Help desk
< May 7	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 9 >

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.

May 8

Citing interpretation boards

Can anyone point me to some sort of policy on using information/interpretation boards as a source in an article, and how to go about citing it (I have looked but haven't had much joy, hence my query)? In this case I'd like to use an official information board produced by the Royal Armouries in one of their museums, so I'm fairly certain its reliable. Cheers in advance, Ranger Steve (talk) 10:27, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Reliable sources Noticeboard is the place to ask whether a particular source can be cited. If you want to know the technial details of creating the cite, see WP:CITE and footnotes --SPhilbrick T 12:07, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Sphilbrick. I'd just started looking through the RS noticeboard (with no joy so far), and there doesn't appear to be a cite template in Category:Citation templates either. Off to ask the question I guess. I'm a bit surprised this hasn't been asked before anywhere though! Ranger Steve (talk) 12:37, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Kindly read WP:RS and WP:V for understanding the policy on why and what kind of sources to use in any wikipedia article. Kindly read Wikipedia:CITE#Summary which very clearly describes a simple method of citing sources. Write back for any help. ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:41, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If a sign is not under copyright, you can upload a photo of it to Wikimedia Commons. Then the photo itself would support claims based on the text on the sign. See Commons:COM:CB#Road signs for a related example. However, since you used the word "Royal" then the sign you refer to may be under Crown Copyright or some such. You might ask the people responsible for the sign the following questions:

Do they assert any copyright claims over faithful 2D reproductions of their sign? (I.e., your photograph of it.) See Commons:COM:EIC#Permreq if you need to request permission.
Who wrote the text on the sign, and what sources did they use? If the source material for the sign has already been published, you could cite that. Most likely, the information did not originally appear on the sign itself, it probably came from somewhere else.

You should search Wikipedia for keywords and phrases from the sign. Maybe someone has already added that content to Wikipedia in an article you haven't seen. You should also search the wider Web for those keywords and phrases; maybe that will turn up a publication you can cite. --Teratornis (talk) 18:47, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Userpage inaccessibility

I have logged in but am unable to access my userpage. Instead I get Error 404 coming up. Can you help please ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Roy Duke Evans (talk • contribs) 11:00, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your userpage User:Roy Duke Evans has not been created yet. After creating an account you have to create your userpage if you want one. Just write something in the box and click Save page. If you don't see an empty box for writing at User:Roy Duke Evans then post again and say which browser you have. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:06, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

User namespace category

Is it allowed to create user namespace category? --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 12:17, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean? Categories are located in the Category namespace. It is perfectly permissible to create categories that contain userpages, for example Category:User de-2 or Category:Wikipedians in Virginia. Xenon54 (talk) 12:30, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hot Air Balloon Rides

I understand there is a company in the Beaver Falls Area that offers hot air balloon rides. Would appreciate it if you would let me know the name of the company and a phone number, or e-mail address. Thank you, Bert Lindstrom —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.75.58.188 (talk) 14:00, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. TN X Man 14:10, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia, as announced prominently at the top of the page. General knowledge questions may be asked at a relevant section of the reference desk. However, for something like this, search engines are your friend. Simply entering into Google "Beaver Falls" "hot air balloon" is really all you need, and probably all anyone else would do to answer such a question.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:16, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A Google search with the term "Beaver Falls" Area "hot air balloon" yielded more than 8000 hits - there are probably more than one company in the Beaver Falls Area that offers this! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 14:40, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I can't log in, even with new password sent by Wikipedia

I can't log in with my old (stored) password, nor with my new one, just sent to me by Wikipedia. Any ideas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.146.5.120 (talk) 14:37, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Remember that passwords are case sensitive. If you are still having problems, we would need to know your username to see if we can re-send your password (if you don't want to reveal your username as that will show your IP, you - or one of us - can contact Oversight to have your IP removed from this page's history for this query) -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 14:42, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some users confuse wikis so just to make sure: Are your account, login attempt and password request all at http://en.wikipedia.org? PrimeHunter (talk) 14:50, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Images don't show up

Hi, My problem is the images don't show up, only empty frame with informations In side, please help me for that,thank you very much in advance ( I use Internet Explorer ) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.110.96.8 (talk) 16:48, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Could you give an example of an article where this happens? Does it happen in all articles with images, or just some? Without a bit more information, it's hard to give good advice! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 16:58, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Try this. In your Internet Explorer browser, click on Tools > Options > Advanced... Scroll down in the box that opens till you reach the section on "Multimedia", and check (tick) on the option there that says "Show Pictures". Save your changes, close your browser, try again to open the page in question. Tell us if this works. ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:28, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You said (below) that it was all articles, which indicates that it is either a problem on your computer, or with your Internet Service Provider. Try following Wifione's advice, and let us know how you got on. Do you see images at other websites (try this one: CBeebies website)? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 17:50, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If the above solution doesn't work and if your computer has antivirus software with web-filtering enabled, then you will probably need to either disable the web-filtering feature or add the site upload.wikimedia.org to the filter's whitelist. --SoCalSuperEagle (talk) 18:56, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Images don't show up (again)

Images don't show up,only empty frame. In all articles —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.110.96.8 (talk) 17:20, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please see the section immediately above this one, where we responded to the last time you asked this question. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 17:47, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is my editing all right?

