia' parameter

Hi, I have noticed that Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (this is a curent version [2]) belongs to Category:Pages using citations with format and no URL. It turned out the category is assigned due to this template use:

{{cite book | last = Moczarski| first = Kazimierz | authorlink = Kazimierz Moczarski| title = [[Conversations with an Executioner]] | format = Wikipedia | publisher = Prentice Hall ........}}

So here are two questions:

1. Is it correct to link the book's title to the Wikipedia page? It may violate a rule that Wikipedia is not a source for itself.
2. If the above is accepted, is there some other way to indicate the link is local to Wikipedia (for example, for printed version), so that we can avoid a 'format without url' warning?

Please note the template is not used in <ref>, but rather for a 'stand-alone' description of a book in a 'Further reading' section. --CiaPan (talk) 09:49, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@CiaPan:The format parameter tells the format of the external webpage identified by the url parameter; for example format=pdf will cause the url to be decorated with a pdf icon. Since there is no url, the format parameter is meaningless. Since Wikipedia is not a reliable source, (and an external reference to a Wikipedia page would be format=html anyway), format=Wikipedia is improper in any case.

A link to the article title is not a self-reference, for on a mirror site it would link to the article on the mirror. The format parameter should be deleted: that will prevent a warning. —teb728 t c 10:33, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

How to report an editor who's routinely violating policy

Was scanning thru new articles and found one I nom'ed for speedy delete. Among other issues, the article was blatant copyright violation for wholesale copying from the website of the person who's the subject of the page. The creator of the page has done this multiple times now, and been warned, but keeps doing it. What can I do about this?JamesG5 (talk) 10:27, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

WP:ANI.--ukexpat (talk) 13:40, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Template parameters

I've created lots of templates, but they're all navboxes and the like, displaying the same content on all pages without any conditional elements. I'd like to create a template with a couple of simple variables (see WP:BOTR#Deadlink Fixing), but although I've glanced at Help:Template, I'm not sure that I'm doing it rightly.

I want {{Templatename|12345678|Text}} to place the code [http://nr.ohpo.org/Details.aspx?refnum=12345678 Text]. Do I understand rightly that I should create {{Templatename}} with the code [http://nr.ohpo.org/Details.aspx?refnum={{{1}}} {{{2}}}], and nothing more? Nyttend (talk) 14:12, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Nyttend: That should work, yes. Eventually you'll want to add a noinclude section with template documentation and such like. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:19, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I was planning on categories etc., but I figured mentioning them would make this request more complicated. Do I remember rightly that there was recently some sort of major change with documentation, causing documentation to appear automatically somehow? Or should my template still transclude {{documentation}} as it would have years ago? Nyttend (talk) 19:05, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Nyttend: There's nothing automatic, AFAIK. Use {{documentation}} and then create Template:Templatename/doc. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:33, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks again, John of Reading. I've created the template at {{OHC NRHP}} and the documentation at {{OHC NRHP/doc}}, and it looks good at [3], but the documentation isn't displaying on the template's page. Do you know what I did wrongly? Nyttend (talk) 20:16, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Nyttend: The template page needed a purge after you created the doc subpage. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:31, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

That's funny; I did a cache clear, but it still didn't display. Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 20:39, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Deleted Page

hi

i wrote a page for an actress 'Natalie Forbes'. it was rejected but no idea why. i seem to only be able to conatct a bot so would really appreciate EXAXCTLY what's wrong so i can fix it.

thanks

robin2437

Robin2437 (talk) 14:38, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

The article which was at Draft:Natalie Forbes was deleted because it was in the draft area for 6 months without being edited. (Articles can't stay there indefinitely.) If you want to have it undeleted so that you can work on it, you can do so. Go to the Wikipedia:REFUND/G13 page and following the instructions there on having it brought back. To keep this from happening again, after you are satisfied with the page, please take a look at WP:AFC to submit the page for consideration to be moved to the main article space. Let me know if you need more information!Naraht (talk) 14:47, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

(ec) As far as I can see you were told on your talk page User talk:Robin2437 what EXACTLY was wrong with the page. --CiaPan (talk) 14:50, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Robin2437: There are two independent events: The submission was declined 29 January 2015 with a reason stated on the page, and the page was deleted 6 September 2015 because it had not been edited in over six months. Here is the stated reason for the decline in January:

This submission's references do not adequately show the subject's notability—see the guidelines on the notability of people and the golden rule. Please improve the submission's referencing, so that the information is verifiable, and there is clear evidence of why the subject is notable and worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia.
What you can do: Add citations (see Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners) to secondary reliable sources that are entirely independent of the subject.

Wikipedia:NACTOR is the relevant notability guideline.

PrimeHunter (talk) 17:52, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

HELP

Greetings,

I am seeking help with editing the current wikipedia page for the Minnesota Museum of American Art. I am attempting to add a section that includes brief info about the museum in the right hand corner. These section is usually boxed off from the various museums wiki pages that I have looked at.

