Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 December 12

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

December 12

Donation

Goddamit,l've already donated to Wikipedia and I keep getting your requests for a donation. To make it even worse, your donation window won't let me opt out without you emailing me another reminder! Stop it, damn it!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.38.67.116 (talk) 01:55, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

@50.38.67.116: Let me quote the answer that Dig deeper gave when this question came up at the TeaHouse: Once you click on the "X" at the upper right corner of the advertisement it should disappear and stay disappeared until the next campaign (a few months later). However, I'm not sure whether this works for IP users who are not logged on, because it can't tell that you are the same person... --Gronk Oz (talk) 05:45, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I don't think that works for IPs, only logged in users. Even if it does, as this post was your first edit from that IP, the computer will not know that you have donated, or requested no more pop-ups, using another IP. - Arjayay (talk) 10:35, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

World Miss University Nigeria

Greetings from Africa, it is with great pain to see the World Miss University Nigeria page deleted on the 11:45, 2 November 2016 CambridgeBayWeather (talk | contribs) deleted page Talk:World Miss University Nigeria, reasons Unkown to us, can anyone help restore back please. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ktemidayo (talk • contribs) 03:24, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

World Miss University Nigeria (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I have posted at WP:REFUND on your behalf so that an admin can look at it. But if it is correct that the pageant has "no significant coverage" then it is likely to be deleted again. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:21, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

@Ktemidayo: the page is restored. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:42, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Richie Campbell will probably want to look at the article again. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:16, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

@Ktemidayo, please redo the World Miss University Nigeria article to meet WP:GNG and provide in line citations (multiple third party reliable sources with in-depth coverage). I will give you time (10 days) after which, I will reevaluate the article whether to keep or nominate for deletion.--Richie Campbell (talk) 17:31, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Meg White

Can you undo the last edits this IP address made on the Meg White page? The formatting is messed up and I don't know how to fix it, thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:A000:4AD1:4900:3DA3:7AF7:D716:E6B6 (talk) 03:56, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

• Done. Ian.thomson (talk) 03:59, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Aaaaaaaaargh reftoolbar

On someone else's advice I clicked some buttons in Preferences and started playing with RefToolbar 2.0a. I grew tired of that very quickly since it didn't seem to have the autofill function for doi, URLs, etc. So now I'm trying to get refToolPlus, but I can't seem to get that stupid Toolbar 2.0 out of my--out of my what, I don't know, I'm looking at it right now above this edit screen. Help me get rid of it! Drmies (talk) 04:23, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

• Hi Drmies, did you try adding the following line to your skin JS page?

window.refToolbarInstalled = 'bypass';

Thanks. Lourdes 06:30, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

• Whoa, that did something--the old toolbar is back. But...how about the fancier refToolPlus? Thanks! Drmies (talk) 06:32, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I didn't understand your query Drmies. Thanks. Lourdes 09:00, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Lourdes, I was looking for this, Wikipedia:RefToolbar/1.0#refToolPlus. BTW, the old toolbar is indeed back--but minus the "Cite" button, so now I have to do them completely by hand. Drmies (talk) 15:45, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Ok. While I ping PrimeHunter for additional inputs, let me suggest an action plan. Remove the script that I asked you to put. Then go into your Preferences->Editing. Uncheck (yes, uncheck) the Enable enhanced editing toolbar box. And then try both of the following (assuming you have already placed

importScript('User:Apoc2400/refToolbarPlus.js');

to your monobook.js. First, uncheck the Enable wizards for links, formatting, tables, citations, and the search and replace function box in your Preferences->Editing section. See whether your required Reftoolplus is back. If not, check the Enable wizards for links, formatting, tables, citations, and the search and replace function. Try again. If this too doesn't work, Primehunter may have a solution. Thanks. Lourdes 16:21, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Pinging PrimeHunter again. Lourdes 16:22, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

I haven't tried refToolbarPlus but is your skin MonoBook at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? Edits to monobook.js only affect the MonoBook skin. Your vector.js edit [1] apparently affected you and this indicates your skin is Vector. User:Apoc2400/refToolbarPlus.js hasn't been edited since 2011 so it wouldn't surprise me if it's broken or has issues. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:36, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

About Autonomous aircraft and history of aviation

Greetings, Wikipedia is requested to add the following information in its contents of Autonomous aircraft and history of aviation.

