Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 April 10

= April 10 =

How can I persuade my teachers that Wikipedia is a reliable source?
How can I persuade my teachers that Wikipedia is a reliable source?

My teachers all say that anyone can write those articles, which is why they think Wikipedia is not a reliable source.

I like Wikipedia because it has a lot of great information. I find good info at Wikipedia, but since I can't use Wikipedian info (haha), I have to find other websites with that info, which can sometimes take hours.

My teachers do say that we should use .org websites, but when I say Wikipedia is a .org website, they just say what I said before: anyone can post those articles.

Please help me! Wikipedia has the info that I can not find on other websites. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.107.96 (talk) 01:09, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * One value of Wikipedia is its requirement that everything be referenced to credible, reliable sources. While there are times when articles will (hopefully briefly) contain garbage, those links to the sources will still be very valuable. Tell your teachers that you're using it as a stepping stone to better sources. HiLo48 (talk) 01:17, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Exactly: you shouldn't try, because we don't claim to be a reliable source (which isn't to say we don't try to be reliable). Any website with reader-generated content, like ours, is always going to be prone to occasional errors, and downright vandalism - though obviously we try to keep this to a minimum. What we can do though is tell you where to find reliable sources. When you look at an article, check the sources it cites - these are the places you should really be looking for reliable material. Of course, no single source is going to be right about everything all of the time, if something seems odd, check it against other sources. For what it's worth, independent research has shown that for some subjects, Wikipedia is actually better than say the Encyclopaedia Britannica - but all the same, you shouldn't be using it as the main source for school work - use it as a tool to help you find what you're looking for. AndyTheGrump (talk) 01:19, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * See also Citing Wikipedia and Researching with Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:28, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Lost HotCat with the new mods to Preferences page
HotCat quit working for me on en:Wikipedia after the prefs page was changed to all prefs on one page. Still selected on my prefs page, and still works fine at Commons. Help? TIA, Pete Tillman (talk) 02:04, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * What is your skin? I'm not aware of any big change to the prefs page. Special:Preferences is supposed to have tabs and not have all prefs on one page. Try to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:43, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks! -- apparently that was indeed the problem. Back to normal now, --Pete Tillman (talk) 03:05, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Glitch with saving/previewing pages
About 1/5 times I go to save or preview a page, when editing a section, my browser switches to open edit the entire article, and the changes are not kept. While using Chrome I can click the back button and I am taken back to the section edit screen with my changes back, and resave (I was using IE, and it would take me back without the changes.) Anyone hear of this issue? Or know a solution? (It actually happened while trying to save this question).--kelapstick(bainuu) 02:38, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Try asking at WP:VPT.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 21:10, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Will do, thanks.--kelapstick(bainuu) 02:17, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Vandalized article
A page about me found under "Peter Meineck" has been repeatedly vandalized. I have raised this issue before and you have taken down the offending material. Now I find that on April 6 the entire article was rewritten in the first person with insulting comments and statements that I am dishonest. I have cut the entire article but fear this person will only post more inflammatory remarks. I understand and respect that Wikipedia is open source but this is causing harm to my reputation and my family. I would greatly appreciate it if this page could be deletd. I did not ask to appear in Wiikipedia and once I did. Edited and updated information believing it was for the common good, however this vandalism is disturbing to me, slanderous and factually incorrect.

I do hope you will attend to this matter.

Thanks

Peter Meineck — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.190.225.57 (talk) 03:03, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I have reverted the edits and warned the editor. In the future, blanking the article in response is not the way to go about the issue: blanking articles triggers Wikipedia's vandalism alarms.  Just undo the edits by clicking "undo".  If you create an account, you will get additional tools, which will help you restore a previous version. Singularity42 (talk) 03:10, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I have put the article on my watchlist. Hopefully other editors will too. That means that we fairly quickly see changes to the article. That should help. HiLo48 (talk) 03:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Adding new portal
At Portal:September 11 attacks/Related portals I tried to add a new portal ([Portal:2000s) but the portal link is not displaying... What could be going on? I'm not sure what's happening Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 04:27, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Looking at the page, my guess is that there's simply not room to add another one using the same scheme as the others. You'll have to create a second row or something. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 05:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help! I found there was a way to add one more image in the same row - I needed to edit a second set of code WhisperToMe (talk) 07:15, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

for editing
sir i want to write on wikipedia oue village deatils plz help me becoause i dont know proper english language. i want to wirte in hindi. like that :-- """mera naam sagar yadav hai or m bharat des ke haryana parant ke gurgaon kasbe ke inchhapuri village ka rahane wala haun.....""""".

