Wikipedia:Help desk
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July 26
massprotect tool
I'm using the above script on testwiki and other language wiki. Using this tool, the edit protection works but move and create protecion throw an error. No protection occurs when only move or create protection is selected, If I select both edit and move protection, only edit protection works. Does the script properly protect on enwiki? I'm asking here because it's a script from enwiki. -- ginaan(˵⚈ε⚈˵) 00:02, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @기나ㅏㄴ Presumably Timotheus Canens would be the best person to comment and help if possible. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:39, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
I have added a file (portrait) in the Personal life section - way too big. please fix, thanks 220.101.55.254 (talk) 00:38, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Fixed – it was missing the |thumb parameter. Skarmory (talk • contribs) 00:44, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
Transwiki request
Mahjong Competition Rules is not an encyclopedia article covering a game's rules (which might be overly narrow in the first place) but directions on how to play that game in accordance with those rules. I think it should be moved to Wikibooks or some other project, but how do I request this? I figured there would be a transwiki-request template, but Template:Transwiki was deleted because it was an unnecessary fork of Template:Prod. I also figured there would be a project page, but WP:Transwiki redirects to a technical how-to-do-it page without a place to request a transwiki. 123.51.107.94 (talk) 01:16, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Probably, since it has existed for quite a while, you should AfD it and suggest transwiki as a possible option. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 01:57, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
Using ISBN in visual editor to insert a reference
Hi. I used to be able to paste an ISBN into the automatic generator but now it's no longer an option. Is this a permanent change? I have to say it's very annoying. Please reinstate it. :) Also was there ever going to be the option of putting in the OCLC number into the automatic generator? Gertrude206 (talk) 03:50, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Gertrude206, I don't know what you mean by "the automatic generator", but Template:Cite book continues to allow "isbn=" and "oclc=". (When editing source. I know nothing about the visual editor.) -- Hoary (talk) 04:33, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- The instructions on WP:REFVISUAL show one can use ISBN in Automatic. Or used to be able to.--Gertrude206 (talk) 05:13, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
Eng lish
Eng lish 2400:1A00:B1E0:7786:9077:BCCA:8510:C04C (talk) 03:54, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- If you have a question, please ask. -- Hoary (talk) 04:33, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
Differentiating article titles
As sometimes two different places in completely different areas can have the same name, I would use parentheses, right? However, I am unsure if I am supposed to put the city, subdivision, or country inside of it, if there is a specific preference. (e.g. Should I use Bob's House (North Carolina) and Bob's House (California) or Bob's House (Asheville) and Bob's House (Fresno)?) DarkNight0917 (talk) 04:13, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- DarkNight0917, chores are many but life is short, perhaps too short to allow searching for every relevant guideline. I'd choose the former pair; anyone preferring the latter pair could rename the two articles (preferably citing a reason why). -- Hoary (talk) 04:43, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @DarkNight0917: As someone living in a different part of the world to Bob, I know roughly where North Carolina and California are within Bob's country, whereas Asheville and Fresno mean nothing. So I'd prefer the (state) version. Bazza (talk) 09:19, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- And if there were multiple Bob houses both in California, then further disambiguating would be helpful, but don’t overly narrow down (unless it’s a precise name or something meaningful) ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 11:54, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
Unable to download pdfs for articles whose names contain exotic characters (which previously used to work)
Hi,
I'm currently unable to download pdf files for articles whose title contain the Greek letter 'π' standing for the mathematical constant pi.
The article pages I tried include:
'List of formulae involving π' 'Leibniz formula for π' 'Approximations of π' 'Chronology of computation of π'
Of these, I previous could download the pdf file for 'Leibniz_formula_for_π'.
I have a copy of 'Leibniz_formula_for_π.pdf' whose timestamp says May 14th, 2022, or around a year ago.
I tried to download pdf files for the above articles with Firefox, Chromium and some other download utility, all of which did not work.
I hope Wikipedia will fix this issue soon.
