Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 July 14

= July 14 =

Spam email?
Hi all.

I am wondering if anyone else has received this e-mail from LedZeppelinFan1970@undefinedgmail.com. It has obviously been mass-mailed, because I don't listen to Led Zeppelin music, maybe I've fixed a typo on a Led Zeppelin-related article, but not on that article itself as far as I can see and I don't think my "passions would fit well" in a community that annotates Led Zeppelin songs. Arcandam (talk) 03:42, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Hi there, my name is Shar, I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan and I realized you've contributed to wikipedia articles about Led Zeppelin.

I wanted to ask for your help in annotating Led Zeppelin's songs and songs of any other bands through a browser-based mp3 player I made with a team of music lovers called www.color.fm

So far our community has annotated 17 of Led Zeppelin's songs and annotated even more for other bands. These annotations will appear as you're playing your uploaded copies of these songs.

You can create an account on www.color.fm and submit annotations to help our community reach our goal of annotating all 81 of Led Zeppelin's songs and songs of other bands!

We use an audio identification technology so whenever someone else in the world is playing their copy of a song, regardless of the filename or id3 tags of their mp3, the annotations you wrote appear on their screen as the song is playing!

We created a fun and easy to use annotation builder so you can share what's beautiful or special about any of your songs.

Hopefully you could contribute to www.color.fm! If you have any questions or need help finding your way around don't hesitate to email me, I'd love to help you out.

-Shar staff@undefinedcolor.fm

==================

P.S. Sorry if this email comes across as solicitous, I just thought your passions would fit well with our community at www.color.fm and wanted to reach out to you. I won't proactively send emails like this again. Thank you for your time =)

Unfortunately I will NOT be checking my wikipedia talk page and can only be contacted exclusively through email.


 * Ignore email if you think it is a spam! Was it directly sent or through Wikipedia? -- Tito Dutta  ✉  05:56, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * BTW, I have searched in Google, and there is no search results, I don't think he is a known spammer! -- Tito Dutta  ✉
 * It was sent through Wikipedia. OK. I deleted the email. Arcandam (talk) 06:44, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Mist net
What does the italicised second part of the sentence "Sometimes, a particular species can appear in the mist net often because they are easy to catch or the species enjoys being caught for various reasons such as protection or an easy way to catch prey." in the article mist net mean? Arcandam (talk) 03:49, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * This desk is for answering questions about how to edit Wikipedia. Meanwhile, the Science Reference Desk is for asking science related questions.  So, are you asking because you think there may be something wrong with the article or are you asking about the mist nets themselves?  If the latter, the Ref Desk is the place for you.  If the former, could you better explain what you feel is wrong with the article?  Dismas |(talk) 06:36, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, I am asking because I think there may be something wrong with the article, more specifically with that particular sentence in that article, because I do not understand what it means. Does it mean some species (other than humans being silly) enjoy being caught in a mist net? That seems rather unlikely. And the reasons that are provided to explain the fact that some species enjoy being caught are even more puzzling: what kinds of species think getting caught in a mist net themselves is an easy way to catch prey? Does the author mean that birds fly deliberately into mist nets to catch prey that was also caught in the same mist net? Why would any animal seek protection in a mist net? Arcandam (talk) 06:50, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree that the text in the article is unclear: the use of "enjoys" is very odd (who knows what a wild species "enjoys"?) and I wondered whether the sentence might be vandalism. But using Wikiblame, I find that the whole paragraph was inserted (without references) by User Wildlifegroup3 last November, which suggests that it was in good faith. They also inserted the section Banders, which is also unreferenced, and appears to be from personal experience. You could ask them on their talk page to explain the sentence (and give references!). --ColinFine (talk) 08:57, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Wildlifegroup3 edited between 21 November 2011 until 1 December 2011 for a schoolproject and has used a talkpage once so I think it is unlikely that she will respond. I'll send her an e-mail. Arcandam (talk) 09:08, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * The word "enjoy" does appear odd for an encyclopedia. Without knowing the subject, I assume the idea is that some species deliberately fly into the mist net so they occur there more often. They may see the net and think it's more solid and offers protection against weather or predators, and predators may see already caught animals and fly in to hunt them. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:34, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Requests for Comment
I seemed to have missed an RfC regarding changing the way that references are used in the recent deaths pages. I can't even find the history of the decision making for this. I do not know how I can be a part of these RfCs when I would have wanted to vote on some of them. The RfCs are not always pushed to all users (it seems). Just what is it that I'm doing wrong? Nasnema  Chat  08:13, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * At Requests for comment/Wikipedia policies and guidelines I found an RfC at Talk:Deaths in 2012. There I found a discussion at Talk:Deaths in 2012, which points to Talk:Deaths in 2012/Archive 2, but that seems to have resulted in no change. I have to admit I am also confused. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:28, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your time - I could not see where this decision was made or how or why. It's not as if there is a need to have multiple use of references on the page, except for a plane crash with lots of celebrities. So now it is impossible to use my smartphone or just make a one-click to source.  Nasnema   Chat  18:34, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Searching inside edit window
Is there a way to search for all instances of a specific word on a page inside the edit window? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:34, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * You can use the search button Search toolbar.png of the advanced editing toolbar. It also has a replace function (as in "search and replace"). benzband  ( talk ) 09:59, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the help. I found that this doesn't really work for what I want to do. Please see section below. Moot now, as I resolved the issues. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 11:01, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Amanda Smock
Hello, I am Amanda's mother, Beth Thieschafer. Corrections to her information is as follows: Amanda was born on July 27, '1982' She was married in 2009. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beththieschafer (talk • contribs) 11:42, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I have corrected Amanda Smock. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:15, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Why I cannot upload mp3 files on Wikipedia
Why I cannot upload mp3 files on Wikipedia — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sunnysinghthebaba (talk • contribs) 16:23, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Help:Sound file markup It looks like you need to convert to .mid or .ogx file. Commons has a how to page. .ogg will probably be the easiest. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Software --Canoe1967 (talk) 16:28, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * It's interesting that the original question of "Why...?" wasn't answered. I've often wondered the same thing. The rest of the online world uses mp3s pretty universally these days. Why not Wikipedia? HiLo48 (talk) 23:14, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * If I'm not mistaken, it boils down to two things. First is that ogg is open whereas mp3 is not.  Second, mp3 is lossy whereas ogg is not for audio.  Those are the two details that jumped out at me after reading the leads to both the MP3 and Ogg articles.  Maybe someone else can point us both to a WP guideline page.  Dismas |(talk) 23:33, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Here's the guideline, and here's the discussion that led to the decision. It seems to be largely about open source vs patent, as you surmise. -  Ka renjc 15:09, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

