Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 January 24

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< January 23 << Dec | January | Feb >> January 25 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


January 24[edit]

Trying to Communicate with an IP... Looking for the right place to ask[edit]

An IP on one of the pages I edit has been coming close to edit warring with me over a sentence that they consider irrelevant to the topic but I believe is important to the topic. (It's a mention of a US release for a foreign film that qualified for several American awards due to the release.) I've tried asking them to talk it out on the talk page, but they've just kept on removing the sentence in question. Where do I go for help for something like this, especially since this person has been making reasonable edits on other pages? Luthien22 (talk) 02:40, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia:Administrator's Noticeboard/Incidents? You can notify administrators there and they will take action. Also in the event of an edit war, see Administrator's Noticeboard/Edit warring. pcfan500talk|my contribs 02:54, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) This page is about how to use and edit Wikipedia, as stated at the top, so it's a good enough place to ask. The IP hasn't ediited Song of the Sea (2014 film) for about 46 hours, and their contribs show that they have edited several others since then. They may have moved on. In any case, I'd suggest a little light reading, starting perhaps with Wikipedia:Edit warring, and come back if it leaves you with other questions. ―Mandruss  02:59, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks to both of you! My concern is that this is the third time I've gone through this series of edits with this IP, and they don't seem to be willing to communicate. Although it hasn't actually escalated to an edit war according to WP:3RR, it's gotten frighteningly close, and I don't like counting the number of reverts I do on a page or checking time stamps. I think I might wait a bit before getting an admin involved, but if it does happen again, I now know where to go. Luthien22 (talk) 03:05, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Font change[edit]

Suddenly the font changed in Wikipedia (only), and I'm looking at large letters. How do I get it back to normal? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:06, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm. Have you tried restarting your browser? ―Mandruss  03:12, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No change. This is happening in Firefox. If I try Chrome, it works fine. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:17, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Excellent, since I'm also a Firefoxer. Go to a page with the big letters and then click on the three horizontal bars in the upper right. What zoom percentage do you see? ―Mandruss  03:20, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That does it. I was at 250%. Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:23, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I think CTRL+0 fixes that in most browsers.--ukexpat (talk) 13:38, 26 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Most, but not all: it doesn't work in IE 7 or IE 8. Having Windows XP, I can't test IE 9 or later. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:44, 26 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Slow-motion edit war at Kelami[edit]

I'm involved in a slow-motion edit war with some IP editors who are repeatedly adding information about a World of Warcraft character to the article on an Azerbaijani town of the same name (Kelami). Is there anything I can do to deal with this issue, other than just continuing to revert the edits? —Granger (talk · contribs) 03:13, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Check out the "Trying to communicate..." thread, just above. It's not exactly the same situation, but it's close enough. ―Mandruss  03:16, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

User dropbox[edit]

I don't know if this question is appropriate here or not, but I was wondering where the drop box at the top right of the site, which had links to my talk page, watchlist, log out, etc, has gone? Did this happen to everyone? Or is it just me? - adamstom97 (talk) 05:09, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Adamstom.97: Is this the feature I remember seeing on the Beta features preferences tab? If so, it has indeed gone from there. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:13, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's not just you. Mine reverted back to the old way in the last day or two and I hadn't yet had time to investigate it. Dismas|(talk) 19:38, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It must have been a Beta thing, I guess I just got so used to it that I forgot, and now it seems really weird without it. - adamstom97 (talk) 19:51, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ditto, was so used to it that I just spent 10 minutes searching for the option to switch it on but can't find it. CaptRik (talk) 19:00, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The removal was eventually announced at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 133#Compact Personal Toolbar beta removed. -- John of Reading (talk) 22:19, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ugly-looking URL in reference - any way to make it look better[edit]

Hi all,

This about Dance in the City. The URL in question is http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/city-dance-country-dance-8908.html?commentaire_id/city-dance-country-dance-8908.html?tx_commentaire_pi1[pidLi]=509&tx_commentaire_pi1[from]=841&cHash=8764d0ef62&S=1. It renders as [pidLi=509&tx_commentaire_pi1[from]=841&cHash=287e0fb5ef "Pierre Auguste Renoir: City Dance, Country Dance"].
Truncating it to http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/city-dance-country-dance-8908.html just brings up a general page about the museum's "works in focus".