plz guide me kya m ase likh sakta hun — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sagaryadav0385 (talk • contribs) 05:00, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Hello! Glad to hear you wish to contribute, but you may be more comfortable on the Hindi language version of Wikipedia. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 05:08, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You are also welcome to get in touch with the Indian noticeboard at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject India WhisperToMe (talk) 05:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I can't get WP using Perl's get command...
It works with other web pages, but not Wikipedia. I've posted the problem and an example script on WikiProject Perl's talk page. Please reply there. The Transhumanist 06:31, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Several people have. Just making it clear this person did get help.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 21:09, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

civility question
What's the usual first option to use when the civility on a page has degraded past the usual tense atmosphere of opponents in a somewhat polarized article? In other words, I feel another editor's comments have been getting more aggressive lately and have finally crossed a line, referring to the fact that he felt that an edit I made, was most disappointing and "not to mention extremely stupid" this editor has been banned from this article on more than one occasion, including an instance of a ban lasting 1 year, for failing to assume AGF, incivility, etc. Now he has threatened escalation, and within a couple of hours, an editor with a similar POV (Also with bans lasting over a year on this topic) who hasn't said anything on the talk page for over two weeks shows up and starts accusing me of deliberately lying. I think we need some outside help with the article to keep the atmosphere from imploding further. Suggestions? -- Mael e fique (t a lk) 06:37, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Maelefique, is it on Talk:Prem Rawat? You may wish to try any of these (though not all at once, and probably not in this order):
 * Try to reason in a friendly manner (see WP:KC). Remind the other participants in the discussion to be civil and avoid personal attacks. And whatever you do, try not to feed them.
 * Request for Comment, if the issue is regarding article content/layout/etc.
 * Administrator's Noticeboard/Incidents, for reporting (discussion) 'incidents'/grievances that require admin/experienced editor's attention (watch out for backfires, tho :)
 * Dispute Resolution
 * Hope some of this helps. Good luck ~ benzband  ( talk ) 10:29, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * And if you want to directly address the civility issues, see Wikiquette assistance. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 12:40, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I have a lot of experience dealing with India-related articles from an administrative perspective, so I'll start watching things. I tend to be quick to blocks and article bans, so hopefully I can force some sense of decorum.  The Blade of the Northern Lights  ( 話して下さい ) 15:17, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I would appreciate that. Although, in light of additional comments made this morning, I have now also started a noticeboard incident report, here. I would still be appreciative of your input though. -- Mael e fique (t a lk) 16:35, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Karimnagar district
In the above article section, is there a way to make it so the numbers created by # s continue in sequence after breaks in the table? Thanks-- Jac 16888 Talk 10:32, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Div col and Columns-list can do it without using a table but they are not supported by all browsers. Internet Explorer 9 and earlier will display it without columns but still with correct numbering. Are the numbers somehow official or common? If not then a bulleted list with * instead of # would be better. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * No idea, they're probably just randomly selected, you're right I'll just go with bullets. Thanks-- Jac 16888 Talk 11:20, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Can someone delete an article written about themselves? Can someone request that certain information about themselves be removed from Wikipedia?
Leaf Green Warrior (talk) 12:17, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * See Biographies of living persons. Subjects cannot delete articles or control their content but they can make requests. If a subject is only borderline notable then a request for deletion from the subject may be the deciding factor. A very notable subject will not be deleted. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:43, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * They can ask for defamatory content to be removed if there is not a reliable source for it, but if the source is reliable, such content usually stays. I think there are details about families that can be removed under certain circumstances.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 21:06, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Gospel ranch Allen google
