Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 November 19

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November 19

Can I add my name to a list?

Is it possible to add your own name (with documentation) to a list?

Thank you for your help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:304:2A16:CC00:7DB2:D64D:CFBD:3CA1 (talk) 00:40, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

With few exceptions, lists here at Wikipedia should only be populated by items that have an article themselves. So, if you are the subject of an article here, I would hazard a guess to say "yes". That said, I will point out that you have not said what article/list you are referring to or who you are. Dismas|^(talk) 01:09, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Editing about yourself is generally inappropriate as you have a conflict of interest. Please make a suggestion on the talk page while providing a reliably published source that validates the claims and let a third party evaluate whether your inclusion is appropriate. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 01:45, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Your alma mater (or some other affiliation with a notable subject) is not your ticket to Wikipedia. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 03:29, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Reporting non-author correctable errata in 'Thermodynamic_beta' article

I have been working with the WikiPedia article: "Thermodynamic Beta": Thermodynamic beta

This article has a Wikimedia Commons .png image embedded that I believe contains mathematical calculation errors. I have found this image embedded in other WikiPedia articles as well as this one, and it was last updated October 2, 2015. I do not know how to continue to report the error. I personally cannot correct the error. The embedded file is:

File:ColdnessScale.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_beta#/media/File:ColdnessScale.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ColdnessScale.png

My Calculations:

Kb - Boltsmann's Constant: 1.3806488E-023 Joules / degree Kelvin At 20C, T=293.16K. I calculated Beta with these numbers, and Beta = 1/KbT = 247.0E18 Beta/Joule or 247.0 Giga-Betas per nano-Joule.

In the File:ColdnessScale.png article, Beta is calculated at many important temperatures. Specifically at room temperature:

At 20C, The article states Beta equals 44.6 GB/nJ which I interpret to mean Giga Betas per nano-Joule.

Either I am interpreting the meaning of GB/nJ wrong or the embedded image Beta values are off by a factor of 5.540.

This picture is very useful to the users, and I have spent a lot of time removing my own errors. So, either the author-calculated values for Beta are wrong, the author used a different value for Boltzmann's constant that has not been specified, or the interpretation of the meaning of GB/nJ needs to be clarified. The numbers in the ColdnessScale figure are most probably wrong.

I do not know how to continue from here. The .png file is uneditable.

2601:154:C200:72FD:DD0F:5868:9A59:FD36 (talk) 01:31, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

The first place to raise such questions is on the article talk page, Talk:Thermodynamic beta. --David Biddulph (talk) 01:38, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Except that the error is in the image File:ColdnessScale.png, not the Thermodynamic beta page. There's an explanation of the graph in the image file. If that doesn't help, maybe the uploader Unitsphere can help. I've left a message on their talk page. Rojomoke (talk) 05:32, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

You Don't Know Bilal Saeed ?? Go Home He is a famous singer and not a single page about him has been uploaded so plzzz try to Upload a page for 'Bilal Saeed'

Add a page about 'Bilal Saeed' Thanks :) Hope u will do it :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.187.36.80 (talk) 10:04, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Is Bilal Saeed considered notable? That isn't the same as famous. Has this singer been the subject of significant coverage in reliable independent sources that discuss him in detail? Not most web sites or blogs, but respected newspapers and magazines. Not just interviews, but real coverage. Musicians have a harder time succeeding in getting Wikipedia articles than just about anmyone since everyone seems to want to add their garage band, so the standards are quite strict.

If you think Bilal Saeed meets those requirements you can go to WP:AFC and create the article yourself. I would suggest requested articles but people have quit doing that since there is such a backlog. You don't even have to register (although there are reasons you would want to). Make sure you include solid sources before you submit Most newcomers can't write an article that meets standards the first time out, but you could also practice editing other articles first.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:44, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Appeal from Jimmy Wales.

I received your appeal today and when I went to the three portals to donate my internet protection system, Bullgaurd, kept telling me that your sites were blocked as they were suspect!

I would still like to donate! So please advise what I need to do - I do not want to switch off my guard system.

Kind regards,

Simon Newington-Bridges — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.163.23.170 (talk) 10:23, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

It's possible that you've received a scam email and that your protection software is correct. If you'd like to donate - and thank you for doing so - use the "Donate to Wikipedia" link that you'll find below the globe icon at the top left of every Wikipedia page. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:29, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

(More) The post at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 51#Yearly appeal may be related to this one. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:33, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Lack of visual differentiation between subheads of different levels

A mediawiki markup deficiency that has annoyed me continuously in my 7 years of editing WP is the lack of visual distinction between subheadings of different levels. 2nd level headings (==Heading 2==) are distinguished by a different typeface and an underline, but 3rd (===Heading 3===), 4th (====Heading 4====) and lower look almost the same; the font size is just slightly smaller. So in the body of the article readers cannot distinguish how these subheadings are nested; they have to go back to the TOC. As a result, I (and many other editors) usually use only two levels of headings, avoiding use of ====Heading 4==== and below. This puts a serious restriction on the organization of articles.

