Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 November 27

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November 27

Citing patents

How does one cite a patent? I'm writing an article connected to the guy who was awarded US Patent 598516, and I'd like to insert a little bit mentioning the patent: something like "Hess held patent #598516 for a certain kind of spring"<ref>http://www.google.com/patents/US598516</ref> Nyttend (talk) 01:00, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

There is {{US patent reference}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:15, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Or more generally, {{patent|US|598516}} (rendered US 598516 ) works for the patents of any country in the WIPO, or worldwide (WO). For usage, see template:patent/doc and template:US patent reference/doc as applicable. LeadSongDog come howl! 02:19, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Thelma Madine

Thema Madine the famous wedding dress maker and planner of "my big fat gypsey wedding",where has her page gone? It was here on wiki a couple of months ago,Or have got that wrong? I think it should be recreated as shes a great believer and believes and a great supporter of the travellers community Her wedding planning and dress making business in Liverpool UK is a great success! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.97.76 (talk) 02:51, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

So far as I can see, while she is mentioned in Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, we never had a page titled Thema Madine. Anyone may create such a page at any time, but please be sure that the person is notable and that in accord with WP:BLP some sources are provided and any possibly controversial content is well sourced. Note that we do not have articles because some person is "a great believer" or supports some particular community, nor because their business is a success. Read WP:BIO. Users without accounts can create draft articles via Articles for creation, as can editors who wish guidance during the process. DES ^(talk) 03:06, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

It would have been Thelma Madine, not Thema Madine, but again doesn't seem to have existed previously. - David Biddulph (talk) 07:39, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Could someone please edit about an article about an actor I somewhat fixed?

I don't know if the article about this Canadian actor Ricky_O'Neill is correct because of the reference articloe I used but could someone please wikify it? Thanks: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642290/ http://newspaperarchive.com/lethbridge-herald/1975-01-10/page-8 Venustar84 (talk) 06:13, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

There are numerous formatting issues with the article. It would probably be best if you took your next article idea through Wikipedia:Articles for creation. The newspaper reference is fine but IMDB shouldn't be used as a reference for biographical info per WP:RS/IMDB. Dismas|^(talk) 07:25, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Looking at it a bit more closely, I have serious doubts as to the subject's notability. Dismas|^(talk) 07:31, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

The previous version of the article was deleted 3 weeks ago after a PROD; I don't know how different the new version is. - David Biddulph (talk) 07:34, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

The OP has a PROD notice on their talk page about the same subject from 3 weeks ago. They seem to be sort of brute forcing the article onto Wikipedia by making small changes in the hopes that it will one day stick. As I recall, this is a pattern with this particular editor. Venustar, I again highly suggest you go through the Articles for Creation process in order to gain feedback on your articles before they are published. Dismas|^(talk) 08:02, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't really has the expertise for working on this article. i leave in Wikipedia's capable hands of deleting it or editing it. Venustar84 (talk) 19:10, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

HI Venustar84, did you see the advice I left on your talk page last time I nominated it? You really need to try to find more sources before you post the article. I suggested you look at other similar articles for an example of the basic requirements. Regards, CaptRik (talk) 19:34, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Well I did try a reference tvrage but it is unfortunate that is on Wikipedia:Spam_blacklist. The newspaper article is a cpoy of of tvrage article I really don't qualified to try to fix this article. Perhaps it should be deleted.......... Venustar84 (talk) 20:05, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Twinkle

When I try to tag with Twinkle, I've recently just been getting the error message Tagging article: parsererror "OK" occurred while contacting the API.. Other script tabs like Easyblock seem to work OK. I use Firefox. What's going on? Thanks Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:00, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

This has already been reported here a couple days ago. See above at "error messages when revert vandal". There is a thread at Wikipedia talk:TWINKLE that gives a solution. It basically entails turning off the "near by" feature of the recent beta tests. Dismas|^(talk) 08:06, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll have a look there. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:08, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

