Jump to content

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 December 13

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< December 12 << Nov | December | Jan >> December 14 >
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 13

[edit]

2006 police murders

[edit]

my brother Adam j. Brown was murdered December 1st 2006 by Brown county sheriff dept in green bay wi and he's not listed in the category — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.86.52.212 (talk) 04:31, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In short, categories can only list existing articles (it's a technical requirement, not merely a choice that we article writers and maintainers can change), so unless there's an article about him, your brother cannot appear in the category. Please see WP:Categories if you'd like details. Nyttend (talk) 06:45, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry for your losss, Paul T., but Wikipedia does not (by policy) list everything and everybody: only subjects which are WP:notable in Wikipedia's special sense - which means that they have been written about in reliable published sources. Unfortunately, that category is not so rare that everybody who has been killed by police forces is necessarily notable. It is possible that your brother's case has been written about, and there could be an article in Wikipedia about him; but unless and until there is, he cannot appear in the category. I'm sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 10:29, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The above replies apply to categories like Category:People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States. It may instead be possible to mention him in List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States prior to 2009#2006. Note however that Wikipedia is based on published sources like newspapers. An addition to the list would have to be sourced and portray the event as given in the source. I'm sorry for your loss but Wikipedia policy does not allow it to be called a murder if sources don't do that. I found a source at [1] but I don't know whether you prefer to not get him added if that source is followed. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and does not make its own investigations. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:49, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Editing

[edit]

I see no icon to click to edit the very first paragraph of an article. I came across a page with an enormous error in that top intro paragraph and again elsewhere on the page. I easily corrected the mistake in the main body of the page but how the heck do I edit the top paragraph?

Thanks, Paul T. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.104.23 (talk) 06:46, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If you look at the image I've added to the right, do you see the selected "Read" tab, located just almost at the top of the page, in the middle? If you click "Edit" just next to it, you edit the whole page; that's how to edit the introduction. Nyttend (talk) 06:52, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The "Appearance" section at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets gives an option to enable an edit link for the lede section of a page. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:35, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
However, that's an optional gadget, and only registered users can pick optional gadgets. Nyttend (talk) 13:05, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
As an unregistred user you can use the "Edit" tab at top to edit the whole page, or you can edit the lead alone by clicking a random section edit link and manually change the url to say section=0. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:27, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

The page Xiangsheng claims to have cited from Baidu Baike (百度百科), whose content is believed to be copyrighted and NOT licensed. Is this a copyright infringement? If it is and I can't fix it, how and where should I tag and report the issue? User670839245 (talk) 10:00, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I do not understand what you mean? Practically all sources that are cited in Wikipedia articles are copyrighted and not licensed. Does this fact create problems? Ruslik_Zero 12:49, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Possible COI

[edit]

I have noticed a dispute in an article, and one of the users involved may have revealed to have a conflict of interest in the topic. However, the user did not said it openly, it seems that he merely said it by accident. What should I do? Should I ask the user for clarifications, go to a public noticeboard, or contact admins privately? Cambalachero (talk) 14:34, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Cambalachero:, it is difficult to give answers in the abstract other than to point you to the WP:OUTING and WP:COI policies. If you could specify where you have seen the dispute, it might be easier to give you specific guidance. Otherwise, you'll just have to read the relevant policies and make your own decision. Sorry I can't be more helpful than that. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 15:40, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

About a warning that I have received.

[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


It appears to say that name changes aren't allowed for editors which feel that they have little to contribute. Is this supposed to be how it is? That birb king that you can screech at. 14:39, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest you read all the warnings on your user talk page, KingOfBirbs, and heed them. Your name-changes appear to be part of a general behaviour of NOTHERE. --ColinFine (talk) 15:29, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
But how? That birb king that you can screech at. 16:10, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@KingOfBirbs:, you have misinterpreted those warnings. There is a user name policy that your first choice violated, which is why you were blocked until it changed. There is no policy against further changes but going through many quick name changes without showing any sign of wanting to add positive contributions does not inspire anyone's confidence that you intend to be helpful. The import of the messages on your talk page is this: Please don't use Wikipedia as a place to merely entertain yourself. You have three paths available to you:
  1. Continue treating Wikipedia as if it were Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter and it will go poorly for you, likely ending with a block on your account.
  2. Read articles and make the occasional useful minor improvement to articles and you'll be fine. There is no stigma to this and this is in fact where the vast majority of editors wind up.
  3. Learn how to really contribute and integrate with the community and you'll be welcomed with open arms.
This last possibility requires some more commitment on your part but it will make the previous warnings completely moot. If you want to go this route, then start here and try the tutorial. Most of the usual questions newcomers have are answered by the Help pages and there are usually editors around willing to help. I sincerely hope you choose this third option. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 16:59, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Changing your user name itself is not the problem, and you are well aware of this.
Given you created User:KingOfBirbs last May, but only started editing using it after your fake "bot" User:Not-bot: Revision history account was blocked, you obviously had a plan or backup in place.
Hiding your username as you are doing now with WP:pipelinks so that it is not easily searchable is suspicious.
File:Bad T.rex.png
Bad_T.rex.png
File:NoScaleDino.png
NoScaleDino.png
But uploading non-encyclopedic images like your "bad T. rex" and your "Noscale dinosaur" (see user contributions of Dec. 11) which are worse than stick figures, and you have now advertised for on your user page for the cause of promoting the theory that dinosaurs did not have scales contravenes our policy against uploading non-encyclopedic material.
Your creating a mirror page of Bird (184,000kb) on your userpage with the sole substitution of all instance of "bird" with "birb" is yet another act of borderline vandalism that can be viewed as a test only with generosity bordering on credulousness.
Your spamming the ref desks with questions about how pterodactylswould appear in "heraldy", if they did appear, violates our guidelines on requests for predictions and debate.
You obviously have the skills to contribute, but have chosen to treat wikipedia as a toy. And now you come here with the most innocent-seeming of your actions, and ask why you are being singled out? I suggest you request an admin delete those images yourself as a demonstration of good faith, and try contributing useful material to mainspace, since you know how to do so and obviously have interest in archosauria and heraldry, before you end up with a sanction for your behaviour. μηδείς (talk) 17:12, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
So, are you saying that I should blank my userpage because it has no content of high quality? and how is not using your second name before changing it in any way suspicious??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by KingOfBirbs (talkcontribs) 17:54, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
What I am saying, KingOfBirbs (and I think Medeis would agree with) is that you should either start behaving like a responsible Wikipedia editor (in which case we will be happy to answer genuine requests for help), or else go away and stop bothering us. --ColinFine (talk) 18:42, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly, RL intervened or I would have made comments similar to Colin's. Coming back to the help desk with disingenuous comments, when you have been given plenty of advice on what you should be doing, only reinforces the view that you think this is a form of social media, forum or chatroom etc. You have been provided with multiple links here and at your talk page. Please read them and follow their instructions. If you come back here with more questions pleading innocence, someone will quite possibly think 'enough' and report or block you. Eagleash (talk) 19:05, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Apparently the warnings haven't sunk in, see the latest request for speculation. μηδείς (talk) 21:32, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Wikitube

