Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 December 21

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

December 21

User:JillKarlinButler

Hi! I pasted the material I wrote for my boss, Jill Karlin Butler; gathering the info from a great deal of biographical information she gave me to work with. I need to index items & I'm not sure how to go about it.

This is the first wikipedia contribution I've made & it's rather confusing with all the components needed. When I first created a (USERNAME) & wrote 2 lines; I didnt realize it would go up online but then I received a notice that it was declined. Please advise. I need to link many press mentions & references....how do I go about that? Thanks Lulu Wells for Jill Karlin Butler — Preceding unsigned comment added by JillKarlinButler (talk • contribs) 01:04, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Lulu. Wikipedia can be difficult to learn to work with, so welcome here. There are several problems with what you have done, which I will try to explain, with links to follow.

First, Wikipedia is very concerned with articles be written in a neutral way, which means that people who are closely connected with the subject are strongly discouraged from writing about the subject: see Conflict of interest for more information and guidance.

Secondly, Wikipedia accounts are personal. While you are free not to use your real name for your account, you should not use somebody else's account, or name your account with somebody else's name. You should create your own personal account, and let Jill use hers.

Thirdly, what you have created is a User page: this is for putting out personal information about you as a Wikipedia editor. It is not an appropriate place for an article (or draft article).

Fourthly, an article (and especially an article about a living person must have all its information grounded in published sources, and apart from basic biographic data like dates must be referenced to sources independent of the subject.

In summary:

• Please create your own personal account
• Please read Conflict of interest
• Please read Your first article

Then you can decide on your next step, but I would suggest that you give up trying to write the article yourself, and use the Requested articles page. --ColinFine (talk) 11:35, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Missing template for DYK

I created a template for an article on Anthony Carleton, and tried to post it on the Did You Know nomination page under December 15 [1], but it didn't show up properly, and when I click on the red link the message says Wikipedia doesn't have a template with that name. Any help with this would be much appreciated. NinaGreen (talk) 01:15, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I managed to fix it. :-) NinaGreen (talk) 02:57, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Your system

I cannot understand why your people have such a big problem understanding and allowing me to do this... but maybe using an example using your Founder of the company who does it with his two names...will suffice.

AND this is ALL I WANT FOR MYSELF no more...

If you go onto Wikipedia, and type in Jimmy Wales...or James Wales the content itself is "identical"...BUT he is using two names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wales

Fortunately for Mr. Wales....he only has two ways for people to confuse his name and you can find him quit easily by using of the spelling of his name..

UNFORTUNATELY.....I cannot seem to be able to get this point through to any of your volunteers.....

I have been written about by the sports industry for over 50 years and all articles I have absolutely no control over...and they have posted them using my name.

UNFORTUNATELY "I CANNOT" seem to be able to get anyone on your staff to understand that just like their boss....I have more than one way of spelling my name...

My name said by other people is either Fred, Freddy, Freddie, Frederick or Frederic...

"I DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE ANY OF THE EXISTING CONTENT in any way" that has already been on your site for years...

I just want it linked to each of my given names as ..Jimmy or James has done above....

The content is exactly the same but under two different first names.

WHAT PART OF THIS DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN AGAIN.....

Thanks God Bless Freddy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.69.172.100 (talk) 01:34, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

In order to explain this to you or work out any issues that we might have, we're going to need your full name. What is your last name? Dismas|^(talk) 02:02, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I think I might be on the trail of what you're talking about. One of your other edits mentions being able to find an article about you under "Frederick S Fuller" but the closest I can find is Freddy Stephen Fuller. Dismas|^(talk) 02:07, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

the issues that come into play are discussed under WP:COMMONNAME and disambiguation and WP:ASTONISH and WP:REDIRECT.

Essentially we try to place the article under the most commonly used version of the name that the subject is known by.

