Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 January 24

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January 24

Guidance request

Dear Sir/Madam

I read your articles with interest but unable to follow well.

I have an endorsement of Certificate of Patriality under Section 2(2)(a) dated 11 August 1984 acquired through marriage.

The marriage collapsed and in 1987 I returned to Malaysia and to date have never been back to London.

I now wish to return to live in London and not sure where I stand regarding re-entry as a permanent resident. I never took up citizenship at the time of my marriage and remains the case now.

Can you advise or direct me to the appropriate authorities in Australia please? I await your invaluable advice.

Thanking you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.111.191.178 (talk) 00:36, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Editors of Wikipedia cannot provide legal advice. You should seek professional assistance from a solicitor. Some advice (although not legal) may be available from the volunteers at Wikipedia:Reference desk. fredgandt 01:36, 24 January 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. But note that we cannot give legal advice. – ukexpat (talk) 01:37, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Talk to the British embassy or other diplomatic post (high commission, honorary consul, or consulate general). This page will help you find one near you. Astronaut (talk) 17:55, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Oops, I broke it

Can someone help me out here? I keep on trying to get it to work, but it's not working. I can't tell how I'm coding it wrong....Mchcopl (talk) 02:05, 24 January 2012 (UTC)!

The <timeline> functions does not accept external links. Someone has fixed it. — Edokter (talk) — 02:15, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

External links shouldn't be added to the body of an article anyway. They should only be used as references or put into the external links section at the bottom of the article. Dismas|^(talk) 02:22, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Contactmusic.com on marital breakup

Should http://www.contactmusic.com/news/vanilla-ice-and-wife-split_1232480 be considered a reliable source for a breakup of Vanilla Ice and his wife? Someone claiming to represent Vanilla Ice says at Talk:Vanilla Ice#Factual Errors that there is no breakup. (I asked this at WP:RS/N three days ago but got no response. Was that the wrong place?) —teb728 t c 02:24, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

It seems to have all started from the National Enquirer, which is a tabloid. As for Contactmusic.com, the article has no byline (which isn't a good sign) and the site doesn't seem to have a reputation for fact-checking, as required by WP:SOURCES. The sites also permits user-submitted content, which is concerning. So I would say the supposed breakup should not be included in the article as it is sensitive BLP content, unless a high-quality reliable source reports it. The current sources are flimsy at best.
WP:RSN was the right place to post. I'm not sure why no one responded. Goodvac (talk) 02:47, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. —teb728 t c 04:18, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Creating existing page in another language

Hello I requesting that the following Wikipedia page be translated and made available on the English Wikipedia. (I play for this orchestra) Is this something I can do?Thanks, Mark

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazonas_Filarm%C3%B4nica#.7B.7BLiga.C3.A7.C3.B5es_externas.7D.7D — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.75.99.160 (talk) 03:04, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Basically yes, it is something you can do. The page would be called Amazonas Philharmonic and so long as the subject was notable, supported by reliable sources and written from a neutral point of view, it should be fine. You might want to consider (if you do create the article) mentioning your conflict of interest (with regard to you being affiliated with the subject) on the article's talk page, and in the first edit summary when creating the page. An admitted COI is far better than trying to hide it. fredgandt 03:13, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

For more help and advice, you could visit Wikipedia:Translation. There is another consideration that you may need to bear in mind; that is, Attribution. You should make sure that the translation properly attributes the original authors of the Portuguese article. I'm afraid I don't know the precise policy in this regard. fredgandt 03:24, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, from Wikipedia:Translation "Because Wikipedia licensing requires attribution, the translation source must be credited to avoid copyright violation. Attribution in the edit summary and placing the template {{Translated page}} on the article talk page are the recommended ways to credit the source of the translation". It goes on to state "See also Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia". Good luck. fredgandt 03:30, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Important: Sorry should have mentioned also that only registered users (See Wikipedia:Why create an account?) are able to directly create articles. You may however request that an article be created at Wikipedia:Requested articles without registering an account. fredgandt 03:49, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Article Errors

I am new to Wikipedia, and I have found a nonsensical sentence in an article. I lack sufficient expertise in field to make a constructive edit. What should I do?

