Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 April 4

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April 4

Redirect code

Was there ever a time when redirects had to use precisely the right code? I'm talking about using:

#REDIRECT target

instead of

#REDIRECTtarget

See this edit, from 2005, where a bot replaced #REDIRECT[[Lafayette (Indiana)]] with #REDIRECT [[Lafayette (Indiana)]], a change that obviously isn't necessary nowadays. Nyttend (talk) 01:12, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

I don't know whether a space has ever been required. The edit summary in your diff shows the bot thought it was fixing a double redirect. The page redirected to itself so it redirected to a redirect. This could be interpreted as a double redirect. The bot bypassed the "first" redirect and stored the "second" instead. That happened to be the same, but the bot must have been coded to always make a space in the new redirect. That meant it became a registered edit instead of a null edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:39, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

how do I sign a page on visual editor mode

Hi, I'm using the "edit" tab rather than the "edit source" tab. How do I sign my changes using the "edit" tab? I.e. where's the "edit" equivalent of the four squiggles I would insert in "edit source" ? Thanks! Chapmansh (talk) 02:58, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Hello, Chapmansh. I am a bit puzzled by your question, because the only place to sign an edit is on a Talk page, and Visual Editor (the "edit" option) does not work on Talk pages. Can you give an example of where you are having the problem? --Gronk Oz (talk) 09:35, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

@Chapmansh: If I click "Insert" and "More" in VisualEditor then I get a greyed out "Your signature". mw:Help:VisualEditor/User guide#Getting started: the visual editor's toolbar says: The "Your signature" item allows you to insert your Wikipedia user signature. It will be greyed out (not selectable) when you are editing a type of page (a "namespace"), such as an article, where signatures should not be inserted. I don't know whether the English Wikipedia currently has a namespace where both VisualEditor and its signature icon works. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:20, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Charleston church shooting

Reference help requested. I should I redo this? = 2015}}</ref> and The Charleston Nine) Thanks, Poptop43 (talk) 04:08, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, it's been ok since you fixed it in June of last year, although subsequent editing moved it to the "Victims" section of the article. DonFB (talk) 07:22, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

How to ask an admin/moderator to act upon an incompetent article?

There's an article im trying to improve that has several issues. The other editors however are not very open to change and have lost any sense of editorial standard in my opinion. How do i ask a 'higher up' to take a look at it? Crewcamel (talk) 07:24, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

• Hello Crewcamel. I assume this is about United States presidential election, 2020. Honestly, for a "hot-topic" article, the discussion seems to be fairly civil so far, so there is probably no need for admin intervention. Administrators need to step in only if there are behavioral issues from the part of other editors; to resolve content disputes, follow the steps listed at Wikipedia:Dispute resolution. If you really want to make a report for administrators, go there, but (again) that is not for content disputes, and I think the case if any is very weak at the moment. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 07:53, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Please help me fix citebook code

Hello. Could anyone please help me fix the citebook code here? Nothing seems to work. Many thanks.--79.183.25.113 (talk) 10:03, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Fixed. The interlanguage nested template was closed with a paren and a brace, instead of a double brace. DonFB (talk) 10:27, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Thank you so very much!--79.183.25.113 (talk) 10:29, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Auto-correct

Fairly recently, I've found that Wikipedia is auto-correcting my spelling, sometimes unhelpfully. I use BrEng, so when I wrote "patronizing" in this diff ([1]) I wanted to use an "s" not a "z". But I can't.

Has something changed recently? Is it my browser (IE 11, no comments, not my choice) or Wikipedia?

How do I switch this off?

Oddly, words like colour, centre, travelled, leukaemia, oestrogen, offence, aren't affected in this way (yet), although centre is flagged as a typo(!), it's just some ise words like recognize. Even more weirdly, I can still, apparently, type "apologise"... but it's regarded as a typo of course.

--Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:41, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia doesn't autocorrect spellings, though sometimes other editors will correct mistakes fairly quickly. To turn off autocorrect in IE, try 1 – Click on Tools>Internet Options. 2 – Select the Programs tab. 3 – Click Manage add-ons. 4 – In the left-hand column, click Spelling Correction. 5 – Scroll to the bottom of the window and uncheck the box beside Enable spelling correction. Internet Explorer has a user dictionary where you can add spellings that were omitted from the original. Dbfirs 10:58, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Its also worth noting that certain influential dictionaries and style guides have now ruled that 'z' is fine and normal for use in BrEng. - X201 (talk) 11:12, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Found it. The OED now recommends using -ize, apparently -ize is the historic English spelling and closer to the root, -ise is a later French influence. Your browser dictionary may follow OED standard and have been updated as such. - X201 (talk) 11:18, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Yes, the Oxford English Dictionary has always preferred the "ize" endings for words derived from the Greek ending -ιζειν. This is known as "Oxford Spelling". The OED comments: "some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or English". Most British schools now teach the "ise" spellings, presumably to simplify British spelling in the way that Webster did for American spelling. Dbfirs 11:25, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

It seems to be more because -ize is widely, though mistakenly, taken to be an Americanism. Double sharp (talk) 11:59, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Well, no, it's because it is simpler to remember that an "s" is always considered correct in British English whereas there are some "ise" endings that cannot be spelt "ize". Dbfirs 15:03, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

WP:WHAAOE, see Oxford spelling. Nyttend (talk) 22:25, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, I forgot to link it above. Dbfirs 17:30, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Jeremy Houghton

Please can you have a look at the entry for Jeremy Houghton

This version is the correct one https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeremy_Houghton&oldid=773628204

How can I get it updated and please advise how I get numbers in text to link to references — Preceding unsigned comment added by Simone Hancox (talk • contribs) 16:11, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Content disputes should be discussed on the talk page of the article. Do you have some connection with the subject of the article? There is some advice on your talk page. See WP:Referencing for beginners for the way to do references. Dbfirs 17:34, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Simone Hancox & Dbfirs Please see User talk:Simone Hancox#Recent edit at Jeremy Houghton where I explained the problem. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:34, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

School shared ip

I have an ip user, which is a shared IP address . I'm adding the template, but on my Whois https://db-ip.com/206.211.150.86 it comes back with 2 schools. Which one do I use. I'm watching this page, but it is best to alert me on my talk as well. CopernicusAD ^(u) (t) :) 21:29, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

User:CopernicusAD: I don't understand your question – what are you trying to achieve? And why don't you just register an account? Maproom (talk) 08:22, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

I'd say CopernicusAD is asking to how to tag 206.211.150.86 (talk · contribs). Looking at the hostname, Google searches, the other Whois links, contact details and the address of the organisation, I'd say it's best to not confuse the issue and simply say it's Chapman University. Sometimes the Organization field has precedence over the ISP field, but this looks like a confusion at the lookup page. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 08:37, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

User:zzuuzz is right thanks. Tagged the issue. Done. --CopernicusAD ^(u) (t) :) 19:47, 5 April 2017 (UTC)