I'm sure you've seen this complaint before, although I was unable to find it in the FAQ or Help Desk archives. Are there any plans by Mediawiki to correct this problem in the future? Do you have any suggestions? How do other editors handle this problem? Are there any tricks I can use to make the subheads look different? For example, is there a way to force the subheadings to render in a different font? Thanks a lot for your help. --Chetvorno^TALK 13:02, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

The most obvious solution is to enable "Auto-number headings" in the Appearance tab of preferences. Some, like I, however don't find this visually appealing. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 13:27, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

You can also change the CSS for your account. See Help:Section#Headings. I haven't seen others complain about this. Have you seen others say it affects their choice of section levels, or is it a guess? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:13, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I also cannot distinguish between the level 3 and level 4, but in my experience, there are few articles that level 4 subheadings are actually necessary or helpful. they are generally a feature of the "new section heading for every paragraph!!!" fetish. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

It's the other way around; many complicated articles could benefit from more than 2 levels of subsections, but well-written articles don't use them because their editors know the heading font issue will be confusing for readers. Almost no Featured Articles use them. For example, these complicated lengthy articles: Gunpowder Plot, General relativity, World War II, Middle Ages, Human evolution could undoubtedly use more than 2 levels. Here's a little illustration of the problem: User:Chetvorno/work10. Tell me how you do on the test. --Chetvorno^TALK 16:44, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Anyway, thanks for the Auto-number and CSS suggestions, Finnusertop, PrimeHunter. I was hoping to find a solution that would work for all users. It seems stupid to have a hierarchy of headings but only be able to use two because of a poor choice of fonts by the developers. All that's needed is to change the fonts enough that successive levels of headings are distinguishable. Does anyone know how to change the fonts used in the headings? --Chetvorno^TALK 17:02, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

This could be changed with a change to the site-wide CSS. It is technically simple, but because it would potentially affect every page on the site, a very firm consensus would be needed. If you want to try to obtain that consensus, I suggest starting a discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). DES ^(talk) 00:26, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks much! I'll try that. --Chetvorno^TALK 18:21, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Samaritan Hebrew font blocks

I often see strange looking characters at Wikipedia which look like domino blocks with letters and numbers on them rather than dots. These strange looking characters are related to non-English languages. For instance, if you visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Gerizim you will find in the first sentence 7 of these characters just after the phrase "Samaritan Hebrew".

What are these characters? Are they errors that result due to a fault of the editor? Or are they the result of my PC not having the proper font installed? QuietPaths (talk) 18:28, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

That's an indication that you don't have the appropriate font installed on your computer to display the intended characters.--ukexpat (talk) 16:56, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

It's a good accessibility feature on our behalf to use templates that warn users that some characters may be displayed erroneously for them if they don't have the font. We don't have a template for Samaritan Hebrew specifically, but we have {{SpecialChars}}, which I've added to the article you pointed out, QuietPaths. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 17:00, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I downloaded and installed a font called "Hebrew Samaritan", closed and restarted my browser. But still when I visit the previously mentioned URL, I still see the strange block dominoes. I have Windows 10, and have tried the latest version of Firefox, IE11, Edge and Chrome. All fail to display the characters in question. Here is the font collection I obtained the font from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/culmus/files/ancient_fonts/AncientSemiticFonts-0.06-1/ QuietPaths (talk) 18:28, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Looking at the edit page for Mount Gerizim this just has a row of squares - which inevitably appears as a row of squares in the article.
Conversely the edit code for the table in Samaritan alphabet#Letters has Unicode refs for each character - Can I suggest QuietPaths looks at that page - to see if his fonts are working?
I am not sure what purpose the squares in the Mount Gerizim article serve - unless another editor can explain, they should be deleted. - Arjayay (talk) 17:35, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

The fonts in the table in Samaritan alphabet#Letters are likewise all squares with little numbers on them. They are no different in appearance than those reported at the Mount Gerizim page. QuietPaths (talk) 18:28, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia viewers

Hi To let you know that your competition (Tumblr) is stealing Wikipedia viewers through a photo on the entry page to your site Bernard Rhodes. I suggest you remove the link to retain these viewers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Freshcolour (talk • contribs) 16:19, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not in a contest with Tumblr. --Jayron32 16:54, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

