Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 February 19

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February 19[edit]

Please help - ref number 3 on this page is coming up as incorrect — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.2.36.6 (talk) 00:58, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

<exasperation>How many times do we have to help you with this?--ukexpat (talk) 02:00, 19 February 2016 (UTC)</exasperation>[reply]

I have changed computer (public library) but we are finding it hard to fix up ref. 3 Please help and we are most sorry for any inconvenience203.12.30.130 (talk) 02:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

 Fixed in this edit. And please make sure you are signed in to your account when editing!--ukexpat (talk) 03:03, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Cite errors/Cite error included ref of indian castes and tribes of souther india[edit]

Article was Mudiraju. Fixed with this edit. —teb728 t c 05:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]


Referencing errors on various pages[edit]

Reference help requested.

At, Nik Stauskas, John Shurna and Venric Mark, I have been informed by ReferenceBot that I caused redundant parameter errors that I do not see. Can anyone help out? Thanks, TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 05:45, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@TonyTheTiger: The first two are showing the message "More than one of |website= and |work= specified" down in the references. The third has already been fixed by another editor. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:36, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@TonyTheTiger: There are currently no error messages or reference error categories at Venric Mark. Your edit had a typo in a parameter name, and that has been fixed. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:52, 21 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 04:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

how To make my site a reliable source[edit]

After editing sources in Wikipedia, i get a message that please you site movieboxofficecollection.com is not a reliable source. but i edit the page after going through official Taran Adarsh collection report and than after publishing a article about that i do edit it on wikipedia but even after sharing official news it is not getting accepted — Preceding unsigned comment added by Boxofficeb2w333 (talkcontribs) 08:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, if it is a reliable source, it will no longer be just your site. You might still own it, but it will have a board of editors and will hire professional journalists to write for it. We generally do not use blogs. Ian.thomson (talk) 08:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interwiki problem[edit]

Hi, I am a new user here. I received an email notification saying that "Loveless a laissé un message sur votre page de discussion." which translates from French to English as "Loveless left a message on your talk page." Now I don't know French. I know English only. Then why am I receiving this notification? Did I do choose something wrong in my preferences? Is it something that we have different user accounts for different languages on Wikipedia (like stackexchange sites) and so if I accidentally created a fr.wiki account, I can delete it? --Iamvaibhavkumar (talk) 10:07, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Where did you receive this message? Your talk-page does not seem to have been started as yet. It is likely that when you created your account on the English wikipedia that accounts were also started with the same username on other Wikis. If you click 'preferences' at the top of any page and then 'view global account information' it will give you a list of the Wikipedia sites where you are registered. If you see one for fr.wiki click on it to take you to that particular Wiki. Link to the talk-page in fr.wiki is 'discussion' in the same place as 'talk'. on the English Wiki. It seems likely that the message is a welcome message to that site. Eagleash (talk) 10:25, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Eagleash: I recieved this as an email from wikipedia on my registered email with this link attached.
"Your talk-page does not seem to have been started as yet"; Well, check the link, I guess you might be looking on en.wiki and not on fr.wiki.
"It is likely that when you created your account on the English wikipedia that accounts were also started with the same username on other Wikis."; Maybe, but the email is unique.
And yes It was somewhat like a welcome message. But why on fr.wiki when I didn't joined it in the first place? But, like User:PrimeHunter and User:Maproom said that I can safely ignore it, no worries then. Thanks for your help --Iamvaibhavkumar (talk) 13:31, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Iamvaibhavkumar: Your account is automatically created at a Wikipedia language or other wikis by the Wikimedia Foundation if you view any page there while you are logged in. Special:CentralAuth/Iamvaibhavkumar shows where you have accounts. In some cases somebody at the wiki posts a standard welcome message to your talk page. That is what happened at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion_utilisateur:Iamvaibhavkumar. The page should be linked in the email you got. You can just ignore it if you don't edit the wiki. Accounts cannot be deleted. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:22, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, okay. And thanks for the info. Thanks for your help --Iamvaibhavkumar (talk) 13:31, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It's just a standard "welcome" message, giving links that might be helpful if you could read French and were planning to contribute to fr:Wikipedia. It's odd that you were sent it, when you had never contributed anything there. But you cam safely ignore it. Maproom (talk) 11:53, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, it was a bit odd. I am a new user, so I simply asked it here. Thanks for your help --Iamvaibhavkumar (talk) 13:31, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting comment[edit]

I decided to look at the French message for User:Iamvaibhavkumar. I noticed that my messages flag was highlighted, which in the English Wikipedia means that I have new talk page messages. I clicked on it. Indeed, I had a message, in French, on my French talk page, which I hadn't known I had, welcoming me to Wikipedia. It was dated 16 November 2013, which is probably when I created a unified account. Someone welcomes new users to the French Wikipedia, even if they haven't edited it. I will never edit the French Wikipedia, because I don't know French. (However, one doesn't need to "know" French to be able to recognize a message welcoming them to Wikipedia.) Robert McClenon (talk) 23:07, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Cite errors/Cite error references duplicate key[edit]

