Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 64

Book by main author with contributors, chapters by different authors
Hello, I'd like to get the citations to a book just right. The book has one main author on the cover and then "with cite book, and I can't settle on just listing four authors or having the main author be an "editor" and treating each chapter as a separate citation so that the author(s) of the chapter gets credit for writing what I am citing. --JFHutson (talk) 16:40, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I think the best way to go is to use the format listed at Template:Cite book under "Citing a chapter in a book with different authors for different chapters and an editor". The important thing is that the authors of, and the name of, the particular chapter you're citing come first in the reference; but the "In " is also important, as readers need it to find the book containing the chapter in question. Although the heading on the template page says "and an editor", the resulting citation doesn't actually contain "ed.", so you can list the "main author" in the editor field (or you could list all four as editor1, editor2, editor3, and editor4 if you want—it really doesn't make much difference). Deor (talk) 04:00, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

How to change the title of an article in my sandbox?
Hello. I recently submitted an article in my sandbox. The WP:AFC said to move the article. I can't move it unless I change the title. How do I do this? Thank you. JHUbal27 (talk) 14:06, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * JHUbal27, welcome to the Teahouse. You obviously tried to move the article so you saw the warning message about the need to rename.  Try is again but in the box that comes up in the field that says new title change "sandbox" to "Lansdowne Middle School" before clicking Move page.  Leave everything else the same. NtheP (talk) 14:43, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks.JHUbal27 (talk) 02:07, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

how to add reference or a source on wikipedia?
I've been trying to add when I need to use it.. And I have also put ==References== in the bottom, but I still don't get it.. Can some one show me an example of how to exactly do it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ibrahim888 (talk • contribs)
 * Ibrahim888, welcome to the Teahouse. The markup you have used is correct and the references are showing correctly.  The issue this raises is that your references aren't references just links to other wikipedia articles.  Strange as it may sound but Wikipedia is not a reliable source so you need to find better sources for your information. NtheP (talk) 12:23, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

how to add a picture with caption to my article
i want to add picture to my article.i cant upload them.and also how i can place pictures where i want in a article ? Aditi Choudhury (talk) 10:03, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Welcome to Teahouse.
 * Please see Help:Files for uploading files.
 * Can you clarify i cant upload them? Did you get any error message? Which image you tried to upload? --Tito Dutta (talk) 10:35, 21 December 2012 (UTC)


 * thanks.i solved it because of your help.thanks very muchAditi Choudhury (talk) 11:54, 21 December 2012 (UTC)


 * now look i wrote "one of the best''.so whats the problem in that?i didnt not said it is the only best institute.thanks for your replyAditi Choudhury (talk) 12:45, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Aditi! The problem with that text is that it is your opinion and it sounds promotional. If it was independently ranked by a reviewing agency, you could say 'X School was ranked as the second best school in the Wintergreen area by Y Accreditors' and that would be a fact, not an opinion. However, you cannot use Wikipedia to promote a marketing pitch - you must write the facts from a neutral point of view. If you cannot be unbiased, because it is your job or you cannot refrain from promoting the subject (it happens), you have a conflict of interest and you should try editing something else instead. I hope this helps - the other host provided some more good tips above. Cheers, Mono 03:50, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Club for School Students
I am Vaikunda Raja. I had been an active user here in Wikipedia few years back. I am currently working in a School in South Tamil Nadu. We are planning to Launch a Wikipedia Club in our School by which we wish to make Students use and contribute to Wikipedia.

