Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 January 14

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January 14

What happens to USER Infoboxes when we die?

Hi folks, I am researching technology and generational succession and wondering how we modify Wikiepedia editor user infoboxes in the event of passing?

Is there a duplicate template for every userbox that can be applied to indicate the Wikipedia user has desceased?

I don't really speak with a lot of Wikipedians because of the often confusing politics that have evolved over the years, but what are we, as a community, doing about acknowledging the passing of deceased Wikipedians with respect to their digital estate and tributes to it?

Are we building an encyclopedia of collections for all time that is going to post-date our individual expiry dates?

Help me discover where we are going with this.

THE QUESTION I AM ASKING THEREFORE IS: What part of WIkipedia, is there a subsection or another Project, that deals with establishing how memorials and associated tributes with respect to estates will be handled?

If we want this thing to live forever, do we not have to make changes to some of the infoboxes in the least? How is Admin/editor death handled on WIkipedia?

Wikiworld2 (talk) 00:32, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

It varies a lot, I guess depending upon how well known and respected they were. See for example User:Wadewitz. --Redrose64 (talk) 00:46, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

There is a Category:Deceased Wikipedians; a template, {{Deceased Wikipedian}}; and a wikiproject, WP:RIP. Their userpages are preserved in their memory. Their edits and contributions to the project live on in the attribution on the history pages of the articles they contributed to. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:25, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Someone can mark a user page as deceased, but in most cases we never know why someone stopped editing. There is little practical difference between a dead editor and an editor who simply hasn't logged in for ten years (and might return tomorrow). It is generally considered socially-inappropriate to alter someone else's user page, unless there is an extremely good reason to do so. For now there is an unstated assumption that the user page will probably remain in place long as Wikipedia exists.

Under the copyright terms we use, the record of their edits is legally required to be preserved in connection to any page they have edited. As long as a page they contributed to is still in use, their username will stand in the page's edit history as an implicit memorial to the work they have contributed. Alsee (talk) 00:39, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Followup regarding inheritance of a digital estate, we do not have any mechanism or recognition of "inheritance" of a user account. Wikipedia accounts are only allowed to be used by a single individual - we would activate a software block against anyone discovered to be using an "inherited" user account. From a legal standpoint heirs do inherit the user's copyrights. Anyone who contributes here does so under the terms of an irrevocable copyright license. The heirs could in theory sue someone who copied the user's work in violation of the copyright terms we user here, but they cannot prevent the continued use of that copyrighted-content within the terms of the license. Alsee (talk) 01:22, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Denver Pyle

"Denver Pilye, who Stared as Uncle Jesse in the Dukes of Hazard was in an episode of the Waltons (Season 1)". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.36.254.250 (talk) 01:33, 14 January 2016

The Denver Pyle article already mentions that he was on The Waltons. If I understand what you're saying, it was only one episode, so I doubt it needs further embellishment other than the brief mention it has now. Dismas|^(talk) 18:08, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Draft:Paul Brubaker : Request for review

Since this Help Desk is thought to be the unfriendly but civil and accurate place for questions, as opposed to the Teahouse, I will ask if some other editor will review Draft:Paul Brubaker. It does appear to be an autobiography. It does appear to be one of the best autobiographies that I have seen in Wikipedia (which is not to say much). I may be biased, because I don’t like autobiographies. Can someone here who is a reviewer review this autobiography? It seems ot be well-sourced. Is it neutral? (I am not neutral toward autobiographies, so I need the community to help.

There's a lot of things wrong with the draft that could easily be fixed, e.g. far too much blue text, use of direct external links, a strange heading for the references section. It is not neutral, it concentrates on listing the subject's achievements and awards. This could also be fixed. But there's little point in working on it unless the subject's notability can be established. The most convincing evidence of notability I can see there is a Washington Post article, which quotes him rather than saying anything about him. Maproom (talk) 09:46, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Ross Turnbull (rugby union)

My husband is Ross Vincent Turnbull and his date of birth has been wrongly recorded as born on 6 January........this is incorrect his date of birth is 13 November 1941.

