Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 February 27

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February 27

Page editor

Hey there I am the official rep for my company and trying to update our pag(change logo and some text) but your editor works in a weirdest way, no offense! How do I go about making those changes? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sharams (talk • contribs) 01:27, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Try this: WP:HOW. Also, read WP:COI before editing a page for a company you're affiliated with. RudolfRed (talk) 01:35, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

As the official rep for your company you should not edit the page about the company yourself, but feel free to make suggestions on the article talk page, Talk:Freshslice Pizza, together with references to independent reliable sources that verify your proposed changes. —teb728 t c 01:53, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

help

I have a couple oil paintings with artist names and am trying to find them on the internet. I cant seem to do it. I know not the year of painting, and I have a couple variations of the artist name. Could u email me back some suggestions on how to find the oil paintings online? Any help would be much appreciated Thank you.

Rizzo — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.134.65.174 (talk) 02:23, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. But as here they do not reply via email. —teb728 t c 03:03, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia not working??

It seems that wikipedia takes longer to open now, and as of tonight, it also seems like the format of the website is broken up, or disordered. What's wrong? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.91.144.229 (talk) 02:51, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

It works for me but response time can vary between visitors. For the broken up issue, try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:08, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

At that time, about 9 PM Eastern Standard Time, both en and Commons were delaying, then showing me pages without Javatext. I changed to my netbook, saw the same thing there, turned off both computers, and watched television. Jim.henderson (talk) 10:29, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Promotional content from a neutral point of view

Dear Mr/Mrs,

I have just written an article about ChildFinance http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Hakimcfteam&oldid=478587493 Unfortunately I still could not see it online. I got the notices inbox saying

This article appears to be written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by rewriting promotional content from a neutral point of view and removing any inappropriate external links.

I went through all the sentences, words and checked it and skipped all the external links from my writing article however it seems does not work either.

I want to know what the problem is please.

I am looking forward to hearing from you, thank you .

Kind regards, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hakimcfteam (talk • contribs) 09:05, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

You did not create an article you created a Wikipedia:User page. Your username and the improperly promotional nature of the page lead me to suspect that you are part of the CF team that you write about. If so, you should read WP:COI. And your username may be a violation of our username policy, for it indicates a connection to an organization; see WP:ORGNAME. —teb728 t c 09:31, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

WELSH DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Hi own the above company. Someone is altering its entry is a perversive manner. They have also blocked me from correcting the entry. Please unblock me and ban them. I am considering what steps to take if this continues. Please help Christopher david — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.0.119.3 (talk) 11:58, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

This matter has been discussed at some length on the article talk page. The article concerns the WDA quasi-governmental agency, not any later initiatives using a similar name. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:00, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

As you consider what steps to take, try to get independent reliable sources to give significant coverage to your company. Then it would be notable enough to have an article of its own. Unless and until that happens, you and your company will get no coverage in Wikipedia. In any case do not consider making legal threats, for then you would banned from editing anywhere on Wikipedia. —teb728 t c 02:38, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Demand for help

Hello! i'm called Zinchem and i'm from cameroon.Please i'll like to be in contact with a student in the king Fahd university of petroleum and minerals in Dhahran,in Saudi Arabia.To be precise i don't know any student there but i'll like to have one friend in that school for educational purposes.Please help me get a contact from that school.My email address is (Redacted).I'm anciously waitting for an answer,thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.204.89.228 (talk) 12:38, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 3.8 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Roger (talk) 13:09, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Correction submition for Bilady, Bilady, Bilady

I teach at an International school in Cairo. Most students speak arabic. One of my students told me that the arabic lyrics at the website Bilady, Bilady, Bilady need to be corrected. The anthem's words are reversed, letters are not connected together, and lyrics have to be written from right to left, not left to right. If you want I can send you the proper text by email.

