Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 October 15

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October 15

Citing Books

Hello, I have citations from a specific book which is not in the public domain, and therefore, difficult to prove, however, having gone to the one library in which the only copy is, I have photos of every page, therefore allowing me to prove its content, what can I do with the photos to allow me to use them as a citation, seeing as it has a large quantity of useful information. Erik Sergeant (talk) 10:12, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Erik Sergeant As long as the book is publicly accessible, you don't need to provide imagery of the text of the book(which would possibly present copyright issues anyway). You only need to provide the information needed so that someone could do what you did and locate the book; author, title, page number, publisher, and location(if as you say it isn't in any other libraries). 331dot (talk) 10:59, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Many thanks, Erik Sergeant (talk) 11:25, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

But if the book exists in only one copy, one must ask whether or not it has been reliably published. ColinFine (talk) 11:34, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, that would be my question: what sort of book is this, of which only one copy is known to exist in any library? That sound suspiciously like a self-published family history or something of the sort. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:33, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Other scenarios exist. For a century, the sole surviving copy of Bram Stoker's play version of Dracula: or The Undead lay in the library of the Lord Chamberlain (deposited there following a token public performance, thus securing Stoker's copyright in dramatic versions of the work) until an enterprising publisher printed it in 1997. {The poster formerly known as 97.81.230.195} 90.195.172.49 (talk) 21:03, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Well, yes, but cases like that are pretty rare. David10244 (talk) 14:36, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

I say "only one" because I couldn't find another in my search, that doesn't preclude me either being wrong, or a library not having an online documentation of its contents, nonetheless I shall search for other copies, a publisher, or alternative sources. Erik Sergeant (talk) 12:24, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

If using the {{cite book}} template, |location= holds the city of the publisher, not the name of the only library to hold a copy of this source.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:41, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

How to describe opinion pieces listed under published works?

I'm working on article Ronit Kark, specifically on section Ronit Kark#Selected published works. I've divided the items into Books, (articles published in) Scientific journals, and News articles. The last category lists articles published in newspapers. They are really opinion pieces rather than news articles. Would "Opinion pieces" be a better section title? Thanks.

Misha Wolf (talk) 13:44, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

I've renamed the section to "Opinion pieces".

Misha Wolf (talk) 14:53, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Are these good enough sources?

Hi there. I want to write an article on Donna Holgate. Are the following links considered good third party sources?

https://twitter.com/citytammie/status/559523978964774917

https://blackfashioncanada.ca/database/profiles/donna-holgate/

https://www.ronfanfair.com/home/2022/7/6/azkvv550ylhmsr1ij9sbzo0gksodo3

https://earthfinalconflict.fandom.com/wiki/Donna_Holgate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhRfP-F3qmY

https://playbackonline.ca/1999/08/23/26450-19990823/

https://nowtoronto.com/news/six-months-of-flow-93-5 2607:FEA8:F4DF:FF73:69BB:11D0:F537:CA04 (talk) 15:03, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

YouTube videos are generally not considered reliable sources unless they are from a news outlet or other similar publisher with a verified channel. Twitter is also rarely considered to be a reliable source unless it is certain information from a person's verified channel. 331dot (talk) 15:07, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

To add to that, fandom.com isn't even remotely a reliable source. The playbackonline.com page mentions Holgate once in passing. If ronfanfare.com is accepted as reliable (not sure), it doesn't really say much about Holgate. And the blackfashioncanada.ca website seems to be a student project. [1] I doubt an article sourced to what little is presented here would be accepted. See Wikipedia:Notability (people) and Wikipedia:Reliable sources for a better idea of what is required. AndyTheGrump (talk) 15:24, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Index of World War II articles

I have just found Index of World War II articles (F) and I do not understand at all - what is this, what is this for? I have never seen an "index" of articles on a topic like this before. Is this usual in English Wikipedia? Anyway it is not properly maintained, containing numerous Fokker aircraft from WW1 like the Fokker E.I which have nothing to do with WW2 at all. What can be done for proper maintenance? Is this index even helpful? --KnightMove (talk) 20:03, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

It is very odd, I'll agree, and seems to be more of a maintenance list than one that should be in mainspace, but I imagine the best place to ask this question, would be at the Military History WikiProject talk page. Isabelle Belato ^🏳‍🌈 20:06, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Indexes. We have many of them but I don't think they are used much. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:55, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

What are they even for? AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:56, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

They don't do anything that Category:World War II and all its subcategories do much, much better, so I'm going to nominate the whole kit and kaboodle one for deletion as a test case. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:25, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

@Clarityfiend: Either the whole World War II index or none of it should be deleted. I suggest you either nominate and tag all of them including Index of World War II articles or pick a single-page index at Wikipedia:Contents/Indices if you want to nominate an index as a test without dealing with numerous pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:33, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Why have I been removed from Wikipedia?

Why have I been removed from Wikipedia? I entered any number of long articles mostly about software and systems shortly after the year 2000 and for about a decade or so. My Wikipedia name was normxxx. It no longer works. 96.231.218.44 (talk) 20:30, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

The User:Normxxx account still exists, and appears not to be blocked. AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:43, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

If you mean that your password no longer works, you will have to create a new account. 331dot (talk) 20:45, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Normxxx (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki) Appears to have been active relatively recently. Perhaps you have misplaced your login details? 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 20:46, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Accounts are never removed and passwords never expire. The account User:normxxx still exists. It made an edit [2]last year. If you don't know the password then use Special:PasswordReset if you still have access to the email address stored in the account. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:47, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Citations linking to paywalled articles

If I understand correctly, editors are allowed to include citations linking to paywalled articles. Should one indicate (somehow) that the target of the link is paywalled? Thanks.

Misha Wolf (talk) 20:59, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

|Url-access=subscription is the parameter that you need. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 21:04, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

|url-access=subscription – with few exceptions (the identifier parameters that use initialisms as names, |id=, and |url= which may be either all upper or all lowercase) all cs1|2 parameters are lowercase. All lowercase always works so long as the parameter is recognized.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 21:42, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Many thanks!

Misha Wolf (talk) 23:00, 15 October 2022 (UTC)