Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 December 12

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< December 11 << Nov | December | Jan >> December 13 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.


December 12[edit]

Abortion Clinics[edit]

Someone has maliciously​ edited this page. Can someone please re-edit/fix this page as what has been put there is quite nasty. Sorry I didn't know how else to get in contact with the website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.141.117.84 (talk) 01:18, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for bringing this to attention, I've removed the content in question. –72 (talk) 01:23, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Listing works in article[edit]

Can someone please list the works in this section of the article Ibn al-Haytham in a better and more appropriate manner? Swazzo (talk) 08:58, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Spurious entry in sortable table[edit]

Hey all.

I don't know much about sortable tables, so this may be an obvious thing to others:

List of highest mountains on Earth contains a sortable table of mountains - if I sort by "Rank" why does Nangpai Gosum appear first despite not having a ranking? All other non-ranked entries appear at the bottom where I'd expect them to. Chaheel Riens (talk) 12:23, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]


Blank is treated as zero, and comes before number 1. I've dealt with it in the same way as the other blanks, see this edit. --David Biddulph (talk) 12:32, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Save changes or publish changes[edit]

I have noticed that the text which used to read "Save changes" now reads "Publish changes". Does anybody know why this change has happened? I go to Wikipedia: Village pump fairly frequently and I do not remember any discussion pertinent to change there. Thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter.Vorbee (talk) 16:59, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It also makes the By clicking the "Save page" button, you agree to the Terms of Use... text above it inaccurate as well - there is no "Save page" button anymore. Chaheel Riens (talk) 17:02, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It's another confusing change made by the WMF, see WP:Village pump (miscellaneous)#Save Changes to Publish Changes. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:02, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. Not a problem for most editors to adapt to, I guess. But as it also says "Publish changes" when editing a Sandbox or a page in Draft, I do wonder how many brand new editors will come to the help desks, even more confused about why they're not actually publishing their article instead of just saving their changes. I assume the following key pages are scheduled to be updated very soon: Help:Introduction to editing with Wiki Markup/4 and Help:Introduction to editing with VisualEditor/4 and Help:Editing and presumably WP:TWA. Pinging @Whatamidoing (WMF): and @Evolution and evolvability: who indicated this would be actioned. Nick Moyes (talk) 23:26, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for pinging me,. I've held off updating the tutorial pages until the change is actually made, sine I didn't want to create a mismatch. I don'kt think people will have too much trouble adapting, however the sandbox headers (e.g. {{Userspace_draft}}) could be updated to clarify. T.Shafee(Evo&Evo)talk 09:19, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Nick, I'm not a lawyer, of course, but I understand that "saving" something in the draft space is legally considered "publication". (A page in draftspace also happens to meet the definition of published that is given in WP:V: "Source material must have been published, the definition of which for our purposes is "made available to the public in some form".)
This change was made because multiple years of user testing demonstrated that a sizable fraction of brand-new editors did not understand that "Save" on Wikipedia meant that they were immediately and irrevocably posting their content on the internet where anyone could see it. Many new editors thought that "Save" meant that the content would be stored privately, e.g., in their accounts but not visible to the general public.
To reduce confusion among experienced editors, it might be helpful to change some documentation. For example, Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Reviewing instructions should probably say something like "should be accepted and moved to mainspace" rather than "should be accepted and published to mainspace".
Chaheel Riens, the MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyrightwarning notice does not say anything about clicking the "Save page" button. If you are still seeing that old warning, then please tell me which wiki you're seeing it at, and what language your user interface is set to. (Please ping me; I really appreciate it.) Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:49, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Whatamidoing (WMF), I'm seeing it right now as I edit this page. Underneath the "This is a minor edit" check box and above the "Publish changes" button there is a line of text that says By clicking the "Save page" button, you agree to the Terms of Use, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Licence and the GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons licence I'm using the monobook setting and language is en-GB. Chaheel Riens (talk) 19:21, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The language setting "en-GB - British English" often causes confusion due to missing adaptations. It means you see MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyrightwarning/en-gb instead of the default MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyrightwarning. I recommend you change to "en - English". PrimeHunter (talk) 19:50, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
sigh.. that was way out of date. corrected. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 20:04, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Related changes link[edit]

Resolved

During the past week something has happened to the related changes link. Now when I click on the sidebar link for related changes on a subpage of my user page and hit refresh it shows the result of the user page rather than the subpage.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 18:30, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Tony, I tried it with User:TonyTheTiger/5pillars. Seems to work perfect. Which page did you check it on? Have you tried logging on from a different browser and checking if the same issue continues? Thanks, Lourdes 00:48, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I’ve reported something similar at VPT...Jokulhlaup (talk) 11:20, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I watch the related changes to User:TonyTheTiger/creations. Starting last week whenever I refreshed this page, it has shown the results for User:TonyTheTiger.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 16:42, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Today it finally refreshed normally.-TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 16:00, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist[edit]

Why is it that every page I edit is added to my watchlist? Even if I'm using Twinkle, stuff gets cluttered up there. Advanced features don't allow me to uncheck anything that could be causing this. Buffaboy talk 19:00, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Buffaboy: In preferences, under editing, there is a checkbox for "Add pages and files I edit to my watchlist". Uncheck that if you don't want all your edits on your watchlist. RudolfRed (talk) 19:26, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
*RudolfRed That's already unchecked. Buffaboy talk 02:18, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Buffaboy: You may want to check your Twinkle preferences as well – the default setting is to add all the pages you edit with Twinkle to your watchlist. There are several boxes that need to be unchecked; the fastest way would be to do Ctrl + F and search for all instances of "watchlist". –FlyingAce✈hello 16:51, 13 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

BLP help?[edit]

Earlier today I posted on Talk:Michael J. Saylor and also at WP:BLP/N about a very large edit to the Michael J. Saylor biography by an account with no prior history. It's duplicative of a controversy already mentioned, a major case of WP:UNDUE weight, with some non-RS sourcing, and I believe should be reverted. I haven't had a reply yet in either place, and considering the BLP implications, am trying here as well to see if someone is willing to consider taking action. Worth noting: I have a COI here, as Saylor's company is a client, hence my requests for an independent editor to review. WWB Too (Talk · COI) 21:15, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

 Done. WWB Too (Talk · COI) 22:08, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How to add information[edit]

How can I add a page? I would like to create a page similar to this for someone who is not a politician: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamont_Bagby. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.67.66.240 (talk) 22:11, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, IP user, and welcome to Wikipedia. Anybody is welcome to contribute material to Wikipedia, but creating a new article is difficult. I suggest you start by reading your first article. I also suggest that you create an account: it is not compulsory, but it makes various things easier. --ColinFine (talk) 22:52, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Donation[edit]

Heading added by ColinFine (talk) 22:52, 12 December 2017 (UTC) I don't have anything to edit. I wanted to donate to your request but had trouble getting the auto prompt to allow me to finish.[reply]

Maybe I'm the only one who had any trouble as I don't profess to be very competent online.

Is there another way I can contact you so you can get my donation. It's not a lot $100 + I included the $4 charge.

thank you and well done on your wonderful service.

R Landucci — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.107.179.124 (talk) 22:33, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, R Landucci. Thank you for wanting to donate. Donation isn't anything to do with Wikipedia itself, but to the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia and other projects. There's a page there about wmf:Problems donating. --ColinFine (talk) 23:30, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]