Thanks. 14.32.11.214 (talk) 04:52, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- You're not alone. I tried this on Chronology of computation of π with Mypal 68.12 on XP, and got a 'file not found' error. With FF 113 on Win 10 it sits there for a while and then just opens a blank new tab with nothing in the url bar. ΔT (timekeeping) and Timișoara suffer exactly the the same fate. As a control, Hinchingbrooke House with no special characters downloads and saves fine. Maybe the Village Pump can help, but I would wait until others with more tech knowledge have replied before trying there. MinorProphet (talk) 11:36, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- It was reported last Friday at phab:T342442. There is no mention of a fix yet but some Wikipedia languages are heavily affected so I guess it will be a priority. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:39, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- It's fixed now, for example Leibniz formula for π: Special:DownloadAsPdf/Leibniz formula for π. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:17, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- It was reported last Friday at phab:T342442. There is no mention of a fix yet but some Wikipedia languages are heavily affected so I guess it will be a priority. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:39, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
Sorting categories by date
I'm trying to find the oldest articles in Category:All pages needing cleanup, Category:All articles with topics of unclear notability, and others which are sorted alphabetically, not by date. Is there a toolforge thing to help with this? 〜 Festucalex • talk 10:26, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Festucalex For that sort of cleanup, I think your best bet is to use a bot-produced list where you can choose to convert categories/topics of interest to you into a .csv listing. The resultant spreadsheet of articles to be cleaned up (based on the tags they contain) includes dates. See User:CleanupWorklistBot for details. I hope that helps! Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:28, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
App menu redirect to browser
When I use the Wikipedia app (on Android) there is a bottom-border menu that includes a hamburger button labelled 'More'. When I select this, it presents six options, starting with my own user page, and finishing with 'Donate'. Of these six, four are wikilinks that open in the app, and 'Donate' is a URL since it opens a page outside Wikipedia. What annoys me is that the first link, to my own user page, is also a URL, so it opens in a browser. Why is this? If I want to use the browser interface, I can decide that for myself, but if I've chosen to use the app, why would it send me over to the browser?
I know that can get there via my user talk page in one extra click, but... -- Verbarson talkedits 14:10, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Few people (if any) who frequent this page have anything to do with the design or development of the app. You'd be better asking at WP:VPT, or perhaps at mw:Talk:Wikimedia apps ColinFine (talk) 16:54, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @ColinFine; Thanks, I've taken it to mw:Talk:Wikimedia Apps -- Verbarson talkedits 10:12, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
BC, AD
Will you please use BC and AD so people who went to school before 2000 can understand you? Thanks. Hollykf (talk) 14:26, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Hollykf the guidance is laid out at MOS:ERA. Either can be used in Wikipedia articles, depending on context. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 14:37, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- I went to elementary school long (40–50 years) before 2000, and some of my Jewish classmates used CE/BCE dating, presumably for religious reasons. One should never assume that one's personal experience is the universal experience of humanity. Deor (talk) 14:45, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- My secondary school, run by the Methodist Foundation, was using history textbooks with BCE/CE in 1970. If it bothers you, think of them as meaning "Before the Christian Era" and "Christian Era." {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.198.140.169 (talk) 15:15, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Hollykf, did going to school before 2000 somehow render people incapable of understanding what they may have been exposed to thereafter? -- Hoary (talk) 23:28, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Hollykf Before 2000 AD or 2000 BC? Sorry could not resist... ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 15:20, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
ISBNs
I want to cite volume 2 of a book. If I give its ISBN as printed near the beginning of the volume, 01-12-091102-7, I see an error message saying the number of digits is wrong. Then If I remove the leading 0, I instead get an error message saying that the checksum is wrong. Removing all the -s doesn't help. Is it acceptable just to use the ISBN from volume 1? Maproom (talk) 16:02, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- ISBN 0-12-091102-7?
