Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 July 14

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July 14

Deletion of several articles with hoax information

Hello. After finding that the "Spanish tickler" was one of Wikipedia's longest lasting hoax articles, I checked similar articles regarding torture devices and found that many have little few sources and that the sources are not reliable - they tend to be the websites that were used in the "Spanish Tickler" article.

I've searched for more information and found nothing regarding historical or scholarly reference to them.

I am having trouble understanding the guidelines on how to properly nominate articles for deletion. I have basically just copied and pasted the template regarding the nomination of deletion onto the article pages.

The articles that I would like to have deleted because they are likely hoaxes are: Mask of infamy, Knee splitter, and Heretic's fork.

Thanks

BananaBaron (talk) 02:45, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Hello there. WP:STFW has some helpful information on the nomination process. Please let me know if you have issues with following the steps. Regards, Snowycats (talk) 03:20, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Caption error in infobox military conflict with a location map

Operation Grouse
Part of German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German cordon area
Date 16–22 November 1944 Location Moravian-Silesian Beskids Result Dispersal of partisan forces
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Jan Žižka partisan brigade Wolfram group
Commanders and leaders
Hans Windeck Georg Attenberger	Dajan Bajanovič Murzin
Strength
13,059	~ 200
Casualties and losses
6 killed, 3 wounded	8 killed, 4 captured
13-40 civilian suspects were arrested and executed
Murzin was wounded and not effectively in command

Hi, I'm having trouble with an unwanted automatic caption appearing when I use a location map as the image parameter in the infobox military conflict template. Is there any way to suppress the unwanted caption (on this page, it appears as "Help desk (Eastern Moravia)"? Thanks in advance! Catrìona (talk) 06:11, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

@Catrìona: per the template parameters If caption is defined but is not assigned a value, the map will not be framed and no caption will be displayed. I have done this by adding | caption = within the template but not adding a caption after the equal sign. Does this fix your problem? TheDoctorWho (talk) 07:12, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Yes, thank you very much! Catrìona (talk) 20:31, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

References

why are the reviewers politically driven instead of fact driven?

i have seen a lot of pages keeping out facts that don't fit with their political agenda . i find this insulting please fix this highly political bias — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.70.2.206 (talk) 06:19, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Please provide an example (link to a page). Eagleash (talk) 08:52, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

On scientific topics, we tend to keep out fringe theories that serious scientists won't entertain. On political topics, things are more difficult because some editors have strong political biases. As a matter of policy, we tend to include those views that are supported by WP:Reliable sources. If there are facts that you want to include, please mention the sources that support your view. The talk page of an article is usually a good place to discuss controversial additions. In the case of your giraffe edit, the content was reverted because it was put in the wrong place. Dbfirs 14:58, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Incorrect Name

My name is Clarence Steven McGann.

the wikipedia bio lists me as Charles Steven McGann.

This needs to be corrected.Csmcgann (talk) 09:33, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

 Done ~ Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 09:41, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Reverted. User:Abelmoschus Esculentus, the only live reference in the article, to blackpast.org, gives the name as Charles. Csmcgann, please point us to a reliable source that supports your assertion. We can't take your word for it, or even that you're the subject of the article. Rojomoke (talk) 11:17, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

@Rojomoke: I just checked the blackpast source. It's a blog and a tertiary source. The two sources of that blog also used the name "C. Steven McGann". Only the writer of that blog "named" him as Charles. We ALSO can't take the word of that source because it's not even reliable. ~ Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 11:41, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Very true. But it's the only source we've got, except for the uncorroborated claim from the OP, who may or may not be McGann. I see you've removed the name completely, which is probably the best solution for now. Also, the article has been proposed for deletion. Rojomoke (talk) 14:20, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

• I have asked the fine folks at RX if they can find anything about the name. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 07:46, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

  ...and as always they deliver: this Nauru gvt source supports "Clarence". Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 08:56, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Question: What is the purpose of article Talk Pages?

I'd like some clarification, please. What is the purpose of article Talk Pages? I was told by another editor that a Talk Page is for suggesting specific changes to an article. It is not to be used for making general suggestions to an article, I do not believe that to be accurate. So, I am here asking if that statement is true or not. If interested to see the original conversation, it is linked here: Talk:Peter Strzok#July 12, 2018, Congress hearing. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 12:27, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

You were told that they were not for general complaints. Wikipedia:Talk_page_guidelines is pretty clear. Vexations (talk) 12:45, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

My post was a suggestion, not a complaint. As I stated in that discussion. And the other editor focused on "specific" versus "general". So, rather than parse words about it being a "suggestion" or a "complaint" (really, what's the difference?) ... I will ask the question differently. Was my post appropriate or not for that Talk Page? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 13:16, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

