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December 23

Religious texts as primary sources

I have noticed several places on wikipedia where Bible verses and Koranic ayyat are used as primary sources of information, ergo

I thought there was a WP policy on citing religious texts as primary sources, but cannot seem to find it. What is the official WP stance on this, if any?--Bellerophon5685 (talk) 03:04, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is about as close as I could find - Wikipedia:Attribution#Primary_and_secondary_sources. There is also a very long discussion that may be of relevance at Wikipedia:Citing sources/Bible. My reading of it is that is ok to use religious texts to cite only what is actually said and that any more requires secondary sources. Hack (talk) 08:17, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I SERIOUSLY need an Infobox drama

Really I need it. There is a template Template:Infobox play where Template:Infobox drama redirects. "Drama" is theatre that is staged and "play" is the literary piece which is read. I can not understand what to do with Infobox play parameters in which all parameters are literature based and even the most common parameters of Infobox drama are missing like–

Important parameters

Theatre group
Director
Actors
Based on
Playwright

Good to have

Stage decoration
Light
Music
Background music
Choreography
Website

Normal parameters

Language
Country

Can anyone help? --Tito Dutta (talk) 05:13, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Doing.... Will include all the parameters you listed above; let me know if there are more. —Theo polisme 05:28, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome! And yes an image parameter too and name in native language (not very important)! That's all for now. And can you use light blue (#A7D3F2 or light green etc colour in header? --Tito Dutta (talk) 05:54, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Templates are tricky, and as you can see are just files that anyone can edit, but knowing how to add parameters, and use those parameters takes a little work. Apteva (talk) 08:49, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Avant Garde Construction And Design LLC

Avant Garde Construction and Design LLC based in Ypsilanti, MI does work in the residential, commercial, and hospitality industries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amart06 (talk • contribs) 05:37, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Quite possibly. But what does this have to do with the Wikipedia help desk? AndyTheGrump (talk) 05:43, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Christmas

Why hasn't anyone given me Christmas greetings on my talk page? Its making me feel lonely. Pass a Method talk 07:58, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You could try sending some greetings yourself. That might provoke some good responses on your talk page, and even if it doesn't, reaching out may help you to feel less lonely. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:57, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

WP:UAA log?

Hi all. Is there a way to view my contributions to WP:UAA? I can't find anything in Special:Log or at toolserver for this. Which doesn't mean it doesn't exist of course, just that I can't find it. Thanks!--Shirt58 (talk) 09:48, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Try this link. That's the link labelled "User edits" in the middle of the line of "External tools" near the top of each history page. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:01, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Much appreciated.--Shirt58 (talk) 15:07, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Mythology"or "Scriptures"?

It is quite inappropriate to declare religious scriptures of various faiths a "Mythology". Could you please work towards renaming it to "Scriptures" for all religions? A subgroup of society should not declare them (and refer to them) as myth unilaterally. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.70.184.54 (talk) 13:38, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mythology is not the same as scripture. Since we cannot know to which article you are referring, please raise this issue on the talk page of the appropriate article.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:41, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Photograph under Australian copyright jurisdiction

Could an admin look at an issue please? The photo Horace Ernest Stevens self-portrait is listed as being under active copyright and accepted under a fair use rationale, but I think it's actually out of copyright. Seems Oz's copyright as WP lists it is the same as Oz lists it, the: rule for photographs is 50 yrs (and see the companion rule). The statute governs date of publication for photos, rather than date of death of the author. If it were the date of death, however, the photo should still be out of copyright because photographer died more than 50 yrs ago. As the photo was taken 76 years ago, it is out of copyright, so I'm not sure what prompted the fair use tag. Thanks for looking at this. — Sctechlaw (talk) 14:01, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is in public domain in Australia but not in USA due to copyright restoration by Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994 (see Wikipedia:Non-US_copyrights#Restored_copyrights). Ruslik_Zero 19:18, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I must disagree:

