Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 October 21

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October 21[edit]

I need to retrieve a page deleted by Wikipedia[edit]

Good evening,

I need to know if its possible to retrieve a page I was writing in memory of my father who was a musician in Latin América.

The name of his page: Oswaldo Oropeza El compositor de Latin América.

Please let me know if this is possible.

thank you, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Caribana10 (talkcontribs) 00:03, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input[edit]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Peterdrennan6 (talkcontribs) 0:27, October 21, 2015 (UTC)

  • @Peterdrennan6: You have submitted a blank request and your edit history does not give us any clues. Please let us know what we can help you with. Thank you. --Stabila711 (talk) 00:33, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Question regarding Hovercards[edit]

Hello! I have recently decided to become more active on contributing to the beautification and general improvement of Wikipedia. I have recently noticed something I don't agree with, the Hovercard for "Oxygen" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen) as shown on the page "Electrolysis of Water" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water).

The Hovercard contains relevant textual information, but the graphic presented is of the filled unfilled electronic orbitals and not of the element in its natural form (as the Infocard presents) or of the molecule itself. I believe either of these would be more relevant/informative than a diagram of a higher-level chemistry concept, and was wondering how I would go about correcting this?

I am unfamiliar with the wiki code used to format pages.

Any assistance is appreciated, and thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by CDaly89 (talkcontribs) 02:52, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@CDaly89: What are "hovercards" and "infocards"? Perhaps you could make your question more specific. Which part of the pages of Oxygen and Electrolysis of water are you referring to? The Average Wikipedian (talk) 03:08, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's about what you see when you hover the mouse over the link Oxygen with Hovercards enabled at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures, or possibly "Navigation popups" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. I think both tools only look at the wiki source of the given page. Oxygen transcludes its infobox from {{Infobox oxygen}} so the images there are not available. File:Oxygen molecule orbitals diagram.JPG is the first image in the source of Oxygen. The two tools automatically choose what to display and can only be enabled by logged in users. Article content should not be designed with these tools in mind. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:28, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Jews harp" is a misnomer- should be "Jaws Harp"[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew's_harp

"Jews harp" is a misnomer- should be "Jaws Harp" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roblightwater (talkcontribs) 03:08, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

According to whom?--Jayron32 03:16, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
In furtherance of the above, book search results such as this versus this, support the current name of the article under the common names policy by a vast margin and show its use is extremely well attested. Yes, in a technical sense it may be a misnomer. English is full of them, which does not mean we don't continue to use those words and expressions as the common term. It is explored in the history section of the article. What more would you want?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:16, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

How do I add a word[edit]

Do I need to open an account in order to add a word to wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.120.70.106 (talk) 03:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to edit an existing article, you don't need an account; you can normally just edit the page directly. If you want to create a new article, you can't create it directly without creating an account. However, even without an account, you can submit the article to Articles for Creation, where eventually someone will approve or reject it (and this is probably the recommended way to do it anyway, if you're inexperienced with article creation). --ais523 03:40, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
Please understand that Wikipedia is not a dictionary and neologisms are especially inappropriate. We do have the very occasional article about a word as a word, but only where such a write-up goes far beyond a simple dictionary definition, such as including information on the social or historical significance of the term. However, our sister project, wiktionary, is a dictionary. Nevertheless, there as well, the use of newly-minted words and phrases is not generally suitable. Wiktionary's inclusion standards may be viewed here (note the "attestation" standard). Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Authors of articles. Copyright[edit]

07:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)07:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)~~In my new engineering dictionary, I am using data and excerpts taken from biographical and technical articles as well published in Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia. How to find the authors of those articles to get their consent for copyright? My persistent efforts were futile. Thanks Gerald — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2000:6024:3300:E554:2192:1576:6538 (talk)

At the top of every page, you should see a "history" tab. That tab will list the authors of the page, and you can communicate with them by posting a message on their Talk page (there will be a link to it next to their names).
However, Wikipedia content already has a license that allows you to reuse it in your own work, so long as your own work is under the same license and attributes the contributors. For more information, see Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content. If Wikipedia's license is acceptable for what you are doing (and I strongly recommend you read, or get your lawyer to read, the license), then you should be able to reuse text under the license without needing to contact the page's contributors. --ais523 07:53, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Please help me understand - is ref. number 63 OK on the above page - has someone vandalized the page?101.189.13.6 (talk) 08:43, 21 October 2015 (UTC) Thanks[reply]

