MyWiki:Help desk/Archives/2016 May 16

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May 16

Potential conflict of interest

Hello Help Desk,

The company I work for is looking to create a Wikipedia page on their operations. So far the plan is to internally create an article, and I can forsee potential future issues with conflicts of interest.

I do believe that articles on the company founder, as well as a business concept that is relevant to the company, are both significant enough to warrant their own articles, but I do worry about the current plan.

Is it possible to outsource the article creation to an unbiased third party?

What do you recommend we do in this scenario to avoid breaking Wikipedia's rules? This is the first time I've been a part of the creation of a Wikipedia article that I am a stakeholder in...

Regards, --Coin945 (talk) 04:17, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Hello, Coin945. First, familiarize yourself (and your team) with the relevant policies and guidelines on conflict of interest if you have not already: Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure.

As for what is significant enough to warrant an article, refer to Wikipedia:Notability.

I've actually had good experiences with contributions by companies. The procedure is to suggest changes on the talk page of the article (if the article exists already; use Template:Request edit) or use the Wikipedia:Articles for creation process if it's a new article. This ensures that an unaffiliated editor will review the content. In both cases, the contributors should make their conflict of interest and possible paid relationship absolutely clear.

My past experience is that established companies have competent people who can manage research and write good content. I'd like to stress that they should only use sources that are independent of the company – not the company website, its press releases, annual reports, sales catalogues, testimonies by customers etc. (see Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources and Wikipedia:Independent sources). If there are independent sources, and the procedure described above is observed, then company contributions can be valuable additions to Wikipedia. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 12:33, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Finnusertop for your swift reply. I have been an editor of wikipedia for about 10 years, and am well aware of the third party reliable sourcing rule, which I know is vital for any article, but particularly pertinent when a company is writing about itself. Not all biases are conscious, after all... But as I said I do think the two article topics have enough third party reliable sources to justify their existence, and it is a case of being transparent and open to compromise on our end. I know I am, at least. :)--Coin945 (talk) 13:55, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Laird

Please look at ref number 3 - I cannot bring it up at all. is it typed correctly? it used to work as I read it only last week. Thanks so muchSrbernadette (talk) 04:44, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

 Fixed Just a small typo in the link - http://ww. instead of http://www. - NQ (talk) 05:05, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Laird

Please add the the category / link "Courtesy titles" in the "see also" section at the bottom of this page . I cannot do it from this iPad. Thanks so much101.189.0.102 (talk) 10:10, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

•  Done. Sam Sailor ^Talk! 10:17, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

I recall participating in a discussion of this article's Reference 1 a few months ago, and noted then that

(a) the book referenced (which I own) does not support the wording of the sentence citing it, and

(b) this and other works cited in several of the references give the name of their Printer rather than that of their Publisher, which seems to me irregular. I am currently (again) at Work so cannot conveniently address this further at this time. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 14:36, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Save Page botton

How to set my Save Page bottom in editing area color to   red

UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk) 11:26, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

@UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ: Add input#wpSave { background-color: #ff0000; } to your common.css - NQ (talk) 11:29, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Ya, I can ride metro journey to seeing around — Preceding unsigned comment added by UY4Xe8VM5VYxaQQ (talk • contribs) 11:31, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Help in a community falling apart

Hello.

Extended content

i would like to share my story with Jerry Brown social services in San Luis Obispo pretty much taunted me with the fact that I am a no body and I will neer get heard. I was raised by a single mother who did her best to raise me but had limited resources so we were abused mentally by her partners. I vowed to become educated and wait to hae children.

