Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 March 17

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March 17

Posting questions about an article

How do you post questions about an article, i don't understand?

thanks, Jassy forever — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jassy forever (talk • contribs) 00:46, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

That depends on the point of the question. This page, the Help Desk, is for asking questions about how to edit Wikipedia. So it would be good for asking questions about adding images, adding references, etc to an article. You can ask a question here by clicking on the link at the top of the page that says "Click here to ask a new question about how to use or edit Wikipedia".

If your question is about a specific article and doesn't really relate to the "how" of editing the article, then the Talk Page of the specific article you have in mind would probably be best. Things like "Should we mention Person X's involvement in such-and-such event?" are often asked on talk pages.

Does that help? Dismas|^(talk) 01:56, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

a third place to ask would be the reference desk if you have a question about a subject that the article doesnt cover or want to know how article A relates to article B.

and a fourth option, if your question is "I dont understand this article" would be to look at the left hand sidebar and see if "Simple English" is listed in the "languages". Articles in Simple English Wikipedia version are designed for easier comprehension so clicking on the link you may find that the simpler words and simpler sentence structure and a gloss over the complexities may allow you to have a "Oh, now I get it" moment. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:14, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Navy Cross Recipients

I William C. Chasey was not a recipient of the Navy Cross as recently listed on the Wickipedia page "Navy Cross Recipients". Please remove my name immediately. Thank you.--William C. Chasey (talk) 02:16, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I have removed the unsourced addition of William C. Chasey to Category:Recipients of the Navy Cross. There are also unsourced Category:Recipients of the Silver Star and Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal. Are those true or false? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:38, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Nasty Boys (TV series)

Reference help requested. Unnamed parameter errors were done by me on this page.I don't know how to correct it.Don't suggest reverting my edit. Thanks, Skr15081997 (talk) 03:01, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Within one of the references you have "...|HOWARD ROSENBERG |...". There is no parameter named "HOWARD ROSENBERG" in the reference template. This is what the help link from the error message is trying to tell you. --David Biddulph (talk) 03:17, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Search history

Please tell me, click by click, how to delete my search history. I need to clean out my old overloaded computer. Shjrley Mae (talk) 03:17, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

You might have better luck over at the Computing reference desk (click here → Wikipedia: Reference desk/Computing). It would be helpful to mention your operating system and browser. Note that clearing your history only deletes shortcuts and doesn't do much regarding an "overloaded" computer. Purging browser cache helps somewhat. The folks at Computing desk will have suggestions regarding how to improve performance.

• To clear recent history in Firefox, press: Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + Delete  -This will bring up a pop-up box where you can select "everything" from the drop-down menu (press: ▼) , then press Clear Now  ~I hope this helps, ~E:71.20.250.51 (talk) 04:21, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

The advice from 71.20.250.51 works for IE9 as well.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:29, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

reference

If I want to group references (<ref group="GROUPNAME">), and I am using a reference in a group more than once (<ref name="XXX">), what should I do? Please link to my user page when you reply. HYH.124 (talk) 06:19, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

@HYH.124: From Help:Footnotes, "When using both names and groups, the syntax is: <ref name=name group=groupname>Content</ref>" -- John of Reading (talk) 07:30, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, John of Reading! HYH.124 (talk) 07:32, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

@John of Reading: is <ref group="groupname" name="name">Content</ref> possible? HYH.124 (talk) 14:14, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

@HYH.124: Yes, either way round should work. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:31, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Changing images

Could I change a image from a Wikipedia profile, if so How and where could I do it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Torrian2013 (talk • contribs) 12:41, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Probably yes, Torrian2013, but it very much depends on what you mean by "Change an image". If you want to replace an image in an article by another image which has already been uploaded to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, then you simply replace the filename in the link by the other filename (getting it precise, including punctuation and case of letters). If you want to replace it by a different image which you have, then you first need to upload the image to Wikipedia or Wikimedia commons; but you may only do this if its copyright status is suitable (most images you find on the internet do not have suitable licensing and you may not upload them). Please see Help:Introduction to uploading images. If you want to take an image in an article and make changes to it you will probably need to download the image and use some tool to edit it outside Wikipedia, then upload a new version. The Image lab may be able to help. By the way, I recommend thinking of pages in Wikipedia as articles, not profiles: this is not a directory, and the content of an article ideally comes entirely from published sources unconnected with the subject of the article. --ColinFine (talk) 21:38, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Spam-warning

I just noticed that the bottom of my talkpage shows Category:User talk pages with Spam-warn notices. I don't remmeber getting a spam-warning and am wondering if I should spend precious time investigating the cause of what seems to be a malfunction. Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 13:08, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

If you look at the source of User talk:Ottawahitech#Speedy deletion nomination of One hour delivery, you will find a [[Category:User talk pages with Spam-warn notices||{{PAGENAME}}]]. --Glaisher [talk] 13:12, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I've removed it - no real reason for a trusted user to be tagged in that category. Yunshui 雲‍水 13:18, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

How to stop repeated vandalism of Jonathan Self page

I'm writing on behalf of Jonathan Self regarding the repeated alterations and inaccuracies made to his page. The inaccuracies are related to his current relationship status and his current residence.

