Wikipedia:Help desk

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• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
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January 4

Is a map slideshow possible?

I have just uploaded three maps (each 4954 × 2868 pixels) of the Kaliningrad Oblast, one with placenames in Russian Cyrillic, one with them in Romanized Russian, and one showing the old prewar German names. I would like to be able to display these in one or two articles as a slideshow without sacrificing resolution or size so that a user can pore over the map as it were, full size, and see the names change every 15 seconds or so. I have tried .gif animation, but online apps always see fit to shrink the images and it does not work the way I'd like it to. Is there a way in which what I want can be done? Kelisi (talk) 03:59, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@Kelisi: As that's likely to fall foul of WP:ACCESSIBILITY, I wouldn't bother but, instead, display the three adjacently. If readers want to compare them in detail they can zoom or download the images. Bazza 7 (talk) 10:52, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, that was my other idea, but if anybody else knows a solution for my first idea, I'm still all ears. Thanks. Kelisi (talk) 15:57, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Copyvio or acceptable?

The article 1990 Luzon earthquake has two paragraphs with CN tags that are copied from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001734.htm. Would this be allowed per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright#Can_I_add_something_to_Wikipedia_that_I_got_from_somewhere_else? or would it be copyvio? Wildfireupdateman :) (talk) 04:42, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@Wildfireupdateman: Works produced by the U.S. federal government are in the public domain, so I don't think it'd be a violation. JJP_Master (she/they) 04:43, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not copyrighted, so not copyvio. However, any paragraph-length direct copy must be attributed to avoid plagiarism. See WP:plagiarism. The attribution for a shorter direct copy is arguably handled by just citing the source, although that's a bit weak. It's more proper to use actual quotation marks and a cite. Plagiarisn: any copying without attribution. Copyvio: copying copyrighted material with or without attribution. -Arch dude (talk) 04:55, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Renumbering items in a table

I have added two items (and expect I will have more to add) to the table in this entry List of New York State Historic Markers in Albany County, New York. They are the first #86 (Oriskatach) and the first #141 (Van der Zee Manor House). (Note: reviewing the table, I see Oriskatach actually claimed number 86, but now there are two number 87s.) However, because I copied and pasted an existing entry to work from, the row numbers were duplicated. I can go in and renumber all the items starting with the second #87, but I wonder if a template or other device was used that can now renumber the entries? I've looked through the archives and found this and also looked into static row numbers, but am quite uncertain about how to proceed. Any help would be appreciated, so I can understand how to fix it now and avoid the same problem when I add new entries. Many thanks. ~~~ TrudiJ (talk) 12:27, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@TrudiJ: having read the linked helpdesk query, I think a manual update would be the simplest option. If you are making several changes you could add numbers like 86a, make a note on the talk page and then do a final manual renumbering.

@Teratornis:, you helped in 2009, do you know if anything has changed since then? TSventon (talk) 14:43, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

You might consider {{row counter}}.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:37, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@TrudiJ: see Trappist the monk's suggestion above.

@Trappist the monk: I am glad to see that Wikipedia's code has improved since 2009. TSventon (talk) 12:23, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@TSventon @Trappist the monk: Thank you both for helping to find the correct way to handle this. I have tried inserting and testing out {{row counter}} in several different places in the table parameters, but have struck out each time. If one of you, or another editor, could help me to place this correctly, I would appreciate it. I've left 87a and 141a as row numbers, but perhaps should make both their row numbers blank before the counter is included? entry [[List of New York State Historic Markers in Albany County, New York]]~~~ TrudiJ (talk) 13:22, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@TrudiJ: I found an example at List of tallest buildings in Melbourne#Overall and copied the code into lines 1 and 2 and left line 3 blank, that seemed to work as expected. (Then I self reverted.) That page has a set of hidden instructions that would also needed to be adapted. TSventon (talk) 13:50, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@TSventon Thank you for all the help you have given me! I've looked over the list that you found, and found the hidden instructions. I think that given my technical ability, I will probably follow your initial suggestion of temporary letter-enhanced numbers, the corresponding note on the Talk page, and manually renumbering when I get the ones I know of into the table. TrudiJ (talk) 16:08, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Is a birth date required ...