Do I make a note on the talk page? Is there a place for reporting errors? Thanks in advance.

Wanzeo (talk) 04:45, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The article's talk page is exactly the right place to mention what you consider to be an error. Although, since you have shown by your edit to this page, you are quite capable of editing, so Be bold! and try to fix it yourself. The worst that can happen, is you make a mistake and it gets undone. The software is far tougher than it looks and can take the hits. I'll drop a welcome template on your talk page in the next few minutes. It contains loads of helpful links to information around Wikipedia. good luck! fredgandt 04:50, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

How do I answer a question asked at the Reference Desk?

How do I submit an answer to a question someone posts to the Reference Desk?99.239.20.41 (talk) 05:11, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Basically in the same way you have asked this question (except without creating a new section). See the raw text of my answer (click the "[edit]" link to the right of this section heading) to you here. Note the Indentation created at the start of my response by adding one colon (:). Use as many colons as it akes to indent your response appropriately. fredgandt 05:26, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:32, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

delete account

How do I delete my account. Shawn Worthington laser (talk) 05:23, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You cannot delete your account, but you can request to vanish. fredgandt 05:27, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You can also just stop using your account. GB fan 05:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Because Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL and the CC-BY-SA, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. You do, however, have the right to vanish, which you can exercise by (1) requesting your user page (found at Special:Mypage) and subpages be deleted, by adding the {{db-userreq}} template to them; (2) requesting to change your username to something that is unconnected with you (possibly a random collection of letters and numbers); (3) never logging in to your account again. The "right to vanish" does not mean anyone has the right to a fresh start under a new identity. Anyone who wants to continue editing should request a change of username instead so edits can be reattributed. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:42, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Redirecting/merging

Do redirects and merges require a consensus from the community? Till I Go Home (talk) 07:07, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Simply, no. Very little does. It is just common courtesy to involve other editors in decisions that they may wish to contest. If a redirect or merger can be considered non-controversial there is rarely any need to ask. The main thing to consider when merging, is proper attribution. This is not so much of a concern when redirecting. Be bold!. fredgandt 07:25, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meols

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meols on the page it is written

Meols was in the county of Cheshire, although since 1 April 1974 it has been a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the metropolitan county of Merseyside.

it seems that it is once again Cheshire,,, as my Dads postcode changed back from L47*** to CH47*** thats it,, thanks,,, Chris Ralls (former resident of ((Great))Meols(e) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.79.53.148 (talk) 07:48, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The place to discuss this is on that article's talk page. Please note that postcodes are completely separate from counties and rarely follow the same boundaries.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:37, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

jop

if same one will be interesting to work for CIA how can you go about and how can you apply for it ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.201.192.109 (talk) 08:44, 24 January 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. —teb728 t c 08:58, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Somehow I doubt the CIA would really be interested in employing someone demonstrating such poor English writing skills - except perhaps as a janitor. Roger (talk) 12:08, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The IP address is from Iraq. If English is not the poster's first language then CIA might well be interested. However, if you apply then I suggest not telling them you asked this on a very public page revealing the IP address. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:23, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Broken image?

Can someone tell me what the problem is with File:USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), ENT1231.jpg? I'm sure that file displayed properly in the past, and I am not the only one for whom it is broken. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 13:21, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Weird, it now displays properly again, although I don't have the slightest idea what happened. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 17:11, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Vulgar Language about the school's assistant principal

On the page for Sullivan Central High School in Blountville, TN: There is a vulgar remark about one of the assistant principals. This needs to be removed immediately. 13:27, 24 January 2012 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbdvol (talk • contribs)

 Done. Note that you could have fixed it yourself too...wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, even people coming here for the first time such as yourself. DMacks (talk) 13:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

