Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 February 15

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February 15

Disclosed email as source

Email conversations are of low quality, unless they are disclosed by someone like Snowden. But here is my case. An organization responded to my questions by email. This information is no where else published. Am I allowed to add that information to Wikipedia if I disclose the content of the email conversation? It is for a low priority article. Timelezz (talk) 02:04, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, but no. An e-mail isn't a published source, making it impossible to verify. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:08, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

When I publish it on a webpage? Timelezz (talk) 02:47, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Then it would be an email on your blog, and blogs are not reliable sources. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:53, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

See WP:SPS. Dismas|^(talk) 03:25, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

You would have to get a magazine or the like with decent editorial control to publish an article that quotes the email, or get the organization to publish it on their web site, before it would be even arguable as a source here. Not likely i fear. DES ^(talk) 06:08, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

We run a Wordpress website for which I was planning to write a response to the email, and publish the email. I guess that will do. Timelezz (talk) 11:12, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

But can you tell me why information without a source is not deleted, but information with a low quality source is? It boggles my mind. It seems not logical to me. Timelezz (talk) 11:12, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

With millions of articles, it's hard to give one simple all-encompassing answer. It depends a lot on the particular fact, who's paying attention, how much attention they're paying, how well are the watchers of the article following rules regarding sources, etc. Dismas|^(talk) 13:35, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you. That makes sense. In this case I've come to an agreement that we add the source with a template that signifies that these kinds of sources are potentially unreliable. I think that is very reasonable, since the email response looks legitimate from an objective perspective. Timelezz (talk) 14:03, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

You can't "come to an agreement" to violate site policy. I removed the citaiton to the unpublished email, and Timelezz reverted my removal, See Talk:Marius (giraffe)#disclosed email as source. More eyes are wanted here, please. DES ^(talk) 18:11, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Besides, stuff from the subject of an article is inherently reliable; see WP:SPS. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:19, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

But the subject didn't "publish" this, they sent an email. That is not publication. DES ^(talk) 19:23, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Citation

How can I give reference in my local language, eg: I'm doing an entry about Jacques Lacan in Malayalam, And I'm not able to give the reference..could you please help me?? This is the link to that page https://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%B7%E0%B4%BE%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D_%E0%B4%B2%E0%B4%95%E0%B4%BE%E0%B5%BB — Preceding unsigned comment added by Angeljoy.c (talk • contribs) 03:02, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

The article you link is on the Malayalam Wikipedia - you'd do better to ask for help there, I'd think. AndyTheGrump (talk)

Spam whitelist

Hi. I made a request over at the spam whitelist page about a month ago and it still hasn't had any progress made on it. Does it normally take this long?!?!? Survivorfan1995 (talk) 06:24, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Annoying scrollbar

I've recently (it started yesterday or the day before I'm pretty sure.. definitely within the last week) had my pages start randomly requiring a horizontal scroll bar. This happens on every page, and there are no <pre></pre> tags anywhere causing the content to run over the side of the page. I've checked on both my accounts (I also operate User:NationalRegisterBot), and the problem is there for both. Resizing the window or even the size of the text on a page has no effect; it seems the page always extends beyond the edge of the window some set number of pixels. This only happens on Wikipedia. I'm running OS X Leopard, so my Firefox is out of date, but like I said this was not happening as recently as a few days ago. I don't get the scrollbars in Safari or Chrome. Here's a screenshot. Anyone have any ideas?--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 07:40, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Recently, editors have been complaining about odd effects due to various beta features. Do you have any of these turned on? You can check by clicking on the "Beta" link up near your watchlist link. Also, this might get a better answer from a more techie person over at WP:VPT. Dismas|^(talk) 13:32, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I do have some betas enabled, but like I said, it happens on more than one account and only in one browser. I'll ask at VPT.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 18:03, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

PDF File downloads

I have just started using the PDF downloads, because I often need just short bits out of articles at scattered places throughout the article. This is all for personal use, not republication. I, however, always say this is derived fro Wikipedia material, just shortened. So I am playing by the rules.

My problem is that when I download a PDF, the linkages seem to create huge delays and can make the text hard to manage once I get it down on my computer and am using my word processing software to do these extracts. Is there any way to remove the linkages prior to downloading the PDF?

In case you are interested, we are using this material to enhance a very nice stamp collection, especially the foreign stamps, since most Americans are geographically illiterate.