... for all Wiki biographies? Although it seems to be required as per the MOS, I wasn't sure in situations when we might not find it out even after searching for third-party sources.

Incidentally, as I tried to figure out where else in Wikidom I might get help on this miniscule point, I came across something called "Editor Assistance," which was supposed to offer one-on-one assistance. What a disappointment to learn at the landing page that it was no longer available and the page was being kept merely for historical reference. I hope the Wiki tekkies are working on something using the power of AI to take its place. Augnablik (talk) 16:12, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

1. You are expected to do your best to find a date of birth; but if there is none, say so, including any comments you may find about the lack thereof in the record.

2. Given AI's complete and utter unreliability, its tendency to hallucinate and fabricate, it's safe to say we will not allow the power of AI to mess us up. --Orange Mike | Talk 16:19, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Agreed, AI isn’t ready to do a lot of things at this point. But it’s not too early for tekkies to begin working on things they want to make use of some day … Augnablik (talk) 16:37, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification about BLP birth dates. Augnablik (talk) 16:39, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@Augnablik If you haven't seen WP:DOB, it's worth reading. Birthdates are not gold to mined. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:44, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Interesting! And good to know. Augnablik (talk) 11:09, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Orangemike and @Gråbergs Gråa Sång, are either or both of you experts on Wikipedia MOS who could answer style questions occasionally? Already I have a new question that I just discovered will come up on a BLP: this one about disambiguation, which I never expected.

Oh, if only that earlier Editor Assistance feature were still available! Augnablik (talk) 11:52, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm no expert, personally I'd ask MOS-questions here or at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. If I was after an expert, I might ask @SMcCandlish. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:40, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång, I've just followed through on your suggestion about SMcC. I've noticed across a number of different Teahouse and Help Desk discussions that you often suggest helpful ideas to address editors' situations in unique ways — as I see you just did at my Talk page on a different matter! 😊 A double dose of thanks to you. Augnablik (talk) 02:29, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Augnablik, do you have Special:Homepage enabled? (In Special:Preferences, under "User profile", all the way at the bottom.) I think anyone who activates it should be able to get a mentor for one-on-one assistance. However, this venue and the Teahouse are very well staffed; often it's preferable to ask a question at a public venue like this: many editors will see the question, increasing the likelihood someone will have a helpful and well-informed answer. Folly Mox (talk) 13:50, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Folly Mox, I do have a regular mentor — but for some of Wiki’s more esoteric style intricacies that I recently found myself facing, I thought it would be helpful to ask someone particularly involved with that sort of thing.

Not that my mentor wouldn’t have responded; he always does. But I thought to “save him,” so to speak, for more of what he calls knotty problems with which he particularly enjoys helping and I’ve probably already peppered him way beyond my share of his time.

The Help Desk and Teahouse are indeed very well staffed, and I’ve always been grateful for the quality of assistance at both. Augnablik (talk) 17:59, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Folly Mox Per Wikipedia_talk:Growth_Team_features/Mentor_list#Wikipedia:Teahouse#Can_I_be_someone’s_mentee? it's still 50% new editors that "gets" a mentor. Apparently the other 50% aren't told on their homepage, but the effect is the same afaict. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:31, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh! I thought it had been bumped to 100%. Looks like my understanding was reversely outdated. Thank you for starting this thread about it. Folly Mox (talk) 19:26, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh that's literally the same thread you linked 🫠 Might be time for more coffee. Folly Mox (talk) 19:27, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

