Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 March 13

= March 13 =

He versus She
When dealing with transgendered subjects, how does one differentiate the pronoun "he" / "she" in regard to dates within an article? For instance, in this article: Cidny Bullens the subject came out as "he" in 2012. Yet the article blankets all achievements as "he" even though many are pre-2012. I understand that in writing a good WP article sentences alter from later name to pronouns (he/she) due to repetition; however, is there a line of description regarding transgender claim? Technically "he" did not earn a Grammy in 1980 for "best female rock singer". Considering the lede is far too lengthy and does not introduce the transgender outing until the last sentence in Personal Life; what is WP protocal? Thanks. Maineartists (talk) 01:11, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * There's a strong preference for using the pronoun that the subject prefers now, throughout. So, "He". MOS:GENDERID, WP:TRANSNAME.
 * In the specific case of "He won best female singer", I would probably dodge that rather jarring phraseology, and go with "Bullens won..." instead.
 * I believe the article on Chelsea Manning is a good example to follow, because it's a "Good Article", and has been under quite a lot of scrutiny. 86.20.193.222 (talk) 01:33, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Userbox help
My userpage userboxes used to be so neat looking, but since I first made it, the column templates have changed, and now looks terrible. How can it be improved? Thanks, -- Amaryllis Gardener  talk 05:16, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi there. They seem to look neat still. Could you clarify what looks terrible? (Are you referring to the additional lines that have appeared between some user boxes?) Thanks. Lourdes  06:19, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the reply. And yes, I was referring to the additional lines between userboxes. I suppose perhaps it isn't that bad. -- Amaryllis Gardener  talk 03:20, 15 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi . I've cleaned your page up. Hope it looks alright now. Thanks. Lourdes  14:02, 15 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah, much better! Thank you! -- Amaryllis Gardener  talk 15:10, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

How to change "header" on a wiki page
There's a page for "Geoffro Cause" (See linke below)

How do we change the header to just "Geoffro Cause" instead of "User:Geoffro_Cause/sandbox"?)

[] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Geoffrocause (talk • contribs) 07:49, 13 March 2017 (UTC)


 * To start with you need to read about conflict of interest and autobiography. After that, if you wish to proceed, you need to read WP:Your first article and Help:referencing for beginners.  When your userspace draft is in a state that is fit for review, you would add   to the top of the draft to submit it for AFC review. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:01, 13 March 2017 (UTC)


 * You also need to read WP:Articles for deletion/Geoffro Cause to see why a previous attempt at such an article was deleted. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:05, 13 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Thirdly, you need to read about sockpuppetry and explain the connection between the accounts Geoffro Cause, Mdiftakherbd and Geoffrocause. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:11, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

How to add photos, media and a content box?
Very new here and just finished my first article.

I want to improve it. How do I add photos, media and a content box? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&action=submit# — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dr.Shu (talk • contribs) 11:07, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * These have now been done. Maproom (talk) 12:52, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Who likes bar charts and markup?
You do? Excellent, have I got a fun job for you. Towards the bottom of the article Pleistocene, there's a nice bar chart entitled "Hominin species during Pleistocene"; it's coded into the page, rather than being an image. For myself and apparently other users too, the text on the chart itself appears blurred or overwritten - it would be nice if I could fix this, but such graphical fanciness is well beyond my understanding. Would anyone care to take a crack at making the text there a bit less headache-inducing? Thanks in advance, Yunshui 雲 水 13:04, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Done a bit . Hope that helps. Lourdes  14:38, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Is there honestly any good reason not to convert this into an image? Timothy Joseph Wood  14:46, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * There is a reason, which is that the different parts of the "image" are clickable and land you on the corresponding article. I am not sure it is a good reason though. Moreover, this screams "template" to include the timeline in all other articles from the series (e.g. Homo heidelbergensis). But I don't have the technical skills to do it. Tigraan Click here to contact me 14:53, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, that part's easy. See Template:Hominin species during Pleistocene for your editing enjoyment. Timothy Joseph Wood  15:04, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Many thanks Lourdes, that looks much better. Yunshui 雲 水 14:50, 13 March 2017 (UTC)


 * I also took the liberty of creating Template:Human evolution during the Pliocene from the content already in the main article.
 * Hey Lourdes. Since you're super high speed at this, can you tweak Template:Hominin species during Pleistocene to try to remove some of the vertical white space? Timothy Joseph Wood  12:47, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I'll be able to look into this only after a couple of days or so. Hope that's okay. Lourdes  15:34, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * User:Lourdes. What the ever-loving-hell?! I figured it out, but Christ was that complicated. Who makes something like that? Timothy Joseph Wood  16:13, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Also ping User:Dudley Miles since they seem to have spotted a problem with out dated information on the template. Maybe they can explain more and we can fix it. Timothy Joseph Wood  12:58, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * In my opinion the Pleistocene template in its current form is confusing and inaccurate and should not be used. 1. The timeline at the bottom shows divisions at 1e+06 and 2e+06, which is meaningless to laymen such as myself. I would suggest notches for each 100,000 years with text at each 500,000 mark. 2. As the Pleistocene lasted around 2.6 million years and there are 7 notches along the bottom, the space between notches appears to be about 370,000 years. If this is correct, the chart shows sapiens emerging at around 300,000 years ago, which is far too early. The earliest primitive sapiens such as Omo remains are dated to around 195,000 years ago. 3. Neanderthals looks OK. Current dates are c. 350,000 to 40,000. 4 Floresiensis looks wrong. They are dated 95,000 to 50,000, but they are shown as outlasting the Neanderthals. 5. Heidelbergensis is way out. The chart shows c. 900,000 to 350,000, but they are dated to 600,000 to 200,000. They are thought to be ancestral to both sapiens and neanderthals, but according to the chart they died out earlier and there was a period with no extant homo. 6. Erectus again way out. The chart shows 2.6 million to 380,000. It should be 1.9 million to 70,000. I don't know much about paranthropus so will not comment on that part of the chart. Hope this helps, User:Timothyjosephwood. Dudley Miles (talk) 18:57, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Uhh... Well, I was proud of myself for figuring out how to adjust the vertical spacing. I...don't know if I can fix it. Timothy Joseph Wood  19:19, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * If no one can fix Template:Hominin species during Pleistocene then I think it should be deleted. Dudley Miles (talk) 11:56, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

Arbitrary convenience break

 * Oi Dudley Miles. I think I've gotten things sorted out. May need some date tweaking. Timothy Joseph Wood  14:11, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Great. Congratulations. I would delete H georgicus. The link leads to an article which says that they are now regarded as a subgroup of erectus. Dudley Miles (talk) 23:47, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Update on new page
Hi there, We submitted our page for Daryoosh Kkashayar, mysdlawyers, that won the 2nd biggest law suit in San Diego history. Wanted to know how long it takes to approve the page. The link to the page is : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mysdlawyers/sandbox Thank you Ian Golkar — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mysdlawyers (talk • contribs) 21:38, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * User has been blocked for promotional edits, and page deleted. 86.20.193.222 (talk) 02:45, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_High_School_(Ontario)#Sports


 * I have fixed the error, which was caused by the inclusion of some stray ref tags. You can see how I fixed it here. DuncanHill (talk) 21:49, 13 March 2017 (UTC)