Lee Taylor (M Lee T41) — Preceding unsigned comment added by M Lee T41 (talk • contribs) 09:24, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I don't understand your question (and as no-one else has answered it, maybe others don't either). Once you have downloaded a pdf from Wikipedia onto your computer, you can do what you like with it, with some restrictions about what you must do if you publish any of it. You can read it with various software, copy from it, and edit it. But what are the "linkages" you refer to? Are they inside the pdf that you now have on your computer? If they are, they are part of the pdf, and not under Wikipedia's control. If they are not in the pdf, how can they cause delays when you to try to extract things from it? Maproom (talk) 13:04, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Edited Wiki articles

Please can you tell me how to look up earlier versions of Wiki articles before edits have been made to them. I do not know whether these earlier versions are archived. P123cat1 (talk) 10:30, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

You can click on the "History" tab at the top of the page. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:37, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

And then click on the time and date link of whatever version you wish to see.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:19, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

... or did I misunderstand your question? Were you asking about the edit history of articles that have been deleted? if so, only an admin can see those. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:46, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

To David Biddulph: No, you didn't misunderstand my question, and thanks, I have found what I was after. Am impressed by the prompt reply. This concerns my first foray into editing on Wiki and there is an awful lot to wade through and get accustomed to on the editing/help part of the Wiki site, but can't think why I didn't do the obvious and click on "History" as you suggested - I think it was case of not being able to see the wood for the trees! Many thanks. P123cat1 (talk) 12:47, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Searching Georgia Breweries

In searching Georgia breweries, I was surprised you had not listed Jekyll Brewing in Alpharetta Georgia. They were recently awarded Best New Brewery by Rate Beer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.226.134.109 (talk) 12:21, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I think the article List of breweries in Georgia (U.S. state) is intended as a list of Georgia Breweries that are notable enough, in Wikipedia's sense, that there is an article here about them. There is currently no article here about Jekyll Brewing. If someone creates an article about Jekyll Brewing (to do this they will have to establish that it is indeed notable), then I am sure it will be added to the list. Maproom (talk) 12:57, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Changing Username

CAn anyone please tell me how to edit my username — Preceding unsigned comment added by Flaming Blaze (talk • contribs) 12:58, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

The process for changing username is at Wikipedia:Changing username. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:03, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Cats (musical) - last edit does not show

Despite being an experienced editor, I am baffled by this. The last edit on this page is Cluebot reverting vandalism, but the version showing is the previous one. Mezigue (talk) 13:13, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

174.102.111.166 made an edit, then 76.95.108.103 posted "Cats are so cool but dogs are better" and then ClueBot NG reverted to version by 174.102.111.166 to remove "Cats are so cool but dogs are better". The version by 174.102.111.166 does not include "Cats are so cool but dogs are better", yet the phrase "Cats are so cool but dogs are better" still is in the article lead. Also, when you look at the Clubot removal diff, it says it removed "Cats are so cool but dogs are better", the diff edit shows "Cats are so cool but dogs are better" being removed, but the article below the diff show the phrase still in the article text. -- Jreferee (talk) 13:28, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I've done a purge, and that has cured it. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:38, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

User boxes

Can someone display my user boxes in columns filling in across at the bottom of my User Page. Thanks. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 13:33, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Do you mean like how I have mine? If so, you can just copy my code... which I probably copied from someone else. Dismas|^(talk) 14:09, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, thanks.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 14:42, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

How do I know that my article has been submitted for review?

It is not clear on my page that my article has been submitted? How do I know that it has submitted and how will I know if it is accepted? HSLitwin (talk) 14:01, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

OP seems to be referring to User:HSLitwin/sandbox. I'm not familiar with the nuts and bolts of the creation and review process, so I'll leave that for someone else to answer. I just thought it would be helpful to have a link to the article. Dismas|^(talk) 14:06, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

In the box at the top of User:HSLitwin/sandbox is a sentence that says "If you are writing an article, and are ready to request its creation, click here." & the words "click here" are in blue to show that it is a wikilink, so do as it says. You'll then get a box that tells you it's been submitted. The page should be on your watchlist so you'll see when someone responds, & usually a reviewer would also put a message on your user talk page. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:10, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I see that you've done it and that it's already been reviewed, so you need to read the links provided. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:13, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Color for the new season page

I have always wondered why the background color on a season is what it is. Like one season of a television show has the color red, while the next season has tha color yellow. Who decide which color to use on each of the pages of the seasons? And how do you know which color you will use? Do some just pick a color for the season page and everyone agrees, or do you have a discussion about it? The reason I am asking this is because I picked out a color for Pretty Little Liars season 5 on the list of episodes, but I am not aware if this color (pink) is in any context with the new season. Please answer me and help me get the full picture about this. Twotimer17 (talk) 15:04, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I dont see any guidance on the Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Television page. I would suggest going to the project talk page to see if there is any standard. Whatever you do, make sure that you follow Wikipedia:ACCESS#Color. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:43, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

help

I need to know where I can go for help. a man said last night to contact my congressman so here goes.. back in 97 I went to school and took out a loan to do so . I never paid it back so they were taking my income tax returns.. theyre still taking them to this date.. I was a single mother with a mortgage back then .. two years returns would have been sufficient.. now the school want 11k more and im still not getting my returns.. please tell me how I should resolve this problem.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.39.97.66 (talk) 15:34, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

This is the help desk for how to use Wikipedia. You won't reach a congressman by writing here. Maproom (talk) 16:05, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Nor can we give legal advice, even at the reference desk, and I don't think we should give financial advice either. Ther might be some useful information at Student loans in the United States. DES ^(talk) 16:19, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

As a rule, the Wikipedia article for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives will include a link to his or her official Congress page under "External links" (near the bottom). If you go to the Wikipedia article for your representative and click on that link, you should find a "Contact me" or similar link on the official page that you can use to e-mail the person regarding your problem. Deor (talk) 19:26, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Linking Swedish article to English Sköna Helena