FYI-ping to @Michael D. Turnbull, I think you told me that editor homepage=mentor, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 22:50, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång That was my understanding but I now believe I may be wrong. See the thread you linked for all I currently know! I haven't investigated further but it is possible that only about 50% of new editors get a mentor, while 100% get the homepage feature. As it happens, I transferred Augnablik to be under my mentorship after she had had several Talk Page discussions with me. Mike Turnbull (talk) 10:26, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Then we're at the same level of knowledge. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:28, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Searching for contents of Redirects (or specific redirects)

I thought doing a insource search for /REDIRECT\[\[Alpha / would enable me to find all pages which redirect to a wikipedia page starting with Alpha, but that doesn't work. Is the issue tied in with Phab:T204089? If so, is there a good way to do this? (Ideally, I'd like to search for those pages which redirect to any page starting with an english spelling of a greek letter followed by a spaceNaraht (talk) 18:05, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@Naraht: As usual, the AWB database scanner can do searches that other tools can't. I tried the search you asked for, but the full list of results was going to be huge. Knowing your interest, I restricted the scan to redirects where the target begins with the English names of two Greek letters; that's at User:Naraht/Redirects to two greek letters. I can compile and post the full list if you'd like it. My database dump is a couple of months out of date, so the results do not reflect any changes made since then. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:00, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Oops - Duplicate pages

Hi, I was asked to create a page for a person. I took a couple of days and didn't realize that another had been created in the meantime. Now there are two: James Brown (Montana politician) and James Brown (Montana Politician). Sorry. Can someone help fix this? Thanks. H0n0r (talk) 18:54, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

I have redirected Montana Politician to Montana politician as some of the text had already been copied over and added talk page templates to confirm this. TSventon (talk) 19:49, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you so much! H0n0r (talk) 00:21, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

:Hello, @H0n0r. You say you were "asked" to create a page for Brown. Who asked you, and what connection do you have with Brown? Please review Wikipedia's policies on editing with a conflict of interest, and paid editing. ColinFine (talk) 22:13, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

It looks like H0n0r was simply asked by another editor interested in American politics. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 22:38, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh, right. I have struck out my comment. Thank you Helpful Raccoon --ColinFine (talk) 23:16, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Yep, just getting pages made for newly elected/sworn in people. Thanks so much. H0n0r (talk) 00:23, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

When previewing a change, how do I make corrections

I thought a while ago you could keep editing in the preview mode until you got it right, but now I don't see a way to do that. The only choices I have are to go ahead and publish as is without making needed corrections, or leave the page to abandon the edit and start over. I must be missing something! Thanks, Spalding (talk) 20:52, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

@Spalding: You have enabled "Use the wikitext mode inside the visual editor, instead of a different wikitext editor" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. With this mode the top left of a preview page should have a left arrow < which goes back to the edit window and remembers your changes. You may have to also click X in a popup box before making other changes. Does this work? The arrow is on the same line as the publish link. Your browser interface may have a back arrow higher up. Don't use that. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:20, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, that worked. Thanks, PrimeHunter! Spalding (talk) 21:28, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Ì forgot to login and created a Talk page for an article...

How can I delete this? Starlighsky (talk) 23:28, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Email me or another admin the details and the IP info associated with the edit can be WP:REVDEL'd. DMacks (talk) 00:02, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

How do I email you or an administrator? Starlighsky (talk) 00:31, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Starlighsky: Special:EmailUser/DMacks. JJP_Master (she/they) 00:33, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. I just emailed the issue. Starlighsky (talk) 00:37, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

January 5

The fair use file I uploaded is about to be deleted. What can I do?