At least by posting the message here the IP has drawn the attention of an administrator (me) and I have used my special magic powers to remove the offensive libel from the article in a way that renders it invisible to the general readership. Bencherlite^Talk 14:38, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Libelous information being posted

I am Professor Lubomyr Luciuk. An individual in Toronto has repeatedly added remarks to the Wikipedia entry about me, alleging (falsely) that I physically threatened him with removal from a public lecture. That is not true. The lecture was public and I did give accredited TV stations interviews. What I did object to was having a individual videotape my entire lecture for subsequent (for profit) posting on his website. I asked him not to do so and when he refused I asked the event organizers to either secure his compliance or remove him from the hall. He complied, listened to the entire lecture, and left without any further objection. Now he persists in adding bogus content to the entry about me. Please prevent him from doing so or else remove my entry entirely. Thank you.

Dr L Luciuk — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.59.176 (talk) 15:12, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The text has been removed and the user who added it originally has been warned. Yunshui 雲‍水 15:20, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I have removed the information from the article and warned him. If he persists he can be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. GB fan 15:22, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

about correction of posting period of Lt. Governor, Andaman and Nicobar islands (INDIA) reg.

Dear Sir, I am Abdul Shahid, Housekeeper of Lt. Governor's House of Andaman and Nicobar Islands humbly request you that the duration of posting period mentioned in wikipedia about Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (INDIA) Shri Ishwari Prasad Gupta is presently mentioned his period was from 19 March 1996 to 25 May 2001 which is wrong the period actually was from 23 December 1996 to 25 May 2001.

ABDUL SHAHID Housekeeper Raj Niwas Port Blair - 744101

Mobile: . — Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.100.148.21 (talk) 15:42, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable source for that?-ukexpat (talk) 16:01, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

• I found this which seems to confirm the requesting editor's claim. Wifione ^Message 16:07, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

carnie

I think your article is great but you left out us ticket sellers we are a main part of the carnie world we have been accused of rehashing tickets, that is a ride jock palming the ticket handed him and then in turn give them to a ticket seller to resell and pocket the money mostly, done between couples. I hope you will include this on your page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.34.82.178 (talk) 15:48, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

If the accusation (and explanation) have been written up in reliable sources, then anybody may add them to the article; if they have not, then the information may not be added to the article. See WP:V. --ColinFine (talk) 17:37, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Translate a page.

As Turkish wiki user I observed that your Turkish pages are not enough. I can't write a new page but at my spare times maybe I can translate an english page. Is it a legal think or the page under some protection by wiki law( I don't know there is such thing as a wiki law). If you allow me to translate a page or use informations from any wikipage for I can upgrade Turkish pages. Or what can I do about this subject If you guide me, maybe I can help wiki. Thanks a lot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Semih.sahin (talk • contribs) 16:07, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your offer to translate. If you wish to translate articles from Turkish to English, you should check out this page. If you wish to translate articles from English to Turkish, you may want this page on the Turkish Wikipedia. TNXMan 16:20, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

2 wrong notes in "The Washington Post (march)

I am unfortunately not able to edit anything on Wikipedia because I lack the know how. I was hoping someone could do it for me, but I'm not even sure that that is admissible under Wikipedia's regulations.

The page is:

The Washington Post (march) (The Washington Post march)

Two notes are wrong in the notation- under the heading of "Composition".

In the 14th measure (end of 2nd line) the last two eighth notes should be G to G #. They erroneously read F # and G.

