Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 August 22

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August 22

Help requested

Hi; I'm sorry to bother our helpers but...I note there are very few requests here - however, there's plenty of unanswered questions on Wikipedia:Requests for feedback.

Any assistance answering them would be great.

Sorry, if I'm being a bother, please tell me and I'll shut up

 Chzz  ►  02:56, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I'll try to take a look at some. Ryan Vesey Review me! 04:49, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Using Books

I created a sign-on yesterday and the system recognizes me now when I sign on, but I can't find the book I thought I created. Now I'm wondering if it was saved. At some point in going through FAQ and help files reference is made of the User Page. When I check for a user page it sees my username but says I don't have a page. The process for creating a User Page seems to require making an edit. I don't have any edits to make. I just want to work on my book. I'm stuck I guess. Pmoody (talk) 04:29, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Did you create the book using your IP address? I checked your contribs and this question is the only one that registers. I also checked and you don't have any subpages. Ryan Vesey Review me! 04:43, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Do you remember the title of the book you thought you created? —teb728 t c 04:46, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Only autoconfirmed or confirmed users can save books. I have confirmed your account so you should now be able to save books. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:41, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

editing Marshall Hall (musician)

Hallo, I've just begun trying to edit a Wikipedia article, namely Marshall Hall (musician). Initially all went well. But today (22/8 in Australia) I was dismayed to find that everythingI had done has been deleted. I've tried to follow your instructions in order to find the reason via FAQ and the deletion log but have failed. I'm sure that this is due to my own obtuseness and unfamiliarity with computers and the internet. Could you please tell me what i have doe wrong and how to avoid it in future. My log in name is Martinrich. Thanking you in anticipation, Martinrich (talk) 04:49, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

It appears to still all be there - Marshall Hall (musician) and I can see your edit clearly here. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 05:13, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Use the page history to see changes to an article. The page history [1] shows your edits were still there at the time of your post, but were reverted right when Mattinbgn replied, probably partly because you removed the lead section and a lot of wikilinks. Try to bypass your browser cache if you don't see the most recent edit to a page. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:25, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Interlanguage links - Samuel Morris

The bots seem determined to add interlanguage links between en:Samuel Morris and nl:Samuel Morris despite the fact that both articles refer to completely different people! See here for details on the most futule edit war I have ever been involved in! How can I make them stop? I read Help:Interlanguage links but to no avail. -- Mattinbgn (talk) 05:10, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

You have to remove wrong links simultaneously from all languages including mr:सॅम्युएल मॉरिस which links to both en:Samuel Morris and nl:Samuel Morris (good luck figuring out which of them it should be!). If there is just one language with a wrong link then a bot may copy it to other languages. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:33, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks - lets see it how it works! -- Mattinbgn (talk) 06:22, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

It's supposed to work but after comparing edits and times in the 3 edit histories, it seems CarsracBot decided to link [2] the newly created nl:Samuel Morris to the two others even though it had no outgoing or incoming interlanguage links at the time. I guess it compared the page name to the English Wikipedia but I don't think a bot is supposed to add links based on that alone. If it happens again then the bot owner can be contacted at nl:Overleg gebruiker:Carsrac. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:01, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Interwiki bots don't do this automatically. There is a "hints" option that a bot op can run that will make comparisons based on pagename, though. ^Avic_ennasis @ 11:23, 22 Av 5771 / 11:23, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Marshall Hall (musician) again

Sorry to bother you again. Thank you for your reply. I think I must have asked the wrong question.

What is on the Marshall Hall (musician) page, under the heading 'Early Life' is the following:

'Hall was born in London, the son of a surgeon and grandson of Marshall Hall the distinguished physiologist. He was educated at Mr Creak's school, The Wick, Brighton, and the Blackheath Proprietary School. He studied the organ under Mr Lees, organist at St Margaret's Church, London, and also learned the violin. He also studied music at Berlin, and at the Royal College of Music, London. For a period he taught languages and music at Newton Abbot School, and at Wellington College, Berkshire, and in 1890 was appointed the first Ormond professor of music at the University of Melbourne.'

This is what was there before i changed it.

I replaced this paragraph with a bigger one, still under the heading of 'Early Life'. When I looked again later that same day, my replacement was still there. But when I opened it this morning to continue work, my replacement had disappeared and had been replaced by the original iparagraph above.

