Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2013 July 1

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July 1

parse wiki tables to machine readable format

Hello,

For a long time I'm searching for any way how to read/parse data from data tables on wikipedia to any machine-readable format (like CSV, excel, libreoffice, python panda, google docs ... ). Mostly it is almost impossible to read data from any not trivially formatted table.

Before it was at leas possible to import it to google dost using importHTML() function

http://mashe.hawksey.info/2012/09/reshaping-importhtml-data-in-google-spreadsheet-using-query-and-transpose-formula/ now it stopped working for some reason ?!?!

I also found this solution to import it to python pandas, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15724034/how-to-convert-wikipedia-wikitable-to-python-pandas-dataframe but it is not working well for anything but trivial tables.

For example importing this table of bipropelants (the 3rd , big one ) is impsible to me Liquid rocket propellants

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.128.185.15 (talk) 00:36, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The technical editors tend to hang out at WP:VPT; I suggest that you (re)post your question there. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:53, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Visual Edit rollout

According to the banner at the top of the page, the VisualEditor will "soon be enabled for all-logged in users". I've read Wikipedia:VisualEditor, but I'm not clear on what the rollout means. I already have an option (currently unchecked) in my preferences to enable VisualEditor. Does the rollout mean that the preference will be set to "on" automatically? Will there still be an option to disable it? RudolfRed (talk) 03:00, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, at some point they will turn it on by default. Its still unclear as to when that will be or if we will be able to disable it but that should be determined in the next few weeks. Kumioko (talk) 03:02, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

There will, at least for the far forseeable future, be a "edit source" tab that can be used for the traditional editor (or so they promise). Charmlet (talk) 03:04, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I agree and even if it is removed someone will create a user script for those of us diehards that would rather just type out the code. Kumioko (talk) 03:12, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. RudolfRed (talk) 03:38, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Account question

I'm just wondering about the rules regarding a business/company having a Wikipedia account and editing articles relating to their business. I've noticed that Prime7 have created an account User:PRIME7GWN7 and are editing their articles. I would guess that there is an issue with conflict of interest. What are the rules regarding this? MLVD (talk) 03:05, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The username rule is at WP:ISU and conflict of interest rule is WP:COI. The user has already been warned on their talkpage. RudolfRed (talk) 03:37, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Table not sorting

Academy Award has a table that isn't sorting for me.--Canoe1967 (talk) 04:15, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Seems to be fixed by this edit. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:26, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Translation from German

Is there a place on the site you can direct me to where people (volunteers, of course) can offer a fairly good translation from German to English? I need a better translation of an online newspaper article than Google Language Tools (or equivalent) can provide. I'd like two paragraphs in particular to be translated. The entire news article is nine paragraphs--if all of it could be translated, that would be great, but I'd be happy if only the two paragraphs can be translated by actual fluent humans. Thanks for any help or guidance. DonFB (talk) 06:31, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Try Wikipedia:Translators available#German-to-English. Huon (talk) 06:39, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Dix Township Article edit war and conflict of interest

Could you look into an edit war problem in the Dix Township Illinois article? Amataulic keeps deleting all references to the book on the Oregon Cemetery Desecration as well as all references to the desecration. I think there is a conflict of interest problem there, but I don't know enough about Wikipedia to know how to proceed. I've mostly stayed on the sidelines, but it is frustrating that our little township's one claim to fame is getting sidelined by someone with an axe to grind.198.229.216.210 (talk) 07:19, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/198.229.216.39 shows an IP editor has been adding references to the same book to various articles. I assume his purpose is to publicise the book − and I would be inclined to delete his references, unless I see evidence that the book is reputable. Maproom (talk) 12:36, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Some background: See the IP's contribution history, which shows admin shopping. Also see the Talk:Dix Township, Ford_County, Illinois#Oregon Cemetery Desecration and the associated discussion at User talk:Amatulic#Orgeon Cemetery Desecration Really Happened. Legal issues have been raised in communications with OTRS.

Anonymous IPs have persistently re-added this source, apparently attempting to promote the book. For the time being, I have indef semi-protected the article for the reasons given on the talk page as an alternative to whack-a-mole blocking, although it appears the range based on the two IPs mentioned (by the OP's sig and by Maproom) would be small enough for a range block.