I learned I had a disability and school was a challenge I was able to get educated through the disability program. I met a man in college very smart and I thought extreamly nice. I was a alone no family support I had a church but my boyfriend was my family. I became pregnant at the end of my senior year in college with a Bachlors degree. I finished at the humiliation of my fat body. My partner left the country and our lives forever. I picked myself up after 15 hours of ripping up mybody and my mom came to buy us a mobile home it was all we could afford on our small budget. She was difficult to live with so she and her partner bought a mobile home next to us. I worked for a non profit homeless shelter and I did many roles and worked hard. I had some challenges with my writing skills but the manager worked with me. I worked for 5 years until my daughter was 8 I was very lonely. I met a nice guy through mutual friends. We hung around together for 1 1/2 I was not careful and became pregnant. It was a huge mistake I did not know the man was bi-polar and a hidden alcoholic. He had his own place but when our son was born he had cystic fibrosis we were both genetic carriers. It completely took my life away. I had to change to the night shelter job and I never slept. It changed my personality working and caring for my sick child. I did not qualify for sdi for my son een though I was severely sleep deprived. My partner drank more and was acting stange around my daughter from a former partner as a mother I had to protect her but as a tired woman I kept the father comming around to help. This later bite me in the rump. He became controlling and a stalker he thought I was with other people because I did not always call him only when I needed his help for sleep relief. I ended up having to get a restraining order. It did not work he attacked me 2 times I feared for my life.

I ended up leaving the shelter on stress leave and they fired me so I got a job at Home depote where my life was crazy I had hours 5 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 11 pm they were not very understanding that I had a sick son I became pregnant with another child same dad he took advantage when I had a few drinks to unwind. I went on pregnancy leae and had family care. I had food stamps because the kids dad was not always working he was an electrition he was not able to help us. I was hired at a state agency serving food to inmates it was suppose to be a stepping stone for more reliable hours and better health care.

I had a lot of problems in our mobile home park drinkers and drug users lived in the park and the manager did not kick them out I had near misses on my 2 year old crossing the street. I asked my mom to sale the mobile so we could put a down on a real house. The park was sold to a business man in San Francisco. They came here to buy us out. They are trying to get us out legally by saying our parks are run down. It took us 3 years with our place on the market when my mom sold it she lost all her profit and I invested 20,000. $ to fix it up all gone. I was in a section 8 house and the landlord wanted to rent it out for more then what the section 8 would pay. We had our deposite taken from a new bad landlord and section 8 told me it cost them money for a inspector so I had to reapply I waited 12 years for that section 8 and now me and my kids have been stuck on my moms floor and couch. My kids are angry and hurt that they have no room. I can not afford to get a place on my own I do not get child support because my ex is a dangerious man and I recieve sdi for one son for his speach and the other son who has learning challenges due to his lack of adequate ingestion and learning disabilities will not qualify because he is not death or blind. We can not afford to move out of the area and we have support here when my sons miss school or go to the doctors my mom helps a lot and when I have strange hours at work she watches them. I need changes and if I have these issues with our programs others might as well. I have to say without a safe place to bring my children up I feel like I am losing my sanity and I can not parent in a calm way. I lose sleep over eat and yell and say negative things because I can not win in this society where the rich own all the land. No matter how hard I work I can not get our own safe home and I can not bring my special needs children to an appartment complex they can not function in this type of environment.

These are my issues I would like to get across to goernor Brown or his wife:

• Any woman who lacks support from a dangerious spouce should qualify for affordable housing use sec 8 to buy a bank owned home.

• Any woman who has a child that deprives her of sleep that affects her job security should get sdi for that child.
• Any woman who lacks family support and has a low income should have access to child care that is safe and is 24 hour because most jobs are retail or they get a regular day shift as a law no questions asked by the company (home depote )had many single young teens who could hae taken my night shifts.
• Food stamps should not be back rated if checks fluctuate and the worker did not catch it, because then you owe them more then you make when it is on them for their mistake.
• Storage shed fees need to be counted in food stamp allowances why should I give up my things I worked hard for because our community does not provide or care for single women on low incomes and disabled children? I had circumstances where I could no longer afford housing why should I lose my family history. Our country did not let Hilter still their art history why am I any different let me keep my things without punishing me and my children with less food because you do not count my income going to keep our belongings.
• Have a program that lets moms run around to do banking shopping laundry while children are in a safe environment. You see children running around and you blame the parents thinking they lack skills to keep the kids under control but the children are disabled and no knows that because they just stare at you rudely and you feel irritated, so your kids act out more everyone gets anxiety. We need places for safe kids while moms get to breathe a few hours.

Why should my life be punished because I had a bad partner and low paying jobs and 2 children who need extra care?

