Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 October 1

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October 1

Alex Mapelli-Mozzi

Please fix ref number 12 - it is a book - and leave in quote. sorry Thanks 175.32.141.99 (talk) 02:06, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Not sure but it appears as if in this diff, the error was fixed. 2600:387:5:803:0:0:0:7A (talk) 03:13, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Deleted page

Hello. My page named "Aifa mfa2" was deleted for an unknown reason. It is the official page of the Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. Could you please provide any information on that and restore my page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aida mfa2 (talk • contribs) 06:52, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

The page Azerbaijan International Development Agency still exists. I can't find any evidence of an article Aifa mfa2. Do you mean your user page? Dbfirs 06:59, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Aida mfa2. I think you have a misunderstanding of what Wikipedia is. The encyclopaedia article Azerbaijan International Development Agency does not belong to the agency, and no Wikipedia article is an "official page". The article should not contain much information that comes from the Agency, but should be almost entirely based on reliably published sources by people unconnected with the agency.

If you work for the agency, then you should stop editing that article, at least until you have read and understood Wikipedia's policies on editing with a conflict of interest, and on paid editing.

I also don't know what you mean by a page "Aifa mfa2": I would guess that you meant your user page User:Aida mfa2, but that does not yet exist, and I can find no evidence that it has been deleted. In any case, your user page is for you to share information (if you wish) about you as a Wikipedia editor, and nothing else. --ColinFine (talk) 09:12, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I mean the user page. It existed before, the problem is it does not exist now and I don't know how that is possible. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aida mfa2 (talk • contribs) 11:44, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

This is the English Wikipedia. You never had a user page here at User:Aida mfa2. Maybe you are thinking of the Azerbaijani Wikipedia. A page at az:User:Aida mfa2 was deleted. Each language has its own logs and user pages. You can also make a Wikipedia:Global user page. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:27, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

I have accidently removed the info box on this page. Sorry — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.33.248.139 (talk) 07:13, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

 Fixed -- John of Reading (talk) 07:15, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Removing my dads year of birth and age

Hello,

My dad is listed on wikipedia with his birth date and it makes him a bit upset and also potentially negatively effects his work . I was wondering if it was possible to get the year of birth and his age removed (it is fine to keep the day and month). If you could let me know how to proceed with doing this i would be very grateful.

Kind Regards,

Chloe — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.253.68.203 (talk) 11:11, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

If you give us a wikilink to the article in question we can see whether the date of birth is referenced to a published reliable source. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:35, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Tickner — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.253.68.203 (talk) 13:20, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

This Help desk is for the English Wikipedia. Requests concerning the German Wikipedia need to be made there, not here, but they might perhaps take the view that because the information is already published on IMdB there would be little point in removing it from Wikipedia. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:26, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Even if it was on the English Language Wikipedia, it would probably stay since the month and year can be referenced to https://books.google.com/books?id=PKQlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56 which came out in 2015 and the initial creation of the German Language Wikipedia page is in 2016. I'm not sure where imdb got the day of the month. Naraht (talk) 13:53, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Note Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Privacy of personal information and using primary sources. Each Wikipedia language makes its own policies. See de:Wikipedia:Artikel über lebende Personen#Weniger bekannte Personen for German. From Google Translate: "Many people with encyclopaedic relevance, but not greater prominence or prominence, do not want to publish their personal data (date and place of birth, place of residence, marital status, etc.) because they see their privacy threatened or have professional disadvantages. However, it happens that, without the intervention of the person concerned, such information has been leaked to the public, for which evidence can then also be found. If complaints are made, the information will be removed on a case-by-case basis if it is to be assumed that the publication constitutes an inadmissible interference with the privacy of the person or if the person is suffering not only insignificant damage." The German Wikipedia has a help desk at de:Wikipedia:Fragen zur Wikipedia. Many of their editors speak English. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:13, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Reason for my content deletion

Hello,

I have added "Coffee painting" under the article about painting. But it is missing now. Kindly help me to revert it back. Thanks in advance!

--SudhaNandhini (talk) 11:46, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

It would have been helpful if the editor who reverted your edits had used your user talk page and/or an edit summary to explain the reason for the reversion, but it is noticeable that your addition was unsourced, so if you try the edit again you need to include a reference to a published reliable source to satisfy Wikipedia's requirement for verifiability. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:59, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

@SudhaNandhini: wikiHow is not an acceptable source per WP:SELFPUBLISH. "Main article" is only for other articles in the English Wikipedia here at https://en.wikipedia.org. We are not affiliated with wikiHow, one of thousands of unrelated wikis. A wiki is just a type of website. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:41, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

article

how to create articles on wikipedia's — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amirpatel331 (talk • contribs) 12:23, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Amirpatel331, see Wp:FIRST for advice on your first article, and either WP:TUTORIAL or WP:ADVENTURE for general editing tips. GirthSummit _(blether) 14:45, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

