Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2025 February 22

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.

February 22

Citing an Army Court of Criminal Appeals decision

I am trying to fix one of the citations on suicide of Danny Chen. The citation for "on appeal, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed...discharging him with a Bad Conduct Discharge" is a bare URL. The link previously led to some sort of court decision. (It now leads to a history page, but thankfully, it has been saved on the Wayback Machine.) I want to fill out this citation, but as I have absolutely no experience with law or legal matters, I have no idea how to cite it. I do not even know which citation template to use. Still-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter (talk) 02:44, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Still-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter I tried {{cite court}} and put opinion=ARMY 20120804

Wikipedia code <ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Ryan J. Offutt |litigants-force-plain= |vol= |reporter= |opinion=ARMY 20120804 |pinpoint= |court=United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals |date=22 October 2014 |url=https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/Portals/Files/ACCAOther.nsf/SD/9A3C04D4E233CC1885257D7E006DD210/$FILE/sd-offutt,%20rj.pdf |quote= |postscript= |archive-date=29 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229233338/https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/Portals/Files/ACCAOther.nsf/SD/9A3C04D4E233CC1885257D7E006DD210/$FILE/sd-offutt,%20rj.pdf}}</ref>

displays as

References

TSventon (talk) 06:19, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. I'll try that. Still-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter (talk) 02:14, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Toolforge map emergency

When clicking on the coordinates for various places one does not get to the GeoHack page/portal to various maps like OpenStreetMap or Google Maps. There is an error note from ToolForge. When will we get access back to the GeoHack directory of maps?Dogru144 (talk) 06:05, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Dogru144: This problem was reported recently at #Coordinate links no longer work, so it is probably best to discuss the problem there. TSventon (talk) 06:58, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much for this explanation and advice.Dogru144 (talk) 16:17, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

Using CSS to block CentralNotices

Is it possible to block Central Notices via CSS? If so, how? Rockfang (talk) 06:29, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Rockfang: "Suppress display of all CentralNotices" is an option at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. It uses MediaWiki:Gadget-HideCentralNotice.js and MediaWiki:Gadget-HideCentralNotice.css. Maybe you would only need the CSS if you don't mind the banner code being loaded without displaying it. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:01, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Name Change of "Saturn S series" Article

Would attempting an article move of the "Saturn S series" article to a hypothetical "Saturn S-Series" article-- given further research fully corroborates the idea that Saturn has always internally referred to the S-Series as "S-Series" (see Talk:Saturn S series#"S-Series", not "S series" for more details, such as references to "Saturn S-Series" and "Saturn S-series" as well as potential inconsistency within Saturn)-- be appropriate or overly pedantic?

It bothers me to leave an inaccuracy there but I also recognize it probably doesn't hurt much as is.

What should be done? TheSaturnLover (talk) 06:33, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I suggest moving the article and see what happens. It can always be moved back if necessary. Rockfang (talk) 06:38, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Nothing. The planet is warming, the tundra is thawing, species face extinction, and fascism is on the rise. Meanwhile yours is what I think we may call a "first world problem". -- Hoary (talk) 07:08, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Your positivity is exhilarating, Hoary. Anyway, thanks be to Rockfang, we will see what happens. TheSaturnLover (talk) 07:32, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Help me with draft article

Hello, I have created an article on drug bust controversy in Visakhapatnam, it cna be found at the link Draft:Visakhapatnam Drug Bust Controversy, but, it was declined saying, could be notable but this is written like a news article, can someone help me out in re-arranging the article, so it can be published on Wikipedia. Truth Layer 123 (talk) 15:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Truth Layer 123. Help Desk volunteers give advice, but don't generally assist with writing or rewriting drafts.

Looking at your draft, the sentence "Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh is one of the busiest ports in India and a major hub for global trade" caught my eye. In my view, that is an example of something that does not belong in the article.

Generally, a Wikipedia article should be a summary of what independent reliable sources say about the subject of the article, and very little else. The sentence I've quoted above is cited to a source - but the source does not mention the subject of this article, so it is likely that neither this source, nor any information verified from it, belong in the article (the information should be in the linked article Visakhapatnam Port anyway).

