Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 December 31

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December 31[edit]

End of the year donation[edit]

  • I love Wikipedia, but it's difficult trying to make a tax-deductible donation at year's end! I'm throwing in my $365, a dollar a day for something I use and contribute to every day. BTW, folks in a similar situation, I finally found the address; it's Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Montgomery Street, Ste. 600, San Francisco CA 94104. Happy New Year to all. Mandsford 16:06, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]


Need help with German and Danish language[edit]

I need fellow editors to help me sort out what two sources are saying. The sources are in German and Danish. Is there a noticepad or another venue for this kind of staff? 384 and 388 of current version. My question is whether they mention/use the term persecution in a context similar to the WP article.Cinadon36 (talk) 09:16, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cinadon36: You may be able to find German and Danish speakers at Wikipedia:WikiProject Germany and Wikipedia:WikiProject Denmark, or reach out to individual editors at Wikipedia:Translators available. Happy editing! –FlyingAce✈hello 15:06, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! I will have a chat with them! Cinadon36 (talk) 16:52, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Cinadon36: I'm Danish. The Danish reference 384 [1] says: "Politiet siger også, at de ikke får mange anmeldelser om disse sager - og de frygter, at der er store mørketal - altså folk, der ikke tør anmelde sagerne." My translation: "The police also say that they do not receive many reports about such cases - and they fear that there are many unreported cases - i.e. people who dare not report the cases". This is a good match to what the article says in the referenced sentence: "The Danish police force in Copenhagen fears that the problem is more prevalent than reports of the crime to police suggest since victims fear further reprisals for contacting authorities." PrimeHunter (talk) 16:49, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks PrimeHunter! Is there any mention of Christian persecution in Denmark?Cinadon36 (talk) 16:52, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Cinadon36: The German text (388) mentions Anti-Christian attacks and 100 targetted attacks against Christians (= attacks specifically aimed at Christian targets), but doesn't use persecution (in German: something like systematische Verfolgung) as an explicit term or in an implicit description. I'd also note, that the article uses a rather vague statistical classification and lacks almost any detailed background info on the mentioned attacks. In short: the current article content does faithfully represent the source information, but its inclusion in the article's scope might be debatable. Please feel free to ping me or post at WikiProject Germany, if you need further translation-related help. GermanJoe (talk) 17:22, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The Danish text speaks of harassment, threats and sometimes violence. The word "forfulgt" (persecuted) is used once about a woman. The article is about examples of Christians from the Middle East being harassed by muslim immigrants. There are no statistics. Try https://translate.google.com if you want to know more. You can enter a url. By the way, I (white Danish male) once had my pants set on fire by young Arabian looking immigrants in a bus in Copenhagen. I didn't know them or do or say anything, and I don't live there. I just stood near their seats and one of them lit my pants with a lighter while the others must have watched silently. I had my back turned and didn't discover anything until I felt the heat, turned around and saw him openly displaying the lighter with nobody smoking. Earlier one of them said in Danish "He is probably racist". Later I realised he must have been referring to me. Being white was apparently the only reason. Earlier I also heard them talk about a group they wanted to fight (only identified by a street, don't know their race or religion). I should have moved away but naively assumed it had nothing to do with me. At least I was smart enough to not confront the guy with the lighter. The others were clearly ready to fight on his side. The bus driver stopped and told them to leave. When they didn't he threatened to call the police and they left. I only got a very minor burn and didn't report it. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:58, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Apna Naam Kaise edit kare[edit]

Wikipedia main Apna Naam aur apne baare mein Kaise edit kare — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:205:2117:46D3:0:0:2220:AD (talk) 10:35, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This help page is for the English language Wikipedia. If you are looking for a Wikipedia in another language, try meta:List of Wikipedias. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:12, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Google Translate suggests that this is Hindi transliterated into English. The Hindi Wikipedia is at hi.wikipedia.org Naraht (talk) 20:47, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Help with flags[edit]

