Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)/Archive 12

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This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (assistance). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.

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WP:OUTING

A Wikipedia editor in a long-term, real-world dispute with a university professor:

The editor is a transwoman, activist, and highly experienced editor who edits on Wikipedia in many areas, with special attention to advocating the transactivist POV in articles that relate to this dispute, resulting in frequent on-Wiki disputes.

The professor is a sexologist who studies sexual orientation and femininity among natal males. As far as we know, he does not edit Wikipedia (certainly no evidence of it in articles about himself or his specialty).

Today's problem: The professor self-identifies as heterosexual. The activist insists that the professor is bisexual. See the editor's disparagement of "The self-assertion that Bailey is a "single heterosexual man"" here.

Even if this were True™, it seems to me that outing someone is inappropriate for Wikipedia -- for anywhere, really. What's the most useful response to a remark like this? WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:28, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

WP:V. If the activist can't find a reliable source which "proves" the professor's orientation, it cannot be incorporated into a Wikipedia article. Corvus cornixtalk 20:11, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
If the information is available to the public from reliable sources, then the consensus seems to be that it is okay to display such information on wikipedia. Unsubstantiated slander should be expunged.—RJH (talk) 21:19, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
Ordinarily, this kind of information about a college professor would not be included, referring to the WP:NPF section of WP:BLP. This is a more complicated case than that, clearly, but there would still need to be reliable secondary sources to make this assertion in the article. Darkspots (talk) 09:01, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for pointing that out. I wasn't aware of the policy.—RJH (talk) 19:01, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Herpes simplex and epilepsy

A section on Epilepsy makes very interesting reference to the Herpes simplex virus being associated with temporal lobe epilepsy, yet has no supporting reference! How does one get to find or contact the author of this section to substantiate and discover more about this? Here is a clip-quote of this section: "there is an association with febrile seizures in childhood, and some studies have shown herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA in these regions, suggesting perhaps infectious etiology." Chich (talk) 10:38, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

You would check the history of the article. Then go through the edit to see who put it in. Going back far enough, you might notice it isn't there. Then go forward and repeat until you've hit the edit that included that sentence. Synergy 09:44, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
The tool, WikiBlame can be used to easily find who added a particular piece of text.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:26, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

I did go through pages of history and have only found a none-medical contributor, making unqualified association of this subject in adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (which has now curiously disappeared). I also tried "The tool, WikiBlame", yet couldn't get this to produce any results, even with a single search word "herpes". Does anyone know about this subject and can suggest a lead to medical research in this area? Chich (talk) 10:38, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

The information you mention in the article was added in this edit, on November 4, 2005, by someone who hasn't posted to Wikipedia since July 2006, and has no email on file. So that seems a dead end. If you haven't had any luck with Google Scholar searches, then the only places you're likely to get help at (and should post at) are Talk:Epilepsy and the reference desk. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 17:17, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

__NOINDEX__ DRV logs

Since the __INDEX__ and __NOINDEX__ tags are live now, would someone be willing to do an AWB run to __NOINDEX__ all the current and old DRV logs (today and backwards)? I've set it up so all logs created from here on out will be. Thanks, and let me know if there are any problems. Cheers! lifebaka++ 14:13, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Mass no-indexing of pages like this should probably still be done in the old way, with a bugzilla: request to change the site's robots.txt. Mr.Z-man 20:21, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
I agree with Mr.Z-man. Also, please, please, please use {{NOINDEX}} when tagging pages for tracking purposes. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:52, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Alphabiotics

Could some other editors or admins please help out on this article. User with WP:COI problems, seems intent on making it an advert for the practice, and hasn't responded to my request to discuss on talk page. I don't have time or inclination for an edit war at the moment... I'd refer it to its project area but don't actually know what project it would fall under.-Hunting dog (talk) 14:55, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Best to post to Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 18:19, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Downloading The Wikipedia Archive to a Local HDD

Hello,

I've wanted to download the Wikipedia data to some local HDD and surf it on my apartment (I got no internet there) on an offline mode. I was refered to the next link: http://static.wikipedia.org/downloads/2008-06/en/wikipedia-en-html.tar.7z but IE says theres a problem in the supplied HTTP header. I've managed to download the hebrew wiki though. Any guesses? Thanks in advance, Ronen

You might want to look at the section of the editor's index pertaining to downloads; you may find other options there, or an explanation of your problem. Or a page where there is a related talk page where you can post your question and are more likely to get a response. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 17:00, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

change capitalization in title?

