Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 April 10

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April 10

Creating your Own Wikipedia page

I am responsible to create my version of a Wikipedia page explaining the concept and theories of intercultural communication. I am aware that this website already has a topic of such sort. Is there a way where I can start from a fresh page and build my own style so there is no plagiarism taken into account during the process? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dmatteo051 (talk • contribs) 00:29, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Well, Wikipedia doesn't allow multiple articles on a single topic. You're welcome to edit the existing page, but you shouldn't start a new page on Intercultural communication since one already exists. Howicus (Did I mess up?) 00:45, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

If some professor or teacher has given this to you as an assignment, they do not understand at all how we work or what we are for. If this is a "sample piece" as part of a writing job test, you are being ripped off by an unscrupulous (or very clueless; or both) "employer". --Orange Mike | Talk 04:42, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Federalist Papers, Request

I have a request for the Federalist Papers section of Wikipedia. Currently most Federalist paper pages have a summary, synopsis or the like which I still believe it is good given the ability to look back and see how they were viewed and received. Also for a person who just wants to get the gist of the document without reading the entire document. Some papers pages have a link to a photograph of the paper in question which is grainy and hard to read. I suggest a transcribed version of each document, word for word, so a person wanting to read the exact words written on the subject by our founding fathers is available to anyone coming to that certain page.

• Federalist No. 1
• Federalist No. 10
• File:The Federalist (Ford).djvu— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.247.69.40 (talk) 00:39, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Is this what you want? I believe it's the Federalist papers on Wikisource CTF83! 00:48, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

software Engineering

the effort and cost required to build the software.Use any estimation technique? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.66.180.227 (talk) 03:30, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misevaluation, but it is our policy here not to do others' homework, but merely to aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn how to solve such problems.
Please attempt to solve the problem yourself first. You can search Wikipedia or search the Web.
If you need help with a specific part of your homework, the Reference desk can help you grasp the concept. Do not ask knowledge questions here, just those about using Wikipedia. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:46, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The answer is "a lot of effort, tons of cost, using the Sodd-Orff estimation technique"... if this is too technical for you, I apologise! PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 00:11, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Fraudulent Wikipedia article about a 'Daniell Family'

Hello, I have recently joined Wikipedia and have been reading Wikipedia articles about a lot of families on Wikipedia (I am interested in family histories).

I came across an article about a so called " Daniell Family " . This article does not seem to make sense at all as most information mentioned is not linked to the subject of the article and none of the sources listed are referring to this "Daniell family". I cannot find any further information about the notability or importance of this family on the internet either.

When I looked at the history of this article, I came across several Wikipedia accounts all created on the 9th of April and all of them have similar editing patterns on their talk pages. It seems like they are sockpuppets.

I am very worried about this article, as somebody might be creating an article about their own family, making them seem more important/notable than they really are. I have a feeling this article might turn into something serious or fraudulent, as this article claims links with famous important families and institutions, such as the Rockefeller family and Harvard University, when there are no legitimate sources anywhere confirming any link with anybody or anything mentioned in this article.

Furthermore, this article vaguely mentions links to two English painters, but I cannot find any confirmation anywhere about the links with these painters.

I would appreciate it if an experienced editor would seriously take a look at the accounts editing this page and consider deleting the article. Thanks--OhioJack (talk) 04:53, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

It certainly looks a little suspicious, as you say - I'll look into it further. AndyTheGrump (talk) 05:07, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

It looks like large portions of information and the sources have been copied from the article about the Rockefeller family.--OhioJack (talk) 05:08, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

In the Family residences section, they have not even bothered to edit "Rockefeller" to "Daniell". This hoax article should be deleted. Maproom (talk) 06:05, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Note: Article has been deemed a hoax and tagged for speedy deletion. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 06:12, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I've deleted the article and restored the legitimate redirect that used to be at that title. Graham87 07:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

redirected page

I have been drafting an article but it now has a redirect that the page has been renamed/moved. I cant find the page and I cannot draft another version because it takes me back to the same redirect page. I cannot make sense of the instructions and do not know why this has happened. Help please — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fulhamoldboy (talk • contribs) 05:32, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome to the help desk. Your draft was previously located at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Nigel Randell Evans, which now redirects to Draft:Nigel Randell Evans. This is where your draft is located. Your draft was moved into the "Draft:" namespace as that is the preferred location for article drafts. Hope this helps, ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 06:16, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

You can use the "contributions" link at the very top of the page (as well as in your signature and other places) to find out where you have edited. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:29, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Is posting the raw translation of articles acceptable, or should I format them?

