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Help desk
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Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
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July 25

When a guideline conflicts with a policy

Hello, when a Wikipedia guideline conflicts with a Wikipedia policy, what do we do? Do we need to ignore the guideline in these instances, as policy takes precedence? Thanks in advance! LesVegas (talk) 01:22, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give a specific example, LesVegas? Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 01:35, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just remember that the most important policy is WP:IAR, which basically says "Take whatever action improves the encyclopedia." Just don't get into any poor behavior in doing so. If someone disagrees, you're allowed to talk it over with them. --Jayron32 02:22, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick responses guys! I looked into it a bit further and found the policy vs guideline answer here LesVegas (talk) 02:32, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What is the specific issue? As the guideline that you cited on rules conflicts says, it is not sufficient to ignore all rules and move on, but the conflict should be resolved. What is the issue? Robert McClenon (talk) 10:50, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Changing Username

I just registered, and afterwards realized that I used my initials which is not recommended. I feel really unsafe and would like to change mu username to something else. I looked at the change username pages, but I have no idea how to contact Wikipedia. I would like to do it ASAP. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cra2383 (talk • contribs) 02:39, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To editor Cra2383: I would offer to file a request for you, but I'm not sure if that's acceptable. The gist is to go to changing username (simple) (if the new name you want is not taken) and make a new request by clicking the link. If you are still having trouble, leave a response below with the specific problems you're having. Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 03:49, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To editor Cra2383: Actually, it is even easier. Just abandon Cra2383, never use it again, and register a new name. Not only acceptable, it is preferred.--S Philbrick (Talk) 14:34, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I accidentally disabled the Reference tooltip settings and now I have to scroll the whole length of the page after seeing the reference details. I have enabled it again and even purged the browser's cache but stil the ref. info doesn't show up next to the citation when I rollover the mouse pointer on any inline citation.--Skr15081997 (talk) 08:54, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I just tried disabling this and reenabling it as a test and it came back fine. If you let me know what browser and skin you are using I can test with your particular combination. Also, you might want to check if javascript has stopped working altogether; for instance, I see you have DYKcheck installed. Is that still working? SpinningSpark 09:26, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Spinningspark:I am using Google Chrome and have vector skin enabled. The DYKcheck is working fine, I can't see any issues with it.--Skr15081997 (talk) 09:37, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It works fine for me in the Chrome/Vector combination as well. Have you gone back to preferences and verified that the tooltips gadget is actually ticked? Perhaps you just forgot to save the settings. Anyway, I don't think there is anything up with Wikipedia, it seems to be limited to your computer. You might get some more advice on that at WP:RDC. SpinningSpark 10:12, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Interwiki link required

Hi can someone put in a link between Bossuit-Kortrijk Canal and article "Canal Bossuit-Courtrai" on the French wikipedia (and vice-versa) Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 09:30, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Done --Fauzan^{✆ talk}_{✉ mail} 10:38, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Map of Auckland

how do \I get a map of all businesses in the CBD OF Auckland — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2403:D800:11C2:8C00:896A:378C:E2F6:ECB4 (talk) 10:21, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not on Wikipedia. We have an article on Auckland CBD but we don't maintain business directories. You can find business directories by googling for "Auckland CBD business directory" or maps with "Auckland CBD map" but I doubt that you will find a map of all businesses in the CBD. There are far too many of them. SpinningSpark 11:00, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Request for help re primary information

We have an irate former member of the Community Chapel and Bible Training Center who has already served a short block for repeatedly deleting most of the article, and now wants the article deleted, as it is “slanderous”(sic)

Whilst the subject itself seems notable, if only for the number of lawsuits for sexual improprieties brought against the pastor and others in the church leadership, the article does have problems. Several sections are based solely on PDFs of letters etc – i.e. primary information, moreover, these letters etc. are no longer available, as the two sites used - kenady.150m.com and ccbtcresearch.com - are both returning errors. The article also references a lot of 1986-1988 newspapers, which I cannot find on-line, so do not know what these verify.

Could another editor look and see what they think about the sections based on missing primary information – do we just delete these entire sections? Or try and find the source? or try and find an alternative secondary? – it may be that a US editor can access some of this, such as the newspapers, that I cannot access from the UK, and will also have better insight into the US legal system – Thanks - Arjayay (talk) 10:23, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have not really looked at the article or the lengthy dispute on the talk page, but here is a general answer. In general, we AGF citations to offline newspapers. If you have doubts over the veracity of a citation you can ask at WP:LIBRARY to find a copy of the article. Letters are not usually accepted as reliable sources. Apart from the WP:PRIMARY issue, they will not usually be accessible to others so fail WP:V. There is also the question of copyright which is vested in the letter writer. Linking to sites that breach copyright is not permitted. It might be possible to find archives of the pages that have gone dead, but I would question their reliability for use in Wikipedia in the first place. SpinningSpark 11:59, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is there someone I can email outside of Wikipedia?

