Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 January 16

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January 16

Potternewton

References 3 and 4 have the publishers in the wrong place. Please fix - I only have an inadequate device now. Thanks so much - I try to get it all perfect. Please leave in quotes 175.33.45.21 (talk) 01:59, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

The references are OK. –Ammarpad (talk) 05:00, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Potternewton

Ref number 4 is definitely not correctly done. I have tried a couple of times but failed. There is no need for the bit about "line feed character in - quote..." at the end of the actual quote from the citation. Please leave in real quote. Thanks 175.33.45.21 (talk) 07:36, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Fixed. But you're the one who introduced that error after I answered your question above when there was no error. –Ammarpad (talk) 07:47, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Submitting articles

I have created two articles in the past which were accepted for use on Wikipedia, but it has been a while, and I am rusty. I have written a third article, but I am not exactly sure how to submit it. Please advise. EDGRC — Preceding unsigned comment added by EDGRC (talk • contribs) 06:26, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

@EDGRC: If you think it is ready for article space, you can move it there. If you would like to submit it for review, you can add {{subst:submit}} to the top. —teb728 t c 07:13, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Create Father's Blessing and Mother's Blessing wiki page please

Create Father's Blessing and Mother's Blessing wiki page please — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:6000:130A:C670:8D2E:ADB3:CF8:317E (talk) 07:45, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

What are those? Do you have WP:RELIABLE SOURCES? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:54, 16 January 2019 (UTC)l

Chapeltown, West Yorkshire

This page is the suburb in Leeds. Ref number 15 has the page numbers done incorrectly. Please fix up if you have time - my device is hopeless, . Thanks175.33.45.21 (talk) 08:04, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

The page to which you intended to refer is Chapeltown, Leeds; Chapeltown is a disambiguation page. I've removed the reference so that you can put it in correctly if you don't want to change what you inserted. A further reminder that if you want to undo an edit the button is "Undo". --David Biddulph (talk) 08:12, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Roberta Compton Mackenzie Campbell

Had a message reply stating there is no published article concerning the above person. In fact there is she also comes under the name Roberta king. The above name is her family and professional name. The info are legal documents not ordinary letters and acting proof of history of this famous family. So how are we suppose to add people into wiki when people havent researched deeply. This family have been mentioned on many autobiography s and biography s. Cynhalliard (talk) 09:25, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

(Cynhalliard: I've moved this question here from the Help Desk's talk page, which is intended for discussion of the operation of the Help Desk.) Maproom (talk) 09:36, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

The draft in your sandbox appears to be a hoax, or a work of fiction. It has no references. When you say "This family have been mentioned on many autobiography s and biography s", you provide no evidence, and don't even specify what family you mean. Maproom (talk) 09:45, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

The piece is not a hoax or fiction, but I'm sure that someone who says she's been an assistant editor on a national newspaper will be able to rephrase it more clearly. The contributor will, however, need to find good sources before proceeding further. Unpublished legal documents are not admissible as sources in Wikipedia. Please see this page for more about types of sources that can be accepted: Bhunacat10 (talk), 11:55, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

How to insert images on Wikipedia.

. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ujala Mall (talk • contribs) 10:04, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Ujala Mall Please refer to our page on Uploading images and pay particular attention to the copyright requirements: Bhunacat10 (talk), 11:55, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Watch User contributions

Is there a way to view new contribs from all users on my watchlist in one place? I am following up on a bunch of users who are vandalizing or have a COI. Tracking them in one place would be really helpful Daiyusha (talk) 12:41, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

No. There's no such feature. You can keep their contribution list in a separate tab and keep refreshing it at intervals. –Ammarpad (talk) 19:26, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Notability/NPOV

Hi! I've only recently started editing, and I'm looking to improve various articles around Scotland and Edinburgh. I've seen various articles such as Turcan Connell where some of the tone seems overly promotional, and the article hasn't seen much attention in the last few months. In cases like this, would it be better to try and be bold and attempt to rewrite the article to be less promotional, or simply list the article for deletion? Sorry if this is an obvious question! Thanks --IrnBruFan7 (talk) 12:51, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

