Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2010 September 6

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September 6

Write an article

I'm trying to write an article. I have got some books about the topic that I going to use for sources here. Is it better to read through the whole book and then skim back to get facts/citations for the article, or just skim the relevant sections for information to put in the corresponding section. thanks you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.229.214.25 (talk) 00:41, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Please visit Wikipedia:Starting an article for more info. --Monterey Bay (talk) 05:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

And create an account as well! Only registered user can create articles. Minimac (talk) 05:17, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

And, piling on, consider using the article creation wizard. – ukexpat (talk) 18:09, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Iqbal_Theba

1. In the Iqbal_Theba article it should be noted that he is Muslim. He is Muslim accodring to this article:http://www.currybear.com/wordpress/?p=3566 please put in as a reference.

If you think that this is important information about him, and you have it referenced from a reliable source, feel free to add it. (Blogs are not usually considered reliable sources, but I don't know the status of this one). My own opinion is that nobody's religion (or lack of it) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia unless either the person themself has made it public that it is important to them, or it has been the subject of significant coverage in the media. --ColinFine (talk) 17:53, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

2. Would could someone clean up my references on The Seventh Coin page? Could you help to see which references should go under production and which references should under Reception? I have the references of production and Reception mixed up thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 01:40, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I've eliminated some repetition. It needs more references. --ColinFine (talk) 17:53, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Someone look at the Labor Day article, please

I don't have to time to dig into it right now but someone has vandalized the Labor Day article. It's a number of edits back though, so I don't have time to dig into it. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 03:20, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

It's semi-protected now. Next time when there's a lot of vandalism coming from many IPs you can try a request for page protection to alert an administrator about what's happening to the article at the moment. Minimac (talk) 05:21, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Now that I have time to look into it, it doesn't seem like the page itself was vandalized but one of the templates that it uses. I saw the page protection but the vandalism was there when it was protected. In my haste, I didn't put two and two together fast enough to realize it was a template and not the actual article. I didn't have a lot of time to try to find the exact page to enlist help, so I used this one. I'm sorry to have bothered you. Dismas|^(talk) 23:45, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

please add more information for General Mariano Trias

On the very last information regarding this Filipino Hero, you mentioned only one of his children as the decendant which eventually lead to Jazmine Trias. I felt insulted about the fact that you missed some important information regarding his oldest child, RAFAEL F. TRIAS. Please add the information regarding his oldest child, Rafael F. Trias, who has done a great deed to the province of Cavite. As a public servant, his oldest child RAFAEL WAS APPOINTED ACTING GOVERNOR BY PRESIDENT OSMENA SR. Please see below:

RAFAEL F. TRIAS, SR., the eldest son of General Mariano Trias, the first governor of Cavite (1901-1905) under the American regime, was ironically, also the first governor of Cavite (1945-1946) after the re-establishment of the Commonwealth government. He was appointment by President Sergio Osmeña, Sr., who succeeded president Manuel L. Quezon after the latter's death in exile at Saranac Lake, New York, on August 1, 1944.

While Trias was acting governor of Cavite he also served as concurrent mayor of Cavite City. Under Commonwealth Act No. 547 of May 28, 1940, the mayor of Cavite City “shall be appointed by the chief executive of the Philippines…and shall hold office at the pleasure of the President.” Trias was the fourth mayor of Cavite City.

Born on September 6, 1898 to General Mariano Trias and Maria C. Ferrer, of San Francisco de Malabon, Rafael, the eldest of six children, was graduated from the Philippine Normal School; he later obtained an A. B. degree from the University of the Philippines.

He was appointed government pensionado to the University of Chicago, 1920-1924, majoring in banking and finance. Returning to the Philippines, he worked for one year at the Manila Railboard Company, after which he became private secretary to then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon for more then five years. He served for some time at the Philippine National Bank, and then became assistant treasurer of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, his last job before the outbreak of World War II.