File:Longxiangqiao station diagram.jpg Félix An (talk) 02:23, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Following the directions on the page itself, it says Note : if you believe that a free replacement image cannot be reasonably found or created please add one of the following without removing this tag.... Alternatively you can reach out to Iruka13 who placed the CSD F7 on the page to begin with. TiggerJay (talk) 02:47, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Problems saving via Wayback Machine

I know this isn't a Wikipedia problem, but was just wondering if anyone else has experienced problems recently with trying to archive pages using Wayback Machine recently. I haven't been able to save any for many weeks now, never having experienced any problems with it before. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 04:42, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

It got hacked and attacked and now its slowly recovering (which can take a while). In September 2024, the Internet Archive suffered a data breach that exposed 31 million records containing personal information, including email addresses and hashed passwords.[120] On October 9, 2024, the site went down due to a distributed denial-of-service attack.[121][122] On October 14, the site returned online, but it remained in read-only mode until November 4, during which time "Save Page Now" was disabled, replaced with a "Temporarily Unavailable" banner.[123] -- Wayback Machine Polygnotus (talk) 09:26, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

You could use https://archive.ph/ I started using it when the WM went down. Its really really slow sometimes but if you get it in the morning (GMT) its fast. First time I used it had 5.5k entries waiting to archive. The Internet Archive, poor thing, has been right since its been hacked. It getting there slowly. scope_creep^Talk 22:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Seeking Editor for Translated Wikipedia Article on Nozomi Nagata in Tribute to His Passing

My friend, Nagata Nozomi, a Japanese author, has recently passed away. In honor of him, I have translated his Wikipedia page into English and would like to publish it. The translation is complete, but I need assistance with editing it to meet Wikipedia’s standards, properly citing sources, and ensuring it adheres to Wikipedia’s writing format. I don’t have previous experience with editing or the Wikipedia writing style, so I would deeply appreciate the help of a kind editor or a volunteer to make the necessary adjustments. Thank you very much. Any support would mean a lot.

Original page: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/永田希?oldformat=true

Translated page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:EternalPsyche/Nozomi_Nagata EternalPsyche (talk) 03:21, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

(moved from talk) '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 05:23, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

EternalPsyche, I haven't bothered to read the page ja:永田希; but I note that it does have references. Your translation does not. Us volunteers are busy: we answer specific questions and requests, but rarely if ever requests to turn (sorry, but) half-baked drafts into articles. So put in the references yourself: links on this page (WP:HD) will take you -- not directly, but simply enough -- to pages where the mechanics of referencing are explained. You say he had a "unique approach to reading" without saying what this approach was. What was it? (And which authoritative source, independent of Nagata, writes that it was unique?) You say that "Nagata's passion for literature was deeply influenced by his fascination with noise and industrial music" but you don't say what the influence was. What was it? Don't make Japanese script oblique ("italic"); doing so is ugly. And -- but no, that's enough for now. Happy editing! -- Hoary (talk) 05:58, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

-- Except that another quick look at ja:永田希, EternalPsyche, makes it clear that a number of what are formatted like references aren't really references. (Common are the publication details of books mentioned in the body text.) Where are the reliable sources that discuss Nagata or his works in some depth? These are necessary, in order to show that he's "notable", as defined by and for Wikipedia. Note that material produced by his publishers, and what he might have said in interviews, don't count. -- Hoary (talk) 06:12, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

• @EternalPsyche: I had a look at the article as well. It is a slightly WP:Promoish, using flowery and promotional language which is unsuitable for a mainspace biographical article. I put a couple of tags in that were needed. The JP references mainly constitutes interviews per Hoary's comments above. There is an obituary which is a start, but I think as he's an author, I would look for book reviews so he could pass WP:NAUTHOR. If you can find a couple of reviews for each of the books, 2 or 3 covered with a couple of reviews each would be ideal, then he will pass WP:NAUTHOR. However, the article itself needs substantial work. It reads a blog entry, is promo, so currently unsuitable for Wikipedia. You would need to send it to draft once you got the reviews. Hope that helps. scope_creep^Talk 22:05, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Intersection of "What links here" for two pages

Hello all,

Trying to make sure that no pages link to both Help:Your first article and Wikipedia:Article creation (newly a redirect), as in the case of Wikipedia:Help Project#Pages needing work's bottom cell; I don't really care about changing all the links to point directly to the Help page, but rather just the pages that have links to both.