Cam McDonald — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.134.154.10 (talk) 16:25, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Post them at the article talk page, Talk:Bilady, Bilady, Bilady. —teb728 t c 21:11, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I think this is a case where WP:Be Bold applies. It is clear to me as a non-arabic speaker that the text in Bilady, Bilady, Bilady is not exactly equal to that in the arabic version *and* that the version in the english speaking wikipedia is not joined up. I think it would be just fine to alter the arabic to what it is in the Arabic language article.Naraht (talk) 18:38, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Hope Keng-Wai Lee page should be Hope Keng-Wei Lee. The entry title can not be edited.

Hope Keng-Wai Lee page should be Hope Keng-Wei Lee. The entry title page should be corrected, but I cannot edit it from my end. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anne Keng Wei (talk • contribs) 17:40, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Moved. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:47, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Warnings and scoldings but NEVER EVER edited anything, NOT AOL user

I had a page full of messages pop up scolding and threatening me for vandalizing etc.. yet I have NEVER EVER edited a single thing on this stupid site. I HATE being falsely accused like this! Not an AOL user, never have been. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.196.64.57 (talk) 17:53, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

It's about edits made by others who had your current IP address at the time. Our software cannot distinguish between different people with the same IP address. Just ignore it, or create an account to avoid it. See the box at the bottom of User talk:99.196.64.57. The edits from that IP address can be seen at Special:Contributions/99.196.64.57. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:00, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

By the way, why do you mention not being an AOL user? The messages don't say anything about AOL. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:04, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Odds of being born on a millennium leap year

What are the odds or percentage of being born on a millennium leap year — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.201.119.139 (talk) 18:16, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried the Mathematics section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps.

Consider clarifying what you mean by millennium leap year. My interpretation would be being born on any day in one of the leap years 2000, 4000, 6000, ... Maybe you had something else in mind. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:29, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Also 1000 would have been a Julian calendar leap year. —teb728 t c 21:05, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Gang Stalking / Cause Stalking

I believe that the Gang-Stalking/Cause Stalking page has been written by a perpetrator who is trying to deny the reality of this heinous crime. A lot of perpetrators/disinformation agents do that all over the internet trying to mis-inform people on the excistance of secret crimes such as Gang Stalking. Gang Stalking is another name for COINTELPRO. If you/those who edit Wikipedia or the dis information agent with the user name (Saudade7 ) want to hide the real crimes that are destroying lives in America, then you're enabling secret crimes to go on un-detected by claiming that it is a mental illness. And that means you are an ENABLER of a vicious Organized crime.

Thats exactly what the perpetrators want. I suggest you re-edit the whole content and bring this heinous crime to light, so that other people can learn about it. here's one example of gang stalking i have below ....

http://conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=36&contentid=9592

I have a lot of other proofs about this crime existing all over the world .As long as there is Cointelpro there will always be Gang stalking of targeted individuals. Don't tell me Cointelpro never existed either ? So as the previous editor "Skitzs" said it, unless you are part of the Organized crime, you should be able to tell the truth and not let crimes like this go by un detected !!!

Thanks and i hope that you do the right thing.

Cointelpro14 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cointelpro14 (talk • contribs) 21:07, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Please read Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources. conspiracyplanet does not appear to be a reliable source. If you have a reliable source, please post your suggestion on the article talk page. —teb728 t c 23:33, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Newbie file uploader questions

I have a file that I wish to upload for use in Plummer v. State (of Indiana)

It is an ASCII Text file of the 1893 Indiana Supreme Court decision Plummer v. State 135 Ind. 308, 34 N.E. 968 Ind. 1893.

Firstly, is Wikimedia Commons the proper place to upload this file?

Assuming that the answer is yes, I have the following questions:

Should I be asking this on some Wikimedia Commons help desk instead of here?

When I tried to upload the file at https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/Special:UploadWizard I got a message saying "This wiki does not accept filenames that end in the extension '.txt'." Am I in the wrong place for uploading text files?

