Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 October 7

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October 7

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Email copyrights

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Is it legal to insert the content of private communications (emails for example) in wiki projects' discussions ? -- Basile Morin (talk) 02:03, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you have legally got the e-mail, you should exercise common sense and remember the defense of fair use, so use short quotes in order to make the point. Also, you should be careful not to violate someone's privacy. Tgeorgescu (talk) 02:47, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

question

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@I.G.I.cool: A redirect here in the English Wikipedia can go only to another article in the English Wikipedia. An article here can have interlanguage links (usually via the Wikidata item) to the article on the same topic on other language Wikipedias. You can technically also have interwiki links from within an article to articles in other-language Wikipedias, but This is not usually a good idea. If you have a question about some specific instance, please provide details. We may be able to help you accomplish your goal. -Arch dude (talk) 03:48, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Arch dude, i can making redirect (#REDIRECT Дональд Трамп) at article Donald Trump? My redirect not be deleted? I.G.I.cool (talk) 03:54, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@I.G.I.cool: Your redirects should probably be from English titles to English titles, unless the Russian is frequently used and somewhat well known (which I doubt it will be on the English Wikipedia). LittlePuppers (talk) 03:59, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@I.G.I.cool: I do not understand your question. A redirect is a tiny article with a title, and it redirects to another article. What is the proposed title of the article here on the English-language Wikipedia that you propose to redirect? If you intend to create a tiny little article (i.e., a "redirect") named Дональд Трамп that redirects to Donald Trump, then I think the answer is "no, don't do that". We can hope that an interested reader will find the article of that name on the Russian-language Wikipedia and then follow the interwiki link from there to the English-language article. -Arch dude (talk) 04:19, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki map added to multiple articles

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An editor is going around adding wikimap data to the external links section of multiple articles. The wikimap is almost always for the greater Sydney area, but the articles are often very broad in their scope e.g. Monastery, Shopping, Amusement park, Marketplace and numerous others (currently being added at the rate of about 24 -30 articles per day). Superficially, the link appears valid - the editor usually provides an edit summary of sorts and wikimap appears to be a reasonable source. The editor in question appears to be a single-purpose editor whose principal goal is to add wiki map to the external links of articles. However, I question the relevance of using geographically specific links in articles that are very broad in their scope, and wonder whether this might create a precedent wherein maps of any region of the world can be added as external links, leading to possible link farms. I am inclined to delete these additions, but am reluctant to get involved in an edit war. I am not sure whether there is any policy on this type of activity. Could someone please give me some advice on how to proceed.BronHiggs (talk) 04:22, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention BronHiggs. As I look at the articles you liked to I find the following IPs adding the links 205.154.222.17 (talk · contribs) - 66.219.127.131 (talk · contribs) who is currently blocked - and named user Sa57arc (talk · contribs) - who is adding them the most. All of the maps that I looked at go to a map of Kansas and seem to have no relevance to the articles that they have been placed in. Now this is just my reading of things and other editors may find things that I have missed. Hopefully the links will help those looking into this. MarnetteD|Talk 04:46, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I have posted a request for input at Sa57arc's talk page. MarnetteD|Talk 04:58, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
MarnetteD On further investigation, it is a link to Wikimapia - which I now learn is a private company, albeit with "an open content collaborative mapping project". (Just based on the name, I had erroneously thought that it was come kind of sister project to Wikipedia). This suggests that the excessive addition of such links across such a broad range of articles is little more than spam, designed to promote Wikimapia's content and services. I would surmise that the editor in question is an employee, has some association with the company or is a paid editor (and there are already too many of those). According to my understanding, this is not the way that external links should be used. I feel that this activity should be reported. BronHiggs (talk) 07:16, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I think that the links all lead to a map somewhere close to the area you live in. The first one I checked brought me to King William Island (from Royal Dutch Shell) and the second to the Boothia Peninsula. The second which was from shopping also showed some stores as well. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 13:22, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, it appears to be somewhere close to where you live (the documentation of the template which happens to be created entirely by Sa57arc says it's based on your IP), although I get something in Kansas although I live many hundreds of miles away. Is there any reason we need to keep these? I'm not seeing any reason or consensus to keep these (do I really need a map of lakes or stores or monestaries?), and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of COI (although I could easily be wrong). LittlePuppers (talk) 13:51, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
A link to wikimapia is included when you click on co-ordinates in an article so we dont have a need to add it as an external link. MilborneOne (talk) 13:58, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I live in Melbourne, Australia but the link gives me Sydney, Australia which is about 900 km distant. So, the proximity feature doesn't appear to be working very well in my case. I think that this is a matter for arbitration. I just can't see the value in these links, other than to populate Wikipedia with links to a private company. BronHiggs (talk) 21:04, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
If no one has any objections I'm going to start reverting these tonight. LittlePuppers (talk) 16:13, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I object to removing use of {{Wikimapia cat}}. I created the template. I have added it to somewhat over 50 mainspace articles, but I will halt for now. Maybe we can agree on some guidelines for use of this template. Maybe the documentation I provided is not yet good-enough quality. As I note on Template talk:Wikimapia cat, this template is little different that Template:IMDb name in its nature. It is just that it is not restricted to movie celebrities. The latitutde/longitude the Wikimapia map starts on is based on IP address as mention in the template documentation. Perhaps we could inform ourselves a little better about the details before we just do a mass revert. I think that it is useful that the link created by the Wikimapia template provides the user with a link to examples on a map of what the page is talking about. The IMDb template(s) are used in many thousands of pages. What makes mine so objectionable? If I added any uses of the template in an "excessive" way, then just tell me what that means and I will remove those uses that are excessive. I started by adding the use to municipal pages like City, Town hall, Police station, Fire station and the like. Like IMDb, what Wikimapia has to offer is useful and possibly unique. Just click on one of those template links and zoom out and red dots will start to appear. Those red dots are each an instance of what the corresponding Wikipedia page is about. The user can efficiently browse the Earth for instances of that type of object.--Sa57arc (talk) 20:48, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

