Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 January 14

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January 14

How to contact a user when he appears to not read talk pages (even his own)?

If I'd like to discuss concerns about content that a specific user keeps adding to an article and I'm reasonably sure that this person doesn't read any discussion/non-main page (not even their own talk page), how would I contact them in such a situation? It's not that the edits this user is making are in bad faith, I just don't understand why they're doing what they're doing, and I wish to discuss it with them. Is there any way to contact a user in main space without vandalizing an article? (I thought about an edit notice but had no idea if it would be appropriate since I can't find any stipulations about their use.) - Purplewowies (talk) 00:24, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

If you're reverting them or making other edits to the page you can try using edit summaries to direct them to the talk. It's pretty hard to miss the user talk page banner that appears when you have new messages, so if the editor is being willfully uncommunicative, eventually they'll need to be blocked. As long as you've tried communicating, just go to the next step which is probably one of those administrator noticeboards. — Bility (talk) 00:43, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Seconded. He/she's seeing          this         . You're being ignored, willfully.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:04, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

So... I should take it to WP:ANI? Or somewhere else? I'm a bit meek when it comes to issues like this. :-l I also want to make sure I'm not going to put this in the wrong place. - Purplewowies (talk) 21:21, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, I think before we can say "yes, take it to AN/I"; "no take it here" or "do X" with any certainty, we would need to know a bit more about the situation: what the edits are, if they've violated WP:3RR etc. Can you disclose?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:44, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

DYK messup on my part.

I was nominating a new article on the 1887 Halloween tropical storm, but I made a mistype and the nomination page has become messed up. Can anybody help with finding out how to fix it? The page is here [1] Hurricane Angel Saki (talk) 01:23, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Made some changes and put it here. Everything look good now? — Bility (talk) 01:33, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

How do you stop a merger?

Someone posted that the Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service article should be merged with an article about the town it is based in. Several people have opposed the merger on the talk page, but how do you actually reject and close the proposal? 85.158.139.101 (talk) 01:29, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I closed it. — Bility (talk) 01:41, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank You 85.158.138.22 (talk) 01:36, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Inciting edit warring

Can gentle nudging be made to an editor (I have no idea how to not get banished or other threats in retort, if attempt this) Walkabout12 regarding his edit summaries? This editor makes many reverts with no explanaations to explain why. He also has inserted nasty comments on user pages with ad hominem attacks. This deters editors from making improvements, for sure, and appears to provoke emotional response from editors, giving no explanation for his reverts or warnings. People need reasons otherwise editors appear to be stalking or harrasing them. In view of his wiki participation he is most liekely in good faith but needs anudge or maybe his style needs a review. Perceived provoking of editors does not promote good growth. 99.251.114.120 (talk) 02:31, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Two things: 1) This is not the correct place to report problems of this nature. Try WP:WQA instead. 2) When you do report it there, please provide diffs which provide evidence that there is a problem. --Jayron32 02:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Dictionary built into Wikipedia?

While using my Kindle Fire, I was reading a Wikipedia article which contained a hyperlink on a particular word within the article. I am not sure how I did this but, upon tapping on the hyperlink (or doing something like this), I was taken to a page with the definition of the word instead of the Wikipedia entry for this word. Sometimes I wish to only know the definition of a word within a Wikipedia article rather than looking at the entire Wikipedia page on this word, so I thought that this trick was quite nice. The problem is, I don't know how I brought up the definition as I did this by accident. Does anyone know if there is a dictionary built into Wikipedia and, if so, what I might have done to stumble upon it? Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.126.66.215 (talk) 04:51, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You were probably directed to Wiktionary. The Utahraptor^Talk/_Contribs 04:55, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Some articles contain embedded links to Wiktionary entries, and it is hard to tell them apart. For example, grain is a link to a Wikipedia article, and grain is a link to Wiktionary. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:35, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

New Accounts from abroad

Morning, Is it possible to open a HSBC Bank account as a South African citizen? Have deposits put into it in Canada/USA.