OK, so the URL contains [-s and ]-s which confuses the wiki-code. Is there any way around this?

Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 09:00, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Shirt58: See Help:URL#Fixing links with unsupported characters. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:32, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! --Shirt58 (talk) 09:43, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Requested categories[edit]

Hi there, is there a special page to request categories? I had stumbled upon this request, and while such a category might be redundant to the Category:American non-fiction environmental writers, I'm wondering where to refer the new user to instead. Regards, Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 11:57, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Article wizard/Category seems to be what you're looking for. Scarce2 (talk) 13:50, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Axolotl Nr.733 (talk) 14:36, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Adding links to art website[edit]

Hello,

I have made an Art website specialized on painting (www.bestofpainting.com) and I wish to include links to it in every artist biography that has a gallery on my website, like this one: Hans Memling at Best Of Painting (http://www.bestofpainting.com/Flemish-Primitives/Hans-Memling/) I do not wish to spam Wikipedia, these links show a gallery of each artist's works and are therefore relevant to each artist biography. Please let me know how to be sure these links are not considered spam by wikipedia.

Best regards, Nuno Palmeirim — Preceding unsigned comment added by Npalmeirim (talkcontribs) 12:13, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you can get your website to develop some importance in the art world or garner some significance online, it would be a welcomed addition. Using Wikipedia to help you do these things is by definition spam (relevant Wikipedia guideline). Also, what does your website provide that the links already found do not? For example, the Wikimedia Commons is linked on many different artists articles (e.g., commons:Category:Sandro Botticelli). What does your website offer that the Commons doesn't already? Scarce2 (talk) 13:43, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
My website provides the user with very good quality images of each artwork, some of these are found on Wikimedia Commons, some of these are not available on Wikmedia Commons. It is also a "best of" selection of images, the user can see in a glance the artists most valued works, for instance Claude Monet: http://www.bestofpainting.com/Impressionism/Best-of-monet/. In the case of the better known artists, such as this one, we also provide a free aplication for both iOS and Android: http://www.bestofpainting.com/Impressionism/ I want to contribute to a better understanding of the artist by the wikipedia user, and I hope these links may prove to be useful for everybody. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Npalmeirim (talkcontribs) 14:23, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The website also sells such photos. But commercial or not, please see WP:EL (especially WP:ELNO) for additional information about external links in Wikipedia articles. GermanJoe (talk) 15:31, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
What works featured on your site are not available on the Commons? How exactly are an artist's "most valued works" determined? The site simply appears to be a SmugMug gallery, which exists primarily (if not solely) to sell artwork. A good resource to link to from Wikipedia would be a database that provides details not found on Wikipedia (such as IMDb) that monetize in other ways (such as with advertising, as done by IMDb). You'll find the resources linked on Monet's article are institutions and non-profit sites; another link to a gallery seems redundant. Scarce2 (talk) 15:40, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
OK. It all seems very subjective. In Monet's case, I may agree with your point of view because there are already many links to galleries, but in lesser known artists there are usually very few links. In this example, I should point out that the 2nd link (intermonet.com) is broken, and the 4th link (http://www.monetpainting.net/) sells monet posters on allposters.net. I believe that my site has relevant content in context with the biographies, and I think that it might fit in WP:ELYES point 3. I really would like to contribute to these articles, but if you feel that the site's content is redundant, I will not add the links. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Npalmeirim (talkcontribs) 16:20, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I tested a download from your site for an upload to commons, but when I eventually looked at the meta-data I gave up with a deletion request. –Be..anyone (talk) 05:56, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

please update Anna Marie duff wiki[edit]