I created an article on the 1951 Swedish film Sköna Helena, but the automated linking is not working, and I have just failed to link it manually. Any thoughts? Many thanks. Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 17:22, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Inter-language connections are handled through WP:WIKIDATA. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 17:36, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by "the automated linking is not working". Maybe you expect a feature we don't have. Do you see "Add links" under "Languages" to the left of Sköna Helena? If so, click that, select sv as language and "Sköna Helena (film, 1951)" as page. That should make the Wikidata entry for a link to sv:Sköna Helena (film, 1951). If it doesn't work then please be more specific about the problem, and tell us your browser. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:19, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I think I've fixed it [1] 88.104.19.233 (talk) 20:15, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for resolving it; I thought that as we are not supposed to manually add a link to another language version of the same article any more, it was done automatically, but when I tried to do it myself I got a session time-out message after about 2-3 seconds. Odd. Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 20:39, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Have both genders for template

Is there a way to change this template to include Chaiwoman and not just Chairman. A little sexist no? Or even better, eliminate gender altogether an change to Chairperson? {{Infobox American political party}} I don't know how to change it or I would Thanks for the help :) Madiesmith (talk) 19:44, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Making the change to "Chairperson" or just "Chair" is technically simple. But the template is widely used, so i have posted at Template talk:Infobox American political party#Chairman to see if anyone has any views before making any change. You may want to comment there also. To get the template to automatically detect the gender and use a gendered form would be significantly more work for, in my view, little gain. DES ^(talk) 20:20, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

It seems that such a change was proposed back in 2008, but not acted on. DES ^(talk) 20:42, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Template:Airport codes

Does anybody know what the required code would be for {{Airport codes}} so that the bolding could be optional. It already uses p=n to suppress the parentheses so something like b=n would be good. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 20:23, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

One way is to replace '''{{{1}}}''' by {{#ifeq:{{{b}}}|n|{{{1}}}|'''{{{1}}}'''}}, and so on. Many templates only test whether a parameter is non-blank and not what value it has. That would be {{#if:{{{b|}}}|{{{1}}}|'''{{{1}}}'''}}. By the way, you can use string functions to manipulate the output of a template without editing the template itself. For example, {{replace|{{Airport codes|AAA|BBBB|CCC}}|'''|}} produces (IATA: AAA, ICAO: BBBB, FAA LID: CCC). For this template it sounds useful in many articles so adding a template option would be better. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:01, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll use the first example later to fix the template. It's used in almost all airport articles as part of the first sentence, where I'm not sure that there is consensus to have the bolding, Template talk:Airport codes#Airport codes in boldface, or not. It's also in hospitals, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, which is why the p=n option and the bolding needs to be turned off. There is some use in the body of articles, Whistler, British Columbia#Transportation, which is another place that the bolding is not required. Thanks again. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 17:10, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

• CambridgeBayWeather, perhaps the better idea is to see if there is a consensus to have the bolding there at all in the template. If it was removed completely from the template, there is nothing to stop people from using single quotes to force the bolding in cases where desired like {{Airport codes|'''AAA'''|'''BBBB'''|'''CCC'''}}. I think this is the best option because it keeps the template's code to a minimal to reduce the expansion size and doesn't prevent people from having the bolding if they want it. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 17:56, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Hadn't thought about that. I've started a RfC at Template talk:Airport codes#RfC: Should the codes be in bold by default?. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 21:01, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Is there a way to change the font in Vector skin?

In my preferences I use Vector skin. I have a custom CSS. Is there a way to change the default font which Vector skin uses to Courier New rather than what it is by default? By adding a line in my CSS or I don't know. Please explain in intelligible terms and please ping me user:Basemetal. Thanks. Contact Basemetal here 22:08, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Basemetal. You could add the code

* {
    font-family: Courier New;
}

This will make all text display in Courier New. --Anon126 (talk - contribs) 00:12, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

@Anon126: It worked. Beautiful. I added your code to User:Basemetal/vector.css and now everything is in Courier New. And if I want to change the size, what do I do? And also: where can I get a list of all available fonts? Contact Basemetal here 00:31, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Your browser can probably display a list of available fonts. font-family: X; passes X to your browser, whatever X is. If X isn't recognized by your browser then it probably uses its default font instead. Vector doesn't set a default font. It tells your browser to use its default font. If you also prefer Courier New at other sites which don't set their own font then you can probably change your browser default.

The Google search css font size gives http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_font_font-size.asp as the first result. Here is one way to set font size:

p {font-size:15px}

Wikipedia simply passes your custom CSS to your browser so just search on CSS if you want to change other things. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:02, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: How do you change the default font in the browser. I use Chrome. Thanks. Contact Basemetal here 02:26, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

I strongly recommend you learn to use a search engine. They are very useful. Go to http://google.com. Enter for example change the default font in Chrome in the box, or just default font Chrome. The first result for me is https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95416?hl=en which should do the trick. It was also the first or second result in all other searches I tried. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:41, 16 February 2014 (UTC)