Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 September 30

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September 30

How to change user name after legal name change?

We changed our first name by court decree. How do we change our user name? We tried creating a new user account with our new first name, but Wikipedia recognized our existing account and said the two names are too similar to allow it. No, we are not going to hide behind a pseudonym. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nigel Self (talk • contribs) 03:43, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Nigel Self: check out WP:CHU, but don't try to rename yourself, as it won't work as you intent. Victor Schmidt mobil (talk) 05:04, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Nigel Self: as an alternative to actually changing your username, you could create the new, similar one -- per WP:IMPERSONATOR see WP:RAC -- and then use it appropriately as described in WP:MULTIPLE and WP:VALIDALT. -- ToE 18:54, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

translation into English

Hello I was asked to translate and article regarding a person in the Italian wikipedia into english... I followed all the instructions but the article in English only appears with the word comes Draft: in front and I cannot link it to the Italian page under languages as the instructions say one should. Any advice? where did I wrong? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marinapet (talk • contribs) 09:13, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Your draft has not been submitted for AFC review, but there would be no point in submitting it in its current form as you have provided no references. Perhaps you didn't read the advice at WP:Your first article? --David Biddulph (talk) 09:17, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Draft:Cecilia Carreri does have references. However it doesn't cite any of them, as is required in en:Wikipedia. Maproom (talk) 09:50, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Citing Sources

For many years I used a template(?) for citing sources. I've lost track of it and I'm trying to find it. I would access it via an icon on my desktop. As I remember, it had versions for books, articles, etc. It included a bunch of fields that I would fill in as best I could. When I was finished, I'd push a button and it would generate a compact inline reference that I could include in my article. It was widely used at the time, and as I recall had some sort of endorsement by Wikipedia. It had somebody's name associated with it, perhaps a Germanic name. The compact reference looked like this:

<ref name=DBV>{{cite book|last1=Gunter|first1=Donald W.|title=Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Volume 2|date=2001|publisher=Library of Virginia|isbn=0884901998|pages=509–510}}<!--|accessdate=30 November 2015--></ref>

Who can help me find this needle in a haystack? Lou Sander (talk) 12:56, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

There should be a "Cite" dropdown leading to a "Templates" dropdown in the toolbar at the top of your edit window. If you haven't got that, other editors may be able to suggest which preferences you may need to correct. --David Biddulph (talk) 13:06, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

This isn't exactly what I'm looking for, but it's close. There aren't as many fields as what I had, but it's sure easier to get to! Lou Sander (talk) 13:17, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

Please repair the book I have added in the "Further reading" section at the bottom of this page. I got it wrong - please leave in quote. Thanks 175.32.141.99 (talk) 13:10, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

You need to change the closing tag from <ref/> to </ref>. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:01, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

The addition has been removed as lacking relevance but as it wasn't a ref you needed to remove the opening tag and not add the malformed closing, as you did after asking here. Eagleash (talk) 01:40, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Cultural impact of Michael Jackson: Revision history

I just tried to nominate this for deletion& for some reason my nomination has been appended to a previous deletion discussion for this page. Can anybody sort out this snafu, I'd be very grateful.TheLongTone (talk) 15:05, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

TheLongTone, The guidance is Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion#How_to_nominate_a_single_page_for_deletion. In this case the NominationName should be "Cultural impact of Michael Jackson (2nd nomination)". TSventon (talk) 15:57, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Twinkle is good at allowing you to do all 3 parts of the AFD nomination process. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:47, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

David Biddulph Does Twinkle prompt you to add "2nd nomination" where necessary? TheLongTone was using Page Curation which seems to be similar. TSventon (talk) 16:58, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Twinkle handles second and subsequent nominations properly and without additional prompting. Page Curation does not, resulting in the problems TLT encountered. Only real solution here is to revert the PC edits on the article, the discussion page, and the daily log and redo it using Twinkle or by hand. Everything there is now back to status quo ante and a proper renomination can proceed by non-Page Curation means. --Finngall ^talk 17:52, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

I made the attempt to nominate for deletion using Twinkle...TheLongTone (talk) 15:26, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

How to get an article re-reviewed for it’s quality?

How do I get an article re-reviewed on it’s quality assessment scale, especially if it has been significantly improved? Who will do that?VaibhavafroTalk 15:44, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Vaibhavafro: Anyone can review an article up to B class (beyond that, it has to have an independent review). If you direct me to the article, I am happy to do it for you. Regards, Willbb234^Talk (please {{ping}} me in replies) 16:33, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Willbb234: This article please. Thanks-VaibhavafroTalk 16:43, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

 Done C-class. Wikiproject military history doesn't allow C-class though, for some reason so that is a start class. Thanks, Willbb234^Talk (please {{ping}} me in replies) 16:59, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Willbb234: There definitely is a category for C class, but it appears the description text for C and Start class on this wikiproject are mixed up! I thought i'd try a different WP template until I realised this was the case. Bungle ^{(talk • contribs)} 17:18, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Sorry I botched two of the REFs when editing page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu - Sorry I failed to amend it (and save the editing). - Can anyone help?

