Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 February 22

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February 22

Jorjafk

The reference 1 is from US military, and I am not sure what is their source for names and the correlating English transliteration. There are many references about Jorjafk fault in reputable scientific journals about earthquakes. If you search this references you will see the costant spelling as Jorjafk. I lived in Jorjafk and served as the only physician there for more than a year. This correction will keep the stability of the usage of the same old spelling, and will also help geographical locating systems to show Jorjafk on their serving pages. Thank you for attention. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.117.200.235 (talk) 03:20, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

There are 2 essentially identical questions about this on the page, so please continue any further questions at Wikipedia:Help_desk#Jorjafak above. Also note, your original question has been answered there. CaptRik (talk) 13:36, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Archived.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:48, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Batch download

Is there any MW-included tool that permits one to download a bunch of images all together, at full resolution? I just want images, not file pages, so the book tool wouldn't help. Of course, one can do a total database dump, or one can download each one individually, but when it's a matter of 2500 images, neither one is practical if there's a better option. Nyttend (talk) 04:09, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Since no one answered here, did you try WP:VPT?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:31, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

@Nyttend: There are a few download programs listed here: c:Commons:Tools#Download media. I'm not sure if those will do what you are looking for since I have never used them before but it is something. --Majora (talk) 19:46, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Skrull

Reference help requested. Referencebot lists "On the Skrull page, your edit caused a broken reference name" but I don't see the problem? Thanks, Darci (talk) 05:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

You need a lot of H'rpra if you couldn't see the angry red message in the reference section. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:44, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

That reply was no help. I don't see red at either https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skrull&action=edit&section=14 or at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skrull&action=edit&section=23 Darci (talk) 23:14, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

obstacle course racing

Hi guys my name is Mark leinster im the CEO of the Obstacle course racing association (OCRA UK) and uK ambassador for the OCR World championships.

We have been established for almost 2 years now and are soon to be recognised as the NGB for the sport in UK.

I would like to know how to amend the wikapedia meaning of the sport as it is a bit outdated now as the sport has progressed so much in a short time.

hope you can help

mark — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.199.96.169 (talk) 09:58, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi Mark, welcome to Wikipedia!

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, so if you can see improvements to make, you can just go ahead and make them! There's some advice on getting started at Help:Getting started.

That said, by being CEO of OCRA you have a financial association with these articles, so you should be aware of Wikipedia's rules about conflicts of interest. In particular, Wikipedia's terms of use forbid making edits that you are being paid for (even if not being paid directly) without making it clear that you're being paid, per Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure, and such edits may also be in breach of fair trading laws or ASA guidelines. Your best bet is to request changes on article talk pages and make it clear that you have a conflict of interest when doing so.

—me_and 13:17, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

The other important thing, Mark, is that every single piece of information inserted into the article should be cited to a reliable published source: unpublished information and personal knowledge are not acceptable. Furthermore, information from your organisation's website or publications is only usable in limited ways, because it is not independent. If you follow me_and's advice, and post your suggestions on the talk page, you're more likely to get somebody willing to make the edits if you provide reliable published sources for information you suggest adding. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ColinFine (talk • contribs) 17:31, 22 February 2016‎ (UTC)

Odd page format

Hello,

I am new to Wikipedia, editing pages at least anyway, but I have recently come across the page for Abingdon and Witney College - - a local college to me.

I noticed that the page doesn't seem to have the usual format of an info box on the right, with an image and some key info. I have tried to work out how to rectify this issue but just can't. Upon looking at the 'talk' section I noticed that their has been an ongoing argument between two users with regards to the content that has been uploaded.

I would like to make the page look like all other pages on Wikipedia, as in following the same layout and format but I can't work out how. I imagine I'm being stupid but any help on this matter would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Shasley2016 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shasley2016 (talk • contribs) 10:36, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi Shasley, welcome to Wikipedia!