In April 22,2014 US Patent Office(USPTO) issued patent to the invention of Nepal's Ruchit Kumar Regmi to his invention titled Pilotless Aircraft for commercial and military use(US Patent No. 8702033 Nepal Patent No. 73/071) which is also known as Autonomous aircraft/Automated aircraft.His aircraft can be used in both Fields: CIVIL and MILITARY. As a civil aircraft it can be used in passenger, cargo and other business and service flights ,and the Military aircraft can be used in almost military purposes .US and Nepal patented his invention is Pilotless aircraft that means his invention is fully autonomous aircraft/Fully automated aircraft;however,it can be used in piloted aircraft too. Claim number from 6 to 9 of his invention can be used in piloted aircraft on which very minimum activities of pilot intervention are applied as an optionally piloted aircraft.The ideas of his invention can be used in fuelled power plant and also in electrically operated power plant. Similarly the ideas of this invention can also be used in VTOL, Rotary wing and fixed winged aircraft too.The ideas of automated Traffic Collision Avoiding Systems(TCAS) of his invention can also be used in Automated Obstacle avoiding systems(Sense and Avoiding Systems).The ideas of his invention can be utilised in the aircraft of different speeds,sizes,weight, types etc and all the parameters of the aircraft depend on according to the size,speed,weight, type,models etc of the aircraft.The ideas of his invention can also be used as air taxi,as personal aircraft, as other civil and military aircraft. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.211.151.93 (talk) 09:06, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. "Wikipedia" doesn't add anything to anywhere. All editing is done by volunteer editors, such as you and me. If you wish something added to an article (I presume you mean the two articles Autonomous aircraft and History of aviation), please make a suggestion on their associated talk pages. But somebody is much more likely to pick up your suggestion if you provide a reference to a reliably published independent source. Patents, though public documents, are not primary sources: some patents have been written about widely, and are notable; but many have attracted no notice whatever. In order for this patent to be worth mentioning in the article, it should have been written about in a secondary source, and the material added to the Wikipedia articles should be drawn from, and referenced to, that source. Unless it has been written about extensively by independent sources, I doubt if it merits more than a sentence in the articles. --ColinFine (talk) 10:35, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

ColinFine, I think you meant that patents are primary sources. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:16, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

I did, thank you Gråbergs Gråa Sång. Corrected. --ColinFine (talk) 12:20, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

ESFS picture

Hi

I don't normally try to edit wikipedia, but wondered whether this page needed to be made more 'timeless' or 'time proof'.

The current picture illustrating this page... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Science_Fiction_Society

...is of one past officer (many officers contribute to ESFS) but this picture of the promotional poster for the first ever Eurocon may be more relevant (there will always only be one 'first' Eurocon')

The poster can be found here http://www.concatenation.org/conrev/eurocon72.bmp

The caption might be "The promotional poster for the first Eurocon in 1972".

Being a promotional poster (purposely created to be seen by many free of charge) it is copyright free. The website from which this is located has a copyright page http://www.concatenation.org/copy.html ... that reverts copyright to the original owners (who as said in this case produced the material for promotional purposes and wide, free distribution). There is no commercial or intellectual value to this poster and the event in anycase is long over. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.29.248.180 (talk) 11:03, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

The web site you cite says "The copyright in these pages belongs to the authors of the pages." That is certainly not a release of copyright. Wikipedia will not accept an image unless it can prove it has the legal right to use it. Maproom (talk) 11:10, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

You have made a common mistake: You believe that "a promotional poster (purposely created to be seen by many free of charge)" is copyright free. No matter how logical this seems, it is simply not true. Basically, everything is copyrighted. We can use it only if the copyright holder has explicitly licensed it under a license that is acceptable to us, or it has fallen into the public domain, (or a few other possibilities.) -Arch dude (talk) 06:14, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Looking for Hilary Clinton again

I have been fixing "Hilary Clinton" typos, but two situations aren't easily fixed. Can you help?

(1) Lucia Aniello references a printed story, "Interview: Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs Talk Paulilu Comedy and the Hilarity of Hilary Clinton." Because it is printed, I can't tell whether the typo is in the source (so the reference just reflects the original error) or whether a Wikipedia editor made the mistake. With the first, it needs [sic], and with the second it needs a fix, but either way it needs something. What should be done?

(2) April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election protests references a page called "Hilary Clinton replies to Vladimir Voronin," and that page indeed has an error in its title. However, if I put [sic] after "Hilary," it will break the code. Hilary [sic Clinton replies to Vladimir Voronin]. How to fix this?

Thank you. 208.95.51.72 (talk) 13:24, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

See guidance at MOS:PMC, specifically trivial spelling and typographic errors should simply be corrected without comment. This seems to be fairly obviously a typographical error, and not an important error which needs to be preserved for the purposes of Wikipedia. TimothyJosephWood 13:39, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Like this: Hilary [sic] Clinton replies to Vladimir Voronin. Or there's probably a better way. Maproom (talk) 13:42, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

pointing out article errors

I found a minor error (misdirected link) in an article and I am not sure how to bring it to someones attention as i don't know how to fix it. Suggestions please...