You're welcome. Dismas|^(talk) 08:10, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Image:Air Defense Identification Zones Map East China Sea.gif

Hello. Have I ensured the correct information is listed for this image? Is it okay to use in Articles, another user removed it citing "copyright problems". I'm having some difficulty classifying it. I hope someone can help. Thank you. Ansett (talk) 10:02, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

We can't use it. It doesn't fall under fair use, because a free map showing the same information could be made. As such, it's a copyright violation, and will need to be deleted. I'd suggest asking at the Map workshop for someone to make a free equivalent. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:28, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Ansett (talk) 00:05, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Archiving talk pages

G'day! I was copying, pasting and archiving my talk page which I'm tired of so got a bot. But I don't think I've set it up properly. I've read Help:Archiving a talk page and followed it. I have 12 pages already of archived from copy and paste but they are not showing up under archive box collapsible. Can someone please assist? Thanks! Ansett (talk) 10:06, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Looks okay to me - the reason there are no archives showing up in the archive box is that you don't yet have any (User:Ansett/Archive 1 is still a redlink). Once MizaBot has done its first archival run on your page, you should see that box start to populate automatically. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:25, 27 November 2013 (UTC) Hm, that's odd - give me another couple if minutes on this... Yunshui 雲‍水 10:32, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Ah, got it. I was right the first time - your pre-existing archives are under User:Ansett/Archive 1 etc., rather than User talk:Ansett/Archive 1 etc. Because the archive box is on your talkpage, rather than your userpage, it doesn't recognise the archives you've already created. There are two ways to fix this; either you'll need to manually move your archives from the format "User:Arnett/Archive 1" to "User talk:Arnett/Archive 1", or you can use the following syntax in place of your archive box:

{{Archive box collapsible|auto=yes|*[[User:Arnett/Archive 1]], *[[User:Arnett/Archive 2]], *[[User:Arnett/Archive 3]], and so on}}

Hope that helps. Yunshui 雲‍水 10:42, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks Ansett (talk) 00:09, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Might have spoke too soon. I've moved all 12 pages but it still doesn't seem to work. Only the first Archive is shown on my main talk page. (User talk:Ansett/Archive 1, User talk:Ansett/Archive 2) Ansett (talk) 00:20, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

The rest appeared when I purged your talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:57, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Thelma Madine 2

Thanx for your reply david .There was much more to her,other the just her name on "Big gypsy weddings" before...I actually altered her pasge on where she lived.says she lived in ormskirk.I actually know she lives in Upholland wn8 uk,postcode as i lived around the corner from where she lives now,so there was more about her on here before Im not sure how to start a page i a just alter facts that are true,tho upon doing so sometimes I have been banned for a month by one certain member of wikis help team.always the same lady that bans me..the problem is the part ive changed is true re Thelma I really think she deserves a page ,How do i go about it I do have a username on here,but when i try to log in,,says my password is invalid..my username is drew7..yet i ask for new password and its never sent I would like to create a few new pages of minor celebs of the uk,and Im sure alot of people try to check her records etc on here as i once did,but do not follow half the wiki jargon on here,when I try it just takes to another place and then eventually to the beggining.Help on all accountsThanx Drew ps another problem on wiki is uk use dates as uch 8th september 1988..americans use september 8 1988 Can both be used or is one of these dates banned?.ie how the are set about,,we use th after the day of the mnth — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.98.41 (talk) 12:33, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

First I can't do anything about your password. If you registered an email address, you can ask to have the password sent to that address. if you didn't or if you no longer have access to that address, there is nothing that can be done to recover the password. In that circumstance it is fine for you to register a new user name with a new password.

Second, the fact that you "know" something to be true from personal experience is not useful at Wikipedia. Wikipedia articles must be based on published reliable sources. If you persist in inserting unsourced information it is not unlikely that you would be blocked from editing.

Third Thelma Madine does not appear ever to have been an article here. if there was an article about this person on en.wikipedia it was under some other title.