After his stint as acting governor of Cavite and mayor ex-officio of Cavite City, Trias worked as assistant director of the rural banks department of the Central Bank of the Philippines until his retirement in 1962. He died on February 27, 1970.

RAFAEL TRIAS IS MARRIED TO CONCEPCION TRIAS. THEY HAVE FIVE CHILDREN, ALL BOYS. RAFAEL M. TRIAS FRANCISCO M. TRIAS GREGORY M. TRIAS ANTONIO M. TRIAS MANUEL M. TRIAS

Sources: (1) Biodata furnished by the widow, Mrs. Conception Magtibay Vda. De Trias; (2) “Profiles: Members of the Bench and Bar,” Lawyers ' Journal, August 31, 1960; and (3) Gregorio F. Zaide, Philippine Political and Cultural History , 2 vols. Manila, Philippine Education Company, rev. ed., 1957.] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.201.233.56 (talk) 07:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

This information does not belong in the article about Mariano Trias. If you feel that Rafael F. Trias is an appropriate subject for an encyclopaedia article in his own right, you are welcome to start one using the information above. Check first to see that he satisfies Wikipedia's notability criteria. It's good that you have sources for the material, but please note that the information from the subject's widow cannot be cited unless it has been published somewhere: see Wikipedia:Reliable sources. You can use the article wizard to help you. Alternatively, you can post your information and sources at Wikipedia:Articles for creation and ask someone else to create the article for you.

In the nicest possible way, can I suggest that it is unhelpful to proclaim yourself "insulted" because some information you personally view as important has not yet found its way into Wikipedia? All the entries in this enormous and growing project are created by volunteer participants, who write and edit on subjects that interest them and that they are prepared to research. There is no overarching schedule of work, and no conspiracy to include specific information or keep it out. If anyone feels that a subject has insufficient coverage here as yet, the solution is get involved and improve the encyclopaedia, not to take the omission personally. Karenjc 16:46, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I would also suggest that you work to insure that coverage of persons like this is as complete and accurate as possible in the wikis for other languages such as Pilipino, which are more desperately in need of contributors than this project. --Orange Mike | Talk 12:51, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

How to view Watch List

Can you advise on how to view the watchlist?

I know to click "My Watchlist" in the top-right corner, and I have read this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Watching_pages

Despite that, I have found no way to show all articles I am watching including those that have not been edited. The watchlist only seem to show edited entries, not all entries.

Thak you for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ianonline (talk • contribs) 07:19, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't your watchlist page have a "View and edit watchlist" link at the top as described at Help:Watching pages#Controlling which pages are watched? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:08, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Problem

Hi I am having a problem with user Cameron Scott who is making false claims which I take as hostile activity. He has already tried to delete an entry without discussion. How do I block him from my user page? Here's what he posted on it:

"== It's fairly clear who you are ==

Your edits make it fairly clear who you are - has anyone given you the lecture about Conflict of Interest or shall I do it? --Cameron Scott (talk) 07:05, 6 September 2010 (UTC)"

I am an anonymous lay person and have no 'conflict of interest' with my edits. This allegation is therefore false and should be withdrawn.LarkinToad2010 (talk) 07:24, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Speedy delete without the chance of correcting what is wrong

I'm trying to create a Wikipedia page about a charity called Counsel and Care. It will be encyclopedic in the sense that it will include the history of the charity, what they do, information about events they have held and other organisations working in partnership with them.

I created a page in a non-advertisement format and had a moderator come across it and the notes were:

"I had to reword the description of your image to prevent Conflict of Interest. I suggest you keep it that way to prevent yourself from getting hard-blocked from Wikipedia.

Also, your username is of concern, so if you can change it you may be able to add your article to Wikipedia with a few adjustments. mechamind90 06:11, 28 August 2010 (UTC)"

I am new to this and have been quite busy so haven't got round to changing the name yet. In fact I don't know how. This page has now ben speedily delted despite the comment above which I took to be positive that I was on the right track to creating an acceptable article.