I plan on using Duolingo to mass translate a bunch of articles. I find articles that need translations, and then I have the community translate them.

Usually, I'd get the translation, and then format it myself. This, however, takes a lot of my time and I'd prefer not spending all day formatting articles.

I was thinking, would it be acceptable if I just posted the raw translation without the formatting, and leave it to the community to format?

For example, here is an original translation: Federalist Papers

And here is what a raw translation would look like: User:The Red Rat Writer/sandbox

I ask this, because I've noticed that the community helps out with the articles by adding link to them and whatont. — Preceding unsigned comment added by The Red Rat Writer (talk • contribs) 08:01, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I am having difficulty understanding your question. When you write "the community", do you refer to the community of Wikipedia editors? My guess is that you are proposing to create machine-translated articles, in the hope that other Wikipedia editors will then do the rest of the work. If I am right, it would help to see a specimen machine-translated example. The example you have given of a "raw translation" is not translated at all, it is in Spanish. Maproom (talk) 08:39, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

– and your example of an "original translation" was created in English, as one might expect of an article concerning the creation of the US constitution. Maproom (talk) 09:09, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

For advice on translating from other languages into English, see Wikipedia:Translation. For advice on translating from other languages into English, also see Wikipedia:Translate us. Please note that Wikipedia:Translation says "Wikipedia consensus is that an unedited machine translation, left as a Wikipedia article, is worse than nothing." --David Biddulph (talk) 09:16, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I apologize, I mean community as the Duolingo Community (https://www.duolingo.com/), and 'original translation' was supposed to be 'original article'. The sandbox page I linked to is the actual translation. I meant format as in titles, boxes, rows, references and general organization.The Red Rat Writer (talk) 14:32, 10 April 2014 (UTC)The Red Rat Writer

This is a potential copyright issue. When the members of the duolingo community translate something, each contributor hold the copyright to their share of the translation. Unless duolingo has somehow arranged to have the finished work licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License or some other license that is compatible with Wikipedia, we can't use it. Jc3s5h (talk) 14:38, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Timeline errors

Could someone fix the errors in User:Tomcat7/Sandbox1? Regards.--Tomcat (7) 10:01, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The syntax required is described at Help:EasyTimeline syntax, but (for the first error at least) the error message is self-explanatory. The error message says "Period attribute 'from' invalid. Specify year >= 1800." because Help:EasyTimeline syntax#DateFormat tells you that "this format is only allowed for dates starting from 01/01/1800" and you had tried to use "01/01/1700". --David Biddulph (talk) 10:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Is there a timeline that accepts years before 1800? Regards.--Tomcat (7) 10:30, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Can i merge these accounts?

I have a uncompleted global ccount named "Manedwolf" (My main wiki user page). There are three acounts named "Manedwolf" too in english, spanish and commons, which aren't active since 2005, 2007 and 2007 respectivly, from what i saw in the user contribution and talk pages.
Is it possible to merge these all or merge the accounts named "Dorhi" with "Manedwolf? – Dorhi (talk) 12:20, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

see WP:USURP. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:26, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Look at the 2nd note under "Notes". Is it refers to my en.wiki account (which is not active) or to my main account (which is constantly active)?--Dorhi (talk) 12:36, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

No problem there. In your case of wanting to unify Manedwolf, it either doesn't apply at all, or it applies to the Manedwolf account at other wikis. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:19, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Primary and secondary source

I haven't edited Wikipedia for a long time, so:

For example, if I write in the article Captain America 2 "Website A says this movie will have a sequel", should I cite it to A, or to another source B that says the same information? If I cite it to A, is A considered primary source or secondary source?