Thank you in advance to who ever may help me with this matter. KRKBABpandy — Preceding unsigned comment added by KRKBABpandy (talk • contribs) 16:35, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Are you referring to File:Washington Post March in G Major (600x285).jpg? If so, the only way for it to be corrected is for someone to upload a new image. Are you sure it is incorrect? – ukexpat (talk) 17:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You're right, the tune is wrong: it could also do with a courtesy natural sign in bar 7. But as ukexpat says, this is an image, and can only be corrected by somebody creating a new image. I'll have a go at it tomorrow, if nobody else gets there first.--ColinFine (talk) 17:40, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

How easy/difficult would it be to add the capability to have the Wikipedia software process data of the form of an MusicXML xml file (or another free format) and show the score? Naraht (talk) 18:39, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Probably not too hard. Wikipedia already supports LaTeX markup for formulas and math problems. Heck, it even has Template:Chess diagram for doing chess-boards. I think someone with enough technical savvy could come up with a similar add-on/template/whatever for musical staves. Perhaps WP:VPT would be a good place to get the ball rolling, and perhaps someone could file a bug request at Bugzilla to get the devs to put something together if there is enough support. --Jayron32 19:20, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Asked over in WP:VPT, they should also be able to answer whether or not MusicXML is "free enough" for Wikipedia to use as a structure.Naraht (talk) 19:46, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Getting mentioned in "Blairites" page

Hi there. Been trying to add mention of the fact that I, as a non-aligned political watcher, set up a blog in support of Tony Blair in Sep 2006. I understand links are not permitted. So I just want to make mention of it, without using the lnik or even mentioning the name of the blog "Keep Tony Blair For PM". A search on Google for "BlairSupporter" will invariably come up with the blog anyway. Is that simple entry permitted? Many thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BlairSupporter (talk • contribs) 16:39, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Nope. That's self-promotion and a blatant violation of our conflict of interest guidelines. The existence of such a blog is totally non-notable anyway: there's no political figure who doesn't have their supporters (look at the current efforts to make Margaret Milk-Snatcher into a sympathetic figure for those too young to understand what damage she did to your countries). --Orange Mike | Talk 16:56, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Removing an Image

Hi all, i have updated an image, but right now i need to delete it since it is the wrong one. How can i do that or can someone do that for me? the file is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Digital_Video_logo.tif thanks for the assistance, 16:59, 24 January 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gilthanas91 (talk • contribs)

Add {{db-G7}} to the top of the image information page. – ukexpat (talk) 17:23, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Where do I go

Please see Newt Gingrich presidential campaign, 2012. There is a major Conflict of Interest potential that requires more than mere editor input on the talk page. This issue has to have come up previously during other election campaigns. Is there a guideline or a policy or at least some history of what to do about a paid political operative editing (or even discussing entries into the article on the talk page) about the candidate for which he is the Communications Director. I've seen time and time again where Advertising Managers have been excluded because of a predisposition to be intolerant toward negative press. Will the readers of the article know that it is written by the Gingrich Campaign? How can the article remain neutral and broad based when one of the editors (even if he stays in the Talk Room) is paid to limit unfavorable comments wherever he finds them. What Admin page would be appropriate to find admins knowledgable about the history of paid operatives editing at WikiPedia....Buster Seven Talk 17:02, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You can report it at WP:COIN. – ukexpat (talk) 17:21, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

 Done Thanks....Buster Seven Talk 17:29, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

how to edit the title of a page?

I need to change the title of the web page Retail Week Conference which is now named The Cloud Retail Week Conference,

How do i do this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vikki emap (talk • contribs) 17:06, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

See WP:MOVE. But you cannot move articles until your account is autoconfirmed.  – ukexpat (talk) 17:19, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

The website for the conference suggests the title is still Retail Week Conference - http://www.retailweekconference.com/ has the banner "Retail Week Conference 2012" emblazoned across the top. Can you cite a reliable source for the name change?

I also notice that that website is published by Emap. Your username suggests you have a close link with that publisher and therefore you have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to writing about things controlled by your employer. In addition, your username may breach Wikipedia's policy on usernames. Astronaut (talk) 17:34, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Hi, when you link to the page it says The Cloud Retail Week conference? Also next to the Retail week conference logo is the Cloud logo... You may see this as conflict of interest but I am a reliable source and the website itself in all places mentions the conference as The Cloud Retail Week Conference!, I did not notice this about the user name How to i change my user name? sorry! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vikki emap (talk • contribs) 13:21, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

