Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

→

Archive 5

References/Sources for Television Shows and Books

Hello All, I was wondering the best way to go about looking up references and sources that would be considered credible in updating and editing articles on television shows and books. Any thoughts on where to start since I do not want to try and end up doing something wrong on my first attempt? Thanks.Kdeorne1 (talk) 13:15, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Good question. Of course, you want to follow Wikipedia's guideline on reliable sources. Also, you should consider posting your question at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Television, and also think about joining that project, working with other editors with similar interests. (There is also a similar one for books, Wikipedia:WikiProject Books, but it appears to be much less active, so you may not have as much success posting your question on that Wikiproject's talk page. Still probably worth doing.

Which doesn't directly answer your question - perhaps others here will want to do that. In any case, it's great that you're planning to start with sources, to improve articles, rather than just taking information wherever you find it. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 13:32, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Hello Kdeorne1! I hope your Wikipedia experience is going well. The most reliable sources are usually trade journals, which unlike the "popular press", tend to focus more on the business and less on rumors and celebrity gossip. In other words, for the entertainment industry, you'll probably want to use more of journals like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and less of magazines like Us Weekly. I know that the Nielsen Company publishes a range of entertainment industry publications as well, I've used Nielsen's website for information; they have lots of good stuff on ratings and trends in TV viewership. Unless you live in either New York or Los Angeles, you may have trouble finding such journals on newstands, however most major libraries should have access to them, and many of them also publish online. The above specific advise assumes you are in the U.S. Of course, if you are in another country (like the UK or Australia or Canada), then you'll need to seek other Journals of similar reliability and reputation. Libraries in those countries should still be able to help you locate such sources. --Jayron32 14:46, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Locating places in Wikipedia map.

Hi All; I have been editing few places within Bhutan lately; how ever i didn't know how to located the map. can any one of you please enlighten me with the knowledge ?..

Thanking you Tshewang Tgyeltshen (talk) 01:18, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Hello Tgyeltshen, and welcome to the Teahouse. I'm a little confused on what you're looking for. If you need a list of image file relating to maps of Bhutan, you can view the list at the Wikimedia Commons category, located at commons:Category:Maps of Bhutan. -- Luke (Talk) 03:21, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

The first thing I thought of was how you can geolocate a location on a map, for example: Thimphu - when you look in the infobox the map has a pin in it showing the location of the town. I have to admit, even I don't know how to do that! :) SarahStierch (talk) 03:59, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Hello Tgyeltshen! One great resource for anything map-related is Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps. Lots of Wikipedian-cartographers work with that Wikiproject, and I have used people who work there to help me make maps for articles I have worked on. If you have specific questions about how some function related to maps or geography works at Wikipedia, they are a great resource! --Jayron32 04:08, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Its a fairly complex piece of coding. As part of {{Infobox settlement}} a few things need to be included for the map to show up:

|coordinates_region     = BT
|subdivision_type       = Country
|subdivision_name       = {{flag|Bhutan}}
|subdivision_type1      = District
|subdivision_name1      = <DISTRICT OF BHUTAN>
|latd= <DEGREE> |latm= <MINUTE> |lats= <SECOND> |latNS=S
|longd= <DEGREE> |longm= <MINUTE> |longs= <SECOND> |longEW=E

Just replace the <X> with the required variables. lat is short of latitude and long is short for latitude. This *should* work. cheers --Guerillero | My Talk 04:11, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi! Sorry, but just one more suggestion. If you would like to add a map to an article of an organisation, you can do this using location map. For example, in the case of the National Institute of Traditional Medicine (Bhutan), you could add to your article:

{{Location map | Bhutan

| lat_deg = 27 | lat_min = 28 | lat_sec = 57 | lat_dir = N

| lon_deg = 89 | lon_min = 37 | lon_sec = 56 | lon_dir = E

}}

This would create a map of Bhutan with a pin showing the location of the Institute.

class=notpageimage|

National Institute of Traditional Medicine

As an aside, it is great to see improved coverage of Bhutan. - Bilby (talk) 04:34, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

• Hello Tgyeltshen, I'm so glad that you stopped by the Teahouse! Did we give you the information you need? Thank you.--Rosiestep (talk) 04:26, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

How to write citations from newspapers

I would like to cite information on people and places that were only available from mentions in newspapers and not books. I would like to see an example of how it would read in Edit form. Information I use a here is a defunct English newspaper with which I am familiar and is not available digitally (so cannot create online link).

Newspaper Name - "Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News" Date - 15 February 1921 Page - 6

Cloptonson (talk) 21:40, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Hi! The easiest method is to use the "Cite" option in the edit window. When you edit a page, in the bar at the top of the edit box (where it has "B", "I" and various other options) you should see an option called "Cite". If you click on that you can select "Cite news" from the "Templates" option which will appear, and this will open a small window with boxes for the information you might add. Just ignore the URL or Access Date - the system will just leave them out if you don't add them to the options.