The ACCURATE facts are: - Jonathan Self lives in Malta - Jonathan Self is no longer married to Marriane Van Pelt. They are divorced. They do not share a family estate in Cork - as previously mentioned Self lives in Malta. - His ex-wife Van Pelt is not an equestrian writer. Any references to current or past relationships are not relevant.

Self can provide evidence of both his residence in Malta and his divorce from Van Pelt.

Finally the photo of Self is being continually removed.

All these inaccurate amends are made by the same user - Jvpwiki.

What Self would like to appear (as it is all true) is the following:

Jonathan Self (born 1959) is a British author and journalist. He is a former trustee of the World Land Trust, an environmental charity, and one of the founders of Honey's Real Dog Food, an artisan dog food business. His brother is the novelist and broadcaster Will Self.[1] His father was the academic Peter Self.

He began his career as an advertising copywriter and in 1982 founded Self Direct, a direct-marketing agency. He sold his business in 1993 in order to have time to raise his three children. After publishing his autobiography, Self Abuse, in 2001 he ghostwrote a number of celebrity memoirs. Self has written extensively for the British media including Country Life, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. In 2009 he collaborated with Arabella Lennox-Boyd on Welcome to Dream Acres, a Country Life series about landscape gardening.[2]

Please let me know what can be done to stop this vandalism.

Many thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1745A (talk • contribs) 13:24, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Please read the Wikipedia definition of vandalism. On that article, the closest to vandalism is your repeated removal of information which is supported by published reliable sources. What Self would like to appear is of no relevance to Wikipedia. What is relevant is what has been published by reliable sources independent of the subject. The place to discuss changes is Talk:Jonathan Self, but please remember to declare your conflict of interest when you make suggestions there. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:48, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Please be aware that vandalism is the intentional interference with the quality of the encyclopedia. The allegation of vandalism, when inappropriate, is a very strong personal attack, and should never be made in what appears to be a content dispute. Too many editors who have content disputes think that using "vandalism" in a section title is an easy way to get attention to their side of the content dispute. It does get attention, but it is likely to be a boomerang. Do not use the term "vandalism" to try to get attention to a content dispute. If you know Wikipedia well enough to know what the definition of vandalism is, you should know it well enough to know not to make that allegation idly. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:29, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Hang on. The terminology here may be unfortunate, but BLP subjects are not forced to accept factual inaccuracies in articles just because they are sourced. The references in that article supporting descriptions of Jonathan Self's marital status and residence are years old, and it is perfectly acceptable for him to request an update to these facts if his circumstances have changed. ARBCOM has decreed a degree of leniency toward BLP subjects who attempt to correct what they regard as factual inaccuracies about themselves, even if they go about it the wrong way. If the OP is indeed conveying a direct request from the subject of the article, then we are requested to try to act with kindness toward them WP:BLPEDIT. 1745A, have a look at WP:BLPSELF and the links it contains. You can bring up the matter at the article's talk page as suggested above, or you can ask for help as described in the link I have just given you. We will not rewrite an article in a form of words preferred by a subject, and we would prefer you not make the edits yourself, but factual updates can certainly be requested on behalf of a subject. A reliable source for the update would go a long way towards making the process easier, as would avoiding unwarranted accusations of vandalism. Good luck. - Karenjc (talk) 20:06, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Schwan Food Company

Schwan Food Company has had multiple lawsuits filed against it (in varying states and jurisdictions) alleging employment discrimination. Allegations include racial discrimination, Americans with Disability (civil rights violations) discrimination, among others.[3] In December, 2013, Sandeep Gupta, a former manager that worked at Schwan's Home Service offices in Austin, TX and Houston, TX filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination by Schwan employees. This discrimination included verbal and physical abuse and alleges Schwan's Home Service did not take adequate steps to prevent or stop such abuse from occuring. In his claim, Gupta states that he was held down and punched in the groin by fellow co-workers on multiple occasions, locked in a freezer, and frequently referred to as a "terrorist" by co-workers (despite Gupta being a Hindu), including a district manager. Based upon these conditions and the discriminatory work environment created by his co-workers and the district manager, he did not feel he would be able to get support from Schwan Home Services on these abuses.[4]

Schwan Food Company

Good morning all -

The above edit, placed on the Schwan Food Company page is part of a media campaign by a plaintiff in a case against my client, Schwan's Home Service, Inc., a subsidiary of the Schwan Food Company, in an attempt to leverage a settlement, as the facts in his post are alleged and exaggerated and have not been proven true, citing to a press release issued by plaintiff and not an unbiased news story. As it is a one-sided commentary on ongoing litigation, and Wikipedia is being used to leverage the outcome of that lawsuit through trial in the public eye, I am going to remove it and request that the IP address of the original editor be blocked and editing privileges be restricted until after a decision has been rendered by the applicable court.

