Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 April 9

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April 9

Plagiarism

plagiarism is sometimes done by people on wikipedia.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.225.113.122 (talk) 01:47, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Do you have a question? GB fan (talk) 01:49, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Julie Kavner

Should Julie Kavner go under the catgeory American_people_of_Jewish_descent? Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 03:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, it does say "Because of her being of Jewish descent..." in the Personal life section. So, I would think so. Is there a reason why you think the article shouldn't go into that category? Dismas|^(talk) 04:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

The Jewish reference in the article is unsourced (there's a source, but the source doesn't say that). There's nothing else in the article that addresses her ethnicity or religion. Therefore, after I've removed the unsourced reference, I will also remove the Jewish categories.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:57, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Eli Wallach

Is Eli Wallach of Jewish Polish ancestry and should he go under that category? Neptunekh2 (talk) 04:46, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Its best not to bother categorizing people by ancestry, except in cases where that ancestry forms a core part of their reason for being notable. See Wikipedia:Categorization/Ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality. When I think of Eli Wallach, I think of an actor in western movies, so his ancestry is probably not much of a reason to categorize him. This is distinctly different from Elie Wiesel, whose reason for notability is intricately tied to his ethnic and religious ancestry. However, the best place to have this discussion is at the talk page of the article in question. --Jayron32 05:47, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

If you wait a while (ten years? twenty years?) Wikipedia (or a third-party fork of Wikipedia) might have semantic wiki features, which would make it easy for anyone to make queries for topics having arbitrary combinations of traits. Categories are at best a very weak approximation of what would be possible on a semantic wiki. On the latter you could, for example, search for people with particular ancestry, who were born in months with the letter "e" in the name, who stood within a particular range of heights, etc. Since there are combinatorially many such groupings of traits, it is impractical to capture them all with categories. The necessary collection of (static) categories would be many times larger than Wikipedia itself. But also see Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates - categories are not the only tool for grouping articles. A single article could, for example, appear in arbitrarily many list pages, without likely attracting as much controversy, because the list of categories at the bottom of the article would not grow without bound. Editors would be less likely to notice or complain about an article appearing in 50 list articles, whereas they would notice and complain about 50 categories at the bottom of the article. Of course you can't do everything you might want with lists; they are subject to deletion like everything else here. --Teratornis (talk) 21:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

federal budget

Isn't it time to update the federal budget page? The current budget in the works is 2012 and your site still uses 2009 data, very outdated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.162.22 (talk) 05:58, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).  Chzz  ►  07:08, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

vibrational energy

sir , me ek esha remote banana chahata hu jo ki ushi remot me hone wali working ka use karke power produce kar le taki ush remot me bar bar koi dushara bettery source lagane kai jarurat na pade . i think ki ushame jab hum batan dabate hai toh virbation ata hai our jaha vibration ata hai waha par vibration enegy hoti hai jishko ashani se elictric energy me convert kar sakte hai and jishase powere save kakre sale ki jagah par rechargeble sale laga dete hai , vibretional energy sai jo energy milati hai wah energy sale ki charge karne ma madad karegi , so sir me kaha se suru karu our kya karu . mera mobile no. (Redacted) and my name is (Redacted) thanks sir —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.193.214.22 (talk) 07:17, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Please ask your question at the Help desk for your native-language Wikipedia. The List of Wikipedias may help, or use the "Language" links at the left of this page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Report Broken Link

This from user yoopernewsman Please excuse my ignorance - could not find proper way to report a broken link

Broken link on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smut_%28fungus%29

It is the only link under "External Links" near end of page ie: Smut Fungi from Deacon, J: "Fungal Biology", Blackwell Publishing, 2005

I clicked on edit - this is current info - not sure how to repair link:

==External links==

• Smut Fungi from Deacon, J: "Fungal Biology", Blackwell Publishing, 2005

This broken link reported by Greg John Peterson 10:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)yoopernewsmanGreg John Peterson 10:35, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Hi there. You don't have to report broken links anywhere. This is a wiki and you can just fix it yourself. In this case, the best way is probably to add {{dead link}} to the entry to inform others that the link is no longer working. I did so in this case. You can also try to find the webpage on the Internet archive and change the link in the article to the cached link you found there. Regards SoWhy 10:45, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Problem with singlechart template

Hi all, I noticed that the singlechart template Template:Singlechart is doing weird things. See the examples in Template:Singlechart/doc. There is a whole bunch of text appearing about "On the Floor". I have no idea how to fix this. - Akamad (talk) 11:06, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Never mind, someone fixed it. - Akamad (talk) 11:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Video linking

