Help desk
< August 9	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 11 >

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.

August 10

biographical entries

Do people write their own bio entries? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.161.38.166 (talk) 00:21, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, generally editors do not write articles about themselves on Wikipedia. The relevant content guideline is Wikipedia:Autobiography. benzband (talk) 00:36, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Geotag on an image I uploaded identifies my street address

While logged on as my usual username, I recently uploaded an image of an album cover which I had photographed myself on my iPhone. Returning to the image today, I have discovered in the "Uploaded" data a tag that gives my specific latitude/longitude coordinates. This, in turn, links to a GeoHack site allowing all users to use Google streetview to identify my home address. This isn't a good idea. Can I delete that link, or alternatively delete that image? ~~Do you have any tips for avoiding this problem in future if I use my iPhone to take images?~~ (I have now reset my privacy settings on my iPhone camera app) A4Afour (talk) 00:32, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you can request the information be erased from the page and its revision history. See Wikipedia:Oversight. benzband (talk) 00:39, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Need help with foreign Wiki article

Hi there. I think this article is spam (or worse). The Google translation of the text was creepy (not to mention the picture of the child). I have no idea how to nominate it for a speedy delete. Thanks! Magnolia677 (talk) 02:56, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Magnolia677:

Done I hope I did it correctly! Piguy101 (talk) 03:20, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Magnolia677: And I got a note on my talkpage explaining to change the deletion criteria to ER20, which I have since done. Maybe I should become a Steward! Piguy101 (talk) 16:14, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much. There was something so creepy about that page. Magnolia677 (talk) 18:41, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing errors on Imperial Palace Ingelheim

Reference help requested.

Thanks, LeNez (talk) 05:40, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I went to the article to replace the reference by a correctly-formatted version. But I found that the page linked to gives "Warning: implode() [function.implode]" messages instead of useful content, so I have simply deleted the reference. Maproom (talk) 06:50, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

OK, got caught in an edit conflict. I'm also not 100% sure what link you want to add but I think it may be this: "<ref>{{cite web|title=Land der Hildegard|website=http://landderhildegard.de/sites/ingelheim/kaiserpfalz-imperial-palace-}}</ref>". Rwessel (talk) 06:55, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Natasha Stott Despoja

I have just read the article on Stott Despoja and feel it is inadequate. I have written a book about the Australian Democrats and have interviewed numerous senators and other members of the party.

How can I offer suggestions for improving this article?

I am computer literate but struggle a bit with complicated techniques. If you can explain in small words it would probably help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.72.167.131 (talk) 05:48, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To offer your suggestions, click on this link to the article's "talk page", and post them there, just as you posted the above question here. Maproom (talk) 06:54, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Page deletion

I will shortly be releasing a new article into the mainspace but the title is currently occupied by a somewhat pointless redirect here [[1]]. How do I request deletion of this page? Please don't move the article, which is currently at User:Ykraps/Pierre Thouvenot, as I still have some work to do before nominating for DYK. I just want to know what steps I need to take in advance. Thanks--Ykraps (talk) 09:16, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You can request deletion of the redirect and its replacement with your article by listing it at Requested Moves. Alternatively, feel free to leave me a message at my talk page when you are ready to go. Euryalus (talk) 10:16, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I intend to nominate the article for DYK and therefore I don't want anything to stall the process. I am going away soon so I am reluctant to request a move in case someone moves the article and I find it is no longer eligible for DYK when I return. If I wait to request the move until I get back I will presumably then have to keep a careful eye on the article and nominate as soon as it is moved into the mainspace. That's not ideal because I work a lot and have other commitments and could quite easily miss it. I think what I'm saying, in a rather roundabout way, is, if I contact you when I am ready to go, do you, as an administrator, have the power to make that move for me?--Ykraps (talk) 10:49, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Why delete the existing page? Standard practice is just to edit a redirect and replace it with an article, if one is available. Since you are the only contributor to the user space page, if you were to copy/paste that text, there would be no attribution problem. Johnuniq (talk) 11:09, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That would be an ideal solution but I am concerned that the page will not show as a new article, having been created in June.--Ykraps (talk) 11:29, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot have a page deleted in order just to improve your personal standing at DYK. That would be entirely against the main purpose of Wikipedia. However, your draft would still be eligible for DYK under the five-fold expansion rule so you have no real need to delete it on those grounds anyway. An acceptable reason for deleting the redirect is to preserve the editing history of the draft (in cases where more than one person has edited the draft this is, in fact, essential). Administrators can do this, but it cannot be done ahead of time. The redirect might be "somewhat pointless", but it is at least providing the reader with the information that Pierre Thouvenot was a "French general of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars" so has an encylopaedic function. SpinningSpark 12:18, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am not asking to get a page deleted to "improve my personal standing at DYK", I am trying to create an article where currently there isn't one and at the same time draw attention to it through the DYK process. That is entirely the main purpose of Wikipedia! I may have misinterpreted your post but it comes across as a personal attack.--Ykraps (talk) 12:42, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