On various Wikimedia files I have seen an infobox saying that it is free for Wikimedia to use because it was created by the US federal government and other similar infoboxes referring to state governments. Is there a central place where all such permission boxes are listed? I am of course particularly interested in one from the State of Indiana and possibly one that says 1893 is old enough to be out of copyright. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:31, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

What is the purpose of uploading a txt file? If you want to use it as a reference in an article, there is no need to upload it, just use the appropriate citation template, {{cite court}}, completing as many parameters as you can. References do not have to be online, just verifiable. – ukexpat (talk) 21:48, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

In this case, being accessible is extremely desirable because there are a large number of people who believe the false quote that is mentioned at Plummer v. State (of Indiana) and who would like to do a text search on the entire decision.

I had a very difficult time finding the text to this court case until some law students with free access to an expensive ($3000 per year or $150 for one download) database of legal decisions found it and one of them put it up on Pastebin.

So basically we have a public record published before 1923 and thus in the public domain that is only available if you are a law student or a member of a large law firm. Now it's my turn to move it somewhere that is suitable for use as a Wikipedia citation and then to document the exact steps it took so there is no question of it being a fake. --Guy Macon (talk) 22:13, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Well you could convert it to PDF and upload that, but you will still have a verifiability issue -- txt and PDF files can be open to accusations of manipulation. – ukexpat (talk) 22:17, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I think I can address the verifiability issue if I can get multiple law students to attest to having verified that what I uploaded matches what is behind the paywall. Alas, converting it to PDF will make that a lot harder - if it is text they can use any number of programs to compare the database version with the Commons version, but if it is PDF the comparison will be harder. So, it looks like I am stuck unless anyone has a better suggestion. --Guy Macon (talk) 22:53, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia should be sourced to secondary sources. It sounds like you are trying to present original research based on the original source. —teb728 t c 23:14, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

That's a very good point. I have brought the issue up at Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Noticeboard#Plummer v. State (of Indiana) to make sure that I am doing the right thing. Even if it turns out that I cannot use this particular source, I am still interested in the underlying technical / policy issue of not being able to upload a txt file, but that's not really a help desk issue. Unless anyone has anything else to add, I think I am pretty much done here. I do appreciate the help. --Guy Macon (talk) 23:41, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't know whether your file meets their verfiability requirements, but it sounds to me as though Wikisource is the place for you. Wikimedia Commons is basically for images, not texts. Deor (talk) 00:10, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I disagree with the basic premise being discussed here but it's all moot: a thirty second search of Google Books turns up the text of the decision in a reliable source: http://books.google.com/books?id=GHYLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA309 --Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:38, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikisource might be a better place than Commons for something like that. 67.117.145.9 (talk) 21:41, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Permission to use of a section of wikiHOW in a book about Design and Designing

I recently completed a book to aid young designers learn more about Design and Designing. The book is titled " People want Toast not Toasters: Lessons and Maxims for Design and Designing" and will be sold in a total quantity of less than 500. The book uses the Toast and Toaster analogy as a metaphor, and to add flavour to the text I would like your permission to incorporate the wikiHOW (two page) section on How To Make Toast, which begins with - "Steps 1. Choose the kind of bread you wish to use...", and ends with the "Items needed - Bread, Bread knife (for unsliced bread), etc." Obviously these instructions will be appropriately referenced. Thank you for your help. Brian Burns Associate Professor Carleton University Ottawa Ontario K1S 5B6 Canada — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.101.30 (talk) 21:35, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

You'll need to ask that question of wikiHow, not here; this is Wikipedia, which is a totally different organisation. The only connection is that they both use MediaWiki software. - David Biddulph (talk) 21:40, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Lest there be any further confusion, this is wikiHow's website: http://www.wikihow.com/  – ukexpat (talk) 21:45, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

ARTICLE

Im sorry I use wikipedia multiple times a day & very few times have I not found an article but it is way too complicated & time-consuming to suggest an article. I would like a bio on actor Ulas Kilic from the BBC's "MI-5"/"Spooks". Im sorry if this is not the way to do that but i do not have the time to go through a hundred pages to request one. I suggest someone make that process a little shorter. Thank-you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.239.2.96 (talk) 21:46, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Take a look at WP:Requested articles. – ukexpat (talk) 21:59, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

My article has not been published yet after 2 weeks of waiting...