The post confused me until I saw the Google Knowledge Graph for Bernard Rhodes
As usual with GKG they use some of our text, but as our article Bernard Rhodes doesn't have a picture, they have used one from Tumblr - not a problem - Arjayay (talk) 16:59, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

@Freshcolour: A lot of people are confused by this Google feature. Here is our standard reply:

Are you by any chance referring to a photo or text shown to the right of a Google search? Google's Knowledge Graph uses a wide variety of sources. There may be a text paragraph ending with "Wikipedia" to indicate that particular text was copied from Wikipedia. An image and other text before or after the Wikipedia excerpt may be from sources completely unrelated to Wikipedia. We have no control over how Google presents our information, but Google's Knowledge Graph has a "Feedback" link where anyone can mark a field as wrong.

In this case the image isn't wrong so there is no reason to use the Feedback link. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:05, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

There may be a more general place to talk about this, but I have tried repeatedly to get Google to change what they say about WSAT and they won't do it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:54, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Which search produces it and what do you want to change? I don't know how they process feedback but if they get feedback from multiple places then maybe there is a better chance it will have an effect. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:53, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Removing My IP Address

Now I know to log on before performing edits. However, I previously made several edits to a Wikipedia article without logging on. How can I undo all of these edits to remove my IP address? I would like to remove all of these edits, and then redo them after I log on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Greenwald83 (talk • contribs) 18:53, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Oversight can hopefully remove your IP address from those edits, see Wikipedia:Oversight/FAQ. David Biddulph (talk) 19:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

 edit history shows he was able to get oversight to suppress this information Tiggerjay (talk) 17:43, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Misrepresentation

I wish to report Mark Ultra (see here: Talk:Jason Horsley#COI.2C Sockpuppeting and Meatpuppeting) for deliberately interfering with the wikipedia page Jason Horsley. Ultra's edits draw unwarranted attention to the fact that I do not wish to be called a conspiracy theorist. Does this really merit an entire section heading? Of the hundreds of thousands of things I have publicly said and written, why is this central to a description of my work. Is Wikipedia functioning now in a similar way to a tabloid paper? Also, to the same end, Ultra misquotes me, in a subtle but apparently deliberate way: I did not say "history is run on a conspiracy" but "history is run on conspiracy." That single "a" makes for a very different statement: that conspiracy is central to history is a known fact; that a single conspiracy runs history is a theory, and not one I advocate. I suggest the misquote is deliberate, because I recently changed it and also corrected the reason Ultra gives for my rejection of the description "conspiracy theorist" (which is speculative on his part), with an actual reference,; Ultra changed it back again to his version, clearly suggesting there is a personal bias at work here, or a deliberate attempt to distort the facts, and not a genuine interest in representing the truth.

I do not wish to keep correcting the page, hence I request that this user be cautioned.

Also, I mistakenly made comments without signing in, I have deleted those comments but would like to make sure that no traces of my IP address remains online.

Thanks, Jasun Horsley — Preceding unsigned comment added by JasunHorsley (talk • contribs) 19:26, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

• I am looking into this now, it looks like a big issue... also regarding the traces of your IP address, you can request assistance from WP:SUPPRESS. Tiggerjay (talk) 16:32, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Hiding the sidebar

To whom it may concern,

Is there a way to hide the sidebar so I can enlarge the screen? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Samiriachy (talk • contribs) 19:42, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Add

#mw-panel {
	display:none;
}

.mw-body {
	margin-left:0;
}

to your common.css. Ruslik_Zero 20:51, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

@Samiriachy: The mentioned page is at Special:MyPage/common.css. Note however that if you instead add it to Special:MyPage/vector.css then you can switch the sidebar on and off without making further edits, but by changing between the Vector and MonoBook skins at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. You can reach it by clicking "Preferences" at top of any page and then the "Appearance" tab. Some things look differently in MonoBook. Logging out would also bring back the sidebar regardless of the used css file. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:58, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

How to change title in draft article

I need to change a title of an article I am drafting. Could someone please point me where/how I do this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rtbonnecaze (talk • contribs) 22:27, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Rtbonnecaze, Page titles are changes with the Move function. However, only Autoconfirmed users can use this function. To be autoconfirmed requires at least 10 edits, and an account that is at least 4 days old. I can't offer to do it for you unless you say what Draft you want renamed and to what name. DES ^(talk) 00:22, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

There is really no point moving a draft article. If the draft is accepted it can be properly titled when it is moved to mainspace.--ukexpat (talk) 13:36, 20 November 2015 (UTC)