Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 April 4

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April 4[edit]

How to make a Draft: page a published page[edit]

I created this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Bad_Lives and it has been completed for over a month but still has the draft title and I don't know what the next step is to get it published.

Thanks --Samohtnadroj (talk) 04:41, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Samohtnadroj: You should submit it for review by adding {{subst:submit}} to the top of the page; I have done this for you. Kleinpecan (talk) 06:22, 4 April 2021 (UPC)
@Samohtnadroj: no Declined as failing WP:NMUSIC. In addition you appear to be the subject of the draft. Fiddle Faddle 08:20, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Viewing deleted contributions[edit]

When I checked general statistics for my account I found that 92 of my edits were removed from my contributions and I can't see them because I am not an administrator. Can a user request to see his own removed contributions and why he/she can't see them?Shaheen Hassan (talk) 08:50, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Shaheen Hassan: The most likely reason I can think of is that a page you were editing has been deleted. As far as I am aware requests to see removed contributed are rarely entertained. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 08:54, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Tenryuu 🐲: The articles I edited still exist. My edits to these articles were deleted from the articles and then they were removed from the Article revision history and from my contributions page. Shaheen Hassan (talk) 09:05, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Shaheen Hassan there is a probability that the edits were in some manner problematic. Problems where edits are completely redacted include copyright violations. That does not mean that you necessarily created the problem, whatever its was. Mediawiki software can be unsubtle in the way it handles full redactions and the counting of them. Fiddle Faddle 09:09, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Fiddle Faddle: These edits were climate data for some cities and towns with a cited source and no copyright violations. Shaheen Hassan (talk) 09:19, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Allowing users to see deleted contributions undercuts the purpose of deleting them. Contributions can be hidden from public view, and even in some cases from administrators, but not outright removed. I see no hidden edits on your recent edit history. Which articles are you talking about? 331dot (talk) 09:11, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@331dot: These edits include articles like El Cairo and Cartago, Valle del Cauca. I added climate data for these 2 places but they removed and also hidden from page history and from my contributions. Shaheen Hassan (talk) 09:19, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Shaheen Hassan Your account has not made any edits to those articles. As I said, edits cannot be outright removed from your contribution history; they can be hidden, but the edit would still appear in your history. Did you perhaps make the contributions while accidentally logged out? 331dot (talk) 09:27, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
And if they were about climate, I can't think of a reason to hide them from view unless they were copyright violations- and again, those would still appear in your history. 331dot (talk) 09:27, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@331dot: Check this link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special%3ADeletedContributions%2FShaheen_Hassan Shaheen Hassan (talk) 09:37, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Shaheen Hassan Yes, I checked your deleted contributions; none of them are to the two articles you specified. Most of them are to a now deleted draft. If you're certain you saved the contributions, you must have made them while logged out- otherwise, for some reason, your contributions were not saved. Even if hidden from public view, they would still display in your contribution history. I suggest that you examine the article edit history to see if any of the contrbutions made by IP addresses look familiar as yours. 331dot (talk) 09:47, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@331dot: I am sure that I edited these pages while logged in but as you said, it's possible that they were not added to the page history and to my contributions for some unknown reason. Thanks Shaheen Hassan (talk) 09:57, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Shaheen Hassan with precision, why does this matter so much to you? Why not smile and move on? Fiddle Faddle 10:32, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Fiddle Faddle: It matters so much because some of my contributions have gone to waste and it's possible that I could lose more contributions in the future. Bye 👋🏼 Shaheen Hassan (talk) 10:56, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Shaheen Hassan: If a version was removed, there would be record of removal that the public could see in the page history. See Wikipedia:Revision_deletion#Technical_details. The lack of said entries in those pages indicates you are likely misremembering edits that you made. Regards.—Bagumba (talk) 05:42, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Recently submitted page[edit]

I recently submitted a new page, and would like to confirm how I can request an editor to help, and if I have provided sufficient information.

Thanks, Ken

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Kv2000/Katie_Hunt_Wallpaper

You had already asked Wikipedia:Teahouse#Approving_New_Page_-_Please_advise_if_additional_information_is_required. Please wait for a response there. -- Hoary (talk) 13:26, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Kv2000. I helped you reduce the promotional language, add some citation needed tags, and fix some grammar mistakes. Please be sure to cite some more reliable sources where needed. Enjoy! Félix An (talk) 17:14, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi User:Félix An. Thanks, I added the citations requested. Kv2000 (talk) 19:21, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Félix An

Please let me know if there may be additional steps required, and what I should add/include. There are 2 comments on the page (below), and I think they were both attended to.

