Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 June 24

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June 24

Martineau family

please fix ref number 30 - not sure what to do here... thanks 175.38.42.62 (talk) 01:26, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Hi there! What is the specific problem with reference #30, and what happened when you tried to fix it? GoingBatty (talk) 19:19, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

GoingBatty, verbosity, perhaps? The note does bring the somehow delightful info that one Martineau was a "manufacturer of camelots and bombazine". For me, this starts to make up for the article's unencyclopedic (or even pathological?) concern with the pedigree of one Kate Middleton. Cut as much as you wish of the Middleton-cruft, but let's have more camelots and bombazine. -- Hoary (talk) 01:52, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

How do I get "contribute" live on an individual page?

Perry Johnson (businessman) has a page without a current picture of him. I am his executive assistant and had two photos that I wished to upload to the page at his request. The contribute function is not linked and will not allow any contributions. How do I get this link to work? Tjcforpj (talk) 18:40, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Courtesy link. Hi @Tjcforpj. Firstly you need to immediately declare your Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. Check that link for instructions on how. Qcne (talk) 18:47, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Hi @Tjcforpj: Wikipedia photos are hosted on Wikimedia Commons. If you want to upload photos that you took yourself, read Commons:Contributing your own work for how to use the Upload Wizard. Hameltion (talk | contribs) 19:08, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

About autopatrolled...

If I was to request autopatrolled for the sole use of moving set index articles so they don't get reviewed, would I be accepted? 📖 (💬/📜) 19:07, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@TheBigBookOfNaturalScience: You can see the guidance at WP:AUTOPATROLLED. You have not created any articles and your account is new (barely over a month old), so I doubt that it will be granted to you. RudolfRed (talk) 21:12, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@RudolfRed I think you mean a year old. 📖 (💬/📜) 21:17, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Indeed, misread the dates. RudolfRed (talk) 21:18, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@TheBigBookOfNaturalScience: You can request autopatrolling of your created redirects at Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Redirect autopatrol list. Skarmory (talk • contribs) 03:58, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Bulk removal of link spam

One spam domain has been added to more than 90 chemistry related articles over an extended period of time and each one needs to be removed. The web-site is a Chinese site selling chemicals. Each occurrence has been tailored to the specific article. I have been very slowly working my way through the affected articles either removing the link where it is in "External links" or replacing it where a source is required. This feels like the sort of task a bot would be good at, but I have no idea which bot or how it might operate. Simply deleting all occurrences and producing a list of edits would be a step forward so that I could then find suitable replacement refs. Any suggestions or ideas? I have, of course, flagged this at Reliable sources noticeboard and requested blacklisting to try and minimise new occurrences. Any help or suggestions much appreciated. Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   19:31, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Velella: Hi there! If you provide the spam domain (or an example of a deletion), then we can help with the deletions and the list. GoingBatty (talk) 21:44, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

GoingBatty - many thanks. The domain is chemicalbook.com. An insource search listed 93 affected articles of which I have probably cleaned up about 12. I can plod away at the task, mostly replacing links with the relevant links from the National Library of Medicine site. I was hoping that there might be an automated process somewhere that might suit the job, but perhaps that is being too optimistic! Regards  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   21:54, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Velella: Hi there! There's WP:URLREQ, but that's for requests where a URL format is changing to a different URL format. I don't know if you could describe a way for this task to be automated. GoingBatty (talk) 03:45, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

AWB might work? You could ask over at WP:AWB/TA. Skarmory (talk • contribs) 03:50, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

@Velella There are problems with any automated approach, which I'll illustrate with 2-Methylphenethylamine which you edited recently. As far as I can tell, pubchem has no information on the physical state of the compound, although you might hope it would have. Instead, it has various pieces of information in its database, including the fact that the compound is available from Sigma-Aldrich, a very reputable supplier. However, their datasheet says that the compound is a solid, not a liquid! (No MP is supplied.) So while I agree that the spam links need to be removed it will take some detective work to find reliable sources for information on a case-by-case basis. I would be happy to work with you on this, as I'm sure would other editors interested in chemistry. Perhaps this should be taken to WT:CHEMS, with a link to a list of the affected articles. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:47, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Michael D. Turnbull - that is very helpful. Any help is most welcome. I have no aversion to references from chemical manufacturers, pharmacological companies etc as they are very rarely offering their products for sale. What little time I have has been partly promised to a rationalisation of Bioenergy and everything that spawns from that so my time available for hunting down replacement sources is limited. It just annoys me seeing blatant link spam in some articles!. Regards  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   16:40, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Adding an obituary as a reference?