Any help appreciated!

JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 05:30, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@JuxtaposedJacob there are currently 287 pages that link to both. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 05:33, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

How did you get that number? JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 06:22, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

The PetScan query I linked above. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 06:35, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@JuxtaposedJacob: Our search [1] can also do it with linksto: and currently says 287. I would first update templates which link to the redirect [2]. Then wait a while for the job queue to update link tables before making the first search. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:42, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@CanonNi: Oh my goodness, missed that entirely, thanks so much! Also thank you to @PrimeHunter JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 17:27, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

delete draft

please Draft:Azaad (2025 film) 2 by Sunuraju (talk) 06:45, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

I believe you want Wikipedia:Drafts#Deleting_drafts. Cheers. DonIago (talk) 07:08, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Sunuraju There is no need for you to take any action to delete the draft. Abandoned drafts are automatically deleted in six months of inactivity. More likely in this case is that the film will attract some reviews once it has been released and the existing draft may help someone create an article meeting the film notability guideleines. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:12, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Revision history

Please look at User talk:Footballnerd2007 and User talk:Footballnerd2007/Archive 1. Today, the user archived their Talk page by moving it to Archive 1. Why can't I see the revision history of the Talk page? It looks like Archive 1 has the history the Talk page "should" have. Even if the user's archiving was unorthodox, I don't see how they can "eliminate" a page's history.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:13, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Bbb23: are you asking how Footballnerd2007 moved the history of their talk page or whether there is a rule about moving the history of their talk page? I can't find a rule, but it is obviously unhelpful to readers and thus a bad idea. TSventon (talk) 15:33, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

@Bbb23: This archiving method is described at Help:Archiving a talk page/Details#Other procedures. The method is still allowed, as far as I know, but is "generally no longer used". Moving/renaming a page automatically moves the history to the new page name, as always. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:47, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

They haven't eliminated it - what they did was move their talk page to the archive, and then created a new page at the talk page (or, well, created a redirect and then turned that into a talk page).

I'm not sure it's the right way to do it, but it's completely possible for all users. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:48, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

as always. Heh, I guess I've never seen it done before and noticed the effect. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:54, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

An interwiki redirect question

I recently saw Fuckloads, By the fuckload, and Fuckload, all of which are soft redirects to the Wiktionary entry for fuckload. I thought that it might be reasonable to hard redirect Fuckloads and By the fuckload to Fuckload, since that's the page whose title is closest to the Wiktionary entry. But is it acceptable to redirect soft redirects to each other? JJP_Master (she/they) 22:20, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Since there is no actual Wikipedia entry for any of these, I see no reason to not just keep the soft redirects. --Orange Mike | Talk 23:17, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

January 6

Bellarine, Victoria

Reference number 22 is "Not Quite Right" (in red). Please fix. I am sorry. Srbernadette (talk) 06:01, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Before somebody kindly fixed it, reference 22 told the reader (in red) "Check date values in: |date=". This means that the value specified for the date is invalid. And the cite template read "date=20144", which (as it has not four but five digits) is several thousand years into the future. -- Hoary (talk) 06:09, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath

ref number 6 is in the red too - Im sorry, I will try not do any more editing this year! Please fix this reef. Thank you in advance. Srbernadette (talk) 09:42, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Did that help? Also the year has just started. Perhaps try to do more and better editing this year. Polygnotus (talk) 09:47, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Statement: True or false?

I think users with less than 500 edits can't be administrators. Gnu779 (talk) 13:06, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

There have been cases of admins from other Wikimedia projects but very few contributions on English Wikipedia, who are promoted to adminship here to facilitate particular cross-wiki tasks.