Is there any way of recovering my article and getting some comments other than a simple delete. I'd be willing to make any changes necessary to make this article publishable.

Thanks

Philip —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ccarewiki (talk • contribs) 09:59, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Do you have reliable, independent sources which can verify the information? Does it meet the general notability guidelines and the notability guidelines for organisations? -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternate account of Phantomsteve]} 11:15, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

See WP:REFUND and WP:USERFY. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:21, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Jumping in here I do not find the two responses above from Phantomsteve and Gadget850 helpful to a new editor but I do accept they are both technically correct. It is very clear to me that Ccarewiki is a new edit asking for help. The speedy deletion process itself is aggressive anyway and you two experienced editors plough in with lots of wikipedia technical talk which, to a new editor, I would suggest, also appears aggressive. I urge the experienced community to treat new editors with sympathy and understanding. --Senra (Talk) 12:07, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

With respect, Ccarewiki presumably knows enough to know that the underlined sections in my reply are links to pages with further information - if not, I apologise for this assumption, but in my experience, most new users of Wikipedia (not creators of articles, but readers) quickly learn that! I have asked very specific questions which would (depending on the reply) allow us to make further recommendations.

Ccarewiki: if you weren't aware, if you click on the underlined words/phrases in my response, it will link to the relevant policies and guidelines which Wikipedia has for reliable/independent sources, verifiability, the general notability guidelines and the notability guidelines specifically for organisations. Perhaps Senra would prefer me to treat you as if you have no common sense or understanding of Wikipedia - on the other hand, I prefer not to "simplify" what I say to people, unless their original questions leads me to understand that they have limited intellectual ability, which your query did not. The most important part of my response is the fact that the organisation needs to be notable as Wikipedia understands it: this is not the same as "noble" or "worthy" - there are many charities, organisations and companies who perform excellent services, such as C&C, but which do not meet the criteria for inclusion on Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not exist to publicise charities.

Regarding reliable and independent sources - none of the sources which you provided would meet the criteria, all of them being from the organisation itself, and so not independent. It may seem strange that an organisation cannot be counted as being "reliable", but the organisation's website will not be neutral - it exists to promote the organisation, after all! The best sources are national newspapers (such as the Times, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Guardian, etc) or sources like the BBC. I would have to disagree with Gandalf61 below, as I do not think that the BBC News link provided meets the "significant coverage" which is required - the whole mention is His call for a levy was supported by Counsel and Care, a charity for elderly people. Stephen Burke, chief executive of the charity, said: "With our ageing population, the care funding gap will continue to grow without radical reform and proper funding.". However, if further coverage could be found at reliable sources, then that would be great! Looking at Google News/Archive, there were no references to the charity (all the references were to "<name> council and CARE" meaning a council, and CARE (relief agency) - I presume). -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 16:27, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Dear Ccarewiki. I recommend you request a wikipedia administrator to copy the deleted article (this process is called WP:USERFY) to your own user area where you can work on it without rush; where you can seek community help; and where wikipedians such as myself can assist you to make this a great article. Good luck my friend --Senra (Talk) 12:07, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Well, you can only userfy to a point. A non-notable topic will remain non-notable no matter how long someone tries to work on an article dealing with that topic. In this case the topic appears to be squarely non-notable unless external sources are found to establish notability. Ccarewiki, you can work on it all you want but you're going to have to use sources other than the official website if you ever want it to stick. (google cache for those interested: 5 sources, 4 official website, 1 government document) Xenon54 (talk) 14:41, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