No one is denying that the event happened, but it needs to be sourced to something better than a possibly fictional WP:TERTIARY source. ~Amatulić (talk) 04:45, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

Multiple issues on the page

Yi Zhou (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Hi, I found that there were multiple issues on the page of Chinese artist Yi Zhou who is my favorite. I tried helping edit and improve the text but the multiple issues still remain. I don't know where in the text went wrong. Hope I can get some advice. Thank you very much!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rainy0104 (talk • contribs) 09:56, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The article is still excessively promotional. E.g. "Yi Zhou presents a vision of life, transcending both time and space, inflected with irony, wit and a stream of consciousness". Much of it, possibly the whole article, should be deleted. Maproom (talk) 12:49, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi, Rainy. You may be thinking that the issue messages are somehow automatic: they are not. When you think you have dealt with an issue in the article, you can remove the template corresponding to that issue from the article. However, from what Maproom says, it is not time to do that yet. You may find WP:WTA helpful. --ColinFine (talk) 21:05, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Inflation Template

I've noticed that a new unregistered editor has been adding Template:Inflation after the budget and gross for several films (some examples - The Mask (film), Scooby-Doo (film), A Christmas Story). Does this seem necessary to anyone? I don't remember seeing it done in any other film articles and it looks kind of sloppy, given that it is just a string of numbers without commas. I suppose that there might be a way to add commas, but I'm just not sure that the information is needed in these instances. Does anyone else have thoughts on this? Is there anything written about it in the guidelines? --Jpcase (talk) 13:02, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

It seem like something that would become more useful as more time passes, e.g., not really needed for 2000, but informative for a film from 1913. Anyway, I think a good place to discuss this might be Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Film. I've added spacing and commas to The Mask in this edit using the parameter |fmt=c as an example. (Postscript: and now to all of the entries.)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:18, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into that. --Jpcase (talk) 21:07, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Missing Jeffery Hunter info

Just a fan I was watching the Alfred Hitchcock Hour and saw Jeffery Hunter and I came to look him up and notice that you didn't have all his tv credits. He was on the Alfred Hitchcock hour "Don't look behind you." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.36.201.150 (talk) 15:07, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a replacement for the IMDb and similar databases. We do not try to include every appearance of a performer, every paper written by a scientist, every election a politician ever ran in, etc.: especially when that person has had a long and busy career. That's not what we're here for. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:20, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Several technical questions/complaints

1. The link to check contributers (in article history) is not working and I get this error:

Database Error: User 'daniel_www' has exceeded the 'max_user_connections' resource (current value: 15) (sql-toolserver) on sql-toolserver/toolserver

- failed to connect to WikiList database

failed to connect to WikiList database

2. What happened to the categories widget? It used to be so nice and helpful for adding categories (how can you even find them now?) Missing both here and Commons.

TCO (talk) 15:43, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

1. 1. Your best bet is to bring this up at WP:VPT
   2. This is disabled by default now; to re-enable it, go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets, and tick the box labelled "Hot Cat". Mdann52 (talk) 15:58, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The HotCat gadget was changed from opt-out to opt-in after a recent discussion; numerous newbies were mistaking it for a method of adding a comment, so pages were getting put into nonexistent categories whose names were dozens of words long. As far as I know, if you turn it back on for yourself, it should work just as it did before. Nyttend (talk) 17:56, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Adam Harrington and Adam J. Harrington are 2 different actors. Then there is Adam Harrington who is a voice actor. 3 Adam Harringtons. And all getting mixed up on this wiki page

Adam Harrington (actor)

I am Adam Harrington. As listed in SAG/AFTRA, I am Adam Harrington. Here is the link to my IMDB page:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1286077/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2

There are credits on this wiki page that belong to me (Star Trek and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and there are credits that belong to Adam J. Harrington (LA Noire as Roy Earle). The rest of the credits are voiceover credits and they belong to voice actor Adam Harrington. Confusing as hell, yes, but there it is.

I was born on July 13, 1978 in Newton, MA. I was raised in Wellesley, MA and attended UCLA where I got my Bachelor's Degree in Theater. I am an actor and comedian. I have two brothers, Matthew Harrington and Jay Harrington who is a very successful TV/Film actor. Here is the link to his Wikipedia page:

Jay Harrington

There should be separate pages for all 3 Adam Harringtons if possible. If... you care (I know there are other more important things in the world, I just have a lot of free time today. Ha!)

I hope this helps!