Heading text

Sorry I botched two of the REFs when editing page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu - Sorry I failed to amend it (and save the editing). - Can anyone help?

I've fixed a couple of referencing errors in the lead of Mordechai Vanunu.   Maproom (talk) 21:36, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

I did some cite cleanups in the article. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 22:29, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

I wish <ENTER> in edit summary wouldn't publish changes

I often accidentally hit the enter key while typing an edit summary, publishing the change and recording an incomplete & unproofread summary. Is there a way to disable this, so that clicking the "Publish change" button is required? Preferences / Editing gives "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" (and thanks to whoever created that) but doesn't seem to offer this option. -- ToE 18:38, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Thinking of England: Yes, there's a script for this - User:Anomie/nosubmitsummary.js -- John of Reading (talk) 19:10, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Works great! Thanks. -- ToE 20:16, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

I am the subject of a page that is woefully out-of-date and incomplete.

Hello,

My name is Chris Morrissey. I am a musician who lives somewhere in the nebulous world of "notable enough to have had someone create a page a long time ago, but not enough to have it maintained." I'm not interested in editing myself, and I don't know who created it, but as it has existed for a long time, I hoped if I logged an issue with a page about me here, that someone here could help. Please advise. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.246.236.3 (talk) 20:48, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@96.246.236.3: Courtesy link Chris Morrissey Hi Chris - The challenge in getting your article updated is that there are few reliable sources of media coverage that I can find about you, with a simple Google search. Articles that were uploaded in 2006 were not subject to the same amount of vetting as articles today. It's very possible that in a case of unintended consequences, without more third party media coverage about you from which to update the information, and indeed even source what is there now, your article might be nominated for deletion. If you've gotten media coverage, please add the links to the talk page so that others can review and see what can be done. TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 21:11, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Template?

Recently I placed a BLP up for AFD; not realizing that it was not lack of notability but lack of content representation and poor writing / research within the article itself. I plan to update the article as best I can; but I wonder if there is a template that can be placed (temporarily) so that other editors can contribute / update / improve the content as well to better reflect the BLP's notability? Thanks in advance. Maineartists (talk) 21:32, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@Maineartists: You can add the Template:Copy edit and Template:refimprove templates to get others to copy edit and improve references. TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 22:51, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Hey @Timtempleton: Thanks! Maineartists (talk) 23:57, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Is it acceptable to use hyphens "[t]o separate parts of an item [o]n a list"?

The Manual of Style says that dashes are "sometimes used" for this, but I've often seen hyphens used instead. Could anyone please tell me if hyphens are ever acceptable for this? Also, sorry if the title of this post is confusing; I'm quoting the Manual of Style for it.--Thylacine24 (talk) 22:25, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

If I've correctly understood our MOS, then no, hyphens are not acceptable to separate items in a list. It is common to see them used in print where an endash would be more appropriate, but in Wikipedia this is allowed only in redirects, for the convenience of searchers who can't type an endash. Dbfirs 07:07, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Oh. So I was wrong to replace hyphens with en dashes in character lists, then revert those edits? Sometimes I really hate the fact that I can edit this website. (No offense to you.)--Thylacine24 (talk) 14:15, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Really, sorry if that answer came off as rude.--Thylacine24 (talk) 23:22, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Turning Wikipedia URL into a Wikilink?

Occassionally, I will grab the URL of a Wikipedia article and put into double brackets like this: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automattic]]. This renders like this: [[1]], when of course what I really want is this Automattic. Is there anyway to get the Wikipedia parser to recognize the URL leads to Wikipedia and convert it into a Wikilink instead of showing as a URL link? RudolfRed (talk) 23:26, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

@RudolfRed: Have you tried [[Automattic]]? HeartGlow30797 (talk) 01:05, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

RudolfRed: URL's can just go in Wikitext as they are, and will appear with a link. If you want different text to appear, use single brackets. But for links within Wikipedia, just use the page name (not the URL) in double brackets, as HeartGlow showed. --ColinFine (talk) 09:02, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

@RudolfRed: Yes, the Wikipedia parser could be changed in the way you suggest, but I doubt if any developer would want to spend the time on it. You could try to gain support for the idea by posting at the Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab). In the mean time, articles containing this syntax error are reported as Checkwiki error 86, so a bot or helpful gnome would probably get round to fixing it eventually. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:21, 1 October 2019 (UTC)