Are there any diff if I only write "This movie will have a sequel" and cite it to A?--Lê _{talk-contributions} 13:09, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Primary sources are sources which do not provide analysis or context for information. Primary sources are raw data. For example, census records or birth certificates are primary sources. They provide no context. Secondary sources are sources where people research primary sources and the provide analysis and context for those sources. For example, a book where someone has gone through census records and produced statements about demographic trends based on those census records. Wikipedia accepts both equally fine, so neither is a problem. However, you cannot provide your own analysis cited to a primary source. You cannot, say, cite the U.S. census and then say something like "So-and-so live in blighted areas" based on that. You need to find someone else who has reached that conclusion. The issue is not whether a source is primary or secondary source, the issue is that you cannot go beyond what the source directly says in Wikipedia. A reliable source is reliable. If you have a good, reliable source for information about a sequel, for example if the producers of the movie have themselves said that they plan to produce a sequel, then go with that. If the source is "Unconfirmed reports say..." and it appears on Joe Schmoe's Movie Blog, then no, that isn't reliable. --Jayron32 16:37, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Support needed on article "Hochtief"

Hi there, We left a longer piece on the "talk" page of our company`s entry "Hochtief" as the article has to be updated. Unfortunately we have the impression that there is not much traffic on the talk page. No one seems to feel "responsible" for reviewing and perhaps editing. As there are several things outdated or wrong, we would like to ask for support. We cannot do it on our own as we are the company described. Please help. Thank you Kind regards CG at Hochtief Corporate Press Department 13:17, 10 April 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Christian Gerhardus at Hochtief (talk • contribs)

Hello, if it is likely that you won't get a response on the talk page, there are always active editors available for help and also in your time zone. Regarding the article about the organization, you might also get help here; Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Companies. It is recommended that you explain on the relevant talk or help page specifically what is outdated or wrong, and what information to add, to help an editor quickly understand what you need.-- Fauzan^{✆ talk} _{✉ email} 14:21, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Thank you for not editing the article directly – as you are aware, this would involve a conflict of interest. If corrections and updates are needed to the page, please provide details on the article's talk page, preferably with references. What you have done is to provide five screenfuls of text, translated from German Wikipedia, with the formatting lost – possibly the changes you want made can be deduced by comparing this with the current article, but I, for one, am not going to bother reading through it in the hope of finding out what it is you want corrected. Maproom (talk) 14:35, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

references

Can someone help me out on how to reference thi sources on wikipedia? 1. Abang Njuosi (ed) (2008) Kom Folktales. Vol. 1 2. www.wikipedia.org/warren m. robbins

Here's my article:

This isn't the place for an article's text

The Afo-A-Kom (Mbang) is the foremost symbol of the Kom people of the North West Region of Cameroon. The carver of this statue is unknown but It is speculated that Afo-A-Kom was carved by the second traditional leader (Foyn/Fon)of the Kom people in the 1920s. In the 1960s, the Afo-A-Kom was stolen from its sacred grove at Laikom which is the seat of the Kom people, where the Foyn resides by one of the princes with the help of some elders and sold to a middle man who later on sold it to an art dealer who took it to the United States of America. The Kom people believe that the Afo-A-Kom possesses mystical powers and that shortly after it got to the US; it started disturbing its new owners by destroying everything around it. Its new owner took it and threw it into the sea but only to get back home and see the Afo-A-Kom. He took it to a New York art gallery where he sold it for circa 15 million CFA, while there; another American Warren M. Robbins, an arts collector saw and recognized it from his visit to Cameroon and raised an alarm. He raised funds together with some Kom elite in the US to purchase from the Manhattan art gallery the bearded icon called Afo-A-Kom, considered sacred by the Kom people which had been taken from the Laikom hill-top village in Cameroon in 1966. Returning the figure, Robbins was welcomed by Nsom Ngwe, the then Fon of the om people, the President of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo among other dignitaries. During the reception of the statue in Yaounde, President Ahidjo suggested to Fon Nsom Ngwe that Mbang be kept in the National Museum in Yaounde but he replied that if the President can provide enough space in Yaounde for him to go and bring the Kom people to stay with it there, then he would accept the president’s proposal. The president found outr that the Kom and the Afo-A-Kom were inseperable as such he made it possible for it to be taken back to its habitual residence at Laikom.However, it was briefly put on display at the Tourism Office in Yaounde and later on transported by air to the Bamenda. It was then ferried by a delegation of the dignitaries of the region back to Fundong where it was handed back to the Kom people. It now resides peacefully thereafter at the Laikom palace where it is put on display annually for the Kom people and their friends to view it.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Jnshing (talk • contribs) 15:31, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

This isn't the place for an article's text, so I've collapsed it. All you need to do is to provide a wikilink, in this case to Afo-A-Kom. In your version you had an error message which said "Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).", and in that message the words " help page " were in blue, indicating that they are a wikilink to specific help on your problem, in this case at Help:Cite errors/Cite error refs without references. I have corrected that error for you, but for further information on referencing you should read WP:Referencing for beginners, and you should also read about bare urls.