Thank you

Adam Harrington — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.55.47.122 (talk) 15:45, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi! I've put messages in the relevant Wikiprojects, so specialists in film fix the articles. Bye! --NaBUru38 (talk) 16:25, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

• As far as I can tell from your comments, there should be three articles: Adam J. Harrington, Adam Harrington (actor), and Adam Harrington (voice artist). To hopefully make this process as quick and easy as possible, I've created a page for us to use as a work-board on which we can shuffle information around before setting the new content in place. This may be found here. Your input would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!  drewmunn  talk  16:50, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia's 'Legal Jurisdiction'

Under which nations legal jurisdiction does Wikipedia operate? I understand that Wikipedia experiences occasional legal issues (WikiLegal.. etc), but what countries law does it base it's copyright acts on? US law?

Thank You,

H.D Höengarfluend, Chemnitz, Germany.

--Höengarfluend (talk) 18:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

It's US law. Mdann52 (talk) 18:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Interesting, So why should I have to use US copyright law, even if I am not editing in the USA? Does the German Wikipedia use German law, Russian Wikipedia use Russian law etc etc? --Höengarfluend (talk) 18:52, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Copyrights#Governing copyright law.--ukexpat (talk) 18:59, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

See also meta:Legal and Community Advocacy/Legal Policies#Applicable Law. Some Wikipedia languages have stricter copyright policies, for example no fair use images. This is voluntary for each language as far as I know. Editors of a language can choose policies which satisfy laws in the "home country" of the language, where most or many editors are probably living. See for example German wikipedia#Characteristics. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:02, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The WMF servers are located in the USA, thus that is the jurisdiction they are operating in :) Charmlet (talk) 19:08, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

That might shield the Foundation from liability in Germany, but it wouldn't necessarily prevent an editor of the German Wikipedia being sued for copyright infringement in Germany based on German copyright law. Even if the user in such a case was later found not liable, the cost if defending such a suit would be high.--ukexpat (talk) 19:14, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Hence why I said (maybe not clear enough) the servers and the Foundation operate with US laws. I'm no legal expert, but I'd think that it'd have to be in the jurisdiction the event took place in, which in the internet age would be the jurisdiction of the servers. Just follow all laws that have any chance of applying to you :) ~Charmlet ^-talk- 22:30, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

When you say 'Editors of a language can choose policies which satisfy laws in the "home country" of the language', what happens in the case of the Korean Wikipedia? North Korean or South Korean law? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Höengarfluend (talk • contribs) 19:34, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I only said "can". They don't have to, but it would presumably be determined by consensus among the editors. I don't know the policies of the Korean Wikipedia but due to severe restrictions in Internet in North Korea, I guess there are very few editors living in North Korea. If the Korean Wikipedia has policies considering Korean laws then I suspect it will be South Korean. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:55, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I guess the Somali Wikipedia must be a lawless haven for vandals, trolls and other pirate activity, as Somalia does not have a law. --Höengarfluend (talk) 20:00, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Uploaded Pictures Getting Deleted

I've tried on several occasions to upload pictures to a Wikipedia article, but they keep getting "speedily deleted" because of issues with the copyrights. The owner of the images has given permission to upload them to his page, but I'm not sure how to verify that during the uploading process. I've uploaded these pictures several times under different copyright/usage terms and nothing seems to work, so I'm at a total loss as to what to do. Any and all suggestions/recommendations will help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mmoore20 (talk • contribs) 19:24, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm at a loss as to why you think the images aren't copyrighted. You indicated that http://danielmargotta.com/celebrity-friends-gallery contained evidence of permission to upload the images, but I don't see it. What on that page do you think constitutes permission to upload?—Kww(talk) 19:36, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

If you have permission via e-mail, please forward it for review as described at WP:IOWN, but note that it must be permission for all purposes, including commercial re-use. Permission limited to use only on Wikipedia is insufficient.--ukexpat (talk) 19:39, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

How to contribute content to Wikipedia

I noticed that the content on Urdu Literature is pretty light on Wikipedia. I can contribute a lot of knowledge content and site sources that may help improve the content on Urdu Literature on Wikipedia. Please advice, how can I get it touch?

Thanks Sal — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.86.105.10 (talk) 19:33, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

If you wish to contribute articles to the English Wikipedi about Urdu literature, it would be a good idea to use the Articles for creation process set out at WP:AFC. If you want to contribute in Urdu, there is an Urdu Wikipedia.--ukexpat (talk) 19:42, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

How does one revert an 'enable feedback' action?

