Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 July 16

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< July 15 << Jun | July | Aug >> July 17 >
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.


July 16[edit]

Unable disable Statustop feature[edit]

I enabled the Statustop feature (displays user status on user page) quite some time ago. I have forgotten how to disable it. Can someone tell me how? heyzec! 08:41, 16 July 2014 (UTC) ?[reply]

You do not appear to have it enabled at all at the moment. You used to have a status page User:Hz.tiang/Status but it was deleted at your request. See template:statustop for more information. By the way, did you mean to delete your post requesting help with upload on non-free images? SpinningSpark 09:22, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Copy & Paste Wikipedia articles & pictures/images into my book?[edit]

I'm a retired air traffic controller/supervisor. I worked in 5 different control towers, including Edwards AFB in the 1950's. I retire in 1991. Then I was a contractor supporting air traffic control for a a total of 58 years. My time at EDW, in the 1950's, was the jet age. The Test pilots were WW II & Korean War hero's & Aces. I have always thought about writing a book about my experiences & the advancement of aviation. I retired in 2013 & this spring I have started on my book.

I believe I'm alright getting information from you as my source, if I put it in my own words. But, how about the stories that I just copied & pasted? And the pictures/images that I copied & pasted?

Can I use this information that I have copied & pasted? Or do I need to make changes & delete the pictures? Or is there a way that you can give me permission for me to use this information as is?

Thanks for your reply! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.74.32.243 (talk) 10:58, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content. In a nutshell you must provide credits to the original Wikipedia authors and a link or url to the original article. Images need particular care as some images on Wikipedia are not free; each one needs to be checked individually. SpinningSpark 11:39, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not certain, but I think if you are reusing content from Wikipedia it is fine to use Wikipedia's words. It's when you are copying from another source to Wikipedia that you have to use your own words, because the source may not have the same copyright status unless copyright owner has given very specific permission, which Wikipedia has.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:53, 19 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Displaying URLs in reference list[edit]

Dear editors: In the article Kerry Turner, the references have been formatted so that the URLs are displayed. My instinct is to change the format to a more usual one where the title is a link to the URL, which is then hidden, making the text easier to read. However, since format of the whole list of references is consistent, would this be inappropriate under WP:CITEVAR? I couldn't find any information about whether the URL should be displayed or not, only that bare URLs should be improved by adding more information. —Anne Delong (talk) 11:24, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Anne Delong: I tend to reformat pages like this to "comply" with WP:CS1; Normally this is a small change. As long as the format is consistant afterwards, I doubt it will matter much if you reformat them. --Mdann52talk to me! 11:39, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I changed the URLS to title links. —Anne Delong (talk) 22:24, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Article[edit]

Hello, I have drafted my article, when it will be final? User:Prathm10/Nextsky Technologies — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.217.43.220 (talk) 11:40, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Never, unless you radically improve it with references that establish the company's notability. If you want it reviewed you must add {{subst:submit}} to the top of the page. However, it is pointless doing that at the moment as the submission will be rejected. Further, if you are connected with this company you should read WP:COI. SpinningSpark 12:48, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Check out Referencing for beginners--S Philbrick(Talk) 12:50, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Any ideas why this edit wasn't automatically checked? I suspect it's because I edited on top of, rather than reverted the previous edits, but I'm not sure. Chaheel Riens (talk) 13:18, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As you are a reviewer, even with changes pending, if you edit, it should accept automatically, so I have no idea what went wrong here. I've accepted the revision anyway. --Mdann52talk to me! 14:42, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing errors on Tony Purnell[edit]

Reference help requested.

Thanks, 98.114.137.54 (talk) 15:01, 16 July 2014 (UTC) I screwed up the reference when fixing a error on Tony Purnell's page. How can I fix it?[reply]

Sorry - my first attempt at a contribution to Wikipedia. I'd like to do better next time!

(edit conflict) The only issue here appears to be you somehow managed to insert <ref>"<ref><ref><ref>F</ref></ref></ref></ref>. No idea how this happened, but it has been fixed. --Mdann52talk to me! 15:04, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

James Gaylyn - Actor[edit]

Greetings,

Just wanted to let you know that you have James Gaylyn 's birthdate and age wrong. Yikes! He's actually only 60 years of age, and was born January 9th, 1954. This should be obvious from the photo -- a young looking 72! I am a very close relative, so that's how I know. Hopes this helps clear things up.

Peace...

J. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.36.191 (talk) 15:03, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The date should not have been added originally without a reference, although many times an uncontested date exists. Given the challenge, I have removed it. Unfortunately, I cannot add the one you supplied without including a reliable source. I searched briefly and could not find it. Do you know of a source which might be used to verify the date?--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:14, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do you change the title of an article[edit]

How do you change the title of an article? It's a musical artist and the title is incorrect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.190.107.28 (talk) 15:52, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The process is called WP:Move. If you identify the article, someone can do it for you, if warranted.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:56, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Are you talking about Legendary Shack Shakers? As an aside, that article has a dead link to an Official Website.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:59, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
More likely The Dirt Daubers? --David Biddulph (talk) 16:10, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, that seems more likely. User:50.190.107.28, please note the first ref is a dead link. --S Philbrick(Talk) 16:31, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I moved it, after seeing some evidence that The Dirt Daubers was the old name and J.D. Wilkes and The Dirt Daubers the new name. It needs work.--S Philbrick(Talk) 16:36, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Question about the Status of an Article[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Hello!

I am writing on behalf of the team at Amy Lau Design. I work on our social media endeavors as well as our internet presence.