In AU, (using the AU 50-year rule), Stevens' photo went out of copyright, at the earliest, on ~~Nov. 18~~ Dec. 31, 1986, and at the latest, on ~~Nov. 18~~ Dec. 31, 2000: in ~~either~~ the earlier case, before the URAA became law, and in the later case, in 2000.
§ 514 of the URAA grants copyright protection to preexisting works protected in their origin country but not in the US -- not the other way around. The URAA gives no protection to foreign works after their full copyright term has already expired in their own country: see Golan v. Holder, 132 S. Ct. 873, 2012, at 878. Golan reiterates, a work that is to be subject to the URAA:
must be protected abroad unless its copyright term has expired in either the country where protection is claimed or the country of origin.
Golan, and see WP.
Accordingly, the Stevens image is not subject to the URAA § 514.

— Sctechlaw (talk) 03:12, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Definately PD, all photographs taken prior to 1 Jan 1955 had copyright expire before the URAA took effect, under the URAA these images remained PD. Gnan garra 05:42, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

According to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC), [http://www.copyright.org.au/admin/cms-acc1/_images/16227869304f39aff399393.pdf ACC Information Sheet G023v16 (Duration of copyright) As a result of the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), on 1 January 2005 the period of protection for copyright material was extended. There was, however, no revival of any copyright that expired before 1 January 2005 under the pre-AUSFTA rules. Gnan garra 05:57, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To give a longer explanation: it is unquestionably public domain in Australia if created before 1955. It is public domain in the US if all of the following apply: it was created before 1946, it was published before 1978, and it did not follow US formalities (meaning registration and deposit with the copyright office and, in the case of publication before 1964, renewal as well, the latter being a process which few publishers went through, but some certainly did). If any of these conditions fail, it is not PD in the US. You might want to look through registration and renewal records here: [1]. Magog the Ogre (t • c) 12:23, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Use of the term "OP"

Hi Help Desk: during an edit dispute another editor referred to me as an 'OP'. The only reference I've been able to see on WP related to that term (which is used on many discussion boards), is Open Proxie, some sort of technique used to obscure a user's IP address to enable vandalism. Since I have never done either the term appears unrelated to that, so what alternative meaning(s) does it carry? Best: HarryZilber (talk) 16:35, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OP = original poster, the one who made the first post in a discussion. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:42, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Glossary has this and other definitions that might be useful. RJFJR (talk) 22:49, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all. HarryZilber (talk) 22:08, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Michelle Rodriguez

First paragraph is wrong and obviously made up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.54.80.252 (talk) 16:55, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That was the work of a vandal, it has now been reverted. Maproom (talk) 17:09, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed Good catch. Vandalism reverted. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 17:14, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

State, city, borough, towns Incorporated dates

I moved to PA about 2 years ago. I wanted to know more about all the town's incorporated dates. I cant seem to find DAY, Month, and year, only the year and that is not enough information. Can I be lead to a book or somewhere that may have the Incorporated dates to the State, cities, boroughs, and towns please. It a project i am working on and specific dates are required, thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.59.175.76 (talk) 17:39, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If the information you are looking for is not in the respective articles on the towns, you might try asking at the Reference desk. They answer general knowledge question; whereas this Help desk answers questions on using Wikipedia. More likely though you will have to inquire from public officials like the Secretary of State of Pennsylvania or the town clerks of the respective towns. —teb728 t c 06:58, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Why Ted and not Theodore while Jeffrey and not Jeff?

Why is the article Ted Bundy instead of Theodore while Jeffrey Dahmer is not called Jeff? Keeeith (talk) 18:04, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia generally prefers the most common name as article title. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:24, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

editing

do i get any kind of feedback from my edits? Sincerely, B. Petropoulos — Preceding unsigned comment added by Akispetrov (talk • contribs) 20:37, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can ask to be adopted by a mentor, who can provide feedback and guidance on your editing: WP:ADOPT RudolfRed (talk) 00:19, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your edit to Polanco Lift moved some of the article's text, "in 1976.", to inside a <ref> tag, so it is no longer visible in the article. You also placed an unpaired </sup> tag inside the <ref> tag. I have tried to repair the damage, but there have been subsequent edits to the article, and I have failed to untangle them. Maproom (talk) 11:20, 24 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 December 23