Gospel ranch Allen — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.247.122.178 (talk) 12:35, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Do you have a question about Wikipedia? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:44, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * My guess is that he is looking for the The Rance Allen Group article, but mis-spelled "Rance" and failed to find it. Maproom (talk) 18:26, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Watchlist feature addition
Hi, i have a request for a feature to be discussed. When we click on the watchlist we can see recent changes or everything. Could we also have the option for being able to "unwatch" articles in our recent changes list without having to go to the article or to the complete watchlist as we curently have to. This would save quite a bit of time and it wouldn't have to be forced on everyone if it's added as an option like twinkle is in our preferences. Thanks  J e n o v a  20 14:48, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * There is a script that does that: see user:js/watchlist.--ukexpat (talk) 15:03, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks Ukexpat  J e n o v a  20 15:25, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Search for Otto-configuration
I found under Otto configuration a scientifically well written article, but I (Prof.em. Andreas Otto) found no reference to my publications, though I received the Walter Schottky price 1974 for the invention of ten surface plasmon polaritons by the method of extended Total reflectivity. The historical development, ordered by date of submission of the articals is as follows: 1) A.Otto, Eine neue Methode der Anregung nichtstrahlender Oberflächen –Plasma-Schwingungen, (A new method to excite nonradiative surface plasma oscillations) phys.stat.sol.26,K99(1968), received February 13(1968) 2) A. Otto, Frühjahrstagung des Regionalverbandes Bayern der DPG, Phys. Verh.19, 144 (1968).(Spring meeting of the regional branch Bavaria of the german physical society. At this meeting in Munich  A.O.  told  Prof. H. Raether from Hamburg, that the excitation of the nonradiative surface plasma wave was  not possible for a thin silver  film directly  on the base plane of a prism, according to his calculations (see also  ref 8). Raether used this chance, see ref 6). 3) A,Otto, Excitation of Nonradiative  Surface  Plasma Waves in Silver by the  Method  of Frustrated  Total  Reflection, Zeitschrift für Physik 216, 398--410 (1968) , received July 8,  1968 4) A.Otto , Excitation by Light of ω+  and ω-  Surface Plasma Waves in Thin Metal  Layers , Z. Physik 219, 227--233  (1969) (Received October 23,  1968) 5) Rechnungen zu einem optischen Polarisator nach dem Prizip der der verhinderten Totalreflexion, (Calculations for an optical polarizer following the principle of prevented total reflectivity) Optik 29(3)(1969) 246-259, received October 23 (1968) 6) E. Kretschmann, H. Raether, Z. Naturforsch. 23 a,2135-2,136 (1968) ; received 15 November 1968] Citation from from this article: « The experiments described here  shall  demonstrate that  the  non-radiative mode excited by  light  can  also radiate. The non-radiative mode is produced by the inhomogeneous light wave obtained by  total  reflexion inside a  quartz prism  as proposed in [ref 6 : A.Otto, Z.Physik A. Otto, Z. Physik  216, 398 [1968]. His measurements are analogous to the plasma resonance absorption whereas ours correspond to  the   plasma  resonance emission of  the  radiative modes.» PLease tell me, what I could do to change this — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.99.254.28 (talk) 15:52, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I am guessing that this refers to the article Surface plasmon. The best place to make suggestions for improving that article is at its talk page. --ColinFine (talk) 17:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I have been notified that my page was up for deletion
I have been notified that my page was up for deletion. My book has won an award so why am I being notified of this deletion? I am new to Wikipedia and I don't quite understand what is going on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alopian (talk • contribs) 18:42, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * The deletion notice should specify why it was proposed for deletion. From the notice on the article,  THE_GENESIS_CODE:_God_Has_Spoken apparently does not meet the notability standards for books, as described here: WP:NBOOK.  There should also be a discussion at WP:AFD, but I don't see it.  RudolfRed (talk) 18:57, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * There's no AfD discussion because it was up for deletion with WP:PROD, which doesn't have an WP:AfD deletion discussion. In any event, the article was deleted by an administrator as being advertising.  Alopian -- please do read WP:NBOOK.  If you can bring proof that the work meets the requirements for inclusion, it can be be re-created.  However, winning honorable mention at a city book fair does not meet Wikipedia's requirements.  Zad68 (talk) 19:01, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Was creating a page