Why can we be a community and help each other out so I am not a time bomb ready to explode and possibly go to jail and then tax payers have to pay for my children to be raised by someone else who will not love them as I do. I am writing is despiration I need something to go my way my children are having more and more issues the more frustrated and depressed I feel. If land was free I would be fine to go set up a tent and raise my children in it as long as we were warm and had our space. Why are you letting all the rich decide our lives? We have uncaring bosses who do not care if your goofy from lack of sleep or that you have IEP meeting, behavior meeting with the teacher, language meetings, dentist appointments, doctors appointments. Times are changed not everyone has resources for child care not everyone has the money to hire people to help with these challenges. We all need to look around and see how we can make better stronger communities. Then children will not grow up hating the world. Its all from a safe childhood and if the rich suppress the poor and make them feel pinched we have many good people sitting and rotting in jail using tax payers money to get bigger, angrier, and smarter about using the system to become better crooks that take from the nice humble people. Please help me find the right person to review my requests if these changes can not help me then maybe future generations. Impower women to give all children the chance to be loved even if they were not born perfect.

sincerely Christine Marie San Luis Obispo california resident — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.127.142.84 (talk) 11:42, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 5 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. -- GB fan 12:41, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Change Settings - password and email

Hello, I would like to change the email address and the password I am using on my account. I can't seem to find the settings to change this. Thank you.

JotamVA (talk) 12:51, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

If you click on the "Preferences" link at the top of any page, it will open a "User profile" window. In the "Basic information" section there is a link for "Change password". In the "Email options" section, there is a link for "Change or remove email address". -- Ed (Edgar181) 12:59, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Citing primary source from Russian

I'm trying to cite a primary Russian language source, but do not have experience with making such citations on Wikipedia. George Koval.

Deacktivate account

[How] can I deactivate this account? After deactivating this one can I create another one? ThanksRenamed user qweretrztzuzuzubvxcver4fdsf (talk) 17:33, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

• 1) Wikipedia accounts cannot normally be deactivated. You can just stop using the account. If you wish, you can change your password to a random string of characters that you'll never remember. But otherwise, your account cannot be removed or deactivated. It can be renamed to a random string of characters, as described at WP:VANISH, but it looks like you already did that. 2) If you wish to create a new account, you may, so long as you are not violating any of the rules listed at Wikipedia:Sock puppetry. --Jayron32 18:03, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Correction require on Democratic Primary schedules wins (Nebraska)

I was surfing to see the Democratic Primary schedule when I noticed a discrepency - in it, it's stated Hillary won Nebraska - when in fact she lost the state to Sanders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_2016#Schedule_and_results

The CNN results from that primary to help ya out. http://edition.cnn.com/election/primaries/states/ne/Dem — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gades1980 (talk • contribs) 18:32, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Any anti-POV cliques mechanisms

Does Wikipedia have mechanisms to counter POV cliques? Does Wikipedia have proactive mechanisms to counter violations, or are counter measures only taken when someone files a complaint? Formulairis990 (talk) 18:33, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

@Formulairis990: various kinds of Wikipedia:Dispute resolution exist to tackle problems with POV-"pushing" editors or groups of editors. If normal article talk page interaction fails, Wikipedia:Requests for comment and Wikipedia:Third opinion can be used to attract the attention of a wider range of editors, who might not be regular editors of the problem articles. If POV-pushing is disruptive and becomes an issue of incivility and user conduct, the process can go all the way up to Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee, which can set topic bans. Many political subjects are under Arbitration Committee sanctions in either of the two ways: some editors are banned from editing them altogether, or, problematic editing of some topic will get all editors blocked easier than on normal topics. I think the proactive component comes about by editors being mindful of these processes and recognizing that unconstructive POV-pushing will potentially get them in trouble. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 20:24, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Thank you. A problem I see with this process is that it requires a level of familiarity, investment, and commitment that acts as a high hurdle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Formulairis990 (talk • contribs) 21:35, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Edit summary comment, after the fact

Anyway to add or amend an edit summary after it is made? Formulairis990 (talk) 18:44, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Help:Edit summary#Fixing. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:46, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

ThanksFormulairis990 (talk) 21:27, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

top level registries ie. rightsidereg

In my opinion, I think some sort of password should be required to view these things. I, personally, do not mind, but it lists names of literally what it says "TOP LEVEL REGISTRIES."