WP:ADMINship is a position of community trust, and editors with brief tenures and few contributions have not yet had the opportunity to build that trust. Folly Mox (talk) 13:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

So if someone was an editor with only about 100 edits, will they be or not? No, right? Gnu779 (talk) 13:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

See guidance at WP:RFA. The formal requirement for adminship is 500 edits and 30 days of experience. However, a user who only meets this minimum standard is almost certain not to pass an RFA. GMG^talk 13:19, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

So if I was a user with 505 edits, I can't still be? Gnu779 (talk) 12:11, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

You can run. But your odds of succeeding would be near zero. It's fairly common for RfA candidates with thousands of edits to be opposed by the community due to lack of experience. GMG^talk 12:19, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Likely copyvio ?

First, I wish you a very happy new year !

I hope I'm not in the wrong section. Here is the main issue :

File:Herge with bust of Tintin.png

I wonder if this photography uploaded on en.wikipedia.org has not been made by Jacques Pavlovsky (just died in 2023) for french Sygma agency, September 18, 1975. Here other sources to evaluate this issue : https://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/belgian-cartoonist-georges-prosper-remi-aka-hergé-at-home-news-photo/1441929742

Exactly the same type of light, same time (1975), same haircut, same shirt with rolled up sleeves and same tie, same place (at home in Brussels), ...

And here, the same Tintin's bust statue in the exactly same state : https://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/belgian-cartoonist-georges-prosper-remi-aka-hergé-at-home-news-photo/583065342

Hergé was very conservative about photoshootings and it's very unlikely that any other photographer could have been worked at the same period for one of his last album of Tintin press promotion.

Regards. Tisourcier (talk) 13:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Tisourcier Looking at the NFCC tags on the image, it looks like the uploader made a good-faith effort to identify the photographer but failed. I think it's plausible that Pavlovsky is the photographer, in which case the author credit for the image should be changed. However, the image would still be usable on Wikipedia, since it meets the non-free content criteria. —C.Fred (talk) 13:34, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Article name change

Hello, I am debating whether should I change the name for the former Kandara Airport into Jeddah Airport, or keep it the same. The term “Kandara Airport” was probably coined by the former airport’s location to the area, and that people didn’t want to confuse it with the newer King Abdulaziz International Airport (nicknamed Jeddah Airport). And also, before 1981 when the new one was built, the former one was officially named Jeddah Airport according to historical documents and videos. If I changed it, it would have been more historically accurate. Any thoughts? Bollardant (talk) 14:50, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

The best place to discuss this is at Talk:Kandara Airport. When a subject has more than one possible name, it is best to get a consensus before renaming the article.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 14:57, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

A notice should also be added to Talk:King Abdulaziz International Airport as Jeddah Airport redirects there. A Wikipedia:Hatnote at King Abdulaziz International Airport or a Wikipedia:Disambiguation page at Jeddah Airport are alternative options. TSventon (talk) 15:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

What's my actual edit count?

As of before I add this topic:

Your impact: 371 Total edits

View all edits > User contributions for Therguy10: A user with 372 Edits.

Am I missing something here? Thanks! Therguy10 (talk) 18:21, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

There are a couple of things that impact your edit count, depending on what tools and methodology are being used. Some are based on all contributions, while others reduce your edit county by deleted edits (sometimes called "live" edits). Plus some pages are cached, for performance reasons, so their data might lag being by a few edits (or minutes)... For more information also see WP:EDITCOUNT. TiggerJay (talk) 18:37, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@TiggerjayInteresting, I'll keep that in mind. I'll probably go off of my User Contribs but that's good to know that it can differ. Thank you! Therguy10 (talk) 19:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Reference errors

Greetings, can someone with more stamina and time go into Hualca Hualca and resolve the reference errors? I don't know how to fix the spurious sfn error, for instance. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 18:26, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Jo-Jo Eumerus:  Done Polygnotus (talk) 20:01, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Maintenance categories

Hello, I have a few discussions (1 and 2) concerning maintenance categories that I would like to bump - WT:CATP is pretty quiet. Would there be an appropriate noticeboard to bump these discussions? The village pump and subsidiary boards seems to be for larger discussions. Tule-hog (talk) 20:00, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

1) if you want to ask what a category is for, you can just ask its creator. I pinged them for ya.