- —Trappist the monk (talk) 16:59, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- If that's the book, it even has an article: Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:57, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- Thank you both! Maproom (talk) 20:30, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- If that's the book, it even has an article: Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:57, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
I think that
editor 2601:19D:401:A650:D05E:6860:2F4B:7080 should be banned for a recent post at The International Jew but am not sure how or where to suggest it. Carptrash (talk) 18:57, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- It's just (rather nasty) vandalism. Revert (which you've done) and warn (which I've done, but starting at level 3). If they continue, take it to WP:AIV, but there's no point for a single instance by an IP. ColinFine (talk) 19:39, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- If they pull another ugly stunt like that, I will be happy to block them. Cullen328 (talk) 02:00, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
references have been removed?
2012 in science - Wikipedia 86.167.32.204 (talk) 19:38, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
- The problem is that 2012 in science has got too long to expand all the templates, so it is now in the hidden category Category:Pages where post-expand include size is exceeded. It needs to be shortned or split. (Unfortunately, what seems to have pushed it over the limit is citation.bot adding IDs to a lot of the references.)
- I see that this happened a couple of weeks ago, and Forbes72 sort of fixed it, but it was inevitable that it would get broken again. I'll put a message on a couple of the relevant WikiProjects, but I don't know what the answer is. ColinFine (talk) 20:27, 26 July 2023 (UTC)
July 27
Making a Wikipedia page
To whom it may concern I just sing up in Wikipedia because I want to make biography page for one of my astonishing professors. It would be highly appreciated if you guide me how can make this new page?
Best Regards Saeideh Salehizadeh, Saeideh.slz (talk) 11:43, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Saeideh.slz Some introductory reading for you: WP:Writing Wikipedia articles backward, WP:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing and WP:Your first article.
- The summary of these may be that you can't make an acceptable WP-article about your professor, most people don't qualify for one, but it depends on the sources you can provide. Good luck! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:10, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Saeideh.slz, please also read about the neutral point of view, and leave out words like "astonishing". Cullen328 (talk) 17:47, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
Creating an article
Before creating an article, is there any section/page that I need to refer to if that particular article has already been rejected or in creation by someone else? Or should I proceed to create it anyways? Please advise Jeraxmoira (talk) 13:19, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- If it's been rejected (rather than declined), that means that in the opinion of the reviewer the subject was not notable enough to warrant an article here on English-language Wikipedia, so you would be wasting your time trying to recreate it. Can you tell us what the subject is? Maproom (talk) 13:39, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- I think you're asking to check if the article you want to create has been deleted before or already exists in draft form? Have a check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log?type=delete and search for the article name, and likewise at https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?search=&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&ns118=1. Qcne (talk) 14:47, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Thank you. I will take a look at the delete and draft logs once. I am trying to create articles for the technicians of Indian Cinema. Jeraxmoira (talk) 16:01, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
RFK jr
Hi, RFK Jr is clearly not Anti-Vaccine, he has a concern about ONE of hunderds of Vaccines. To say he is promoting Anti-Vaccine misinformation is misinformation in itself. This should be edited, again he clearly has a problem with one vaccine and advocates better testing which is good for ALL of us Regards, Russell
This is wrong and probably politically motivated: He is known for promoting anti-vaccine misinformation, and public health–related conspiracy theories. 131.106.111.164 (talk) 14:47, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- IP editor, if you have a specific, sourced edit you wish to make to the article, you can make a request at WP:RFPP/E. Be very specific about the change you want made and be sure to provide at least one reliable source. There has been a great deal of disruption at the article, which is why both it and its talk page are extended-protected. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 15:14, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Despite the misleading section header, the article in question is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Cullen328 (talk) 17:41, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- I've updated it. - AquilaFasciata (talk | contribs) 18:04, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- I see that the first source supporting the assertion about his stance on vaccines was published in 2017. So, whichever vaccine he's against, it can't be one that was created since then, right? Girth Summit (blether) 17:54, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Despite the misleading section header, the article in question is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Cullen328 (talk) 17:41, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
President_of_El_Salvador
