Help desk
< March 30	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	April 1 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

March 31

Article not appearing in a category

Can someone figure out why 2013–14 Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team is not appearing in Category:NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Final Four seasons? Jrcla2 (talk) 14:04, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It is; it's just on the second page of results (amusingly enough, there are exactly 201 articles currently in that category, and only 200 can display on the page). Just click the "next 200" link at the bottom of the category list. Yunshui 雲‍水 14:09, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Oh wow, I feel like an idiot. I didn't even notice that there are now 201+ articles. Thanks! Jrcla2 (talk) 14:45, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If that's the worst issue you have editing Wikipedia then Jimbo wants you to take his place. :) :) Naraht (talk) 14:57, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'd consider it, in all honesty! Jrcla2 (talk) 15:00, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Because you'd like to take his place or because this means all worse issues that you have would go away? :)Naraht (talk) 16:44, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Both. It'd be kind of neat to be in charge of Wikimedia. Jrcla2 (talk) 17:30, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Jimbo isn't "in charge of Wikimedia". In any event, have you seen some of the crap he has to put up with on his talk page?!--ukexpat (talk) 00:27, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Missing email address

I have forgotten my password, which I haven't used for several years. The Reset Password function tells me there is no email address on my account (roryjohnston) to send a reset to. What can I do? I don't want to open a new account because that will lose the connection with the histories on the work I have already done on the article Denis Johnston. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.167.60.98 (talk) 02:08, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Basically the advice is that you have to create a new account - see Help:Logging_in#What if I forget the password? for more information and suggestions of what to do about linking past edits, etc. I expect it's because there's no longer any way to really verify that someone claiming to be an inactive user is really that user without the associated email address, etc. I expect it could be overridden at some administrative level, but they would be unlikely to want to do this. --jjron (talk) 05:02, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

For merging another account's contribution history to your current one, see WP:USURP. And this time, don't forget to activate your email. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:42, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

copyright issue - please help

Hello, I'm so frustrated my page was deleted so fast because I took info directly from a website, obviously violating copyright I guess - the problem is it was my website!!! It was my material! I'm mad because I don't know how to retrieve all my hard work, and I'm not sure how to fix this problem. The help pages on this issue are too technical. I want to be able to put MY writing (unalterable) from MY website (unalterable) onto Wikipedia where it will be subject to appropriate editing. Tell me exactly what code I need to insert, and where, so that I can fix this fast. Thx. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 11:56, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You will need to release the material on your website under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA licence, which you can do by placing a notice on the site itself. Before you do so, you should be aware that such a release is irrevocable - you can't decide later that you don't want to release the material - and that it allows anyone (not just Wikipedia) to reuse or alter your work for any reason, including for commercial purposes, as long as they attribute it back to you.

It's also worth noting that the information provided in the previous version of the page did not indicate that Paul Fairfield meets the relevant inclusion guidelines, nor did it cite any reliable, independent sources - these would also be reasons for the article to be speedily deleted. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:02, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That's fine. What should I say in this notice? were there other issues with my wiki page that I should be aware of? I thought my my cites (University websites) were reliable sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 12:07, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

University bios are not independent of the subject - you need to find significant coverage in reliable sources that are not in any way affiliated with Prof. Fairfield. For the licence code, go to the Creative Commons selection page and choose a licence that allows share-alike adaptation and commercial use. Then just copy the code onto your website. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:15, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, this is silly. Firstly, I do not wish to change the copyright of my webpage www.paulfairfield.com. Paul is my husband. Can I use Quotations or something? I'm not sure how to reference his place of birth and year. Can Paul somehow authorize this information himself? Should I use Amazon as a reference for his books? Surely Paul Fairfield himself can verify this information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 12:27, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you wish to retain the current licence on your website that's your prerogative, but it does mean that the text cannot be used on Wikipedia. As far as sourcing goes, verifiability isn't a major issue - the problem you are liable to run into is that it doesn't appear as if Prof. Fairfield is sufficiently notable for Wikipedia to have an article on him. That's in no way a value judgement; "notable", here, has the very specific meaning of "extensively written about in reliable third-party sources". His books, his employer or his own words are not sufficient to meet that requirement; you will need to cite significant coverage in sources which are not directly related to him or his work. I realise that you are frustrated by Wikipedia's policies, but they dictate how this website operates, and you will need to read them and abide by them if you want to edit here. To trim it down for you, the minimum you need to look at is WP:PROF, which explains what Wikipedia considers notable for academics, and WP:42, which explains (in a very truncated format) the minimum requirements for sourcing. Amazon, for example, is not a suitable source. Yunshui 雲‍水 12:36, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I've seen plenty of other professors ON Wikipedia with only similar references. I was under the mistaken impression that Wiki was open to additions and editing by anyone on ANY subject. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 12:46, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You are right, there are a lot of other articles that have slipped by and dont meet the requirements and should also be removed. Because this is a wiki, you can help! by providing third party sources or tagging with {{notable}}. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:54, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In addition, I wouldn't have bothered on this pointless venture had I not seen half a dozen other professors, similarly displayed on wiki. I attempted to model my page after theirs, so I'm sure you can understand my frustration. Perhaps if consistencies were in existence here I would be less so. Thanks for your "help". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 12:50, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