Thanks, Ken

Symbol opinion vote.svg Comment: IMDb and Instagram are not reliable sources for establishing any notability and her own website is not an independent source. Theroadislong (talk) 13:34, 4 April 2021 (UTC) Symbol opinion vote.svg Comment: reads like an advert Theroadislong (talk) 13:32, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Replacing center tags with span tags?[edit]

I want to replace obsolete center tags with:

<span style="text-align:center"></span>

My question is if this is ok or if I should use another way of replacing the center tag.

Positron832 (talk) 15:06, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I am neutral on doing this, however, you should probbably use <div style="text-align:center"></div>. The reason is that span-Tags only ever get as big as nessesary to fit their content. For example: This is a span


This element has a black border

And this is a div
This element has a black border
While its theoretically possible to make a span have the effect of a div with CSS, this is just uggly. Also, when you center stuff in tables, you should probbably style the table cell directly, rather than filling it with just one stlyed container. Victor Schmidt (talk) 16:01, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I tested tried divs and it looks just like with the center tag! Positron832 (talk) 20:33, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have completed the fifth mission, but now I cannot continue. Why does this problem arise and how can I solve it? Dr Salvus 15:45, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Dr Salvus: Wikipedia talk:The Wikipedia Adventure suggests that you contact User:Ocaasi to report bugs. Hope this helps! GoingBatty (talk) 19:29, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Help for sources[edit]

How can I ask for help for sources to define whether they are reliable or not. Dr Salvus 15:49, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You can ask at the reliable sources noticeboard. Happy editing! Kleinpecan (talk) 17:09, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

extra "/" in searches[edit]

I have been trying to search for articles, but the search function keeps putting a / in front of my search term. Who do I ask about this being fixed? --Bejnar (talk) 17:32, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Bejnar: It's done by fixSearchForm in User:Bejnar/common.js. You added it in 2013. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:45, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. common.js has never done that before. Is there a fix? --Bejnar (talk) 21:28, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Bejnar: I don't know the purpose of any of the code. If you don't either then try blanking it and see if you miss anything afterwards. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:23, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Boccherini[edit]

Why is Luigi Boccherini not on this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:18th-century_classical_composers ? If he is listed in another century, please note that Boccherini lived in the 18th century. Baccherini (talk) 17:42, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Baccherini: Categories can sometimes seem like a labyrinth. Luigi Boccherini is in Category:Italian Classical-period composers, a subcategory of Category:Classical-period composers by nationality, a subcategory of Category:Classical-period composers, a subcategory of Category:18th-century classical composers. Articles are usually not in both a category and its parent categories. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:01, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Including images in a Wikipedia article[edit]

Dear help desk,

I have read a lot now around this but concrete understanding of what to do did not emerge. I am editing a Wikipedia article and I made a simple formula in MS Equation (which I am used to) and tried to enter it in my article, in the latest attempt as a small .png image. But it is refuses on grounds of not being verified as eligible, i.e. copyright issues etc. But I just did it myself in MS Word. How could I get this done, without using Latex or other to me unfamiliar equation editors or markup languages. I have then another image from an article of mine in a frontiers journal - open access. Is it at all possible to use such an image, possibly after asking permission from Frontiers?

Best regards/Anders Lansner — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nalnad (talkcontribs)

@Nalnad: Wikipedia is a wiki so we want editors to be able to edit the same content, including formulas. That means you must use one of the methods at Help:Displaying a formula and not upload an image. If it's just a few formulas then you can ask for help, e.g. after saving an image somewhere others can see it. If you want to do more significant work with formulas then I'm afraid you will have to learn how we do it. Copyright is complicated. You can ask questions at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions but be as specific as possible. If it's possible then always link to the image you ask about or a page which displays it. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:16, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) @Nalnad: Wikipedia prefers equations to be in LaTeX or HTML. There's an online LaTeX editor that does real-time previews if you need to get the code down; it's pretty intuitive for almost-LaTeX illiterate users like me. Otherwise you could try uploading the equation's image on an image hosting site like imgur, start a discussion on the article's talk page, and see if anyone's able to convert it.
As to your second question, it would depend on if you still hold the rights to your article's contents or if the journal does. If the former is true and your content normally isn't licence-compatible with Wikipedia, you can donate said contents. Just be aware that anyone can use it beyond Wikipedia so long as they provide attribution. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 18:20, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Nalnad: The copyright of all Frontiers articles and graphics are CC BY 4.0 as "stated here".. Hence you can copy diagrams to Commons (with attribution but without seeking permission) as I did a couple of days ago with Commons:File:Prodiginine biosynthesis.jpg so you can see an example of the result. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:39, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Mickael D. Turnbull: Many thanks!! Will try this, but I am not yet autoauthorized (?) so may still not work.