However, finding reliable independent sources should not be difficult, as Counsel and Care is a well-known national charity in the UK. Here is a mention in a BBC News report for starters. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:54, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I have found that often, new editors do not understand a word we are talking about here. However, constructive responses linking reliable sources such as the BBC news story above may be all a new editor needs to get going (plus gentle encouragement of course). Consider showing new editors existing articles on a similar topic; making a few constructive edits; or talking to them even! In this particular case, I am sad to see (a) not a single person has welcomed Ccarewiki (b) all the notcies on Ccarewiki's talk page are negative (c) nobody has took even a few seconds to to constructively address policy (or are these just guideline?) issues in the article now deleted. My point remains, please treat new editors sympathetically --Senra (Talk) 15:16, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

heads-up: Ccarewiki (talk · contribs) has a request pending to change name to Care4elderly (talk · contribs) --Senra (Talk) 17:47, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Reliable source: Counsel and care for the elderly

Counsel and care is the National Charity working with older people, their families and carers to get the best care and support. We provide personalised, in-depth advice and information, which informs our research and campaigning.

— Charity commission, http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ ref:203429

It operates throughout England and Wales, has 17 employees and five volunteers. It is a UK registered charity, charity number 203429. A look through Councel + Care press releases may reveal some useful sources. See also BBC:Social care under-funded and rationed, say MPs--Senra (Talk) 18:08, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Picture deletion

Dear help Desk, Is there any way I can have all the pictures I have ever uploaded to Wikipedia deleted all in one go? Thankyou.-- Myosotis Scorpioides 12:38, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

You could post a request for assistance at the administrators' noticeboard, for administrators are able to delete images. However, I'm curious — why would you want to have all of your images deleted? Nyttend (talk) 13:13, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

No. In fact, there is not way for you to have the ones I looked at, all either in the public domain or licenses under CC-BY SA, deleted at all for sure. Once you upload an image under a free license or release it into the public domain, you no longer have control over it, except to the extent your license imposes certain attribution requirements. You can tag an image for deletion it it may be acted upon if the image is unused and unuseful, but there's no guarantees even then. Why would you want to do this anyway?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:20, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

We have a speedy deletion criterion permitting the deletion of material whose author requests it; however, I don't believe this to be applicable to an image that has been used by someone else. The point of the criterion is to be able to get rid of material that never should have been here in the first place; it's not meant to allow someone to revoke licensing. FYI, Fuhghettaboutit — I was simply trying to answer the "is it possible" question; thanks for starting the why-this-shouldn't-be-done discussion. Nyttend (talk) 14:20, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

One of the things about the internet is that it's sometimes difficult to gauge certain things about other's writing because we miss so much without the timing, tone, body language, facial expressions and gesture of real life interaction. For example, I may be wrong—I would know much better if we were not disembodied—but the tenor of your post makes me think you think I was correcting you in some way and are annoyed. Again I may be wrong, but if this is the case, note that I started and completed my post having never seen yours and didn't even get an edit conflict when I posted (not sure why, maybe because I skipped a line).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:09, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Hide User profile

My current user profile is searchable by google, I would like to make it so I am the only one who can see these pages, how do I go about doing that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Daguilar (talk • contribs) 13:26, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

If you add {{NOINDEX}} to your userpage, it "may remove the page from some search engines" (according to the template documentation). TNXMan 13:40, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

If by "user profile" you mean the information on your user page, then Tnxman's info will help it become less visible on search engines. However, there is no way to keep your user page or user talk page entirely private to yourself - other users of the site will be able to visit them if they wish. Karenjc 16:23, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

If you want to ensure that most other users can not see your user page, you can add {{db-u1}} or {{db-userreq}} to the top of the user page to request that it be speedily deleted under criterion U1: User request (user pages only). -- Bk314159 (Talk to me and find out what I've done) 18:30, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I see you blanked your user page four days ago. Google will detect this the next time they visit the page (not controlled by Wikipedia) and update their search index which is currently from 30 August. If you don't add {{NOINDEX}} then the page will still appear in Google searches on the user name, but a blank page will not appear in searches for former content after the search index is updated. However, anybody can click the history tab to see the former content if you don't request deletion of the page. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:05, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

What's wrong with this coding?

