Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 February 26

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February 26

Current events

In the past, I've been impressed by how fast Wikipedia has been able to cover current events quickly.

However, right now, I'm less than impressed; 2016_Hesston_shooting is so short, lacking lots of current info. I've pasted some on the talk page.

Feel free to tell me to 'So Fix It', but - apart from that - I was wondering about the current methods, and whether Wikipedia still dives on current events.

(I will expect a WP:NOTNEWS link here too. But hey, you know what...one of the most amazing things about this project has been how it's dealt with ongoing big news - such as the tsunami, the earthquakes, and so on)

So... what is my actual HD-appropriate question, er;

"Is it a priority for Wikipedia to be *current* - NOW - or not?"

81.108.18.234 (talk) 01:21, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Breaking news is the purview of wikinews, but they don't seem to have anything on it either. RJFJR (talk) 01:29, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Wikinews is a joke. Always was - just a pathetic 'NOTNEWS' thing, and became corrupt, then melted down. 81.108.18.234 (talk) 01:31, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Part of the issue, I think, is that editors try to only add verifiable info. Soon after events, there's a lot of conjecture. So articles tend to be rather sparse until the following day when authorities start to really confirm more information. Dismas|^(talk) 03:20, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

And to illustrate my point... Early versions of the article said that 4-7 people had been killed and 20-30 injured. The figures are now 4 killed and 14 injured. Dismas|^(talk) 13:56, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Malicious edits

I would appreciate assistance in protecting my departed father's Wikipedia page. Someone (and I am nearly certain this someone is a stalking ex) has been persistently vandalizing his page from different IP addresses in Portland, OR with spam. He is incessantly editing the page to include a link to my recent wedding, which clearly has nothing to do with my father's musical legacy, and by adding various names that he attributes to me. This is clearly targeted at me and it detracts from my father's page and this obsessive person needs to be stopped. Nothing needs to be changed on his page as he is deceased. I very much appreciate a response! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ananymity (talk • contribs) 08:47, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

This is about Michael Masser. Ananymity's claims seem to me to be justified. I hope an admin can semi-protect the article. But the article does need further work – it consists almost entirely of lists of Masser's productions. Maproom (talk) 09:07, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

The article has been semi-protected. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:12, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Article not being displayed in categories

I recently created the article Jurjen Battjes, I included it in a list of categories, and the article showed on the category pages. Shortly thereafter someone moved the page to a different name, and I moved it back again. However, the article won't show up anymore in the categories. F.e. the article is listed in the Category:Fluid dynamicists , but when you look at that category the page Jurjen Battjes is not in it. Does anyone know what might have happened? Crispulop (talk) 16:02, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Sometimes these things take a little while to catch up. I performed a null edit on Jurjen Battjes, and it now appears to be shewing in the categories correctly. DuncanHill (talk) 16:05, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for helping out! Crispulop (talk) 16:14, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Adding organized references to redirect

The following example is relevant, but the question is general. When looking for Civil War Forts, most appear in a consistent format. However, when there is more than 1 with that name, some of the references are not well organized. Is it possible to develop a consistent reference set by adding a page with a consistent title that references the actual page? I could provide examples if needed, but this is a general question. You can tell I am new here.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cliffordireland (talk • contribs) 16:09, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Examples may help because I, for one, am having trouble understanding what you are trying to accomplish or what you see as a problem. It sounds like you want to transclude several references across many articles which I don't think is possible. But I'm willing to be proved wrong. :) Dismas|^(talk) 16:19, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Possible, yes. Advisable, depends on what is being done. I've seen large tables with references in them get transcluded into other articles and the references come with them. Whether a block of references with information for many articles is appropriate, I'm less convinced. *But*, that may not be what the original poster wanted. I'm also curious. :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Naraht (talk • contribs)

finding reliable sources

Hi, I work as translator from Arabic to English and actually I take texts from Arabic wikipedia and translate them to English. I post what I translate on Enflish wikipedia . The broblem is I suffer from the luck of English or translated sources of whatt I post . There are so many sources in Arbic but they are so few in English. Furthermore, you keep deleting my posts due to primary sources that you say I use . what should I do in that respect ? How can find reliable English sources to what I translate ? please help me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eagleye533 (talk • contribs) 16:17, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