(Moved down) I have read through the various Wikipedia articles related to inserting external links to videos into articles and still find myself confused. I am wishing to add several video highlights to the 2011 Atlanta Braves season article under the Notable occurrences section. The links (one is still present on the article right now as "Watch") go to the official MLB.com highlight of specific memorable plays during this season. Is there an issue with this type of external linking (does it violate copyright rules, etc.)? Thank you in advance. Bbqsauce13 (talk) 03:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Hiya,

Thanks for trying to improve these articles :) The first thing to note is that links to external websites shouldn't go in the main article text: this is partly to stop peope getting whisked away from wikipedia, and partly to discourage external websites from constantly adding their links. As far as I'm aware, linking to the official highlights wouldn't be a copyright problem, it's not as if you're trying to link to a plagiarised youtube video. Personally I can't see the harm in adding it to the external links section, it seems like a positive addition to the article. Label it as a video file so people with slow connections know not to click on it, don't add an excessively large number, and if there's more than a couple you could maybe create a subsection in the external links section, to put them in. Hope that helps, --Physics is all gnomes (talk) 13:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Fixed width

Hi. I wonder how to make Wikipedia appear with a fixed width. For us with widescreen monitors the text lines become too wide to read smooth. I found this script which is exactly what I need, but it's old and doesn't seem to work with the current version of Wikipedia. Help would be greatly appreciated! /Caelus sv (talk) 16:07, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

You could reduce the width of your browser window? I must be missing something... -- John of Reading (talk) 16:21, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Of course, but I don't want to do that everytime I go to Wikipedia. Must be possible to do it with a script like the one I linked to. /Caelus sv (talk) 16:23, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I've tried a search or two without much success, but at Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts/Scripts the "TwoColumns" script might be relevant. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:39, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

It would be nice if browsers had a side-by-side tiling option. Many Web sites have a similar problem. Some but not all people have difficulty following line wraps when line lengths get much over 70 or so characters. Particularly if paragraphs are also long so you are looking at a wall of text. See Characters per line#Human perception. --Teratornis (talk) 21:45, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Article "Human energy"

I don't know if anyone wants to work on Human energy. Someone, however, wants to delete it. I'm not sure why someone would want to delete an article, since writing them is what this site says it does. Yet there are notices for people who want to delete articles.--Rhbsihvi (talk) 17:08, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

If you object to the proposed deletion, you can remove it - by editing the page, and just removing this part;

{{Proposed deletion/dated
  |concern = This article is an example of [[wp:Synthesis]]
  |timestamp = 20110408223524
}}

As the notice says;

You may remove this message if you improve the article or otherwise object to deletion for any reason. However please explain why you object to the deletion, either in your edit summary or on the talk page

 Chzz  ►  17:13, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Why are innapropriate graphics allowed on Wikipedia?

I'm just wondering, why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.209.135.37 (talk) 17:24, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Mostly, because everyone has their own opinion of what is, and is not, "appropriate". This topic has been extensively debated. You can read the policy in WP:NOTCENSORED and the links - Wikipedia:Profanity, Wikipedia:Sexual content, Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles.

Also, please note Wikipedia:Options to not see an image.  Chzz  ►  17:29, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia currently has no method to control content other than manually blocking individual images for logged-in users. There is an ongoing discussion on adding content control features; see meta:2010 Wikimedia Study of Controversial Content: Part Two, especially the section User-Controlled Viewing Options. See also WP:NOTCENSORED, WP:CHILDPROTECT and Wikipedia:Guidance for younger editors. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:50, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I think the pictures are actually quite appropriate. After all, if I am reading an article about a vulva, I expect to see, you know, a picture of a vulva. If I am reading an article on Mickey Mouse, and saw a picture of a vulva, I would find that inappropriate. However, finding pictures in articles which show what the article is about seems quite appropriate to the mission of this encyclopedia. --Jayron32 00:26, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Nicki Manaj article

who is the Nicki Manaj article author —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.205.4.173 (talk) 18:12, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean Nicki Minaj? You can see who contributed to the article by clicking on the 'View History' tab to the left of the search field. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 18:58, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict) All of these people, and more. Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you'll look at the top right of the Nicki Minaj article, next to "Edit" is an option called "View history". (see picture) If you click that, you can see every editor that has made changes to that article. Hope that helps! ^Avic_ennasis @ 19:01, 5 Nisan 5771 / 9 April 2011 (UTC)

People often ask this because they want to cite an article. If that is the case then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia and Special:Cite/Nicki Minaj. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Cancel Account/Changer User Name

How do I cancel my account or change my user name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Social A List (talk • contribs) 20:16, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

You may not cancel an account, but you may change your username following the instructions at Wikipedia:Changing username. --Jayron32 20:17, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

As you have made only one edit, it is easiest to simply scramble the password, and forget it, then create a new account.

