Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 June 13

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June 13

Biography of living person references

My aunt sent me information and asked me to edit what she thought was a wikipedia page on her. It is actually her husbands page which she is mentioned on. I made the page but don't know how to reference the fact that she sent me all the info typed on stationary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lmayart (talk • contribs) 00:32, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You can't. Information needs to come from published reliable sources. See WP:RS RudolfRed (talk) 01:45, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

This is not necessarily the case, so long as:

• the material is neither unduly self-serving nor an exceptional claim;
• it does not involve claims about third parties (such as people, organizations, or other entities);
• it does not involve claims about events not directly related to the subject;
• there is no reasonable doubt as to its authenticity;
• the article is not based primarily on such sources.

see WP:SELFSOURCE. The third party bar and the fact that she has not published the material openly would seem the biggest hurdles. If you think the third party bar can be met and she publishes on some open source you may be able to use her material. 02:34, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miami_cannibal_attack&diff=497323169&oldid=497319028

Two questions. First, how can I highlight the difference between the old and new version of this edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miami_cannibal_attack&diff=497323169&oldid=497319028 so I can actually see what was changed at a glance?

Second, where are these "updated since my last visit" edit summaries coming from, and if they are just dummy summaries how can I agitate to get rid of them as a vicious crutch and a waste of bandwidth?

Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 02:24, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

For the first part of your question, click here Special:MyPage/skin.js and add to the page

 // install User:Cacycle/wikEdDiff enhanced diff view using ajax
 importScript('User:Cacycle/wikEdDiff.js');

After you save, bypass your cache. This will provide a much enhanced diff view but you have to know where to look. Go to a diff, like your link above, and then look for a new button at the bottom of the page with a green triangle inside. Click on that to see the enhanced diff view. As to the second part of your question, many users have complained about this new feature (including me, though at a time when it was bundled with other more intrusive changes). See the shitstorm at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 99#Watchlist - bold letter article titles! I'm not sure where discussion is continuing.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:08, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Preferences → Gadgets → wikEdDiff, improved diff view between article versions ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:20, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Since when, D'Oh!--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:12, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Looking at the history of MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition, it was added June 2011. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:41, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I successfully followed Fuhgeddaboutit's instructions but the change didn't make the dif any easier to find--Gadget's suggestion was easier and did work, ended up that a comma was deleted. μηδείς (talk) 17:09, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Did Monobook die?

Hmm. I'm having trouble getting Wikipedia to display correctly. Unfortunately I noticed this around the time when I had decided to update my preferences, so I'm not sure if I'm the only one with this problem. Basically the whole Monobook skin is gone, and I'm left with a bare-bones view of pages. It does this in Firefox, Chrome, and EE. Is this a system-wide problem, or do I just have a problem with Java Script or something like that? ~Adjwilley (talk) 03:15, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Ok, it's back now. (That was really weird.) Sorry for the bother. I think my internet may have just slowed down to nothing and it just couldn't load the fancy stuff. ~Adjwilley (talk) 03:24, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

That has happened to me intermittently. It's never lasted more than a few minutes.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:01, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

World's Tallest People

My ancestors, Anna Haining (Swan) BATES and her husband, Martin Van Buren Bates, are not on this list. Both were tall enough to be included:

Anna Haining Bates 7 feet 5.5 inches tall. See Wikipedia listing for her. Born 6 August 1846, Nova Scotia, died 5 August 1888, Ohio.

Martin Van Buren Bates 7 feet 9 inches tall per Guiness Book of Records (Wikipedia listing). Born 9 November 1837, Kentucky, died 1 January 1919, Ohio. He was a Civil War veteran, Confederate Cavalry, rode a Percheron to battle.