SpinningSpark's comment about a five fold improvement still holds water. That would be acceptable for DYK status. Dismas|^(talk) 12:52, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(after ec) You can do all of those things without deleting the page, as already explained to you. What I am saying is that deleting just so that your article shows as "new" is not a valid deletion reason. SpinningSpark 12:56, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I accept that I can copy and paste my article to the existing page however when I nominate at DYK, I will be nominating as a new article, which it is. I cannot accept that the current page is an article. It is a redirect.--Ykraps (talk) 13:17, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You should probably check with the DYK regulars, (hopefully, some watch this space) but I would hope they would agree that replacing a redirect with an actual article counts as "new" even if the page doesn't show up on new page listing.--S Philbrick (Talk) 15:42, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks that's a good idea. There is a place for comments within the DYK template so I will probably cut and paste as suggested above and add an explanation of what I have done.--Ykraps (talk) 23:06, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the DYK rules (WP:WIADYK) explicitly mention redirects in connection with 5x expansion. SpinningSpark 00:29, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move is unnecessarily burocratic and slow in uncontroversial simple "move over redirect" cases such as this. Using {{db-move}} is much quicker and requires no proposals, discussions, !votes, or other red tape. -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 08:36, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note DYK rule 1 d) Articles that have been worked on exclusively in a user or user talk subpage or at articles for creation or in the Draft namespace and then moved (or in some cases pasted) to the article mainspace are considered new as of the date they reach the mainspace. So the 7 day "new" period begins once the article hits mainspace. JoltColaOfEvil (talk) 01:59, 13 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Enabling user script on all languages

Is there any way to enable a user script across all language wikipedias? Like common.js applies to all skins, but I want even more "common" than that... I can't find any mention of that, so I suspect it is not possible, but I just wanted to check in case I missed something. I have a script that will work on various different language wikipedias, but it has to be installed on each language first. On most non-en wikis I don't have autoconfirmed (or whatever the relevant group is) rights, so I can't create a js page for myself on those. That aside, it's a bit annoying to have to edit 50 different pages which are all connected to a global login anyway. Anyone know of something that could help?--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 12:58, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Dudemanfellabra: According to Wikipedia:User scripts (in the collapsed box titled "full manual instructions"), you can load scripts located on different language wikis using variations of the following code: mw.loader.load('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=script.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');. Though that would still involve editing 50 different pages as you say. benzband (talk) 13:16, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I know I can enable scripts on different language wikis, but the problem is I can't create my javascript files on some languages because I don't have the rights to create a page. So even if I wanted to enable the script on those wikis, I wouldn't be able to.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 13:22, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay sorry I didn't realize that. benzband (talk) 14:04, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"New" display of the code tag

Has anyone else noticed that the <code>...</code> tag's display has changed? It's output used to look like identical to <tt>...</tt> to me, but is very different now. (Their current display side by side: code: lorem ipsum versus tt: lorem ipsum.) Does anyone know the origin? I initially thought it was probably just Firefox's display, following an upgraded to the next version, but the same "new" display is showing for me in Safari as well.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:54, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The last update changed the styling. Se various discussions on WP:VPT. -- Gadget850^talk 14:05, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)/Archive_129#Styling_of_code_element —Trappist the monk (talk) 14:39, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sources intermediate between journal and encyclopedia

What's the suggested citation formatting for edited volumes that are part of a release series that is not a journal? Typically, collections in a book series that has both a general name and individual titles for its volumes (e.g. Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne.) It is clearly possible to either use Template:Cite journal and ignore information such as the volume title and editor; or to use Template:Cite encyclopedia and to ignore information such as the issue numbers and the series title. But these compromises seem unsatisfying. --Trɔpʏliʊm • blah 15:29, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Cite book has parameters for volume, editor, and series. Will that work for your purposes? Howicus (Did I mess up?) 16:20, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The name of the paper within the book goes in the "chapter" parameter like so,

Smith, John. "Smith's chapter title". In Jones, Jane (ed.). Jones' Book Title.

SpinningSpark 09:23, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Copying articles into the Special namespace for large editing jobs

Hi, I remember reading somewhere that for creating/rewriting entire pages there's some functionality for starting a page in the Special namespace and migrating it into the regular namespace once it's complete. Unfortunately I've lost track of where I saw this, and can't seem to find any reference to it anywhere. How do I do this? Thanks! Ouroborosglyx ^{ping me?} 12:53, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Ouroborosglyx: I don't believe there is a special page to do this, but you can create a subpage (eg Bacon/rewrite), edit it there, then merge it into the live article. Just make sure you comply with the condition at WP:CWW! --Mdann52talk to me! 08:31, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Ouroborosglyx and Mdann52: The page Bacon/rewrite should not be created. This does not create a subpage. Creation of subpages in the main namespace has been deliberately disabled for the English Wikipedia. What will actually be created is a top level page called "bacon/rewrite" which will be deleted by admins. However, subpages can be created in the talk namespace (eg Talk:Bacon/rewrite). See the guideline WP:Subpages for more details on this. I think the OP is probably thinking of the relatively new draft namespace, where the bacon draft for instance would be Draft:Bacon. Drafts can also be created in personal user space, for instance User:Ouroborosglyx/Bacon. SpinningSpark 09:07, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I would exercise caution in re-writing an entire article, and substituting that for the existing article, as such "paste-overs" are frequently reverted. Incremental changes allow other editors to accept or revert individual changes, and discuss any controversial changes, be they additions, interpretations or removals, on the talk page, Conversely one massive change can only be reverted en-masse, and such total rewrites are often seen as attempts to WP:OWN the article, often leading to antagonism between the editor who has rewritten the article, and the other editors who have contributed to its evolution up to that point. - Arjayay (talk) 09:39, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes, I think what I read was suggesting creating drafts in personal user space. Thank you all for your help. I will be sure to take Arjayay's advice into consideration when proceeding. Ouroborosglyx ^{ping me?} 09:49, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]