Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 January 3

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January 3

starting a wikipedia page

I am an administrator at a middle school and our students are working hard to gather information for a Wikipedia page for our school. How can I help them to get started? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robiousmiddle (talk • contribs) 00:03, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Robiousmiddle: Welcome! start by reading (and studying, not just reading) our notability guidelines. If your subject (the schoolO) is notable by that definition, then we want an article. It the subject is not notable, then we will delete any such article. This is the only rule for article inclusion. See WP:N. If you (and your student team) conclude that the subject is not notable, then find another subject to have them concentrate their efforts on. ONLY after you have a notable subject, proceed to WP:YFA. Good luck! -Arch dude (talk) 00:26, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

You should request a username change at WP:CHUS to something that does not indicate that you are editing on behalf of the school, although, honestly, you are. Given your inexperience and obvious conflict of interest, I also suggest that you not create an article but a draft, and when you think you're done, submit the draft to WP:AFC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bbb23 (talk • contribs) 00:31, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

​Wikipedia's current view is that only notable schools should have a standalone Wikipedia page. Most middle schools are redirected to the page about their school district. Wikipedia tries to summarize what independant secondary sources have said about a topic, and for most middle schools those types of sources are limited. You could however start your school's own personal wiki hosted elsewhere, where you would be free to assemble oral history and primary information. – Thjarkur (talk) 00:33, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your help. I will look into the personal wiki space. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robiousmiddle (talk • contribs) 01:06, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Robiousmiddle: Your school district's IT department might be willing to put up a computer With a Wiki for the district. This would allow you much more scope than you would get here on Wikipedia. The equipment cost would be trivial (a $100.00 computer suffices) but administration takes actual salaried work hours. -Arch dude (talk) 02:18, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

BLATANTLY plagiarizing!!

I'm not sure who to report this to, but this website: https://everything.explained.today is BLATANTLY plagiarizing Wikipedia!!! Every page has been pulled from Wikipedia!! Can someone forward this to appropriate desk? This is horrible how they use everyone's hard work as THEIR own! Thanks, Buskieboy — Preceding unsigned comment added by Buskieboy (talk • contribs) 01:00, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

It's one of thousands of Wikipedia mirrors and since Wikipedia supports open exchange and distribution of information we actually encourage this. The page follows all of Wikipedia's requirements: It links to the GNU license, links to the original Wikipedia article, and says where the information comes from. – Thjarkur (talk) 01:31, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Buskieboy: more generally, Plagiarism is copying without attribution. If it's attributed, then it's not plagiarism, and if it's not attributed, then it is plagiarism. This is entirely separate from any other legal, ethical, or copyright issues. -Arch dude (talk) 02:04, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Zbigniew Blazeje removed by copyright infringement

This entry is being removed due to it being the same as a Facebook page. I created the Facebook page. I created the Wikipedia page. I use a pseudonym on Facebook. Information about Zbigniew Blazeje is derived from sources documented in my footnotes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Danielkernohan (talk • contribs) 02:19, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Danielkernohan: we have no methodology for verifing that you are the same person and we have no interest in doing so: it would add extra work for our unpaid volunteers. You may choose to add a specific liberal copyright license (e.g., CC-BY-SA) to the Facebook page, or you can reword the material to avoid the copyright infringement. -Arch dude (talk) 02:54, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

I have removed the Facebook entry for Zbigniew Blazeje which duplicated the Wikipedia entry. This was not done with any malicious intent. I was only trying to document a significant Canadian artist whose art was collected by major Canadian museums as well being represented in independent galleries. The facts are derived from articles in major Canadian newspapers and respected Canadian art magazines. Straight facts reported without judgement are not something that can be plagiarized. If said artist was born in 1948, stating so in one or more places is not plagiarism. In any case the Facebook entry has been removed in an earnest attempt to avoid any suspicion of plagiarism. I did all this research myself by going to the archives of both the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. I contacted 20 galleries across Canada and received most of the information on Blazeje directly from their curators and archivists. I also documented all the sources in the footnotes on the Wikipedia page, and doing so indicated sources and accreditations in an appropriate scholarly fashion.

I apologize for any confusion the Facebook entry caused, but as I said I have removed it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Danielkernohan (talk • contribs) 2020-01-03T16:45:08 (UTC)

Hello, Danielkernohan. Nobody thinks you have malicious intent. The issue is not one of plagiarism, but one of copyright. Wikipedia takes copyright more seriously than many sites on the internet, and one of its founding policies is to make all material freely reuseable; this means that (with certain limited exceptions) all material posted must be either public domain (explicitly or by reason of age), or explicitly released under a licence such as WP:CC-BY-SA. Normally when we enter text into the editor, we are agreeing to license it under such a licence; but if the text has already been published, anywhere, then it is already copyright, and can only be licensed explicitly by the copyright owner. The problem here is that in general, Wikipedia has no way of knowing who an editor is, and whether they have the legal right to release the material.

