Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 October 30

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October 30

Wiki not jumping to menu items

Hello. I am having a problem with wikipedia articles; whenever I click on an item in the contents menu of a page, instead of jumping down to that heading, it does a little jolt but stays at the menu area. It doesn't actually move me down to the contents item I clicked. This is happening on both of my computers (a desktop and a laptop, both with chrome installed though the desktop with Windows 10 and the laptop with Windows 8). I'm not sure why it is doing this, it just randomly started a few weeks ago. Sorry, I don't know how to sign my post. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.141.14.253 (talk) 15:42, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello, person with an IP. This is the sort of thing people report on WP:VPT. And to sign your post use four tildes. You can copy these:~~~~, or on an American keyboard, at leasr one like mine, you press SHIFT and the key to the left of 1. — Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:06, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

2016-17 NBA season

I Need a REDIRECT to the 2016-17 NBA season so that I Can Create this page on April 13, 2016 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.103.78.83 (talk) 02:29, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Registered users can create an article at 2016–17 NBA season. Unregistered users can use Wikipedia:Articles for creation to submit an article for review. You have more than five months for either option. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:48, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Looks like over the last couple of years that the page for the following season has been created around the end of April. Why do you need a redirect to it?Naraht (talk) 15:18, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Maybe this is the same person that has been demanding that we start articles for Superbowls a few years in advance? Dismas|^(talk) 03:21, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Fred Thompson Former United States Senator

I was married to Fred D. Thompson from 1959 to 1985 and just last night read the Wiki information on him. I discovered that the name of one of our three children was omitted -- Daniel L. Thompson, born in 1965. I tried to add this information but was told it was not added because it was badly formatted. I have no interest in becoming a Wiki editor beyond this entry so would appreciate someone else adding it -- in addition Fred is now in Hospice care and not expected to live but a few days so this information will need to be added. Can you advise? Thanks, Sarah L. Knestrick Captsarahtk (talk) 14:04, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

I'm sorry to hear that about Senator Thompson. The issue was that the text had been added in the middle of the string that breaks one line from another. Wikipedia as an encyclopedia doesn't need to be updated by a specific time, but I understand your desires. I've also found that information at http://www.potus.com/election2008/fred_thompson.html, so I'll go ahead and add it.Naraht (talk) 14:24, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no key

Please this is for a project how do i fix the problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1B ext2015 (talk • contribs) 16:32, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

You've probably messed up the coding on a reference tag. See WP:REFB for a beginners guide to coding your references so this doesn't happen. --Jayron32 17:20, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

@1B ext2015: I am not sure what your "project" is, but much of what you have added is inappropriate original research . Unlike writing for most other publication purposes, Wikipedia content must merely be presentation what reliable sources have already published about the topic and not any advancing of original thought / analysis / commentary. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 17:23, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Courtesy link: Human extinction (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

1B ext2015, If using the doi= parameter, a full valid DOI needs to be specified. in date= parameters valid date formats such as "15 January 2001", "January 15, 2001" or "January 2001" must be used, note that a comma is used only in the 2nd form. @1B ext2015: DES ^(talk) 17:55, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Sample code with wiki markup

I want to provide some sample code in User:Chatul/Sandbox/Count key data, but want to use wiki markup in it. The sample code includes labels beginning in column 1. I tried using <CODE;>, and <SAMP>, but the give inconsistent indentation. I don't require that the sample code be indented, jut that if there is indentation it be consistent.