This is a general help desk, it can't give a definitive answer to questions such as this one, only opinions. You made a complaint, you were told you could add whatever "other side" you were referring to if you had reliable sources. I don't understand how it devolved into a metadiscussion about talk pages which seems a diversion from the issue raised by the other editor's response, which was both "you can fix it" and "we would need more specifics to discuss your post". It's certainly true that we expect specific issues to be raised when someone has a complaint, which is why some templates are removed from article pages when they aren't followed up by specifics. Doug Weller talk 13:42, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

So my original post was inappropriate for that Talk Page? And I should remove it? Correct? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 13:47, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

It doesn't have to be removed but the discussion went badly off-track because both users in my opinion are acting poorly for editors with 70,000+ edits. Just stop bickering and make a more constructive suggestion or edit the article yourself. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:08, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

• The correct place to discuss this issue is at Wikipedia talk:Talk page guidelines, not here on the help desk. -Arch dude (talk) 16:13, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Egypt national football team

I can’t understand why in English Wikipedia the name of Egypt national football team is written in Egyptian Arabic and in Italian Wikipedia is written in Arabic. I ask for a long time on it.wiki but no answer provided... --151.95.52.234 (talk) 13:28, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

In English Wikipedia, the name of Egypt national football team you mentioned is a translation which can be included. Italian Wikipedia is not English Wikipedia, please do not ask anything other than English Wikipedia here. Thank you. ~ Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 13:34, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia languages are edited independently. The English Wikipedia has more features than other languages. We have both Template:Lang-ar for Arabic and Template:Lang-arz for Egyptian Arabic. Egypt national football team uses Template:Lang-arz. The Italian Wikipedia has no such template. Their article uses it:Template:Arabo for Arabic. It appears they can currently not add Egyptian Arabic text with the preferred template method for foreign language text. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:49, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Help with formatting CC0

The title I typed into the heading of this section was...

"Help with formatting CC0"

...but when displayed, the 0 is smaller than the CC.

How do I get it to display CC0 properly?

Related: See http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and Creative Commons license#Zero. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:42, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

I suggest you ignore it if it's just a discussion heading. Some fonts have digits which are lower than capital letters. See e.g. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-many-typeface-designs-employ-lining-numerals-that-are-shorter-than-their-capital-letters. Level 1 and level 2 headings happen to use such fonts by default. Something like == Help with formatting <span style="font-family:times">CC0</span> == would change it. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:09, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! Just out of curiosity, what would be the preferred method for use in an article title? I wouldn't want to force a particular font on someone if they have chosen another. Would setting the size to 1 em work? --Guy Macon (talk) 17:23, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

style="font-size:1em" would change nothing but just give the normal size for the font and circumstances. Something like style="font-size:1.3em" could be applied to the digit alone but would look awful in other fonts. I don't know a preferred method and haven't seen any discussion or applied method. style="font-family:times" is better but not ideal. It could be applied to the whole heading to avoid a jarring font change for some users during the heading but then there might be a jarring change between separate headings. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:55, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Help with formatting CC0 (font demonstration)

This heading is a demonstration which requires a second level 2 heading with nearly the same text as above but another font in "CC0". PrimeHunter (talk) 17:09, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Where can I find information on assessment of Wikipedia moving to CC BY-SA. 4.0?

Hi

I know that Wikipedia moving to CC BY-SA 4.0 has been considered but I can't find any statements on progress/discussions/considerations anywhere. Can someone point me to it?

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 17:02, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

John Cummings, the only thing I've seen is this deletion request last month that talks about reasons for not moving to 4.0. StarryGrandma (talk) 20:32, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

I don't see any way that Wikipedia as it exists today can comply with [ https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions#Modifications_and_adaptations_must_be_indicated ]. When you make an edit to a page, it is currently licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License, which means that I can edit your edit. Under CC BY-SA 4.0 my edit would have to indicate that I made modifications to your licensed material. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:34, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

Junior bridgeman

How come there's no articles on former nba player Junior bridgeman? Like his enterprises.with Wendy'sand Coca-Cola etc .why is his information so limited. How can u prove to be impartial fair and balanced ? With limited m imformation on so many people? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1:9117:AB0E:E889:B7B:3241:8C4A (talk) 21:01, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

perhaps you are looking for Junior Bridgeman. MarnetteD|Talk 21:22, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

If you find good, reliable sources to provide extra information that is worth including, then feel free to add it (with the relevant citation). It's not somebody else's job. --Gronk Oz (talk) 22:52, 14 July 2018 (UTC)