The infoboxes most pages have on the right are created with templates; if you look at Template:Infobox college#Example, you can see an example of how to use a template to create a suitable infobox for this article. (The example uses "Infobox university", but "Infobox college" is a redirect – effectively an alternative name – to "Infobox university", meaning you can use either to get the same result).

I've also had a look at the article talk page, and I can't see any dispute there. In any case, Wikipedia:Dispute resolution has some suggestions about how to resolve disputes and arguments on Wikipedia.

—me_and 13:05, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Can I hear the content as audio form instead of reading it?

Can I hear the content as audio form instead of reading it?

I wish to suggest Wiki to facilitate audio form of the content when a person can't read the article etc on Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 39.50.210.66 (talk) 12:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi! Wikipedia has a relatively small number of articles that have recordings of them that you can listen to rather than read. You can request articles have a have recordings added by following the instructions at Category:Spoken Wikipedia requests.

For the vast majority of articles that don't have spoken recordings of them, you might want to find a screen reader that will read the page to you, although I don't have experience with any to offer any personal recommendations.

Hope that helps! —me_and 12:53, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

I have used Voice Dream on the iPhone succesfully. It costs $10. deisenbe (talk) 13:40, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Creating a public figure profile

Good day sir, madam: I am finding it difficult to create a profile of a young public figure. Can someone please help me? I will highly appreciate the effort.

Thanks

Kaifa SesayDusesay (talk) 12:51, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi, welcome to Wikipedia!

There's a lot of advice about creating an article at Wikipedia:Your first article; I'd suggest having a read of that first of all, since there are a lot of common questions and problems covered there.

It's worth noting that Wikipedia has some fairly strict policies when writing biographies of living people, in order to avoid harm or libel. You should probably have a look at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons for those policies, but in short even more than for most articles, things in a biography need to be sourced from reliable, independent sources.

If you're having any particular difficulties, feel free to come back here and ask for help with whatever's causing you trouble.

—me_and 12:58, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hello, Kaifa Sesay. Please be aware that if you are thinking about a "profile" you may be on the wrong track. Wikipedia isn't like a directory or social networking site which has profiles: it is an encyclopaedia, which contains articles about notable subjects - those that have already been written about in reliable published sources. If you write an article about a person, what that person says or wants to say, or what their organisation or associates say, are all almost irrelevant to Wikipedia: the article should be neutral, and based almost completely on what people with no connection to the person have published about the person. --ColinFine (talk) 17:35, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Urgent

I want to know the steps involved in the creation of public figure profile. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dusesay (talk • contribs) 12:58, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi, I've just answered your previous question above. If you have any new questions, please feel free to ask them, but repeating yourself won't get you answers any quicker. —me_and 13:00, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

And, by the way, it is not urgent. WP:Wikipedia has no deadline, and if you think there is urgency, you may be here for a purpose which is not Wikipedia's purpose. --ColinFine (talk) 17:37, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Move request

Talk:Amadis de Gaula

I posted a move request as the last item on the above page, but nothing has happened. Could you either make the move, or tell me what I should do? Thank you. deisenbe (talk) 13:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Deisenbe: I think you're looking for WP:REQUESTED MOVES. Dismas|^(talk) 14:07, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

I see you have requested this over at WP:REQUESTED MOVES. It may take up to 7 days for a discussion to take place and then the requested move to take place if supported by consensus. Please see WP:DIACRITICS so you're aware of one of the criteria that will be used to determine the validity of the move request. Tiggerjay (talk) 17:22, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Conflict of interest but not paid for contributions

Hi there,

I have made a major edit and a collection of minor edits to the following Wikipedia page;

ThumbSat

And the related talk page. My question is about making it clear that I have a conflict of interest, and the nature of my conflict. I work on the ThumbSat project and hence when I received an email from an external source saying they have made a ThumbSat Wikipedia page on our behalf I decided to review and then rewrite the page due to a number of technical omission and poor syntax. This is not covered my my typical duties (I'm a spacecraft engineer, not in PR) and I was not asked to make these changes by anyone else in the company - so to be clear I wasn't paid for these edits. The motivation for the edit was not wanting a project I have worked on to be misrepresented, especially in a negative light. I have attempted to keep a clear and impartial tone when editing the page and have tried to make the majority of statements reference secondary sources where possible and primary sources where not.

