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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 May 19

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May 19

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Short footnotes with Cite news template

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Is it possible to use short footnotes with the Cite news template? If so, how? Thank you for your help. Vzeebjtf (talk) 02:10, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes - simply use the template {{cite news}} in the References section and use either the newpaper's title or title and date (depending on whether the same newspaper has been used more than once) as the name parameter in the {{sfn}} template. Yunshui  08:17, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
(Full details of the necessary syntax are at Help:Shortened footnotes). Yunshui  08:18, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot! Vzeebjtf (talk) 22:07, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Col William Howard Stovall and his son Lt William Howard Stovall, friendly fire incident

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William Howard Stovall (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Hello, I am writing you to let you know that my Uncle, Lt William Howard Stovall was not killed by "friendly fire" on Dec 31, 1944 on his escort mission to Hanover near Bergsteinfurt-Hollisch, Germany. My Grandfather, Col William Howard Stovall went to great lengths to prove to a very young Lt. Nolan that he had not shot up his sons' plane. The MACR was incorrect. Lt Stovall was involved in a running combat with 7 FW 190 German fighters for 15 minutes over a 50 mile combat. He managed to shoot down 2 EA in this combat but had to bail out as his plane had suffered so much battle damage from EA fire and AA. When he bailed out, he was to low and upon pulling his ripcord his chute did not get to deploy all the way and he was killed when he hit the ground. I know this because I have the letters that my Grandfather wrote to my Grandmother about this very incident. He also spent 5 months searching for the place where his son went down and did find his burial place. He went into Germany on May 8th, 1945 in a jeep to Bergsteinfurt and got conformation about the running combat that his son had been in. He went to the old caretaker of the Evangilist church and the old man showed my Grandfather where he had buried his son. That is one reason why there are no pictures of Col Stovall at the German surrender ceremony. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Michael G C Webster — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2:8B80:441:FC9E:7667:E313:35BC (talk) 06:26, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, but we cannot use your family recollections as a source for Wikipedia articles. If this information has been published in a reliable source then we can use it and the article can be amended. Has it been so published? SpinningSpark 08:01, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

wikipedia iphone and ipad app

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why the app cannot edit and why so hard to find the other language version of a english wikipedia article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.255.1.98 (talk) 09:12, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The app will have editing enabled in the next update for logged-in users. --Mdann52talk to me! 11:55, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Biographer needed

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The page Howard Sandroff, is an incomplete biography of composer Howard Sandroff derived from the Germany entry de:Howard Sandroff. The incomplete English version has been up there for some time (years?) is there someone out there interested in completing the English page (I will help supply text and references).

thanks

12:12, 19 May 2014 (UTC)~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.13.80.60 (talk)

If you understand the subject, you could expand it yourself, Wikipedia is built by people just like you. Failing that, you could ask at WikiProject Classical music, someone there might be interested. SpinningSpark 15:58, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]


I was told that you are forbidden from writing or editing articles about yourself, so I am just trying to play by the rules.

20:33, 19 May 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.13.80.60 (talk)

Since you have not registered an account, and didn't say, it would have been rather difficult for me to know that you were Howard Sandroff. But now that you have told me, yes, you are quite right, you should not edit your own article. However, you can make suggestions on the talk page. You can use {{Request edit}} to attract the attention of another editor. Please note that the expected format of requests when using this template is "please replace foo with foobar", where foo and foobar are the exact text in the article. They are also usually declined if not supported with a reference. SpinningSpark 20:49, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tried to create a wiki page but it has been blocked

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I have tried to create a wiki page on a subject but it has been blocked. However, for reasons i do not clearly understand, my case is pending. I do not have a number or anything to base that on.

I need help figuring out who to get in touch with and how to contact them to understand where our case is and where it’s being held up.

Immediate assistance will be much appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.75.37.58 (talk) 12:36, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tell us which page you are talking about and we may be able to assist. However, there have been no recent edits from the above IP address except to ask this question (both here and at the Teahouse. Yunshui  13:47, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Draft page resubmission

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Hello

I had a draft page rejected 2 months ago - here Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/New Net Technologies

I have tried re-submitting the article following a review of the references, but the page does not seem to be refreshing, and I have had no updates or responses to any of my updates.

Please can you help? Would it be advisable for me to simply start again?

SMartin1234 (talk) 13:44, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Two things. First, the technical one: you have not formatted references correctly. The references need to be enclosed between two tags: <ref> and </ref>. You can find more information at Help:Referencing for beginners. Secondly is the content issue: There's really now way the text you've added makes your entry an encyclopedia article. Your references consist almost entirely of press releases, other Wikipedia articles, and writing by the company itself about itself. Sources should be substantial, independent, and reliable and the references you have provided are none of those. Finally, the prose is a tone and style that is wholly inappropriate for an encyclopedia article. Please understand, as you consider whether or not spending your time to try to fix these problems, whether or not it is worth your while. Not every company that has ever existed would necessarily merit a Wikipedia article. Certainly, Wikipedia does have articles about some companies, however, where it does that is because there's substantial, solid writing about those companies in reliable sources, and the company itself has no control over the content of the article. From the look of what you are trying to submit, it looks like your primary goal is to raise the profile of your own company, and that's not what Wikipedia's mission is. --Jayron32 14:00, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Attribution question

