Help desk
< December 23	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 25 >

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.

December 24

It seems all my main sources are wrong....

I have a strange problem. I decided to pick back up my series of presidential oval office desks, which I have been working on and off with for a few years now (List of Oval Office desks), and I was about to start a new article about the Theodore Rosevelt desk when I hit a major snag. I dug up this article stating that Truman moved FDR's desk out of the Oval Office which runs counter to every reference i have about the number of desks that have been used in the Oval Office. I dug a little deeper and found this picture on commons showing that yes, FDR had a different desk than what is declared in the sources. How do I deal with this problem? The desk FDR had does not appear to have a name, so what do I call it? Since the references are obviously not right can i use any of the information in them? Is this whole thing original research? I guess I just need another set of eyes to look at all of this to see if I am crazy and what should be done.--Found5dollar (talk) 01:07, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I ran into a somewhat similar problem once, which might provide a possible route, though the situations are not perfectly analogous. I'll lay it out as food for thought. Every source said a certain individual was born in 1892 or approximately 1892, but then I found a source quoting his daughter in which she stated his age when he died, and that age rendered an 1892 DOB an impossibility. I solved it with the article text providing that he was born "in approximately 1887^[2] or 1892,^[3] depending on the source consulted^[note]", with the note providing the reason for waffling. You might think about trying something similar here. If you want to look, the article is Hadji Ali. You might also try bringing this situation to the Wikipedia:No original research/Noticeboard.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:47, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've got one, too, regarding the age of King Abdullah. In this case, a Wikileaked cable originated by the US Ambassador to SA, relying on a U.S. doctor, gave an unreasonable birth date for the King, and a little OR came up with a way in which he could have easily been mistaken into thinking it was so. The doctor briefly saw a file for Abdulaziz bin Saud (bin Abdulaziz) and thought it was, instead, for Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud – similar names to a Westerner who was seeing something he wasn't supposed to.

I'll note that it's getting harder and harder to find independent sources, with so many sources mirroring/copying/plagiarizing each other and Wikipedia and, unfortunately, vice-versa. I spend a lot of time having to eliminate sources based on phrases in common, often finding there was only one (or two on a good day) independent source at the bottom of the pile. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 17:30, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both for your input. I will bring this question to the No original research noticeboard too. --Found5dollar (talk) 00:11, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

new word

I want to propose a new word in the english language.... that is "geeknorant" the meaning ignorant of techology especially IT. How do I do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.154.46.167 (talk) 05:48, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Learn how to use social networks (the sociological construct, not the computer services) in ways that Gladwell describes for propagating ideas through society. Have a little luck too. --Jayron32 05:57, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

But if you are asking about using Wikipedia to publicise a new word, that is not something Wikipedia does. —teb728 t c 06:44, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with uploading

I recently uploaded higher quality versions of the single cover arts of several Marcella Detroit songs, such as File:Marcellajohnaintnothing.jpg. Both times I have attempted to upload however, instead of the new image there is the old image stretched to the size of the replacement. If it persists, I will simply upload them separately, but I don't understand why this is happening?--Meluvseveryone (talk) 07:24, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have purged both file pages, File:MarcellaEltonAin'tNothing.jpeg and File:Marcellajohnaintnothing.jpg. That should fix any transient display problems, though you may have to bypass your browser cache as well.

However, the images have been marked for automatic downsampling. Wikipedia aims to have as little "fair use" content as possible, and there is no need for a high-resolution image when it is only going to be displayed as a thumbnail in an infobox. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:56, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Meters (Metres) vs M

Hi there, in using sTiki I am finding articles being modified from showing "metres" or meters" to just "m". The question I have is...... Which is correct? Rocketrod1960 (talk) 09:09, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is acceptable to use the abreviation (which is always a lower case "m") if the meaning is clear from the context. Roger (talk) 10:48, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To elaborate, meter and metre are simply the US and UK English spellings of the same word. So both are correct. Using the abbreviation m is a clever way to avoid argument over the spelling. HiLo48 (talk) 22:25, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's not strictly true - as per wp:engvar, on some pages meter may reasonably be considered to be incorrect, just as on others metre may be the offender. Articles should follow the above guidelines - meaning that using m with the specific intention of avoiding meter or metre isn't necessary. Chaheel Riens (talk) 23:23, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, of course. HiLo48 (talk) 23:29, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You

well I am just a normal girl with a dream as big as all the harry potter books smashed together so i want to be involved in anything okay if you disagree its okay too goodbye lovely people — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mackluv (talk • contribs) 09:18, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a question about using or editing Wikipedia? -- John of Reading (talk) 09:29, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

