Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 August 15

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August 15

Decade birth cats

I just saw this edit in my watchlist. Am I correct in thinking that articles shouldn't be put into the Category:1950s births category? That should, as a general rule, just be a category full of other categories, right? Dismas|^(talk) 00:39, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Correct. I'm not sure of the practice if the year of birth is unknown but the decade is known. In this case the year is known and there is no reason to also add the decade. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:11, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Some categories exist almost solely for organizing other categories. This is one of those example. A list of every possible year of birth would be thousands of categories, so for the sake of organization the categories themselves are broken down into smaller subunits. Most of the decade (and century, etc.) categories should be lightly populated; the only articles which should be categorized there are ones where the person's birth cannot be narrowed down to one specific year. If the year of birth is known, then it should be only in the year category. --Jayron32 01:33, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

How do I get rid of unwanted visible code above / below an image from Wikimedia Commons in a Person Infobox?

Resolved

So I've created a very simple Infobox for a person....please see below exactly what I have written for it (minus the person's information)

{{Infobox person
| name          = 
| image         = 
| birth_date     = 
| birth_place    = 
| occupation    =  
| years_active   = 
}}

The image of the person was uploaded onto Wikimedia Commons. The code it tells me to paste for use in Wiki is

[[File:(the name of the person).jpeg|thumb]]

Upon doing so and previewing my page, centered visible above the picture is [[File:

and centered below it is |frameless|alt=]]

How do I get rid of those two lines of code?! They shouldn't be visible!

Thank you for your time and help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucasbelkind (talk • contribs) 02:12, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

When using {{infobox person}}, you put just the name of the file - no formatting. As shown in the example, as;

| image = Bill Gates in WEF ,2007.jpg.

If you tell us the name of the article you're having trouble with, we could help more directly.  Chzz  ►  02:16, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

request

I would like to request a bio on Drąsius Kedys and several other people from Lithuania, but I don't know how to do it. There is no page for victims of a crime. There is no page for people from Lithuania.

Kedys is the father who allegedly shot judge Jonas Furmanaviczius, 47, and a female accomplice after police ignored his complaint that his daughter Deimantela was abused by a paedophile ring while in her mother's care, and instead his daughter was removed from his custody. He made pleas for help via the Internet, and created quite a stink in Lithuania. The day of the shooting and death, he disappeared, and his body was allegedly found in a reservoir some seven months later near his home town April 2010. Despite what the local authorities say, from his autopsy photo, he does not appear to have ever been in the water. The scratches on his face still have their scabs, he has a black eye, there are what looks like burn marks from a stun gun, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.17.140.107 (talk) 02:43, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not publish original research. If the events you mention are widely documented in reliable sources (such as newspapers), you could start an article yourself; you could also request an article (although, that can take a very long time to get processed).

If there is not significant coverage in reliable sources about the event/s, then we cannot include it in Wikipedia.

Incidentally, we do already have quite a lot of articles of people from Lithuania; see e.g. List of Lithuanians.  Chzz  ►  02:58, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Problem with the Scanning Electron Microscope page

Hi, as a chemist with arachnophobia I highly suggest you take down the gold plated spider on the SEM page. It is too much for me and has really nothing to do with the SEM. The fact that it is gold plated says that as the microscope only measures so many nano-metres so the surface would be gold atoms...which could have been placed on ANY surface, not that of a spider.

So my question is...why do you have that picture? Why does SEM need a picture of a spider at all? This has to do with editing because I would do it myself...but I want to know a reason if I should not edit it first.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.18.97.17 (talk) 04:06, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Well I suppose that if there were an image available which illustrated as well as this one how SEM subjects are gold plated, you might persuade the other editors of the article to accept it as a substitute. Discuss your proposal at the article talk page. —teb728 t c 05:18, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I think it is very unlikely it would be removed (although, you are welcome to discuss it on Talk:Scanning electron microscope) - it seems like an appropriate, encyclopaedic image.

Some people dislike images of naked/semi-naked people, or of Mohammed, or pictures of meat, or snakes, or vomit, or... whatever.