Hello, my dear friend, American photographer Bruce Roberts, passed away this past week. Many years ago I hired an online expert to create the Wikipedia article about him, but I have also done minor edits myself. Today I was able to go on and add his death date and place, and it did edit and looks correct, BUT I do not know how to add the link to his obituary (https://www.noebrooks.net/obituary/Bruce-Roberts) as a "footnote"/reference number? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you! Justhman (talk) 19:37, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

I added this ref. Ruslik_Zero 20:24, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Ruslik, THANK YOU so much! I really appreciate it... Justhman (talk) 20:48, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Citing a speech

Suppose I discover in a book that a speech was given at a particular date in a particular place, and the book reprints the text of the speech "with permission", reprinting presumably from a private copy belonging to the orator. But I don't know if this was the first book to reprint the speech. I want to cite the speech itself. Do I therefore use the speech itself, with its place and time, as the reference, or do I use the (arbitrary, unimportant) book where I happened to discover this report of it?  Card Zero  (talk) 21:05, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Generally you should cite the source that you actually read, even if that source is quoting or referring to another source. See WP:SAYWHEREYOUREADIT. CodeTalker (talk) 21:35, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Perfect! Name of Speech Script I Haven't Seen, cited in Name of Arbitrary Book I Have Seen. That's the way.  Card Zero  (talk) 21:58, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

You cite a reliable source. "The speech" is not a a reliable source unless it has been published by a reputable publisher, for example in a book from such a publisher. ColinFine (talk) 21:36, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Card Zero: when a citation template does not generate what you need, you can create a ref that augments it. -Arch dude (talk) 21:51, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Card Zero: {{cite speech}} doesn't seem be helpful in this situation, so I agree with Arch dude, although the page number could be inside the template too. GoingBatty (talk) 21:57, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

References

Editor creating multiple poorly written articles about Sesame Street

I wanted to bring to attention that @Masonmariocart has created the following articles and AfC and does not appear to be stopping. They have inconsistent names and Wikipedia:Original research in the body. How is best to get them to stop?

4 Years of Sesame Street

Sesame Street S5️⃣

Sesame Street 6th Season

Season 7 of Sesame Street

Sesame Street, season 8 episodes

Sesame Street Season 9 Episodes

Matching Episodes

Sesame Street Barkley Naming Season

Cheers, Qcne (talk) 21:44, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Qcne: Hi there! Has the editor continued after the note you posted on their talk page? GoingBatty (talk) 21:51, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Yep! Qcne (talk) 21:52, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Qcne: Then you could nominate the articles for deletion and/or take the issue to WP:ANI. GoingBatty (talk) 22:02, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Would you say those articles are candidates for Speedy Deletion, or should it go via PROD? Qcne (talk) 22:04, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

@Qcne: They don't seem to meet the Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion, so maybe one PROD for all? GoingBatty (talk) 22:21, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

All been moved to draftspace by @Taking Out The Trash :) Qcne (talk) 22:22, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Is there a specific program / website used to make Opinion Poll Graphs?

Hi :)

I'm interested in creating opinion poll graphs. I've noticed that a lot of opinion poll graphs on here looks to have the same template, as they most or all are made in a similar style.

I've tried to look for programs that could be used for this, but I've failed to find it. When I go into wikimedia to read more details for the graphs I've found, it just says own work and doens't inform about through what it was created.

Cheers, :) Thomediter (talk) 23:34, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

If you're not afraid of a little programming you can make such graphs with R (programming language) or Python. Otherwise you can take a look at the free versions of Tableau or Power BI, but I don't know if they let you use your results for non-private purposes. Or you may find something here:

https://www.springboard.com/blog/data-analytics/31-free-data-visualization-tools/

https://www.pcmag.com/news/10-free-data-visualization-tools

https://towardsdatascience.com/8-free-tools-to-make-interactive-data-visualizations-in-2021-no-coding-required-2b2c6c564b5b?gi=d4ca04485539

-- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 09:00, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks a lot :) I will look at these :) Thomediter (talk) 15:27, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

@Thomediter: Please link to an example. We can then possibly provide some specific advice. Many folks create image files and add the images to the articles, but there are also several ways to create a graph inside an article. For an image file, I usually create the file using Gnuplot, and I provide the gnuplot input file on the image description page. -Arch dude (talk) 13:57, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

I was thinking something like these

Spain

Norway

Germany Thomediter (talk) 15:30, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

The one for Germany has a link to the code. It was made with R. Judging by the style there's a decent chance that the other two were made with R, too, or with Python (there is a Python library that copies the R style). -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 16:20, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

I've just noticed that in the description it says that the one for Spain was made with R. -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 16:22, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks a lot @Random person no 362478479 and @Arch dude. I have searched in YouTube and without having tried it yet, it seems that there are loads of videos that might be able to help me.

Have a nice coming week :) Thomediter (talk) 20:22, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

@Thomediter: I suggest you contact @Impru20:. He created the one for Opinion polling for the 2023 Spanish general election, and the description file says it was "Generated in R from data in a wikipedia article." "R" is the R (programming language). You might want to read the talk page at talk:Opinion polling for the 2023 Spanish general election. It appears that political opinion polling is contentious and you may want to get some background before wading in.-Arch dude (talk)