Being making edits here back I am aware of the Editing policy here. But taking it to the student's scale is somewhat different. So what we've to do; and what are the important/brief guideline the students should be made aware of and how do we follow up? -- Vaikunda Raja (talk) 07:00, 21 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi. Welcome to the Teahouse! I am new to Wikipedia, but I'm sure I can give you some valuable info. First, have students create an account because at schools, where IP adresses are public, editing may be blocked. I'm sure you know there's a no vandalism policy. Lastly, have them cite their sources always. Hope this helps! JHUbal27 (talk) 14:24, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * The above advice is very sensible and you should also have a read of School and university projects before starting. NtheP (talk) 14:47, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Vaikunda Raja, I am so glad you came here with this question, and what a great Club you are proposing! I wish you much success.  Besides the suggestions made by the other hosts, I would add to "start small".  For example, improve an existing article with small contributions for each edit, such as a sentence here or there, adding a header if appropriate, adding a reference, etc.  This will give the student a chance to familiarize himself with the ramifications of adding anything.  Edit summaries are so important. Uploading an image from Commons into a wikipedia article can be quite an improvement as "a picture is worth a thousand words".  Caution your students against adding unreliable External links. Let us know how things go with your new Club! --Rosiestep (talk) 16:49, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * You could have a piece of paper at the school (on a noticeboard perhaps) where the students can sign up with their names and their Wikipedia usernames. (Having this list on Wikipedia is a less good idea because it's wise for school age pupils not to disclose their full names publicly.) This would allow you and other club co-ordinators to check their contributions and their talk pages for problems. (There will be problems, so club co-ordinators checking for them and dealing with them is essential.)


 * In addition, you should make sure students are aware of what they must not do - WP:COPYPASTE - and also the co-ordinators at least should know about WP:PARAPHRASE. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 17:14, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

I need to decide whether to accept or decline an article?
Hi. I have recently found this article and I have decided I wanted to accept it, on the condition that it include more citations. I originally declined the article, but now I'm not sure. Can you help me? I know this might be confusing, but I need to decide whether to accept or decline the article. Thanks.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 05:23, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, JHUbal! It would appear to me that you should not accept it.  All its sources are connected to the organization.  Therefore it fails WP:ORG, the applicable notability policy.  Notability means that the world has made note of the subject of the article, which is shown by secondary sources, such as newspapers, magazines, TV & radio news, and books.  In a quick search, I found at least one book and one magazine talking about the organization.  So, yes it can eventually be approved, but not yet.  Hope that helps you. Gtwfan52 (talk) 05:57, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Conflict of interests?
I am currently revising several pages in connection with my favorite band, The Legendary Pink Dots. The main project will be to provide a detailed biography, which so far exists nowhere, in any form. Since the history of the band is shrouded in mystery, and the only source of information are a number of interviews that can be found online, I have asked the singer of the band if he can help me shed some light on those large gaps that exist in their CV. However I am now wondering: a) Does it put me at a conflict of interest when the information I use comes directly from "the subject" of the article itself? b) If not and it's okay to use this information, how do I reference it, since all that exists are emails sent between the two of us? Thank you. Karperi (talk) 21:13, 23 December 2012 (UTC) (edit: forgot to log in before posting)


 * Hey there. They're one of my favorite bands too, actually. Sadly, interviews with anyone in the band falls under original research, so, unless your book is going to be published or your research will be published someplace reliable (i.e. Radar magazine for example) then you can't use it on Wikipedia.

An example of a band that I recently rewrote the article for is Tuxedomoon. Of course, it's not as extensive as it could be, but, I can't write the band and use any information I get from them in the article to fill it out. That's original research and conflict of interest.

There are reliable sources that feature history and information about the band. I'd focus on them, and some books, etc. Good luck! SarahStierch (talk) 21:17, 23 December 2012 (UTC)


 * That being said, the band might have a scrapbook of articles and reviews that's more comprehensive than what can be found online. Asking if they're aware of any reliable sources you might have missed would be fine.  Garamond Lethe  22:06, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Can you give me feedback on an already existing article?
Hello. I have changed and edited most of this existing article. I want some feedback about how to improve the article. Can anyone give me some? I would appreciate it. Thanks.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 02:11, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hello JHUbal27. The article is a collection of lists at present. Wikipedia likes articles to be written mostly in prose with inline citations at the end of the text to which they refer. You have added pdf links to each item in one list. This is not allowed under external linking policy as external links must be limited and confined to the external links section.--Charles (talk) 14:19, 23 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 16:02, 23 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi there JHUbal27 and thanks for your question. I wanted to give you an example of a high school article whose content is in prose format:  Carver Center for Arts and Technology. This school is within the same school district. Does this help? --Rosiestep (talk) 17:01, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Combining references and notes
Hello teahouse denizens.