Resolving Tags in Sections[edit]

I have been working to expand articles that have tags saying some sections need expansion, as well as adding citations to articles with sections that have tags saying they need citations for verification. Once I have either expanded those sections or added sources to them, how do I either get rid of those tags, or alert someone who can remove those tags from that section?

Redf1veXW (talk) 18:41, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Redf1veXW: if you've addressed the tagged issue, you can remove the tag yourself. Mjroots (talk) 18:48, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Redf1veXW: You can just remove them yourself as you would any other content. If anyone disagrees they'll revert it. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 18:48, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Korean language[edit]

How do l learn to speak Korean language ?

Hello. This is a help desk for questions about using and editing Wikipedia - nothing else. It's possible you might get an answer if you posted at the Reference Desk, but I would suggest looking at some of the resources mentioned in our article Korean language. --ColinFine (talk) 21:30, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Question about talk pages[edit]

There's a question I've asked on the talk page of a particular article, but a related article, not centered around the former article's subject, has a relatively more active talk page (though the last post was in 2015, I think). Could anybody please tell me if I should also or instead ask the question on the latter article's talk page?--Thylacine24 (talk) 20:52, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thylacine24 If this is about Talk:Cyzicus (mythology), you could ask here.
More generally, you could post a question on one page and a link to the question on the other. You could also try a relevant project talk page. TSventon (talk) 21:18, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Thanks, and it is about Cyzicus. However, I was under the impression that it was wrong to ask talk page questions on the help desk before asking them on a talk page first and then waiting about a week. Also, I don't know where to go for project talk pages without a specific link.--Thylacine24 (talk) 21:25, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Thylacine24: Talk:Cyzicus had 4 views in the last year, so you will be lucky if anyone sees it in a week. There are links to three wikiprojects at the top of the talk page and if you open a project page, the talk page tab is to the right of the project page tab. You are asking about how to apply MOS guidance on apostrophes, so your question may not be of much interest to readers of Talk:Cyzicus or related wikiprojects. TSventon (talk) 21:42, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Thanks, and sorry for not knowing that. I'll take your advice and ask the question here, rephrased, in a new section.--Thylacine24 (talk) 22:01, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Thylacine24: another suggestion is to find the major contributors to the article (click on view history, the click on page statistics), check who has edited recently, then ask on their talk page. TSventon (talk) 22:20, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Could you please tell me what span of time "recently" entails?--Thylacine24 (talk) 22:30, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Thylacine24: I suppose a week, but if someone has edited in the last 24 hours that is preferable. It depends whether I am in a hurry to get an answer. TSventon (talk) 22:39, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Thanks, but the usage of "Cyzicus" which originally inspired me to ask this occured on this page, in an edit from 2019, so I guess that's out.--Thylacine24 (talk) 22:49, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Thylacine24: I look at the editor's latest edit by clicking on contributions, which is pretty recent in that case. TSventon (talk) 23:19, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: I checked and his last edit on that page was more than a month ago. Could you please tell me if by "latest edit", you mean some other page?--Thylacine24 (talk) 23:47, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Thylacine24: I mean their last edit to any page: if they were logged in to edit yesterday, hopefully they will log in to edit later today. TSventon (talk) 00:01, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Okay, then, thanks again. I'll ask that editor. Also, could you please tell me if you added that en dash, or if I did?--Thylacine24 (talk) 00:16, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Use of possessive "s" in names ending in "s"[edit]

The Manual of Style recommends changing the phrasing of certain words ending with "s" to something like "the [noun] of [name]". Could anyone please tell me if this should be universally applied? I'm specifically curious if it should apply to Cyzicus - which, to me, sounds admittedly awkward with a possessive "s". Also, according to sources like this and this, it doesn't apply to some names, like Socrates or, more debatably in the latter source, Jesus. --Thylacine24 (talk) 20:30, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The short answer is this should not be universally applied. MOS says "If a name ending in s or z would be difficult to pronounce with 's added (Jesus's teachings), consider rewording (the teachings of Jesus)." This is followed by a hidden comment "From googling around, this bit about "s or z" is (a) something on which there's split opinion, and (b) part of a larger set of rules on similar edge cases. See https://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/apostrophes-with-names-ending-in-s-ch-or-z/ . So I'm not sure why we're discussing just this one." I would advise leaving these if you are uncertain. TSventon (talk) 22:40, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@TSventon: Okay, I'll leave them, then.--Thylacine24 (talk) 22:56, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Mart Kenney[edit]

Hey, so I don't know if the edits in the death and legacy section to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart_Kenney is vandalism or not, this edit was done by IP addresses and it seems as if there's been constant vandalism in the last few days due to the K-6 curriculum issue. The tone of the last paragraph especially. Any ideas? I tried to fix it, but I don't know. --MattBinYYC (talk) 22:58, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]