See pages I'm creating, Quebrada Arriba (Patillas). The flags in the infobox
for the municipality don't display correctly.
I don't want the flag image file for the municipality to be a linkable URL.
What changes do I have to make so that the municipality flag displays and works the way the country and territory flags work? Thank you and Happy New Year.--the eloquent peasant (talk) 14:00, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, the eloquent peasant. I have added the {{flagicon image}} template to display the municipality flag, so it now displays the same way as the other flags. Hope this helps! –FlyingAce✈hello 14:43, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thank youuuuuu! --the eloquent peasant (talk) 16:00, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Level C and FlyingAce. The flags shouldn't be there anyway. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons#Avoid flag icons in infoboxes. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 18:00, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
These articles are subdivisions of municipalities and the page you have asked me to read says "Human geographic articles – for example settlements and administrative subdivisions – may have flags of the country and first-level administrative subdivision in infoboxes. However, physical geographic articles – for example, continents, islands, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, swamps, etc. –" ... --the eloquent peasant (talk) 18:18, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

not editing. fair use[edit]

uh oh. some people have a difficulty keeping their thoughts straight. and may find donation prompt distracting. they may stop donating if this isnt resolved. these issues especially on mobile are problematic, pc donations may or may not continue to flood in. i dont agree to the TOU wheres YOUR humanity, over and out — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.202.53 (talk)

Why not WP:Create an account, then you can switch off the donation prompt? The system has no way of knowing who has donated because Wikipedia respects anonymity. Dbfirs 16:43, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season article[edit]

What No 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season article. GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS IN GEAR NOW. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 17:20, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Just why do you think it appropriate to come here every few months and personally insult every single volunteer who reads the Help Desk? If you are so keen to get this done, who won't you put in the effort to learn how to do it yourself? --ColinFine (talk) 17:25, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia:DOITYOURSELF. If you hate that it doesn't exist, do it yourself. It isn't 2019 yet (from where I am), so the article likely doesn't have enough sources or even material. Have a good one WelpThatWorked (talk) 19:48, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
ColinFine, WelpThatWorked - If you look at the IP's contributions, you'll see they've contributed to Draft:2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season, which was declined by Legacypac on 12/27 as being too soon and again today by DavidWestT as being not-notable, so do-it-yourself isn't really appropriate advice. IP, once your block has expired, I would reccomend you pay attention to the reasons your drafts were declined and understand that at this time there just isn't enough we can say about sports seasons that haven't begun yet. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 20:24, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
ColinFine, WelpThatWorked,Legacypac I actually support the creation of this article, at least as of the end of the 2018 season which is in a week. Wikipedia does have pretty good articles on the next season for other sports. For example, 2019 NFL Season. Naraht (talk) 20:49, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
2019 NFL Season is red and season for this sport does not start until Aug 2019 (not tomorrow). If we approve it, it will go to AfD and be deleted or sent back to draft. Also the IP could create an acct and in 4 days WP:DOITYOURSELF. Legacypac (talk) 22:05, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Legacypac Sorry, 2019 NFL season which is a real article..Naraht (talk) 15:09, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Can Wikipedia article titles include a :[edit]

Hi

I can't seem to find the answer to this in the help pages, I'm looking at writing articles for publications e.g Turning promises into action: Gender equality so my question is is it OK to include a : in the article title or does this cause issues making it look like a namespace?

Thanks very much

John Cummings (talk) 19:58, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Colons are OK in titles unless they appear at the beginning of a title or the part before the colon is an actual namespace prefix. (Ex: Help: A Day in the Life is an invalid title because "Help" is a namespace, so the article for that album is at Help!: A Day in the Life, which is a valid title. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 20:02, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
As mentioned in the answer to one of yesterday's questions, the restrictions are at WP:NC-COLON. --David Biddulph (talk) 20:04, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks very much :) John Cummings (talk) 20:23, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

request help restoring edit environment[edit]