2) looks like this topic died a natural death after Anne drew said According to the page's protection level you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. If you want feedback you could use Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals) or WP:3O. Polygnotus (talk) 20:22, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Advice on appropriate informational/warning template

A user tagged me this afternoon on another user's talk page in the context of trying to recruit other editors to collectively undermine the work of me and a collaborator in our ongoing efforts to improve Postmodernism. Please see the comment here. (Apparently this has something to do with the off-Wiki group GSoW.[3] I'd never heard of it.)

This first editor has made only one edit to the article in question (or actually just its talk page), three years ago, with a minor question about the presence of a sidebar.

Aside from this ping (which I suspect was an accident), they have made no efforts to contact me or to offer criticism or suggestions on the article talk page.

Is there a template of some kind I could add to their user talk? Obviously some of this is just ignorance of Wikipedia culture and norms, but wow is this the wrong attitude to start with.

Thanks for your thoughts on how to handle this —

Cheers, Patrick (talk) 21:31, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Patrick Welsh: Are there any other relevant links you know of? If not, then it seems you are overreacting and failing to AGF. It is not (yet) clear if these are nefarious people doing nefarious deeds or simply people who have a boring content dispute about a boring wikipedia article which can be solved with a boring conversation. And my money is on the second option. There is an article about @Sgerbic: over at Susan Gerbic. Polygnotus (talk) 21:39, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm afraid not, just the post at User talk:Sgerbic. OneSkyWalker's account dates back to 2006, but it has only 107 edits that, at least at a glance, appear innocuous.

GSoW is apparently a group that coordinates offline campaigns against stuff like pseudoscience on Wikipedia. I don't know anything about them except what's on their website, and that User:Sgerbic is the founder and principle coordinator. Patrick (talk) 21:49, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Meh, my advice would be to relax and invite them to have a conversation on the talkpage. Postmodernism is not a form of pseudoscience, and you are not a psychic, so I think you have nothing to worry about. Polygnotus (talk) 21:50, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Okay, I will take your advice. I really don't love the battleground mentality, however, or the deliberate secrecy. I mean why not at least try starting on the article talk page? Patrick (talk) 21:56, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Some internet users expect Wikipedia to be a turnbased combat game, and it certainly can be. But there are also many articles where polite people politely disagree about topics that are not very exciting (like Postmodernism). The mention of GSoW seems to be unrelated to Postmodernism article. And, if my Google-fu is to be trusted, the GSoW secrecy is based on old unrelated drama. Nothing to worry about. Polygnotus (talk) 22:02, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Just to be sure we're not talking past one another, I'm totally fine with editors coming to the article talk page full of objections to this-or-that shortcoming. I welcome it!

My problem here is that the editor did not do this. Instead, they went to the talk page of user who has not worked on the page seeking collaborators to edit the article in a way that they apparently expect in advance will wind up in arbitration.

Oh, and I have no problem with Susan Gerbic. I too am opposed to pseudoscience. Patrick (talk) 22:09, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

I understand. I can think of plausible non-nefarious reasons why that editor showed up at Susans talk instead of at the Postmodernism talk. I myself have also posted on a more experienced users talkpage saying something like "I think article x is imperfect what do you think" instead of posting on the talkpage of that article because I was unsure I wanted to get involved without the support of someone saner and more experienced than I am, and as a sanity check if my opinion even made sense. Polygnotus (talk) 22:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Something to play with

It's an AI bias checker. I'd use with extreme caution. It doesn't seem to like authoritative sources. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 21:57, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah that is nonsense. It is simply a wrapper around an OpenAI API call. And why oh why do they hate webdesign so much? Polygnotus (talk) 22:05, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

