Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 March 3

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March 3

Ungulate

Ungulate correction Latin plural hippopotami — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.255.102.238 (talk) 02:00, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps you didn't read Hippopotamus#Etymology? --David Biddulph (talk) 02:08, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Help reviewing my page

Hi

I would like to get some help with my new Wikipedia page. I have a few alerts attached to my page and, as I am a new editor, I am not sure what I need to do to get them removed. I have tried to address the issues but I would like some help to make sure before I remove the tags. Another editor has kindly pointed me to your site. Please cam someone take a look and let me know if I am going to be able to get this page free of concerns for the editors of Wikipedia?

The Grove Community History Library

History6011 (talk) 03:44, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I have improved some of the formatting of the article. But its main problem is the lack of inline citations from reliable independent sources that establish that the library is notable. As you have access to Australian newspapers, you are better placed to do that than I am. Maproom (talk) 08:45, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of changing the external url in your question to an internal wikilink. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:49, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Can't delete an article

See these contributions. I have tried to delete the articles created by the editor but it won't let me. It appears to be a problem with the ampersand in the titles, but I'm fairly certain I've seen ampersands in other article titles (can't come up with one right now), and, in any event, why would the author be able to create it if the ampersand were prohibited? So, for example, the title is "Director at Aristotle English langauge & Competitions Classes"; yet, when I click on Delete page, the error message I get says "Cannot delete page "Director at Aristotle English langauge"". Is there some other way to delete it?--Bbb23 (talk) 09:03, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Worked fine for me. I suspect you're having the same problem as User:CambridgeBayWeather did at WP:VPT#Cremation or burial?. —Cryptic 09:08, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hehe, now I'm having an even more fun delete problem. When I try to delete "Lets Get High", it takes me to the main page. The quotes? I don't recall having these problems before. I didn't read the discussion about CambridgeBayWeather's problem carefully. Was it determined to be a bug, or did he just start using MusikAnimal's gadget to get around the problem?--Bbb23 (talk) 09:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Both, I think; I didn't follow it closely either.

If you can edit the article, you can delete it. Just change the action=edit at the end of the url to action=delete, i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%22Lets_Get_High%22&action=delete. What's the url that your delete button links to? —Cryptic 09:17, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

That worked, thanks. I reread the discussion at the Pump, and I believe there's a gadget that I have checked in Preferences that gives me a Page tab, which then gives me a drop-down, one of the options of which is Delete. My guess is that MusikAnimal fixed the gadget for question marks, but it's apparently still having problems with ampersands and quotation marks. Based on those assumptions, I posted something over there so that hopefully MA can fix it. Meanwhile, I really need to go to bed (the only reason I'm up at all is I couldn't sleep). Thanks for your help.--Bbb23 (talk) 09:26, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

(EC)It appears that MusikAnimal did for the "?" just applies to that particular character. I didn't install any extra gadget. Trying to delete "Lets Get High" sent me to the main page as well. Also trying to delete Above&Beyond (magazine) gave me the opportunity to delete About. It was due to having "Add Page and User dropdown menus to the toolbar" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets that was the problem. It's still enabled in mine and turning it off will allow the page deletion. One other way is to move the problem page to Lets Get High without leaving a redirect and then delete the thing. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 09:34, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

@CambridgeBayWeather: Right, but if I understand it properly, that preference, which I have turned on as well, invokes the thingamajigger (script?) that MusikAnimal fixed so you could delete articles without unchecking it if the title had a question mark. I'm just asking MA to do the same for other special characters. You know, I thought of moving the page without a redirect, but I assumed, silly me, that the delete part of that wouldn't work.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:37, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I was surprised that moving without a redirect worked. I tried in on some pages in my user space. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 15:44, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

@Cryptic: Is it OK to publish a clickable 'delete' hyperlink? The article may get re-created some day and then any careless user may accidentaly delete it just by clicking the link. --CiaPan (talk) 10:21, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

It's fine because to actually delete it you need to be an admin. So you just get a permission error. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 11:09, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Thanks. --CiaPan (talk) 08:37, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry about that, fixed one thing and broke a bunch others. Because of a WMF bug I can't use mw.util.getUrl for pages ending in a ? so I switched it to the /w/index.php URL syntax, but now the page names aren't being properly escaped. To further complicate things, WP doesn't escape them like you would think, there's a wiki-specific way, which is why you're supposed to use mw.util.getUrl, but again there's a bug with that function... Catch-22 if you will. Let me brainstorm a solution. I've reverted back to mw.util.getUrl for now, as you'll run into pages ending in a ? a lot less often than pages containing any other non-alphanumeric characters. — MusikAnimal ^talk 16:34, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I dunno, I think we should rename all of Wikiedia's policies to have a question mark at the end of their titles. After all, editors question the policies all the time. That way, we'd have things like WP:VERIFIABILITY? and WP:BAN? I'm glad you understand what the problem is and are working on it. Maybe you should bug the WMF more to fix the bug????--Bbb23 (talk) 16:43, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hahaha, you always manage to crack me up Bbb23! I think they opened a phab report for the bug but I'll have to double-check. It'll be a long wait before it's fixed I'm sure. In the meantime if you do run into a ? page that you want to delete try a URL like /w/index.php?title=PAGENAME?&action=delete. Cheers — MusikAnimal ^talk 17:06, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Berlin Art Link Magazine

