Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2011 September 16

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September 16

Posting Verifiable Information

RE: Civic Arena - Pittsburgh.

To whom it may concern:

I am having difficulty with my chronicled information remaining on the Wikipedia site as the entire content is being removed.

I am the original petitioner for historic preservation of the Civic Arena in 2001. I have documented my post with 62 links, only to have others removing it. The supplied documenation links come from newspaper accounts and government offices. It is critical of demolition of a historic landmark, but again, it is documented.

I feel that I am within the parameters of Wiki TOS. I wish to share the deceit and corruption as part of an Encyclopedia or Wikipedia.

It is my understanding the Wikipedia was formed to share information and it must be "verifiable". If a few can control or block verifiable information/links, then the creation of Wikipedia is failing the reason it was created.

I have responded to all queries, or ones that have email links and have had difficulty navigating the cite. Please review and allow my previous posted information so it may be shared.

I will leave you with one factual question that illustrates just one aspect of this corruption. In 2007, Governor Ed Rendell drafted and signed the Term Sheet that included the funding of a new venue and the demolition agreement of the Civic Arena. How can the Sports & Exhibition Authority conduct a historic review three years later? There's much more...

Cite: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/sports/11244255/detail.html

I want to stay within your guidelines and contribute to the true history the is documented and "encyclopedicc" in nature that is "verifiable". I ask for your help.

Sincerely,

Gary J. English Please send email to my Wiki account "avigilantone" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Avigilantone (talk • contribs) 04:09, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Replies will be posted here. You need to read about Wikipedia's policy of neutrality. If there is controversy about a subject, it is entirely appropriate to report that controversy, with references to the independent reliable sources which describe that controversy. It is not appropriate to use words like "deceitful" in an article except when quoting a source; and generally sources referenced should be secondary sources which discuss the controversy, not primary sources.

If your purpose in editing the article is to promote a cause or faction, however worthy that cause may be, please find another forum for it: that is not permitted in Wikipedia. --ColinFine (talk) 07:46, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

And you also need to read about Wikipedia's 3 revert rule, as you've already broken it. - David Biddulph (talk) 11:42, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

why can't this page be edited?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cadel_evans — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.224.15.235 (talk) 04:44, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The page isn't semi-protected, and neither is the redirect, if that's what you meant. It doesn't look like any edit filters stopped any recent edit attempts. Your IP isn't blocked directly, and the fact that you can edit the Help Desk shows that you're not under a range/autoblock. Sooo... What exactly is the trouble you are having? ^Avic_ennasis @ 05:04, 17 Elul 5771 / 05:04, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

There is a known bug that I am guessing you ran afoul of here. Every once in a while, IPs will see a display of the notice that they can't edit the page as if it the page was protected when it is not. When this happens, if you click "view source" you should be able to edit the page anyway, ignoring the notice.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:04, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Navbox help

Is there any way to make the list of a particular group in navbox to appear in a different color only when on a page that's listed under that group?

Yes, I know of Navbox with collapsible groups, but I'd rather use navbox itself. I know something with #if and {{PAGENAME}} could be used, but that would require listing all the pages of the group again for applying the style attribute. Is there a shorter way of saying:

if(on a page in this list) {apply this color to the list}

or something like that? Thanks.--Siddhartha Ghai (talk) 07:56, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

You could code your navbox to accept a parameter, and then add the parameter to the articles. So in article X it might read {{Example Navbox|highlightgroup=1}} and in article Y it might read {{Example Navbox|highlightgroup=2}}. The code for the navbox would have to test the value of the highlightgroup parameter when it works out what styles to pass down to {{Navbox with collapsible groups}} or {{Navbox}}.

Notice that the {{Navbox with collapsible groups}} template already allows an article to draw attention to one of the groups by having it automatically expanded - that's the "selected" parameter. I suggest you try that to start with, as that will be much simpler. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:21, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the parameter idea. It took some time, but it worked.--Siddhartha Ghai (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Harry's Girls

Director - Allan ('Duke') Ducovny — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.245.61.66 (talk) 08:52, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Do you have a question about how to use Wikipedia? GB fan 11:21, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I assume this is a request to change/add the director named above to the article Harry's Girls, but I can find no source to verify this (he seems to be a publicist), so it has not been added Jebus989^✰ 13:38, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Template hidden

The Janet Morris template is permanently hidden/compressed (at least for me) at the bottom of article High Couch of Silistra, any idea why ? Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 11:12, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Look at the edit screen of the article. It isn't a template, it is a created Navbox on that article with no content. So it isn't hidden there is just nothing there except what you see. GB fan 11:19, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I fixed it. The content of the template page needs to be transcluded into that article to work properly (see Wikipedia:Transclusion for more information). Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 11:20, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks ! GrahamHardy (talk) 12:08, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Photographer who wants to contribute needs advice

Hi all,

I'm a nature and landscape photographer who would like to contribute photos to Wikipedia, but I'm not really sure how best to do this. I'll be honest: my goals are both selfless (to provide useful images to the community) and selfish (to get better exposure for my art). I don't want to run afoul of any formal or informal policies, nor step on any toes.

