Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 October 23

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October 23[edit]

Can I unarchive a proposal at WP:VPR?[edit]

Resolved

Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 184#Migrate archive URLs from WebCite to the Wayback Machine was apparently archived automatically. There seems to be sort of support for the idea, but the discussion was not closed and no clear end result seemed to be reached. Should I unarchive the discussion and add it back to VPR? Or is the discussion enough of a consensus for a request at WP:BOTREQ? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 08:55, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'd try for a botreq. Mjroots (talk) 14:23, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, done. Thank you. Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 13:50, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Birth year template help[edit]

Hi. I need help with the birth year template because it seems to be broken. I have been adding info boxes to some pages for certain people where only the month and year they were born in is known. For some reason the (birth year and age) template works fine but the {birth year) on it's own does not. For example if we use the date August 1980:

If we do (birth year and age) it reads fine as follows: August 1980 (age 43)

But if the person has died and we remove the "and age" section it just reads as this: 8 (1980)

Any help please? Thanks. Inexpiable (talk) 10:09, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

{{birth year}} is a redirect to {{birth-date}} which creates microformat data from the date specified in {{{1}}} (1980 in your example). When {{{2}}} does not exist, {{birth-date}} displays the value in {{{1}}}. The documentation is rather poor on this but when {{{2}}} is present and set, that is the value that the template displays; see Template:Birth-date § Parameters. So, in your example, {{{2}}} is set to 8 so that is what the template displays.
Perhaps the template that you want is {{birth date}} (without the hyphen)?
Trappist the monk (talk) 11:54, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Trappist the monk It still doesn't work it just returns this if we use the above example: (1980-08-{{{day}}})August Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{"., 1980 Inexpiable (talk) 14:20, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Read the template's documentation. You have to give it the whole date: {{birth date|1980|8|22}}(1980-08-22)August 22, 1980
Are you using the template to get the microformat metadata? Perhaps:
{{Birth-date|August 1980}} → August 1980 (1980-08)
August 1980<span style="display:none">&#160;(<span class="dtstart bday">1980-08</span>)</span>
If not, why don't you just write out the date in plain text: August 1980?
Trappist the monk (talk) 14:40, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Ok it works if you use this one: {{Birth-date|August 1980}} → August 1980 (1980-08) Still not ideal though when it comes to keeping coding the same, the code is definitely bugged and flawed when it comes to this. You really should be able to format it this way with just the month and year of birth without needing to add "22" in the following example: {{birth date|1980|8|22}}(1980-08-22)August 22, 1980
It would be nice if this worked without having to add the exact date if it is not known: {{birth date|1980|8}}(1980-08-{{{day}}})August Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "{"., 1980

But thank you anyway for the help, it does work at least. Inexpiable (talk) 15:24, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

PICTURE[edit]

John Brown

How to put a picture in a page? I've been trying to put it but I can't. Kenzie Abraham (talk) 10:50, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Typically like this: [[File:1846-47 John Brown by Augustus Washington (without frame).jpg|right|thumb|John Brown]], which is the code used to display the image at right. The four sections are 1) filename, 2) page location (left or right), 3) the keyword "thumb", and 4) the caption if any.
Just change the filename, page location, and caption to what you want (you don't need to have a caption). This is assuming that you want a "thumbnail" size display which is generally true. Herostratus (talk) 12:06, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Kenzie Abraham: the "file" must be resident on Commons or on the English Wikipedia before you can put it in an article as above. To add yoour ficture to Commons(preferred) or on the English Wikipedia, use the file upload wizard by clicking on "upload file" in the left-hand column of this or any other page. -Arch dude (talk) 18:14, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Indigenous rights footer[edit]

Template:Indigenous rights footer is transcluded on a few biographic articles and was on the Bartolomé de las Casas, an important figure (social reformer, writer documenting atrocities against indigenous people). The editor removed it saying the "Template does not list anyone". My questions are: Is that a valid reason to remove this specific template from this bio? If yes, then template can updated to include people, right? If this template (labeled International Indigenous and minority rights) doesn't include people, can it still be added to a person's article? Because if anyone should have this template on their page, it is Bartolomé de las Casas (who wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, IMHO. --The Eloquent Peasant (talk) 13:41, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In general, templates that list articles should only be included on the articles which it links to and vice versa. It may be reasonable to add those who have fought for those rights to the template, although that might expand it too much. I'd suggest a discussion on Template talk:Indigenous rights.Naraht (talk) 13:48, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yuki Shimoda Page[edit]

Hi

I want to start including inline citations (or references to external sources) for this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki_Shimoda

For example, I found this web page which I can cite, https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/yuki-shimoda/.

BUT, I'm so confused. It seems like I need to first include a REFERENCE section in the TOC box, but even though I've been trying to figure out to figure this out, I'm stymied.

I've really got very little time to do this, so, if someone could assist, I'd be most appreciative!