How do I do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mariangel666 (talk • contribs) 22:25, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Autoconfirmed user accounts (usually meaning at least 4 days old and made at least 10 edits) can change capitalization or other things in page titles by moving the page. Another editor has already moved it.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 23:51, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Will the real author Dawn Cook/Kim Harrison please stand up?

I happen to really like the author Dawn Cook. I discovered that this author didn't have a Wikipedia page, so I created it. I went out looking for biographical information and didn't discover anything, which I thought was really strange for an author. I did discover several sources that link Dawn Cook with Kim Harrison, which I put on the Kim Harrison page, for reasons that I'll relate in a moment. Some sources: Locus Magazine, Biblio.com, Amazon.com, Santa Clara County Library, Handeebks.com Kim Harrison has more books, the author actively corresponds with people on that website, that name has biographical information associated with it, it appeared that the author preferred to use the name Kim Harrison over Dawn Cook. However, I'm a member of the Dawn Cook Yahoo! group -- she links to it from her website and posts to the group occasionally. When I posted this, there were a few posts discussing it, then the Dawn Cook persona chimed in and posted that she was trying to squash this rumor. When I asked which rumor, the rumor that Dawn Cook is the pseudonym or that Kim Harrison is the pseudonym, she responded that she hoped that this would stop as there were legal ramifications. All I want to do is to create articles that reflect the truth, that enlighten people, but it's difficult to do that when you're writing about someone who is apparently living a double life. Additionally, I have no idea whether the author in question is a Richard Bachman or a Franklin W. Dixon -- I'm assuming for now that she's only a single person. This is something that I want to tread very carefully with, as this is one of those Biographies of living persons and the author's threat of possible legal action. Any advice? Any reccomendations? Thanks in advance. Banaticus (talk) 22:27, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

From what you posted on Talk:Kim Harrison, it sounds like you are convinced they are the same person, and can find no evidence to the contrary. If Dawn Cook is claiming she is a different person from Harrison, and has been trying to quash the rumour, she can't be trying very hard!
Have you tried contacting Kim Harrison via her website, and see what she says about it?
Even though Cook has a link to her Yahoo fan group on her website, it can't be proven that the person who posted there is really Cook. (You may believe it's true, but from Wikipedia's perspective, we can't prove it.) I think it's appropriate to link the two authors on Wikipedia, with citations. You have stated that you want to merge the Cook article into Harrison's. I think this is appropriate. The Cook article is very short (it should really be marked as a stub) and can be easily recreated in future if the situation changes. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 07:24, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
You're constrained by what you can find from published, reliable sources. You can't use a bunch of circumstantial information, since putting it together and adding conclusions would be original research. One of the hard things for a lot of people to grasp is that, per WP:V, it doesn't matter if something is true; it matters if there are good sources that say that something is true. That means that Wikipedia is often lacking what - in hindsight - was true; it also means that a lot of stuff that - in hindsight - never was true never gets into Wikipedia (or doesn't stay in articles very long). In short, unless Harrison actual comes out (say, on a website that is clearly hers, or in an article) and says that she is Cook, or unless a source like the New York Times has an article that says that the two are the same person, Wikipedia has not basis for saying that the two are in fact the same. That you can "find no evidence to the contrary", or that Cook won't deny that she is Harrison, is absolutely not enough to justify merging the two articles. I appreciate that all you want to do is to create articles that reflect the truth, but that isn't the Wikipedia way - again, see WP:V for the difference between "truth" and "what is verifiable". -- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:21, 9 August 2008 (UTC)
Finding good verifiable sources that say that they are the same person is easy. ;) I listed a few already. So far, no matter how hard I've looked, I have yet to find any source that says that they are not the same person. Banaticus (talk) 07:48, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
John, the way I read Banaticus' post, he already has numerous sources verifying that Cook and Harrison are the same person, and is asking if he should consider a person claiming to be Cook stating that they are not, when that source does not appear to be verifiable. --A Knight Who Says Ni (talk) 07:46, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, misunderstood. Here's the problem: none of the sources cited truly is what we consider a reliable source; rather, it looks like somewhere in a database, the two names have been connected, and people are using that information as the basis for mentioning the two people are the same. (My quick take, given the dates of the books published and other information - same person; but that's personal opinion). And, in contrast, when I did a Google news archive search, all three results imply that the two are different people. Here's a "money quote" from the only one of the three that is available for free: [Kim Harrison] got her break for her first book, "Dead Witch Walking" when she moved to York County and met novelist Dawn Cook, who introduced her to an agent. (Charlotte Observer, March 20, 2005, "Bewitched books", article by Nichole Monroe Bell).
So, some advice: Copy this discussion to the talk pages of the two articles; copy the above quoted text (and its source) to the Kim Harrison article (and make the source into a footnote; and then wait to see if anyone else can find a truly reliable source that says that the two are in fact the same person. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 16:55, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