To be on the safe side, Wikipedia takes the view that if the material has been published elsewhere, and there is no clear indication on the original publication that it may be freely reused, then the material will not be accepted into Wikipedia. There is a way round this - the copyright owner can send a message to a particular section of Wikipedia administration called OTRS (see donating copyright materials) but for text (as opposed to images) this is rarely done, because it is usually easier just to paraphrase.

The other point, though, is that from your description above, this sounds like original research. Wikipedia does not publish original research, ever. All articles should summarise what existing reliably-published sources say about the subject. --ColinFine (talk) 17:09, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Why was my edit removed?

I’m not sure if you have looked up “stagecoach” yet but it clearly states it being a dance drama and singing club not just a carriage. So please may my edit remain since is is 100% true and states facts from my experience. I am deeply offended. Yours, Radiant-Shine (talk) 02:36, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Courtesy link. No action needed. [[1]] TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 02:53, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

(Responded on user's talk page.) -Arch dude (talk) 03:16, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Searching contributions from IP range

I know I can check [[Special:Contributions/a.b.c.d]] to see a history of activity by a particular IP address. Is there an easy to way to check the contribution history for a range of IP addresses, such as a.b.c.0/24? FrankP (talk) 16:54, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Yes. Special:Contributions/a.b.c.0/24 --David Biddulph (talk) 16:56, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Oh! As simple as that. I should have just tried that, duh!. Thanks for replying. FrankP (talk)

Problem with the exchange rates of South Sudanese pound

Hello, I noticed a problem about South Sudanese pound exchange rates, but I don't know where it comes from and how to solve it, I'm sure that last month there was a link to the right exchange rates but I don't know why it disappeared. The code says {{Exchange rate|SSP|JPY|USD}} but I have no idea what it means. I think last month there was a link to a fifth website, with exchange rate from a central bank but I can't remember which one. I left a message at Talk:South Sudanese pound but I had no answer yet. How can I find any help ? Regards Valerie Nurse (talk) 18:39, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

The curly brackets are used to transclude a template, so the code which you quote is calling Template:Exchange rate. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:59, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Ok, I see, there was a recent change on this page. Thank you.Valerie Nurse (talk) 19:07, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Basketball player

Hey how are you. My Name is Marcus Johnson Jr and I am a Professional basketball player playing Basketball overseas, i was wonder how can i get a wright up ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.214.150.243 (talk) 21:07, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

If you meet the Wikipedia definition of a notable basketball player, another editor will eventually take note of your career and write an article about you. Writing an article about yourself is strongly discouraged, see the autobiography policy for more information. Please understand that a Wikipedia article is not necessarily desirable; there are good reasons to not want one. 331dot (talk) 21:33, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Info-box

Hi, I am learning how to make info-boxes for politicians but I have some difficulties. I am trying to add a second term for a member of parliament. The second begins in 2011 and ends in 2015 I tried to work on it in my sandbox and copy it from an other Info box but I did not achieve it. It is for Aysel Tuğluk. Can someone help me? Thank you. Paradise Chronicle (talk) 22:01, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

With Template:Infobox_officeholder, use | term_start = , | term_start1 = , | term_start2 = etc. and | term_end = , | term_end1 = , | term_end2 = etc. Parameters such as parliamentarygroup, constituency, term_start, term_end, predecessor, successor, ... can be repeated up to 16 times by adding a number. Wakari07 (talk) 00:15, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Paradise Chronicle: I made a change to your sandbox, can you check? Wakari07 (talk) 01:12, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I will check it and see if I can do it my self as well. Paradise Chronicle (talk) 06:05, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Should an event that is writen in the present tense, but now is in the past, be changed to the past tense?

I have seen many articles that include information on what was then a present or future event, but is now in the past. Should I make the effort to change the tense to reflect the fact that the event is now in the past, or leave it as a form of historical record of the time that the article was written? Charliecombs (talk) 22:12, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Charliecombs:I generally update to place the event in the past. We are supposed to be an encyclopedia, not a historical log. Anyone who wants to see what the article looked like in the past is free to use the history. It's a good idea to also review the material to see if subsequent events justify some additional copyediting, as present tense often means the material was "breaking news" and a look from today's perspective may be more objective. -Arch dude (talk) 22:50, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

@Charliecombs: See MOS:TENSE. Note, though, that we usually don't use constructs like "former President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation" (i.e., leave off the "former" or "then-" prefix) since he wasn't the former President at the time he did it (see MOS:PERSONOROFFICE). Plot summaries of films, however, are written in present-tense by convention and to simplify things (see MOS:PLOT). —[AlanM1(talk)]— 01:52, 4 January 2020 (UTC)