User talk:JMF/Archives/2020/February

East West Rail

Rather than breaking an embargo, apparently the problem with Rail's report was that they had used the DfT press release virtually verbatim without attribution. When the editor found out what had happened he got the piece withdrawn; as you say, something similar will probably reappear shortly. --David Biddulph (talk) 21:06, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: well as you may have noticed I reinstated citing a different source, which also reads like a DoT press release verbatim. Feel free to replace again if/when Rail Mag produces some actual journalism. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 21:11, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: I wonder if Mix96 counts as a wp:RS when they report an Aylesbury–Oxford service despite a map that shows clearly that a west/south chord at Claydon Junction is not planned :-) --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 21:17, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

/* Other effects: Why the United Kingdom income tax year begins on 6 April */

1. How do you indent a paragraph eg for a quotation?

2. I no longer seem to be able to select a passage of text. Can you tell me how to do this again? Honandal2 (talk) 11:20, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

@Honandal2:

• 1. use template:quote. Like this:

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York

— William Shakespeare, Richard III

• 2. Sorry, I don't understand this question? It is a browser function (click on start of text to be copied, left mouse button down, hold, drag to end of section, release, right mouse button to copy). Some websites have technology to stop readers doing this without paying (in which case you wouldn't have been able to use it anyway under WP:FAIRUSE). Is that what you meant? --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 11:46, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

References

Many thanks for this prompt reply. On point 2: I want to put existing quotations into an indented paragraph. To do this I propose to use your explanation on point 1 and then select and copy the existing quote in the article into it. I know how to select text but it doesn't seem to work in the Wikipedia article I am working on. I can delete characters one at a time but cannot select a whole chunk to cut and paste into the new quote indent. I do not understand what is going on. Honandal2 (talk) 12:37, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

I think I have found the problem. I had clicked on "Sytax highlighting" by mistake and this seems to have turned off the ability to select text. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Honandal2 (talk • contribs) 14:11, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for February 9

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Draft article

Do you know maybe somebody who could help to improve this draft article Draft:Anaplastic oligodendroglioma on the same way like we did it with "Danish withdrawal from the European Union Regards, Wname1 (talk) 17:36, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

@Wname1:, that subject is well outside my expertise (such as it is anyway). You might get help at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine? Best wishes. [But I had a look anyway, I'm impressed! Good work. By the way, named references in the style <ref name= ":0"> are deprecated nowadays because of high risk of error. So I changed a couple in ways that you might find explain it better.--John Maynard Friedman (talk) 21:10, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

A small question: What means this what you write often with no text inside""? Wname1 (talk) 14:23, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

@Wname1:, {{cn}} is short-hand for {{citation needed}}, see template:citation needed and wp:citing sources. It means that you have made a statement that you believe/know to be true, but you have not provided any reliably sourced evidence (a citation) to support it. Wikipedia works only because people are not allowed to contribute their own opinions or WP:original research, so any time a contributor makes an important assertion, it must be supported by citation. If not, then another editor will either (a) delete it straight away or (b) tag it with a CN, giving the contributor a few days (weeks if generous) to provide the source – if one is not provided quickly then any editor may and indeed should delete it. So a good rule is: gather your evidence first, then write the article!--John Maynard Friedman (talk) 15:00, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Excuse, I have even first time reading this topic regarding "<ref name= ":0">". Wname1 (talk) 20:51, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

@Wname1:, you used the style "<ref name= ":0">" in the Dexit article and this article (I changed it in this one). Did you mean that you didn't realise that it is deprecated? If so, see Help:Footnotes#Footnotes: using a source more than once. --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 11:01, 27 February 2020 (UTC)