BoyScoutish (talk) 14:57, 23 October 2021 (UTC)BoyScoutish[reply]

@BoyScoutish If you add a heading for references it will auto-generate a TOC entry. All; TOC entries are autogenerated. Your heading should look like this:
==References==
It is good practice to place
{{Reflist}}
beneath that new heading. References will appear there.
Please read Help:Referencing for beginners and Wikipedia:Citing sources and return here, ideally to this same section, for further questions FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 15:10, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Maths[edit]

Xy=1+2/4 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.112.75.154 (talk) 15:41, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a question about this equation, you are better off helped at Wikipedia:RD/Math. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:03, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
But note they will not do your coursework for you, and nor will we. —A little blue Bori v^_^v Jéské Couriano 02:55, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"[[]] Content" section in TOC_limit template? Visual editor doesn't seem to handle some templates right.[edit]

screenshot of visual editor template transclusion

I wanted to edit the last paragraph of the lede of https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dementia&action=edit&oldid=1051254542 in the visual editor, but clicking on it highlighted the whole paragraph and led me to edit the TOC_limit template, where the whole paragraph was in a bogus-seeming "[[]] Content" section. When I examined the page in source editing, I saw that the template was simply placed at the end of the paragraph. Why on earth would the visual editor present the paragraph that way for editing? See the screenshot. When I put the template on a line by itself, the problem went away. Is this a VE bug? ★NealMcB★ (talk) 15:58, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Nealmcb: I occasionally get a similar problem. Exiting out of the visual editor and refreshing the page usually fixes the problem, but someone at the WP:VPT might know if a ticket's been filed for this issue or a workaround. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:05, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the input. But I can still reproduce the problem. It happens in an up-to-date Chrome browser (Version 95.0.4638.54 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)) every time. I just opened it in Firefox and saw the same thing. Does WP:VPT monitor this space? ★NealMcB★ (talk) 16:12, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I gave up on the visual editor years ago. It's fine for editing the prose and basic text formatting, but beyond that it's better to use the source editor. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:01, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Button of Doom vandal[edit]

block/ban this ip (indefinitely), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2804:14D:5C60:9DCF:541:319F:9A33:4D0F. They are disruptively editing the article on Megamind: The Button of Doom with information of a non-existent sequel they are calling "Wrath of Mebooba". They have absolutely zippo proof of it! Visokor (talk) 18:19, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Visokor We don't block IPs indefinitely. This is an IPv6 and will change frequently. I've semi protected the page for a week. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 19:26, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Table column formatting[edit]

Hello, does anybody know what exactly to do to fix the table formatting as to the final column at List of current constituent African monarchs#List of constituent African monarchs? Thanks in advance for any assistance.--Hildeoc (talk) 18:33, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Hildeoc: Excessive rowspan for Ghana (was 11 for just nine rows), and missing cells in the reference row. I've fixed it. I've also removed invalid HTML5, irrelevant WP:BOLD, and the pointless dark-grey/white colour combination for the left-most two columns because they broke Wikipedia's accessibility directives (WP:COLOURCONTRAST); same for subheadings within tables. The article's a bit of a mess with split tables: it would be better to merge all into a single table, followed by any country-specific notes, narrative, or images. (I will do that if requested.) Bazza (talk) 19:15, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Bazza 7: Thank you so, so much for taking care of that! Regarding your merger proposal, that would be great AFAIC! So feel free to go ahead if you like. Best wishes--Hildeoc (talk) 20:28, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Archiving website sources[edit]

Hello Help desk volunteers. I have websites in New Albion which I would like to archive. I have relied upon the generosity of another editor who has archived many websites in various articles I've written. However, this editor's health is such that I would like ease my requests of him/her. The editor tried to help me with archiving, but we discovered that he/she has a special tool that is no longer available.

I look for directions on Wikipedia as to how to archive sources, but find none. So, where might I proceed from here. I've four websites on the New Albion article I would like to archive or have archived. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,Hu Nhu (talk) 23:05, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Hu Nhu: Try WP:WBM. Eagleash (talk) 23:30, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
There's also an automated option. You can run the InternetArchiveBot on a page by going to the page history and clicking "Fix dead links" (it's with the "External tools"). There's a checkbox to add archive links to non-dead websites. – Anon423 (talk) 04:58, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Eagleash and Anon423 and thank you for your prompt responses. The internet archive was down due to scheduled maintenance. I found the Fix dead links with no trouble, but I was not able to proceed beyond clicking it. For several minutes, the operation languished, going nowhere. I will attempt both operations tomorrow and discover what happens. I will also let you know the outcome. Most kind regards and thanks to you both again for your kind attention,Hu Nhu (talk) 21:39, 24 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I just tried it on a random article and I think it's working now. It can take a while to run, especially if the page is large and has many references. It might not do anything unless you click the "Add archives to all non-dead references (Optional)" checkbox, since otherwise it only adds archive links to dead websites. – Anon423 (talk) 00:14, 25 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]