Help desk
< May 10	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 12 >

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.

May 11[edit]

Highlighting[edit]

Hello. I'm wondering how it is determined what words/terms are highlighted in blue in Wikipedia articles. Is this decided by individual editors? -Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.236.113.95 (talk) 02:04, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is, when you WP:WIKILINK a word or phrase, you will get a blue link if the target is an article on Wikipedia. If no such article exists, you instead get a red link. There are other types of links, but those are the ones you see most often. Its all (or mostly) done by editors deciding to add them. Monty ₈₄₅ 02:10, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

see also WP:OVERLINK. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:24, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

How to submit article[edit]

I have written an article. Suggest the process of submitting the same for publishing on Wikipedia — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noopur Anand (talk • contribs) 03:48, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

New editors are generally advised to go through the Articles for Creation process. Dismas|^(talk) 04:06, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Submission of Articles for Review[edit]

I have written an article in my user sandbox. Suggest ways to publish it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noopur Anand (talk • contribs) 04:40, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Noopur Anand: You've already asked this question here and it has been answered in the section just above this one. And judging by your contributions, you have not saved any article in your sandbox. Dismas|^(talk) 06:53, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Validating references.[edit]

I am able to verify some magazine and newspaper articles with hard copies, but are mostly back to the 60's and 70's, and digital copies not available. Examples: Sun Newspaper Sydney various ; The Mirror Newspaper Sydney various; The Australian Newspaper; North Shore Times Newspaper Sydney: For Me magazine 1998 May edition. Genevieve Panty Hose Australian Vogue. How can these be used to meet Wikipedia criteria? past models 05:58, 11 May 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nostradamuspastmodels (talk • contribs)

These are fine to use as Wikipedia sources; just give plenty of detail in each case: title, date, page number, author if stated, and perhaps a brief quote. See Wikipedia:Offline sources for more detail. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Images in the Infobox[edit]

Is it permissible to use non-free images in the Infobox at the top of the article? I have a contact who has historical photos of a band, but he is unwilling to allow commercial use of his work. Thanks CaesarsPalaceDude (talk) 06:48, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello CaesarsPalaceDude. It seems unlikely that such an image would be acceptable. Please review WP:NFCI for a list of the very limited circumstances where non-free images are permitted. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 07:06, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) I can't find anywhere that specifically says one way or the other but there are examples of band articles that use non-free images, e.g. Pink Floyd, and The Yardbirds. Dismas|^(talk) 07:08, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Redirects for templates[edit]

How do I make a redirect for templates? I already know to make soft redirects for categories. Pickuptha'Musket (talk) 10:47, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Redirects for templates are made the same way as for articles. Just remember to include Template: in the pagename. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:44, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks! :-) Pickuptha'Musket (talk) 14:59, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Secondary disambiguation page with parentheses in the title[edit]

Hello. Is it acceptable to create a disambiguation page whose title has been already disambiguated by parentheses, and then link to this page in the main disambiguation page as a a secondary disambiguation page (we know that the answer is yes in case of no parentheses in the title)? For example, collect all films under the title "The Call of the Wild" in the disambiguation page "The Call of the Wild (film)" (which is currently an Incomplete disambiguation) and link to it in Call of the Wild (disambiguation). Saeidpourbabak (talk) 12:02, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We don't create separate disambiguation pages for the exact same name. Similar entries can get their own section like Call of the Wild (disambiguation)#Literature, film and television. The Call of the Wild (film) could redirect to that section but there isn't much point in that when it's the first section. There would be more point in redirecting Call of the Wild (album) to a section. We occasionally have separate pages for a name with and without "The" but we still shouldn't include "(film)" in the name starting with "The". I also think separate pages with and without "The" is mainly used in cases where at least one is an article. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:09, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks! Saeidpourbabak (talk) 12:39, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Artists biography[edit]

Hello dear editors. As far as I understand, artist's own site is not considered reliable source. Do we need to provide a reference for every mentioned exhibition for an artist, or this is enough to take the list of exhibition from the gallery or museum article about the artist? Arthistorian1977 (talk) 14:04, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An artists own site is perfectly reliable, it just cannot be used to prove notability per WP:GNG. But it is reliable enough for personal information about the person themselves. Independent sources are required to establish a person is notable, but self-published sources are allowed for basic information. See WP:ABOUTSELF, to wit "Self-published and questionable sources may be used as sources of information about themselves, usually in articles about themselves or their activities, without the self-published source requirement that they be published experts in the field, so long as..." and it goes on to list some qualifications. In short: you can use sources written by the subject about themselves to cite for unremarkable facts which are not likely to be challenged otherwise. There is no blanket prohibition against using such sources. --Jayron 32 14:37, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, but the question is, like for example in Miki Kratsman, the notability per WP:GNG is perfectly visible and there are enough sources. But for list of exhibitions, the information may be taken either from artists' own site or from the gallery/museum that has artist's exhibition. Editor User:Lopifalko requested in this and some other artices to provide source for every single exhibition. Arthistorian1977 (talk) 15:16, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Understand that what I am about to say is not binding, and does not give you license to edit war over the issue. I think citing either the gallery or the artists own website is perfectly fine for this information. It would be nice to have additional links, but unless he has specific reason to believe that a gallery is not trustworthy to report their own showings, then I'm not sure that policy or guidelines supports what he is saying. Ask him to cite where in policy it requires such a source. If you have specific concerns, WP:RSN may be the best place to go to get help and develop consensus. --Jayron 32 15:54, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that Arthistorian1977 is specifically asking whether where an article for a photographer, say, has a list of galleries that have exhibited their work, is it enough that the photographer's website lists that exhibition, or should each gallery listing be sourced to the specific gallery's site (or also another disinterested noteworthy source). It is my understanding that the latter is required. User talk:Hoary, what do you think please? -Lopifalko (talk)