Fourth, I urge you to read Your First Article, Referencing for Beginners, Notability, and Notability of people before trying to create an article. After that, i urge you to use Articles for creation.

I hope this helps. DES ^(talk) 13:50, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Oh, about date formats. Wikipedia articles use various different date formats, including DMY and MDY. However Wikipedia doesn't generally use 'th' so 8 September 1988 would be fine, but not 8th September 1988. In any given article dates should be consistently formatted, to avoid confusion. DES ^(talk) 13:55, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Edited your comment by closing the link. Nyttend (talk) 13:58, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Fixbunching

In this diff, I added a relevant infobox to Cincinnati Zoo Historic Structures; before the edit, an image appeared in the middle of the text where I wanted it, but after the edit, the image is at the bottom. How do I put it back where it belongs without moving the new infobox? I used to use {{Fix bunching}}, but it got deleted, and I'm unsure of what took its place. Nyttend (talk) 13:51, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I used {{stack}} in [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:56, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks; I wasn't aware of that template. Nyttend (talk) 13:58, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

William "Bill" Kerdyk

HI,

I wanted to ask about a page I submitted that you recently reviewed and rejected (William "Bill" Kerdyk). The editor cited Golden Rule, but I used basically all sources that are independent of the individual I was writing on - they were mostly newspaper articles. The editor also mentioned notability, but I have seen other Wikipedia pages on politicians who are much less notable than Bill Kerdyk. Also, I read the guidelines for notability and my page meets the requirements for a politician, as well as the additional requirements. I'm confused by how it can be rejected when I followed all of the steps and guidelines that Wikipedia lays out. I was wondering if you could let me know if there is any way to fix this page and successfully resubmit. I'd very much appreciate the help, because I don't want to waste my time again.

Also, is there a number I can call for Wikipedia help, or is everything done through 'Talk'?

Thanks!

162.17.121.89 (talk) 15:07, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

First of all, there is no telephone number. All reviewing and Wikipedia editing is done by volunteers, and there is no office for them to work at or receive calls at. Some Wikipedia editors may engage in live chat over IRC or other services, but I generally do not, and most Wikipedia discussion is via talk pages.

It often happens that there are articles around that would not meet a strict review -- standards were looseer in the earlier days of Wikipedia, and many of them are judgement calls which different editors will view differently. As pointed out on the page WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS the argument "This is better than that article over there" is generally not given much weight.

Any page can be edited and resubmitted. There are a number of issues with your draft. I will post a detailed message in the form of a comment on the draft, since you are not logged in and your IP address and its talk page may not be consistent, depending on your internet connection. By the way, I urge you to seriously consider registering an account and logging in. There is no cost, and you don't even have to provide an email address or any personal info. It protects your privacy better, since your IP address is not displayed with each edit, as it is for those not logged in. It gives you a continuing identity here, and allows people to interact with you on a continuing basis. And there are some functions that only logged in or WP:AUTOCONFIRMED editors can perform. However, an account is not required to edit. DES ^(talk) 15:27, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

[edit conflict] Link is Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/William H. ‘Bill’ Kerdyk, Jr.. First off, no, we don't have a telephone number; we just have pages like this. You mention the guidelines for notability on politicians; are you talking about WP:POLITICIAN, or something else? Please remember what that page says: "Just being an elected local official, or an unelected candidate for political office, does not guarantee notability, although such people can still be notable if they meet the primary notability criterion of 'significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject of the article'." Meanwhile, as Wikipedia isn't the newspaper, you need to demonstrate coverage of him in reliable sources that are time-independent of the subject: either books, or academic journals, or newspapers that discuss him in a fashion that's not news coverage, e.g. a recap of his past actions over the previous year. Local news coverage also isn't entirely geographically independent of the subject; you'd need coverage from sources in farther places (e.g. out of state) or from big-name news sources. The Miami Herald is prominent enough that it would count toward that, but one of your two citations for it is a 404 error, and the other one doesn't give him substantial coverage. Nyttend (talk) 15:32, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I added a detailed commetn on each of the curently cited sources at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/William H. ‘Bill’ Kerdyk, Jr.. See if it helps. DES ^(talk) 16:49, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Submitting a biography

Dear Sir/Madam,

Can you please let me know how to submit a biography for consideration

Thank you.