I had a cat on keyboard moment and would like to restore my editing enviroment. I had *both* the box above the editing area that included "Advanced - Special Characters - Help - Cite" across the top *and* below that, the box that included the regex and case enabled search and replace. Right now I only have the first. Also for the second, is there any way I can force the default choices on the button status on the left. When I was trying to fix it, it went to full screen which definitely conflicted with everything else I have.Naraht (talk) 20:29, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Start by locking up your cat. -Roxy, the dog. wooF 20:37, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Says the dog lol. But seriously, no real way to restore it except to go through and check all your settings again sorry. WelpThatWorked (talk) 21:22, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
"Advanced - Special Characters - Help - Cite" choose what to display right below it. "Advanced" includes a search and replace icon with regex to the right. If you have enabled wikEd at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets then the top right of the window has a pencil icon or to enable or disable wikEd. wikEd includes its own regex search in a menu above the text area. I'm not sure what you mean by button status and full screen in the second problem. Your browser probably has an icon at the top right to change between a maximised window and a resizable window. It may also have a different full screen toggle on F11. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:43, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
PrimeHunter The regex under advanced wasn't it. The regex in question is centered and has red circular arrows for the replace. The maximized window wasn't my entire screen, just somehow maximized so it overwrite the normal left hand side bar with the wikipedia globe and the interaction section. Naraht (talk) 15:15, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Centered red circular arrows sounds like wikEd. You may also have partially disabled wikEd on an icon to the top right of the edit area. What is your skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:43, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
PrimeHunter Vector. Naraht (talk) 19:16, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
File:WikEd screenshot.png shows wikEd. If the page format is messed up on all pages, it may help to clear your entire cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:14, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, that's the image that has that.. I'll try clearing the entire cache.Naraht (talk) 01:20, 2 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
PrimeHunter Yup that is it, but with WikEd on in the gadgets, it still isn't showing it after a bypass. I'll investigate WikEd more closely. Thanx for the help.Naraht (talk) 01:23, 2 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Even more fun, when I bring things up in Edge browser, I get WikEd, but not the "Advanced - Special Characters - Help - Cite".Naraht (talk) 01:24, 2 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Trusting what you read on Wikipedia...[edit]

Hi!!

If ANYONE can edit Wikipedia, how can I trust that someone won't put in "fake news"???? From what I've seen and read, it all appears legitimate, but my brother, a staunch Trump supporter, no less, doesn't trust the material. What can I say to him, please????

Thanks, Kay 32.212.96.174 (talk) 22:16, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Give him a quote from Ronald Reagan: "Trust, but verify." The articles here are just summaries of the information contained in the sources. If he finds something suspicious, he should follow the sources provided to back that item up. Believe me, there are people editing here who love Trump, as well as those who loath him; but we are all agreed on our principles of neutrality, verifiability, etc. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:45, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
In any given month, there are more than 100,000 separate editors making changes to Wikipedia. This is many times more people than all of the major news networks added together. Wikipedia's editors check each other's work continuously, in a completely unstructured way.It's not perfect, but it's much more effective than any other approach. Of course, there is an article on this subject: Reliability of Wikipedia. -Arch dude (talk) 01:45, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
...and that's just the editors working on Pokemon... :)
As of Tuesday, 30 April 2024, 23:20 (UTC), The English Wikipedia has 47,333,283 registered users, 122,676 active editors, and 861 administrators. Together we have made 1,216,864,556 edits, created 60,565,030 pages of all kinds and created 6,818,885 articles.
--Guy Macon (talk) 01:49, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
You can also see Wikipedia:General disclaimer. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:43, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Those 100,000 editors correct or introduce more than 100,000 errors to Wikipedia a month. If he believes Trump he should believe Wikipedia. Even Trump does not believe himself. Legacypac (talk) 16:44, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Force smaller pictures[edit]

I have a different monitor which is bigger. It is easier to use overall however I find that I'm getting bigger pictures and text is wrapping onto the line below. I'd like to force the resolution lower on pictures and make them smaller, so less text wrapping occurs. I've been looking in the preferences section but can't find anything, can anyone help? Szzuk (talk) 23:09, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

  • Szzuk, did you try Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering (scroll below to the "Files" section where you can force the image and thumb size). Lourdes 12:49, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    • I have tried that. I think it is a problem with the zoom function of google chrome. I have set the zoom to 125% to increase the text size, however this has odd results like text wrapping, the contents box filling white space in a new collumn to the left and pictures being too big and occupying their own collumn to the right. If I simply resize the window and shrink it while leaving all other settings in place none of this happens! Szzuk (talk) 16:54, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
      • I changed themes several times to see if that would help and then when I went back to the usual theme it was working! I'm assuming the CSS needed purging and the theme changes did that for me. So all is well, thank you for your reply. Szzuk (talk) 18:50, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]