Yes, this is almost my question. I can understand that referring only to the artist website may look promotional, but when I have the same information listed on some gallery site, would it be sufficient. Anyway, not all galleries and museums contain archival information about past exhibitions. So, as Jayron32 mentioned above, I am looking for some guidelines. Thank you Arthistorian1977 (talk) 10:46, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is not about whether it looks promotional, it is about whether the fact is verifiable. If you have the info on a gallery site then you should use that gallery site as the ref, in that case you have everything you need so shouldn;t have to consider the inferior source of the artist themselves. If the gallery does not publish the info any longer, then it is probably the case that you cannot list the exhibition (which is usually the way I treat it), or at the very least give it a 'Citation needed' tag but someone else might choose to remove such a mention of an exhibition. -Lopifalko (talk)

As it was mentioned above, is there a written policy for this? Arthistorian1977 (talk) 11:39, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The artist's website is suitable source for content that is not unduly self serving. "I had a show here at this impressive venue and a show there at this respected institution and a show here at this gallery famous for finding the new and upcoming artists and another show there at this prestigious museum" is pretty much completely self serving.-- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:44, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, what I mean is that most artist' websites have information about exhibitions, which is self serving. But, when I can find the same list of exhibitions on gallery or museum website, this is already not self published. So, the question here what guidelines are saying - do we need provide each gallery listing sourced to the specific gallery's site, which is quite not simple for example for galeries and museum, not storing past exhibitions. Or it is enough to have artist website information confirmed to some other external references, but not per each exhibitions. Arthistorian1977 (talk) 10:51, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"do we need provide each gallery listing sourced to the specific gallery's site" - yes. Please don't choose poor Wikipedia articles as your example of how to write an article, use good examples, for example: Rob Hornstra#Exhibitions. -Lopifalko (talk)

Search for all articles with names consisting only of more than one spelled out greek letters.[edit]

I'd like to find a way to search for all articles whose names consist entire of the spelled out greek letters (separated by spaces). So the search would return everything from Theta Chi to Delta Delta Delta to Alpha Kappa Delta Phi to even Beta Epsilon Gamma Gamma Alpha Rho Sigma. Any ideas? I've used AutoWikiBrowser and some of the wierder pieces of CirrusSearch, but nothing quite looks useful.Naraht (talk) 18:35, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Naraht: I can do it with an AWB title search for

^(alpha|beta|gamma|delta|epsilon|zeta|eta|theta|iota|kappa|lambda|mu|nu|xi|omicron|pi|rho|sigma|tau|upsilon|phi|chi|psi|omega|\s)+$

but my database dump is a month out of date. I'll save the results at User:Naraht/Greek letter titles when the scan is done. CirrusSearch doesn't seem to honour the ^ or $ characters, which is a shame. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:11, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Naraht: Done - some false positives but I hope this is close enough to be useful. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:31, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. ~~Though, if I'm reading the RE correctly, wouldn't that get a false positive on the article Pinu?~~Naraht (talk) 20:53, 11 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@John of Reading: I think you need to use OR instead of the pipe: intitle:^(alpha OR beta OR gamma OR delta OR epsilon OR zeta OR eta OR theta OR iota OR kappa OR lambda OR mu OR nu OR xi OR omicron OR pi OR rho OR sigma OR tau OR upsilon OR phi OR chi OR psi OR omega OR \s)+$ See this for CirrusSearch/Elastic regex help. -- Gadget850^talk 01:05, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Gadget850: The results from your search include false positives such as Alpha Phi Omega national conventions, Alpha Serpentis and 2015 University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon racism incident. -- John of Reading (talk) 05:27, 12 May 2015 (UTC) [new sig to fix the ping] John of Reading (talk) 06:11, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@John of Reading:,@Gadget850: I took what John of Reading had generated dropped it into Excel, removed all entries without spaces (which took care of ALPHA, Mu and Pinu for example) and pasted it back. That gave me what I wanted (other than a few odd ones where the second and/or third greek letters started with a lower case).Naraht (talk) 18:03, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]