Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 March 12

Help desk
< March 11	<< Feb | March | Apr >>	March 13 >

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.

March 12

Possible hoax schizotypal autism

I've tried to research this disorder, and found zero results besides the Wikipedia article. I even asked my Finnish friend about said disorder, and he has never heard of it. The only source is a book with no pages selected and the author only was on wikipedia for a brief time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobjones2222 (talk • contribs) 00:23, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Tool for calculating edit differential?

Is there a thingamabob to count up the bytes a user adds to Wikipedia, and what it takes away? I'm pretty sure I'm more destructive than constructive (in a good way), but would like some less fallible numbers. It should just count article space, not desks or talks. And no, I won't consider tallying it myself. That's nuts. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:12, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

action=query&list=usercontrib&ucprop=sizediff from the API will show you how many bytes a user added or removed in their individual edits (example). If you know a scripting language, you could very easily sum these totals. I'd do it but I'm surprisingly lazy. Scarce2 (talk) 07:21, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

"Ah sitting, the great leveler. From the lowliest peasant to the mightiest pharoah, who does not enjoy a good sit?"

I'm pretty script illiterate (no idea what your example is supposed to show), but a bit closer now. Thanks! InedibleHulk (talk) 07:40, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Fixing an article talk page archive

I don't use automated archiving so don't know how to fix this. There is something weird about the archiving at Talk:Plutocracy. I could find Talk:Plutocracy/Archive 61 but not Talk:Plutocracy/Archive 1. Does anyone here know how to fix this and set up auto archiving so it works? Cheers. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 05:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I have fixed the archive counter [1] and moved the archive. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you PrimeHunter! --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 00:59, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

yet not received the login info from wikipedia

i signed up for wikipedia and i got a mail in response that i will get my login info soon but i have yet not received any email after that. The mail was as following :

Many thanks for your interest in joining Wikipedia. I've gone ahead and created the account for you. You will receive a separate automated e-mail from wiki@wikimedia.org with your login credentials. You can use these to log in for the first time, when you will be prompted to create a new password.

When you have successfully logged in, you may find the "getting started" section of our help pages useful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents/Getting_started). Of particular interest may be the introduction to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction) which has some information to help you get up to speed with the way things work on the encyclopedia.

One useful hint: when you have logged in for the first time and created your own password, go to your preferences (the link for them is right at the top of the screen), and ensure your email address is set where indicated. Should you forget your password, then this will allow you to have a new one sent to you!

I wish you all the best and hope you enjoy your time on Wikipedia.

• If you did not make this request, please ignore this email. If you wish to report this, please send an email to accounts-enwiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org with a copy of the original email.*

Regards,

Anup Mehra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anupmehra English Wikipedia Account Creation Team

Kindly send my login credentials soon so that i could start using wikipedia — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.57.188.135 (talk) 07:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that you have not yet received your login credentials. I would however suggest you to check your mailbox folders other than inbox such as, junk, spam, etc. in case it reached there. If you are a Google mail user, please do check "social media" inbox tab (fourth one) too. You can also search for the login credential email from wiki@wikimedia.org using your mail search feature (type "from:wiki@wikimedia.org" without quotes in search box and hit Enter key).

Anyway, if it is not even there, please send an email to accounts-enwiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org with request number (six digit number from subject) and I will do what I can to help you out. Regards, Anupmehra -Let's talk! 07:58, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

User warning template for dodgy usernames?

Is there a standardized template for warning a user whose name appears to violate WP:U#Usernames implying shared use? I've seen a few of these, but am feeling a bit tongue-tied in regards to gently advising them to correct such errors. (e.g. User:VP Publications ISBS)--Robin Thayler (talk) 08:32, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

As it says at WP:BADNAME on the page to which you referred, you can use {{uw-username}}. That allows you to explain the reason. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. It was indeed there, but I didn't see it.--Robin Thayler (talk) 08:51, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Robin Thayler: {{uw-coi-username}} might be better depending on what the actual username is, the warning itself goes a bit more into the policy than the general one. PhantomTech (talk) 16:12, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

wanted a title to be created

Sir I wanted to research a topic that is iWebsite and when looked found that there is no such article on wiki so request you to grant me rights or access to work on and provide guidance. your sincerely — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pankajsmishra (talk • contribs) 09:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article. You don't need 'rights' to create an article. What you do need however is evidence in third-party published reliable sources that the subject meets our notability criteria. AndyTheGrump (talk) 09:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input