...articles may include text, images, or links which some people may find objectionable, when these materials are relevant to the content. Discussion of potentially objectionable content should not focus on its offensiveness but on whether it is appropriate to include in a given article. Beyond that, "being objectionable" is generally not sufficient grounds for removal of content. - from the policy, WP:NOTCENSORED.

There are, however, options to not see an image - that link includes instructions on how a registered user can prevent a specific image from appearing; so perhaps you might wish to create a user account.  Chzz  ►  11:39, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Template moved but subpage with references was not moved

I have moved Template:Selection of Steinway's Royal and Imperial Warrants of Appointment to Template:Selection of Steinway's Royal Warrants of Appointment. The subpage with the references has not moved. Therefore, I clicked at "create" in the box "Template documentation" on the page Template:Selection of Steinway's Royal Warrants of Appointment, because I want to write the references again. But when I have written the references and clicked "save page" on the subpage, I can not find a "purge" buttom on the Template:Selection of Steinway's Royal Warrants of Appointment.

What is wrong? --Peoplefromarizona (talk) 04:21, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I have purged it, and it's displaying fine for me. If you are still not seeing it, I suggest you purge your own computer's cache memory.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 06:09, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

By the way, the way you could have purged it was to go to the documentation template, click the edit button at the top, and then change the very end of the URL in your browser's address bar from &action=edit to &action=purge and then click enter.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 06:12, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. It looks also right on my computer now. --Peoplefromarizona (talk) 10:19, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Indefinite blocked user

Is it proper for an indefinite blocked user to contact an active user (non-admin) via email, through Wikipedia? 174.50.135.86 (talk) 05:10, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Sure, unless they start harassing through email. We can block the email function as well should this become a problem. --Jayron32 05:13, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm just suspicious on what's behind him contacting an editor that was previously supporting him blindly. Anyways, I'll just keep watching their activities. 174.50.135.86 (talk) 07:21, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

• Most likely they're looking for a friendly voice of support, perhaps one that can convince admins to undo the block. That's usually a blocked user's goal. - 194.60.106.17 (talk) 07:59, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

what happened to my new article "Google Ideas"?

Hi, I am new to writing/editing on Wikipedia. I wrote an article, called "Google Ideas", and posted in the uncontroversial confirm section. Google Ideas is a new team/venture that Google has recently launched.

It looks like someone has moved my article, but I am unsure where.

Can someone help me post this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by AndrewJohnMatthews (talk • contribs) 05:12, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

It exists in your userspace as a "userspace draft" here: User:AndrewJohnMatthews/Google Ideas. Please read Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft for what to do next. --Jayron32 05:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

You need some internal citations, see WP:CITE. And "Far from traditional philanthropy" looks like your personal opinion, if you can find a source saying that you could however quote them (but see WP:VERIFY and WP:RS first. Dougweller (talk) 05:33, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Still, I must say that AndrewJohnMatthews seems to have done a nice job on finding a good topic for a new article. It looks like a solid, notable, enterprise for which there is no article currently at Wikipedia. 99% of the time, new users don't create articles on such solid subjects. The kind of stuff that needs to be done from here forward is merely cleanup; I think the article (while well substandard content wise) is ready for the mainspace, insofar as moving it to the mainspace will raise its visibility so more exprienced Wikipedia users can take a crack at cleaning it up as well. --Jayron32 05:37, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I agree, although personally I would either lose the sentence beginning "Far from traditional…" or at least re-word it: it sounds like PR-fluff to me -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternative account of Phantomsteve]} 05:59, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I copy-edited a bit (ao the far from traditional phrase) and moved to mainspace where it can gain more input from others. See Google Ideas L.tak (talk) 17:48, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

content writer

how does one get to be a part time content writer for wikipedia in india??59.182.85.154 (talk) 05:38, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Read this page. Also, no one here is paid anything. We all just do this for free. --Jayron32 05:43, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

by spending part of your time in India writing for Wikipedia? A 'content writer' is anyone who provides content - you don't need to do anything other than provide it, in accordance with the required policies etc. (And, just in case you are under the misapprehension that it may be otherwise, you don't get paid for it - this is a voluntary project, as Jayron says). AndyTheGrump (talk)

If you are specifically interested in topics about India you could take a look at WikiProject India.