@Bakersdirtydzn:, normally, the most expedient way to fix it is to be bold and fix the error yourself. Alternatively you can post on the article talk page.

I suppose since you're already here, if you would like to be more specific, I'm sure myself or someone else can take a look. TimothyJosephWood 14:52, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Deforestation page missing information

The deforestion wikipedia page is looking bugged https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

82.9.246.118 (talk) 16:58, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Taken care of. TimothyJosephWood 17:01, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Setting different languages

Hello,

How can I set an article to be translated into different languages? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richardfletcher (talk • contribs) 17:18, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Hey Richardfletcher. For articles (usually stubs) in the English Wikipedia which can be expanded from the corresponding articles in other languages, there is Template:Expand language. However, I do not believe there is a template that works in reverse. You will probably have to address that on whatever language Wikipedia you would like the article translated to, and not visa versa. TimothyJosephWood 18:26, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

For further information on this topic, you might want to see WP:TRANSLATE. †dismas†|^(talk) 19:29, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Tension between WP:SYNTH and WP:WEIGHT; how to resolve?

I've run into this several times, but just now managed to articulate it clearly enough to ask. (If you care, the trigger was a discussion on Talk:Carry flag, but this is more abstract than that.)

WP:SYNTH is a very strict standard. And, frankly, one that for me is more honour'd in the breach than the observance. I get the idea, and understand how it helps combat POV editing, but I juxtapose facts from different sources all the damn time to tell a story that isn't explicitly stated anywhere. For many subjects, there simply aren't enough secondary materials to support each useful inference. Senator X has expressed upset over project Y's budget and schedule. Project Y's funding is being held up in committee Z. Senator X is a member of committee Z. Three different sources, and none of them explicitly say that Senator X is contributing to the holdup, but IMHO failing to place these close together so the inference is suggested to the reader is just bad writing.

But a lot of that is covered in WP:What SYNTH is not, and for the rest, if there's a conflict between my opinion about bad writing and WP policy, well WP policy wins. The problem becomes really acute, however, when considering issue of WP:WEIGHT like WP:FRINGE. To assess due weight, an editor is required to synthesize many sources. There's no magical objective source of due weighting that I can cite; I have to look at a bunch of sources and judge weight.

This doesn't seem like a minor nit-pick about wording choice; due weight is key to WP:NPOV and pretty fundamentally affects how an article is structured. But it seems to be in fundamental conflict with WP:NOR. They're both core content policies, so it's not obvious how to resolve it. Are there any good essays/FAQs/discussions about this tension? I could use some guidance. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 18:08, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Answering my own question, I found WP:NOTOR#Conflict between sources. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 15:08, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Remove Tor from our server

Somehow tor got loaded on our server, it has encrypted all the files on the server. How do get rid of tor and remove the encryption???? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:545:8000:E00:C48F:D321:F2CD:25B9 (talk • contribs)

You might get a better answer from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. Tor does not encrypt your server. See Ransomware, revise your backup strategy, and consider upgrading your security. You may wish to consult a professional. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 19:34, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

RODEL NAVAL

My name is Delia Naval Contreras, sister of Rodel Naval. I was the one who originally created the article in Wikipedia of Rodel Naval, my late brother, long time ago. Due to busyness, I hardly visited this site. Until yesterday, a new friend brought to my attention that he was lead to Rodel's Wikipedia site when he is searching for Rodel Naval. He asked me if Rodel's name was changed to Rodel G. Bactol. RODEL BELVIS NAVAL WAS NEVER CHANGED!!! AND HE NEVER JOINED THE ARMY OR NAVY OR ANY SUCH ORGANIZATIONS as it is erroneously claimed in this site. HE WAS A SINGER, COMPOSER, ACTOR, STAGE ACTOR ... and HE IS MY BROTHER - PERIOD. So, please let me know how could I access this site and edit it. I tried to edit and save it. However, when I tried to view it, my changes are gone. An unauthorized person is making changes on this site in error. As Rodel's sister, please help me. If you cannot help me, I rather have Rodel's site in Wikipedia be completely deleted.

Your prompt action on this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thank you and looking forward to hear from you.

Delia — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatangmartin (talk • contribs) 20:37, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Hello Tatangmartin. I've repaired some suspected vandalism done a few months ago. Please check the article for any further inaccuracies. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 22:00, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Thank you zzuuzz - Delia Naval Contreras — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatangmartin (talk • contribs) 13:17, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

References

Wiki entry made by 3rd party. I am the person the entry is about yet I can't make any changes.