BCC Research Deletion/Protection

I have a legitimate COI with this first and foremost, however I did not create the article, I just added appropriate linking. I am however interested in it's survival. I believe that I met WP:V, WP:CORP; WP:RS were met when I added the appropriate linking/referencing to the article. I am interested in working with someone to create a stable page for my company. (I do not want to write the article as it is a COI, I just want to help make sure that it is notable and meets all Wiki Guidelines. Here are the references that I provided to the article that I believe met the guidelines for use: http://www.bccresearch.com/about.php ; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_March_9/ai_n27188863 ; and http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=46515642 . If this does not meet Notability standards please let me know. Thanks Stuartfost (talk) 13:10, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stuartfost/BCC_Research2 Link to article on my talk page. Thanks Stuartfost (talk) 00:35, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
None of the links you provided is to a newspaper article or similar that indicates that this company is getting any coverage whatsoever by the mainstream media. See Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Primary criterion. If you can fix the article, the place to ask a neutral editor to review it (after you've fixed it) and move it so that it's a regular article is WP:COI/N. (Take a look at WP:YFA first, though.) And please note that Wiki and Wikipedia are not synonyms. -- John Broughton [[User

talk:John Broughton |(♫♫)]] 16:23, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Stuartfost/BCC_Research2 I took your advice to heart and greatly improved WP: RS. Thought you might want to take a look. Thanks Stuartfost (talk) 19:00, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

PNG → SVG image change does not happen

I have recently edited meta:Template:Image translators by replacing the PNG image it uses with an SVG. However, after my edit, meta:Template:Translator eng-rus, which includes meta:Template:Image translators, did not change (i.e. the image contained in the template was somehow still the PNG). Any advice? It Is Me Here (talk) 18:57, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Pages transcluding a template can take some time to update when the template has changed. You can purge to force an update. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:41, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
Oh, right, thanks! It Is Me Here (talk) 06:35, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

automated wikibreak

is it possible to set up an if function for a wikibreak to automatically turn it on in my holidays ATMarsden Whadda ya want? 22:05, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

I checked the two blockers listed at WP:EIW#Break; neither seems to have functionality to set a future date/time as a starting time (that's what I think you want). So - if I'm reading this correctly - you'd have to manually set in each holiday. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 16:29, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
Though you could probably ask someone at WP:US to modify Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/WikiBreak Enforcer to allow for start times. Mr.Z-man 16:33, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Where is this tool?

There exists a tool which helps you edit/fix HTTP404 errors in references. I've forgotten its name. Any ideas? --Matthiasb (talk) 11:48, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Are you perhaps referring to User:Dispenser/Link checker? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:08, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
Yep. That it was. Thanks. --Matthiasb (talk) 19:12, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

i would like to know the companys where i could get a aerial T17 vechicle mounted platform to buy

please fina attached my specification you could send a mail to (redacted) or call (redacted)

specification

it would be mounted on a mercedes benz sprinter 311 3.5 tonne chasis cabwork height 16.80 metresmaximum basket floor height 14.90 metresmaximum outreach 10.30 metresturret rotations 700(360 degree non continous)maximum basket capacity 200kgsbasket dimensions 1,400* 700*1100mmcontrols hydraulictravelling lenght 6,250mmtravelling height 6,250mmmaximum G.V.W 3.5 tonnesdaul controls four hydraulic stabilizersfull safety featuresstraight telescopic boom action —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.118.254.171 (talk) 15:42, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