Hello. I'm Lucas Timothy. Actually, I'm neither an English native speaker nor a Scot. (Lucas Timothy is not my actual name.) Yesterday, I visited here and read the article about 'Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond', which was full of unpersuasiveness. Therefore, I determined to edit the article and did according to my knowledge and various data. However, I've got a message, which tells me that my editing was improper. So, I supplemented the article by linking many related sites and show objective figures. Is the article which I edited now all right? If it is still improper, please do not erase all of my editing and tell me what I should supplement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucas Timothy (talk • contribs) 19:13, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi!

Don't be put off by this, it takes some time for most editors to get the hang of things.

I'd suggest posting a message on the talk page of the editor who welcomed you (and reverted some of your edits to The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond - they seem familiar with the topic, and will be able to say what, precisely, was problematic with your edits.

One thing I did notice was that you had links to Wikipedia articles as references - that seems quite natural, but isn't OK (since Wikipedia articles can - and do! - change quickly).

However... the most useful thing you can do right now is read the articles linked to in your welcome message. They'll help explain the sometimes odd rules and guidelines we should follow when editing.

Oh, and welcome and good luck!

Cheers, TFOWR^{This flag once was red} 19:21, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Linking to my website under 'External Links'

Wikipedia:

I run the World Architecture Map (WAM) website, and many of my pages link to Wikipedia pages dealing with the same subject matter. I would like to link to my pages under the external links section of the Wikipedia pages, but I get a spam warning when I try to upload more than a couple in a row. Is this acceptable?

My site is not trying to sell anything,; the links are provided to help the user out. Please let me know if posting my links on Wikipedia is seen as spam.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bothamdesign (talk • contribs) 19:36, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Read the warnings on your talkpage (emphasis and internal link added): "Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that attract visitors to a web site or promote a product." You cannot add a link to a website you run under any circumstances. If you believe the link is appropriate, you must begin a discussion on the article's talk page and let other editors decide. Xenon54 (talk) 19:50, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is this an article Article Incubator/Nineteen Nightmares/Valley Entertainment Monthly?

Or this some sort of rescue page? Either way, I don't get it. ProveYouAreHuman (talk) 19:49, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's a work in progress, being written by User:Nineteen Nightmares in the article incubator. Dismas|^(talk) 19:53, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That probably should not be in the mainspace. I've moved it to Wikipedia:Article Incubator/Valley Entertainment Monthly. Thanks for catching that. Intelligentsium 22:29, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Citing a foriegn wiki

Resolved

– – ukexpat (talk) 15:57, 10 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm working on User:Buggie111/ Russian battleship Sevastopol (1895). There, some facts have been tagged with {{fact}} I don't have so many refs on it, so that's pretty hard to verify. Spanish battleship Jaime I cites the Spanish wiki as a source. I'm wondering if it would be possible for me to do the same thing on my article. Buggie111 (talk) 19:58, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not really. Wikipedia (or any other wiki) would not meet the reliability crierion, so citing them at all is in essence deceptive. Try going to the Spanish article and seeing if they cite reliable sources, then translate and, if appropriate, reference to them instead. - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 20:04, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thought so. The russian one doesn't have any inliners, so that's a bit of a step back for me. Buggie111 (talk) 20:18, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Question about using an image on the article body painting

The article body painting has now undergone frequent changes involving the removal or re-insertion of this image.

I personally feel that this image should not be present on the article, for two reasons:

If it is really a tattoo, it's not body painting.
It's too simple an example, with only part of an arm having a design on it. The article is already full of pictures of people having designs painted on their whole torsos, some even with their whole bodies.

However, I don't want to get involved in an edit war for removing this image. Is there any way I can pursue a discussion about whether this image should be kept or removed? JIP | Talk 20:08, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any reason why you can't discuss it on the article's talk page? Dismas|^(talk) 20:11, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Only one reason: I've twice tried to initiate a discussion on the article's talk page, about different topics. The first one was in 2008. The second one was almost a month ago. Neither has received any replies. JIP | Talk 20:14, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming the page isn't under some type of restriction, if you feel it doesn't belong in the article, you can remove it, and add a note to the Talk page to explain why you removed it. Then the onus is on the person restoring it to explain why.--SPhilbrick T 21:28, 8 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]