My article has not been published yet after 2 weeks of waiting... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cannabisnewskids (talk • contribs) 21:49, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

It looks as if you haven't clicked the relevant link to resumbit your draft. See the second bullet point in the box from the previous review. - David Biddulph (talk) 21:55, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Cannaberg still needs work IMHO, so re-submission may be fruitless. – ukexpat (talk) 21:56, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes. The references (improperly formed, but visible in the last diff[1]) are unacceptable by wikipedia standards - see WP:RS for what is required. AndyTheGrump (talk) 21:59, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Sandbox as training ground?

I set up User:Static11/sandbox to learn how to use infoboxes, as well as teach my wife how to edit pages without feeling like she was going to ruina real article if she messed up. I didn't have a handy topic to write a real article about, so mocked up an article about a birthday party for our daughter (to give the wife some incentive to actually try out editing the page - which worked!). Everything I've read about sandboxes says that limited personal use is fine, as long as the content doesn't stay there forever. User:Future_Perfect_at_Sunrise deleted the sandbox (speedily) less that 24 hours after its creation, despite Wikipedia:UP#DELETE and Wikipedia:About_the_Sandbox both read to me that they condone the use of a sandbox in this manner, and Wikipedia:User_pages EXPLICITLY says this is not a criterion for speedy deletion.

I don't particularily want to call sour grapes, but it sure seems like the internet opinion of Wikipedia moderators being bureaucratic overlords may hold some truth after all. I'm less than inclined to continue donating money and become more than an infrequent editor when this is how the active commuinity treats less-experienced members. Static11 (talk) 22:52, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Your best bet is to contact Future Perfect at his talk page and explain the situation. He may well restore your sandbox for you. (Although simply copying an existing article, or part of one, on a subject that your wife is interested in—linking to the article in your edit summary for attribution purposes—will also provide her with something she can mess around with to learn about editing; and she may come up with some ways to improve that article as well.) Deor (talk) 23:54, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Two different URLs for same page comes up as different versions.

The Wikipedia page for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcho and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCHO come up as different revisions in certain browsers (Chrome and Safari, but not Firefox). The newest revision is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCHO and if you are on the old page (/Tcho) and click "Read," it will jump to the new revision. I've tried clearing cache and cookies. Also, if you wiki search "tcho" in the aforementioned browsers, it goes to the old page (/Tcho) and if you search "TCHO" it goes to the new page (/TCHO). Is there anything to do about this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.38.211.148 (talk) 23:02, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Pages that redirect to another page will redirect to an old version of the page for users who are not logged in. This is a known issue and has been reported. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:10, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, Gadget850! Hope we have a fix soon. -J — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.38.211.148 (talk) 23:18, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Problem with Judge Tena Campbell's article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Curlypie72

A federal judge's bio is labeled 'Curlypie72.' There's nothing in the talk page about it. I think this is perhaps a mistake, but I'm not sure how to change it. Anything I can do?

Thanks, TS — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.99.252.69 (talk) 23:04, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Apparently User:Curlypie72 is creating an unfinished article about Judge Campbell. Perhaps the page should be tagged as a {{userspace draft}}. —teb728 t c 23:21, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

I've tagged it as a user space draft and commented out the categories to lessen the possibility of someone stumbling upon it. Dismas|^(talk) 01:48, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

And I have moved it to a subpage at User:Curlypie72/Tena Campbell. – ukexpat (talk) 02:02, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

The draft is a fork of our article at Tena Campbell, and appears to have been abandoned by the editor. A cursory reading suggests it has been much improved - perhaps the changes should be merged into the live article? AJCham 11:22, 28 February 2012 (UTC)