If you have any questions, please contact me at [phone # redacted] Nick Simonson, Corporate Attorney, Schwan's Shared Services, LLC Law Dept., Attorneys for Schwan's Home Service, Inc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Njsimonson (talk • contribs) 13:43, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I have reverted that edit per WP:UNDUE.--ukexpat (talk) 14:22, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Creating a second account

I've just made a second account that I have not used for anything yet. I want to use the second account for commenting on articles relating to contentious topics without having to worry about someone going after me outside of Wikipedia. This account uses my real name, which had to made public for good reason. How do I make it so that a responsible person like a Wikipedia admin could see that the other account is mine without having to worry about random IP user also spotting the account is mine? Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 15 Adar II 5774 15:45, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

You can email one or two Wikipedia admins that you trust, if you wish, but you are not actually obligated to reveal the connection between your accounts as long as you abide carefully by the policy on multiple accounts. Assuming that you intend to use the two accounts to edit in different areas, you should not need to worry about needing to tell anyone. Yunshui 雲‍水 15:49, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Ah okay, was worried for a moment. It's only so I can comment without having hordes of angry opponents attacking me beyond Wikipedia. No evil plans for the moment. Thanks! Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 15 Adar II 5774 15:55, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Saint Patrick's Day

Hello,

There is a mistake on your "Saint Patrick's Day" page. It is listed as St Patty's Day under "Also called", which is incorrect. The Dublin Airport Facebook page posted the notice clarifying that it's "Saint Paddy's Day," not "Saint Patty's Day." (DublinAirport/Facebook)

Thank you, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.252.254.114 (talk) 16:43, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

WP:SOFIXIT. You may edit it, citing a reliable source. I agree that references to "St. Patty's Day" are just plain wrong, because that changes the gender of the saint. If there is a St. Patricia (and there likely is, in the Irish monastic movement of the early middle age), then she is St. Patty, but he is either St. Patrick (Sanctus Patricius) or St. Paddy. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:56, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

As the article is currently semi-protected, the IP editor raising the point cannot fix-it, whilst the use of St Patty relates to a CBS news report - are you saying CBS is not a reliable source? - Arjayay (talk) 18:54, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Regardless of the gender logic, it's correct that it's also called "St Patty's Day". A simple Google shows so many examples that it seems suitable to mention, and it's sourced in the article. If it wasn't also called St Patty's Day then there wouldn't be a website asking people to not call it that. Saint Patrick's Day lists both Patty's and Paddy's under "Also called" so I don't see a problem, unless we want to hide what people actually call something just because we don't like the name. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:23, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Before calling something "just plain wrong" please read the extensive discussions on the talk page and its archives focusing on this. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 12:29, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Infobox insert question

Right now I am in the process of making a new page. I am trying to insert an infobox with a picture and basic information about my subject, but I can't find out how to do it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Benheer2 (talk • contribs) 19:56, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Infoboxes are defined as templates. Looking at your sandbox, I'm guessing that you want {{Infobox comic}}, and if you look at the page I have just linked to it shows you what to insert into the article: you just put suitable values after the = signs (you don't have to fill in all of them). Unfortunately that particular template doesn't have documentation explaining the various parameters, so I suggest you find another similar article which already has the infobox, and edit that article not to make any changes but just to see how the infobox is used. --ColinFine (talk) 21:45, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

{{Infobox comic}} is for a single comic story. I think you want {{Infobox comic strip}} which does have documentation. You may also be interested in Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Comics. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:10, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

How should I ask for the copyright status of an image to be investigated?

Dear editors: While reviewing this article: Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Tokwa Salazar Peñaflorida I was surprised at the number of images of artwork. Most professional artists don't give away their work. Are there Wikipedians who specialize in checking the copyright status of images, and if so, what is the process of asking for a check? —Anne Delong (talk) 23:44, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Hey Anne. If those images were local I'd advise you to head over to Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files (or if you were more sure, Wikipedia:Files for deletion), but these images are hosted at the Commons. I haven't located a dedicated intermediate forum like we have, before jumping to a deletion request, but I have seen users asking these type of questions at Commons:Village pump/Copyright, so you might try there (they also have a help desk). See here for Commons deletion requests. However, before doing any of that, I'd leave a message at Commons:User talk:Spearminttt and User talk:Spearminttt asking him about these uploads – whether he is the artist or thought he had right to release the photograph he took of the paintings (which is not at all an uncommon misunderstanding). And maybe it will turn out he is the artist after all.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:49, 18 March 2014 (UTC)