I would appreciate this being rectified at your earliest convenience.

Kind Regards

Caroline Turnbull — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.163.138.22 (talk) 05:55, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

My condolences on your loss. Do you have a reliable source for his birthday? Usually something published would do. Unfortunately, your personal knowledge is not considered such, per WP:RS. One of the two source in the article does list the January 6 date. Rwessel (talk) 06:13, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

I found the following sources for Ross Vincent Turnbull's date of birth being 13 November 1941:

• Ross Turnbull Death Notice, Newcastle Herald
• Ross Turnbull Death Notice, Sydney Morning Herald

These are, however, obituaries and were most likely produced by the family and so I can't be sure whether they'd be seen as reliable sources. I am a new, relatively inexperienced editor and so I will leave it to another, more experienced user to decide whether these sources are reliable enough for inclusion. If they are, I will be happy to correct the article for you. --  Adam ^{talk - contribs}   20:19, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Ms. Turnbull, condolences for your loss. I should point out that the article at http://en.espn.co.uk/australia/rugby/player/7450.html has Mr. Turnbull's birth date as 6 January 1941. This was likely the source of the birth date used in the Wikipedia article. Perhaps you should contact ESPN UK and have them correct the information? I note they have contact info at: http://en.espn.co.uk/espn/sport/page/1363.html Chrisw80 (talk) 22:29, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

I have copied the above discussion to Talk:Ross_Turnbull_(rugby_union)#Possibly_incorrect_birthdate. I have removed all birthdate information from the article for the time being.

Caroline Turnbull, to ensure that an incorrect date doesn't get added back into the article the best thing you can do is click this link and put in any additional published sources which show the correct birth date. If you also type {{Help me}} that will attract the attention of an editor to review the situation, answer questions, or make appropriate edits to the article. Alsee (talk) 03:52, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Prince George of Cambridge

Ref number 48 on this page is from a book and I have not done it correctly. Please assist - thanks so much - and please leave in the quote101.182.146.167 (talk) 05:57, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

What exactly is the problem? Rwessel (talk) 06:20, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me - ref 48 on the above page seems to be incorrectly done: as a book - shouldn't there be a long line of numbers/code as well? Cheers 101.182.146.167 (talk) 06:25, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Dear Madam/Sir, I have added the ISBN. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 06:30, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

How do I post this announcement?

Horses on WP oh my!
This is a physics article on Wikipedia. To keep from angering (or confusing) the editors, it was placed there only briefly in order to publish it in Wikiversity:First Journal of Science

According to this survey, the prime disincentive against making scholarly contributions to Wikipedia is that it will not advance careers. Wikiversity:First Journal of Science will be a peer-reviewed journal that should alleviate this problem for recent college graduates who are not expected to have published in the established scholarly journals.

The word "First" in the title is intended to suggest that we need more journals like this. The Wikiversity:First Journal of Science was patterned after the Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, but will have a somewhat more informal flavor, consistent with this new journal's intent to focus on teaching at the undergraduate college level. Wikiversity:First Journal of Science will attribute with bylines that list usernames only, in contrast with the use of real names by the Wikiversity Journal of Medicine

Another unique feature of Wikiversity:First Journal of Science is that edited versions of Wikipedia articles are welcome, and are presented as Wikipedia articles on the Wikiversity journal via permalinks to the history of Wikipedia articles. This is currently accomplished in a rather awkward fashion, by moving the Wikipedia article into the editor's user space, and after proper attribution, deleting all that extraneous prose that Wikipedia articles tend to acquire. An example of this shown in one of the three "pseudo-articles" that were used to create a mockup version. Of the three "pseudo-articles" in this mockup, I consider only one to be suitable for publication. It is Wikipedia's Introduction to quantum mechanics. Note how the logo was inserted into the "pseudo-accepted" version without permission of the article's current editors. In other words, all of Wikipedia's 5 million articles are candidates for publication in this journal, and in a manner of speaking, have already effectively submitted their manuscripts to Wikiversity:First Journal of Science for review----Guy vandegrift (talk) 09:55, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