Someone please look into the President_of_El_Salvador page. I am not opening an account for this. It says, "The duration of the presidential term is five years and the president is eligible for reelection once consecutively as of 2021." That is phrased badly and probably incorrectly. That should probably say non-consecutively. 72.204.78.102 (talk) 17:36, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Hello, IP editor. That article is not protected, so you can edit it yourself without opening an account. Cullen328 (talk) 17:44, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
Symbol meanings
What do these lines under certain years mean on "Timeline of national flags?" For example, there is a line on the year 1708 in Angola's section, with no flag, so does it represent something like colonization, or something else? Hankhill240 (talk) 18:04, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Courtesy link: Timeline of national flags - 199.208.172.35 (talk) 18:23, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Hankhill240, in the case of Angola, it was a Portuguese colony until it gained independence in 1975; as best I can tell, those divisions correspond to the divisions down in Portugal's section, since those are the flags it would have been using. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 18:31, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- Your guess is right. Previously, these sections held the flag of the colonizing nation, and in this rev the flags were removed but the columns retained. WelpThatWorked (talk) 18:35, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
Date format
Hello there. I am looking at where are told the guidelines for editing English Wikipedia? Should we use English spellings? SHould we use normal dates, ISO 8601 dates or... US dates (like I saw on a recent article)? → Tristan ♡ (talk) 18:21, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Jesus2099, those guidelines and others are part of our Manual of Style - WP:MOS. MOS:ENGVAR, for instance, addresses your first question, and MOS:DATES your second. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 18:24, 27 July 2023 (UTC)
July 28
Really disappointed to learn what Wikipedia did to Robert Kennedy jr.'s page. s
He is unable to edit his own page 2601:6C1:580:5DF0:63CF:E7BC:C681:9973 (talk) 03:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- What kind of help are you asking for? 119.245.86.251 (talk) 03:49, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- He doesn't have a page, neither does Trump, Biden or Musk. Wikipedia has articles about them. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:30, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- The subjects of Wikipedia articles can edit what's written about them as long as they do so in accordance with relevant Wikipedia policies. They can also can seek assistance from others as explained here and here. However, there seems to be a strong tendency among many subjects of articles (and their representatives) to be more "not here" than "here" when it comes to Wikipedia, and many try and claim some type of ownership over article content; so, that's when they start having problems. It's for such reasons subject's of articles (and their representatives) are strongly encouraged to seek assistance via one of Wikipedia's various processes instead of directly trying edit such articles themselves, except in some very specific and limited cases. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:25, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- Do you represent Mr. Kennedy or are you just articulating a public statement he has made? 331dot (talk) 08:28, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
Two questions
- The text in the editing field has changed since yesterday, from plain black to varying colours. Why, and can I change it back to original in preferences?
- Can timestamps in signatures be changed from UTC to local time zones? --40bus (talk) 15:11, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- 1. I'm not sure which field you're referring to, is this the Visual Editor, Modern Source editor, something else? It sounds like maybe the syntax highlighting in the old source editor but I can't quite tell.
- In normal source editor. Yesterday is was normal. --40bus (talk) 15:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- 2. You can install this userscript. WelpThatWorked (talk) 15:21, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- What do you mean by "varying colors?" Are different words different colors, or letters, or random?
- As for the second one, you can just type three tildes (
~~~
) and it won't add the date and time. That said, everything on WP is done in UTC so that everyone has the same time reference, so I would say it shouldn't really be priority. If you need a reference, you can use WP:UTC to add a clock to the top right so that you can always look at that. - AquilaFasciata (talk | contribs) 15:22, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- In Finnish Wikipedia, timestamps are based on local Finnish time. --40bus (talk) 15:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- @40bus As advised, Wikipedia uses UTC but if you wish to have timestamps rendered in your local time you can do that using a checkbox on Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets Looking a this thread, for example, I see the timestamps as UTC+1 as that's how I've set my preference since I'm in the UK (British Summer Time currently). Regarding the colours, I suspect you just inadvertently hit the pen icon in the source editor (just left of the word "Advanced" in the toolbar). You could toggle it back but in my experience editing with the colours on is really helpful. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:59, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- In Finnish Wikipedia, timestamps are based on local Finnish time. --40bus (talk) 15:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
How to add our company page in wikipedia
I want to create page on Wikipedia our company Shahid.choudhary5 (talk) 16:38, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Shahid.choudhary5, you should read two pages very carefully: WP:PAID and Help:Your first article. The draft you attempted to create on your user page (which is not the right place for one) has no sources other than the company's website and does not demonstrate that your company is notable in any way.
