Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 December 13

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December 13

correcting info on a wiki page

I'm looking to work on a Wiki article about a certain chemical compound. The article states that "...research into its use has been of poor quality." In fact I have found numerous excellent peer-reviewed studies on this substance and have other knowledge that would be helpful to readers - for all of which I can cite references.

The phrase I just quoted lies in the opening general section of the page; there is no section labeled "Research" (or similar title). My instinct tells me to correct the phrase where it lies, citing the studies as references. Would this be correct and/or should I create a new heading and describe them briefly, with footnotes?

Any guidance appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grasswaskindawet (talk • contribs) 02:38, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

@Grasswaskindawet: If it's unsupported by a citation to a reliable source, just remove it. As a separate issue, if you feel that a "research" section will improve the article, please feel free to add it, with citations. If you feel that this addition then merits a mention in the lead, feel free to add that, too. That would be a matter of editorial judgement, and you are the editor who can make the judgement. -Arch dude (talk) 04:47, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grasswaskindawet (talk • contribs) 01:05, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Asking for donations

I just made my annual donation to you last month and every time I go on to Wikipedia you ask me for a donation as though I never donated. I’m sick of it. Please stop. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.201.83 (talk) 02:49, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

The ads are not personal messages directed to you but a billboard that comes up on all site visitors. Ian.thomson (talk) 02:58, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

The site does not know that you personally donated to the Foundation. If you register an account, you can turn off those notices. 331dot (talk) 01:25, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

How to protect page from unauthorized edit

We have our institute page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Food_Technology_Entrepreneurship_and_Management. we need to protect from unauthorized edit — Preceding unsigned comment added by NIFTEM (talk • contribs) 05:32, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Account blocked as a spam user name making promotional edits and seeking ownership. Article deleted as obvious promo, also entirely unsourced apart from two links to NIFTEM, so can't meet current notability guidelines. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:27, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Citations

Is it possible to add a citation to any Wikipedia page ?

If I add citations to Wikipedia pages will they be deleted ?

How can I prevent my citations from being deleted from any Wikipedia page ?

Thank you for your help

Regards, Archaeologist02 (talk) 09:39, 13 December 2018 (UTC) Archaeologist02

@Archaeologist02: You are welcome to edit any article that you are able to. Citations need to be to a reliable source. For information on adding citations to an article, please click the link WP:CITE. 331dot (talk) 10:07, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

How to edit a page title

Hi there,

My school's wikipedia page title still refers to the old school name.

Could you please let me know how to edit this name?

Thanks, — Preceding unsigned comment added by CA 2018 (talk • contribs) 10:07, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I've moved the article to the new name, International School of Hellerup, leaving a redirect from the old name. Can you improve the referencing by finding independent WP:Reliable sources in which the school has been written about? Dbfirs 11:51, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Inserting Footnotes

Okay, I've been editing Wikipedia since 2010 and have contributed to 2,000 articles -- but I remain a technological retard. So, this is a question about footnotes. I have tried to use shortened footnotes and templates many times and have found them unworkable or cumbersome. So I create footnotes by hand: for example: When I use the same book as a reference a second time, I write

Is there anything wrong with my technique of creating footnotes? I notice that other editors sometimes change my footnotes into a different style. I can't think of any reason to do that except that it saves a bit of space in the footnote section of an article. In my opinion, a much worse consequence of using footnote templates is causing an editor to have to search an article for a few words of text hidden amongst a blizzard of unintelligible template bytes. The use of templates, as opposed to my method of creating footnotes, makes an article longer--not shorter--and to my mind more difficult to edit.

In other words, I like my style of doing footnotes -- and I don't like other ways of doing footnotes. I'm (somewhat) open to being persuaded that I am committing a crime against humanity by using my primitive methods. Should I complain when another editor changes my footnotes into a different format? Smallchief (talk) 11:38, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

References

Greetings Smallchief. As you will see if you take a look at this guidance, the basic principle is to keep citation style consistent within any one article, so as not to risk confusing the reader by mixing different systems. Editors vary in their preferred styles and Wikipedia does not attempt to impose any one system: it's normally the creator of the article who gets to pick the citation style for that article.