Did I do something wrong? I can find no reference to the entry in your deletions log. Martinrich (talk) 06:27, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Your edit was reverted by Ryan Vesey with this edit, because your edit removed the lead section of the article. Click the link and take a look at the diff to see what happened. Please do your addition again without removing the lead section. You can edit the section 'Early life' directly by clicking the 'Edit' link appearing to the right of the words 'Early life'. This will leave the rest of the article unaffected. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 06:43, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Also, when content is removed from an article via an edit, this will not be recorded at Special:Log/delete. The deletion log only logs deletions of entire pages. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 07:11, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

mistake about our coaches nationality

In the following link about our team there is a mistake about one of our assistant coaches nationalities. There is a serbian flag next to his name. He is not from Serbia. He is from Croatia. We would appreciate it if you can fix this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenerbah%C3%A7e_%C3%9Clker — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.186.131.55 (talk) 07:44, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

If you think there should be a change, you can either be bold and change it yourself, since the article is not protected and can therefore be edited by anybody or you can bring this up at the articles talk page at Talk:Fenerbahçe Ülker. And please remember to type ~~~~ after you post something on talk pages, which will produce your IP and a timestamp (but do not sign in articles). Regards. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 09:20, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

article

are you going to write anything on Richy Kicklighter? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.254.96.160 (talk) 08:48, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Is he notable? Most editors here write about subjects they are personally interested in. So if Richy Kicklighter is notable and someone is interested in writing an article about him, then this could happen. If you have sources establishing his notability, you could post at Wikipedia:Articles for creation (see the instructions there). You could also register an account. This has many benefits, including that you will be able to create a userspace draft to develop an article in your userspace before "making it live". Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 09:03, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Hi, it looks like he meets notability guidelines - A google news archive search and a google book search turns up some reasonably promising results. OP - I'd suggest that, if you feel comfortable doing it, you create a userspace draft of the article as suggested by Toshio Yamaguchi. I've left a welcome message on your talk page that has some useful tips and advice, and that should help to get you started. Welcome to Wikipedia! Darigan (talk) 09:48, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia in other languages

Dear Wikipedia friends, Thank you for yor incredibly marevelous services.

Tonight I typed in "First Aid", and pages of information did appear, and I looked at the impressive list of languages on the left, but the article wasn't done in Vietnamese. I'd like my Vietnamese caregiver to be able to read the pages. Will they some day be done in "tieng Viet"?

Appreciatively,

John D, Taipei, Taiwan, (Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.137.67.206 (talk) 12:06, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

First, please do NOT provide contact information such as phone numbers or email addresses. We cannot provide answers via email. Second, all articles on Wikipedia are written by volunteers. Thus the pages will only exist in Vietnamese, if someone writes these articles in that language. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 12:20, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)There is a Vietnamese Wikipedia at vi.wikipedia.org. It is much smaller than English Wikipedia and only has 213,000 pages. If you understand Vietnamese you could help by creating the page "First aid" on Vietnamese Wikipedia, or you could translate the English Wikipedia article as long as you use the appropriate {{translated page}} template for the language. Ryan Vesey Review me! 12:22, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Any chance you know the word First Aid in Vietnamese? There's a chance the interwiki link just hasn't been added yet. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 17:24, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Putting it through a translator gives me "Sơ cứu ban đầu" No page exists for this on vi.wikipedia.org. If this is the correct translation and someone knows vietnamese they can create the page at http://vi.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S%C6%A1_c%E1%BB%A9u_ban_%C4%91%E1%BA%A7u&action=edit&redlink=1 Ryan Vesey Review me! 17:31, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Adding a link to a Blog

Hello

My boss has a Wikipedia page (not created by him or anyone he knows) which is fine. I would like to add to his Wiki page a link to his blog so that anyone can go to his Blog and ask him questions. Is it possible to add a link? If yes, how do I go about doing so please?

Many thanks.