For the WP:Notability issue you could create a section "Publications" or similar listing some of your books, but it would be really better to wait until somebody else free of a conflict of interest tackled this. Or check out the wonders of the articles for creation procedure. –Be..anyone (talk) 12:57, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've read your notability criterion for academics and Paul Fairfield certainly meets them. We wanted to be able to elaborate on his wiki page over time but I guess you have to put it all out there to be accepted. Okay. In some time when I prepared to attempt this again, I will do so. In the meantime I will be tagging non-compliers. Sorry for my frustration, and thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dargavel (talk • contribs) 13:02, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

NO, you should NOT attempt to create an article about your husband again in the future. It is against our conflict of interest policies. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 13:38, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Lost ability to see pictures

Hello,

By some event that I cannot understand I have lost the ability to see any pictures on wikipedia (English, German). The text displays fine, but the accompanying pictures simply are not there. How can I get them back?

Please help, Alfred 97.92.85.234 (talk) 14:53, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you haven't already done so, try a reboot. When running low on memory, pics are often not displayed, and a reboot frees up more memory. StuRat (talk) 14:59, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tried, but it didn't help. But I tried using Safari instead of Firefox, and in Safari the pictures display. However, the missing picture problem is confined to wikipedia in Firefox and apparently does not affect other sites. I rarely use a browser other than Firefox, so I don't really want to switch to Safari just so that wikipedia displays correctly. Alfred — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.92.85.234 (talk) 15:16, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a Firefox extension installed that blocks adverts from certain sites? You may have accidentally blocked "upload.wikimedia.org", the domain that provides most of the images on Wikipedia pages. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:49, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Swift current rampage lacrosse

Good day. There are some inaccuracies with regards to our info on here. Bid like to update it. How can I do this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.17.112.93 (talk) 15:18, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please leave a message on the article's talk page setting out the changes that you think should be made, providing references to independent sources.--ukexpat (talk) 15:23, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Content validity conflict

Hello! How to handle disagreements with other users over content? I made a short addition to the subject about Vikings, then shortly after 2 users disagreed and deleted my contribution. I re-added my contribution with justification, only to have my contribution deleted again. I then added it back. It seems this will never end. Who gives other users the right to decide another user's contribution is not valid? --Rfischer8655 (talk) 15:32, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Per WP:BRD please discuss with the other users on the article's talk page.--ukexpat (talk) 15:39, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion with users who delete contributions hasn't resolved the issue. It sounds like there's no higher authority to prevent deletion abuse by users. — Preceding unsigned comment added

WP:Dispute resolution.--ukexpat (talk) 15:55, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Are you providing reliably published sources that represent a significant mainstream view currently held by academics? -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 18:28, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Girls Preparatory School

I am the Director of Communications at Girls Preparatory School and attempted to make some edits to our Wikipedia page this morning. There was much that needed editing. I previewed and saved the page after making the edits and noted that the new information came up on the page when I did another Google search. However, now it seems that someone by the name of Pratyya Ghosh undid our school's requested revisions. This message came up on the edit page: Undid revision 602125170 by Pratyya Ghosh (talk) I have a login and password for making changes. What other qualifying information is needed so that I can revise text that is incorrect or, as was the case, inappropriately added by someone who does not have the authority to rewrite our school's descriptions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aexum (talk • contribs) 17:46, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You have a conflict of interest so you are strongly advised not to edit the article. You do not own it, so please use the article's talk page to suggest the edits that you think should be made, supported by references to independent sources.--ukexpat (talk) 17:49, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]