One Direction Page is Vandalized

Please update the One Direction Wikipedia page because it has been greatly vandalized and it is very offensive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Angelbaul93096 (talk • contribs) 09:22, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Thank you for reporting this. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:33, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Can't get Short Footnote Citation to work

I must be doing something wrong. I've been trying to add an SFN as a reference. The template works as a citation, but it won't link me to the Bibliography section.

The article is [1], and I want to add an SFN behind the sentence "Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely." (search for the word absolutely for the exact location) that can link to "Wachowski, Larry; Wachowski, Andy (2000), Lamm, Spencer (ed.), The Art of The Matrix, Titan Books Ltd (published 24 November 2000), ISBN 1840231734 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)" under Bibliography section. I want to also specify p.451 in the SFN behind the quote. Can anyone take a look there and tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've messed up five minor edits so far, and I don't want to screw things up further. I've tried reading the citation template page, but many technical stuff still eludes me. Can somebody walk me through this? I am almost alone on that article now. Anthonydraco (talk) 15:33, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot simply convert an existing reference to a shortened footnote. The reference must be present in a section like References in its full form. Then you have to use a template like {{harvnb}} and add that at the location where the first shortened footnote should appear with ref tags, like this:

<ref>{{Harvnb|Clarke|Jones|2004|p=553}}</ref>

Then you can reuse the short citation by simply using {{sfn|Clarke|Jones|2004|p=114}} (without the <ref> tags and possibly with a different page number). See Wolstenholme prime and Penrose tiling for two articles using shortened footnotes to see how this looks like. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 17:03, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

{{sfn}} is {{harvnb}} wrapped in <ref>...</ref>, thus <ref>{{harvnb|Clarke|Jones|2004|p=553}}</ref> and {{sfn|Clarke|Jones|2004|p=553}} render identically. See Shortened footnotes for details. --— Gadget850 (Ed)^talk 01:13, 25 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

turn redlinks to blue

is there a tool like dab tool that can suggest articles to red links so if you put article 123 it could suggest article as a possible to what you are trying to link to??? but obviously make the link article 123 Andrewcrawford (talk - contrib) 15:41, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting my subpages

Hello. I have created about a dozen articles that started out as subpages of my username before I moved them into the article namespace. Is there anyway to delete the subpages that have now been moved? For example, I have User:Zackmann08/FN P12 which simply redirects to FN P12 now. Any way to get User:Zackmann08/FN P12 deleted? --Zackmann08 (talk) 16:28, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can place {{db-u1}} at the top of any of your subpages you want to have deleted. Then an administrator will come along shortly and delete them. -- Toshio Yamaguchi 16:44, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!!!! --Zackmann08 (talk) 17:10, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Harun Robert

Harun Robert is a well known artist from India, Asia. He hosted the television art show M.A.D> on Pogo channel for a prolonged duration.He loves drawing, sketching and does variety of other artistic things in very innovative manners. i want this page to be taken in account and gather info on it or either grant me permission to research and build this page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Poorva.ds (talk • contribs) 18:54, 24 December 2012‎

You don't need our permission to do any research. When you have enough sources to show that the subject is notable, you can ask for the article to be created at WP:RA or write it yourself following the steps at WP:YFA. RudolfRed (talk) 19:11, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

McLean Virginia additions

Ball’s Hill From Fairfax Underground Wiki Jump to: navigation, search Ball's Hill was a village in Fairfax County, located approximately on the site of present day McLean. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.108.132.221 (talk) 19:19, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for asking questions about how to use Wikipedia. Do you have one? RudolfRed (talk) 20:13, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]