Richard Johnson 03:30, 13 June 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.35.122.33 (talk)

You need a more reliable source than that, and you can't cite Wikipedia for a Wikipedia article. 71.146.10.213 (talk) 06:02, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You can use reliable sources from those articles, however, to cite the addition of these two people to the list of tallest people. It would help to add in the notes section what your ancestors were the tallest in though because it seems like most of the people listed at List of tallest people were "the tallest professional wrestler" or "the tallest player in the NBA" or "the tallest volleyball player" or something of that nature. But feel free to add your ancestors along with references to the list of tallest people. If you need help editing, please let us know. -Thibbs (talk) 11:32, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Acknowledging Sources

Will i be penalised if I use information on the Wikipedia website without acknowledging the source? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.242.164.65 (talk) 06:43, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

That would depend mainly on where and how you used it. If you use it in a conversation with a friend, no one is likely to know or care; if used in an educational assignment paper, plagiarism might affect your grade or expulsion. If used for commercial purposes, the publisher is required to do "due diligence", depending on jurisdiction, they may become as liable as you for damages, court costs, litigation fees, and incarceration. Easiest just to attribute correctly. Dru of Id (talk) 07:09, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Radical change in average page ratings of an article

I just need enlightenment on how this could have possibly happened.

Some three months ago I checked the ratings on the Reproductive Health Bill and it was 4 out of 5 in most if not all of the 4 categories. There were around 70 ratings then per category. Today I came back and I am surprised that in all categories the rating is 1. The number of ratings has climbed to around 90.

How do you explain this when this is about current average ratings, meaning that the rating should have averaged to around 2 or 3 but not 1 given the previous ratings of 4? Is there something that can be done about this? Neutr8 (talk) 06:52, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

What is stranger still is when I added just now my personal rating, the average ratings jumped from 1 to 3 or 4! And that's just one additional rating! Neutr8 (talk) 07:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Old ratings are discarded once the article has been edited thirty times. See this FAQ and some of the others on that page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:33, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, John. That was helpful. Neutr8 (talk) 07:42, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Paying attention to the data collected by the WP:AFT is a waste of your time. You have to be patient, in a while the WP:AFT5 will be deployed. The main difference between the two is that the data that will be collected by the WP:AFT5 in the future will be useful. Arcandam (talk) 18:35, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Classical Pantheism

trying to restart a page (Classical Pantheism) that was nominated for deletion and then merged to Pantheism by consensus. I have redone the page and removed the redirects but the link on the Pantheism page still redirects to "Pantheism" as it did before. How do I fix this? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Allisgod (talk • contribs) 07:52, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You changed Classical pantheism but not Classical Pantheism with upper case P. One of them should redirect to the other but I'm not sure which one. I would have thought the article should be at upper case P. See Help:Redirect#Creating and editing redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:08, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Possible vandalism?

I was just looking at the page for Longside, a small village in Aberdeenshire. This is the page I mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longside I'm a bit concerned about the alterations made by 194.105.165.157 on 25 May 2012; is this possibly vandalism? Sorry to ask on here but I can't find anywhere else to ask. Sagaciousphil (talk) 08:43, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes. Vandalism for sure. I've reverted it. You could have done this yourself. Have a go next time, and thanks for alerting us. HiLo48 (talk) 08:47, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

changing Grammatical error on title

Russell morts (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Russell Morts (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I am a new contributor and I wish to correct a grammatical error on the title of a page. Help would be appreciated.

Russell morts to Russell Morts

Russell morts

Russell Morts (born around October 1979; disappeared May 5, 1982) gained national attention as one of the first missing children to appear within articles in national publications, such as Newsweek Magazine in 1982. His abduction from a New York wheat field also helped bring to light the plight of missing and exploited children in America. Russell Morts was born in New York to Mr. Morts and Ruth Morts, a working-class family. He was a 2 year old and lived in a mobile-homes court. On May 5, 1982, Russell was left outside his parents trailer in a wheat-field, New York and by 12:25pm he was missing. His mother checked for him outside and he was missing. By 5:00 pm local people, plus the police, the volunteer fire department and blood hound were searching for him. The bloodhound traced his scent to a road leading out of the trailer park, and police have since followed his leads in 21 states and Canada. But Russell Morts is still missing and Ruth Mort may still be crying. It has been 20 years since his disappearance and it is likely possible that he is dead as no new coverage has been made to his reappearance that is the likely outcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mohamedaddeen (talk • contribs) 09:23, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry, an administrator has deleted that page. Dru of Id (talk) 11:26, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Titles - forms of address