PLEASE NOTE THAT MORE TIMES THAN NONE THESE SITES ARE FLAGGED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. I just never seen any flag myself but know it to be more wise than not to try and stick to things you already know before venturing to a flagged site not having a clue that it is flagged. Remember you are on the WORLDWIDE INTERNET and NOT the US Internet.

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 20:26, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

How to get rid of red text.

I do not know how to get red of the red text Missing or empty |title= (help) on my Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylin_Wang_Jabs — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.203.126.243 (talk) 18:59, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

The reference was simply missing a title, so I added it like this. Deli nk (talk) 19:07, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

Where is the best place to ask a question about disambiguation?

I have a fairly complicated question to ask about disambiguation, and I'd like to find the right place to ask it. Here (WP:HD)? WT:DAB? WT:WPDAB? Somewhere else (WP:VPM, perhaps)? A pointer would be most appreciated. Tevildo (talk) 21:08, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

WT:DAB is the place to discuss the guidelines about disambiguating. For specific questions about a particular dab page or issue I would suggest WT:WPDAB, although I have seen questions there go unanswered at times. MB (talk) 04:58, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Ask away. I've had a fair bit of experience with 'em (and I've got the scars to prove it). Clarityfiend (talk) 05:24, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. Feel free to repost this at a more appropriate venue. I've expressed the question in generic terms, but I can provide a specific example if necessary.

There is a fictional character called <Name>, who is not sufficiently notable to have their own article. Information on the character is available at [[List of <Publication> characters]].

We have a disambiguation page [[<Name> (given name)]] which already lists a number of fictional characters (but not the one from <Publication>). We also have [[<Name> (disambiguation)]], if that's relevant.

How should the character appear on the dab page? I can think of three alternatives, and there may be another solution:

1. Add an entry to the dab page: <Name>, character from <Publication> - see [[List of <Publication> characters]]

2. Create a redirect [[<Name> (<Publication>)]], which points to the character's section on the list page. Add [[<Name> (<Publication>)]], character from <Publication> to the dab page.

3. Put a piped link on the dab page - [[List of <Publication> characters|<Name>]], character from <Publication>

Option 3 is probably the least preferred (although the most logical), as piped links are discouraged on dab pages. However, any advice or alternative suggestions from someone experienced in the area would be very useful. Tevildo (talk) 23:46, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Both option 2 (MOS:DABREDIR) and 3 (MOS:DABPIPING) are allowed. In fact, the latter gives a specific example (Ten or Tenshinhan) that exactly matches what you're describing. 2 is less attractive because it says "This indicates a higher possibility that the topic may eventually have its own article." I generally use option 1 when the linked article is a related topic that has significant information about the entry. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:26, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks again! Option 3 it is. Tevildo (talk) 00:26, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

References

I've seen some articles where the references are formatted with two columns of references instead of just one, as {reflist|30em}} instead of just as {reflist}} When is each appropriate? (The missing bracket at the beginning is just so it would show as text in this quesstion) Margalob (talk) 23:26, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

This is explained here. Basically, a single column is better for a few footnotes but two columns is preferred with many footnotes. MB (talk) 04:46, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

That actually says that 30em is preferred. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:25, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

The advice to avoid multiple columns for few footnotes is mentioned in Template:Reflist/doc#Practices. GermanJoe (talk) 11:46, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

The template does not say 30em is preferred, it says: "The number of columns to use is up to the editor, but some major practices include: 1 column (default): Where there are only a few Footnotes; 30em: Where there are many footnotes plus a page-width Bibliography subsection; 20em: Where Shortened footnotes are used" MB (talk) 14:07, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

It says "Using {{Reflist|2}} will force creation of a two-column reference list, and {{Reflist|3}} will force creation of a three-column list, and so on. This feature is now deprecated in favor of the option described above [30em], which is better suited to flexible formatting for a variety of display screen sizes ..." (bolding mine) Clarityfiend (talk) 01:32, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

I think you misunderstand this. The section you referenced means you should use [30em] instead of specifying the number of columns with |2 or |3 (deprecated feature) when you want multiple columns. It does not say 30em is preferred in all cases. As stated above, Template:Reflist/doc#Practices clearly says that one column is common practice for a few footnotes. MB (talk) 05:38, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks! Margalob (talk) 14:12, 17 May 2016 (UTC)