I'm trying to use references within notes. This simple example works fine.

{{pre2|

Article
Note this and this.

Creation user page
Hello, looking for help to link my talk page, contributions, and e-mail using this icon menu page User page design center/Menus and subpages/Menu15 many thanks FOX 52 (talk) 04:07, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Fox. It's done. Note how I did this--nothing earthshaking, I clicked edit at the design page you linked, copied the code and pasted it into your userpage. Then, in every place where the word "Example" appeared, I replaced with your username. The one thing that could trip you up here is that for the URLs (as opposed to wikilinks) I added an underscore where the space is in your name. Without this the links would break, i.e., I used "FOX_52". Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Fuhghettaboutit (talk) a million thanks friend I appreciate that very much, and yes quite easy, thanks again cheers FOX 52 (talk) 05:30, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Glad to help.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:32, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

BLP Master's Degree
Hi there, quick question: If someone has a master's degree on biology and a PhD in theology, is it correct to say - "John Doe is a theologian and biologist"? Ajaxfiore (talk) 01:15, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi Ajaxfiore, welcome to the Teahouse! Sure, if you're writing about someone, who..well..is a theologian and biologist. Some people might not actually *do* what their degrees "are" so to say (i.e. "I have a degree in art history but I work for a tech organization doing outreach,"), so, I'd just focus on what the subject does...if John Doe doesn't actively practice biology anymore, but is known pretty much as a theologian, then I'd just call him a theologian and mention someplace in the article that he did get a degree in biology. I hope that makes sense :) SarahStierch (talk) 02:07, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * ok, thanks. Ajaxfiore (talk) 02:18, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

"Redirected" message, and what do I do with my user sandbox after I've moved message to main Wikipedia space?
I'm a new Wikipedia user. I recently wrote an article first in my user sandbox, and then I moved it to the main Wikipedia space (entitled "Mary Sands"). First I had a problem with an error message, but someone fixed that for me. Now, in my sandbox, at the top, it shows "(Redirected from User:K828/sandbox)." Since I'm finished using the sandbox to work on that project, can I delete what's in it? If so, how?

Would appreciate any help or advice from others more experienced.

Thanks,

K828 (talk) 19:01, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * K828, welcome to the Teahouse and congratulations on your first article. Redirects like this are always created when you move pages.  You can easily edit your sandbox page and delete the text you find there thus removing the redirect.  Alternatively you can add   to the page and an administrator will delete the page for you (you can always recreate it at another time should you need it). 19:28, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. You may have noticed I edited my question above, but your answer is exactly what I was looking for. So, all I need to do is go to the sandbox, hit edit, delete everything, then save?

K828 (talk) 19:32, 26 December 2012 (UTC)
 * yep :-) NtheP (talk) 19:40, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Now I'm really confused. I deleted what was in my sandbox and someone restored it, with a message saying I needed to put a reason in an "edit summary." So I put a reason and deleted it again. And somebody else restored it immediately. How do I fix this? In addition, I didn't see a way to delete the title it shows, "Mary Sands." I would think my sandbox would go back to the way it was before I put anything on it. Of course, I don't want to do anything that affects my real article on the regular Wikipedia space.