I don't know how to navigate back to a page that I had been creating. I saved it so that I could come back and work on it, but don't know how to get back to it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sasregent (talk • contribs) 19:34, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Your list of contributions shows nothing other than the edit to this page, so I'm afraid that whatever you did, you failed to save.-- SPhilbrick (Talk)  20:49, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * (ec)Unfortunately your conributions log shows that this post here is the first thing that your username "Sasregent" has ever done on Wikipedia. You must have done the writing you refer to while you were not logged in. It would be attributed to the IP address you had at the time, which is not necessarily the same as your current IP address unless you are on a Static IP internet connection. If you can remember a phrase or two from what you wrote it might be possible to search for it. Roger (talk) 20:54, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * If you log out and click Special:Mycontributions then you can see which edits your current IP adress has made while not logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:13, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Page is blue
For whatever reason every wikipedia page has turned a highlighted blue color. I was wondering if maybe I hit a glitch? Other people seem to be having this problem as well. http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120215190257AAqlyrw — Preceding unsigned comment added by 35.13.152.190 (talk) 21:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Are you using Google Chrome? Google Chrome users seem to experience a light blue background when zoomed to less than 100%. To get rid of the blue, reset your scroll to 100% by pressing Ctrl+0. ItsZippy (talk • contributions) 21:15, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * [[Image:Symbol move vote.svg|20px]] There is a bug in the latest version of Google Chrome which shows blue background if the browser zoom level is set below 100%. Reset the zoom to 100% with or adjust it with  and . RudolfRed (talk) 21:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with what Zippy and Rudolf have written. I stumbled across the same problem a couple of days ago, and thought something had happened to Wikipedia. Then I accidentally fixed it, when I caught .  Google Chrome is full of technical glitches in their latest "upgrade" version.  Whenever a chrome user logs into say Facebook or Wikipedia, and checks the "remember me" option; chrome for some reason doesn't recognise the "remember" option and you end up re-logging in if you leave the page and re-visit hours later.   Wesley  ☀  Mouse  21:53, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Category tree viewing
Is there a way to view a category's directory tree in a single-page presentation to avoid having to dig down into each subcategory manually and tediously? Thank you. — O'Dea (talk) 21:29, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * See Special:CategoryTree. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:26, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you, that is a beginning, but somewhat limited. Is there a version that shows all subcategories in the tree already expanded so one does not have to click them all open to view the contents? I saw one high level category with a few hundred subcategories, for example. Thank you. — O'Dea  23:49, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * displays the below. depth=2 is the max allowed. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:10, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Help:Category also says: "Dapete's category-visualizer Catgraph will render charts of the tree structure." PrimeHunter (talk) 00:14, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you for replying and for your help, PrimeHunter. I appreciate it. When I have a bit more energy (tenacity), I may try to find out who maintains and develops these features so I can inquire if it would be a small or big change to add an option to display the tree in an open, or expanded, state. That page, Help:Category, was quite interesting. Thanks again. — O'Dea  08:54, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Category tree viewing, another limitation
The Special:CategoryTree facility is limited when asked to list articles in a category that contains more than 200 articles, such as Category:Roads in England. Using Special:CategoryTree with the "all pages" option selected displays the first 200 articles and, 1. Does not show at the end of the list that there are more in the category, so they remain unknown to the viewer and, 2. There is no link such as "Next 200" to allow the viewer to continue to the rest of the list (some overlap with point 1 here). I am documenting this for the record in this discussion. — O'Dea 20:46, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