There are also Wikipedias in a number of Indian languages, see Indo-Aryan languages and Dravidian languages. Roger (talk) 08:18, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

We would love a good content writer in India-related topics; three users do most of the work to combat the incessant POV pushing that goes on there. I'm sure they'd be happy to have someone else helping them. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 14:52, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Jesse Lee Peterson and Linda Christas

I am a student attending Linda Christas College, an online, accredited institution.

As you can see by visiting our College front page (www.lindachristas.org), Rev Peterson is one of an impressive list of celebrities who have accepted honorary chairs at the College. Also: www.bondinfo.org

The College was established in 1997, and currently, among its 5,000 students, it enjoys students from all over the world. From Nairobi Kenya to Shanghai, China, Linda Christas has become known as a College that maintains the highest scholastic standards.

My question is, Wikipedia has consistently rejected listing Linda Christas College, even though several reputable professors and students (along with a few clowns after the School was rejected several times) have tried to get it listed.

The College has written to all the known executives of Wikipedia without result, and we are told basically that no one is in charge of making decisions about who or what to accept or reject.

So, once rejected, there is no court of appeal. Editors simply put any article about the College on the fast track for deletion.

At the same time, small elementary schools are listed on Wikipedia without any trouble at all.

Early on, Wikipedia editors evidently said that they needed third party verification of the existence of Linda Christas College.

However, once someone like Rev Peterson accepts a Chair at the College, they no longer qualify as a third party for verification purposes.

At one point, the 250 instructors who teach with the College had a fund into which the instructors were contributing to send to Wikipedia, since they use the service often and are grateful for it.

However, once the College was rejected as not credible by Wikipedia editors, that fund quickly disappeared.

So, here I am, a senior at a College that Wikipedia editors say doesn't exist.

Employers are falling all over each other to hire Linda Christas graduates because their reasoning, which parallels the Federal Department of Education's reasoning, is that anyone who can study for four years without the parties and the sports spectaculars HAS to be a self starter, and has been disciplined in terms of completing projects without the built in props of a standard university.

At any rate, it would be wonderful if someone at Wikipedia were to champion Linda Christas College for inclusion.

I certainly would be happy to write the article. But, I don't want to write an article only to follow in the long line of good hearted folks who have written such articles only to be told that the College isn't credible.

Certainly Rev. Peterson, Pat Boone, Sue Grafton, Dr. Paul Davies and Efrem Zimbalist Jr believe its credible. They have all personally felt honored by their chairs at the College, and, have personally contributed to the material appearing under their names on the College web site: See http://www.lindachristas.org/advisory-board-chairs.php

My personal e-mail address is: (Redacted)

If anyone would like to help me overcome what has been a long and hard journey for Linda Christas College (www.lindachristas.org), I would very much appreciate it. The School has tried everything else. Sincerely, Leslie — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.34.205.151 (talk) 10:14, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Email address removed, for your own privacy and to avoid spam  Chzz  ►  10:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

• There are no "Wikipedia Executives" - there's no such thing.
• Just because there is no article, does not mean we claim the college doesn't exist! Wikipedia has no article on me, but I exist!
• The existence of other Wikipedia articles, which may not meet the requirements for a new article, isn't a good argument; some articles were written years ago, and standards change. Others, we simply have not got around to either fixing (adding references), or deleting (if they don't meet requirements). Anyone can help with that, including you.
• All that is required for an article in Wikipedia is, evidence of significant coverage in independent, reliable sources - such as, for example, several respected newspapers with articles substantially about the thing. I've checked Google News [1] and only see 'passing mentions'. If you could supply other appropriate references to satisfy the notability requirement (more specifically, WP:CORP), then we could help further. The individuals who work at, or attend, the college are irrelevent in determining notability.
• If there is not sufficient verifiable information to support a separate article, then it may be appropriate to mention the institution in other article/s, such as, the town/city that the institute is in. That would still require a reference to verify the claim, but that would be considerably easier.  Chzz  ►  10:27, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