If you don't wish to take that path, or if the advanced toolbar isn't visible in your browser, you can always use the cite template directly. In this case it will look like:

<ref>{{cite news | author = | date = 15 February 1921 | title = | work = Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News | page = 6 }}</ref>

That will display in the references section of the page as:

Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News: p. 6. 15 February 1921.

I left the author and title blank in the example, as you didn't include them, but if you know them just drop the information into the right spots and all should be good. - Bilby (talk) 21:50, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Can I Cite an Interview I Performed?

Wikipedians, I need your wisdom. For an encyclopeadic article, is it okay to cite an interview that I performed myself? If so, how would I do that?

Arashi-Ai (talk) 20:48, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello there, how are you going? :-) It's not really advisable to cite an interview you created performed yourself would fall under original research, which essentially means it's something you discovered yourself (like an interview you did yourself). If it's a news item, however. you may be able to do a news report on Wikinews, as they allow this sort of material. Hope that helps. Steven Zhang ^{DR goes to Wikimania!} 20:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

• Hi. If your interview has been published in a reliable source (i.e. preferably a news outlet or journal) independent of you, and with editorial oversight, I would say that yes you can use it. If unpublished, it'd be "original research", so the answer would be no as Steven Zhang says. Depending on the nature of the interview and planned use, it may be appropriate to declare a conflict of interest in conjunction with its inclusion. In any case, an editor citing their own work should be careful that they're not placing undue weight on its contents, i.e. ask yourself whether its inclusion adds something of value to readers seeking content of a neutral (i.e. unbiased) nature. -- Trevj (talk) 16:05, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Citations aren't showing up properly

Hello, I am a new user of Wikipedia and I'm wondering why my reflist on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Lake_Elementary_School is showing up so strangely. Shouldn't the links at the bottom go to the sources, not the Wikipedia page? I think I'm following convention but I could be wrong. Googlypoo (talk) 09:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Reflist should go just above External links. It seems to be working OK though. A word of warning. Elementary schools are not normally given their own page but are instead merged into their local community page so the page may be put up for deletion or merge. You can read more about citing sources at WP:Citing sources.--Charles (talk) 11:02, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

You may want to try using ProveIt, accessible via "my preferences"->gadgets. Enter the details in the various boxes, place the cursor in the correct place in the main edit window, then click 'insert into edit form'. -- Trevj (talk) 12:51, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Voceditenore's response:

The description of the url's destination should go inside the brackets with a single space between the end of the url and the decriptive word of phrase. For example:

<ref name=NCES>[http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&InstName=Martha+Lake+elementary&SchoolType=1&SchoolType=2&SchoolType=3&SchoolType=4&SpecificSchlTypes=all&IncGrade=-1&LoGrade=-1&HiGrade=-1&ID=530240002089 Martha Lake Elementary]. [[National Center for Education Statistics]]. Accessed January 22, 2011.</ref>

produces

Martha Lake Elementary. National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed January 22, 2011

Best, Voceditenore (talk) 16:20, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Great! I just removed my previous response and we'll keep this. Thanks! SarahStierch (talk) 16:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Subject need writing?

Please show me a list of articles that need updating or reorganizing.32cllou (talk) 02:51, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Is this the best place to come for help editing?32cllou (talk) 03:04, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello and thank you for coming to the Teahouse. A list of articles that need updating or reorganizing is a bit vague. However, I think articles that have the {{Wikify}} and {{Update}} templates would be of help to you. If you have any other questions, feel free to post another message. -- Luke (Talk) 03:07, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

That's a good suggestion. 32cllou, on Luke's suggestion take a look at articles in these categories. Just simply click on any of the links you see here (the that are organized by date) and you'll find plenty of articles that can use help!

• Articles that need to be wikified - these articles need clean up!
• Articles needing updated - these articles are often out of date and need some attention, too :) (You will have to scroll down a bit on that page).

There are a ton of other places too. Let us know if that helps and if you're still not finding something that interests you we can help you find something else :) SarahStierch (talk) 03:25, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I should also mention the Missing encyclopedic articles project, which may be of some use. :) - Bilby (talk) 04:10, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Also check out Category:Wikipedia backlog. -- Trevj (talk) 12:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you all your your suggestions, which I will use. First, I saw research on modern sleeping pills finding a 5x increase in risk of death (from all causes) that needs to be in Wikipedia.32cllou (talk) 18:32, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