A separate user (the user who set up the page initially) had edited the talk page to signify my employment at ThumbSat and that I was paid for the work, this wasn't the case so I've removed that edit and am posting this.

Many thanks,

FraserJamesRobinson (talk) 14:33, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@FraserJamesRobinson: If you are working for a client, then you are a paid editor, and so are legally required to disclose this. Also, do not removed sourced content replacing it with promotional datasheet-like material. Joseph2302 (talk) 14:40, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@FraserJamesRobinson and Joseph2302: If you're not being paid for editing (i.e. you're doing it on your own time, you're not receiving any reward for the edits), it doesn't count as a paid edit – those are explicitly contributions "for which [the editor] receive[s], or expect[s] to receive, compensation", per WP:PAID. It sounds like that's not the case here.

Nonetheless, I'd strongly recommend disclosing your conflict of interest on your user page and the article talk page (the latter seems to have already been done, if not by you then another editor), and reading the guidelines at WP:COI.

Looking at the edit history for that page, it looks like you've been reverting a lot of edits by other editors; given that you have a COI, I'd strongly recommend limiting yourself to uncontroversial edits (and a revert is almost never uncontroversial) and otherwise only making changes by requesting them on the talk page, so other editors can review them and comment on them before they make it to the article itself.

—me_and 19:35, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@me_and so based on this would it be appropriate for me to revert the changes back to my text as it was more structured and help to expand the article (it's now listed as a stub). I've learnt a fair amount of info about what makes a good article so I'd certainly make a bunch of edits to the post now. FraserJamesRobinson (talk) 00:50, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

@FraserJamesRobinson: As I said above, I think you should not revert anything, but limit yourself to entirely uncontroversial edits (e.g. correcting an obvious spelling error) or requesting edits on the article talk page using {{Request edit}}. —me_and 15:22, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Bibles

I need to do research on the sort of English old bibles used (Middle?", as meanings in modern bibles occasionally have altered the original meanings, as well as spellings, & need clarification by readers unskilled in whatever the period of English means in "modern" terms.

Example, the meaning of the word "sin" comes from an early ARCHERY term: "sinne." This is the term which describes MISSING the target. One hears the ssss sound of the passing arrow, but there's no resounding THUNK at the end. One has "missed the Mark," which, to the Church, was an apt description of aiming incorrectly, & falling short of the path to reach God -- the Mark.

Do you see that the term has =become= a condemning notion to modern minds, & NOT incentive to trust in the "endless" forgiveness of God? One should instead be inspired to aim better & try again. Instead, many, unaware of this aspect of the Christian God, of eternal forgiveness with only ONE exception (& even that one =can= be forgiven!), people give up & just give in to "sin / sinne."

Ultimately my question is DOES a place exist on Wikipedia which translates that OLDER English that I can use? The site MUST be translated into =modern English. Thank you! Connie Crouch — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.90.150.174 (talk) 16:09, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Your etymology of "sin" is not supported by the reliable published sources which Wikipedia respects. What is the site which you believe must be translated into modern English? Maproom (talk) 16:20, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

First, as the previous editor notes, you will need a reliable source. Second, some of your above post has a polemic quality to it, and would certainly need to be toned down before being put into an article. Third, if there is a specific article that you want changed, discuss on the article talk page. If, as is likely, you don't find consensus, read the dispute resolution policy, which will tell you what different options are for resolving the dispute. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:45, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm not quite clear what you're asking, but I think the answer is "no". Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, nothing else. It does not do translation. It does not contain etymologies (except sometimes in passing). You might find some useful information in Early English Modern Bible translations, or in sources referenced from there. --ColinFine (talk) 17:42, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure but I think ColinFine is referring to Early Modern English Bible translations - Arjayay (talk) 19:35, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Oops! Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks Arjayay. ColinFine (talk) 19:50, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Connie, you can't do better than the OED. My abridged edition gives the etymology as:

OE. syn(n, for original *synjō, related to OFris. sende, MDu. sonde, G. sünde, etc. Cf. L. sons, sontis guilty.]

