Help desk
< January 19	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 21 >

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.

January 20

Referencing errors on Princeton High School (New Jersey)

Reference help requested. help with referencing a source from a website please. Thanks, 173.54.226.24 (talk) 01:25, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have fixed the reference.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 01:32, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Rotating sphere

Hi there,

On this page in Wikipedia there is an image of a rotating sphere with some vectors sticking out of it. How is it done? I am very curious because I would like to create something like this for my own research. Thanks. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 01:51, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

File:euler2a.gif is a GIF animation created by User:Xavax and derived from File:euler2.gif by User:Juansempere. Xavax has gone inactive, but Juansempere was active as recently as 13 days ago. Unless someone else here knows more about this than I do, I would suggest contacting Juansempere on their talk page. You could also ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. ―Mandruss ☎ 02:01, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. See GIF#Animated GIF for the file format. As for how the initial images are produced, I'm not sure. Blender would certainly be capable, but is probably overkill for a simple animation like this. You might do better to ask at the computer reference desk. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:09, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I appreciate your pointers. I am currently trying to do what I have in mind with gnuplot but it does not have animating capability as far as I know. Wikipedia rotating images are very neat. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 14:35, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@AboutFace 22:Put "gnuplot animated gif" into Google - X201 (talk) 14:39, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you are correct. I found out earlier today, there are animation capabilities in gnuplot. Thanks, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 21:05, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I did it with the Easy Java Simulations package. I hope this helps. --Juansempere (talk) 18:08, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Pinging the OP AboutFace 22, as they probably won't see that otherwise. ―Mandruss ☎ 05:39, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Uni research

I am writing an essay on Wikipedia for a course i'm doing Sturt uni in WA . I have been tryin to find a diagram of the structure of wikipedia to provide a visual representation of how it works. Does such a beast exist? Pene Charles — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.175.9.172 (talk) 02:10, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello anonymous user. I don't know the answer, but I observer that "the structure of Wikipedia" might mean several different things. You might be talking about the database schema, the organisation of the Mediawiki software, the different Namespaces (eg Wikipedia:, Category:, Draft: and others), how categories are organised, or several other things. For topics about the implementation you probably want to head over to Mediawiki.org; for topics about how information is organised in Wikipedia itself, one of the sections of the WP:Village pump might be a better place to ask. --ColinFine (talk) 11:41, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Mobile view"

Please make a settings option to default to the "Desktop" view instead of the "Mobile" view when visiting a Wikipedia page from a mobile device. The mobile interface is confining and clumsy to use. There is no reliable way of properly designing and maintaining a mobile site. Please give us the option to choose. Thank-you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.98.73.149 (talk) 04:13, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen that on PlayStations. For me, there are Desktop and Mobile hyperlinks at the bottom, over the Terms and Privacy ones. Not for you? InedibleHulk (talk) 05:25, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, default. Nevermind. InedibleHulk (talk) 05:26, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. I'm tired of scrolling to the bottom of the page every time and waiting for the reload. Ahh. Imagine a world without mobile "Friendly" interfaces. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.98.73.149 (talk) 09:09, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The village pump is probably more suited for a dreamer like you. The Help Desk is for questions. You seem to know what you want. Good luck! InedibleHulk (talk) 09:17, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The article Indranil Roychowdhury has been proposed for deletion because it appears to have no references.

Hello

I have reached here by clicking on Help Desk. I had contributed an article called ' Indranil Roychowdhury'. Today I have received a mail that the post will be deleted in few days because it appears to have no references.

Can you please advice me on how to have 'references'? Indranil Roychowdhury is a famous Film Makter here in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He has also received awards for his first film. This is a genuine case and if required, I can provide his phone number and other details. However, can you please help me to have 'references' and guide me how I can add references?