To provide context, I suggest that admins take a look at the history of Linda Christas, Linda Christas College, and Linda Christas International College to understand what's going on here. --Orange Mike | Talk 14:46, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Or, for non-admins, try Googling Linda Christas scam or similar. Most illuminating. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:16, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Rating articles

Hi,

when rating an article and dragging the mouse while hovering over the stars, the stars become permanent and do not disappear anymore (at least in Firefox 5.01). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.62.126.153 (talk) 11:45, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

That's interesting. I believe this is an issue with your browser as I am using FF 5 right now and it works fine. You can try to make sure javascript is installed properly and try re-installing your browser. If that doesn't work, you can file a bug at bugzilla.wikimedia.org and the developers can take a look into it. I'm sorry if this wasn't the most helpful answer, it's in a beta stage, so it still has some bugs :).  JoeGazz  ♂  11:54, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

This is what it looks like here: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/ratinga.png/ Maybe I should have been more precise by stating that this does not happen when hovering with the mouse, but when clicking and moving on stars. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.62.126.153 (talk) 13:07, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

ritual abuse

I want to write an article about ritual abuse based on reports from a conference of survivors and therapists held in London.

Badouk Epstein, Orit, Schwartz, Joseph & Rachel Wingfield Schwartz, eds(2011). Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs. London:Karnacs.

Would such an article violate Wikipedia policy? 86.166.93.5 (talk) 15:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Apart from the report itself, is there any coverage at reliable sources which are independent of the subject? -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternative account of Phantomsteve]} 15:32, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

We do have an article called "Satanic ritual abuse". I'm not sure how related it is to what you have in mind. Bus stop (talk) 15:39, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

The SRA article already on Wiki is highly biased against the reality of ritual abuse. The article I have in mind is a report from survivors and clinicians who treat survivors of this form of organised abuse. When I have tried to add balance to the existing SRA article it is always deleted by activists who patrol the site. Talk doesn't help. No evidence is consider acceptable. Any suggestions? 86.166.93.5 (talk) 16:14, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

No, you cannot create an article to discuss the same issues from another point of view: see Wikipedia:Content forking. If you think that the SRA article is being manipulated against Wikipedia policy, you should raise this in the appropriate place. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:54, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Two Users

how do I indicate that we are two users of this account collabarating on India for exact citations and good literary sckills. How do we both use the same site, use separate signatures and have separate profiles? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bernadette&mukesh (talk • contribs) 15:16, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Only one person may operate each account; your current account will probably be blocked, and you will be given instruction on how to create separate accounts for yourselves. Role accounts are not permitted. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 15:28, 15 August 2011 (UTC

It seems to me, that the desire is to have 2 users edit from the same computer. One person should retain use of the original account and another should create a new account to use. Ryan Vesey Review me! 19:26, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Given the account's name, and the admitted fact that they have both been using this account, it would be far better to abandon this account and get two new rules-compliant accounts. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:40, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Yep. Autoblock was disabled so they should be able to each create their own account. Ryan Vesey Review me! 19:44, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Thicker vertical border in table

How do I make some vertical gridlines extra thick in a table? For example, at Viomycin#Biosynthesis, the table is really just two columns of information ("Gene" and associated "Function") but wrapped to take up less space. So I'd like a thicker line (or any other layout solution obviously) that would help make the column-pairs more distinct from each other. DMacks (talk) 16:23, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Well, it has layout problems of its own, but how do you like a list format? Alternatively, perhaps you could make the genes header cells. — Bility (talk) 16:55, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Multicolumn list looks fine. The table definitely stood out more, so I was trying to be conservative--I assume editors who added it wanted that to happen--but I agree it's not necessary in this context. DMacks (talk) 17:19, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Griffon Corporation Logo