K828 (talk) 20:16, 26 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi K282. It looks like you were deleting the real article by mistake instead of the sandbox redirect. To get to the actual redirect page you need to click the blue link that says "redirected from" just below the article title. I have deleted the redirect for you. You are allowed to delete what is in your own userspace.--Charles (talk) 20:25, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, Charles. K828 (talk) 20:59, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Need help
I need help about pashto wikipedia so who can help me??? some one with name of Khangul has blocked people from writing new articles or translating articles from other languages to my country Pashto, so as i am Academic member of Academy of sciences of Afghanistan and have specielity in urology field , i want to write some article or translate some to pashto but i cant create an account or i cant login in ps. Wikipedia. please help me in this case.

I am waiting for your help... (Mirwice Haqmal (talk) 18:43, 25 December 2012 (UTC))
 * Mirwice, my sympathies. It sounds like you are in a difficult position.  This isn't an area I know too much about but it might be that you need to contact the stewards.  You can find details of who they are and how to contact them at Stewards.  I hope you get things sorted out. NtheP (talk) 21:28, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

I Will try to tel you all story so i hope you may help me: I am using en.wikipedia since long time for finding informations about many topics, so i asked wiki team via these emails to create ps.wikipedia and Afghan people are ready to write Articles or translate Articles from Other languages to their own language Pashto. these two emails replied my email and told me that we have ps.wiki and sent me the link of that page but when i tried to open that page and make an acount their like maked an acount here in en.wikipedia, that page Show me a message that Some one with name of Khangul blocked this (Account creation from this IP address (61.5.196.4) has been blocked by Khangul )so i cant create An acount here, after that i tried to send him an email but i couldnt find his email anwhen i tried to write in his talk page i couldnt do that too because i was not login. It made me realy sad. As i am a doctor and i Know pashto language very well( it is my mother language) i can write many medical Articles and translate many and i can edit many too. I got realy sad when i saw an Article of fever in pashto wrote incorect and i cant edit it.

(Mirwice Haqmal (talk) 7:15, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

I need help please who can help me here in wiki???

Mirwice Haqmal (talk) 14:31, 26 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hello Mirwice! I'm sorry to hear about your situation, and I'm afraid there's not much I can do. However, if you go to MetaWiki, the coordinating wiki for our projects, and look for someone with the name Khangul there. Or, go to metawiki (linked above), and look for a "Steward". They may be able to go to ps.wikipedia and unblock your IP or create an account for you there. I'm sorry that you have these problems! If anything didn't make sense, feel free to ask me here for clarification! gwickwire  talk edits 17:04, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

I recently accepted an article, need to edit it?
On Wikipedia, there are improvement boxes, such as. I recently accepted this article and I think I should add one of these boxes or two. Where can I find a list of these? When I accepted the article, I added it as a stub-class and added categories. Can I add anything else? Thank you.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 20:41, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Welcome to the Teahouse! If you have Twinkle enabled, there's a link to "Tag" under the TW tab. If you click on that you'll get a list of many of them. I believe there's a list here, but you'll have to check it out as I'm not 100% sure. Merry Christmas! Go   Phightins  !  20:52, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I actually found what I wanted here, but your answer helped me a lot too. Merry Christmas to you too!  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 21:39, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * By the way, can anyone review this article? Thanks.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 21:39, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * I've gone ahead and checked that one out for you. I added a notability and advert tag to it, but I feel it has a bit too much potential for me to feel good nominating it for deletion. Thanks for the questions! gwickwire  talk edits 17:55, 25 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, thanks, but now I feel responsible for this. Should I have declined the article?  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 19:39, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

Review mid-edit
Sorry if this is a repeat. Can I get a review on a page that I'm still creating? Thanks.

Jlfeuerbach (talk) 06:56, 24 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Could you post a link to the article here?EagerToddler39 (talk) 00:58, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Where do Article Wizard articles go?
Hi,

I'm trying to understand how Wikipedia works, and I have a few questions. I'd really appreciate if someone can help me with them.

1. If I create a page using the Article Wizard, what happens to it? Is there any way to bypass review and send it directly to the article namespace? If not, where does it go for review? It seems that it goes to Articles for Creation, but I thought that was where people post drafts to be reviewed - does the Article Wizard direct there, too? If so, I see there's a backlog there. About how long can I expect it to take before my article is reviewed?