If there are more than one item commonly known by that name, the landing page will either go to the most famous version or if several of the choices are equally likely, then the page will be a disambiguation page that lists out all of the possibilities and lets the reader click and choose the one they want.

if a subject is most often known by one name, but also known by another name, and that second name is not shared by anyone else, the second name becomes a redirect page that points points and shoots the reader to the article which is located at the more common name. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:43, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

You didn't log in here or mention your last name but I guess you are User:Frederick S Fuller who created copies of Freddy Stephen Fuller at variations of the name. We don't do that because it would mean edits to any of the articles would have to be copied to all the others to keep them in sync. Instead we use redirects. For example, Jimbo Wales is a redirect to Jimmy Wales. Your own example doesn't make sense to me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_wales and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wales are completely different. And where have you attempted to explain the situation without being understood? I haven't found signs of it. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:15, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

70.69.172.100 - I'm sorry for your frustration. I'm not sure what you are asking, but, if it is not redirects, then it might be hyperlinks. Boxer Freddy Stephen Fuller is mentioned in a variety of Wikipedia articles under a variety of name versions such as Fred, Freddy, Freddie, Frederick or Frederic. I think you may want all such Wikipedia source articles linked to the boxer Freddy Stephen Fuller target article without changing the text of the source article. One way to do that is through a Wikipedia:Piped link. For example, if the Wikipedia article reads Fred Fuller, you can use [[Freddy Stephen Fuller|Fred Fuller]] so that the text "Fred Fuller" appears as Fred Fuller in the source Wikipedia article and the content is exactly the same in the source article but linked to the Freddy Stephen Fuller article. If the article reads Freddy S. Fuller, you can use [[Freddy Stephen Fuller|Freddy S. Fuller]] so that the text "Freddy S. Fuller" appears as Freddy S. Fuller in the source Wikipedia article and the content is exactly the same in the source article but linked to the Freddy Stephen Fuller article. I made this change to the BC Golden Gloves article. If that is what you are getting at, please let us know. -- Jreferee (talk) 11:25, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Changing APA referencing to wikipedia format

Hi,

I'm having trouble changing the APA formatting to wikipedia format in terms of creating links to the bottom and such. Could you help me with that please?

User:Lauren M Emery/sandbox Lauren M Emery (talk) 03:34, 21 December 2013 (UTC)Lauren

There are really several questions. First, should you make this change? If the article already exists in Wikipedia with APA citations, then you should continue to use that citation style, unless a consensus forms on the article talk page to change the style.

If it is a new article which you are creating, you can change the style if you want to, but APA is an acceptable style for Wikipedia. If you wish, I could point out ways to use APA but link from the inline citation to the reference list.

If it is a new article, and you want to use the templates and the footnote style, you should only have one <references /> statement. Also, the section heading for the references should be written as ==References==. All lines should begin in column 1. Try those and let us know if you have more questions. Jc3s5h (talk) 04:31, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

References Do’s and Don’ts

I am looking for a guide on Wikipedia's references--Do's and Don'ts but when I search I get this error:

An error has occurred while searching: HTTP request timed out.

Can anyone point me to such a list? Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 05:25, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

For "Wikipedia's references--Do's and Don't", Google[2] brings up Help:Referencing for beginners. -- Jreferee (talk) 11:06, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

@Jreferee: Thanks for linking to referecing for beginners. However what I am looking for is a concise Do’s and Don’ts document -- I know I have seen one before (on a different topic perhaps?) XOttawahitech (talk) 15:00, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

There is Disambiguation dos and don'ts. -- Jreferee (talk) 15:27, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

There also is Category:Wikipedia dos and don'ts, but it does not include anything like a Wikipedia:References dos and don'ts. -- Jreferee (talk) 10:29, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

It does now! —Swpb^talk 14:40, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

My AfC article is gone.

My Articles for Creation article I was working on is gone. I've checked the article deletion log, and nothing is there. Please help. The article was here. Acalycine ^talk 07:06, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

It is at Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Australian PlantBank. AndyTheGrump (talk) 07:10, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Whaaa? Thanks... My watchlist entry is wrong... Acalycine ^talk 07:18, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Is it right to include a redirected title in a category?