The logo on the Griffon Corporation page is not up-to-date. The current logo can be found at www.griffoncorp.com. Is it possible to have this changed? It is a non-free logo and I do not have authorization to upload it. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by EME712 (talk • contribs) 16:28, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for letting us know! DMacks (talk) 16:43, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, DMacks! I have another version of the logo that is easier to read with black text and a white background. I realize the one on the website is white. Is it possible to provide this? I'm not sure how that works. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by EME712 (talk • contribs) 20:57, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

It would have to be something verifiably official (somehow we have to be able to see that they actually use it, rather than wikipedia editors choosing to recolor it ourselves). Easiest is if it's available from the company's website somewhere or some other publication. An alternative is that I can recast the current one to have a black background, since that's how it appears to be used on the corp site. DMacks (talk) 00:25, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

FA voting?

How do I vote for a featured article? Article is FC Liverpool Mnid's_Page talk 16:59, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

You would go here and state your opinion, whether you support or oppose its promotion. And it's not a vote exactly, rather a means to establish consensus through communicating with other editors and yadda yadda yadda--GroovySandwich 17:40, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

My legitimate edits were flagged as vandalism

I made a few edits to an existing page; however, my additions were removed and flagged as vandalism. How can this be? I didn't change any of the existing content, and all of my additions were properly cited. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gmollohan (talk • contribs) 17:36, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Some of your edits seemed rather promotional, and all of them were poorly sourced (or not sourced at all); but I agree that these were not vandalisms. --Orange Mike | Talk 17:42, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Where does it say that they were vandalism? I see nothing on your talk page and the page's history just shows that they were reverted. -- kainaw™ 19:05, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

It was reverted by somebody using igloo, which is specifically billed as an anti-vandalism tool. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

That was all me. Plain mistake on my part, and I'm sorry for it. 21655 ^T/₀₁ 20:41, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Referencing help

Re: "Bill O'Neill (media)." I compiled a number of references to verify the text. They are listed below the biography but I do not know how to list them in compliance with Wikipedia's format.Wolfeton (talk) 17:43, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Does WP:Referencing for beginners help? – ukexpat (talk) 18:49, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

How can I change my article name?

I have been editing a new stub about a film and television producer named David Katz. However, there is already an article named "David Katz." How can I change the article name to "David_Katz_(filmmaker) if I'm not autoconfirmed? Do I have to do that through "requested moves"?

This is the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lucasbelkind/David_Katz

Thanks!

Lucasbelkind (talk) 19:51, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Yep. I'll do it. --Orange Mike | Talk 19:54, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Facebook duplicate page

Wikipedia has a page for our organization on Facebook. Why does it not link to the official page of the organization? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ice-Theatre-of-New-York/273230042206 At least link to the official Ice Theatre of New York page. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.19.17.48 (talk) 20:29, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Facebook community pages may incorporate content from Wikipedia— such use complies with Wikipedia policies on reuse of content. We at Wikipedia have no control over how the content is included nor can we help to remove it. Facebook does have a topic on Community pages and profile connections on their Help Center. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 20:36, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Facebook mirrors Wikipedia for many articles; however, Wikipedia has no control over what Facebook does with the content. The wikipedia page for Ice Theatre of New York has a link to the website. Consider contacting the people at facebook and see if they can create the link for you. Ryan Vesey Review me! 20:38, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

facebook question

can you tell who has looked at your facebook page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.89.92.56 (talk) 21:05, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.7 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Intelligentsium 21:07, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

The above answer is true; however, the answer to your question is no. Ryan Vesey Review me! 21:15, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

REQUEST a New Article ?!

I can get to the page "Wikipedia:Requested articles/Applied arts and sciences/Computer science, computing, and Internet" and the sub-category "Hardware" then WHAT?!

I would expect a link or button [Submit Request] somewhere on the page.

So how does one ACTUALLY submit a request? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tecknode (talk • contribs) 21:52, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Just edit the appropriate section and add your request. You may find Help:Editing helpful. —Bkell (talk) 22:02, 15 August 2011 (UTC)