Regards Richard — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.242.247.171 (talk) 05:10, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

They have branches in, for example, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Von Restorff (talk) 10:16, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

It is possible to open an account online, but this is often restricted to legal residents of the country where you are opening the account and you will need to provide ID. Unfortunately, HSBC have offices for global banking and financial markets but no bank branch network in South Africa. You could open a personal checking account in the USA using your Green Card as ID (assuming you are a South African resident in the USA). You might have trouble opening a HSBC bank account elsewhere, unless you go for HSBC's 'premier' or 'advance' accounts, or their 'expat service'. These other accounts have significant eligibility requirements (not least the need to maintain many thousands in the account!) See here (premier & advance) and here (expat) for more info.

As you probably already know, transferring money internationally is usually subject to high fees, even within the same company. For example, I have two accounts in different countries but the banks are part of the same banking company; I have found a 'cheap' way to transfer money between the two accounts, but it still costs me £7 per transaction. In your case, it might be simpler to open two accounts with your preferred banks in USA and South Africa, and find a cheap way to transfer money between them. Astronaut (talk) 08:40, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

adding to the lexicon

I've coined some new words - terms of indearment for my dogs, actually - that are being used in my group of peers as affectionate references towards their partners etc. I've written a short piece explaining all this and included some of these new terms. Just for fun could you tell how would I start a conversation about spreading the use of these new words amongst the wikipedia community or at least finding out if people like them? Cheers Chris — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.73.16.150 (talk) 05:34, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm afraid that Wikipedia isn't created for your purpose of "adding to the lexicon". See Wikipedia:No original research for the Wikipedia policy on this. Perhaps you could find some internet forum to use your new words in. --Jayron32 05:41, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, Wikipedia is not for things made up one day. Von Restorff (talk) 05:57, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

My pages have been hounded

Dear Team Recently my pages have been hounded unfairly and inarticulately - by LondonClanger - I am wondering if you can ask him to desist form sabotages our pages connected to Darryl Read as he seems to be making a hobby of it! There also further pages just deleted - which looks like robot work deletion - these pages are: Remember a Day (2000 film), and The Orange Illusion, these pages are legit in all ways. Link for Remember a Day: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279367/ as well as all references, I noted that user Michael Schimdt - has offered to help with the restoration of the Remember a Day page.

This is tiresome work, when users try to sabotage legitimate historical works out of sheer maliciousness, I hope that Wiki find a remedy for this in the near future.

Thanks for your help in this matter sincerely Catwizard777 (Clive Zone) — Preceding unsigned comment added by CatWizard777 (talk • contribs) 08:17, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not aim to have a page on every film, but only those that other people have already written about in reliable sources such as books, news reports and such like. An IMDb entry is not enough by itself - I can't see the deleted articles, so I can't comment in detail. This page gives a useful summary; there's lots more at Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Notability (films).

Could you explain why you use the phrase "our pages"? Is this account being used by more than one person, or on behalf of a group or organisation of some kind? -- John of Reading (talk) 08:45, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I agree. Not every subject that exists is eligible for an article on Wikipedia: Articles must meet our standards of notability. It wasn’t just LondonClanger who caused the deletion of your articles: They were discussed at WP:Articles for deletion/Remember a Day (2000 film) and WP:Articles for deletion/The Orange Illusion, and the consensus was that the subjects did not meet our notability standards. —teb728 t c 08:56, 14 January 2012 (UTC) Also, IMDb is not necessarily considered a reliable source; see WP:IMDB. —teb728 t c 09:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I notice that here you sign as “Catwizard777 (Clive Zone)”, but on your user talk page you sign as “Darryl Read (catwizard777)”. Does this mean that your account is used by more than one person? If so, I’m sorry, but sharing an account is not permitted. —teb728 t c 10:09, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I informed LondonClanger about this discussion. Von Restorff (talk) 10:11, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Not offered Edit links when looking at most recent Diff

Up until today, when I look at the most recent Diff - the changes made between the current version and the previous version, I was offered an Edit link at the start of each section. Now I'm not offered those Edit links.

I see the Edit links on each section when I look at the whole article but it was easier to edit before.