Cleverard (talk) 12:22, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

No. It is not Wikipedias duty to provide contact details for the subject of an article (see Links normally to be avoided #11.). Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 12:41, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

It would be allowed if it were his official site. We allow those links. It would help immensely if you'd tell us who your boss is. (Why do people keep us in the dark about such things?) Dismas|^(talk) 12:52, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Would Michael Mansfield be a reasonable guess? - David Biddulph (talk) 12:58, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

(ec)It looks like you're talking about adding a Wordpress blog link to the article about lawyer Michael Mansfield. We generally do allow links to the homepage of the subject of an article, but we're very skittish about things hosted by others (Myspace pages, Facebook pages, Wordpress blogs, and the like). The trouble with these is verifying that the person who created that really is the actual Michael Mansfield of the article, and not some hoaxer. For example, it would be all too easy for a malicious person to create a blog on wordpress.com named say "Mike Mansfield (barrister)", and then put whatever stuff they want; perhaps starting with a veneer of normal legal stuff, but then veering off into expressing views that the real Michael Mansfield doesn't hold. A link from the Wikipedia article can give such a hoax blog extra credence (and journalists do seem to be lazy about verifying stuff they found on Wikipedia). While Toshio Yamaguchi is right to point out that links to blogs are to be avoided, that section specifically disclaims such links where "An official link is a link to a website or other Internet service" (Wikipedia:ELNO#Official links). The blog link you provided does pass both tests that follow that, but I'd strongly recommend that you take some steps to allow Wikipedia volunteers to verify the official nature of the blog (so we can be sure it's not one of the hoax ones I talked about, above). If you email info-en-q@wikimedia.org from an official email address (not some hotmail or whatever) the volunteers there can advise you about how you can demonstrate that the blog is official. Unlike this page, that service isn't public, so you can discuss more private info (phone numbers or whatever) which it wouldn't be wise to post on a public venue like this page. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 13:08, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Unusual message notification on Wikipedia landing page

Hi there, just opened wikipedia today, saw I had a new message and was directed to the following message:

Welcome to Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome to make constructive contributions to Wikipedia, but at least one of your recent edits, such as the one you made to Schalk Brits, did not appear to be constructive and has been automatically reverted (undone) by ClueBot NG.

• Please use the sandbox for any test edits you would like to make, and take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Note that human editors do monitor recent changes to Wikipedia articles, and administrators have the ability to block users from editing if they repeatedly engage in vandalism.
• ClueBot NG produces very few false positives, but it does happen. If you believe the change you made should not have been detected as unconstructive, please read about it, report it here, remove this warning from your talk page, and then make the edit again.
• The following is the log entry regarding this warning: Schalk Brits was changed by 86.47.124.211 (u) (t) ANN scored at 0.972973 on 2011-06-30T22:09:27+00:00 . Thank you. ClueBot NG (talk) 22:09, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

________________________________

The only thing is that I don't edit or post any content on Wikipedia, so I have no idea why this is. Best of luck etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.47.124.211 (talk) 13:34, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

If you read the note below, it explains this: "This is the discussion page for an IP user, identified by the user's numerical IP address. Some IP addresses change periodically, and may be shared by several users. If you are an IP user, you may create an account or log in to avoid future confusion with other IP users. Registering also hides your IP address". It was someone else using the IP at the time. Ignore it. AndyTheGrump (talk) 13:39, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps Cluebot NG should append Template:Shared IP advice at the end of its message? Anyways, I tagged the IP talk page as a shared IP, this should help with any further incidents. -- œ^™ 17:13, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Big Dig

I'd like to have some information available for an archaeological project called the Big Dig in 1971. It was the first use in Canada (and perhaps elsewhere) of transient / hitchhiker youth (as opposed to circuit archaeologists or students) to undertake archaeological investigations. It was held at Wawa, Ontario, and I have added a paragraph about it to that page. Can I ask if this topic deserves a page in its own right or should it go under some other archaeological or locational heading? Ncampling (talk) 15:59, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

It needs a small amount of work (which I will take care of in a moment), but it does seem relevant to the town's history. Thanks for your contribution. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 17:18, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I don't know enough about the Big Dig to tell you, but if it meets the general notability guidelines by having significant coverage in reliable, third-party sources, it should have a page. Ryan Vesey Review me! 17:21, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

See WP:SPLIT for guidelines about when to split a section from an article into its own separate article. Incidentally another editor removed the paragraph about the Big Dig from the Wawa, Ontario article. You may wish to discuss this on Talk:Wawa, Ontario. The small paragraph seems to fall well short of the minimum size that would justify a whole separate article about the Big Dig. --Teratornis (talk) 20:31, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I removed it, and again, just a moment ago. The source says nothing about this "Big Dig". Victoria and Albert (talk) 18:20, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

My source is the National Museum of Civilisation in Ottawa, archive entries specifically for Big Dig, why remove an important piece of the town's history merely because a source doesn't conform to ideal references?