Like this https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pozsony&diff=587073345&oldid=581331960 ? 86.127.23.173 (talk) 09:12, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Sometimes it is; see Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects#Alternative names for articles and the sections that follow that one. When readers view the page Category:Former capitals of Hungary, would they expect to see "Pozsony" there? -- John of Reading (talk) 09:21, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

• Allowing the use redirects as entries in categories can be very useful. For example it allows an alphabetical listing of entries originally titled with names that were not meant for human consumption. It also allows a redirect to a particular section of an article to be included in a category that the main article does not belong in. (I would be happy to provide examples -- if there is interest?) XOttawahitech (talk) 15:10, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Need to post articles about my company in Wikipedia site

Kindly suggest us how to post my articles about the company ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexchristinusa (talk • contribs) 09:13, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Alexchristinusa - What is the name/website of your company? -- Jreferee (talk) 11:01, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Alexchristinusa. It's not quite clear what you are wanting to do; but in any case, you should first read about Conflict of interest. If you mean you want to create an article about your company, you probably shouldn't: see the link above. If you are wanting to add to an existing article links to new external articles, then it is best to suggest them on the talk page of the article, so that uninvolved editors can decide what it is appropriate to add. --ColinFine (talk) 11:40, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

if you have the reliable third party sources providing significant content about your organization that are needed for a stand alone article, you can provide them as noted in the Request an Article process. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 14:14, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Formatting AfD listing

I've put Leuren Moret up for deletion but the template doesn't come out the way it ought; it displays the first of the AfD discussions on this article. I followed the instructions to the best of my ability. But AfD is way beyond my ability, obviously. Itsmejudith (talk) 12:47, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Fixed with this edit. AfD nominations are much easier if you enable Twinkle in your preferences; you can pick "AFD" from a menu, type your reason into a box, and have the tool make the fiddly edits for you. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:08, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

• I had no idea Twinkle is avialable to every editor on Wikipedia. No wonder wikipedia is suffering from a bad case of tag-bombing XOttawahitech (talk) 15:18, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Redirect problems

So I am trying to move Aishwarya Rai Filmography to Aishwarya Rai filmography per WP:MOSCAP. Unfortunately, there is already a redirect from Aishwarya Rai filmography to Aishwarya Rai Filmography so I can't do that. I already tried to add it at the requested moves page, but because of the redirect the template shows up as an error. How can I redirect so that Aishwarya Rai Filmography redirects to Aishwarya Rai filmography? Yamada Taro (talk) 15:06, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I deleted the redirect to make way for the move. -- Jreferee (talk) 15:35, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I have made the move. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:17, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. Yamada Taro (talk) 12:51, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

Site Review

Recently the article John Ronan (poet) was deleted by EDD. Previously, November 29, DGG had nominated the article for delete and on December 1 Green Cardamom suggested a weak delete. Because of this disagreement, SANDSTEIN relisted the discussion for a week. In the meantime, Green Cardamom’s suggestions were followed and new video documentary material, citing awards and various PBS broadcasts, were added with the hope that the article would kept, tagged stub. At the end of the extension week, December 14, the article was deleted. We want to find out if EDD re-examined the article after the changes and before deletion, or simply looked at the previous two comments.

We supposed we might have added our own ‘keep’ during the discussion, but we are involved in its creation and are not Wiki editors. We thought it not appropriate. (Perhaps we were wrong?) Poetfans (talk) 16:01, 21 December 2013 (UTC) Poetfans (talk) 16:03, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I have notified BDD of your question here. CaptRik (talk) 16:11, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

regarding your second question, you were correct. You have a conflict of interest, and per our policies should not be participating in Deletion discussions nor editing the article directly. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:19, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Poetfans, you're wrong about one thing—you are a Wiki[pedia] editor. The deletion of the article doesn't change that, and it certainly doesn't mean you're not welcome here. As for the article, yes, I can confirm that I did review it. An administrator would have to bend over backwards to delete a page without looking at it, really. But comparing the article when it was deleted to when it was nominated, the only real changes were the addition of references. That's worth something, but it didn't address the nominator's concerns that Ronan's awards weren't up to our notability standards (mostly, the references just proved that the claims weren't false, which wasn't really in doubt). Finally, in the deletion discussion, I was left with two editors advocating deletion after just over two weeks of discussion. Compare this to our system of proposed deletion, in which an article can be deleted on one person's nomination if there are no objections.