One of the things which you were trying to use as a reference was "www.wikipedia.org/warren m. robbins". There are a number of problem with that:

• Firstly for links to Wikipedia we don't quote a URL like "www.wikipedia.org/warren m. robbins", but instead we give a wikilink like Warren M. Robbins, and please note that the titles of Wikipedia pages are case-sensitive.
• Secondly wikis (including Wikipedia) can not be used as reliable sources for references, for reasons given at WP:USERG. I have therefore removed that from the references, but included a wikilink to Warren M. Robbins when you mentioned him in the text.

Other editors will look at your article and decide whether it satisfies Wikipedia's requirements, particularly for demonstration of notability. I have added some useful links to your user talk page, and one particular one which you should read is WP:Your first article. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:02, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I have made some stylistic and formatting changes. Given its history, it's probably a notable subject, but it desperately needs more sources. I don't have time to research further.--ukexpat (talk) 17:00, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Draft:Swetha Warrier

Reference help requested. Sir, 'Swetha Warrier' was my first article and I didn't fully know the technicalities of creating an article. After I saved the page, an error has been reported about a reference list being missing. I don't know how to edit it further. Kindly help me out. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Wsarath (talk) 16:25, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The duplication of text was causing the error. I have removed that text which has fixed the problem.--ukexpat (talk) 16:32, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Longest article titles

Does WP list the longest titles of articles? If not, how would you go about finding the longest article title? How about this one:

• An act to specify the size of the precious-metal blanks that will be used in the production of the National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coins

A follow up question: Is this even an appropriate name for an article? Rgrds. --64.85.217.151 (talk) 16:30, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Most Bills and Acts have short titles, such as Patriot Act and those are the ones we use, per WP:COMMONNAME.--ukexpat (talk) 16:34, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

See WP:RECORDS#Article with longest title. --Glaisher [talk] 16:39, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I am helping host a global event to update wikipedia contact on behalf of my organization

I was interested to see if there was anybody from Wikipedia in the New York/New Jersey area that could be made available on site to help us in case we have questions.

My contact details are: Miles Dolphin - 212-526-1833 (email: miles.dolphin@barclayscapital.com)

this would be for June 12th. - Miles — Preceding unsigned comment added by Miles dolphin (talk • contribs) 17:25, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Others reading this should also check out Wikipedia:Barclays edit-a-thon (which I found from Miles' contribs) which has some more information. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 17:46, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Randor1980

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Randor1980 has been trolling many pages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Efkwoherfpiowuehrf (talk • contribs) 18:29, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Help wanted with a disagreeable article

Dear editors: I rescued THIS ARTICLE some time ago from the G13 deletion pile, and just now got around to checking to see if I could improve it with reliable sources. Unfortunately, I have a very low tolerance for explicit language. I am looking for someone with a tougher skin to take an interest in this and either pronounce it non-notable or fix it up. I don't want to reject it because I find the references personally distasteful. —Anne Delong (talk) 18:49, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

It fails WP:NMUSIC and also falls afoul of WP:NOTINHERITED. The only "new" reliable source I could dig up is a Huffington Post article about the Observer article. I'd say throw this fish back; it's just too small. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:17, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. —Anne Delong (talk) 04:40, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Adding images to a category

How can a file be added to a category? I would like to add File:Kafka portrait.jpg to Category:20th-century writers. Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 19:13, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The file on Commons is already in Commons commons:Category:Franz Kafka so any new cat should be added to that category. In fact that category should probably be added to one of the country specific Commons "20th-century writers" categories.--ukexpat (talk) 19:39, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Forgot to add that the easiest way to add categories is the HotCat gadget that you can enable in your Preferences --> Gadgets.--ukexpat (talk) 20:19, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Help

Thanks, I'm just a student and I have to ask or prepare questions about the topic loanwords. The name of the book is read up on contents areas by Build & Grow. Please help, I'm dying 190.154.115.2 (talk) 19:18, 10 April 2014 (UTC)Ricky