Regards Paul

Paul Director (Redacted)— Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.163.89.130 (talk) 06:10, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Good day Paul, i have removed some of the information you gave in your question, this is in accordance to Wikipedia's Policy for personal information. If you wish to have it removed, please follow the instructions listed at WP:RFO. In terms of your question, see WP:CITE Lor^Talk 06:20, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You will hopefully find the answers you want at WP:Referencing for beginners. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:36, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Slow Dance Hoax 2 addendum

I have written to the European Space Agency and NASA, asking them to cease funding of Exo-planet searches, as it relies on making inferences from the data collected, which methodology has been discounted regarding Slow Dance's origins here at Wiki. They won't listen to me and so I request that you set them straight. Also, I have communicated with my local law enforcement agencies that if an obvious art thief has in his possession (as well as, say, a Monet) finger paintings from kindergarten, he should be released and allowed to retain his Monet and furthermore the art thief should be given the benefit of the doubt, and have his name attached as creator of said Monet. (This Monet not having an official provenance.)

David L. Weatherford is the equivalent of that kindergarten finger painter aka Teflon Dave, aka Honest Dave.

Fran cannot find her correspondence on her authorship. Her Hotmail mail from all those years past has gone to that great mail cloud in the sky and so we say bye to that.

I was intending to send this to maproom, the editor who replied to my last post on this matter, but I cannot log in as antewalk. I have tried various iterations of my password, none of which work, and have supposedly had the password reset, but no e-mail has been received.

Can someone please help me with my login difficulties?

Anthony Ryan

http://members.iinet.net.au/~enviouscatydd/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.198.85.192 (talk) 07:06, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Someone posted here a few days ago, stating that a poem Slow Dance, attributed here and elsewhere to Weatherford, was in fact written by someone called "Fran". I responded, saying that if they could provide reliable independent published evidence for this, the Wikipedia article might be changed. I really don't know what you are now asking for. And I can't help you remember your password. Maproom (talk) 08:37, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Anthony. This page is for asking and answering questions about editing Wikipedia. Nothing else.

Wikipedia is for articles which summarise what independent reliable published sources have said about subjects. Nothing else.

I cannot see any way in which what you have written (apart from the login question) relates to Wikipedia. As for the login - please look in your spam folder for reset messages. Otherwise, I don't think there's anything which can be done. --ColinFine (talk) 11:48, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links

When a person is the subject of a biographical article on Wikipedia, is it accepted practice, or allowable to place that person's Facebook page in the external links section of that article? Thanks. CaesarsPalaceDude (talk) 09:31, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Its allowable provided that's it their official Facebook page. See WP:ELOFFICIAL for the full explanation. - X201 (talk) 09:49, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

But also note that only one official online presence is permitted in the EL section, so it should not have official website and Facebook page and Twitter feed (the reasoning being that presumably Facebook and Twitter links are accessible from the official website).--ukexpat (talk) 14:00, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Constance Briscoe - Notable alumni section

To Whom It May Concern:

I'm writing concerning Constance Briscoe's inclusion in the notable alumni section for Newcastle University. We request that she be removed as recent litigation against her is damaging to the University's reputation. The list to which I am referring is here: http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Category:Alumni_of_Newcastle_University. Thank you for your time and attention to our request for her removal.

Regards,

Joel Terwilliger Alumni Relations Manager (Redacted)

Research: www.ncl.ac.uk Blog: Follow us at 'Global Experience Opportunity'

Newcastle University Business School 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SE Tel: (Redacted) www.ncl.ac.uk/nubs — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.240.229.70 (talk) 09:45, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Constance Briscoe is notable, and is an alumna of Newcastle University. Wikipedia does not suppress facts just because someone finds them embarrassing. Maproom (talk) 10:38, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's a category, not a list. (Sorry to be pedantic but there is a difference) categories are used in Wikipedia to group similar subjects, be they Birds, Bedford Town players or British people convicted of perverting the course of justice, its part of the navigation system, its how people find similar information quickly. I'm sure it wasn't your intention, but your request is actually asking Wikipedia to suppress access to information, something I'm sure a university would never want to do, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one. As it stands its a request that couldn't be carried out anyway, due to the Wikipedia is not censored policy and I can't see it breaking any other content policy or guideline either. Sorry. - X201 (talk) 10:52, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Edit summary search