I got a serious issue here with a user named Ryulong and he has done nothing but harass me since I started List of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers home media releases because he didn't like it and he doesn't want it to exist and he is pretty much doing anything in his power to get his way by trying to get me blocked for an edit war (which he "broke" as well, he started on a Template:Power Rangers and stating that my posting the list is irrelevant with "it is not relevant to the whole of the topic" when it is as both are Power Rangers, he has also proven he is trying to get his way by trying to delete two other articles just to get his way with the page I started, I do not know what to do, I do not want to be blocked because this edit does not like a page I started and now will do everything in his power to get his way by doing all this as well as throwing intimidation stuff on my talk page. Please help me! Bumblebee9999 (talk) 10:57, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is a content dispute that has gone out of control and now Bumblebee9999 wants to report me to some non-existant governing body to get his way just as he is accusing me of warning him and reporting him for edit warring as an attempt to get my way. There is no real world contact and even then going out of your way to contact someone off-site to get me in trouble is a violation of so many rules.—Ryūlóng (琉竜) 11:07, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You can email whoever you like outside Wikipedia, but it won't make any difference to our procedures. There is no point bringing your dispute here. The behaviour issue is already open at the edit warring noticeboard and you can contribute to the debate at the AFD. Accusing experienced editors of harrasment is not going to help you. Rather you should concentrate on addressing the objections to the article rather than attacking the person. SpinningSpark 11:15, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Excuse me? Experienced user or not his behaviour is not acceptional at all. So please do not tell me not to "accuse experience editors of harassment" when this experienced editor has done nothing but that. Thanks! Bumblebee9999 (talk) 11:45, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

~~Also, harassment is harassment regardless if someone is experienced or not. Bumblebee9999 (talk) 11:46, 25 July 2014 (UTC)~~[reply]

I recant this as the situation has been resolved. Sorry for any inconvenience I caused or to anyone I upset. Bumblebee9999 (talk) 12:06, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nominating articles for deletion is not harassment. It is a normal part of our procedures. Your remedy is to defend the article at AFD. Ryolung knows this because he is familiar with Wikipedia procedures. You do not and you would do better to assume good faith on the part of others until you have that experience. This would become harassment if the same, or similar, articles were being repeatedly nominated with the same rationale after the community had already made clear that they wished to keep them. We are not at that stage yet. Concentrate on convincing other editors that the article(s) should be kept. SpinningSpark 12:10, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I do appreciate your advice and I will take it into strong consideration for other users but you should not be too quick to defend Ryolung I am only saying because it was pointed out that "he clearly knew what he was doing and was gaming the system." per the decision of his block. I am just making you aware and as I said I do appreciate your advice and thank you for it and will take it into consideration and try to assume good faith with other Wikipedia users, just cannot with him. I was also advices to avoid interacting with him and I am going to do so. Good day and thanks again. Bumblebee9999 (talk) 12:36, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Talk-about Semir Osmanagich

Hello,I cannot find the way to talk with Ronz

who diverted my editing of Bibliography on article "Semir Osmanagich", without comment why he did it and didn't give me possibility to ask him..

I am very thankful if we can communicate and

I can get explained what is wrong with my editing.. so I can learn and to do it better.(I am new here)

Data which I gave about published books are more complete and in form of encyclopedic information as it is expected to find it on Wikipedia.

maybe it should be in some chronological order or maybe something was missing , but please tell me..

Thank you--Indija (talk) 11:49, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You can contact User:Ronz on their talk page, User talk:Ronz. But FWIW I agree with the removal of that material - Wikipedia articles are written in summary style and are not supposed to be all-encompassing lists of a writer's oeuvre.--ukexpat (talk) 12:09, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Ronz explained his reasoning in this edit summary - Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information, and so we do not need to host a comprehensive list of publications. You can discuss this with Ronz either on his talkpage or on the article's talkpage if you wish. Yunshui ^雲 _水 12:19, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In fact most of those were simply translations of items already in the article - some were inaccessible websites. Dougweller (talk) 14:51, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Need help satisfying Wiki's need for verification!

Hi, and thank you for your time.

I am updating the following page for my friend, director Klaartje Quirijns

I rewrote most of the former page (deleting a lot of non - backupped statements) and made footnotes for reference regarding the awards she received.