What is the proper way to specify text that to be displayed in a monopitch font with no justification or wrapping, without suppressing HTML and Wiki markup? Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 19:07, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

• Have you seen the article on Count key data and how does your article in your sandbox differ from it? At first glance they seem to be closely related. As far as the font issue, you could try <pre> & </pre> -- see WP:PRE for more details. Tiggerjay (talk) 19:26, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

• User:Chatul/Sandbox/Count key data is for writing new text to eventually go into Count key data.
• <pre> is documented as escaping HTML and Wiki markup, which is not what I asked for; if you look at the sandbox you will see that <pre> works as documented.
• I found a work-around; if I indent all of the text one column then <CODE> and <SAMP> do what I want. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 20:11, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

How do I add a citation

How do I add a citation to an article when the citation is a pdf of a 1964 company internal memorandum19:39, 30 October 2015 (UTC)19:39, 30 October 2015 (UTC)~~? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gallahed (talk • contribs)

If the memorandum has not been published and discussed in a reliable source, you not only can't but shouldn't. pdfs and scans of articles are notoriously unreliable in this era of Photoshop. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:04, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Additionally sources must be verifiable (see WP:V) -- otherwise, like Orangemike said, Photoshop can make any thing appear true. Tiggerjay (talk) 22:35, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Vertical bar charts with negative values

The sort of result I'd like, but generated on the fly, such as via a template or module

Is there a module or template I can use to generate a vertical bar chart which shows negative values?

To clarify, I'm not looking for a tool to create an image of a chart which can be subsequently uploaded.

What doesn't work:

{{ #invoke:Chart | bar chart | width = 400 | height = 250 | group 1 = 5:-5:10 | x legends = +5:-5:+10 | group names = number }}

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

+5

-5

+10

-- ToE 20:25, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Thinking of England, try WP:VPT for an answer to this type of question, since the people who know how to fix things are more likely to see the question there.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:10, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Correction In Transliteration Req'd re: Baba Vanga

Vangelia Gushterova (Вангелия Гущерова)

The transliteration from Bulgar/Slav to English is incorrect. Baba Vanga's surname, spelled in English as G U S H T E R O V A should, according to its Slav base, be spelled G U S H C H E R O V A — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.166.189.146 (talk) 20:56, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

No. As I understand it, in Bulgarian щ really is 'sht' (unlike Russian, where is it 'shch' in careful speech and a soft 'sh' in ordinary Muscovite speech). Our articles Bulgarian alphabet and Romanization of Bulgarian confirm this. --ColinFine (talk) 22:09, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Maintaining Wikipedia links in mirrors

Years ago, someone wrote an article on Lee Daniel Crocker, an early Wikipedia user who still makes a few edits per year. Since his Wikipedia involvement is one of the things on which the article concentrates, his userpage is quite reasonably linked in the external links; its inclusion qualifies under WP:ELOFFICIAL. However, when the page is mirrored, the link shouldn't go to the mirrored version of his userpage but to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lee_Daniel_Crocker. What's the best way to ensure this? The link is currently encased in {{srlink}}, but I'm not clear whether it accomplishes the necessary task; it's currently getting comparatively few mirrors (http://datab.us/i/Lee%20Daniel%20Crocker doesn't include a link, and http://www.babylon.com/definition/Lee%20Daniel%20Crocker omits the conclusion entirely) so I can't easily check. Nyttend (talk) 21:32, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

we are not responsible for maintaining content at Wikipedia mirrors. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 22:09, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

I think Nyttend is asking if there is a template that makes a correct link more likely to be copied to the mirror. Dbfirs 22:24, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

External links should always go to the same places (in this case, always going to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lee_Daniel_Crocker), regardless of whether the page is on our servers or being mirrored. I believe that there's a template that causes the encased link to be internal when used here and external when used elsewhere, but I can't remember what it is. Nyttend (talk) 22:52, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

{{srlink}} tries to do that but it makes a link to the mirror itself in most mirrors I examined. It has been used from the beginning.[1] It tests whether {{SITENAME}} (see Help:Magic words#Variables) is "Wikipedia", and makes a wikilink in that case and a url otherwise. It assumes the mirror uses their own MediaWiki installation to render the page, and that they set {{SITENAME}} to something other than "Wikipedia". I think a simple url would work in more mirrors but mirrors behave differently. It's impossible to guarantee something for all mirrors. The most likely to work in mirrors would probably be an external link to an actual external site which redirects to Wikipedia, but we shouldn't link to redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:36, 30 October 2015 (UTC)