That is just one example - and the advice I've given is always am atter of editorial discretion, not an absolute. But I hope it will help you undersatnd what the reviewer meant. ColinFine (talk) 16:59, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Truth Layer 123 The declined-article message suggests asking for help at the Articles for creation help desk, which is a different page from this one. (I've not checked to see what kind of thing is typically answered there, though.) And you could of course ask the person who reviewed it what they think needs working on. Musiconeologist (talk) 18:01, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Truth Layer 123 Your draft looks promising but I think that the main issue is that it is speculating about an ongoing event, particularly in the "Aftermath" section, with statements like The case continues to unfold.... I think you should confine yourself to what is firmly established from reliable sources. Wikipedia articles can be updated if later findings become available. The title should be more neutral and encyclopaedic but that's a minor point. Mike Turnbull (talk) 22:23, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Infobox image size

I can't get "|image_upright=" to work on infobox military conflict. This may well be me being a bit slow. Experimenting, I get it to work fine for me for infobox politician, but not for infobox weapon. Is there an issue? If not, could somewhat walk me through how to resize infobox images? Using px to resize infobox images - or any others - is, I am told, depreciated. Thanks. Gog the Mild (talk) 16:04, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Gog the Mild: Infoboxes have different parameters. {{Infobox military conflict}} does not have image_upright. The parameter is mentioned at Template:Infobox military conflict#Parameters 3 but that's the 3rd "Parameters" section and is actually about {{Infobox military operation}} which does have the parameter. The section is transcluded from Template:Infobox military operation/doc. That's confusing. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:33, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Ah ha! Yes, it was. Thank you PrimeHunter. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:37, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Gog the Mild: I have added notes at Template:Infobox military conflict#Parameters 2 and Template:Infobox military conflict#Parameters 3 that the parameters are for other templates.[1][2] PrimeHunter (talk) 17:58, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Request to create new categories

The articleTurkmen needlework needs to be categorized. The Persian version of this page has categories that need to be placed in larger categories. Creating a category is not a problem. But I am afraid that simply translating these categories into English will cause chaos in the WikiEnglish classification system. Please create the necessary categories to include pages related to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Arbabi second (talk) 19:21, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Not me, User:اربابی دوم, because I am profoundly ignorant of needlework and would probably make stupid miscategorizations. You understand the subject matter and what you write suggests that you understand (en:Wikipedia-style) categorization as well, so why not tackle the task yourself? If you have particular questions about how en:Wikipedia categorization works, feel free to ask them here; if you have questions about the appropriateness of certain categories or about your suggestions for new categories, then pose them either here or at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Textile arts. -- Hoary (talk) 23:04, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Hoary😊 Arbabi second (talk) 07:29, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

How do I propose a new Wikipedia page on an individual?

Daniel Horowitz (b. 1938) is Professor of American Studies, Emeritus, at Smith College. He is a much-published authority on American history and material culture whose new book Bear With Me: A Cultural History of Famous Bears in America is being published by the Duke University Press in August, 2025. Teddyart (talk) 19:30, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Hello and welcome to the Help Desk. You can propose a new article at Requested Articles- but it is backlogged to the point of uselessness; if you believe an article should exist, the best thing you can do is create it yourself. It is a challenging process- but if you believe this professor meets the special Wikipedia definition of a notable professor or more broadly a notable person- you should gather independent reliable sources that support any claims about this professor. You may use the Article Wizard to create and submit a draft. I'd suggest reading Your First Article as well. 331dot (talk) 19:44, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Teddyart, please read Wikipedia:Notability (academics) and also the similar guideline for creative professionals including authors. I read the publisher's description of the bear book and it sounds fascinating. But Wikipedia is not a crystal ball and a writing a book scheduled to be published six months from now is not a plausible claim of notability. If the book ends up being widely reviewed, then maybe the book ought to have an article at that time. See Wikipedia:Notability (books). So, the issue is whether or not the author/professor is notable now, based on his work to date. Cullen328 (talk) 20:44, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

@Teddyart One problem with finding sources for a potential article is that there is a lawyer with the same name: see Daniel Horowitz. If you could indicate here in this thread what you would consider to be the sources for a biography of the professor, we could advise further. The best sources need to meet our golden rules but some details can be filled out from simple statements, e.g. on a university website. Mike Turnbull (talk) 22:13, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Teddyart, get some practice improving existing articles about academics, and after some time doing that, embark on a draft. Finding sources shouldn't be difficult: just search for his name AND any one among "scripps college", "smith college", "morality of spending", "vance packard", "betty friedan", "anxieties of affluence". -- Hoary (talk) 23:42, 22 February 2025 (UTC)