2. Once an article is moved from AfC to the main namespace, will it show up on the Special:NewPages page? Or is considered an old page?

3. When I look at Category:Candidates for Speedy Deletion, I see a lot of pages that were created very recently and nominated for deletion after just a few minutes. Often, they are deleted just as fast. Why, then, do I follow a link from Special:Newpages and find an article that has been deleted, or even tagged for deletion? Do those articles not even make it to Special:Newpages? Should I be looking somewhere else? Are they really patrolled that fast?

Thanks so much - eagerly awaiting your answers.

Polymath49 (talk) 17:29, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi Polymath. I will try my best to answer your questions in order:

The Anonymouse (talk • contribs) 18:22, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) If you create an article with the Article Wizard, it will go to Articles for Creation (AfC). You can bypass review by moving it directly to the mainspace, or by creating it directly by typing the page name in the search box, typing, and clicking the create link. The backlog at AfC is getting smaller, and a backlog elimination drive should bring it down to near zero in a few days. I think that if you submitted to AfC, you should have to wait no more than about a week or so.
 * 2) I'm not 100% sure, but the page was new when it was created in AfC, so it will not show up there. The whole point of Special:NewPages is for users to watch newly-created articles and check them for problems (which AfC is supposed to do).
 * 3) Articles that don't follow the basic policies (copyright violations, attack pages, vandalism, etc.) will (and should) be speedy-deleted quickly. In many cases, those pages are patrolled within minutes from Special:NewPages, or even Special:RecentChanges.

Thanks so much! Just what I wanted to know. Polymath49 (talk) 18:34, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

"Common Knowledge" Citing
If a piece of information is considered to be "common knowledge" (ex. "Snowmen are made of snow."), does it need to be cited? Thank you. Henrib736 (talk) 16:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Please see the 2 essays called WP:BLUE and WP:NOTBLUE for a discussion of this. Bus stop (talk) 17:01, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * And please only post a question in one place. There are also answers at Help desk. I will link all the places you asked it to there. Please post any follow ups there by clicking the "edit" link to the right of the section heading. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:18, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm doubting myself on why I accepted an article
I accepted this article and my name is tagged to it on the talk page. However, the article has multiple issues. How can I fix the issues so that the article won't be so bad? I accepted it because I felt it had potential. Thanks.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 16:44, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Hello,  JHUbal 27 , and welcome back! The best answer I can give you is to find good articles on scholarships, see how they're put together, and rewrite this article to match their style.  The categories at the bottom of the article should give you a place to start.  Garamond Lethe  20:09, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the advice.  JHUbal 27  ( talk ) 20:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Adding to a WikiProject
I recently created an article about a play, The Universal Language. I wanted to add it to the WikiProject Theatre, but I couldn't figure out how. Could someone instruct me on how to do so? Aplaster (talk) 15:52, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Aplaster, welcome to the Teahouse. On the article talkpage (Talk:The Universal Language) add this markup   this will add the article to the categories Category:Unknown-importance Theatre articles and Category:Unassessed Theatre articles and bring it to the attention of editors at WikiProject Theatre. NtheP (talk) 16:30, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Why does my page not show in searches
I have created a page about Fantom - digital trading cards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantom_-_digital_trading_cards

When I search on the word Fantom it does not show up. But the page is there ok, and it is indexed by Google no problem.

Any thoughts? PabloHealy (talk) 15:27, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Pablo, welcome to the Teahouse. There is already an article called Fantom (as well as FANTOM) so searching for "Fantom" or "fantom" will bring up the Fantom article.  However if you starrt typing the second word in the search box then as soon as you get to  "Fantom d" then you article is found.  With three articles with the same name it's probably time for a disambiguation page to be created. NtheP (talk) 16:53, 27 December 2012 (UTC)