Has something changed? SteveCrook (talk) 09:44, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, and bug 33671 has been logged. See this thread. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:56, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

OK, thanks. It's not just me then :) -- SteveCrook (talk) 21:05, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Can't find the article I submitted about H.T. Lockard

Several days ago I submitted an article on H.T. Lockard, an African American jurist who had recently died, but ignorantly, I was not aware of the requirement that I must first register with Wikipedia. I have now registered. Is that article that I submitted lost? Should I submit a second one? Slidhome (talk) 10:14, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You submitted it here (click on the "Show" link). It was rejected because you submitted it as a Category rather than as an Article. —teb728 t c 10:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

under The Mistletoe

On the page of Justin bieber's song under the mistletoe. the name of the girl in the music video is missing. And some one is delating it whenever i edit it. the name of the girl is 'Ali Williams'. Pls add thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.203.45.0 (talk) 11:11, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Both the articles Justin Bieber and Under the Mistletoe are semi-protected, so that only registered users can edit them. If you have a change you would like to make to Under the Mistletoe you can suggest it at Talk:Under the Mistletoe - but be aware that any such information will only be added if you can point to a reliable source which gives the information: original research is not acceptable in Wikipedia. --ColinFine (talk) 15:45, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

What have I done wrong to the reference tags?

Hello,

I am trying to edit the Bill Drummond page but the following message has appeared:

"Cite error: There are tags on this page, but the references will not show without a

template or a tag; see the help page".

I cannot see where the problem is though. The last reference is coded </ref> I believe.

Perhaps I inadvertently deleted the entire reference list?! If so, can we get it back?

Thank you. Katrinacrear (talk) 12:11, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I have fixed it. There was a <!-- that began an HTML comment, but no --> to close it. This made the rest of the text disappear. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:19, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you John of Reading! That's wonderful. Katrinacrear (talk) 11:25, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Images setting by %age

I've been trying to improve the structure of an article, but all the images are exceedingly their section limit in the widescreen, while no such problem exist in smaller screen. The images usually range between 150px to 200px. Is their any way to set images by percentage or something so that they occupy same space/width in every sized screen or any other solution for this problem? Thanks. September88 (talk) 11:54, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

No. Image sizes can only be set using px values. — Edokter (talk) — 17:15, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

If you mean they are flowing into the next section (on wider screens), use {{Clear}} after the section containing the image. Rich Farmbrough, 05:39, 19 January 2012 (UTC).

Still cannot find my submission on H.T. Lockard

I would like to properly submit the information as an article, then. But I cannot find it. The info on that page was already in a "show"mode and there was a long list of articles. But not mine. Help me. Slidhome (talk) 12:03, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Go to Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Redirects/2012-01, find entry number 132 in the table of contents and expand that section to see your text. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:15, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I copied it to User:Slidhome/H.T. Lockard for you (making a few superficial changes). It is not ready to be published as an article yet, but you can work on the draft there. Among the changes needed: It does not make clear why he is notable enough for an article; see WP:BIO. And it needs inline references to reliable sources to verify the content. —teb728 t c 17:46, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

symbols

I really hope you can help.when I was youg I have always seen these THREE symbols together but not. the syembols are {the CIRCLE} wich is the outer ring then { the SQUARE} inside the CIRCLE but NOT touching.THen there is { the TRIANGLE }inside the SQUARE, but not touching.I beleave it has to do with the anciants but can you please verify this for me? THANK YOU for your time ANTHONY HEDGECOKE — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.47.153.132 (talk) 15:48, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Humanities reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 16:08, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

DISCUSSION v. TALK page

Why have the discussion tabs been changed to talk tabs? I preferred "discussion." Is this jut temporary? 98.221.125.119 (talk) 16:44, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Call talk pages "Talk". PrimeHunter (talk) 16:47, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

TALK appears to me to be a dumbing down of wikipedia, but I guess I'm too late for the discussion of that issue. John Link (talk) 05:26, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Dumbing down Wikipedia is easier than smarting up people. Von Restorff (talk) 08:52, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Darryl Read

Dear Team I should like to contact one of your administrative contributors User:Michig on his disputes about the Darryl Read page here User:Michig is suggesting more citations etc - which there is already an abundance of, please can you put us in touch to work this issue out - thanks. CatWizard777 (talk) 17:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You are already in contact, as you have a dialogue on your talk page. You can also use the Darryl Read talk page. — Bility (talk) 20:25, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Non free image problem