New at editing
I am editing a client's page (first time) and received two citations. I need help to correct the page and to have the citations removed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Siler

This biography, at present, does not merit online citations but merely the reference list referring to articles authored by Todd Siler or about him. How can I improve the references section?

As to the citation regarding the external links, are there too many? Which ones are considered not acceptable?

Shall I move some of them to references?

I appreciate your help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by George Cabe (talk • contribs) 22:16, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Some pages you might look to for help would be WP:Referencing for beginners and the guidelines for verifiable sources. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 22:43, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Also, please review Wikipedia's policy on conflict of interest editing. If Mr. Siler is your client, you may be unable to edit this article in a manner that maintains a neutral point of view. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 22:48, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * When you say "This biography ... does not merit online citations" you misunderstand the purpose and practice of Wikipedia. Anything in an article that does not have an inline citation (not necessarily to an online source) may be removed from the article by anybody. An article which has no inline citations fails to establish that the subject is notable, and so the article may be deleted at any time.
 * Normally, if you are writing an article, your first priority is to put inline citations to reliable sources in it; but if you are writing it about a client, your first priority is to read WP:COI and follow its guidelines carefully. --ColinFine (talk) 10:13, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I think that by "citations" he means the templated tags for advertisement, reference style, etc (like a traffic citation is a bad thing). --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:19, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * For more information on external links, see External links. Generally there should be few external links. Permissible links are either to the subject's official website(s) or to reliable sources with significant additional information.  There is clearly no need to link three pages on the same website, and posting a link to a Google search is not useful either. --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:19, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Fixed with vs. variable width templates
Earlier today I posed a question at Talk:WP:CO-OP about how to make a template variable width as opposed to fixed-width, and it was suggested to ask here. The template in question is the WikiProject's Talk page template, which can be found at WP:CO-OP. The width is now fixed at 600px, which means it usually shows up narrower than other templates. That it is not a transcluded template may be part of the issue. Does anyone here know whether there's an easy fix, or whether it should be transcluded? In either case, is anyone here willing to fix this, or point me in the direction of someone who could? Thanks, WWB Too (talk) 22:25, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The box code had a fixed width:600px; style. Once that was removed, the box flows OK.  Eclipsed   (talk)   (COI Declaration)   09:54, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Facebook Wikipedia pages
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I've seen Wikipedia articles on Facebook and I'm wondering if there's a way that I can generate a Wikipedia article on Facebook about a certain topic. HtownCat (talk) 22:41, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to, however, if you cut and paste the URL of a Wikipedia page into a status update, it will become part of the post. Once the link is added, you can remove the actual URL text from the status without losing the link on your post. MyNameWasTaken (talk) 22:45, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * [[Image:Symbol move vote.svg|20px]] Facebook community pages may incorporate content from Wikipedia— such use complies with Wikipedia policies on reuse of content. We at Wikipedia have no control over how the content is included nor can we help to remove it. Facebook does have a topic on Community pages and profile connections on their Help Center. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:07, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Is there a way to add additional header lines to a long table
The "vampire traits" page has very wide, very long tables, with very undescriptive entries (a lot of "yes" and "no" entries and so forth). This makes it hard to follow whether a particular line is saying that, say, True Blood vampires can be harmed by garlic vs beheading. And I'd imagine there are other "list" articles that have a similar problem--for example, the "solubility table" entry has something of the same problem even though it's broken up into individual letters of the alphabet.

It would be nice if there was a way to automatically repeat the header every 20 or so entries, so that on those large tables, people don't get lost. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.147.138.9 (talk) 22:57, 10 April 2012 (UTC)


 * The tables in List of vampire traits in folklore and fiction are sortable. Repeated header rows do not go well together with sortable tables because the header rows inside the table do not stay in place when the table is sorted. A non-sortable table can have repeated header rows inserted manually. It is not automatic so if content rows are inserted or removed and a fixed number of content rows between header rows is wanted then the header rows must be moved manually. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:24, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the answer. Salvadori3252 (talk) 11:02, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Can columns be colored then? As in, 3 white background followed by 3 gray, 3 white, etc to help readers keep track of the columns? That would make a good plan B, wouldn't it? 217.251.159.119 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:29, 12 April 2012 (UTC).


 * They could be colored by adding code to each colored row but the pattern would break when the table is sorted. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:23, 12 April 2012 (UTC)