I took a look at our wikipedia article (see: Amy Lau) and noticed that there were multiple issues that have needed to be addressed since 2008, whenthe article was first written. I have since updated the content to reflect the most current information regarding the company and have linked to multiple outside sources to clear up the issues regarding content validity. I am wondering if the box that appears at the top of the article pointing out past issues goes away now that the problems have been addressed and corrected? Is there something that can be done on our end or is this something that needs to be requested formally?

Thank you for your help!

207.237.147.83 (talk) 16:22, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not post the same question in multiple places - you have already asked this at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions - Arjayay (talk) 16:25, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

BLPs solely referenced by another language Wikipedia[edit]

I came across Mohamed zouaoui, which has no actual references, but 8 (inline) links to different articles on the Italian Wikipedia
Wikipedia:Proposed deletion of biographies of living people states that to place a BLPPROD tag, the article should "contain no sources in any form" but later on states "The BLP deletion template may be removed only after the biography contains a reliable source" - this appears self-contradictory as there are 8 sources, but being wiki sources, they are not reliable
Help:Interlanguage links is equally unhelpful - should I change them to redlinks? or delete tham as external links in bodytext? or convert them to interwiki links - annoying the reader, as 8/9 links in the article are to a different language?
Do it nominate it as an unreferenced BLP? or the more general notability/unreferenced? or what? - Arjayay (talk) 17:53, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wikilinks, even wikilinks to other language Wikipedias, do not count as sources in my opinion and thus a BLPPROD would be fully justifiable. The phrase "contain no sources in any form" is referring to the form the source is named. That is the source does not have to be in the form of a reference, it can be in the external links section, further reading section, or just text in the prose of the article. As long as the source is valid, then BLPPROD cannot be used. It doesn't mean that a rubbish source like a Facebook page or an anonymous Youtube video can prevent deletion. But in this case the article doesn't even have that much. SpinningSpark 19:58, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Only two of the links even mention him, and then only in an infobox listing, and his article on Italian Wikipedia is referenced only to IMDB. SpinningSpark 20:05, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed, no wiki (Wikipedia, Wikia or other) is a reliable source for anything, least of all a BLP.--ukexpat (talk) 21:25, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think anyone is suggesting that they are. The question is does it prevent BLPPROD? I think it doesn't because wikilinks aren't sources in the context of BLPPROD. SpinningSpark 21:51, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure of the answer to the question, but just wanted to drop a note here that it was surely easier to locate and add a reliable source than to go through this whole process! I've now done that and removed the tag. Calliopejen1 (talk) 22:15, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What is the proper way to cite a reference from an autobiography?[edit]

What is the proper way to cite a reference from an autobiography? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnswell (talkcontribs) 18:19, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An autobiography would not be an independent source of information about a person. I'd add it to the "External links" section, and look for other published sources to cite. —Anne Delong (talk) 18:40, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
There is no reason an autobiography cannot be cited in an article. It does not count towards notability because it is not independent but it is still a reliable source for basic facts about, and the views of, the subject. To answer the question, it is cited in the same way as any other book would be cited. Why do you think it would be different. SpinningSpark 20:21, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have tried to link that article with Spanish [[1]]

Can someone help me? --Opus88888 (talk) 21:38, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Opus88888: The spanish article was linked to wikidata item Q14632398 "Outline of physical science", while the english one was linked to item Q2045360 "Outline of physical science". I've merged the two wikidata entries now so all the relevant language links should appear on both articles. benzband (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. --Opus88888 (talk) 22:40, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Excluding pages from a category[edit]

Many templates automatically put pages into a category. But is there a way of excluding certain pages with the template from said category? (I mean without modifying the template by adding a parameter etc.)

For instance Category:Pages with archiveurl citation errors currently contains Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/H3llBot 6 and Template:Citation/testcases, which are examples; or Turkey Television, Metapedia and Webcomic, where the issue can't be fixed because the template is asking for a URL, but the URL is blacklisted. Such cases just clutter the category and one has to go through them while looking for fixable articles. benzband (talk) 21:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think you will be able to suppress a template generated category unless the template itself has the facility to do this. In the case of the second group (blacklist problems), they all seem to have used an archiving service to circumvent the blacklist. In my opinion they most definitely should remain in a maintenance category because that is a problem that should be fixed. Either the blacklist was in place for a good reason and the ref should be deleted altogether, or else there is a valid reason for using this link, in which case the blacklist should be fixed to allow it (there is a whitelist for exceptions, see MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist). Either way, there is something that needs fixing. For the first group (the examples) I would suggest simulating the example rather than using the real template. In some cases this can be done by substituting the template, but that does not work in all cases. SpinningSpark 00:11, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Okay thanks. benzband (talk) 11:19, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

HELP - Create Redirect => Illustris to Illustris project[edit]

PLEASE HELP - Would like to create a "redirect" of Illustris to my newly created Illustris project article - Illustris is an appropriate, and commonly used, term for the Illustris project simulation that the article describes - however, the seemingly unused Illustris page seems unavailable for some reason - Thanking you in advance for your help with this - and - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 21:55, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It was not available because it was previously used for spam relating to an unrelated company called Illustris. I've unlocked it (there were problems from 2007-2010, hopefully the spammers are no longer around in 2014!) and created the redirect. On a separate note, please add additional references to the Illustris project article! It is not clear from the article as it stands now that the project meets Wikipedia's notability requirements. Without additional references it risks being deleted down the line... Calliopejen1 (talk) 22:09, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Calliopejen1 - Thank you *very much* for your help with this - it's *greatly* appreciated - yes, I'll try to add more references - my newly created article is *very* new - the described notion and simulation are *very* new also - but very important afaik re Cosmology, Galaxy formation, Dark matter, Dark energy and other related topics of leading-edge astronomy - in any case - Thanks again for your help - and - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 22:28, 16 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]