I guess all I really want is help with how best to create a template to allow me to put pictures into the wiki so that I am identified as the author and my rights are protected, while allowing the source of the images to be identified, while allowing articles to use the images. I'm not sure if I should just copy someone else's template, nor what policy is with respect to links to source sites (which I have seen on a number of photos.) Also not clear on how one best can add images to particular articles, etc.

Thanks for any advice.

Desktopscenes (talk) 13:16, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

There are basically three ways the Wikimedia Foundation uses images.

1. Some images have been donated by the creators to the public domain, the copyright has expired, or there was no copyright to begin with because they were created by the US federal government.
2. The creator has agreed to license the image with one of the licenses acceptable to the foundation.
3. The image is copyrighted, there is no license, but the usage is a fair use.

Number 2 is what you want. See commons:Commons:Contributing your own work. The best place to put images where number 1 or 2 applies is Commons. Fair use images should be put in Wikipedia and a rational must be given explaining why the use is fair for each article in which the image is used. Jc3s5h (talk) 13:31, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

(After e/c) You should read carefully through the page Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials, which explains the kinds of licensing that the project accepts. You state here that you will allow "articles" to use the images; I'm afraid that a condition like that is too restrictive, because the aim here is that both text and images should be available for re-use by others, outside the encyclopedia, and even for commercial purposes.

• But asking to be credited as the creator isn't too restrictive. There is a Creative Commons License for that. - 194.60.106.17 (talk) 13:55, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

If, as I suspect, you are connected with the website www.desktopscenes.com then you may find that these licensing conditions are too restrictive for you. You should also abandon this account and re-register with a different user name, as your chosen user name may be seen as promotional. See the user name policy. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:38, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining, which is more than the editor who summarily blocked my account bothered to do. Not a very friendly response to someone looking to contribute. I also find it rather ironic that there are so many terms and conditions under which I'm "allowed" to contribute photos, yet merely using the name of my site is sufficient grounds to lock my account in under an hour. The attitude, and the complexity, might explain why so few photographers want to contribute here, sadly. Honestly, I'm considering just forgetting about the whole thing, and not because I can't use the name of my site as a username. Charleskoz (talk) 14:12, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry if I seemed a little over-harsh, Charles; I thought the template message I left was fairly explanatory. Given your second stated goal ("to get better exposure for my art") it seemed necessary to point out that using your website's name for the account was definitely outside the bounds to which you refer in your initial message. My father was a professional photographer, so I really do appreciate (as some amateurs don't seem to) the enormous step you take when you offer to license any of your work with as broad a license as we require. I hope you do see fit to do so, under a license that requires attribution to you as Prime Hunter suggests; and I apologize if I gave offense. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:33, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the response and apology, I do appreciate it. Frankly, I find Wikipedia's whole approach to commercial enterprises a big turnoff. I'm not 'permitted' to donate photos for the use of readers without also allowing corporations to exploit them for any purpose, but it's simultaneously an offense even to have my website name as a username? That really doesn't compute for me. I make a pittance off my photos, and this is not some elaborate scheme for me to get rich. It's simply a desire to get a small amount of recognition. Also to protect against complete exploitation of my work (Google "vermont autumn cliche" sometime for an example). Leaving that aside, I am still confused as all get-out about how I can actually contribute images here in a way that makes sense without putting my own rights at risk, and the confusion and complexity is a further turn-off. Charleskoz (talk) 12:34, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

The quick block seems a bit strict. The username policy says: "Users who adopt such usernames, but who are not editing problematically in related articles, should not be blocked. Instead, they should be gently encouraged to change their username."

The image page can include name and link of website and photographer. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:25, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

See also commons:Commons:Choosing a license. Articles using an image will not display the source but clicking on the image will lead to an image page where the source of the image can be shown. You can choose a license where reusers are also required to keep attribution. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:58, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

A suggestion...