How can I convert mp3 files into ogg file
How can I convert mp3 files into ogg file — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sunnysinghthebaba (talk • contribs) 16:29, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ is a very popular program, and free. Just open as mp3 and 'export' as .ogg I think.--Canoe1967 (talk) 16:32, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Batman: Earth One
Hi, this article about the 2012 DC Comics graphic novel Batman: Earth One, needs to be labelled as a stub. However, I can't find any stub either for comic books or graphic novels. Please help.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 18:13, 14 July 2012 (UTC)


 * DC-Comics-stub seems best. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:19, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 19:19, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors: suggesting a Chinese version
Administrators

By any chance, that anyone of you can contact the Chinese Wikipedia administrators to set up a Chinese version of WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors page? Even Chinese language has its own sets of rules on grammar and format, that might need copy-edits.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 21:01, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Is it a good idea to ask that question to an experienced user on the Chinese Wikipedia who understands English? Arcandam (talk) 21:21, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, I just left a brief message to the Chinese Wikipedia Help desk for my suggestion. That's all I can do at this point.--NeoBatfreak (talk) 00:58, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Please delete my artical
Please delete the artical "User: Mazi Ngozi Ottih" I do not wish for this information to be made public. I tried to delete this information myself, but was unsuccessful. Thank you for your time and help. Sincerly, Mazi Ngozi Ottih — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.253.68.169 (talk) 21:04, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * @Mazi Ngozi Ottih: I deleted the information on that page. Arcandam (talk) 21:15, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * @Everyone else: I am pretty sure this person is who he says he is. Arcandam (talk) 21:15, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Undue Weight and Recentism Regarding a Politician
A recent edit of a politician's wikipedia page was deleted citing undue weight and recentism. According to definitions provided on wikipedia, undue weight means that articles should not give minority views, and recentism is writing or editing without a long-term, historical view, thereby inflating the importance of a topic that has received recent public attention.

It is a fact that this politician has a long history of making outrageous statements, these outrageous statements have have been frequent and have occurred over a period of several years, these outrageous statements have been verified through numerous authoritative sources, these statements have been describe as outrageous by numerous sources, and the politician has never denied these statements and in fact has refused to apologize. As such, how it this undue weight and recentism?

It is a fact that such statements have occurred frequently and over a long period of time. As such, this is a long-term characteristic of this politician and is not just one or two isolated recent events. It is a fact that numerous sites have reported on this behavior describing it as "outrageous." As such, this is not the viewpoint of a minority.

Is Wikipedia only presenting superficial information or a complete picture of this controversy concerning this politician?

And, if this is undue weight and recentism, how does one present facts without this characterization? What if instead of citing one source, numerous sources are cited? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.186.187.171 (talk) 21:49, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Allen West (politician). It may be useful to read Niteshift36's comment on the talkpage, especially this part: " If you have specific items to discuss, then please present them. If all you have are vague 'we need a controversy section' suggestions, then you'll find little support ". Find a couple of reliable sources about Allen and make a proposal on the talkpage. Arcandam (talk) 23:06, 14 July 2012 (UTC)
 * In addition, you aren't being ignored. The fact is, over half a dozen different editors have removed that (or similar) information in the past couple of days and several are addressing your questions on the talk page. You've had several policies suggested to you and it doesn't appear you've read some of them. For example, nobody has disputed that West said what you claim, yet you insist is is being denied. Then you stated you would "compile a more thorough list" to establish what you call a "significant and consistent pattern". That shows you still haven't read WP:OR or WP:SYNTH and gives a strong indication that there is more of an agenda involved here. Niteshift36 (talk) 17:59, 15 July 2012 (UTC)