That sounds like a good idea. There is a specific Manual of Style entry for medicine, which can be found at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Medicine-related articles. It might be worth reading this, as medical articles do have quite a high quality standard. If you are still looking for places to help out, WikiProjects are a nice place to start, as they will give you all the resources you need, as well as a support group of people who are interested and knowledgeable about the subject. If there is anything you are specifically interested in, someone here can probably point you towards the right project. ItsZippy ^{(talk • contributions)} 19:06, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Sandbox policy

I am editing a Wikipedia article as part of a class assignment. I like gathering evidence and data and direct quotes first before I write any research assignment, so what I usually do is create a document that has direct paragraphs and quotes that I've copied from other sources (like relevant books) - which I'll later go through, filter, and paraphrase or cite as appropriate in the actual research report. Is it okay for me to use the Wikipedia sandboxes to collect these direct paragraphs and quotes? AlienInn (talk) 23:58, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

The best place would be in your own userspace. If you type your username into the search box followed by a slash then the name you want to call the page it will be ceated for you. See WP:Userpage Charles (talk) 00:23, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Great question! I don't know the answer if we're allowed to house that type of content on our sandbox either. Charles, are you saying that AlienInn should not use their sandbox? (Like the sandbox button that is located in the upper right corner with our user buttons?) Just curious if that is an option too. That Userpage link is pretty overwhelming! SarahStierch (talk) 00:30, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict)x2 That's perfectly fine, and I would strongly suggest that you use a private sandbox, rather then the public one that is widely advertised. Since the public sandbox is...public, your work is not likely to stay untouched for long. Instead, you can create your own at a place like User:AlienInn/Sandbox. This is within your own personal userspace, so it wouldn't be deleted or modified unless you were hosting bad material. From what you've said, you shouldn't have to worry about that. Cheers, Nolelover ^{Talk·Contribs} 00:26, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Ah, thanks Nole, that answers my (edit conflicting!) question above! Thanks. SarahStierch (talk) 00:31, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

It is an interesting issue - we've just started here and already the questions are challenging. :) As a general rule, the copyright policy doesn't distinguish between userspace, sandboxes and the encyclopaedia proper. So if you create your own sandbox, even if you do so in userspace, you can't add content there if you can't add it into a normal article. (In fact it is more restrictive in some ways - you can't add any non-free images outside of Wikipedia articles at all).

However, properly attributed quotes don't become a copyright concern until they become a substantial amount of the original work, so there is a bit of room to move. I had asked the Foundation about this once, and while I didn't get the clear answer I wanted, there was certainly some leeway for lists of quotations. Personally, though, I just gather those quotes offline, as it makes things a bit harder but also stays unquestionably in policy, but I have kept a small number of attributed quotes in my userspace when I really needed them online. So I agree fully with Charles and Nolelover that userspace is the best bet, but if there are going to be a lot of them, or they are substantial, keeping them offline is safer.

As an aside, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a list of references to sections of articles that you want to use, so maybe that would be an option too. - Bilby (talk) 00:38, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for helping the student folks! But I'm confused what the difference is between "userspace" and "sandboxes." I thought sandboxes are part of userspace? Maybe I'm mistaken? Annie Lin (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 00:45, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

The speed of response to User:AlienInn's question is really impressive, by the way! Annie Lin (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 00:46, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Your userspace would be everything east of the slash in User:Alin (WMF)/????. Hypothetically, every single page you make could be a sandbox, although that rarely happens in practice. So yes, sandboxes are part of userspace (except of course for the main sandbox), but not all userspace pages will be sandboxes. Examples of non-sandbox user pages would be the common award/userboxen pages. As a side note, I hope we haven't overwhelmed AlienInn :) Nolelover ^{Talk·Contribs} 00:52, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Awesome. Thanks Nolelover! Annie Lin (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 00:55, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

would like to know more

would like to know more regarding Tea House (Jeevanjoseph1974 (talk) 22:31, 27 February 2012 (UTC))

Hi Jeevanjoseph! I'm so happy you stopped by the Teahouse :) Welcome!! The Teahouse is a support space - it's here to help new editors feel comfortable with Wikipedia and to get in the game of editing with ease and support of experienced editors and fellow new editors! So ask away if you have a question; we will do our best to help out! You are also encouraged to reply to other new and experienced editors as well. You can learn a few more things about the Teahouse by clicking here to view our FAQ. I hope this helps you understand what the Teahouse is about. Feel free to respond if we can explain more, or ask a new question. Thanks for coming by! SarahStierch (talk) 22:39, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Articles about punk bands

I like writing about punk bands, is there anyplace where other people who like that also hang out? SarahStierch 05:16, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

You might be interested in the Punk music WikiProject. :) Banaticus (talk) 23:19, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I left you our new newsletter on your talk page. --In actu (Guerillero) | My Talk 16:48, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Ah! Very cool, thank you to you both! I'll check out the project. SarahStierch (talk) 22:34, 27 February 2012 (UTC)