Hello, I keep getting the same message. I've deleted the cite errors, then put then in again. I have put the cite signs on either side of the references I've included - is this wrong? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malcolm vex (talk • contribs) 09:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Malcolm vex, the error on the page speficially pointed to a situation where you had a set of empty <ref></ref> tags on the page. I have removed them with this edit [2]. The references you have added are formatted suitably but should be moved up into the article text, next to the facts that they prove. CaptRik (talk) 09:27, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Featured Portal

Is having the DYK section necessary for a Featured Portal? RRD13 দেবজ্যোতি (talk) 11:27, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I would have thought that it depends on the topic, but a portal that has a sufficiently large topic area to reach featured status is likely to have enough articles within its scope to make a DYK section (and therefore likely to fail FPOC without one). What's the portal? Bencherlite^Talk 11:33, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Bencherlite: Hi, its still under construction, Portal:Mughal Empire. By the way, can you help me by looking into it and pointing out how the syntax has broken? Thanks! RRD13 দেবজ্যোতি (talk) 11:46, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Royroydeb, fixed I think. You had some misplaced pages, some bad syntax in the /header and /footer, and too many /headers around the place. Now you can the format for the /articles for the /biographies section, for example. If you want to check some code in a functioning portal try P:OXFORD (said he modestly). Oh, and I removed the Wikinews section because it will never have anything in it, so that saves you some work. Bencherlite^Talk 12:26, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

'Moving' article name

Hello,

I'm writing to you because I'm having some trouble changing the name of my article. The page I'm talking about is our company's - ESNA European Higher Education News, which I would like to rename 'ESNA' following a change up within the firm ESNA European Higher Education News.

I've researched how one would normally go about changing or 'moving' the title of an article, but the drop-down arrow which is supposed to appear in the edit toolbar simply isn't there. Online it says that this could be because I'm not an 'autoconfirmed user', but that's only the case for users who haven't been on for more than 10 days or made a certain amount of edits, I think?

Thanks in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by Isidor.grim (talk • contribs) 12:01, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

4 days and 10 edits, see Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed#Autoconfirmed users. You meet the first requirement, but not yet the second. I have taken the liberty of changing the url in your question to a wikilink. --David Biddulph (talk) 12:07, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

As a side note, be careful with the words you use, please read WP:OWN Its not your article. Secondly, you have a Conflict of interest and are advised to not edit it. - X201 (talk) 14:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Please remove the information here.

Spam (food)

Please remove this statement in the South Korean segment: "Spam products currently being sold in Korea are made with more high-quality ingredients than other countries." This statement is not true. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snelsen (talk • contribs) 13:23, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

This dubious and unreferenced information has now been removed by TheRedPenOfDoom. Maproom (talk) 14:09, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

search for Shad

Hi there. Shad was just announced as the new host of Canadian radio show Q, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_%28radio_show%29 replacing Jian Ghomeshi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian_Ghomeshi When you search for Shad on Wikipedia you get the article Alosinae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alosinae. So it looks like there is no article on Shad. Can someone fix it so you get one of those pages that give the different definitions instead, so the searcher also gets the option for Shad (rapper) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shad_%28rapper%29 (which does exist, but how will people get to it). Thanks you. 142.150.38.155 (talk) 14:52, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

If you look at the top of Alosinae, it says ""Shad" redirects here. For other uses, see Shad (disambiguation)." --David Biddulph (talk) 15:03, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Shad redirects to Alosinae which already has this hatnote at top:

"Shad" redirects here. For other uses, see Shad (disambiguation).