IS there a way to search for a specific edit summary? For example, if I know the text of the edit summary, how can I find it? Vanjagenije (talk) 10:07, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Don't know of a tool to do that. You could check back later in case someone else does. Or, depending on how far back you need to go, you could display the page history 500 edits at a time, and use your browser Find (Ctrl+F). ―Mandruss ☎ 10:32, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Try WikiBlame that should do what you want. And yes, it confuses the hell out of everyone the first time they use it. - X201 (talk) 10:34, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Mandruss:: Yes, but what if I know the text of the edit summary, but don't know which page was edited? It's simple if I know the page, but what if the only information is the text of the edit summary? How to find it? Vanjagenije (talk) 10:51, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Vanjagenije: Use WikiBlame. - X201 (talk) 10:55, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Vanjagenije: You're looking for edit summary text in the page history for any en-wiki article? I'm fairly sure that's not going to be possible, since it would mean searching the entire page history for each of about six million articles. We would have to bill you for the server time, and you couldn't afford it. :) ―Mandruss ☎ 10:59, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Mandruss:: Well, if searching entire six million articles needs only a second, and does not kill the server, why would searching the article history be a problem? Are the articles' histories so much bigger than the articles themselves? Vanjagenije (talk) 11:04, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Where can you search all six million articles in one second? Google Search? If so, that's because Google has previously crawled the site and indexed every article. It does not do that for page histories. ―Mandruss ☎ 11:06, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Mandruss: Here: Special:Search. Vanjagenije (talk) 15:21, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Vanjagenije: Point taken, but the answer is the same. We must be indexing article content but not page histories. Given the limited need, that's not likely to happen. ―Mandruss ☎ 18:58, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry misunderstood first time. The only way I know of that you may be able to find an edit summary is by searching a dump of the whole history of Wikipedia, but that file expands to many terrabytes after you've extracted it and would be totally impracticable. - X201 (talk) 11:17, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Vanjagenije: If you can guess which editor made the edit, go to that editor's contributions page and use the "Edit summary search" tool at the bottom. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:20, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I only know how to find someone's edit summaries. See this tool or wmflabs. However you need a person's username. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 11:23, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Morjana Alaoui

Hello,

My name is Morjana Alaoui. I have a page on wikipedia that I have not created my self here is the link Morjana Alaoui somebody put this picture of me a couple years ago without my permission to share it publically in fact he promised it would never be shown publically. I have been trying to change/remove it without success. I would like to report this picture and remove it. Can you please help me.

Best wishes,

Morjana Alaoui — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.240.30.28 (talk) 12:19, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The image has been removed from the Morjana Alaoui article. But it, and two other images of you, are available for anyone to use (in Wikipedia articles and elsewhere) at Wikimedia Commons, where they can be found by searching for your name. If you believe that they are there without the authority of the copyright-holder, you can make your case for their removal, at Commons:Help desk. Maproom (talk) 14:02, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I see that the image currently removed from the English-language Wikipedia article is still in use in French, German, and Albanian(?) Wikipedias; and the other two images of you are also in various foreign-language Wikipedias. If you can establish that an image is on Wikimedia Commons without the copyright-holder's permission, and have it removed, it will disappear from all language-versions of Wikipedia. Maproom (talk) 14:14, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Unlikely. The file came from Flickr where it is licensed under "Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)" which is compatible with Commons licensing. So unless it has been "Flickr-washed", the licensing is OK.--ukexpat (talk) 14:23, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Mention of a WP article