User:Sa57arc says that the link has been added to approx 50 articles - but this is a serious underestimate. The link has been added to between 10 and 25 articles per day, for most days that the user has been active. Since 23 September when the account opened, I have estimated that the link has been added to around 90+ articles. BronHiggs (talk) 21:23, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Pardon me. You are correct. The number is more like 90 articles. Please let us not argue about whether my ballpark estimate was off by even 50%. Let us talk about usage guidelines.--Sa57arc (talk) 21:32, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
OK, let's look at usage guidelines then. You have made a comparison between the Wikimapia link and IMDb. However, editors have already raised concerns about IMDb. See for instance Wikipedia:External links/Perennial websites which suggests that IMDb can only be added as an external link when the entire page is the same as the article and also points out the IMDb is not a reliable source. Elsewhere on Wikipedia, an essay discusses more general concerns about the use of IMDb, See Wikipedia:Citing IMDb. Using these guidelines, it may be more appropriate to link to specific geographic locations such as Royal Arcade, London or Block Arcade, Melbourne rather than general topics such as Shopping or Retail. But then, articles dealing with specific geographic locations have (or should have) the co-ordinates at the top of the article, so that adding the same information by way of an external link is redundant. I just can't see how these links add value to articles. BronHiggs (talk) 21:50, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Sa57arc:I see two issues here, one policy and one technical. Policy: since Wikimapia is a commercial site, why isthis not WP:LINKSPAM? You may think you are providine a useful service, but you have a COI. I think you should get consensus on this at Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam before adding more links. Technical: use of the IP address for localization has problems. First, many IP addresses are are nowhere near the user's physical location. The extreme example is a satellite IP connection. The second and more important issue is that the user may not care about "near me", but wants to know about "near somewhere else" -Arch dude (talk) 21:52, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Can I just point out that these links don't work? I see results that are not anywhere near my location, even though features exists near me and my IP tends to geolocate correctly. Even if the guidelines would permit their use (which I doubt) showing features that are hundereds of kilometers away is useless. Remove the template.--Vexations (talk) 22:06, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Sa57arc The links are misleading. It says it is a category on Wikimapia but it's a link to a map. I have just tried city and police station and both go the east end of the Dease Strait, about 50 km (31 mi) south of where I live. So how is that of any use to me. Using police station I had to zoom out beyond country level before I see any red dots. And the only ones I see are not in Nunavut but in the Northwest Territories and far to west. I had the same result with city. This was based on an ISP that is usually good at knowing where I am based. I have another IP that thinks I live in Toronto Harbour, how would that be any good. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 22:19, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This discussion is too long for the help desk. Please continue at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam. -Arch dude (talk) 22:35, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest that we simply continue the conversation on Template talk:Wikimapia cat so that the content of the conversation is preserved.--Sa57arc (talk) 00:13, 8 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Googlemaps as a reference

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Does anybody know if we have a specific way of citing Gmaps? There is {{cite map}}, of course, but I wondered if there was something more tailored? Cheers, Helpdeskers! ——SerialNumber54129 12:43, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Google maps perhaps? TeraTIX 12:45, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Heh  :) Cheers, Teratix. Annoyingly my search didn't bring that up; although of course it wouldn't have occured to me to restrict a search to T:space in any case. Many thanks again! ——SerialNumber54129 15:37, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
No problem! TeraTIX 23:32, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

my entry for Rohan Srinivasan

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Cannot understand why my entry for Rohan Srinivasan is deleted. Please restore. He has not filed the article. It was filed by me. He is a Hind Ratna awardee from the International Business Council of India and was listed as among the top 40 public relations people under 40 in India by Reputation Magazine. There is no copyright violation and he is a suitable person to be included. I have updated the entry today and hope to see it restored soon.

