Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 November 16

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November 16

Private page

Hi,

I have a question, is it possible to create a private article and give a permission to only specific people or group?

Another question, is it possible to ad comments to the article?

BR Abdullah — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abdullahjameel (talk • contribs) 08:33, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Abdullahjameel To your first question, no. All pages are visible to all users, and are editable by all(unless protected due to vandalism). You can't restrict pages to certain users.

To your second question, articles are not for discussion of the subject, and comments should not go in them. Article talk pages are for discussing the article itself(its structure and content) but are not for general discussion of the subject. 331dot (talk) 08:53, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Hello, Abdullahjameel. The answer is no. There are no private articles on Wikipedia, and almost any article can be edited by anyone in good standing. A few articles are protected to protect them against ongoing vandalism. If you want to write a private article, then please select another website. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 08:59, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Is it technically possible? Yes, MediaWiki does have that functionally. However it isn't usually employed on Wikipedia except in the case of certain special pages. Additionally deleted pages can only be viewed by certain user groups. EniaNey 17:23, 16 November 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by EniaNey (talk • contribs)

Sidebar

I'd like some help from someone good at this kind of coding. In Women in the Bible you can see two sidebars, the second one (Template:Christianity and gender) is IMO annoyingly tall. I would like it to be remade like the first (Template:Bible sidebar), so that the subsections are/can be "hidden" . Anyone up to it? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:31, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

I have converted {{Christianity and gender}} to use {{Sidebar with collapsible lists}}.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 15:34, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you PrimeHunter. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:49, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Forgot password

I have forgotten my wikipedia password. However, I am still logged in on my mobile and so I am asking you people this question with the same account here. Please tell me how to add my email address to my existing Wikipedia account so as to recover my password. I went to the preferences section and tried to change my password as well as add my email address but it is asking me to provide my present email address which I don't remember. Thank you!-Karumari (talk) 11:37, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Karumari: At present you don't have email set on Wikipedia, so I don't understand how it can be asking for your present email address. I just tried going to the option to add email to an alternative account of mine which doesn't have an email set, and under where it said "Current email address" instead of a box to type in the email address it just said "(none)". That should be what you get, and if so then you should be able to just ignore it and type your email address into the box below where it asks for your new email. I suggest checking whether that is what you are getting. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 12:02, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@JamesBWatson: If they set email but didn't confirm it, it will show (to us) as if they didn't set. @Karumari: Try opening this special page directly (Special:ChangeEmail) and add new email. If you have any email it will show up there. –Ammarpad (talk) 14:10, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Ammarpad: I hadn't thought of the possibility of an email address that was set but not confirmed: thanks for mentioning that. However, I tried clicking on your link to Special:ChangeEmail, and I got a message saying "You must log in again to verify that you are JamesBWatson", and a box for me to type in my password, so that may be no help to Karumari. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 14:36, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

(ec) @Ammarpad: My 3 cents: the page you linked above requires me to input the current password, even though I'm looged in. It works so both when I open it in a new window (with a Shift+click) and when I open it within the current window. So it probably wouldn't help the user who has forgot the password... --CiaPan (talk) 14:38, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@JamesBWatson and CiaPan: Yes, even though you're logged in you must re log anytime you access that page; logging per access for security reasons. Then you're both right, I forgot they don't have their current password. –Ammarpad (talk)

@JamesBWatson, CiaPan, and Ammarpad: I don't remember my current password and want to not only recover my present password but also set an email address. Please help. Thanks!-Karumari (talk) 18:38, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@JamesBWatson, CiaPan, and Ammarpad: If that is not possible, please help me create a new user id and password and not get blocked for it!-Karumari (talk) 18:48, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Karumari: That may be the easiest solution since you don't have much edit. Just navigate to Special:CreateAccount and provide new username and make sure you provide valid email address to prevent recurrence of incidence like this. After that, you can ask for this account to be voluntarily blocked since you lost the password and once you log out you cannot return. You can also leave it and use {{former account}} template on the userpage.–Ammarpad (talk) 05:44, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Ammarpad!-Karumari (talk) 06:54, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

JamesBWatson, can I do that?-Karumari (talk) 07:27, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

@Karumari: I don't see any reason why not. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 10:48, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Mortgage

My mom pruchased a home in south subs in 1994 for 89000thousnad,and her social sercurtiy she retired in 2005 and her morgage exceded he income so she asked her morgage company for a reduction Wells fargo well they sold her morgage to Rushmore on may 30 2018 she started paying rush more now rush more contiuse to treaten to foreclose my mom has never missed a payment and now she owes 95thousand more than original parchase price — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jchip48 (talk • contribs) 13:27, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

This page is for questions about how to use Wikipedia, not for discussing mortgages. -- Hoary (talk) 13:32, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Jchip48: Looks like you (and your mom) need a legal help. But WIKIPEDIA DOES NOT GIVE LEGAL OPINIONS. Turn to a professionalist. --CiaPan (talk) 15:25, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

IP edits and Vandalism

Hello all,

I am interested in locating IP edits by country to discover which Wikipedian articles are edited in the most countries in the world for my dissertation work. I will not publish anyone's IP address and summarize by countries. However, I am concerned about the amount of vandalism that occurs using IP addresses (non-registered users). What do people think, would mapping by IP addresses be a valid way understanding which articles (ideas) are worldwide in Wikipedia, or would the amount of vandalism make that invalid?