Still, the warning "This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)" remains on top of the page.

I tried, I've read the help articles, but I can't find at all where and why it keeps giving this message!

Hope you can help out!

Thanks a lot!

Sanderke28 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sanderke28 (talk • contribs) 12:52, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sanderke28. The message is a template that has been inserted manually by another editor. Like all maintenance templates, it is removed manually when the problem is fixed. As an editor with a conflict of interest (a page you should read) you should not remove the template yourself, but leave that for some other editor to do. Looking briefly at the page, I would say the template still applies as there is still quite a bit of uncited prose in the article. SpinningSpark 13:05, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion Assistance - Defamatory Post

My employer recently tasked a freelance writer to create a wikipedia page for our company, unfortunately the writer posted the article without our consent and it's filled with false information. The author (who is the administrator of the page) is refusing to delete the page. It's important that it be taken down as soon as humanly possible because this article could hurt our reputation and effect business. Proposed deletion has not worked and I'm unable to do a mass delete on the text.

What can I do to have this page deleted? Federal Heath Sign Company

Ashleykb (talk) 14:43, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't normally action a deletion request like this (companies don't get to dictate the content of Wikipedia's articles about them), but there was so much wrong with the article anyway that I was able to delete it under the speedy deletion criteria for promotion and significance. Yunshui ^雲 _水 14:47, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your employer should not have had a Wikipedia page created about your company anyway, due to conflict of interest. Also, the statement that the author is the administrator of the page is incorrect. Wikipedia pages do not have administrators. Maybe the freelance writer said that he is the administrator of the page; I don't know. Wikipedia does not give legal advice as to your employer and the writer. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:58, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that the page was taken down twice. Maybe it should be salted. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:00, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for everyones assistance with this. Ashleykb (talk) 16:19, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Error Message

a <ref> tag is missing the closing <\ref>

Please what does this mean? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sheree Dawn Music (talk • contribs) 15:14, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

When you create a reference, it needs an opening tag (<ref>) and a closing tag (</ref>). If the latter is omitted the page formatting falls apart.--ukexpat (talk) 15:30, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As an administrator I can see you created the since deleted Expostulation and Reply with the code

<ref><ref>http://www.bartleby.com/ 
Bartleby.com: Great Books Online</ref></ref>

. There were several problems. The error message was because each <ref> must be closed with </ref> before the next <ref> is opened. See more at Help:Referencing for beginners. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:37, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Was the linked help page of value? If not, what did you find confusing? -- Gadget850^talk 20:15, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ref and ref group

What do "Ref" and "Ref group" mean in the citation templates? I looked at the Template: Citation page but it was unhelpful. Thanks Etallo (talk) 19:00, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, Ref group is explained here. The gist is that it's useful if you need to have two types of references, for example sources and explanatory footnotes. In most cases, you don't need to worry about it. It looks like "ref" isn't used much either, mostly if you're trying to use a shortened reference form like this. Howicus (Did I mess up?) 19:32, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

According to the documentation at template:citation the ref= parameter is used to provide an anchor. It is equivalent to the html id=. See WP:ANCHOR for more information. I don't know where the OP is seeing the "ref group" parameter. It is not in any citation template I have looked at, nor is it in the citation tool. Perhaps the OP can explain where they are looking exactly. SpinningSpark 21:09, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Username

Hello, Can I change my username, if so, how is that done. Thanks, GD— Preceding unsigned comment added by Canvas Image (talk • contribs)

See WP:Changing username/Simple. —Jeremy v^_^v ^Bori! 20:28, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As you only have 6 edits, just abandon your current user name and create a new one. Much simpler.--ukexpat (talk) 15:07, 28 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Editing pages in Book Creator

Hi

When creating a book in Book creator how do you edit what you do and dont want, how do you cut and paste into chapters etc

Help:Books should answer your questions. Come back here if there is something specific you don't understand. SpinningSpark 21:20, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Searching without stemming problem

From Help:Searching: "Stemming may be deactivated by using double quotes." - but this claim does not seem to be true; try the search 'lattice "base"'. All of the results shown come from stemming, and if the claim were true most of the results you see wouldn't be there. So how do I search for pages with 'lattice' and for 'base' the stem, without the 'd'? Jar354 (talk) 21:13, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Try turning on the new Cirrus search (beta > New search). Although that still highlights "based" in the results, I did not find any articles that did not also contain "base", at least as a hyphenated compound. The new search seemed to make a better job of a few other test examples I tried as well. SpinningSpark 21:34, 25 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 July 25