Here is an image uploaded on 12 January - File:Jayduffy.jpg - It was released into the public domain - but the uploader has admitted that the image is infact taken from the actor's Twitter account without permission - [2] - Not sure where else to go to get it sorted so hopefully you can help. Thankyou.Rain the 1 18:05, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Deleted. Saying one can't find a copyright notice does not mean it was released under a free license or as public domain. — Edokter (talk) — 18:13, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Thankyou Edokter for sorting that out so quickly.Rain the 1 18:26, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Articles for Creation Appeal

Articles for Creation urgently needs your help! Articles for Creation is desperately short of reviewers! We are looking for urgent help, from experienced editors, in reviewing submissions in the pending submissions queue. Currently the are 2183 submissions waiting to be reviewed. Do you have what it takes? Are you familiar with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines? Do you know what Wikipedia is and is not? Do you have a working knowledge of the Manual of Style, particularly article naming conventions? Are you autoconfirmed? Can you review submissions based on their individual merits? If the answer to these questions is yes, then please read the reviewing instructions and donate a little of your time to helping tackle the backlog.

Infobox spacing

For some time now I have been adding and editing infoboxes in spaced display to help comprehension, neatness, and simply for the fact that that how they're displayed on their source pages. A little while ago I ran into another editor who "compressed" the infobox to the From Hare to Eternity article, by which they removed the spacing. They insist that compressing makes the template look neater, and reduces used bytes - making the page load faster. Yet I haven't seen any rule or guideline that dictates spacing in these templates. Which makes no sense, seeing as page loading comes off more as a computer and connection issue than anything else. I'm I missing something, what is the preferred method? Sarujo (talk) 20:00, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

There's no preferred method (except each editor's preference), and while it does add a few bytes to store the whitespace, it's highly unlikely to noticeably affect load time. Templates are used for editors' convenience, so once one has been made "uncompressed" as you put it, it shouldn't be changed. If Deltasim can work with a "compressed" template, he can certainly use the cleaner looking one, so all he's really doing is making it harder for other users. — Bility (talk) 20:22, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Removing the spaces does make the page a few bytes smaller but the load-time saving is likely to be miniscule (unless we a talking of thousands of bytes). And when working with software, I certainly prefer to work with clear and easy to understand code over the compact or needlessly clever code I occasionally encounter, but in the case of wiki-markup it is not too hard to follow even if the infobox's "=" are not aligned neatly. The biggest problem though, with both Sarujo's and Deltasim's edits, is that they make a big apparent change in difference listings and therefore make vandalism harder to detect. They should both cut it out and start editing the text or finding references to improve the encyclopedia, rather than fighting over the spacing. I have mentioned this question to Deltasim. Astronaut (talk) 07:21, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

I too agree that conflict of interest must be avoided. I haven't had any reading problems in the code. The external appearance and structuring makes all the difference. Besides editing is all about making reliable and functional articles, not fancy code styling. Sarujo appears that to be the first person that ever complained about my principles. If there is such a thing as an optimum style of infobox, I'll stick with it. Of course Sarujo has been fussing about not only the infobox but the paragraph and section structure. Thank you for your advice Astronaut. Deltasim (talk) 08:47, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Making a suggestions for Special:Watchlist

I'd like to make a suggestion for a feature improvement to Special:Watchlist (specifically, being able to set http-equiv refresh), but I'm not sure where to do so. I posted to meta:Help_talk:Special_page, but that doesn't seem to be attracting a response. Any suggestions? Waitak (talk) 20:41, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You can make proposals at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) and in the meantime try importing a user script to add the refreshment you desire. To import a user script add the appropriate text (in this case see below) to your vector skin JavaScript page (if you're using the Vector skin, otherwise the following user script may not help you).

importScript("User:Fred_Gandt/watchlistLive.js");

There are a number of features in this particular script beyond just refreshing the watchlist every 60 seconds. Contact me on my talk page if you need help with this specific script. fredgandt 21:26, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

ReloadEvery Von Restorff (talk) 22:53, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Memory parody song