I am writing because some unknown third party created and wrote the wikipedia entry about me. It is not complete, slanted towards the person who wrote it and does not truly represent my career, I WOULD LIKE TO BE THE ONE WHO WRITES THIS. I've tried to make changes but they get rejected. I've read your help sections and the suggested avenues to make this page my own and be able to edit it are a complete quagmire and seem absurdly complicated. The biggest problem is that a cursory internet search on my name pulls up the wiki entry as the first result. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM for me and I need it rectified. I would rather see this entire page taken down if that is an easier course to pursue. You'll see this is coming from me, Mark Picchiotti, on my account. I want to have control of my page. If it remains to be absurd hurdles after absurd hurdles to get this done, the tell me how to take this entry down. Markpicchiotti (talk) 21:19, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi! Because of the problems associated with conflicts of interest, Wikipedia doesn't permit people to have control of individual pages. What you are very much encouraged to do is to list what updates are required over at Talk:Mark Picchiotti, and editors will be able to see if they can help. - Bilby (talk) 21:29, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Also, you can't "take control of your page" as this is Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and as such nobody owns articles. Joseph2302 (talk) 21:33, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Unfortunately, you are not able to make the page your own, and if you add unsourced promotional material it will be removed per Wikipedia policy. If the article contains contains unsourced negative material or is written non-neutrally, then you can request correction or possibly deletion. See Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Summary deletion, creation prevention, and courtesy blanking for further information. Dbfirs 21:44, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

However, per bedrock policy, since you have challenged the article's content, and because this is an article on a living person, I have removed all statements from the article that are unsourced (but for the one sentence lead, and if you advise it is incorrect that can be changed too). Considering that the three sources listed were all dead links (and at least two of the three were of highly questionable reliability, considering one had "blog" in its title and the other was a Tumblr post), I have stubbed the article back to a single sentence.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:07, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Verifying a recent date of death

First, can anyone point me to Wikipedia's guidelines, if any, for verifying the date of death of a recently deceased person?

More specifically: When singer Russell Oberlin died in late November, the date of death was promptly added (by an anonymous user) to his Wikipedia article as November 26. Wikipedia's recent deaths index (also listing his death under the 26th) gives The New York Times obituary as the source.

However, the Times says he died "on Friday," which would have been the 25th.

Compounding the problem, almost every other article found online also has the 26th (Saturday). (A couple of outliers have Sunday or Monday.) But these articles, while excellent, are generally not from reliable news sources, or they are clearly secondary sources.

Is it possible that they all copied Wikipedia's possibly erroneous date? I couldn't find any other online news source giving the 25th, until The Guardian's piece appeared several days later. Perhaps it was based on a more accurate reading of the Times obituary?

At this point, I'm very close to "correcting" the date in the Wikipedia article, but I would welcome any other recommendations on how best to resolve this (short of undertaking "original research"). Many thanks. Hosenrollen (talk) 21:28, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Yes, go ahead and make the correction, citing a reference such as the Guardian obituary. Dbfirs 21:53, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Well, I have some questions about this issue myself (a few sections above), but basically judging reliability of sources is not only permitted, but necessary. And if there's a conflict between sources published *before* the WP edit, which are presumably independent, and the error is confined to sources published after the edit, you have good reason to suspect a WP:CIRCULAR reference. In fact, I'd put the reason I was choosing some reports over others in the footnote. "{{cite news|...}} A Wikipedia edit made on (date) erroneously stated the date as the 26th, a Saturday. This error was copied into numerous later news reports." If you're really confident, feel free to add it to Wikipedia:List of citogenesis incidents 71.41.210.146 (talk) 03:26, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

I took a closer look at the chronological sequence, thanks to your discussion, and now realize that the Wiki edit apparently took place on the 26th, three days before the Times obituary (which is dated the 29th). (I only first saw it in Wednesday's print edition, later in the week.) So the edit wasn't based on the Times at all, and perhaps not on any published source...? I'd better re-check the others (there aren't that many) to see which if any could possibly have been up by then, before I go with the Times/Guardian date of Nov. 25... Hosenrollen (talk) 07:34, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

All right, I've found this Nov. 26 announcement in Opera-L, which says he died Saturday evening and where. But I'm confused by the time stamp on the post. Is that Saturday a.m.? Did she mean to say Friday evening?

And here is the Facebook page with many posts; I think the first to note his passing was David Daniels's and I'll try to see if it helps establish anything as soon as I can get back to it. Thanks, Hosenrollen (talk) 22:03, 13 December 2016 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text

I messed up on changes I made to the entry on Ganz, Rudolph. The original had a bunch of unneeded citations that were redundant (a series of citations for one statement of fact), but I guess I didn't know how to do it correctly and now the citation list is all messed up. Could a helpful editor intervene on my behalf and maybe clean up the citation list? Sorry! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Caractecus (talk • contribs)

I taken the easy part and reverted to how it was before so that someone can help clean it up. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 22:25, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Caractecus, non-refs removed and some other fixes Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:13, 13 December 2016 (UTC)