They are demonic (favourite word of the month) sent to try you. I don't understand it. Webdesign is an establish industry with traditions. No need for it with a well established and well understood design ethos. scope_creep^Talk 22:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Where is doomguy when you need him? Polygnotus (talk) 09:20, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

J1 League

Are there instructions on how to access and use these updaters in Japanese football (soccer)? This is from Kawasaki Frontale Daxion (talk) 23:30, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

January 7

Namespace number

Why there are numbers in namespace? What is the purpose of that namespace number? Vitaium (talk) 08:42, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Vitaium: Probably because that's how they get stored in the database(s). Imagine you have 6 million records in a database. Much better to store a zero for each of those to denote that its an article than the string "article". Polygnotus (talk) 08:49, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Vitaium: See Wikipedia:Namespace#Programming. Template code with namespace numbers can be copied between wikis where the names are different. Namespace numbers are also used in other places, e.g. some url's to restrict features like search or WhatLinksHere to selected namespaces. If you don't make namespace-dependent templates or tinker with url parameters then you may never need the numbers. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:56, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

I am not permitted to Requests for page protection/Increase/Form

I am trying to report persistent vandalism over the span of 6 months on the article Gang rape#India, I am not permitted to do so. I get the message
Failed to create request. Error code: abusefilter-disallowed. Please try again or ask for help at WT:RFPP.
Can you perhaps submit it for me? I don't think it can get fixed i've tried alot of things. ContributedEditor (talk) 09:53, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Pinging the man behind the hair, our beloved Sideshow Bob, @Oshwah:. Polygnotus (talk) 09:59, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

The title of the article was triggering an edit filter. Your submission to WP:EFFP was already handled, no need to cross post. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 15:43, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Changing the italics in a title

Would like to propose this for Ikebana as it appears Roman and uncapped in Merriam-Web. thanks Shelter3 (talk) 11:28, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Shelter3: Ikebana use {{Italic title}} to deliberately display the title in italics per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting#Non-English-language terms. Page names start with a capital letter unless the first word would usually be written lowercase at the start of a sentence like iPhone. Merriam-Webster is a dictionary so they want to show how a word is written inside a sentence but they still say Ikebana when the word starts a sentence. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Our sister project Wiktionary is a dictionary and their article is wiktionary:ikebana. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:00, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Referencing edits, citations, etc from the talk page

I’ve been collaborating with someone on the talk page of an article, but I’ve had difficulty finding clear standards or easy methods for referencing an edit or citation from the article we’re discussing. I’ve even struggled to find a simple way to quote something someone has said on the talk page. After some searching and working with raw code, I was able to use something like Talk Quote Block.

Since talk pages seem so important, is there a page that outlines all the tools available for constructive discussion? If such a page exists, I’ve honestly tried to find it! :D Dr pangloss (talk) 13:34, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't know about all of the available tools, but Help:Talk seems like a place to start. DonIago (talk) 14:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

How would you link to a citation in the article? Or a previous edit? I have just gone to the edit and copied the URL from the taskbar, or gone into the source code and copied the link to the citation if it has an external link or file. Dr pangloss (talk) 17:38, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

You can link to a previous edit as a WP:DIFF, if you mean a comparison of an old and new version of text; it sounds like you may have ultimately done something equivalent. If you wanted to link to a citation. I'd probably just quote the text where the relevant citation is listed, but it's not something I personally have needed to do thus far. DonIago (talk) 18:31, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

The template {{tq}} is sometimes useful for quoting text from an article or posting - it displays it in green. --ColinFine (talk) 19:06, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Can't fix my error because edit source is no longer part of the section

Yes, I know I added the wrong citation markers. But now the page Ecclesiastes#Influence on Western literature doesn't include edit source, so I cannot go back and fix the mistake. Lalare (talk) 20:36, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Lalare, I've removed the empty ref tags inserted before the heading, that should fix it. Schazjmd (talk) 20:47, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

And I have added a missing "</ref>". TSventon (talk) 20:56, 7 January 2025 (UTC)