You absolutely can use non-English sources for articles here (see Wikipedia:Verifiability#Non-English_sources) however English sources are preferred if they exist. From a look at your contributions and the article you have created, the issue appears to be that on English wikipedia it reads like a WP:ESSAY and fails WP:Notability. Each different language wiki has slightly different rules about what is allowed as an article and how it must be sourced and presented. If you can re-work what you're written into a more suitable encyclopaedic form that it might stand a chance of being kept. Also, you can take part in the deletion discussion and explain what you are trying to achieve. CaptRik (talk) 16:41, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

You could also create your articles in Draft space instead of directly in article space. Then they would not get deleted (unless for something serious like copyright infringement), and you would have an opportunity to work at getting them to an acceptable state. --ColinFine (talk) 23:31, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Getting Article Created

is there a way i can get a wikipedia page made for a published artist "Kydo Chill", ive been trying to create it for some years and it just dosen't work for me. Rocstarbbz (talk) 18:50, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

For starters, the Template space is not the place for articles, (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Kydo_Chill&oldid=706731875), but that isn't the main issue, the main issue is Notability. The fact that an artist is available and iTunes and Musicbrainz doesn't make them notable. See WP:ARTIST for a guide to notability and take a look at some other Hip Hop artists on Wikipedia. For example, I'd probably be willing to consider an artist notable who had an interview with Billboard magazine...Naraht (talk) 19:03, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

@Rocstarbbz and Naraht: I think WP:MUSICBIO is the guideline you want, WP:ARTIST is a guidelines for artists i.e. painters. Joseph2302 (talk) 08:43, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

date= field for a bimonthly publication

Hello all! So I'm working on a new draft, and I'm citing the bimonthly Mother Earth News, specifically this article: [1]. The thing is, it's from the December 2015/January 2016 issue, and try as I might I can't figure out a format for that date in Template:Cite news that won't give me an error. Is there some way to format this date properly? Or maybe some way to "override" the error so it doesn't show up on the page? Howicus (Did I mess up?) 20:17, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

The experts on this are over at Help talk:Citation Style 1.(Note, that page is also where the talk pages for all of the Cite X templates go.)Naraht (talk) 20:23, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

A dash is accepted in lieu of a slash, Howicus. See Help:CS1 errors#Check date values in: .7Cparam1.3D.2C .7Cparam2.3D.2C ... – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 23:40, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Finnusertop, that doesn't work for what I'm trying to do. The dash would let me display "2015-2016" but not "December 2015-January 2016". Also, Naraht, the edit notice on the talk page at Help talk:Citation Style 1 actually recommends asking here instead. Howicus (Did I mess up?) 20:04, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

This works:

{{cite news |title=The Open Source Seed Initiative: Let's Take Back Our Seeds |url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/open-source-seed-initiative-zmgz15djzsto.aspx?PageId=1 |newspaper=[[Mother Earth News]] |first=Margaret |last=Roach |date=December 2015 – January 2016}}

Roach, Margaret (December 2015 – January 2016). "The Open Source Seed Initiative: Let's Take Back Our Seeds". Mother Earth News.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 20:21, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

fixing wrong article/page title

It is possible that items have been added to wikipedia with the wrong article title. How can this be fixed, considering some may already have been linked/referred in other pages ? An example is the article "Greater Romania Party" which is a mistranslation, the correct title being "Great Romania Party". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Geffox (talk • contribs) 21:49, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

The title of an article is changed by moving it. --ColinFine (talk) 23:33, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

which appears to the casual reader to be a renaming, but the software behind Wikipedia sees it as a move, and so redirects all the links automatically. Maproom (talk) 23:37, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Page getting flagged and delted

Hello,

I'm trying to create an informational page about my company, but it keeps getting flagged. I'm not tying to sell or promote anything. The page I want to create is similar to this Mayfield Senior School

Can anyone advise me on how to do this without getting my content deleted?

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.42.182.123 (talk) 22:06, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

I haven't seen the page but I'm betting that you haven't shown why your company is notable per Wikipedia's definition of that word. See WP:CORP for our notability guideline for companies. Also see WP:COI for our conflict of interest policy which explains why you probably shouldn't be doing this yourself. Dismas|^(talk) 23:33, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Also, Mayfield Senior School is a very poor example to follow. It is written like an advertisement, and has no acceptable references. I won't be surprised if it gets deleted soon. Maproom (talk) 23:41, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Queen Letizia of Spain

Please check that I have done the "Publisher section" correctly for ref. number 11 on this page. please leave in all quotes - it was the publisher details that we found hard. Cheers 139.216.210.155 (talk) 23:39, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

 Done Eagleash (talk) 01:52, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

The IP presumably intended to refer to ref 10, not 11. --David Biddulph (talk) 21:57, 27 February 2016 (UTC)