Anne Marie Duff is listed and the actress who plays Fiona Gallagher on Shameless. That is incorrect. Emmy Rossum plays Fiona on Shameless.2600:100D:B128:195:DCCC:5203:1A58:3595 (talk) 15:03, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I watched almost every episode of the first two series. The closing credits definitely say Anne-Marie Duff. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:26, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Shameless (U.S. TV series) is a remake of Shameless (UK TV series). I guess, that causes the confusion. The information in both country-specific versions seems to be correct on a quick glance. GermanJoe (talk) 15:35, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The perfect error record on cast members seems to stand but we have a new reason for false reports. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:48, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting Behavior[edit]

Hi Folks, this page history has some interesting behavior going on. I understand that the Help Page is more for queries than for general comments, but I wasn't quite sure where else to share this... so I figured here at least I could see what the Help Desk crowd had to say about this. In any case, one or more people have been making pairs of edits for 3 years on this page, always leaving the page intact after the second edit. Is there anything more to this then just someone amusing themselves? Noah 20:07, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I see you gave them a level 1 edit test warning. I added a level 2 since they do so much of it. Let's see where it goes; I suppose they could eventually be given a temp block if it continues, for waste of Wikipedia computer resources. ―Mandruss  20:15, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oh now I noticed that they have used multiple IPs. In that case, I'm at a loss; doesn't seem practical to template all of them. More wisdom will be along shortly. ―Mandruss  20:19, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, most all of the edits are from the 67.226.0.0/17 range which appears to be the Houston Community College System. Some maybe some bored teacher or IT person (a student likely wouldn't be there for three years, but you never know). In any case, pretty harmless as far as test/disruptive edits go. Mostly I was just impressed at the length of time the person had kept it up. Noah 20:51, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm, maybe some instructor is teaching intro to Wikipedia editing and never heard of a sandbox? I'm not well-versed enough in the technical aspects to know whether that would produce these results; i.e., wouldn't all the computers in the classroom go through one cable modem and therefore one IP address? ―Mandruss  20:56, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I think the range is too wide for an IP range block. ―Mandruss  21:00, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
How about an edit filter on the article? - X201 (talk) 22:00, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

PDF creation on iPad[edit]

As a longtime user, I am used to downloading PDFs of articles for offline reading. I just got an iPad, and when I search and get an article, I get only the article, no tools. (I can't find any "view" or "window" or other button that opens "tools"). How can I download the article (to save/read in iBooks) as a PDF on my iPad? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ctowngary (talkcontribs) 22:09, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There may be a better way but one way to do this is 1) scroll down on the Wikipedia page (in Safari on your iPad), 2) select "Desktop" intead of mobile, 3) then click the standard Download PDF link in the left-hand menu. I just tried this and was able to download a page as a PDF into iBooks. Noah 22:34, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ongoing vandalism by Da13rlene An3dre2ws1[edit]

On going vandalism by Da13rlene An3dre2ws1 -- Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 23:01, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Indeffed by Edgar181. Vandalism reports go to Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. ―Mandruss  23:06, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much. The vandal was vandalizing at such a rate (1 article per minute), and I couldn't remember where to report it properly so I used the first place I found. :-) Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 23:19, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Darrell Greenwood: Yeah, you could bookmark that, or just memorize "AIV", as in WP:AIV. ―Mandruss  00:00, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 00:09, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Darrell Greenwood: You're welcome. Please stop modifying other editors' markup, you're messing up my signature. ―Mandruss  00:11, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It was unintentional, my apologies. Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 01:22, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Darrell Greenwood: Sorry, I should have explained better. You have some sort of automatic spell-checking going on in your browser, and it keeps changing the CSS property color: to colour: in my signature, every time you edit this thread. Since colour: is not a supported CSS property (at least on this site), that changes the appearance of my signature. If you don't find a way to turn off this spell-checking, you're going to have a lot of people mad at you. Basically, most of those who use the color: property in their signatures, in talk threads that you edit. ―Mandruss  01:26, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If you need help with turning that off, start a thread at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. ―Mandruss  01:29, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the explanation. You were right, I didn't comprehend the problem. I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks. Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 01:39, 25 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]