If you are saying you would like a Wikipedia article on "Wikiversity:First Journal of Science," the first step would be to collect significant coverage of the journal in independent reliable sources like newspapers, magazines, and books. If such coverage does not exist, an article is not possible. —teb728 t c 10:45, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Teb728: I agree a WP article on this journal would fall far short of notability--Guy vandegrift (talk) 13:57, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Guy vandegrift: Do you mean in regards to a mass message letting people know it exists? Or a watchlist notice? -- samtar ^whisper 10:54, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Samtar: Yes, some sort of message to invite contributions would be a good idea. What do you suggest?--Guy vandegrift (talk) 13:57, 14 January 2016 (UTC) ... I just posted on Portal_talk:Physics#Invitation_to_participate_in_an_online_Journal. Should I go to the other Portals and post there?--Guy vandegrift (talk) 17:01, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Guy vandegrift: "Portal talk" pages are for discussing improvements to the corresponding portals. You'd do better to post at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Physics or other WikiProject talk pages if you want your message to reach these editors. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:13, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

I am thoroughly confused. The title of this thread suggests it is about how to make an announcement; but the following three paragraphs appear to be the content of the announcement. And they make little sense. You quote "the prime disincentive against making scholarly contributions to Wikipedia is that it will not advance careers" – but nor do most of the other things I do with my time, I don't feel it as a disincentive. Then you present a new online journal as a solution to this problem – I don't see how providing an alternative site where people can create articles will encourage scholarly contributions to Wikipedia. Maproom (talk) 11:15, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Maproom: I guess we are all confused. It was only as I was creating the mockup did I realize that my journal could essentially accept and publish any article already on WP. The ramifications of that need to be carefully thought out. --Guy vandegrift (talk) 13:57, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Infinite Speed F1 Team

Infinite Speed is a team of four schoolkids who are making a miniature F1 car to race against others.

Sam Woodhouse is the Team Manager, Chewie (Jessica WinWin) is the Design Engineer, Evan Wilikie is the Manufacturer and Mya Singh is the Marketing Manager

File:Infinite Speed

Logo

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Infinite Speed (talk • contribs) 11:12, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for sharing the information about your project. At this stage, you should probably publicise your team on Facebook and similar social media, but if your project gets written about in several reliable sources in the future, then we might have an article about you. Dbfirs 12:07, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Citing search results pages (website seems to use PHP)

What's the best way to cite a page of search results on a website which does not appear to give a unique URL for each page of results?

The Isle of Wight Family History Society website lets you query its database of churches and chapels. For an article I'm planning, I want to search each place name using the "Search location:" drop-down and "Search" button, then cite info from the records it brings back. Unfortunately each results page has the same static URL, http://www.isle-of-wight-fhs.co.uk/churches/church_etc_res.php. Even worse, if you search for "All locations", each subsection has a unique URL (e.g. http://www.isle-of-wight-fhs.co.uk/churches/church_etc_res.php#Arreton) but this doesn't work if you copy and paste it into a new browser window.

One workaround I thought of: cite the main search page and stick some text at the end of the citation template such as Select "Arreton" from the "Search location:" box. Would that be acceptable in a citation? Or even better, is there a way of finding a unique URL for each search?

(Regarding reliability of this website ... I think it's OK because it lists many of its sources, I have cross-referenced with other reliable sources, and there is editorial oversight. I won't be relying on it as my only source for anything though.)

Hope that question makes sense! Cheers, Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 12:42, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

The at parameter at Template:Cite web#In-source locations can be used to give search directions like:

"Search the IWFHS Churches, Chapels and Cemeteries". Isle of Wight Family History Society. Search location: Arreton.