Hi Wikipedia,

Wikipedia is a well study and documented content,it really gives a insight of any topic....agreat job but this great job can be put to a valuable contribution to socio-economic development by providing a road map for respective requirment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.194.223.213 (talk) 14:02, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I don't really get what you are trying to say. Can you perhaps clarify your question? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:55, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Notifications of changes

Hi!

I would like to know if there is a way to receive notifications to my email when my page is changed or updated by other people.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kellyjones23 (talk • contribs) 14:21, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

That functionality has been disabled on English Wikipedia for performance reasons. You can however add the page to your watch list. – ukexpat (talk) 14:29, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Help:Email notification says the option in Special:Preferences for user talk edits was activated in May 2011. I haven't used it before but I just tried and didn't receive a mail. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:02, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

It works! At 15:03 I received mails about edits made at 14:47 to User talk:PrimeHunter and 14:53 to User talk:PrimeHunter2. It seems both mails were sent at 15:03 and received without delay. I guess it's not considered time critical and they are put in a queue. I receive a confirmation mail immediately when I change the email address at Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:17, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Good to know that it works for talk page edits. If the OP was asking about other pages, then no, there is no way to receive e-mails when those pages are edited. – ukexpat (talk) 15:50, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

See Change detection and notification for some external services that will notify you of page changes. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:42, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Template problem

Template:Uw-harass3

I posted the following message at WT:UW almost a week ago and got no response. Anyone have an idea on how to get this fixed (unless I'm doing something wrong):

The additional text parameter doesn't seem to work. Please see my sandbox, although even my edit doesn't even show I put in additional text.--Bbb23 (talk) 14:23, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The problem seems to be that {{{2}}} is not defined anywhere in the text the template produces when substituted on a talk page. There is no place defined in the text produced by the template where "additional text" is to appear. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:32, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Also the template documentation seems to be inappropriate for that template anyway. It looks as if someone simply created a universal documentation for warning templates and I guess the usage examples were also part of that universal documentation. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 14:41, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I think I fixed the problem, I added the same definition of {{{2}}} in as was in {{Uw-harass2}}. GB fan 14:43, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Works great, thanks!--Bbb23 (talk) 16:48, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

While a "thank you" at the end of harass2 looks all right, it seems pretty snarky on harass3, considering the tone of the warning. — Bility (talk) 16:45, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

You are right, I have removed the Thank you. GB fan 17:03, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Heh, I liked the Thank you. Reminds me of situations where you go a store and complain and the salesperson keeps saying "Yes, sir" or "Yes, ma'am" (depending), but what he really means, and his tone clearly indicates, is f*** you.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:17, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

User talkpage

Have a technical error on my user talkpage and I can't access it.  Nipsonanomhmata  ^(Talk) 14:47, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The error is as follows:

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

   (SQL query hidden)

from within function "User::deleteNewtalk". Database returned error "1205: Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction (10.0.6.46)".  Nipsonanomhmata  ^(Talk) 14:47, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried refreshing the page/bypassing your cache/doing a server purge? – ukexpat (talk) 14:49, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I did. But that had no affect. But strangely this last time I visited it has started to work again. Thanks for your help.  Nipsonanomhmata  ^(Talk) 14:51, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

That message is somewhat misleading; it appears when we're a trifle overloaded, but is not a sign of anything serious. I just go ahead and try again (sometimes after pausing a minute or two) and it seldom re-appears. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:35, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The current problems are discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Lost access to my talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:41, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

references

I put references under the table but they come over the table why? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.252.255.194 (talk) 19:21, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Could you point to the specific article (or difference) where you are having this problem? It's a lot easier to determine cause, effect and solution when one can see the actual edit in question. Cheers. Яehevkor ✉ 19:25, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

This typically happens when someone accidentally deletes the end-of-table marker, "|}". See Help:Tables. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:33, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Using Wikipedia Under GNU/Creative Commons

I am writing a book and I plan to use some information from Wikipedia. I know that in order to re-use content from Wikipedia, it must be licensed under the CC-by-SA Share-Alike License or under the GNU Free Documentation License. However, I also know that if I license my material under this work, I would essentially be giving my book away for free. If I am only using excerpts from Wikipedia in part of my book, can I just license those chapters where the information is given or do I have to license the entire book regardless of whether the chapter has that information in it or not? Also, if I put the licensing information on the inside front cover of my book, would I be giving my entire book away for free? I don’t mind giving away the chapters where I use their material, but I can't give away the entire book.
Selfawareness (talk) 20:04, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

What you're planning sounds like a derivative work, and as such would fall under the share alike caveat of the license:"If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license." If you're planning on referencing the articles then that's a different matter. I'm sure someone else will be along to add more to the matter shortly -AL_LOCKE|^talk 01:50, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Allowing other Wikipedia users to edit your subpage draft