Shad (rapper) is the first listing on the linked page so the article can easily be found. In addition, Shad K., Shad K and Shadrach Kabango redirect directly to him. It would be possible to make "Shad" the disambiguation page but I don't see a strong need for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

if you click on the history and then where it says Page view statistics you can see Shad the rapper has far more people looking for it. Thank you. 142.150.38.155 (talk) 15:56, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

We go by who has had the most significant depth of coverage over the longest period of time in the widest array public spaces. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:38, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

The fish, by a large margin! :) Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 19:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Follow Up on Undeletion of a Page

I submitted an "undeletion" request for the page "Leigh Bardugo" last week. How do I follow up on the request? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Essa 17 (talk • contribs) 16:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

According to Special:Contributions/Essa_17, you didn't. Perhaps you forgot to press "Save page"? You might try again, but first of all you ought to look at the delete log for Leigh Bardugo, which says "Circular redirect with no obvious alternate target". There is therefore presumably nothing worth undeleting. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:51, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

With the benefit of my admin x-ray vision for deleted pages, I can tell you that it was simply a redirect to Shadow and Bone. Bencherlite^Talk 17:10, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

World Sindhi Congress- article needs additional citations for verification

I am in the process of improving the WSC wikipedia page as I am a media manager for this nonprofit. I know that all the information I have added and will add is true and correct because I work directly with this organization.

How can I verify the page further in order to remove this message?: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013)

I want my group to be able to gain recognition and many people turn to wikipedia for a quick look at something new they haven't heard of before. I don't want wikipedia users to associate our organization with incorrect information. I most definitely don't want them to think we aren't paying attention to our media presence, because it's something I work hard to maintain.

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marisatw (talk • contribs) 17:38, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

To editor Marisatw: We cannot rely on your personal knowledge or solely on the organization's website and social media. Articles should primarily be based on independent, reliable sources of information (newspapers, books, magazines, and so on). Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 18:28, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Marisatw. While we want Wikipedia articles to be accurate (according to reliable published sources), it is no part of Wikipedia's purpose to help anybody "gain recognition" or to be part of anybody's "media presence". While you are encouraged to make suggestions for improving the article on its talk page, you have no control whatever over its content, and are strongly discouraged from making any edits directly to it because of your conflict of interest. --ColinFine (talk) 23:16, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Help with a file

Please tell me where I can find out if the last two files are at Wikipedia. If so why can't I insert them in an article?

Thank you for your help.

SirSwindon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.102.212 (talk) 18:47, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@76.89.102.212: They should work if you remove the period following "jpg". ―Mandruss ☎ 18:58, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

So simple......Thank you, Thank you and Thank you again!!!!!!!!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.102.212 (talk) 19:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I've changed to links, rather than trying to transclude the images onto this page. - David Biddulph (talk) 19:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Accidental creation of a user page

I edited a page in my user space. Then I tried to move it to the main space, but accidentally, I forgot to change the name space. So the following page was created in error: User:Equitable division. Now, it redirects to the actual page, but, I think it should be deleted. --Erel Segal (talk) 19:14, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I've tagged it for speedy deletion. --David Biddulph (talk) 19:17, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Adding text which is partially supported

According to wp:Verifiability "any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material". I understand that an undisputed factual text can be added without a support, or with a partial support. Am I right?

more details: my added text was: "the war resulted in significant reduction of Israeli civilians killed by infiltrating Egyptian Fedaeen units.(ref name="Morris2011p300")". this is an undisputed factual sentence, and I have not expected it to be challenged. However, this edit was erased by user:Malik Shabazz who noted: " as noted on Talk page (and in text quoted in footnote), this sentence misrepresents what the source says". Moreover, he warned me in User talk:Ykantor. I have asked him to apologize but he refused.( see [3])

Why I added a partial support: I have read the source and while reading the relevant text("The 1956 war resulted in a significant reduction of...Israeli border tension. Egypt refrained from reactivating the Fedaeen, and...Egypt and Jordan made great effort to curb infiltration") , It reminded me that the reduction of Fedaeen infiltration resulted in significant reduction of Israeli civilians killed by infiltrating Egyptian Fedaeen , so I added it. Ykantor (talk) 19:34, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Please engage with the other editor on the article's talk page. The Help Desk does not arbitrate content matters.--ukexpat (talk) 20:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, but I do not understand that. There is no content dispute. The question is whether I am right in my interpretation of the rule. I would like to know what should be done if it happens again. Please. Ykantor (talk) 21:46, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

You are incorrect. There is a content dispute stemming from a difference in interpretation of policy. This is outside the scope of the Help Desk. Please see Wikipedia:Dispute resolution#Noticeboards. ―Mandruss ☎ 21:56, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Since both of you say that it is a content dispute, I accept it although the text is not disputed. Thank you ukexpat and User:Mandruss. Ykantor (talk) 13:23, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Alterity