Alternatively, accounts can be renamed through the process described on WP:CHU (but it's really not worth bothering with that, in this case - that's useful if you have lots of contributions).  Chzz  ►  20:19, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Error in automatic geographic coordinates?

When I look at the pages for municipalities, there is an indicator at the upper right with the geographic coordinates. These are almost always the coordinates of the administrative seat, but I noticed one exception among the Swedish municipalities, namely Gotland_Municipality. Its seat is Visby, but the coordinates displayed are not those of the Visby page, but something which seems to be the central point of the island. I would try to edit this, but it seems to be calculated automatically by a template or infobox - I don't know the correct terminology. How does this come about? 78.69.124.133 (talk) 20:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Towards the bottom of the article you will find {{coord|57|30|N|18|33|E|region:SE_type:adm2nd|display=title}}. If you think you can improve those degree/minute figures, be bold and edit them. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Problem In Article Translation

Dear Team,

I am a very frequent reader of Wikipedia and always request the people to read and get informed thoroughly and freely from Wikipedia site. Currently, I have found a problem in the articles translations, as I am very good in some languages, and I have found that the information written in English is not equivalent as translated in Arabic language. and the information written in English is perfect information but I cannot understand why its not translated in Arabic as same!

For contact, my info: Name: Hasan Zaidi Address: (Redacted) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.237.196.44 (talk) 21:52, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

I removed your email address, to prevent you from getting spam.

If you can help improve the articles - please, go ahead and click 'edit'. We're all volunteers, all trying to improve pages. Articles are not translated automatically - they're done by editors, like you and me. Please help out!

You might want to create an account. That is not essential, but it is often a good idea.  Chzz  ►  21:54, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Also, if you want to help with translating articles into English, please start out at Wikipedia:Translation, which will walk you though how you can contribute. This is a much needed area of work, so if you decide to help in that way, it would be most appreciated! --Jayron32 05:45, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

If you are interested in improving the Arabic-language Wikipedia by translating from the English Wikipedia, the place to start is ar:ويكيبيديا:ترجمة مقالات للعربية, I believe. --Mathew5000 (talk) 23:55, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Twinkle watchlists every page i make an undo too

When ever I undo a user changes with Wikipedia:Twinkle it puts the page on my watchlist. Can I do something to make this not happen?  jorgenev (talk) 22:48, 9 April 2011

Yes; edit (or create) your user javascript page, Special:MyPage/skin.js, and add the following two lines;

if( typeof( TwinkleConfig ) == 'undefined' ) TwinkleConfig = {}; // DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE - ALL TWINKLE SETTINGS AFTER THIS
TwinkleConfig.watchRevertedPages=	[];

That will prevent it from watchlisting all twinkle reverts.

You might want to add further lines to prevent other items being watchlisted, e.g.

TwinkleConfig.watchSpeedyPages	=	[];
TwinkleConfig.watchWarnings	=	false;
TwinkleConfig.watchProdPages	=	false;

See Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc.  Chzz  ►  22:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Chzz!  jorgenev (talk) 00:59, 10 April 2011

Deletion history of articles

Is there an easy way to find out how many times an article has been deleted/PROD-ed/sent to AfD and so forth? doomgaze (talk) 22:50, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

The talk page should have how many times it went to AfD. CTJF83 22:56, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Number of times deleted is in the deletion log..what page? CTJF83 22:56, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

No page specifically, it's just something I've often wondered, like whether a page had been speedied before or something. Where can I find the deletion logs? doomgaze (talk) 23:00, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

If you are already on the page, click "View history" and then "View logs for this page" at the top. If there are many logs you can select Deletion log in the drop-down box. You can also start at "Special pages" in the Toolbox at the left of every page, and click "Logs" to get Special:Log. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! Why have I never noticed that before... doomgaze (talk) 23:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Prime. CTJF83 01:32, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Syed Enam Ahammad

Syed Enam Ahammad is a Labour Councillor of London Borough of Barking & Dagenham , Born 10th August 1979 in Habiganj, Bangladesh — Preceding unsigned comment added by Enamsa (talk • contribs) 23:23, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

If you wish to create an article, first, you 2.31.223.139 (talk) 12:09, 12 May 2013 (UTC)need to gather references to "reliable sources" such as books or newspapers. The references do not have to be in English. There must be enough to show that the person is notable. Please see WP:VRS and WP:FIRST.  Chzz  ►  23:27, 9 April 2011 (UTC)