The Wikipedia article on Australian politician Scott Emerson was mentioned in an article in The Guardian (Online) discussing him as a potential leader of the Liberal National Party after the current Queensland election. The article states that mention of Emerson's former business partner Andrew Crook, who was recently arrested, was recently removed from the page. The removal was the sole edit of a new editor, and the Guardian article has been used to re-add Crook as the sole edit of an IP editor. The article is here. Since Emerson is presently standing for election, I thought the article mentioning Wikipedia edits should be recorded but I don't know where. Maybe someone here would like to do whatever needs doing? 125.168.185.45 (talk) 13:02, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

{{Press}} could be added to the talk page but "The firm’s name was taken out of Emerson’s Wikipedia entry last week." seems a rather small press mention to record. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:22, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that way to experienced WP editors, but maybe not to Guardian readers. Maproom (talk) 14:17, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

listening to audio

I try and try. I click on the recommended links and download the software and follow the directions. (I already have VLC which otherwise works OK). But I cannot get your audio tracks to play. On anything. I should not need to be a computer programmer to play your audio tracks. Why can't you people use mp3 like the rest of the world? While we're at it, why can't your help page be easier to find and use. Again, I should not need to be a computer programmer to get help. Being a snobbish web service does not get you any points except with other snobs. PS: I make financial contributions every year. I am not a freeloader. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Okgray (talk • contribs) 13:28, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

MP3 requires a license fee to be paid for its use. Wikipedia have probably decided that they have better things to spend your donation on. Regarding your problem, could you list a few pages that you are having problems with, so that others can try and recreate the problem. Thanks. - X201 (talk)

Okgray could list any page that hosts an .ogg file, which doesn't work in many browsers. WMF spends piles of money on impractical things (giving away merchandise; even giving me some), but they can't bother to pay for mp3 use rights because aaaaah! It's not FSF-approved free software! Indeed quite snobbish, putting a dedication to the free-software types' POV over a dedication to building a useful encyclopedia. Nyttend (talk) 12:43, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A query about copyvio

A quick question. I was just wondering if any of these constituted copyright violation (see [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6]). I know we add headlines as sources, but the user appears to be copying the headline and opening sentence of news stories in many cases. I've left a message asking them not to do a direct copy/paste, and added the appropriate template, but wasn't sure how serious it actually is. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. Thanks, This is Paul (talk) 14:11, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

When the police commissioner says "There is heightened concern ...", and the BBC reports that he said 'There is "heightened concern" ...', and Wikipedia attributes to the BBC the statement 'UK police ... There is "heightened concern ...', I really don't believe that there has been copyright infringement. Maproom (talk) 14:42, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking a look. Reviewing this again I think some of the articles have been updated since these entries were created, but sentences like "Passengers are facing severe disruption after the Channel Tunnel was closed "until further notice" following a fire on a lorry" (second link) and "marks the 750th anniversary of the first parliament of elected representatives at Westminster, the de Montfort Parliament" are definite copy/paste jobs. I took them out, but when I have a few minutes to spare I'll reword and repost them. This is Paul (talk) 15:01, 20 January 2015

I agree with Maproom. Giving the title of an article in a citation is unquestionably fair use (it's the only way to refer to the cited document), but using the same text for any other purpose isn't necessarily. Just integrating it into the text, when it could be rewritten otherwise, is not fair. Nyttend (talk) 23:34, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia e-mail

I've received an e-mail where it says: "This email was sent by user "Dagger907" on the English Wikipedia to user "Hordaland"."

The content could reasonably be sent to me, ...but without any explanation for why the question is being asked... And the question could reasonably have been asked on my Talk page.

If user:Dagger907 exists, why can't I find her/his page? Am I being unreasonably suspicious? Thanks, --Hordaland (talk) 16:01, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Hordaland: Well, Dagger907 does have an account, registered on the 16th. You can search and check if a user is registered using Special:ListUsers. Users will only have a userpage if they have taken the time to create it, which is why Dagger's userpage is currently red linked.

