Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 February 11

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February 11

Pippa Middleton

Resolved

 – Lourdes

I have failed with ref number 16 on this page - Pippa Middleton Please help thank you101.182.96.231 (talk) 03:49, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

 Done Please read referencing for beginners. The mistake was clearly mentioned in the error note - that you had given the same name "telegraph.co.uk" to two references. All I did was change the reference name. You can do that too the next time. Come back here if you get stuck up. Thanks. Lourdes 07:40, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Pippa Middleton

one more thing please. I cannot - on this iPad - correct ref. Number 64 on this page. The editors name is NOT Bainca - it is clearly meant to be BIANCA LONDON. please fix. Thanks 101.182.96.231 (talk) 09:25, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

 Done --Gronk Oz (talk) 10:10, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

created page

Hi! I'm a new user. I'm creating a page for Elementary Season 1. Can anyone let me know how I'm doing? Maybe help me a out a little? Thanks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Elementary:_Season_1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anderson678999 (talk • contribs) 10:35, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Anderson678999 First of all: WELCOME to WP! What an undertaking as a new user. I was impressed upon first glance at your page. However, my gut reaction was: why is this page necessary when practically all of the information is here: List of Elementary Episodes and here: Elementary (TV Series) already. Normally when a TV series is covered on WP there is a Main Page i.e. Breaking Bad and then individual pages covering the seasons Breaking Bad (Season 1) etc. With the "List of Elementary Episodes" and the "Elementary (TV Series) already created, aren't the individual series overkill? Just curious. Good job, though! Maineartists (talk) 15:59, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Is there anyone here who can sort out my refs on this? One particular one is all- you'll know it when you see it. It seems to be caused by the cited page numbers being different each time; but, I don't really see why that is so odd! Many thanks in advancio :) O Fortuna!^{...Imperatrix mundi.} 16:47, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Hello, I'm pushed for time and only looked at the first 2 or 3 refs, but yes if you cite different pages from the same book it will produce the ref error if you use the same ref name. Eagleash (talk) 17:01, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Eagleash, I had a feeling that was it... like I said, it struck me as odd, having to change the name of a ref everytime you turn a page! Thanks though. Incidentally; the requet still stands, to those that aren't against the clock  :) O Fortuna!^{...Imperatrix mundi.} 17:10, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Alas, the problem that others will have when they attempt to fix these mistakes is that they may not be able to determine which <ref name="Harris1986" /> tag belongs to which definition. If you are the editor who placed these references in the article, you are the best editor to get them right.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:27, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

As someone who regularly attempts to fix ref errors, trying to second-guess the original editor is indeed a source of frustration! Eagleash (talk) 17:38, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

OK, no worries, I'll do it. Thanks @Trappist the monk and Eagleash: for your help. The google ref generator makes the ref- and then reFill mucks it up! I think i'll stick to my dead-tree copies in future ;) Happy Saturday, Help Desk Helperteers! O Fortuna!^{...Imperatrix mundi.} 17:45, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Just picking up on something above, (in case it's not already realised) you don't need a ref name for every ref., just the ones you wish to use more than once. So <ref>{{cite book|ref content}}</ref> if only used once. Eagleash (talk) 17:52, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Eagleash: Realised it was not. Thanks for that- I'll give it a whirl. O Fortuna!^{...Imperatrix mundi.} 18:05, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Eagleash:- sorry for repeated pings- but I think that cracked it; don't know if it was cheating, but I did wot you pointed out & just went and took out the ref names- looks OK now! Thanks a lot! O Fortuna!^{...Imperatrix mundi.} 18:19, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: A couple of templates you may find handy are {{Rp}} and {{R}}. The former lets you append a page number to an in-line citation (like this^[1]) so you can use one common footnote for everything, rather then typing the name a book fifty times. The latter is just a convenient way of abbreviating <ref name=Example/>{{Rp|42}}. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 21:00, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

@Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: You're welcome, no problem. In addition to the suggestion immediately above there are a couple of other methods shown at WP:REFB#Alternative systems though I'm not a great fan of them myself! Eagleash (talk) 21:55, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Study

I'm concerned Wikipedia may be lacking in areas that don't lend themselves well to acedemic study.

Is there an essay expressing this?

Benjamin (talk) 21:45, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, Benjaminikuta, this is called systemic bias and it means that because Wikipedia reflects what's written in reliable sources, the omissions in reliable sources are replicated in the contents of Wikipedia. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 22:03, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Dead Links

Can You Fix a couple of dead links they to be fixed right now. 2600:8803:7A00:19:14A2:7224:84EA:118B (talk) 23:42, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Can you give us a little more information. Preferably a link or links to the page(s) you have concerns about. Eagleash (talk) 23:47, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

OK The AAC football season and Conference USA articles have dead links can you fix them now. 2600:8803:7A00:19:14A2:7224:84EA:118B (talk) 02:48, 12 February 2017 (UTC)