My talk page not archiving[edit]

I'm not sure what the problem is. Usually it's an undated post but that doesn't seem to be the problem with my talk page. Doug Weller talk 12:09, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I have moved an oddly placed </div> [1] but don't know whether it matters to archiving. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:26, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. The page does archive though, although oddly. 2 discussions archived 2 days ago.[2] Doug Weller talk 17:02, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with references[edit]

On the page All I Ask (Adele song), the same few refs (31 to 36) are showing error, yet also being repeated again. Very weird,I don't know how to describe it. Can somebody look into it and fix it?--MaranoFan (talk) 16:06, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

MaranoFan, the template {{Singlechart}} has a field called "refname". You appear to have invoked it with field "ref name", so the name never gets defined. --ColinFine (talk) 17:17, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]


who was the firsth Roman emperor?[edit]

who was the firsth Roman emperor? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.18.192.242 (talkcontribs)

See Roman emperor. Dismas|(talk) 19:46, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

When do I get paid?[edit]

Hi. I have made a few wikiedits in the past few days. When do I get paid for my edits, and how much do I get per edit? Thanks. --Finderoomertæs (talk) 20:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We will get paid only after Wikipedia is completed.... :) Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 20:35, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia won't pay you a single cent. Nor does it pay anyone else. If you're working for someone to edit Wikipedia, you have to ask them. But you have a fundamental conflict of interest if you're editing Wikipedia solely to get paid. Wikipedia actively discourages paid editing. JIP | Talk 20:37, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know if the original question was intended as humor. I thought that it was intended as humor, but may be mistaken, and, on the Internet, no one knows that you are teasing or being sarcastic or that you are a bear. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
However, if someone actually did offer to pay you for your edits, Wikipedia is very negative toward paid editing. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia pays in Service awards, which you may feel free to bestow upon yourself once you meet the appropriate criteria. Based on your user contributions so far, I have taken the liberty of awarding you the Registered Editor Star. Share and enjoy! ubiquity (talk) 22:34, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. (Matthew 6:20) >MinorProphet (talk) 01:31, 22 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Creating/parameterising a template to categorise broken section anchors[edit]

Hello. I was hoping that it would be possible to create a template (or add a parameter to an existing one) that will categorise broken section anchors (i.e. here and here). If so, would it be possible for the template to be added to those redirects automatically (e.g. via a bot) or will one have to do such a task manually. Thank-you.--Neveselbert 20:51, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Neve-selbert try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:20, 22 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks.--Neveselbert 22:28, 22 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

User GSheaNY ‎and DeSimone Consulting Engineers[edit]

GSheaNY (talk · contribs) is a media representative for DeSimone Consulting Engineers (page recently speedily deleted) who has been adding their name to the articles for every building they have worked on, using only their home page as a reference (see his contributions page to get an idea of the extent of this, about two dozen articles). This seems highly promotional to me, but I am not sure how to proceed. He was warned about this activity, and seemed to desist a few days later, but I suspect it was because his work was done. Is a company's own web page a good enough source to justify adding information about that company to an article? Is it bad wiki-manners for me to single out the work of one person who probably believed he was acting in good faith? And if I do undo this work, do I need to take responsibility that every other fact in the articles is adequately sourced? Thanks in advance for your advice. ubiquity (talk) 20:55, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't researched the editor's contributions, but if they are adding links to their company's web site to a large number of articles, that is link spam, and is a form of disruptive editing. You may and are encouraged to caution the editor. They may indeed have thought that they were acting in good faith if they don't understand the Wikipedia policies of conflict of interest and neutral point of view, but that is only a reason to be polite to them, not to leave disruptive edits alone. If you remove something that is obviously improper, that does not mean that you are required to research the rest of the information in the article. A company's own web site may be a primary source. It is not a secondary source. Wikipedia relies primarily on secondary sources. See the reliable source policy. If you delete inappropriate material in an article and you are then reverted, which is likely, read the dispute resolution policy, which will tell you to discuss on the article talk page and then provide other ways to resolve the dispute if the discussion does not resolve the issue. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:17, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

They are not adding links to the bodies of the articles, only mentions sourced by their home page (so of course the reference contains the link). The editor claims he has better sources, and I am working with him to avoid promotionalism, so I guess I'll let the matter ride for the time being. ubiquity (talk) 22:27, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Question about Redirect[edit]

An alternate name for the Prairie Evaporite Formation is Prairie Formation. Searches for the latter (which has no page) should be redirected to the page for the former. I suspect that it requires an Admin to do this. Could someone please help? Georgialh (talk) 21:43, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It does not require an admin. I did it for you. Try Prairie Formation. You'll go to Prairie Evaporite Formation. At the top it will say "Redirected from Prairie Formation". Click on that link and edit the page to see how I did it. ubiquity (talk) 21:50, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I that see now. Thank you! Georgialh (talk) 05:59, 20 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]