Its first definition, which represents what the compilers believe to be the oldest sense of the word, is:

A transgression of the divine law and an offence against God; a violation (esp. wilful or deliberate) of some religious or moral principle. b [this indicates a sub-meaning] transf. A violation of some standard of taste or propriety 1780.

The date represents the earliest documented use of the sub-meaning; the lack of a date for the main meaning indicates that it's so old that there's no way to find an earliest use. You need exceptional evidence to prove that OED has made a mistake here. Nyttend (talk) 01:22, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

PS, Connie, have you heard of the Lindisfarne Gospels? They're an ordinary set of Latin manuscripts of the New Testament that a monk annotated with Old English translations of short passages. See [1] for transcripts. Page 8 contains the latter half of the first chapter of the Gospel of John, including the words of John the Baptist in verse 29, which in Modern English reads Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The Latin text given there is Altera die videt Johannes Ihm [a scribal abbreviation] venientem ad se, et ait, Ecce agnus Di [another abbreviation], qui tollit peccatum mundi. Consider the final words, which become "who takes away the sins of the world"; this clause is translated seðe nimeð þ lædeð synne middang [scribal abbreviation]. It's synne, not yfel or some other OE word with comparable connotations. Nyttend (talk) 01:38, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

How to edit?

Can you please help me edit my page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bianca Levine (talk • contribs) 17:13, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Bianca Levine: which page are you trying to edit and what sorts of edits are you trying to make? Also, what do you mean by "my page"? Wikipedia articles are not owned by any one editor, and autobiographies are strongly discouraged. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:19, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

(copied from [2]) I'm trying to edit and upload my profile page first before meeting more people, so others can know me better and my new speciality Bianca Levine (talk) 17:24, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Bianca Levine: You are trying to create your Userpage, correct? A page to tell other editors about yourself, what articles you are interested in editing, and what you know about? The link I gave you to userpage will tell you a lot about what people use a userpage for. As for how to create it, you can click on this link: User:Bianca Levine and just start typing. When you are done, click "Save page" and whatever you have typed will be there. If you like, you can use userboxes to tell people about yourself, but there is no requirement to do so and some people don't like them. Some people have fancy userpages with a lot of code on them to make them do things, and you can see some tips for making those at the user page design center, but again, you don't need the fancy formatting and early on it may be easier just to use text and userboxes. Let us know here if you need any more help with your user page or have any other questions. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:40, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

My page

I'm trying to edit and upload my profile page first before meeting more people, so others can know me better and my new speciality Bianca Levine (talk) 17:24, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

What exactly do you need help with? Wikipedia:User page design center would be a great place to begin. -- ChamithN (talk) 17:36, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

It appears that this paragraph, which I moved from the talk page, and the above question, are really the same. You say that you are trying to edit and upload your profile page. Wikipedia does not have profiles in the sense that social media do. Wikipedia has encyclopedic articles and user pages. If you want to provide information about how you plan to use and edit Wikipedia, you can put that in User talk:Bianca Levine. If you want other editors to know you better, outside the context of improving Wikipedia, use social media. Please explain what you are trying to do. Creating a user page is not difficult, but it should be oriented to how you participate in Wikipedia. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Shouldn't that say User:Bianca Levine, Robert? The User talk page is usually for other people to start discussions with her. --ColinFine (talk) 17:48, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

ETBE = Editor Transient Brain Error. Yes. User:Bianca Levine. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:33, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Also, I'd encourage you to contribute to the project before focusing on your user page. Sometimes, your contributions can say more about you than your user page. In my opinion, that's the best way to tell others about your "specialty". -- ChamithN (talk) 17:50, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Have I warned this IP appropriately?