You're going to want to try a site such as Google, as we would not have that sort of information here. Best, UltraExactZZ Claims ~ Evidence 15:53, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Quick Question on Spreadsheets

I have a spreadsheet we're using for the Statistical Analysis component of the RfA Review. It's pretty good size, and incorporates over 450 distinct statements from 209 completed questionnaires. Here's my question - short of e-mailing it to anyone who asks, is there a way to post such a spreadsheet on wiki? It might be as simple as taking the Comma separated values and putting them up as code, but that would be hinky. Thoughts? Thanks in advance, UltraExactZZ Claims ~ Evidence 15:55, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

I have never used it, but there is this tool. Adrian M. H. 16:15, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
That'll do it - thanks! UltraExactZZ Claims ~ Evidence 16:23, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Seeking advice on (potentially) renaming an article

Bull (mythology) appears to be forming to be more accurately about "Bull worship, sacrifice and mythology". Could it be "Bull (worship and mythology)"? Would it be better to be "Bull (worship, sacrifice and mythology)", or is it better to stay as it is? Is there one word to better describe it all? Like.. "Bull (in the cults)"? Apotetios (talk) 12:10, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

How about "Bull idolisation"? 79.184.43.171 (talk) 17:26, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
That sounds slightly Christian. Apotetios (talk) 22:38, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Travelogue

Is there a "travelogue" tag that one can use for articles like Ferencváros? I found it while doing "extention" -> "extension" spelling fixing, and it looks awfully wrong, but I don't have the time or inclination to SOFIXIT. --Slashme (talk) 17:13, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Breaking up a larger table

I'm trying to break up a larger table at Arsenal_F.C._seasons, because I think it's easier to use divided into decades, and the column headers are there for reference more often than 3/4 of the way up the page. I'd also like to get better at making tables, and I figured the best way to do it is to try.

I want separate tables for each decade, each in its own section. I managed to get the table to break up properly, but the section titles I inserted between them are all displaying at the top of the page, and the table still runs straight down right after all the section headers. Would somebody be able to show me where my mistake is? MSJapan (talk) 22:08, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Figured it out. It was a consistent formatting error. MSJapan (talk) 03:15, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Basque Wikipedia

Hi from the Basque Country!
This is a message to the administrators of wikipedia in English or for someone who can help me with this issue:

I´m an user and contributor of the Basque Wikipedia., Basque language is one of the oldest in Europe and the world, it has thousands of years old and is one of the few languages that survived the arrival of Indo-Europeans to Europe. Perhaps being one of the oldest nations or countries of the world not even have their own state, but our language is our homeland and pride. It put us on the map and give a reference recognizable to English speakers, the city of Pamplona (Iruña in basque language), where they celebrate the internationally famous festival of San Fermin are in the Basque Country.

After this brief introduction I would kindly ask you this request:

On July 15, 2009, in the Basque wikipedia we exceed the figure of 40,000 items, today (August 8, 2009) and we have 42,000 items, achievement of which we are very proud, because if we compare proportionately the number of speakers of the Basque language (about a million) with other spoken language Wikipedia in more than one state or nation in the world with millions of speakers is like to be proud.

Because one of the aims of Wikipedia in addition to expanding human knowledge worldwide is also to expand the knowledge of all languages of mankind: From the Basque Wikipedia We wanted to make the request to the users and particularly to the Admin of the English wikipedia would be possible if you put the link to Basque Wikipedia in your English Wikipedia´s language list of everyone in your main cover ("Languages" section: as is currently the case Galician or Catalan language) and the Wikipedia list of more than 40,000 items that is below your main entrance page ("Wikipedia languages" section). Since English is currently the most powerful, influential and widespread in the world (your wikipedia already has 3,000,000 articles), the presence of Basque Wikipedia in your list of the world would be a great help to supervival of our language and their knowledge in the world.

Awaiting your reply.

Greetings from the Basque Wikipedia.
. --Euskalduna (tell me) 15:05, 26 August 2009 (UTC) (UTC)

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