I just read a very funny Swedish language parody of Memory (Cats song) down at the local pub. It starts out with Minne! Jag har tappat mitt minne! ("Memory! I've lost my memory!") Should I write the lyrics, along with their English translations, in the article? JIP | Talk 20:43, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

No. Such lyrics are not free to use, so per WP:COPYVIO they should not be in the Wikipedia article. Additionally, per WP:NOT, even if they were free to use, Wikipedia is not a lyrics database, so it shouldn't be in the articles anyways. --Jayron32 20:49, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Problem with Template:Portalbox

Hi, There seems to be a problem with Template:Portalbox - it's set to redirect to Template:Portal box which in turn redirects to Template:Portal . In an article it gives 1. REDIRECT Template:Portal rather than the portal boxes. I thought the double redirect migtht be the problem but fixing that it didn't seem to help. Hybrid2712 (talk) 20:54, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Your fix was good, but it may take the system a while to rebuild the affected pages. I have restored your fix and then purged the page American cuisine to force it to be rebuilt, and that one looks ok. Give it a few hours. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:16, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Service in Nevada

Why is it that your 3G service goes out every 2 weeks in NV zip 89301? I spend 45 min every 2 weeks reporting this to Verizon wireless. This service is realy not mantained up here. Whu is that?

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. --Jayron32 20:57, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Shared account

I was going to leave a message at User talk:CatWizard777 of my concern that the account may be shared by Darryl Read and Clive Zone, but I could not find a uw- template nor even a policy statement that shared accounts are not allowed. (The closest I could find was that a username cannot indicate a shared function.) Am I wrong about shared accounts being banned? —teb728 t c 21:29, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Here is the link o the policy on sharing accounts, WP:NOSHARE. GB fan 21:34, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I looked at that page but stopped reading too soon. —teb728 t c 01:13, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Please dont review article yet

Can you please take the two copies of the article for the Port of Hastings Development Authority out of the review queue please. It's not ready yet. I'm still getting used to the template. I'm still working on it. Many thanks. Con Belacoski (talk) 22:05, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Can you provide the links to the two articles? In any case: if they're declined you can keep working on them and resubmit them when ready. Jarkeld (talk) 22:08, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I see Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Port of Hastings Development Authority; where is the other one? —teb728 t c 01:11, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Experienced Article Writer Needed

I request that an experienced article writer look over my two submissions, e.g., (1) H.T. Lockard and (2) Lincoln University School of Law, whip them into shape and see if you can get them accepted as Wikipedia articles. Judge Lockard was the first African-American to hold public office in Shelby County, Tennessee; to be appointed a Criminal Court Judge in Tennessee; and to work on a Tennessee Governor's staff. He was forced by the practice of Segregation in the American South in the 1940's to obtain his legal education outside of his home state of Tennessee, and he thus attended and was graduated from the Lincoln University School of Law.

Lincoln University School of Law was established in 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri by the Missouri General Assembly in response to Gaines v. Canada, a United States Supreme Court decision which mandated that the state either permit African-Americans to go to the "whites only" law schools or pay their tuition to go to an out-of-state law school. So the establishment of the Lincoln University School of Law constitutes the only law school in the United States to have been established as a result of a lawsuit. The school operated until 1955, which was after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed the "separate but equal" doctrine (and justified creation of the law school in the first instance).

I believe both articles to be noteworthy and appropriate subjects for inclusion in an encyclopedia. Thanks for your help.

Slidhome (talk) 23:08, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Is your first article User:Slidhome/H.T. Lockard or something else? Where is your second article; I don't find it anywhere. (Or is it just the indented paragraph above?) —teb728 t c 01:04, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

If TEB728's guess is correct, then here's a sample of it:

It was said of him that he "could be meaner than a snake. . . . He wasn't ugly, he wasn't loud. He didn't take the kind of stand-in-the-doorway kind of position that would reverberate across the country. But people knew he would not retreat."

Who said this of him? And where?

You have to say which part of the article comes from which of the sources you list at the end. You do this via "references" (footnotes). -- Hoary (talk) 10:20, 15 January 2012 (UTC)