Hi - I am working on a new article and have it in my user space. Is it possible to allow another Wikipedia registered user to edit my article while it's still in my user space? If so, how do I go about doing this? In the Wikipedia "Writing an Article" overview, it says "you can...ask other editors to help work on it" but I cannot find where it explains how to do so. Thanks in advance! Jenchen223 (talk) 20:21, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Yes anyone can edit the article in your userspace. They can go directly to User:Jenchen223/Truveris and edit the article. When the article is ready for the mainspace you will need to move the article to maintain attribution for all the edits. GB fan 20:26, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

There is no automated process of asking people, if that's what you're getting at. The way to ask them is to post on their talk pages and simply ask them. Dismas|^(talk) 20:36, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

But now that you have posted here I am sure a few of the Help Desk regulars will take a look. You can also ask for feedback at WP:FEED. – ukexpat (talk) 21:00, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Sergio DeMello

I am writing to ask why there are no references whatsoever in the biography section on Sergio DeMello on his marriage and his two sons by that marriage. It appears as though the only personal references are about his mother, father and his sister.Shb1011 (talk) 21:12, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I couldn't find the article that you mentioned by that name, but I would say that it's because nobody added references when writing that section. That is a problem on many Wikipedia articles (hundreds of thousands of articles lack references entirely). You are welcome to add some references yourself, or you can add this template to that article to alert Wikipedians that the section needs references. Alternatively, you could give me a link to the article and I'll add the template.--Slon02 (talk) 23:19, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I think the article is Sergio De Mello. I have added a fact tag to that sentence. GB fan 23:41, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Editing or Reformatting a Page Title

Is it possible to change a page title format to title case? I have added a new page but the heading ended up going to sentence case (Talent supply chain management) rather than title case as I need it to be (Talent Supply Chain Management)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shclevenger (talk • contribs) 21:22, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

It is possible to change the name of the article, you do not have the rights to do it yet. According to our article name policy, I think the name is correct the way it is written right now. The policy says, "The initial letter of a title is almost always capitalized; subsequent words in a title are not, unless they are part of a proper name". Talent supply chain management is not a proper noun. GB fan 23:29, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

The article needs additional references. The first and second references that are currently in the article do not mention the phrase, "Talent supply chain management" at all. The third does use the phrase "Talent Supply Chain" but it is only in a bulleted list and does not discuss it at all. GB fan 23:50, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Why the aversion to advertisements?

I would have no problem with putting up with a few advertisements. I would, unfortunately have a problem with donating money to Wikipedia because I don't have the extra money to do so. The economy is bad and there are many charities in need of money. When I do have extra money I donate it to groups trying to end human trafficking, which is more important to me right now.

What I am trying to say is that many people are in the same situation as I am, and would prefer seeing a few advertisements to giving money they do not have. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.146.105.234 (talk) 23:04, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

I suggest that you read the arguments against adverts on Wikipedia. That link contains just about every argument that is commonly used against instituting advertisements here. It's very commonly discussed, but it's a very polarizing issue here on Wikipedia. --Slon02 (talk) 23:14, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

REMOVAL OF MY BIOGRAPHY

I entered an autobiographical sketch. After completing it and having it appear in Wikipedia, someone, somehow, had the entire thing removed. I consider this to be vandalism and don't understand how or why such an action is permitted.

Gerald Litwack, PhD Formerly, Founding Chair Department of Basic Sciences The Commonwealth Medical College, Most recently, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Medicine Institute for Regenerative Medicine Health Science Center Texas A & M Medical College Previously, Professor and Chairman Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology Jefferson Medical College

Visting Scholar, Department of Biological Chemistry School of Medicine at UCLA

(Redacted) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.149.112.241 (talk) 23:09, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

You're almost never allowed to write articles about yourself; see WP:COI. If your edit here is any indication, your article included no assertions of notability, which means it met a criterion for speedy deletion. CityOfSilver 23:14, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

If you can give us the exact name of the article or the username you created the article under we can help you more. There has never been an article named Gerald Litwack, Dr Gerald Litwack or Dr. Gerald Litwack. GB fan 23:20, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Your article actually wasn't deleted. You created it at Gerald Litwack PhD and it was moved to your userpage User:Geraldlitwack where you will find it intact. Hope that helps. GB fan 23:37, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Does he acknowledge that hormone replacement therapy can occasionally induce cancer? just thought I'd ask--Aspro (talk) 23:49, 16 September 2011 (UTC)