Trying to do major edit Error message: Incorrect or missing CAPTCHA. I do not understand the message, nor do I know how to fix the problem. --Rev.trw379 (talk) 19:59, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Rev.trw379: I guess you tried to add an external link. Your account is not autoconfirmed yet and then you have to fill out a CAPTCHA when you add external links. Some users say they don't see a CAPTCHA but just get the error message. When you have saved two more edits anywhere your account will be autoconfirmed and the problem will probably go away. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Article creation, not yourself for your article

I find it incorrect that a person cannot write an article about themselves. Who knows a person better than themselves? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.32.2.34 (talk) 20:16, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Who has a clear unbiased view of themselves? Maproom (talk) 20:28, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

That's fine but this is not the place to discuss it. Bring it up at Wikipedia talk:Autobiography. Dismas|^(talk) 21:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

The advice to bring it up at the autobiography talk page is good, but also read the conflict of interest policy, which will explain that it is very difficult to write an unbiased article about oneself. If, as many new editors think, Wikipedia were providing "profiles", then it would be appropriate for individuals to write their own profiles. However, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and seeks to have neutral articles. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:27, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

How can Wikipedia be more inviting to non-Christians?

Read the article on Surrender (religion). Christianity gets a long section and a page redirect. Hinduism gets a long section but no page redirect. Islam gets only four sentences. The article on Theology seems to really focus on Christianity and European history, which may give the impression that somehow Islam or Hinduism don't really have any significant developments in their belief systems to warrant any discussion, or perhaps, there is really nothing interesting to talk about for non-Christian religions. Perhaps, there should be a massive, intentional effort to write about non-Christian religious perspectives and histories. The only problem that I find is, this may require the ability to understand multiple languages, as not all resources are written in English. SSS (talk) 21:19, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

It is well recognized that there is a systemic bias on Wikipedia. --  Gadget850 ^talk 21:57, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

It does seem odd that the Arabic-language Wikipedia article on theology has two pictures, one of Albert of Cologne and one of Calvin. Maybe, to a Muslim, "theology" means something that Christians do.

But, to try to answer your question, I am sure that if Muslim, Hindu, etc. theologians make additions to the theology article, their work will be appreciated. What you observe is the consequence of what editors have chosen to contribute, not of any policy. Maproom (talk) 22:01, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Feel free to add to the articles in areas you feel are lacking. Like Maproom said, there is no bias in policy. As long as your additions meet the same requirements as the rest of the content there's no reason why it can't be there. PhantomTech (talk) 22:07, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

One question which comes to mind to me is the matter of article titles. Obviously, old Buddhism and Jainism don't really have a "theology," because they are basically atheistic. I wouldn't expect to find anything related to them in the "theology" article, although, maybe, it might be covered at length in some article on their worldview. And for a lot of religions which have had their longest history in some other language, there are separate articles for their conceptions in articles named after the term in that language.

Even that won't be enough to really satisfy some people, not unreasonably. But matters of WEIGHT will apply to lots of the articles which relate to terms in multiple languages, and including at least some information on each is going to be problematic.

The best thing I can think of is to look at the content in either the Eliade/Jones Encyclopedia of Religion, the German Religion Past and Present/RGG, and other highly regarded reference works and see both how long their articles on interfaith topics are and where they put content related to specific topics within specific religions. If it can be demonstrated that either article structure or number and content of sections of interfaith articles could reasonably be changed here, I don't think there would be much disagreement. Alternately, it might be possible to find a specific single-faith-related subtopic which can be spun out and linked to in the article on the broader interreligious topics. That can be some work, but at least the first of those two sources I named is I think fairly widely available. — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Carter (talk • contribs) 22:18, 12 March 2015‎ (UTC)

Philadelphia Fire Department

Would someone there have a moment to look at Philadelphia Fire Department. A gigantic amount of info was removed by two editors in a short time, and some of it was sourced info. Thanks!

The largest amount removed was a list of firefighters killed in the line of duty. That is already being discussed on the article's talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 22:26, 12 March 2015 (UTC)