Who do I contact if the title of a person is incorrect - I have been asked to amend an individuals entry (by them) as the title is incorrect and I cannot find a way to do this Lee lambert (talk) 10:05, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You can post the page name and title here. Note that Wikipedia content requires reliable published sources. A private statememnt from the subject is not enough. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:10, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I guess you are referring to [1] but I don't understand what you are trying to do. Your edit was misformatted and I have reverted it. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:13, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Wallachian Revolution of 1848

Hi I've noticed that at the "Wallachian Revolution of 1848" you have written Nicolae Balcescu and Alexandru Ioan Cuza without Nicolae Balcescu and....my gggguncle through my ggggfather Barbu Balcescu,brother of Nicolae Balcescu. Thank YouAristiderazu (talk) 10:51, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

So I have changed them into name. I hope is all right with your policy.Aristiderazu (talk) 11:02, 13 June 2012 (UTC) Aristiderazu

While genuinely helpful, I've undone the last two links to Cuza; he doesn't need to be linked more than once in the six-sentence portion of the same section. Dru of Id (talk) 11:18, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

For the record, this user has very little understanding of English and seems to have no interest in learning how Wikipedia actually works. Their edits seem to be in good faith which is the only reason I haven't suggested a topic ban (at least). OlYeller21^Talktome 12:01, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Citation formatting: Jayne Mansfield

Is there any editor, project or any other place where I can request aid/help to cleanup citations ion Jayne Mansfield? A lot of citations need proper formatting, using templates and all. Some are repeated citations and will need to be consolidated using "ref name" codes. And, some may be redundant altogether. It's a long article, and help will be appreciated very much. BTW, it's getting ready for an FAC now. Aditya^{(talk • contribs)} 13:40, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

How about WP:CLEANUP? AndieM (Am I behaving?) 14:12, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Commented on article talk. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:02, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

All good now. Mikegretagan (talk) 03:28, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Wikibreak template on my user page

As I have finished exams, I wanted to post a Template:Back from short wikibreak template on my userpage, but a placeholder shows instead of my username. You can see it here.

Thank you! AndieM (Am I behaving?) 14:20, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Fixed, and also fixed the link to your simple: user page at no extra charge. Hope the exams went well. Bencherlite^Talk 14:34, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! I didn't know I had to type my username as a parameter. I won't know the results of my exams for two weeks, but I'm hoping I did well! AndieM (Am I behaving?) 14:39, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I have made the username automatic if no parameter is given.[2] PrimeHunter (talk) 14:39, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Word definition - help!?

I am racking my brain to recall the word used to describe a person who abuses their authority within their work position. Their is a name like a condition for it - it's one word which was used recently to describe a pollie. Please help?!?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.170.127.230 (talk) 14:33, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. AndieM (Am I behaving?) 14:35, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Maybe you'd like to read our articles on workplace bullying and malfeasance in office. benzband (talk) 18:20, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Usurper? ~Adjwilley (talk) 18:41, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

a need to have copy of Encyclopedia of Psychological Problems, Naramore

About 24 years ago when I was a Psychology student at a University, I read Encyclopedia of Psychological Problems which impressed me very, very much. Since then, I tried to get its copy either freely or on sale. But I couldn't succeed. For all these past years I used to serve as a counselor both in Church and secular world all the time of which I sensed the importance of the book. I want get the book , please help me.... Thank you. My email address is (Redacted), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.9 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. – ukexpat (talk) 14:55, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Claiming an article edit

I recently edited an article while I was logged out and would like to know how to claim the edit or in some way show that I made the edit. Any help is appreciated.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Joeygpm (talk • contribs)

There are some suggestions at WP:LOGGEDOUT. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:45, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

IWhat to do to create an encyclopedia articele?

Dear Wiki,

I created an article in my personal sandbox. I want it to be an encyclopedia article. What should I do?