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out, how can I set up an infor box for their wiki page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sherickfran 718 (talk • contribs) 19:54, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi Sherickfran, welcome to Wikipedia! That box is an infobox. In this case you'd go to the page Template:Infobox museum, and copy and paste the text in the gray box in the "usage" section to the top of the article. You can then fill out as many fields as you have information for. Howicus (Did I mess up?) 19:55, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

(Did I mess up?) thank you. I will give that a try. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sherickfran 718 (talk • contribs) 20:05, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan

Please fix his photo. There is a problem and it must be fixed immedielty ... Ilham Aliyev — Preceding unsigned comment added by ExoForXul (talk • contribs) 20:25, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Ilham Aliyev (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Indeed there was. I've restored the photo and will keep an eye on the article. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:30, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

The problem was due to simple vandalism, complicated by an incomplete attempt by a bot to reverse the vandalism. I have requested semi-protection of the article. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:34, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

HELP with adding images to infobox

Greetings,

I am seeking some assistance with adding images to my infobox for the Minnesota Museum of American Art wikipage. I editing the page itself now, but am having some difficulties with my images actual displaying when I do hit the preview page button. For some reason it keeps the url link and does not display the image itself. Also if anyone has pointers on captions as well that would be appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sherickfran 718 (talk • contribs) 21:08, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

"URL link" Are you trying to get the article to display an external image, e.g. <img src="http://www.example.com/example.jpg">? If so, please don't continue trying — our software is set up to ignore such HTML, and there's no way to display an external image. You have to upload an image to our servers, and due to copyright standards, there are very few images from other servers that are permitted in our articles. Also If the image is already on Wikipedia, or if it's on our related site, the Wikimedia Commons, you will be able to use it, but don't use the whole URL: just put it in brackets with markup. Typing [[File:Sidewalk to nowhere.jpg|250px|right]] will cause a 250-pixel version of the image named "File:Sidewalk to nowhere.jpg" to appear at the right side of the page, as you can see here. Nyttend (talk) 21:22, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

If you want help with copyright standards, or if you want to understand the markup better for images here or from Commons, anyone can help you with that, as long as you let us know what you're meaning. Nyttend (talk) 21:25, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Sherickfran 718: Images are a somewhat difficult subject on Wikipedia, and the specifics depend on whether you want to add a logo and/or a photo of the museum. In either case the first step is to upload the image.

• If it is the logo, you upload it to Wikipedia with a non-free use rationale. (The hardest part is that rationale.) If you upload to say File:MMAA logo.jpg, you can use it by placing logo = MMAA logo.jpg in the infobox.
• If it is a photo, you need a license from the photographer, allowing anyone to reuse it for anything including commercially. (Unless you are the photographer, the hardest part is that license.) You upload the photo to Commons, tagging it with the photographer’s license. If you upload to say File:MMAA image.jpg, you can use it by placing image = MMAA image.jpg in the infobox.

—teb728 t c 06:27, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

How do I donate to Wikipedia

I received an email fro you I believe and it wants me to donate. I do not trust email like this. I would like to donate on your secure web site. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.33.97.114 (talk) 00:22, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for wanting to donate. You can click the "Donate to Wikipedia" link a little below the globe icon at the top left of this page. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:51, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I was under the impression that Wikipedia never emails such requests, which are therefore scams. Am I mistaken? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 14:10, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

If you have donated before and given an email address then you may be contacted later. See for example the section "THE 2014-2015 EMAIL CAMPAIGN" at wmf:2014-2015 Fundraising Report. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:10, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Image size dispute

how do I respond to an editor who is rude and discouraging to contributors. Editor is "Duel Freq" He was very sarcastic and rude and could have gotten his point across without the rudeness. thank goodness I'm 64 and thick skinned but if I were a young adult I could have easily been offended stopping my contribution to Wikipedia. In an effort like Wikipedia where everyone is freely donating contributors should be encouraged and not treated rude and sarcastically. His complaint was that I was making my drawings to large. Well I understand the size restrictions but in both cases the drawings I contributed represented weeks of work and the contributions of over 500 photographs from Veterans one of which was my son. When I explained the depth of work that went into the drawings he said I was self aggrandizing. His actual comment was; "(cur | prev) 19:19, 16 November 2015‎ Dual Freq (talk | contribs)‎ . . (42,926 bytes) (-448)‎ . . (rv, unless you've figured out how to control the screen size of every computer in the world, it needs to be reduced. people can click it if they want to see it. also no need for self-aggrandizing commentary in caption or alt text.) (undo | thank)" Neither I nor any other sincere contributor needs to be spoken to like this . I would like an apology from this user. If he or she cannot edit without sarcasm and rudeness then they are not a functioning editor. pages affected: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_(CV-64) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iona_(YTB-220) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rb4827 (talk • contribs) 01:29, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I'll point out that you've repeatedly reverted other editors with minimal or no justification for your changes, while ignoring WP:IMGSIZE. There really are issues with different sized displays, particularly small ones. {{u}Dual Freq}}'s comment is a bit harsher in tone than appropriate, but mainly you appear to be in the wrong here. However, the correct way to deal with this is to start a discussion on the article's talk page. Rwessel (talk) 01:50, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Rb4827, for your issue with having come across rude behavior, refer to Wikipedia:Civility. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 02:30, 17 November 2015 (UTC)