[edit]

How to upload a free video to Wikitube, a wiki site similar to Youtube? B63cdf194d0bb00ae19d1bc56e7736eba2dca8 (talk) 15:04, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, anonymous user. "Wikitube" gives me several different search hits, and I don't know which one you mean; but none of them has any connection with Wikipedia, whose help desk this is. We cannot help you here. You might get some help at Wikipedia's Reference Desk, but I wouldn't bank on it. (Note: there are thousands and thousands of wikis on the internet. Wikipedia accounts for a few hundred of these at most. The majority are unrelated to Wikipedia, though some of them use the same free software). --ColinFine (talk) 15:33, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Accounts created automatically in other Wikis

[edit]

It seems that starting yesterday night, I've had an account created in 50 Wikipedias in other languages (which I have never visited). Has anyone else noticed this? I've changed my password to be on the safe side, but I was wondering if this was a known bug. –FlyingAce✈hello 16:08, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's happening to others and being discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Local accounts attached without a visit (and welcomed without an edit). It's maybe caused by a new process creating your account at wikis which have imported edits by you in the past with the method at meta:Help:Import. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:19, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to log in

[edit]

Hi, this is Smartyllama, I'm having some difficulty logging in. I get the error message "There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Go back to the previous page, reload that page and then try again." I tried closing out of the browser and that didn't work, I tried clearing all data and that worked for a little while but now it's giving it to me again. I'll try from home tonight and see if I'm having the issue there too. What can I do to do get in? 16:49, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the users IP address as it seems he/she has an account on here. Can and admin hide the version before this from public view. . Lakeside Out!-LakesideMinersClick Here To Talk To Me! 16:54, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I was able to get in again by clearing cookies again, but if this is going to be a recurring issue, that's a problem. Smartyllama (talk) 18:17, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I suppressed the IP address.--S Philbrick(Talk) 18:47, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! Please correct the basepagename from Itunes to iTunes, also please guide how to. Because I have done a failed try on the template page and it had become ITunes. Thanks! M. Billoo 17:43, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The template name isn't seen by the general readership so why do we care? Still, it can be done. Adding this to the beginning of the template should make the 'i' lower case:
<noinclude>{{lowercase title}}</noinclude>
The template needs to be moved to Template:ITunes.
Trappist the monk (talk) 18:39, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The first character of a page name cannot be lowercase. It can be displayed lowercase at top of the page itself with {{lowercase title}}, but not elsewhere like search results and categories. We usually don't care with template names which are not displayed to readers, and I'm not sure "Template:ITunes" is better than "Template:Itunes". The former looks like Template:IT something. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:17, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Trappist the monk and PrimeHunter: Hi! Thanks for your kind response! I think as Trappist the monk said to use "Template:lowercase title" after moving the page back to correct title "Template:ITunes", so it would appear "Template:iTunes". Like, see the top of iTunes page or Template:iTunes Preview App. However, the redirect can be kept as used on many pages. Thanks! M. Billoo 19:30, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Just to be clear: I do not advocate proceeding along the path to make the template page look like the iTunes page. That, to me, is a rather pointless exercise to little or no benefit to the encyclopedia. Just because a thing can be done does not mean that it should be done.
Trappist the monk (talk) 19:40, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Trappist the monk: OK, then I would say please delete Template talk:ITunes as useless redirect, but keep Template:ITunes for valid redirect {{{iTunes}}}. Thanks! M. Billoo 18:04, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

VA ATTY General Race map

[edit]

I would like a map of the results by county for the Virginia Attorney General Race, 2013 Thanks James — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ttcjames (talkcontribs) 22:00, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Ttcjames: Virginia Attorney General election, 2013 reference 17 link includes a map. Some of the other refereces there may also. The help page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Next time use the Reference Desk for general knowledge questions. RudolfRed (talk) 01:35, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Ttcjames, remember our unusual cities; not all of the state is counties. Nyttend (talk) 13:08, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]