Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2012 May 13

= May 13 =

I have a recommendation for a cite on a the articular for 'Anti-lock braking system'
in the 'Early systems' section in the first paragraph at the end it says (This citation has no mention of Gabriel Voisin, who was not involved in aviation at the time; neither are there patents to substantiate this claim). if this website is used as a reference it will solve this problem: http://www.absbrakes.co.uk.

thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.93.135 (talk) 03:07, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * It's better to discuss this at Talk:Anti-lock braking system. Cresix (talk) 03:11, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Andrew Petrie
The picture of the man with the young boy is John Petrie and his son Andrew Lang Petrie. It is not Andrew Petrie (Snr) and his son John. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.231.64.118 (talk) 03:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I am trying to confirm now and have duplicated your post at the talk page of the article. The photograph detail at Onesearch is singularly unhelpful—a date would have nailed it down since we know when he lived and his approximate age in the photograph within twenty years. One thing I would have done is contact the main contributor to the article, but unfortunately, they last post in 2008, so it would be useless. Do you have any information to support this contention that you could provide?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 07:45, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Watchlist styles
Reagarding WP:VPT, is there a page listing all available styles somewhere (preferrably with images of how it looks live)? -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:36, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * See Customizing watchlists. Not too many images there though.  Equazcion  ( talk )  09:40, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you. The italic text for pages I haven't visited since the last change is very nice. -- Toshio Yamaguchi (tlk−ctb) 09:47, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Edit count link not working
The Edit count link at the bottom of a user's User contributions page is broken as of today; it was working yesterday. The link should take you to toolserver.org. Instead, an error is displayed "Bad Gateway". Can someone please look into this. It's a useful link. Thanks, Truthanado (talk) 14:00, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I got the same message, but tried again seconds later and it was fine.-- SPhilbrick (Talk)  14:07, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm still getting the same error, even after clearing cache. I'm using Firefox 12. What browser/version are you using? Truthanado (talk) 14:22, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * ... and the same error with Chrome. Truthanado (talk) 14:27, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Firefox 12. I just tried again, and it worked fine.-- SPhilbrick (Talk)  15:41, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * It's working now ... not sure what the problem was. Maybe my ISP? Truthanado (talk) 16:55, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Sandbox
I tried to save an article that I wrote in my sandbox and was told one like had been blocked for SPAM, when I tried to go back to my Sandbox page by clicking on return to sandbox at the bottom of the page, I was taken back to a clean page and could not find the text I had worked on originally? How can I find it? I spend 4 hours uploading it with links and citations ????? VERY FRUSTRATING!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michael.sudarkasa (talk • contribs) 15:50, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * As far as I see, it is still in your sandbox at User:Michael.sudarkasa/sandbox. Ryan Vesey  Review me!  16:59, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Need help in moving and shrinking a useful weatherbox but one that really screws up the page.
Hello,

I am a very new user-just started a few days ago and am still learning basic editing. So please forgive me, things are a little overwhelming. I've tried to figure this out on myself but I can't find any useful strategies or tips to do it.

I need help on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhaoqing to take the weather box from its current location and put it directly under the climate heading and leave room for the city information box on the right side. Hopefully this could be done by shrinking it but other methods might also be okay. Currently the weather box is so big that it must be placed under the right border city box and thus causes a huge ugly blank space that isn't needed and whose space could be used for much more beneficial reasons. The increase in beauty and function to the page would be very large.

Can anyone help out a newbie that is really becoming addicted to the whole "wiki" experience :-)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Whoisgalt (talk • contribs) 16:11, 13 May 2012 (UTC)


 * The weather box size can't be changed. There is a solution though, which was just done in the article. Move the Climate section down (which allows the box to be full-size). That also makes this city article like other city articles in structure, with the History section first, then the Climate section. Truthanado (talk) 17:15, 13 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Changing the size of the weather box is fairly easy. Look at Template:Weather box just below the example it says "If using multiple tables, or there are pictures or infoboxes higher up on the page, please verify that the template does not overlay, or get overlaid by, other objects used in the article. Please test your changes with several different skins, browsers, and browser window sizes. If necessary use before the climate section, or before the table, and  after." That will work quite well. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 13:03, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

User-Talk ownership
I, prior to some rough experience, used to think that “pages in user space belong to the wider community. They are not a personal homepage, and do not belong to the user. They are part of Wikipedia, and exist to make collaboration among editors easier.” (source WP:OWN)

 I have a slow internet connection and I wanted to discuss some issues with a User, but that user's talk-page is over 250,000 bytes in size, utterly neglected, a total mess. Hence it's taking too long to load (and I also get charged by data used. So, every time I open that page, although nominal, I lose some extra bucks on things which could have been archived and are there since 23:06, 29 January 2010 (UTC), yes “2010”). 
 * I know that a User has sort of a semi-monopoly on his/her talk-page.
 * See the problems are,
 * The good thing is,
 * The user has given permission to someone to archive that page, but that other guy first seemed interested but didn't in the end.
 * So, I took that opportunity to archive his page (which I just learned how to do) and save me some time and money. But guess what, I'm a troll for trying to help him. It really pissed me off.