Regarding the email, I have no idea what the situation is. Attachments can't be sent through Wikimedia's email feature, but as always, be cautious when opening emails you're suspicious about: be careful with any links and any suspicious attachments. If you have no idea why the editor contacted you, you're under no obligation to reply. If you don't want to have an email correspondence, you could try contacting them on their talk page and ask them to ask their question on your talk page. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 16:10, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Goodness you are quick, thanks. There are no links/attachments in the mail. The red-linked user has made zero edits. I'm feeling special, if s/he joined just to get my e-mail address and/or identity. I won't be answering. Thank you for your help! --Hordaland (talk) 16:23, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The "Email this user" function doesn't support attachments, so there's no reason to be concerned about that. An editor could provide a link to malicious content in the text of the email, however; if you have any concerns (or there's no clear reason why someone would send you any given link) it's best to err on the side of caution and not click through.

As well, using "Email this user" does not reveal the recipient's email address. Someone (like Dagger907) can send an email to another editor (like Hordaland) without knowing the recipient's email address. (The recipient will see whatever email address the sender has registered with Wikipedia, however.) If you don't want to reveal your registered email address, then don't reply to the email. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:31, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dagger907 has no edits and many new users don't know how to use talk pages so the reason for mailing may be as simple as noticing the "Email this user" link before noticing edit links on your talk page. I see you posted to User talk:Dagger907. You could add a link to Help:Using talk pages, or a more direct "click here to contact me at Wikipedia". PrimeHunter (talk) 16:51, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I see the top of your talk page you says: "This user's email on Toolbox menu (see also icon top right hand side) is activated." That can also be seen as an invitation to email you for users who don't know that talk page posts are more common. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:56, 20 January 2015 (UTC

Thanks, good idea. --Hordaland (talk) 17:00, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a new user, yes. And no, I dont know how I use the talk pages :). The primary reason why I asked is because of your involvement with the wiki-page Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder :). I was just wondering if you were affiliated to a sleep center in Norway, or had any affiliation with a researcher there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.45.56.159 (talk) 18:52, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Dagger907: To post on a talk page, all you need to do is go to the page you want, click edit and begin typing. It's just the same as posting here, which it seems you've already figured out. This is Paul (talk) 18:56, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Edit beta

I cannot see the hidden comments as in Ebola virus disease Definitions and symptoms (first comment). Lleó Pastor (talk) 19:41, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What is a hidden comment and how are you trying to view it? RudolfRed (talk) 20:37, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A hidden comment is a comment visible only in edit mode, e.g. . By the heading I assume they are using VisualEditor. I have no experience with VE, so I lack competence to respond. ―Mandruss ☎ 20:41, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think the user may be referring to references as "hidden comments " - X201 (talk) 20:44, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

No, see the OP's example. It's an actual hidden comment. ―Mandruss ☎ 20:47, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know why you think that the OP is referring to references. Right at the start of the body text of Ebola virus disease is the hidden comment , which is the wording to which the OP referred. - David Biddulph (talk) 20:50, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In case anyone is confused (hey this is the Help desk after all), here's a true hidden comment:

To see it, edit this section. ―Mandruss ☎ 21:00, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The VisualEditor still has a of of gaps. A Google search reveals there are many reports on this. See opening of Help:Hidden text ("Hidden text is not currently visible to people using the VisualEditor; see bugzilla:49603".--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:30, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A hidden comment is, for example:  (first hidden comment) on Ebola virus disease, not visible using VisualEditor. I understand gap is reportet to bugzilla acording comment by Fuhgettaboutit. Lleó Pastor (talk) 06:33, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Article Evan Gattis

I'm so sorry I was trying to edit the years for which Evan Gattis was with the Houston Astros and I accidentally saved the wrong information on his page. I wanted to let you know because I don't know how to fix this problem. Again I'm extremely sorry for the terrible mistake I made. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheKey23 (talk • contribs) 20:22, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'll contact you on your talk page. – Muboshgu (talk) 20:30, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]