You say you are a reliable source, but we have no way of knowing who you are or whether you are telling the truth, although I have no reason to doubt anything you say. You probably should change your name, and the procedure is outlined here.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:37, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Really Big Coloring Books article

Hi. I want to confirm... I created a new article/page for the company "Really Big Coloring Books". Can you confirm if it will be published? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.136.191.25 (talk) 17:09, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Not at the moment, see Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Really Big Coloring Books cultural event products.. It is also too promotional in tone. – ukexpat (talk) 17:17, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

I suggest you look for news articles about the company, or similar sources, which would establish the notability of the company. Once you've done that, work on the tone - it needs to be written so that someone could learn what they need to know about the company, without being persuaded one way or the other about whether they're any good. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 20:32, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Is there a place where you can look up the amount of articles and/or users that were here at a given time?

I need to know some past values for how many articles/users existed on certain dates. I know there's Special:Statistics to see how many there are now, but is there a way to see how many there were in the past? - Purplewowies (talk) 19:38, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

There may be a better and more complete set but see http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm which has rounded numbers and Wikipedia:Modelling Wikipedia's growth#Data set for number of articles and Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia#The data set which have exact numbers but are far from complete.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:32, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah, thanks! I was looking for numbers for around when I signed up, and I got them (2070696 and 304348, respectively). Again, thanks! - Purplewowies (talk) 01:40, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

How do I add pages, photo's, etc.

I am new here, and can not figure out how to add photo's and pages. I have been working on wikia, but wikipedia seems way different. Kata89 (talk) 19:56, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Did you check out the links in the welcome message on your talk page? – ukexpat (talk) 20:11, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

For uploading and using photos see Help:Files. —teb728 t c 20:57, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

No, I still can't figure it out. But how do I create articles, templates, etc.? On wikia is was extremely easy. Kata89 (talk) 13:18, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe that creating a new page requires your account be 'autoconfirmed' (be at least 4 days old and have made 10 edits.) To add a photo to an article the photo must have been uploaded to either Commons or the English Wikipedia and then a code containing the file name and options can be placed in the article. RJFJR (talk) 17:35, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. I'll see what I can do. Kata89 (talk) 19:12, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

You do not need to be autoconfirmed to create an article or upload to Commons, but you do need to be autoconfirmed to upload to English Wikipedia. An good way to create an article (particularly when you are new to Wikipedia) is with the Wikipedia:Article wizard. —teb728 t c 20:38, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Vandalism of John P. Surma

Resolved

The entry for John Surma redirects to the entry for "cunt." Please redirect back to original entry.

Reverted.Naraht (talk) 20:23, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

John Surma was also redirected, I fixed it. Roger (talk) 20:31, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Page - Atsuma, Hokkaido

I'm currently working as an English teacher in Japan. I would like to get my students to edit the town's page (Atsuma, Hokkaido) on Wikipedia for a class project. Their works will be based on informations from the town's office, so the contents will be reliable. I will edit their works before uploading them, of course, but I'm concerned that their simple English would not be accepted by Wiki and that their works would be deleted. What are the standards to keep the post on Wiki?

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.47.135.197 (talk) 23:33, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

An article for that city already exist, please see Atsuma, Hokkaidō, anyone can freely contribute to that article, however to avoid any problem, it would be better if you suggest them to practice on a subpage of their user page, like this User:USERNAME/Atsuma, Hokkaidō and then move the content to the main article if there wasn't any problem. if they're unfamiliar with Wikipedia, they can find some useful information on Wikipedia:Tutorial and Wikipedia:Introduction.   ■ MMXX  ^talk  23:45, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

There's also Simple English Wikipedia which uses Basic English in its articles. It might benefit from the inclusion of such an article as well. Both Simple English Wikipedia and English Wikipedia (here) have pages about editing for school projects. The page at Simple English Wikipedia is simple:Wikipedia:Schools, and for this Wikipedia, it's Wikipedia:School and university projects. - Purplewowies (talk) 00:04, 25 January 2012 (UTC)