Below I provide the user page which I was referring to earlier.

what would be right for me to do now? Thanks in advance, Brendon is  here  18:19, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Stay away from that page. You have been asked more than once to stay away, and why you refuse such requests is not clear. Also, see WP:OWNTALK, which deals specifically with user talk pages. Griswaldo is free to remove anything he wants, even if it's through deletion rather than archiving.  City O f  Silver  18:25, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * "why you refuse such requests is not clear" - you're missing the point. Firstly, it doesn't matter if it's me or somebody else. He has given an express permission to archive that page. I wanted to help. Why is this so hard to understand? I like helping people. Is that a crime? We have been involved in a dispute earlier and I don't like the idea of people resenting/misunderstanding me for trivial disagreement. I left him alone for almost a month. I thought the air would have settled by now and he would appreciate such gesture. Apparently, I was wrong. I have stated that clearly in this page and his talk page. I will stay away from that page if he deletes my latest comment. Brendon is  here  19:05, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * This passive-aggressive taunting needs to stop. And you know it. If you don't drop it I'll take this to AN/I. Professor marginalia (talk) 19:12, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Apparently, I was wrong. Correct. You were wrong. Griswaldo wants you to leave him alone. I will stay away from that page if he deletes my latest comment. Why? Griswaldo said, and I quote, "you are a troll go away" to you. Is that not enough indication that your input is not welcome there?  City O f  Silver  19:21, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * @Professor marginalia, "taunting needs to stop" - taunting? What the heck are you talking about? Where have I taunted him? Please stop assuming things before hand.
 * @CityOfSilver, Please calm down, CityOfSilver. I'm here to seek help. If you're not interested in helping me as you seemingly are in mocking me, then just say so. I won't visit this place again. "I will stay away from that page if he deletes my latest comment. Why? - Why? Am I not clear enough? Do I need to talk in French? I already told you why I went to that page. I wanted to help him. He called me a troll. And, he didn't know what I was going to write next. I know I could have stayed away. See this is not a battle-ground. I just wanted to settle it down amicably. I just wanted to clarify my view. Like I said, I would leave if he deletes the comment. Brendon is  here  19:44, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Okay, forget it. I deleted my own comment. I dropped it. Brendon is  here  20:03, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Might I suggest taking such future problems to WP:WQA. That venue is right for resolving conduct disputes without admin action; the editors there have some experience in doing so and might have better suggestions for both editors in dispute. I see the fault of the other editor even if it was his talk page, but no need to beat the dead horse with a stick. -- lTopGunl (talk) 21:11, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * "I see the fault of the other editor even if it was his talk page, but no need to beat the dead horse with a stick" - at last a sensible suggestion. Yup you're right, TopGun. I did take it to WQA, here is the link. And, from the very beginning you could see that I was the one who wanted friendship. But due to our previous discord, Griswaldo was the one who scornfully rejected each of my attempts to begin a friendly conversation. According to them (as you can see, Griswaldo is not the only one who violated WP:AGF and tried his best to humiliate me), my forthright and strident comments about Islamic stupidity and the amount of problems it has created in this world, in this section, was a sign that I was something else than a well-meaning User. Brendon is  here  08:57, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
 * My 2￠ in this matter - A normal grownup would know when he's not wanted and would back of, instead of trying to force himself onto others. Your intentions might have been good, but they were completely defeated by your attitude. Also yes, the archival permission was clearly granted to one single person, not to just anyone who happens to come around.
 * Ravilov (talk) 23:35, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Wrong Man in Photo
See this page:

If that URL doesn't work, the page is the Wikipedia page about John C. Fremont.

The man shown in the photo captioned "A young John Fremont" is not the John C. Fremont who is the subject of the page, nor is it Fremont's namesake son, but it might be his namesake grandson.

The source of the photo is the collection of Leo Stashin at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

Somewhere along the line, the photo was misidentified, that wrong identity stuck and is being perpetuated.

Proof of incorrect identity can be easily found at Google Images. Especially look at the photos of John C. Fremont as opposed to paintings or illustrations. He bears no resemblance to the man incorrectly identified as "A young John Fremont." In fact, that photo and others of Fremont are shown side by side. It's plain that "A young John Fremont" is not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.8.204.141 (talk) 22:10, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Do you have any reliable sources that describe the picture as misidentified? Jarkeld (talk) 22:16, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, we appear not to have any sources that identify the subject of the photo at all. The linked original source provides nothing that asserts who it is. All we have is the filename - and that isn't WP:RS for anything. AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:26, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Officer Candidates and the NOAA Uniformed Officer Corps
The US Department of Commerce has an agency called "NOAA". Part of NOAA is the "Uniformed Officer Corp". These are first Officer Candidates who survive their OC training and then are commissioned as officers. I strongly recommend this wiki page be amended to include the "NOAA Uniformed Officer Corps".

When I was a US Navy Officer, I served with a couple of the NOAA Corp Officers and found them to be fine officers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.245.163.50 (talk) 22:57, 13 May 2012 (UTC)
 * It's unclear what "wiki page" you want to be amended. We have an article on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps. Deor (talk) 01:05, 14 May 2012 (UTC)