If you are personally connected to Ronan, I strongly suggest you allow someone else to recreate the article if they determine he's up to our notability standards. An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing, and the deletion of this one in no way reflects a judgment about the person himself. Feel free to contact me on my talk page with further concerns. And speaking of talk pages, do note the message that has been left on yours. I'm also happy to help with that if you need it. --BDD (talk) 19:05, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

thurgood marshall

in his wiki there was a school in lynn ma named after to y did u not but that there — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.96.171 (talk) 16:40, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

There are many Marshall middle schools in the U.S. (see Marshall Middle School). There is one in Lynn, Massachusetts, although I don't know if it was ever mentioned in the Thurgood Marshall article. The one in Lynn doesn't appear to have an article here. The only one mentioned in the Thurgood article, for whatever reason, is Marshall Middle School (Olympia).--Bbb23 (talk) 17:02, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Accidentally made an edit but had logged out of my account

I made an edit but I forgot I was logged out, is this against the rules and should I just leave it this once or do I have to follow some sort of procedure? Thanks.--Windows66 (talk) 17:50, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

It's usually no problem. See Wikipedia:Sock puppetry#Editing while logged out. If the edit could give the impression that somebody else supports you in a conflict then you can make a dummy edit to say it was you. If you are concerned about privacy of your IP address then see Wikipedia:Requests for oversight. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:57, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm not concerned about my IP address as it was just a one-off. I will just leave it then, thanks very much.--Windows66 (talk) 18:45, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Also, if this was on a talk page, you can just change the IP signature to your own. --BDD (talk) 19:08, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Post Company Info page

Please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by Laniqua1596 (talk • contribs) 18:44, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Could you elaborate on that request? Are you asking about a page on a company called Post, such as Post Foods, or are you looking to post information on another company? Please note that if it's a company you're affiliated with, you should review our conflict of interest policy. --BDD (talk) 19:06, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:13, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Forget Password

I've forgot my Wikipedia password. Please help me something to reget my password again. Thanks!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.81.93.73 (talk) 19:18, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

If you entered your e-mail address when you signed up, you can have a new password generated. Click on the "Log in" link in the upper-right corner. Enter your user name, and click the button near the bottom of the page called "Mail me a new password". You should receive an e-mail message with a new random password; you can use it to log in, go to your preferences, and change your password to something you'll remember.

If you did not enter an e-mail address, or if you can no longer access the e-mail address you entered, AFAIK there is nothing we can do. You will have to re-register with another name, but can link the two accounts on the old and new user pages. Arjayay (talk) 19:33, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

Verification of Fred Pittman

Fred Pittman is also known as F.L. Pittman, Frederick Pittman and Frederick L. Pittman IMDB consolidated these names because different listings were noted under these various names, can u please consolidate for your verifications so u do not have to delete this file — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fred pittman (talk • contribs) 21:17, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

The number of different names a person goes under is not an issue in a deletion discussion (unless it means that there are some references that weren't found because they use a different name). The principal issue for which it is likely to be deleted is that it does not cite any references to substantial coverage in reliable sources independent of the subject (not that IMDB is not regarded as a reliable source). Another problem is that you appear to be editing an article about yourself, which is strongly discouraged: see Autobiography. --ColinFine (talk) 00:21, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

I have only been able to find one article, Fred Pittman. I didn't see any other articles to merge with it that contain reliably sourced information as to notability. Robert McClenon (talk) 00:26, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

I see no evidence that the original poster is editing an article about himself. The original poster is the subject of the article (about himself), and so does have a conflict of interest as to the article and as to the proposed deletion of the article, but he hasn't edited the article. That doesn't affect the fact that the article can be deleted by any administrator at any time, because the seven-day proposed deletion time period has lapsed. Robert McClenon (talk) 03:04, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

Reading a Book Question

how do i go about reading a book on this wikipedia site? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.29.20.198 (talk) 22:58, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

What do you mean by reading a book? Do you mean reading an article? Robert McClenon (talk) 00:00, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

The OP might be referring to Help:Books. If so, that page should explain things pretty well. Dismas|^(talk) 00:34, 22 December 2013 (UTC)

It is also possible that the querent is looking for the text of books to be linked from the articles about them, a practice we do not normally follow because of copyright issues. --Orange Mike | Talk 01:35, 22 December 2013 (UTC)`