The difficulty in editing in wikitext where full references are embedded in the text is well recognised. Some alleviation is possible using syntax highlighting; this distinguishes the references and other markup using a pale coloured background. Which of the options works best depends on your web browser. Hope this helps: Noyster (talk), 13:24, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Very helpful, Thank you. Particularly helpful is the info on using WP:HILITE. That will ease some of my irritation at having to wade through wikitext. And I'm glad to know that my style of inserting footnotes is not frowned upon by wikipedia. Smallchief (talk) 13:56, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Archiving my talk page

How do I get Sigmabot to archive my talk page? I've seen it happen on many other users' talk pages, but I don't know how to apply it to my own. I would like to archive my talk page every ten sections. Help me please. Anonymuss User (talk) 14:52, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

@Anonymuss User: Read the how-to guide: User:Lowercase_sigmabot_III/Archive_HowTo. If you're unable to set it, you can ask here again for someone to set it for you.–Ammarpad (talk) 17:18, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Article declined

Hello,

I don't understand why you had declined my article about everis in english.

Thank you in advance

Best regards, Carolina — Preceding unsigned comment added by Carolina Gomez Apache (talk • contribs) 15:13, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

What you posted was an advertisement, full of garbage like, "provides business solutions to drive digital transformation through disruptive technologies", and sourced to unreliable sources such as the subject's own website. What is your connection to the company? --Orange Mike | Talk 16:04, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Hey, It looks to me like the draft is full of small errors, as well as using almost no wiki markup. Look at some other articles for a good example. I.E. Infoboxes, Proper links. In addition, It seems to violate POV by providing a very "We are great" portrayal. What is your relation to the company? Have fun! WelpThatWorked (talk) 16:50, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

@Carolina Gomez Apache: We have ways to get around conflict-of-interest problems (see WP:COI) and a tone that is not encyclopedic. But, you have a much more serious problem: An article about a subject that is no notable (by our definition, not yours) will be deleted. For corporate notability, see WP:NCORP. For a notable corporation, we will fix the article, no matter how poor it is initially. For a non-notable corporation, we will delete the article, no matter how perfectly written -Arch dude (talk) 21:23, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Dispute about toyota land cruiser (read the page history)

[1] The big edits were made by unregistered IPs, interesting. (Not sure where to put this to be honest) Anonymuss User (talk) 15:27, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Italian Ministry of Education: is Liceo Scientifico Statale Paolio Lioy vicenza Italy 36100 a accredited school. Can I receive a letter Accredition from that school?

My son is attending high school at Liceo Scientifico Statale Paolio Lioy vicenza Italy 36100

He is half American and Half Italian. 

Please assist. I desparately need you to confirm if the school is accredited by the Universities of America.

Thanks early

Derrick Owens — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:4A:C000:6BA:5890:A01B:DEC5:A514 (talk) 17:16, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Hey, First off this kind of question is for the reference desk, not here. This is for help Editing wikipedia. I am having trouble finding the school you named. Does it have a website? — Preceding unsigned comment added by WelpThatWorked (talk • contribs) 17:53, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

I have removed your email address to protect your privacy -- John of Reading (talk) 07:24, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Donations Popup

This is a little awkward, so I'll get straight to the point...

On the popup asking for donations there should be an option to close the popup by clicking "I already donated this year"

I am getting a little annoyed at this pop up even after I have donated...

You currently have options for only: continue or maybe later.. which is not good enough... so put on of those 300 staff on sorting this oversight out..

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.27.115.73 (talk) 20:56, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion. If you create an account, there is a preference to turn off the fundraising banners. RudolfRed (talk) 21:14, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia assumes that an IP may be used by different people, and so does not equate them as definite identifiers. In the preferences menu for a dedicated account, you can turn off the banner. WelpThatWorked (talk) 22:11, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

2019 NCAA Division I FBS football navbox

Can you put 2019 in the NCAA Division I FBS football navbox please. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 22:15, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Why didn't you answer a couple of days Ago. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 20:58, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

It is unclear what you want done. Can you link to this nav box please and be more specific? Legacypac (talk) 21:01, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

I Can't put the 2019 In the NCAA football seasons navbox because it's blocked. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 00:39, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Adding Images to the profile that I am creating

I have been having problems concerning the images that I have been adding and it keeps on giving me errors concerning the images. How can I get that resolved?

