Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 December 28

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.

December 28

Amber Heard Page

I cannot edit Amber Heards Activism section. There is a sentence that reads: “Amber Heard is useless”. I can’t find it in the source code either. How can this be deleted? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:445:480:5070:1546:F8EC:EB3A:1EDD (talk) 01:29, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

 Fixed The vandalism has been removed. Joseph2302 (talk) 01:45, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

offensive picture on Richard Overtons page

someone posted a mans annus on the page of Richard Overton. this needs to be taken down. that man was a hero and WW2 legend. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.129.234.11 (talk) 02:42, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

This has been fixed already. –Ammarpad (talk) 03:43, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Need help translating (Mandarin Chinese) and creating relevant page for a relative who passed away before I was born

I took photos of a history book that was kept in the family that included a photo of him, as well as a description of his life/professional roles. Can you or others help make translation and relevant page for him?

Yu, ChuanLu — Preceding unsigned comment added by NationalRock (talk • contribs) 07:37, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Try following the instructions at WP:TRANSLATETOHERE. I reccomend creating a starter stub in draft space and then tagging it with the translation template. (That's assuming, of course, that the article exists in the Chinese Wikipedia). ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 13:48, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

A problem with long Tree list

When there are more than 133 lines in one of the tree branches (Template:Tree list), the connecting line is disconnected.

Look at User:RimerMoshe/Tree list Template.

Is it possible to increase the number of rows to as many as possible? RimerMoshe (talk) 13:41, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Dissertation as a Source

Is it okay to cite a page from a PhD dissertation as a source, or is that considered "not neutral/ original research?"— Preceding unsigned comment added by LawrenceScafuri (talk • contribs) 17:09, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Yes and No. See WP:SCHOLARSHIP (bolding/emphasis mine):

Completed dissertations or theses written as part of the requirements for a doctorate, and which are publicly available (most via interlibrary loan or from Proquest), can be used but care should be exercised, as they are often, in part, primary sources. Some of them will have gone through a process of academic peer reviewing, of varying levels of rigor, but some will not. If possible, use theses that have been cited in the literature; supervised by recognized specialists in the field; or reviewed by third parties. Dissertations in progress have not been vetted and are not regarded as published and are thus not reliable sources as a rule. Some theses are later published in the form of scholarly monographs or peer reviewed articles, and, if available, these are usually preferable to the original thesis as sources. Masters dissertations and theses are considered reliable only if they can be shown to have had significant scholarly influence.

The best thing to do would be to post the proposed reference usage on Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard and get community consensus on the particular thesis. Also post on the article talk page that there is a discussion taking place at the Reliable sources noticeboard. Any possible WP:COI issues should also be kept in mind. Shearonink (talk) 17:24, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

@LawrenceScafuri: Note also that we use sources in two ways: to cite facts, and to establish notability. A dissertation can (in my opinion) almost always be used to cite facts. A dissertation can (in my opinion) almost never be used to support an assertion of notability, because it fails multiple legs of the five-fold criteria for a source that supports notability. In particular, it is not independent of the subject. -Arch dude (talk) 02:37, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Uh, what? If I write my doctoral dissertation on Cicero, does that mean I've got some connection to an ancient orator? Nyttend (talk) 01:36, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

Lucas callaghan

Why has the information for Lucas Callaghan from the television show “Aussie picker” not available? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgm1969 (talk • contribs) 21:22, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

@Rgm1969: Over a year ago, there was a deletion discussion. The article on Callaghan did not cite any sources independent of Callaghan that were specifically about him (and not Aussie Pickers). Thus, he was found to not be notable except as a cast member of Aussie Pickers (and notability is not inherited). 21:34, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Lost Edit Button

Until just now, on the top bar in the right, there was an edit button, a watch button, and so on. Now those are all appearing under a views menu after I hit something and I don't know what. How do I get these buttons back to normal? Smartyllama (talk) 21:27, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

@Smartyllama: That sounds like it might be an issue with some skin you're using? Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering and let us know which one. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:37, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Well, it's back now and I didn't change anything, so I guess we're good. Smartyllama (talk) 10:59, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Smartyllama, did you change the width of your browser window? Several of our common skins, including Monobook and whatever the default is nowadays (can't remember the name...), will replace some or most of the top-of-the-page buttons with a views menu if the window is too narrow to display them all. (Pinging Ian.thomson in case he's unaware of this.) Nyttend (talk) 21:09, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

New Page Review

I have recently created the page Alfie Bowtell, I forgot to add the {{AFC submission/draftnew}} template so I have been advised to ask here how to put the page through New Page Review. Amsmith536 (talk) 23:19, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Amsmith536 The article will be checked by New pages patrol in any case. If you prefer to have it first looked over by the allied but separate Articles for creation process, then you change it back to a draft ("move" tab at the top of the screen; where you see a box with "Article" select "Draft" instead), then place your AFC submission template: Bhunacat10 (talk), 10:50, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Current Events Portal Problems Again

I would remove this is I could, but I can not. My bullshit detector is overloading when I read:

"Ebola virus kills Congo migrant at border - a migrant from Africa ARRIVED IN THE UNITED STATES arrived at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry No. 2 showing signs of Ebola, the migrant who was complaining of abdominal pains explosive vomiting blood, high fever typical Ebola virus symptoms.at approximately 9:30 am ."

There is someone who knows how to game the wiki, as this is at least the second time this has happened this week. It's a good thing that I know to check sources, etc. 159.83.54.2 (talk) 23:36, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

See [1]; you just happened to come along during the one minute between when one person added it and another person removed it. Nyttend (talk) 21:56, 29 December 2018 (UTC)