Thank you! Tom — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomthirteen (talk • contribs) 16:40, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Tomthirteen: The English Wikipedia has nearly 6 million articles, and hundreds of millions of edits, so it may be a bit burdensome to ascertain which is edited by the most countries. You could try and work out which articles are written in the most languages, though I don't have a ready method for doing that, someone might be able to suggest something if you're interested in pursuing that. Personally I don't see an issue with IP vandalism. The vandalism will be roughly proportional to the interest in that subject. Also, vandalism is pretty hard to distinguish by any automated means, and, so they say, the majority of IP edits in the majority of articles will be constructive. It shouldn't invalidate anything. And of course most heavily edited articles are mostly written by registered users whose country won't be reliably known. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 03:36, 17 November 2018 (UTC)

Dear zzuuzz, thank you for your response. Please forgive my late response. Part of the concern is proxy servers. This research is part of my dissertation, and the question of the validity of the IP addresses has come up. Proxy servers is really part of vandalism, so I want to exclude those addresses to answer this concern. Would you agree with that? I appreciate your support!

Adrian Hall issue

Adrian Hall is a disambiguation page. It lists:

• Adrian Hall (actor), born 1943
• Adrian Hall (actor), born 1959

That is two links to one article. The links both go to the article about an actor who was born in 1959. A Wikipedia Search does not find an actor who was born in 1943. I haven't tried a Google search, but I am not looking at this point to create the article on the 1943-born actor. Here are my questions. First, I am about to delete the entry that says it directs to an actor born in 1943. Is there agreement that that is the Right Thing to do? Second, does anyone know of another way to see if there really is an article on an actor born in 1959? Robert McClenon (talk) 17:07, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

I think that I have partially resolved the issue. What sent me off on this errand was a draft on Adrian Hall. The draft is about the person who was born in 1943. The draft is obviously incomplete and has missing sections, but it is what is needed for the link in the disambiguation page. I am not deleting the link. I will be accepting the draft but tagging it. Further comments? Robert McClenon (talk) 17:28, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Publish Changes

Unfortunately, As seen in this picture below, I am not allowed to edit a Wikipedia Article. It states that I am not allowed to. Why would this be happening? How can we edit it?

Emily

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Emilychingle (talk • contribs) 17:59, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Emilychingle, please provide a link to the page you were trying to edit. My guess, based on the text of the warning, is that you were not trying to edit a Wikipedia Article (a page in article space). Instead, you were trying to edit someone else's userpage, which is a page intended for editors to introduce themselves to the Wikipedia community and to discuss and coordiante their editing. Userpages should normally only (or primarily) be edited by the users to whom they apply. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:09, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Emilychingle I think I figured out what happened. It looks like you and MadisonLiggio were working on a draft of an article about Deschooling. Instead of locating it in draft space, you put it in user space at User:Deschooling, but there is no registered user by the name of Deschooling. The system wouldn't let you edit it, because that's not your username. I have moved it and its talk page to Draft:Deschooling, where you should be able to continue working on it without encountering that problem. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:19, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply! The problem was fixed and we were able to edit. --MadisonLiggio (talk) 02:26, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Maintenance template removal

My name is Brian Harr and I'm the new Director of Communications at The Master's University.

Our page is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master's_University

Our University page on Wikipedia was being vandalized a couple months back and someone from the university who didn't understand the Conflict of Interest rules at Wikipedia was correcting things that were edited in error. I believe that because the person correcting the errors was from the University that caused the maintenance template to appear at the top of our page, indicating self-pulbished sources.

I have vetted the page and all of the information is accurate.

I would like to request the template message be removed.

In the future I do plan to suggest updates for the page but will do that through the "Talk" function.

Thank you very much,

Brian Harr — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beeharr (talk • contribs) 18:08, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

I have responded to your request on the article talk page. We are all volunteers here, and it sometimes takes longer than an hour for someone to get around to doing things. Please don't repeate your requests in multiple fora less than an hour apart. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:53, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Maintenance template removal

My name is Brian Harr and I'm the new Director of Communications at The Master's University.

Our University page on Wikipedia was being edited a couple months back by outside parties and someone from the university who didn't understand the Conflict of Interest rules at Wikipedia was correcting things they felt were edited in error or things that should have been said in a more fair manner. It appears that because the person correcting the errors was from the University that caused the maintenance template to appear at the top of our page, indicating self-pulbished sources.

Our page is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master%27s_University

I have vetted the page and all of the information is accurate.

I would like to request the template message be removed.

I do plan to suggest updates for the page but will do that with a new "Talk" section.

Thank you very much, Brian Harr Beeharr (talk) 18:57, 16 November 2018 (UTC)beeharr

I have responded to your request on the article talk page. We are all volunteers here, and it sometimes takes longer than an hour for someone to get around to doing things. Please don't repeate your requests in multiple fora less than an hour apart. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:53, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

OK. Thank you for letting me know. Beeharr (talk) 17:57, 26 November 2018 (UTC)beeharr

Logging in to update my subscription

Do you think it is time for Wikipedia to make logging in a bit more simple? i had not visited Wikipedia for some time, however I received an email today Friday 16/11/18 regarding funding.Most of my information was stored on my computer, until it went black on me and had to be destroyed. I now have a new one. There are much simpler ways of retrieving a password and user name, I will leave that to you.I await an email from you. Ken. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kennyboy45 (talk • contribs) 20:06, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

@Kennyboy45: You are already logged in. If you forgot your password, you can set an e-mail for your account and have a new password sent to you. I assume the e-mail you got was for fundraising. You are not required to donate in order to use Wikipedia, we don't sell subscriptions. RudolfRed (talk) 20:09, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Also, maybe don't store all information in a spot one cannot guarantee retrieval from. Ian.thomson (talk) 20:17, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

2019 Major League Baseball season

On The General Managers Category can you fix the Reference On Mike Elias please. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 22:39, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

Was this what you were after? (I know nothing about baseball.) -- Hoary (talk) 22:57, 16 November 2018 (UTC)