IrnBruFan7, thanks. I've speedy deleted this as obvious spam and blocked editor Turcan Connell. In general, it depends how much needs doing to fix the problems. If in doubt about notability, send to WP:AFD, if it's obvious spam, tag for a speedy deletion Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:28, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Unless the whole piece is blatantly promotional, "fix it yourself" is normally the preferred course. However, sometimes an editor who spots such problems may be without the time, access to sources, or topic understanding to rewrite the promotional parts neutrally to reflect what the sources actually support. In this case an alternative is to place appropriate cleanup tags at the top of the article or section, for someone else to hopefully pick up the task. Please note that nomination for deletion may not succeed if the topic is inherently notable – see WP:BEFORE: Bhunacat10 (talk), 13:45, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Thanks guys! --IrnBruFan7 (talk) 13:57, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Biographies of living or recently dead people

Thank you for taking time to read this.

I have 2 questions:

1. evidence requirements for biographies

2. the use of biographies by people who wish to add contentious material that is not directly associated with the subject of the biography.

1. We do not live our lives in refereed journals. There may be all kinds of evidence for a person's life in addition to media reports and journal articles. For example - government records, court records, medical records, educational records, and video or photographic evidence. I'm finding that facts for which there is ample evidence, such as weight changes (relevant if mistreatment is an issue) are having 'It is alleged' added, or being erased altogether because the data is in medical records or court transcripts or books. I'd like to discuss this issue, as it must be quite common.

2. A biography of someone with a disability who died 8 years ago, which was on Wikipedia prior to her death, is now regularly having negative comments added, referenced by articles which have no relation to her. They are being posted by people involved in a current controversy who presumably see this as a way of bringing their views to wider attention. I have heard that this is also started happening to people with other disabilities who are still living as well. Removing the negative material doesn't help, as it is just replaced a day or two later.

Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amdc538 (talk • contribs) 16:49, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia depends on reliable published sources. I suspect that the motivation of those you disagree with is to make the article (Anne McDonald, I assume) comply with Wikipedia's policies, rather than to pursue their own agendas. Maproom (talk) 22:30, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply, but it doesn't address the substantive issue I raised - I understand that Wikipedia relies on 'published' sources, but where does leave printed items that would usually be accepted as evidence such as court transcripts and medical records that haven't been published? How can one cite this evidence? In regard to adding references to published articles to a biography, your point would be valid if the articles added referred to the subject of the biography. When they don't, it is hard to see how the additions can make the article agree with Wikipedia's policies. 01:48, 18 January 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amdc538 (talk • contribs)

It is the publication rather than the printing that is the issue. If information is held in a closed archive it is inaccessible to anyone wishing to verify facts cited from it. If the information is published (even behind a paywall) then other editors can check and review points raised. Ideally all sources should be secondary sources which have assessed the importance of the primary sources and come to a balanced (often peer-reviewed) judgement. Considering your point (1) above. Medical records are usually closed and can only be viewed by the subject and medical staff. In this case they are inadmissible since no-one can check them. If the records are published in any form then they are primary sources and can be mentioned, though a secondary source is to be preferred. Court records may be closed or open. If the former then they are inaccessible, if the latter they have been published. Ask yourself if a random Wikipedia editor (take me as an example) can obtain access to the records even if it involved travelling or paying? If no then the records are useless for Wikipedia. Books (except in fringe cases) are obviously published.

Please remember to sign your posts (add ~~~~ to the end of messages) and add an edit summary. I have slightly modified your formatting in the original post to avoid breaking out into code blocks; I hope that is acceptable. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:04, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

Deleted page

Hi, The page for David Simchi-Levi was deleted by an inactive editor. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Simchi-Levi&action=edit&redlink=1

There is no conflict with having a wikipedia page for an MIT professor - look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossi_Sheffi