I'm sorry you're dying, but I haven't a clue what you are asking for, or why you are asking it on the Wikipedia help desk (which is for questions about editing Wikipedia. It's possible you can get some help on the Wikipedia reference desk (Specifically the language reference desk if the question is about loanwords), but if you post it there you'd better be much clearer what you are asking for and what you have done on your homework so far. --ColinFine (talk) 22:50, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Need help removing Reads like an Advertisement alert at top of page

Hi, I am editing a page (that is about the man and company I work for) and I am trying to remove the alert at the top of the page. The page title is Adrian Ballinger. It says the page reads like and advertisement and also that it might contain faulty external links. However, I have edited it to remove unnecessary info and links and I have written it as best I can from a neutral point of view. The alert is still at the top of the page. Does it take time for this alert to be removed or am I not editing the Adrian Ballinger page properly? Your help will be much appreciated. Thank you - B — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alpenren (talk • contribs) 20:55, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

To editor Alpenren: People are discouraged from editing articles about subjects with which they are affiliated; this presents a conflict of interest. You should propose any further changes as well as a review of the advertising issue on the talk page at Talk:Adrian Ballinger. Anon126 (talk - contribs) 21:23, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I have made it read a bit less like an advert, by deleting some puffery, and removing all the invalid references (the ones which just led to a domain, not to an article which mentioned Ballinger). The article is now short of references. If you can add some valid references, to actual articles which mention Ballinger, it may help. Maproom (talk) 22:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Alpenren. Tags like that are inserted and removed manually, by editors who think it is appropriate to add or remove one. Normally, if you think that a tag is no longer appropriate, you are welcome to remove it; but as Anon126 explained, you are strongly discouraged from editing that article because of your conflict of interest. --ColinFine (talk) 22:52, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The twelve visions party.

I need to send out a message concerning the deletion of TVP page on Wikipedia. Can you help me?

Sincerely Robert — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.54.14.96 (talk) 21:29, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

What kind of message are you hoping to send out about Twelve Visions Party and to whom? If your question is about contacting a particular user, you can do so at their talk page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:19, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Help Editing a Page

Hello, wondering if someone can help me.

I've been trying to update a wiki page, and have found a number of different articles relating to the topic and used these as references within the updates. Everytime I update the article I receive a message from a user advising that I have uploading promotional or advertising material and they delete my updates which is extremely frustrating.

The updates I'm making are from third party articles, non of which is trying to promote or advertise on the page but rather provide factual information.

Please advise what I can do to ensure the updates remain on the page.

Many thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shayle1 (talk • contribs) 23:12, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

User:Shayle1: Your additions to Fetch TV kind of come off as a catalog entry, which is something Wikipedia doesn't do; see WP:NOTCATALOG - Purplewowies (talk) 23:27, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

You may also want to look at Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners and WP:RS. - Purplewowies (talk) 23:28, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi,

Thanks for the update. I had quite a few references included all of which were third party. It was a factual overview of the product. The page that was there before I ended it was actual the same format, however the information included was inaccurate so I was trying to fix those. As a result half of the page has been deleted.

Is there anything else I can do?

Thanks again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shayle1 (talk • contribs) 23:34, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The first thing I would recommend is coming to the understanding that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not a free promotional web page about a company and its products. And then read up about what Wikipedia considers a reliably published source. And then when you find sources that meet the criteria, present the content in a non promotional manner, representing both the positive aspects and negative views of the subject. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:16, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

User:TheRedPenOfDoom The information I have included in my updates is not used in a promotional context. It is explaining in detail what the page is about. I have researched it and made multiple third party references - all of which meet the Wiki criteria. The references do also show comparisons between other similar services, pointing out the positive and negative aspects. This page originally had inaccurate information and I am just trying to fix that. People should be reading correct information, so I can't understand why someone would be deleting this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shayle1 (talk • contribs) 06:57, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

When I looked, I saw a Tumblr page being used as a source. Those aren't generally considered reliable. That doesn't speak to the reliability of other sources. In addition, one of the pages I linked you to expressly states why comparisions might be considered a bad thing in encyclopedic context. It may be useful to point out characteristics of a product or thing, but it must be done from an encyclopedic standpoint. - Purplewowies (talk) 13:20, 11 April 2014 (UTC)