Dear Wikipedia,

I published an article about Berlin Art Link Magazine and a few moments later it was reviewed but 90 % of what I wrote was deleted. Please let me know how come this happened.

13:44, 3 March 2015 (UTC)13:44, 3 March 2015 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mannyhow (talk • contribs)

The problem is that what you included in Berlin Art Link Magazine was entirely deviod of references to published reliable sources independent of the subject to verify its notability. I have added some links to your user talk page; start with WP:Your first article, & you'll find other useful links from there. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:57, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello

I am writing to complain about the structure of wikipedia, I find it very difficult understanding your categorising system. If I look up a subject, I sometimes want to know the parent category and its parent category. At the moment I have to scroll to the bottom of an article and look through an extremely confusing system. For example today I was curious to know more about Chesapeake Bay, so I went to the page and it says its an Estuary. So I click on the estuary link as I am unsure of its meaning. So I am looking at the Estuary description and it says it is "A partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water". So i think what the hell is a body of brackish water??? but i don't want to know that because I'm trying to find out what an Estuary is... So I look at the older historical pages to find years and years of changes, vandalism and more confusion. So i look at the very first entry from around 2002 which says "An estuary is the stretch of a river mouth directly affected by sea tides". Maybe somewhat imprecise but its fairly accurate and in no way confusing. So my next question would be what category does an estuary fall in to? Now from what i gather you have it under "Marine habitats".. Ok fair enough but wikimedia commons has it categorised as coastal landforms. My problem is I want accurate easy to understand information. I won't even attempt to edit one of your subjects simply because it is too confusing, frustrating and bland. I should be able to search for a word and have a small brief description (No more than 2 lines!!), THE CATEGORY AT THE TOP, instead of making me scroll to the end of a document. A discussion section that isn't actually hard to use, for instance "WTF is this?? -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Estuary". Where do i talk, vent my complaints because it is a terrible article. If someone had actually went to the effort of writing an accurate description of Chesapeake Bay, including location (Is it in the USA, what part, what is it famous for). Now i know i couldn't care less because it must just be a nowhere that no-one should give a toss about. I'm done ranting. Take from this what you will but wikipedia NEEDS a desparate overhall. If you want contributions i'd suggest the KISS principle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.239.160.20 (talk) 13:50, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

It isn't entirely clear what your complaint is. You may be confusing the Wikipedia concept of categories, which are a technique, sometimes hierarchical and sometimes non-hierarchical, of grouping articles, with the concept of links. Editors are encouraged to put links around any name that is the name of an article so that both readers and editors can navigate to it, as you did from Chesapeake Bay to estuary. Categories are a technical concept that are sometimes controversial, as you mention at the bottom of the page, but one that editors are not required to be familiar with, so that they can reasonably be ignored. Links are, in my opinion, much more important and useful than categories, and easier to use. You did refer to the talk page tab, which is at the top of every article, and that is where you can make comments about how an article can be improved. You say that an article is terrible, but it isn't clear whether you are talking about Chesapeake Bay or estuary. Which are you complaining about? Robert McClenon (talk) 14:14, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Don't worry i cannot put in to words what I am annoyed about. Basically the category system is of the utmost importance to me, i am aware that there can be many categories for one subject. I am aware that many people can change an article and Wikipedia staff organise the structure of the pages. I just find the layout very ugly and antiquated, hard to find things. I don't find it to be a reliable source of information but its not like we have many other places to go in this censored world.