Seems fixed by User:NQ-Alt. --CiaPan (talk) 08:52, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
And it wasn't vandalism - it was a simple mistake made on 30 March in this edit - I'm just surprised that, given the numerous problems with references on that page, it wasn't spotted earlier. - Arjayay (talk) 09:00, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Arjayay: The error message was just recently implemented. phab:T85386 - NQ-Alt (talk) 09:06, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) There was no vandalism. Srbernadette had defined the same named ref twice, causing an error message. User:NQ-Alt merged the two named references, which got rid of the error message, but has produced the possibly unintended result that two of the citations in the article lead to the same thing which consists of both a reference and a longish footnote. Maproom (talk) 09:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Maproom: Both the defined references pointed to the same external link. - NQ-Alt (talk) 09:15, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

hi[edit]

how do i create a new page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.161.32.120 (talk) 10:11, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, 178.161.32.120 - you need to create an account in order to create articles. Please make sure that you read Wikipedia:My first article before creating articles - it will provide you with a lot of help. Good luck. ~Oshwah~ (talk) (contribs) 10:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Not quite true, Oswah: you need an account to create an article directly, but anonymous users can use the Articles for creation process.
However, my advice to a new user wanting to create a new article is that it is DIFFICULT to write an article which gets accepted, and I would always advise anybody to spend a few weeks improving existing articles first, to get the hang of how Wikipedia works, otherwise they are going to have a frustrating time. I also note that when somebody comes new to Wikipedia with the intention of creating a new article, they are often here to promote some subject, and usually are not aware that promotion of any kind is forbidden on Wikipedia, and that an article should be based nearly 100% on what people unconnected with the subject have published about it, and hardly at all on what the subject, their friends, relative, employees, publishers, agents or associates want to say about them. --ColinFine (talk) 12:40, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Secure and article[edit]

Is there a way to secure an article from public editing?

Thank you.14:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)216.49.42.248 (talk)

Yes. Post it on your own website.--Aspro (talk) 14:29, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Some articles are protected or semi-protected, usually those articles that attract persistent vandalism or are extremely contentious. However, only a administrator can protect and unprotect articles, and there must be a reason for the protection. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 15:13, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a Book to a Site[edit]

How does something get added to a site - when the person doing the "adding" has an interest in the information? I am talking about myself. I am the author of The Mish-Mash Dictionary of Marmite: an anecdotal A-Z of Tar-in-a-Jar. A constant seller it was published in 2009. When, in 2010, I tried to add the book to the list of "Books About Marmite" I got told off, ie I got this message: "Welcome to Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, please do not add promotional material to articles or other Wikipedia pages, as you did to Talk:Marmite. Advertising and using Wikipedia as a "soapbox" is against Wikipedia policy and not permitted." So how do I get my book mentioned? Only just discovered that I got this message (too busy writing another book!) Anyway Would be grateful for advice. Maybe you could do it? The ISBN is: 978-0-9563686-0-7. Thank you, Maggie Hall. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaggieHall (talkcontribs) 14:26, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We are not here as a place for you to "get your book mentioned". -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 15:34, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I have just removed the "Books about Marmite" section from the Marmite article, for just that reason. --ColinFine (talk) 20:52, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

List of Autistic famous people[edit]

I feel it sends the wrong message to the community to list killers as "famous people." I'd like those who have not done society any good removed from this page. The autistic community has enough to overcome, and those who look to this page for hope should not have to see the likes of Adam Lanza... List of people with autism spectrum disorders — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.236.181.149 (talk) 15:31, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We are here to present factual information, not as censors acting as advocates for a particular group's image. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 15:33, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
We do not described them as "famous" - It states "This is a list of notable individuals". Clearly Lanza was notable and furthermore, wikipedia is not censored - Arjayay (talk) 15:53, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The curse of Wikipedia's 'notable' ≠ the world's 'notable' strikes again. --ColinFine (talk) 20:55, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox image and coordinates not showing up[edit]

The infobox at Fort McAllister Historic State Park has an image, caption, and coordinates, but they aren't showing up on the page. Why not? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:08, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From the documantation at Template:Infobox protected area, "image" is not a parameter it knows about. Try "photo" instead. RudolfRed (talk) 18:16, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks to both of you who quickly fixed it! Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved

It would be nice if the various infoboxes standardized their parameters. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 20:06, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

General parameter standardization would be nice but since there are dozens of infoboxes (see Wikipedia:List of infoboxes) that would be a large task. You could always ask on the talk page for an alternative parameter to be added. So the box in question would recognize both image= and photo=. --Stabila711 (talk) 20:15, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
FWIW, there are well over 1000 listed on that page. Rwessel (talk) 04:11, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

how to create a biography on myself[edit]

How to I create a biography on myself? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ibuycash (talkcontribs) 21:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Don't do it on Wikipedia. If you are notable, someone else will do it. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:06, 21 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Read the autobiography policy and the conflict of interest policy. They will explain why Bubba73 said not to do it. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:22, 22 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]