I clicked by mistake on the 'enable feedback' link in the Toolbox at the left of an article and I want to undo my error. How do I do that, please? — O'Dea (talk) 19:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't know, but there's an archived thread here that suggests an admin can disable the feedback using an option on the protection screen. What page did you enable feedback on? I can't see this listed in your contributions or your logged actions. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:30, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

My accidental request feedback action did not show up in the article history nor in my own contribution history, which is fair enough, as it is not an edit action. So, I have no way of reverting my mistake unless I am an administrator? — O'Dea (talk) 20:24, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Simple Buttons on Account creation about articles that need editing.

Hi, I recently registered an account and on the page after doing so were simple buttons that took the user to pages that needed various kinds of editing or review. I can no longer locate these buttons and they seemed really useful, as well as faster than looking for the lists of articles in need of X or Y. Does anyone know how I may locate these buttons again? Patchup1234 (talk) 20:05, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure which lists are shown when creating an account, but there are similar lists at Wikipedia:Community portal#Help out. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:26, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

You may have seen MediaWiki:Customusertemplate-ACP2:Which skills do you have to offer. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:14, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Actually, this Getting Started page is shown to all new accounts right after creation now :) They're tagged with "new editor getting started" in recent changes. Happy editing! ~Charmlet ^-talk- 22:20, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The Getting Started page is pretty useful. I wonder why WP doesn't incorporate some version of this somewhere on our screen a la "Click here to fix: Grammar / Clarity / Links!" Looks like a trip to the pump is in order. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 18:33, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

liketo know about the old school in marion county lamrion vocation school

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.207.148.202 (talk)

This is a question for the reference desk. Please be specific about which state or possibly country you are asking about.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:25, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

New info

LAE - Left Atrial Enlargement — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.200.1.109 (talk) 21:19, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 4 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. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:01, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Where to go to express concerns of administrator's behavior

Where do I go to request a review of an administrator's performance or complain of mistreatment from an admin?! I have been dealing with an administrator at Wikipedia now for about a 5 month period who has been engaging in different forms of harassment from out and out personal attacks, vindictiveness, WP:stalk, abuse of admin tools, etc. I've been brushing it off for the longest time but now I feel I need to formally call him out on it. Please help. Thank you! AmericanDad86 (talk) 21:28, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

WP:AN or WP:ANI. I strongly, strongly, strongly suggest that you read WP:BOOMERANG very carefully first.—Kww(talk) 22:04, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I saved a page and cannot find it

I SAVED A PAGE AND I CANNOT FIND IT — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.69.197.3 (talk) 21:37, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

You would need to tell us the name of the page or the name of the account or the IP under which you submitted the page. Otherwise we cannot tell from your post what page you are referring to. The IP under which you made your post here has made no other edits apart from said post. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 21:44, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

HotCat

Administrators:

What happen to the HotCats?--NeoBatfreak (talk) 21:38, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

It seems HotCat was recently disabled by default. I don't know where this was discussed, but you can reenable it in your preferences under Gadgets/Editing. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 21:50, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

It was apparently turned off per Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#WP:HOTCAT on as a default. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 22:07, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The discussion was at WP:AN and WP:VPP. It was disabled because the interface (specifically the "+") is confusing to new editors, and large numbers of them have been unintentionally creating bizarre categories when trying to add new sections to a talk page. Looie496 (talk) 22:11, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Inappropriate language and description of a phrase

Please read and note the inappropriate language and faulty description — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.221.232.155 (talk) 23:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

You need to be a bit more explicit in expressing your concerns. At this stage I can only guess that you don't like the work fuck. It's probably best that I just repeat some words from the beginning of the page... "This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion. Essays are not Wikipedia policies or guidelines." HiLo48 (talk) 23:48, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

WP:Wikipedia is not censored is a good read. Dennis Brown | 2¢ | WER 23:51, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

As the two before me say, Wikipedia is not censored in any way. Thus, you may find images of body parts that are "inappropriate", or words like fuck, shit, etc. that are considered vulgar by some. I'm sorry if it offends you, but remember, that's not even an article. Please see the entry on Wiktionary for an actual definition of the term. ~Charmlet ^-talk- 23:53, 1 July 2013 (UTC)