The talk page should appear like a conversation almost like i would see on an IPhone. Input, response, input, response. At the moment the talk page looks like another article at first glance. A simple comment box with a voting system, thumbs up for agree, down for disagree is what i'd prefer. Please feel free to delete this. I apologise for wasting your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.239.160.20 (talk) 14:47, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

There are no "Wikipedia staff" who "organise the structure of the pages" - that's all done by volunteers, as is the creation of articles. Yes, talk page functionality isn't the best, but a voting system isn't going to help. We decide things by discussion to reach a consensus, which really doesn't lend itself to a thumbs up or thumbs down process.--ukexpat (talk) 16:40, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Discussions about how Wikipedia works usually take place at one or other of the sections of the Village pump rather than here. My personal reply yo your point about KISS is that "simple" is not a single-valued function. When something is inherently complex, it may be possible to present it in a simple way for one particular purpose, but as soon as another purpose comes along, that presentation will be inadequate, or not simple. You can't please all of the people all the time. Having said that, it is possible that there is scope for, say, different interfaces which simplify the content in different ways. Implementing them is likely to be complicated, but you are welcome to try to enrol people into your vision of how it might be presented, and if you manage to achieve a new consensus, there could be change. Ranting (however much it may satisfy your momentary urge) is unlikely to enrol many people to your cause. --ColinFine (talk) 11:51, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Requesting An Article

HI There,

Ive been speaking to one of your colleagues Mark Squier about requesting an article - he told me the best place to come would be here.

I work with a singer/songwriter called Polina who's worked with the likes of Eminem & Steve Aoki in the past & I'd like to get a wikipedia page set up for her.

Ive been getting to this page >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/music/Performers,_bands_and_songwriters

Then from there I am totally unclear of where I should goo to request an article?

Please could someone help me.

Thanks, Jasper — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.144.154.22 (talk) 15:54, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Click the edit link at the section heading Wikipedia:Requested articles/music/Performers, bands and songwriters#M-Z, write an entry similar to the others and placed alphabetically, click Show preview to check it looks right, and then Save page. There is already an article at Polina and we have articles about other musicians called Polina so you can write [[Polina Goudieva]] as the name, even if she usually only goes by "Polina". PrimeHunter (talk) 17:32, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello Jasper. Please note that this is not a business directory or social networking site. We do not have "pages set up for" subjects, we have articles written about them - and the subject (and their friends relatives and associates) has no control whatever over such an article. If people unconnected with Polina have written about her in reliable published sources (such as major newspapers) then there can be an article, as it would need to be based entirely on what such independent sources have said. So you would do well to look for such sources and mention them in your request - and if you cannot find such sources then there cannot at present be an article, and I would advise you not spend any time on this. --ColinFine (talk) 12:03, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Punctuation

On the drop-down menu of "common minor edit summaries", I would like "Punctuation -quotation marks -dashes" to be added as an option. Thank you. deisenbe (talk) 16:55, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi @Deisenbe: Any recommendations for changes to the gadget should be made at MediaWiki talk:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js - however, I don't think your recommendation would be a common-enough edit summary to be included.

That being said, you can implement your own custom version of the gadget. First, disable the gadget in your preferences (the one called "Add two new dropdown boxes below..."). Then, copy and paste the code from MediaWiki:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js to your custom JavaScript page, located at User:Deisenbe/common.js. You can then edit the code to add (or remove) your own custom edit summaries: look for the lines of code that contain the current edit summaries, then copy-and-paste those lines and add your own edit summaries as you see fit. If you need help with this, just let me know and I can guide you. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:05, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

mis-spelled name

Hello the article 40_Point_Plan is about a film I made in Los Angeles, CA

My name is mis-spelled. My name is Christianne Christensen not Christiensen There is an extra "i" that should not be there! I would like to start an article about myself but the information on there in not accurate. Thank you for your time, Christianne — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:CE71:DB80:94D7:200:C4C:7E82 (talk) 17:10, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Done (and condensed above message). Drmies (talk) 17:13, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

As for starting an article about yourself, please see WP:AUTOBIO. Dismas|^(talk) 21:25, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Article review / uploading logos

I submitted an article contribution and was wondering how I know when it has been reviewed, accepted, rejected, etc?

ALSO, I have no idea how to upload a logo into the page. Since it is a logo I cannot upload into Commons, correct? So then how do I add it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by SheriSmith (talk • contribs) 17:17, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi @SheriSmith: You should receive a message on your talk page when an editor reviews your draft.

Non-free images can be uploaded to Wikipedia as long as they meet our fair use requirements (which includes using the logo of an organization in its respective article). Non-free images should only be used in live articles, however, so I'd hold off on that until your article goes live. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 17:57, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

While you are waiting for it to be reviewed, you can still work on it. You could increase its chance of being accepted by adding some citations of reliable independent sources that establish that the subject is notable. As things are now, it cites three sources: the subject's press release, the subject's LinkedIn page, and the subject's founder's LinkedIn page. None of them qualifies as "reliable and independent". Maproom (talk) 00:00, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Adding pictures

how to add a picture — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.114.222.6 (talk) 17:22, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Short questions, short answers: Wikipedia:Uploading images. Scarce2 (talk) 17:35, 3 March 2015 (UTC)