Krishnan Srinivasan former foreign secretary of India — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ksrinivasanuk (talkcontribs) 12:49, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This question has already been asked, and answered, at the Teahouse. Maproom (talk) 14:05, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Help needed for new WikiProject

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I have just joined Wikipedia as I would like to contribute to improving the article on the artist Prince and the articles related to his work. I have looked into how Wikipedia works and feel that it would be easily possible to create a Wikiproject: Prince, given his large fanbase, in which many other people could contribute to improving the Prince and related articles. However, I have a somewhat limited understanding of editing and the processes involved. I would greatly appreciate any guidance from experienced Wikipedia editors in helping me with this--I have already left messages on the related Wikiproject talk pages, and I would be able to find other knowledgeable non-Wikipedia editors of this subject online--however I would very much appreciate some guidance from Wikipedia editors on the best ways to improve this article. Thank you Pussycontrol (talk) 13:40, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Pussycontrol: Welcome and thanks for offering to help. I don't know a lot about our projects. It's not clear that you need to set up a project. I suggest you start at Wikipedia:WikiProject to learn about them. Most editors just start editing. You may be able to center an active community on the talk page of the subject's main article (talk:Prince (musician)) instead of bothering with the formal project infrastructure. Maybe start on that talk page to see if other editors would prefer a wikiproject? -Arch dude (talk) 00:12, 8 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your response, Arch dude. The reason I asked about a WikiProject is that this individual is a particularly complex person, about whom there is a large amount of misinformation, as well as there being a large amount of people with a great knowledge of him, which has yet to be widely and accurately published. It's for that reason I felt a WikiProject was the best way to proceed. However, I will take your advice on board. But, if I were to find it hard to improve the article through talk page, please could you advise on the best course of action. Thank you, Pussycontrol (talk) 13:07, 8 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Pussycontrol: Another way to get involved is to help improve the Prince template, if necessary. It is intended to be the definitive directory of all things Prince. At the very least, this will also help you find others with similar interests. TimTempleton (talk) (cont) 22:53, 8 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Pussycontrol: You do not need a project to make improvements to a page. Just WP:be bold and edit the page, making sure you follow our guidelines. (The most fundamental guideline is that you must cite reliable sources, as we define the term. See WP:RS.) You do not need anyone's permission. If another editor does not like your edit, they can revert it, and you can then discuss it on the talk page. We call this the "bold-revert-discuss" cycle (WP:BRD). -Arch dude (talk) 15:30, 10 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Change the name of Principal

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Myself Dr. Subrata Chatterjee have joined to the post of Principal at Sree Chaitanya Mahavidyalaya, Prafullanagar, P.O- Habra, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India on 24.08.2018. Please correct the name of principal of Sree Chaitanya Mahavidyalaya. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2409:4060:208C:3D20:4D45:AFFE:BD48:8F10 (talk) 13:49, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  Fixed
-- †dismas†|(talk) 14:29, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

tamil actor suriya age is wrong

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dear sir, recently i have seen that tamil actor suriya's Wikipedia, there is a mistake in his age, please change the suriya's age, he is not 61. thank you.

regards saran — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.135.76.166 (talk) 16:26, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Suriya doesn't say that he's 61; it says 43. Which article are you reading? --David Biddulph (talk) 16:35, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Google shows his age as 61. See here. Wikipedia has no control over the information Google displays in its knowledge graph in search results; although the way in which it is shown often implies it comes from Wikipedia — which is not the case. There is a feedback link at the base of the panel in Google search results. Eagleash (talk) 16:43, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

United Express Airlines

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This article was woefully short of information. One thing it should have mentioned was all airports it flies too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobbyr55 (talkcontribs) 20:22, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Bobbyr55: WP:SOFIXIT. We are all volunteers, and each of us does whatever the heck we want to. You have just as much right and responsibility to improve that article as any other editor. Please do read up on our guidelines, first. -Arch dude (talk) 20:32, 7 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]