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Dear editors: I found this old draft: Wikipedia_talk:Articles for creation/Priorities (Album) which had some sources and a ratings box which I felt would improve the article Priorities (album), which was created later by another editor (sigh). I credited the creator of the draft when I moved the sources and the ratings box. Do I still need to move and redirect the old draft to preserve attribution, since no sentences were moved? If so I can move it to Talk:Priorities (album)/Attribution. —Anne Delong (talk) 15:57, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, you can leave that alone, for archive purposes. We appreciate you crediting where you got the references from, but it would be just a little more helpful to link to the article like, "copied from Wikipedia_talk:Articles for creation/Priorities (Album)". Thanks! CTF83! 19:21, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Pages in "Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation" are temporary and disappear if not edited every six months, not the best situation archival purposes. That's why I suggested moving the page to a more permanent location. If attribution is needed, I intended to move the draft to somewhere where it wouldn't be deleted, and then add a link to it on the talk page of the receiving article. —Anne Delong (talk) 21:53, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

how to delete my page

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how do I delete my account — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:C817:3E19:40C:2944:97E:645F (talk) 16:18, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Accounts cannot be deleted, because the licence used for Wikipedia material requires accounts to be retained for reasons of attribution. But the right to vanish may be what you want. --ColinFine (talk) 16:58, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Editing sections within RfD - linking to wrong sections

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I'm looking at Wikipedia:Redirects_for_discussion. If I click on "Edit source" beside a section heading, it opens the editor at a completely different section, higher up the page (eg click on "Colts" and get "Talk:Taiwan (country)"). I can only edit particular sections by trial and error, clicking assorted links before I get the one I want. Is the page corrupt in some way, or what? PamD 19:50, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I take it you have VisEd enabled. It's working fine for me even with VisEd turned on. Try reloading the page. If that doesn't work bypass your cache and purge the page. This problem is usually caused by a new heading being added or removed by another editor while you have the page open or you return to a cached version of the page. The id of the heading has changed on the real page, so your cache version now has the wrong ids and you will request the wrong section when you click the edit link. SpinningSpark 21:32, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks - I've finished what I was trying to do on that page now, but will try and remember this in case it happens again. PamD 22:07, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Adeline Genee Theatre

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Why was my entry on this Theatre deleted? Given that is was demolished several years ago it could hardly be described as "promotional" the "excuse" given by the person who decided to obliterate it. It was a historical entry on a beautiful little theatre that was built in 1967 and closed in 1989 and demolished soon afterwards. I was still working on a detailed history of it. Destroying the entry will help ensure that all memory of it is erased from historical memory. Is this your objective? If so, WHY? What is yor agenda here. The Genee fans and memorial group are deeply upset by this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rasumovsky (talkcontribs) 20:28, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well I guess language like "beatiful little theatre" and "sadly" make it sound promotional. Wikipedia articles should be written with a detached, neutral tone giving only the facts. It is possible to restore this as a draft so you can work on improving it, but I fear it has an even more serious problem which will get it deleted eventually even if it escapes the speedy deletion process. Articles on Wikipedia need to meet the notability guidelines. One demonstrates an article has notability by providing reliable sources that have substantial discussion of the subject. If you think that you can provide such sources then by all means make a request at WP:REFUND. However, your comment "destroying the entry will help ensure that all memory of it is erased" leads me to believe that this information only ever existed here on Wikipedia so sources are unlikely to be found. SpinningSpark 21:04, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
My interpretation is that the reliable sources are there, but just in old filing cabinets and on microfilm, and unless people are still talking about the theater, new coverage is unlikely.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:53, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It depends whose old filing cabinets and microfilm. If it is a published work in a library then it can be cited as a source. It is not necessary that it can be found in an online newspaper archive, only that it would be possible for another user to go and verify it. If it is an individual person's personal collection of correspondence then no it can't be used, at least not until a reliable secondary source carries out a synthesis of the primary material and publishes the results. SpinningSpark 00:07, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Aleksandra Romanic

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Aleksandra Romanić (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

I am Aleksandra Romanic, classical pianist. I was born in Zagreb on 14.08 1958. I can not imagine who could possibly notify my birthdate on 1944? Who is so malicious or ignorant to submit such a nonsense to Wikipedia and I can not imagine how such a nonsense could ever be excepted by Wikipedia at any time???? Don`t you have a possibility to compare the data in other languages??? Do you need help?? I expect you to immediately change my date of birth. I am also very willing to submit all relevant details of my person and work at any time. With kindest regards, Aleksandra Romanic Prof. Aleksandra Romanic Pianistin Mitglied des Ausländerbeirates München Clemensstr. 121, 80796 München — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.229.247.68 (talk) 20:45, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have corrected the birth year as per the source present in the article. Thank you for pointing the error out and apologies for any distress it may have caused. --NeilN talk to me 21:12, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The 1944 date was put there in this edit by Yahadzija, who also added "Zagreb" as your place of birth. Maproom (talk) 07:23, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, Zagreb was already in the article. The editor has just copied the information into the persondata template. SpinningSpark 07:39, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The article is a stub. What is the proper stub template to add to the article? Robert McClenon (talk) 17:08, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
{{Croatia-music-bio-stub}} SpinningSpark 00:15, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Number 10

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Could someone copy File:Minnesota Twins 10.png to Commons for me? It's been so long since I've done it that I've forgotten the process. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots20:46, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hello @Baseball Bugs: You Could use one of the tools Listed at Wikipedia:Moving files to the Commons Like For the common Good Dudel250 (talk) 02:00, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
 Done With the tools available now, it's a fairly quick and painless process. Dismas|(talk) 10:37, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How to submit a paper

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How do I submit a paper that I have written to wiki? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.150.101.202 (talk) 23:30, 19 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If by "wiki" you mean Wikipedia, the answer is that Wikipedia is not the place for publishing your original research. If the subject is notable in Wikipedia's terms, and has already had substantial coverage in published reliable sources independent of the subject, then the process for writing an article is outlined at WP:Your first article.
I added a section heading before your question, as it didn't seem to be related to the section in which it had been placed. --David Biddulph (talk) 02:15, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]