Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 November 23

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November 23

Elizabeth Bowes

Please help - I do not know why ref number 4 is in red. Please help. Thanks 203.132.68.1 (talk) 02:45, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Fixed. The date included the volume number. StarryGrandma (talk) 03:15, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale

Please fix up ref. number 6 on this page. Thanks 203.39.128.90 (talk) 06:36, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

 Done Please note that the Template:Webarchive, which was used in the reference can verify that dates in URLs for Wayback, WebCite, and Archive.is match the date in the |date= argument. If the dates don't match it will display the date from the URL, add a red warning message "date mismatch", and add the article to the warning tracking category. Thanks, Lourdes 07:05, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Codswallop

Meaning of (not stated by Wikipedia)

I am nearly 70 and heard this saying many times in my youth in England. In southern England, and Isle of Wight in particular, a good eating fish to catch was a Cod. The cod was plumper than a normal fish and it's flesh was very sweet. Once caught on a line, it was usually hit on the head with a small mallet to stun or kill it to remove the hook. If one missed the head and hit the stomach area, all the gut, entrails etc would be expelled out of it's rear orifice! Hence the saying, "What a load of Codswallop"!

Hope this is of interest to Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 008Firelighter (talk • contribs) 10:56, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a dictionary, so would not need an article about 'codswallop' unless there were a good deal to say about it: even if that were so, everything in the article would have to be cited to published Reliable Sources. See, however, the entry in Wiktionary, here, which alludes roughly to what you say along with a good many other possibilities. Remember that the word cod (or Codd!) has or had other meanings than 'a kind of fish.' {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.173.186 (talk) 11:53, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

The word was in use in the north of England in the 1950s too, inland, and far from any fish-catching. Research by the OED failed to come up with any convincing explanation of the origin. There are lots of possibilities, but none of them convincing. Dbfirs 13:54, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

page deletions and extortion

The company I work for had hired a Tech services company to design our online profiles. In setting up the wikipedia page for our CEO they did not follow the wikipedia guidelines and it was therefore removed. For 5 months they wouldn't respond or accept responsibility for their mistake. The user which had created the page has moved on to another company, and when contacted he said that he'll only fix the page to get it up again if we pay him 3 times the initial cost of setting it up. So now we're stuck in a bind where if we try to create the page again it'll be blacklisted and if we go to him we'll be extorted. What is a possible solution to get our page back up? Is it standard operating procedure for wikipedia editors to purposefully make issues with pages so that they can charge more fees to fix them or is that just this particular editor being one of the bad apples in the basket? 27.106.64.10 (talk) 13:20, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Hello anon. Paid editing of the type you are describing is highly discouraged for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that Wikipedia does not vet these individuals or companies, and cannot offer any guarantee that their services are legitimate or worthwhile. Often the best answer in cases like this is that if a subject is truly notable, then a volunteer will eventually write an article for it. In cases where these services are in fact illegitimate, which may be much or even most of the time, it is unfortunately the responsibility of the customer to vet the "product" they're paying for as you would any other, and the risk for doing, or failing to do that effectively rests ultimately on the buyer, as it would with any other product bought from what ultimately ended up being a disreputable seller. GMG^talk 13:45, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

You're certainly right to ignore the attempt at extortion. Even if you paid the extortioner, he's in no position to guarantee that he can deliver what he's offering. Definitely a bad apple – you and your CEO should be congratulating yourselves that he's no longer with you. Maproom (talk) 15:21, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Extortionist, surely? -Roxy, Zalophus californianus. barcus 15:37, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

The word "extortionist" has recently taken over as the preferred form (more so in American than in British English), but "extortioner" has been a word in the English language since 1375 (per OED entry). Dbfirs 16:41, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

In order to address the specific issue, can you tell us what the name of the company is, what the title of the deleted page was, or what the username of the editor is? Deli nk (talk) 16:52, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

• This is not "extortion." The person is not holding something valuable of yours until you pay. He has nothing of value. This is simply a failure to fulfill a contract, and you should speak to lawyer since we do not provide legal advice. -Arch dude (talk) 17:17, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. Unfortunately, you have fallen into the clutches of an ignorant or ill-intentioned person who took your money while failing to advise you that a Wikipedia article is not and never can be part of your "online profile". If Wikipedia ever has an article about your company, it will not be under your control in any way, and will contain whatever material that a consensus of Wikipedia editors decides has been published in reliable sources unconnected with your company; your (and your agents' involvement will be limited to suggesting changes to it. Many people misunderstand this (look through the archives of this page to see), but that is how Wikipedia works. --ColinFine (talk) 13:48, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

Listing a book in its introduction writer's bibliography

An anonymous user is requesting is asking to add a book to the bibliography on the semiprotected page of Indian author Arundhati Roy but she only wrote its introduction. My guess is no but that's because, being a pretty lazy person, I went to literally one bibliography of a person who has probably written introductions and forewords and couldn't find any such listings. Is there an established approach to something like this? Neither of the two obvious guesses (WP:MOS-BIBLIO and Wikipedia:WikiProject_Bibliographies#Recommended_structure) seem to answer this. CityOfSilver 16:59, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Never mind. Like Stephen King's bibliography, Roy's own bibliography has no listings like this so I declined it. CityOfSilver 18:46, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Should names of organizations be translated?

I'm writing an article for the WiR World Contest. The subject of the article is from a Spanish-speaking country, so the name of the organization she founded is in Spanish. Should I translate the name of the organization, or should I keep it in the original language? Can someone point me to the relevant guidelines? I couldn't find a relevant guideline in the WP:MOS but maybe I didn't look hard enough ;) Thank you! –FlyingAce^✈hello 17:48, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

The guidance is at WP:Article titles#English-language titles. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:14, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

"Skyddsobjektsbild"

In National Defence Radio Establishment, an IP removed this picture with the comment "Borttagande av skyddsobjektsbild(er)." Google translates that to "removal of protective object image". Is there a legal requirement in Sweden to not publish such pictures? Does the English Wikipedia obey it? --Tim Landscheidt (talk) 19:56, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

The image in question has been in use on Swedish Wikipedia for over five years without the authorities raising any apparent concerns, so I wouldn't worry. ‑ Iridescent 20:05, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

 Done Thanks, I've reverted the removal. --Tim Landscheidt (talk) 23:56, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Help

I am new to geology articles. Please help me to categorize Haflong Thrust and Dauki fault, and to add appropriate banners. Aditya^{(talk • contribs)} 21:03, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Hello Aditya. I suggest you ask at WT:WikiProject Geology. --ColinFine (talk) 13:51, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Aditya^{(talk • contribs)} 13:53, 24 November 2017 (UTC)