Ncampling (talk) 14:50, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

What if the acronym is already used?

I want to create an article on Predictive Emissions Monitoring System (PEMS) but when I search for PEMS on the site it redirects to Portable Emissions Measurement System (PEMS). How do I handle this condition? The article will be a basic overview of what a Predictive Emissions Monitoring System is and what the different methods used entail. Along with a list of all known PEMS providers and links to the US EPA Guide Lines involving PEMS and other related articles that are relevant to the subject matter. Similar to the article on Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) that is currently created.

Thanks for your input

Jacob — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jedonajkowski (talk • contribs) 18:04, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Assuming it is notable, see our guidelines on notability at Wikipedia:Notability, first create the article at Predictive Emissions Monitoring System or ideally create a draft at User:Jedonajkowski/Predictive Emissions Monitoring System. If and when this article goes live, you can turn PEMS (direct link) into a disambiguation page, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation. Яehevkor ✉ 18:10, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Regarding montly donation.

Hello.

I was planing to make montly donation to Wikipedia through Paypal. But then Paypal demand that I registrate a credit-card. Something I dont want to do. Is there anyway of geting this done without? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.243.187.20 (talk) 18:35, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain if you create an account on PayPal first you can choose to link it to a bank account rather than a credit card. In addition, if you have a debit card you would probably be able to use that in place of a credit card. Ryan Vesey Review me! 18:39, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

How were you planning to send money to PayPal? Do you currently use PayPal to pay for anything else? Note that there are many ways to donate to Wikipedia, if PayPal is not to your liking. Thank you for your interest in helping Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 20:21, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I recommend you don't use PayPal at all. Besides their nonexistent customer support, you can easily lose money there with no way to get it back (especially if you're not a citizen of the US) unless you're willing to file a class action lawsuit. I've been there, just don't.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 10:45, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

arrest records expungement

i have tried to access the fl dept of law enforcement to review and expunge criminal records no luck can not get jobs becousew of records no convictions? help <blanked> — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.71.209.175 (talk) 19:35, 22 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. TNXMan 19:43, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Incorrect information on the Brian Bendis page

My name is Alisa Bendis and I would like you to correct the information about my children with Brian --- Brian and I have one biolgical daughter and 2 adopted daughters. Once of our children was adopted from Ethiopia and the other was adopted from Florida. Both of our adopted daughters are african american. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.246.164.219 (talk) 20:48, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Hmm: this is a bit difficult. The problem, you see, is that on the internet nobody knows who you are, so we have no way of knowing that your really are Alisa Bendis, so we cannot take your word for it. If the information were unsourced, I would simply have removed it, but it appears to have three references. However, looking at them I can see that they are saying slightly different things and are probably all consistent with what you are saying.

I suggest that you post your concern on Talk:Brian Michael Bendis, where people with more knowledge of the subject than I can decide how best to handle this. If you can find an independent reliable source that says it, it will be much more straightforward. --ColinFine (talk) 19:17, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

A company releasing an image under CC?

Hi there, I am an editor and work at PatientsLikeMe. This image [3] received a "Non-free reduce" tag which prompted me to think about if there was a way that the company could somehow license this particular image (which I guess we "own"?) somehow and put up at Wiki Commons? Anyone who can help in this area please write to me on my talk page, much appreciated --PaulWicks (talk) 20:54, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Images on Wikimedia Commons MUST be released under a free license which means that anybody can use it for any purpose (including commercial use) (see Terms of use of the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Commons licensing policy). Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 21:45, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

If your company is happy to release it under a free license, WP:Donating copyrighted materials explains how to go about confirming this. Once the licensing is in place, it can be tagged with {{copy to commons}} to mark it as a Commons candidate. January (talk) 22:00, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks guys! --PaulWicks (talk) 22:43, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Which date to use in citation?

Drilnoth brought up an interesting question in an FLC: when a source has both a "published" and an "updated" date (like here (at the bottom)), which date should be used when citing the source? —Spyder_Monkey (Talk) 21:51, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

I would say one should use the "Last updated" date. Why? Because for the purposes of Wikipedia, two versions of the same source with differing content should be treated as two different sources completely independent from each other. That's why we have an "Accessdate" parameter in citation templates for website. The content of a later version might no longer verify the statement in a Wikipedia article. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 22:03, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

That makes sense. Thanks! —Spyder_Monkey (Talk) 22:26, 22 August 2011 (UTC)