Resolved

 – another editor has fixed it John of Reading (talk) 16:02, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Jeffrey Dahmer has a reference coding issue that I can't figure out. I tried to fix it, and one problem was solved, but it seems that all I did was exchange one problem for another. Nyttend (talk) 14:16, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Television Series - Number of Seasons

The infobox television template has a parameter called num_seasons. According to the documentation, for U.S. series, that means the "number of seasons ... produced." Practically speaking, what does "produced" mean? Let's take the real example of the show 90210. That series has played for two seasons. It has been renewed for a third with the season premiere coming up shortly. An editor changed the number of seasons in the infobox from 2 to 3. Is that correct, i.e., the number changes on confirmed renewal? Or should it wait until the premiere has aired? Or should the number change when the third season has completed? Or should it wait until we know (somehow) that all of the episodes for the third season have completed production ("produced")? I couldn't find any further information on this question.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:55, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Userboxes with a whole lot of parameters...

I made these three userboxes because there didn't seem to be anything like them and made them so that just about everything about them is customizable with heavy usage of {{{}}}, but how can instruct potential users how they can just change one or two parameters without the template assuming their adjustments are for the parameters in order from the first one? --I'ḏ♥One 16:50, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

You need to add names to the parameters. The help page is here - it looks pretty complicated... -- John of Reading (talk) 17:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I'll check that out, almost forgot to ask, how can I allow users to change the width? --I'ḏ♥One 17:07, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

I think it is deliberate that {{Userbox}} does not allow the width to be changed. The idea is that user boxes should stack neatly. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:49, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Really? Weird, if anyone finds out if template widths can be altered please tell me, but I figured out how to alter the parameters. Thanks for the help, John. --I'ḏ♥One 20:12, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Reproducing signatures

Hi, I'd like to upload the signature of a living person to Wikimedia Commons, and then have it in that person's infobox on Wikipedia. Is this allowed under fair use, or is it considered a violation of copyright? ɳorɑfʈ ^Talk! 17:50, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Depends on who they are. There's guidance at WP:SLP. Karenjc 18:59, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

You can also check in with new admin Connormah at User talk:Connormah, who is quite knowledgeable about the subject.--SPhilbrickT 01:02, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Trying to find a tag

There's a BLP article tag for the recently dead that I know I've seen, but I can't remember what the actual syntax is. I'm trying to add it to Jefferson Thomas. SDY (talk) 18:02, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

{{Recent death}}? TNXMan 18:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

You may also want to change the {{WPBiography}} template to "no" and add {{blpo}} above the template. wiooiw (talk) 18:26, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Blocked on Japanese Wikipedia

I "vandalized" the sandbox by adding my signature a few hundred thousand times. Is a week's block fair? It seems far too long...Battleaxe9872 ^Talk 18:27, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

It's probably just a stricter wiki.... wiooiw (talk) 18:35, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Why did you add your signature "a few hundred thousand times"?--Bbb23 (talk) 18:40, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Japanese Sandbox Made the page really hard to edit. What was that about? Regards, SunCreator ^(talk) 19:05, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it's fair. If you have an issue with the block, take it up with the ja.wp admin who blocked you. Asking here will not help at all. Xenon54 (talk) 19:31, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Whatever our opinions, English Wikipedia has no say over what the Japanese Wikipedia do - each Wikipedia is an autonomous entity. For what it's worth, I think it was fair. The block log shows: "00:32, 06 September 2010 till 00:32, 13 September 2010 by アイザール; Reason: 悪戯投稿はお止めください" (blocked by Aizaru, reason: "Please stop posting your prank"). I'd just accept the week block (but see whether your unblock request works!) - bear in mind that you increased the size of ja:Wikipedia:サンドボックス (Sandbox) from 302 bytes to 93,562 bytes to 434,475 bytes to 965,629 bytes over the space of 4 minutes in 3 edits... I think a lot of Wikipedias might assume that was vandalism! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 19:39, 6 September 2010 (UTC)