Nico frisius (talk) 15:38, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Please take a look at WP:Your first article, WP:Articles for creation, and WP:SYMUD for further assistance.--ukexpat (talk) 15:45, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

I have fixed the coding at the top of User:Nico frisius/sandbox so that the text shows, and have added a heading to the page that provides some advice. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:48, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we already have an article on Gerard de Lairesse. I really appreciate your hard work in making that article, but you could always work on the existing article to improve it. Quasihuman (talk • contribs) 15:51, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Cite news

How doI cite news in a biography page? it shows me cite error, also how to put photos in the page. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by NoraCaselin (talk • contribs) 17:34, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You need to use the entire {{cite news}} template. - Purplewowies (talk) (How's my driving?) 17:57, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

See Help:Files on how to upload/use files (including photos) on Wikipedia. benzband (talk) 18:13, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Archiving Talk page

Can anybody help me in automatically archiving messages on my talk-page using a Bot?It should be a numbered list.Max Viwe | Viwe The Max 18:58, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

You can find an explanation with some examples at User:MiszaBot/Archive HowTo. Does that help? Let us know if you run into any problems. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 19:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

sorry, need a quick help to place foot note

Please see the article golden ratio at the very first sentence. This small-set text should be placed as a footnote (to not disturb the reader) , but I don't know how to achieve this. Certain templates {{footnote3}} are out of age and others {{FNBox}} are unknown.

Thanks in advance. Achim1999 (talk) 20:12, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

From looking at the edit history of the article, it looks like the small text was a recent addition, and has already been removed, as being inappropriate for the Lead and being added without consensus. To put something in a footnote, place it between <ref>...</ref> instead of <small>...</small>, but I advise you to seek consensus on the talk page before re-adding it. ~Adjwilley (talk) 20:19, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Based on the current style of the article, I'd recommend just putting all of it into the same footnote (the words and the citation). There is a way to make a Footnotes section that is separate from the rest of the references, but if you look at the current references, they're a mix of notes and citations. Did this answer the question? ~Adjwilley (talk) 20:24, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, this was not a quick help -- yes, because it is a frequently-called article and I made the change recently I wanted quick help. Thus it was already deleted. But teh deleter was a fighter also in the german-article "Goldener Schnitt". He tries to press his personal views. :-(

To the problem I wanted your help: It seems impossbile (now to me) to have a reference as reference inside a footnote in wikipedia-en, because footnotes are not distinct from references. Am I right? If not show me the solution in principle in this case of article, please.

Your answer is helpful Adjwilley, because it partially answers my question. In this case my aim seems not to be wanted, but what if this would be okay to the style of the article? Achim1999 (talk) 21:02, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

See WP:EXPLNOTE. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 00:19, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Your footnote was not deleted because "teh deleter was a fighter". It was deleted because it made no sense. It was not written in English. For example, it included the phrase "by recursivly expansion". Maproom (talk) 14:07, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Template:WikiProject Seinfeld

Right now, the Seinfeld parameter is added in Template:WikiProject Television. What can I do to merge this template into the parent template? --George Ho (talk) 20:37, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Are you asking how to remove the WikiProject:Seinfeld parameter from the WikiProject Television template? If so, you'll need to find an administrator who is willing to change it since the template is under full protection. -Thibbs (talk) 00:45, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

No, no. I just want to turn this template into a copycat or something of a TV template with task-force parameters inserted. --George Ho (talk) 01:09, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Redirects!

I need little suggestion here, one person has created too many (40 or more) alternative spelling redirects for one article! 2-3 (or maximum 4-5) redirects I can understand, but 40 redirects are too much. I am interested to learn: is there any limit here? If it is an abuse then an admin is needed to delete some pages! I have given a friendly notice to that editor, so, I am not asking to warn that editor! If possible add a tb template in my talk! --Tito Dutta ✉ 22:59, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Not an issue I've come across before but redirects are cheap as they say, and unlike here, all of them seem like relatively plausible phonetic spellings. I did something not completely dissimilar to Dorothy Kilgallen, here (well 16 not 45 but same idea).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Need someone to delete some unnecessary redirects here! --Tito Dutta ✉ 23:20, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Redirects_for_discussion#When_should_we_delete_a_redirect.3F Arcandam (talk) 23:29, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:Redirects are cheap. Redirects should be deleted if they are incorrect otherwise deleting them saves almost no space. Ryan Vesey Review me! 02:14, 14 June 2012 (UTC)