Can you help? thanks, Edith — Preceding unsigned comment added by Edithsl (talk • contribs) 17:19, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Ediths1. There is no problem having a Wikipedia article about (I prefer "about" to "for", because "for" runs the risk of people assuming that the subject has some association with the article other than it being about them) an MIT professor, provided that professor meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability: some do, some don't. The article about David Simchi-Levi was deleted with the explanation "G12: Blatant copyright infringement: http://esd.mit.edu/Faculty_Pages/simchi-levi/simchi-levi.htm)". Wikipedia articles must not infringe existing copyrights; and in any case, the content of a person's faculty or employer's website is rarely appropriate for a Wikipedia article, because it is unlikely to take a neutral point of view. Wikipedia is basically uninterested in what a subject says about themselves, or what their employers or associates say about them: it is only interested in what people unconnected with the subject have chosen to publish about them. So the copyright violation will not be restored; but somebody (preferably somebody not associated with Simchi-Levi) could look for independent reliable sources about him, and use them to write a new article. See WP:BLP. --ColinFine (talk) 17:55, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

While looking, I also found the article David Levy (inventor), which has a link to a faculty page about Simchi-Levi: I assume this is a mistake, and will take it out of that article. --ColinFine (talk) 17:52, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error included ref

the article bird of prey has a problem — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.155.93.18 (talk) 17:35, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

The problem has been solved. Your edits were unsourced and malformatted, so another editor has reverted them. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:51, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Adding content, but not displaying

Hi there,

I'm needing to get content displayed on my political parties wiki. I hit the edit and I keep checking the edit bit, it's saved but not displaying.

Please can you suggest what may be the issue? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scribe31 (talk • contribs) 17:39, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

If you look at {{Infobox political party}} you will see that the parameter gay_wing does not exist in that template. When you preview your edits in the article Democratic Alliance (South Africa) you will see a warning to that effect, and if you save the edit the parameter won't be displayed. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:48, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Place to solicit more feedback on a merger proposal

Greetings,

is there a place where I can ask for more input on a little frequented merger discussion? Specifically Talk:African humid period#Merger discussion with Neolithic subpluvial. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 17:42, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

How about here? Wikipedia:WikiProject_Africa#Requests TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 19:42, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict)One of the simplest way is to convert the discussion to RfC with {{rfc}} tag. This will cause it to be listed on several places where people will notice. I don't know of any systematic way of advertising merger discussions as probably none exist. See top notice of Wikipedia:Proposed mergers. –Ammarpad (talk) 19:45, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

OK, tried with the RfC method. Thanks for the replies. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 21:01, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Marlon Simon

<unsourced promotional content redacted> — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marlonsi (talk • contribs) 20:30, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Marlonsi, Unclear what you want WelpThatWorked (talk) 20:37, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Archiving talk messages on my user page

Currently, on the talk page of my user page, I have 24 messages. This is a big number and I would like to archive them. Is there anywhere I can go on Wikipedia to find a quick and easy guide as to how I can archive talk pages? I think the answer is yes but I am not sure where it is now. Vorbee (talk) 21:54, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

@Vorbee: is WP:ARCHIVE what you are looking for? Eagleash (talk) 22:07, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

Thank you User: Eagleash - that seems to be what I am looking for. Vorbee (talk) 08:51, 17 January 2019 (UTC) Thank you for this. I have tried to follow the instructions to archive my talk page, but to no avail. I wonder whether any one would be kind enough to help me do this by leaving messages on my user page? I accidentally consigned lots of messages on my talk page to history on my talk page, so now I just have one message on my user page (this was one I created as a test message). Please forgive me - I am a bit slow at learning new things. Many thanks in advance for your co-operation in this matter. Vorbee (talk) 18:33, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

URGENT HELP

I am creating a bio page for the late wildlife artist: Bob Kuhn. There is already a page created under the same name. The article already created under Bob Kuhn is not the man I wish to write about. He is a former mayor, not the wildlife artist I wish to document on wiki. Unfortanly, Bob Kuhn the wildlife artist has no middle name and Bob is his birth name. There is no way of distinguishing him from the Bob Kuhn(former mayor). This site will not let me create a page because of this problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arizona Key (talk • contribs) 22:35, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

@Arizona Key: You could create the article as Bob Kuhn (artist) for example to differentiate it. Usually the advice is to submit your article for review using the Wizard at WP:YFA and if it is approved, the reviewer will find a suitable name for the article before moving it to main space. RudolfRed (talk) 22:38, 16 January 2019 (UTC)