PrimeHunter (talk) 13:08, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

How do search results satisfy WP:V without violating WP:NOR at the same time? --Redrose64 (talk) 13:55, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Can you clarify, in respect of this particular website? This would involve querying a fixed dataset. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 14:11, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

If somebody reading the article wants to verify a reference, they do not expect, upon clicking a link, to get a message like " Results of search for Churches, Chapels and Cemeteries etc. in There are no entries found, sorry." If you (as the person adding the ref) have searched that website, and what you want to ref is St George's Church, Arreton, pick whichever one of the URLs on the right (I count five) actually supports the facts that you are describing - it might be Church history. Put that in the ref, and others will then be able to click on the link and access exactly the same source, without guessing, without having to mess around with search criteria. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:32, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

(Sorry, I had an edit conflict – apologies for the indenting) OK, fair point. I would be citing other sources anyway in all cases, so hopefully I may not need to use the website at all. (I am at the very early stages of research, and the article in question isn't likely to be ready until late this year at the earliest, so I should have plenty of time to find other sources.) If anybody can find a way to get a unique URL, I would be interested to find out anyway, as it would be useful to know even if I don't use it in this case. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 16:29, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Church history at Internet Archive

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:12, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

creating a page in wikipedia

to create an page in wikipedia firstly I have to log in there then I have to go to the sandbox then I can start my work... but my question is when I start writting & finish it shows my username/sandbox what I don't want... I want there to show only my page name... how to do this?????? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tanija22 (talk • contribs) 14:32, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

WP:MOVE the page. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:33, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm going to disagree with Redrose64, or at least expand on his answer. I don't think that it would be wise to move the page to article space until the content has been provided with references to independent published reliable sources. I would advise that when you think it is ready you shouldn't move it yourself but should submit it for review through the WP:AFC process. To enable that, I have added a template to your sandbox draft. I'll also put a few useful links on your user talk page (including WP:Your first article). --David Biddulph (talk) 15:56, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

The sandbox is question is a fork of Rajshahi College, anyway, and is largely identical, text-wise. It would have been easier to make the edits directly to the article instead of copying it all to your sandbox unless your plan to so totally rewrite the article that the one currently in mainspace is in shadow of your version. In any event, it can't be moved on top of the page in mainspace, anyhow. - Purplewowies (talk) 23:45, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no key

My first article is tagged opening tag is malformed and has a bad name. How can I correct? — Preceding unsigned comment added by PixtonDesignGroup (talk • contribs) 16:06, 14 January 2016‎ (UTC)

• It appears that you have been blocked for having a promotional username, so please come back and create an appropraite username following the policies at WP:UPOL and then repost your requestion. It should be an easy fix anyone here can help you with. I see one page you have in draft space, but no current errors for references, so I'm not sure if your problem was with that page, or another page that was already deleted for being promotional. Tiggerjay (talk) 16:35, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

  The error, a stray <ref /> tag, was cured by another editor in this edit. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:51, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Reference help requested.

Thanks, 54.163.9.61 (talk) 20:34, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Sarah McCullough

Him who is Sarah McCullough in the real? I only know that she voiced Musa and Stormy. but who she is?--Maxie1hoi (talk) 21:07, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

@Maxie1hoi: Have you tried the Entertainment section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. Dismas|^(talk) 21:58, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Linking from English language page to non-English page

Hello. My question is how one would go about linking from an English language page to a page in another language. So if the regular wikipedia link is formatted like this, beIN Sports, bookended by two brackets, is it possible to link directly to the same page in another language? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by ThirstCurfew (talk • contribs) 22:00, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

You can link to say the French version like this fr:beIN Sports by typing [[:fr:beIN Sports]]. Maproom (talk) 22:03, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

More at H:ILL. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:22, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

47.54.102.103 (talk) 00:07, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

If you don't want "fr:" to display, just use the pipe trick, i.e. [[:fr:beIN Sports|beIN Sports]]. Nyttend (talk) 04:33, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

That, true, Nyttend, but I would always advise against putting a link to a foreign-language article without saying so, because if the reader cannot read the other language it may not be any use to them. My recommendation would always be to use the template {{ill}}, which displays a link to the English article, but if that is red (the article doesn't exist) adds a second link to the foreign-language article. --ColinFine (talk) 12:41, 15 January 2016 (UTC)