US DOS border maps

Would the maps on this site (https://fall.fsulawrc.com/collection/LimitsinSeas/numericalibs.html) be free to use on Wikipedia under the 'fair use' rule? Sdrawkcab (talk) 15:59, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

@Sdrawkcab: Looks like those documents are created by the US Government, so copyright does not apply. RudolfRed (talk) 16:28, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

ok, thanks! Sdrawkcab (talk) 18:19, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm not convinced that is true for all of them, RudolfRed. The PDFs that I have looked at (which don't contain maps) say they were prepared by the "Office of the Geographer, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State", but many of the maps themselves do not appear to have an origin noted. Most of them have a consistent presentation, which probably is from the Office of the Geographer, but some are in entirely different style, and are most unlikely to originate with the US Government (see in particular the Libya/Algeria maps). I suspect that they are all in the public domain, those ones by reason of age; but I think it would be important to investigate further, Sdrawkcab, and check that the ones you want to use are indeed Public domain.

If they are not, then you may be able to follow your original plan and use them as non-free; but Wikipedia's rules for this are more restrictive than general "fair use" rules: you would need to show that the use met all the terms in the non-free content criteria. --ColinFine (talk) 23:00, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

ok I’ll take a look thanks Sdrawkcab (talk) 23:12, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

The Libya/Algeria maps that ColinFine mentions are discussed in the associated document and attributed to the Institut géographique national (Maps 1, 2 and 3) and the Service Géographique de l'Armée (Geographic Service of the Army, Maps 4 and 5; this attribution is also made in each image in the caption on the left). Per commons:Commons:Copyright rules by territory/France, French government works are not in the public domain, but copyright expires 70 years after publication. So Maps 4 and 5, dated 1936, would seem to be out of copyright, but maps 1 and 2, dated 1956, would not be for another seven years. (I know these points are tangential to the question posed, but the maps and their provenance are interesting, and it would be nice to be able to have some or all of them on Commons.) – Arms & Hearts (talk) 22:19, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Request page deletion

There is too much information about my personal profile. Request the page be deleted. Thank you, Samuel P. De Bow, Jr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P._De_Bow_Jr. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1003:B022:C596:654F:3224:E4B6:F0E9 (talk) 17:47, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Samuel P. De Bow Jr. cites no sources, and much of it is copied from https://web.archive.org/web/20070507031733/http://www.omao.noaa.gov/biodebow.html (though as the original of that site is controlled by the US government there may be no copyvio involved). Maproom (talk) 18:05, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

In a Wikitable, is there a way to combine "colspan" and "rowspan" on the same cell entry?

In a Wikitable, is there a way to combine "colspan" and "rowspan" on the same cell entry?

Let's say that I want the cell entry to span across 3 columns (horizontally) and also across 5 rows (vertically).

I tried all of the following ... nothing seemed to work.

| colspan="3" rowspan="5" | My text. ( I placed no punctuation between the colspan and the rowspan elements. )

| colspan="3" | rowspan="5" | My text. ( I placed the punctuation of the vertical bar between the colspan and the rowspan elements. )

| colspan="3" ! rowspan="5" | My text. ( I placed the punctuation of the exclamation point between the colspan and the rowspan elements. )

Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:19, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Try this Help:Table#Combined_use_of_COLSPAN_and_ROWSPAN - X201 (talk) 21:05, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

The first code is correct, e.g. in this table:

My text. ( I placed no punctuation between the colspan and the rowspan elements. )			1
			2
			3
			4
			5
a	b	c	d

If you want to know what is wrong with an edit then link the actual edit or post the whole code. I couldn't find it in your recent contributions. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:41, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Thanks. I will provide the link to the actual edit. I can't do so, at the moment. But, I will do so soon. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 14:06, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: OK. Here it is. Please see this page: User:Joseph A. Spadaro/Sandbox/Page126. The top chart is "before modification"; the second chart is "after modification" (whatever modifications you add). I want the very final, bottom row to have a "rowspan" of 2 ... so that it is twice as high (twice as tall). Also, I just noticed that the "sorting" capability is not working correctly. Do you know why that is? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 14:16, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

If I understand it correctly, putting rowspan=2 in the last row of the table won't do anything. What rowspan=2 will do is combine the cell in which it is placed with the corresponding cell in the following row. If there is no following row there will be no effect. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:24, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: and @David Biddulph: Great ... thanks! Also, I just noticed that the "sorting" capability is not working correctly. Do you know why that is? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 15:34, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

Please say what you mean by something not working, i.e. in what way it doesn't behave as you expect. If you mean sortbottom wasn't working in one of the rows then it was placed wrong.[1] A table row only has one line starting with "|-". Earlier lines are ignored. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:33, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Yes, that was exactly the "issue" ... about the "sortbottom" not seeming to work properly. (Which you fixed.) Thanks for all the help! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:20, 3 October 2019 (UTC)