- Wikipedia is not interested in what the subject of an article says or wants to say about themselves, or what their associates say about them. Wikipedia is only interested in what people who have no connection with the subject, and who have not been prompted or fed information on behalf of the subject, have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable sources.. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 16:50, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- BOSS is another page that you might find helpful to read. ColinFine (talk) 16:51, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- Wikipedia is not like social media or a company's website. Articles here are not owned by the company concerned. Once created, they can be edited by anyone, provided that person bases the information on reliable sources. As a result, the outcome might not be to the company's liking. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:54, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
what are the rules
what are the rules to write your own bio page. I see my brother page bernard pierre donnadieu. I want my own page. Donnadieu1950 (talk) 17:46, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- @Donnadieu1950, the rule is that you must be notable by Wikipedia's standards - see WP:NPERSON - and have reliable, independent, published secondary sources to prove it. I highly, highly recommend reading the following pages: WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY and WP:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 17:55, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- Courtesy link: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu for the curious - a completely unsourced article, unfortunately. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 17:58, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
Links translation (French/English)
hello,
I translate a French article to English. What can I do about links to articles in French that have no equivalent in English? Do I copy them as they are in the French version? Is there a procedure to follow in this case? F1sxo (talk) 20:02, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- @F1sxo You can use the template for inter-language links {{ill}} if you judge that it is worth keeping the link in your English version of the article: to people for example. For other considerations, please read WP:TRANSLATE. Mike Turnbull (talk) 20:06, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
Long term edit-warring over controversies section: How to handle?
A few hours ago, while I was patrolling Recent Changes, I noticed an IP edit on Tony Aquila that did nothing but remove the controversies section with no other comment, so I reverted the edit. Hours later, I noticed that a brand-new account also came by and deleted the controversy section, so I took a quick look at the page's edit history and realized that this has been ongoing back and forth for months now.
On one hand, it seems odd to me that so many people are trying to blank this section, but on the other hand, it seems odd to me that so many people are trying to keep the section on such a seemingly minor page.
What would be the proper way to deal with something like this? Is there a noticeboard or some process to get a more experienced set of eyes on the situation? mir :3 21:42, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- The sources being used in the controversy section are absolutely not fit for a BLP, so until there is high quality secondary coverage it's a BLP violation. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 21:47, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
- Good to know, thanks for taking a look! mir :3 22:10, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
July 29
Question by User:Rtludwig
I am trying to add a photo to a page. I represent a university and I am trying to add a photo of the university's president to his Wikipedia page. The university owns the photo and has full rights to it. How can I add the photo to his page? Rtludwig (talk) 01:03, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
- Hello, please read the welcome left on talk page before doing anything regarding your conflict of interest. To upload a file, please go to Wikipedia:File upload wizard, while noting the copyright and image use policy. If this is successfully done, I strongly recommend you make a request to add the image to the article. Let me know if you have any more questions. Happy editing Heart (talk) 01:19, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
Page Deletion
Hello, our page goy deleted automatically post publishing. Can you please help us with the same? Is there any changes required in the draft? 103.72.72.163 (talk) 04:24, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
- Nobody can possibly help you with anything unless you tell us the name of the article/draft. AndyTheGrump (talk) 04:29, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
Page Deletion
My page was deleted right after publishing. Can you help me with the reason for the same and how can I avoid this to happen agian? Christopher Charles Benninger (talk) 04:43, 29 July 2023 (UTC)