Hi guys. Some time back, I was reviewing a few edits by an IP and found that all the edits of the IP seemed like vandalism. I reverted the IP's edits and then went to the IP's talk page and left this warning message. I wanted your assessment of whether this warning left by me was appropriate or not. Thank you as always. Xender Lourdes (talk) 17:37, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Sneaky vandalism, which would not be found by ClueBot. The changing of dates is sneaky vandalism, which is in some ways worse than obvious vandalism. I would given the IP a Level 3, but the Level 4 final does not seem excessive to me. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:41, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

When I see that an editor has made multiple disruptive edits, I usually give them a collective warning. If it's mostly harmless, like "i luv bob" or "bob is teh awesome lol" across a few articles, then I give out a level 2 warning. If it's more overt vandalism to a small number of articles, I usually give out a level 3 warning. I usually don't start with a level 4 warning unless it's really bad, like an obvious campaign of vandalism to lots of articles. This IP editor would be at a level 4 warning if he'd been warned individually for each of his edits, so it's not necessarily excessive to jump to a level 4 warning immediately, but I think a level 3 warning would suffice. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 19:47, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Robert and Ninja for the invaluable pointers. I realise this – to understand the level of warning to be placed on a vandal's talk page – requires quite a bit of experience; so different from the article editing that I do. I hope I gain in the coming days I learn in this area too. Thank you again. Xender Lourdes (talk) 02:39, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Merge Pages

These companies have recently performed a merge. You can see that referenced from their page: General Dynamics Mission Systems

General Dynamics C4 Systems was redirected correctly. However, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems needs to do the same redirect as C4 Systems.

I started a Merger proposal back in January 14, 2016 and I am not sure what the next steps are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.100.97.11 (talk) 17:59, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

The process for merging articles is described at WP:MERGE. Have a look through that guide, and feel free to come back if you have any trouble! —me_and 19:38, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

Setting up an archive

Hello all,
There is a talk page that is very much bloated and it should be archived. I've been reading about Cluebot III, etc. but I'm fairly confused. All I'm trying to do is set up a bot that will archive the talk page every 30 days. Can anyone provide the wikitext necessary to do so? Thank you.Ergo Sum 19:39, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Ergo Sum: If you want to use ClueBot and have it archive every 30 days add the following to the top of the page:

{{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis
| age=720
| archiveprefix={{SUBST:FULLPAGENAME}}/Archive
| numberstart=1
| maxarchsize=75000
| header={{Automatic archive navigator}}
| minkeepthreads=5
| minarchthreads=1
| format= %%i
}}

That will set up an archive so any thread older than 720 hours (30 days) is automatically sent to PAGENAME/Archive 1. The minkeepthreads is how many threads will be left on the page regardless of how old they are. Leave the minarchthreds parameter alone. If you have any other questions please let me know. --Majora (talk) 22:20, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

@Majora, thank you.

Changing username - rewriting old talk page signatures? AKA global find and replace.

For various reasons, I'm thinking of changing my username. The Limitations and Restrictions section of the help pages says, "Existing signatures and mentions of the old username in discussions are not affected by a rename."

If I want to change old signatures I made on talk pages, etc, to reflect the new username, then presumably this would require some kind of global search and replace tool that works across all the WMF sites covered by SUL. Does such a tool exist? Is there another way? zazpot (talk) 23:37, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

No such tool exists and changing previous post, especially old ones, would be discouraged. Instead, just edit your old user and user talk pages to indicate your new name. RJFJR (talk) 00:50, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

If you change your username, your old user and talk pages are normally set to redirect to your new ones, so people will be able to link your old and new usernames together. For example User:Meand (my user page from before I changed username) is a redirect to User:me_and (my current user page). As RJFJR says, there's no such global search-and-replace, and I'd expect there'd be a lot of resistance to adding one. —me_and 09:48, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Fair enough. Thanks for explaining! zazpot (talk) 13:47, 23 February 2016 (UTC)