Linda Little

15:35, 27 November 2013 (UTC)86.157.18.50 (talk)

Linda, a good place to start is Wikipedia:Your first article, which has lots of information in a format that's easy to understand. In order to start an article, you'll have to do one of two things: either you'll need to register an account by going to our signup page, or you'll have to use our Articles-for-Creation process. With one or the other of those done, you'll need to gather good, solid sources, and the article will need to be written from those sources; our inclusion standards for biographies require that you show substantial coverage in reliable sources. Any more questions? Come back here, and we'll be happy to try to help. Nyttend (talk) 15:44, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

One more thing to add to what Nyttend has said: if the biography is of you, or of somebody closely associated with you, please read about conflict of interest before proceeding further. --ColinFine (talk) 17:00, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Search won't search

Hello helpers! I made a search box at WP:Sound/list. But it inexplicably won't search the subpages. For example, if I put in "Bach" as a search term, I mysteriously don't get any hits in WP:Sound/list/Ba. Where have I screwed up? Thanks for any tips.Anythingyouwant (talk) 18:53, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

It looks like that subpage is recently created. It probably hasn't been indexed by the Wikipedia search engine yet. Give it at least a day, maybe more, to catch up. RudolfRed (talk) 19:20, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Okay, will wait, thanks.Anythingyouwant (talk) 21:37, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Adding a photo to a page on Wikipedia.

Just want to know how to add a photograph to a Wikipedia article about my father? Is it possible to do so? If so, how is it done? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Olddeadeye (talk • contribs) 19:31, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

The first question is the copyright. Did you take the picture, or do you now own the copyright on it? If so, are you willing to license it so that anyone may reuse it for any purpose, including making modified versions, or selling it if they can? If so, see Help:Upload#Uploading files and Wikipedia:Uploading images. Once an image is uploaded, see Wikipedia:Picture tutorial for how to display it in an article. DES ^(talk) 20:00, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Do read our conflict of interest guideline before doing any edits to an article about your father, however. DES ^(talk) 20:02, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I created a page yesterday and now it's gone

Hello, I created a page yesterday and now it's gone. The page is "List of films related to christmas". The reason I created it is because the list was quite extensive and needed to be separate from "List of christmas films" or "List of theatrical christmas films". Now the page is gone. I'm not sure why and I don't know how to get it back. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dilute13 (talk • contribs) 20:31, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

It has been turned into a redirect. Mlpearc (open channel) 20:35, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

I have undone the that revision for you so it can be brought to the article's talk page. Regards, -- Ross Hill • Talk • Need Help? • 20:40, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

There is a discussion here on what to do. Thanks, -- Ross Hill • Talk • Need Help? • 20:45, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Heinrich Boll's The Clown

The Clown (novel) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

The article on Heinrich Boll's The Clown reads like a high school paper by a reluctant student reader who hated the book. There is no sense of the humor or surrealism, the liveliness of the writing, much less a clear understanding of the themes. This really does Boll and the book itself a disservice. Who edited this? Why such a dull, plodding and clearly unenthusiastic article on one of the Great Books of post-war Germany, or Europe? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.8.7.103 (talk) 22:50, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

The page The Clown (novel) has been edited by several people, as you can see here, although most edits look like they're bots or minor technical changes. It has been tagged as needing improvement for over two years, If you think you can improve it, go ahead. This is the encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. You could also try posting on the talk page for the article to see whether anyone else is interested in it. Rojomoke (talk) 23:15, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict)The article certainly has a remarkably dull pedagogic style. Maybe this is intended as a allusion to Boll's style? I have never read any Boll, so I can't tell. It wouldn't be hard to improve the writing, if you wanted. Maproom (talk) 23:18, 27 November 2013 (UTC)