I tried uploading the images here but still having the same problems — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alissa Morisson (talk • contribs) 22:31, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

To better help you we would need to know exactly what error messages you get.

Your use of the word profile and the promotional language in your draft causes me to think that you have a misunderstanding as to what Wikipedia is. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; it is not social media for posting "profiles". As an encyclopedia, we have articles about subjects shown to be notable with significant coverage in independent reliable sources. Articles must be written in a neutral point of view without promotional language(such as "is a humanitarian with a passion for seeing transformation realized in Africa, in her lifetime"). I would suggest that you review some existing biographical articles to learn what is being looked for. 331dot (talk) 22:35, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Potternewton

Please help with ref number 7 on this page. Thanks Srbernadette (talk) 22:56, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Very simply, the value "Liverpool University Press, 2000" is not a date and did not belong in the Date= field. It was removed and replaced with "2000". General Ization ^Talk 23:00, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

And the publisher was then replaced, in the "publisher=" field: seems more helpful. PamD 08:05, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia for a School Project

Hello,

My apologies if this question is in the wrong place! I am a writing student at James Madison University, and I am writing a Wikipedia article for a school project. I may potentially want it published on the main space of the website at a later time, however I cannot do so without permission from the business that I am writing about.

I'm just trying to confirm that my draft won't be published at any time if I submit it, which I believe is the case as I have not made 10 edits yet and do not intend to. By submitting it now, I'm only trying to obtain a cleaner copy of my draft to submit to my professor as part of my project rather than having to submit the page from within the Wikipedia visual editor. I only ask because on the screen where it gives the option to "publish", it says that the action is irrevocable, but I assume this doesn't effect me since I don't meet the requisites for publication anyway.

Could someone help me with this? The project is due tomorrow, so any fast help would be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Evanltt (talk • contribs) 23:59, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

@Evanltt:

Re I cannot do so without permission from the business that I am writing about: That's not true as far as we're concerned. Subjects do not own the article about themselves.

Re I'm just trying to confirm that my draft won't be published at any time if I submit it, which I believe is the case as I have not made 10 edits yet and do not intend to: You're getting a few different concepts mixed up. "10 edits" is really only related to autoconfirmation, which just means that a user is allowed to edit semi-protected pages. It has nothing to do with publishing a draft. A draft is only published if you submit it for review, which is not the same as just saving it in draftspace. You currently do not have any drafts saved.

Re I only ask because on the screen where it gives the option to "publish", it says that the action is irrevocable, but I assume this doesn't effect me since I don't meet the requisites for publication anyway "publish" just means save as a draft. Right now, your work is not saved and if you close the window you will lose it. You must hit publish or your work will be lost. Just don't go on to click "submit for review" or anything like that. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:07, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Also, the "action is irrevocable" means that it's just going to be permanently recorded on the site servers. You can still edit the draft. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:10, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

@Evanltt: A few additional items: We use the term "publish" in two different ways. When you save your draft in draft space, you are still making is irrevocably available to anyone. This is "Published" in the sense that it has been irrevocably released by you to anyone under the CC-BY-SA copyright license. This is the meaning of "publish" under copyright law. You are also using the term "publish" in a different sense to mean "moved into main space". Second item: we do not want material in Wikipedia, including in draft space, that would require any sort of "permission" from the subject of the article. If the material is not information that is available in reliable sources (WP:RS), it should not be here, and if it is information available in reliable sources, then the subject has no authority to prohibit its presence here. Third point: if this was a school assignment, then either you misunderstood your instructor, or your instructor misunderstood the way Wikipedia works. Please make your instructor aware of this. We have resources to help your instructor understand how to incorporate Wikipedia editing into the curriculum. See Wikipedia:School and university projects. -Arch dude (talk) 03:11, 14 December 2018 (UTC)