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January 6[edit]

How to enable search/replace[edit]

How do I enable search/replace in the wiki source editor? I didn't see anything obvious in preferences. Thanks. --Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 00:50, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Chatul: With the default source editor, click "Advanced" in the toolbar above the edit area and then the magnifying glass icon at the far right. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:58, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

UTIAS (University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies) article deleted[edit]

Hi. An article that I'd put a fair bit of effort into, about UTIAS, seems to have been deleted recently. I can't find it in the Deletion Log, so I'm following the next step recommended here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_was_the_page_I_created_deleted%3F#Missing_deletion_logs

and asking about it via the Help Desk. Can you help me figure out what became of that? And why it was deleted?

Thanks!

- Kieran

K.a.carroll (talk) 02:53, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

K.a.carroll (talk) 02:51, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by K.a.carroll (talk • contribs) 02:50, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It was deleted at AFD. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies Meters (talk) 02:55, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Help. I want to add my middle initial to my wikipedia page name and I dont know how...[edit]

Help. I want to add my middle initial to my wikipedia page name and I dont know how... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ali J Eisner (talk • contribs) 03:38, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ali Eisner already includes the middle initial "J", and the initial is verified with a source. Do you mean that you want the article title changed? Meters (talk) 03:46, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I see the user also posted a clearer request on the article's talk page. Done. Meters (talk) 03:49, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sub categories[edit]

How do you keep sub categories lined up on the left hand side? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cabot215 (talk • contribs) 16:21, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The page I am referencing is Eleanor Platt page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cabot215 (talk • contribs) 16:23, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Cabot215. I'm guessing that you mean "section headings" when you say "subcategories". The code for both the images has the keyword "left" in it, telling the software to put the picture at the left of the page. If you change that to "right" it will put the pictures at the right, and the headings won't be displaced to the right. --ColinFine (talk) 16:54, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Cabot215: A second way is to use the {{clear}} template at the end of each section. A third way is to create a gallery, as I have done on the Eleanor Platt article. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 16:57, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

More seriously, you have uploaded both pictures claiming them to be your own work, and purporting to license them under CC-BY-SA. But while the photos may be your own work, the subjects are clearly not, and these are copyright violations - I shall be nominating them for deletion from Commons. Sorry. --ColinFine (talk) 16:57, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Infobox person on User page.[edit]

Hello,

I want to use a Template:Infobox person on my userpage as a about me kind of thing. I was wondering if that is allowed? ChromiumOverload (talk) 16:43, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ChromiumOverload: Hi there! You may use Template:Infobox Wikipedia user on your user page. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 16:52, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Activities and More.[edit]

Hello! I was wondering about things like patrols, and just like what to start with. I am kinda new and any suggestions are appriciated.

ChromiumOverload (talk) 17:36, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ChromiumOverload: Welcome and thanks for wanting to help. Check out Wikipedia:Task_Center for some ideas on what to work on. RudolfRed (talk) 17:39, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Redwarn and Twinkle[edit]

Hello is it safe to use features like warn on myself to test? ChromiumOverload (talk) 17:44, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ChromiumOverload: I suggest you experiment at User talk:Sandbox for user warnings. -- John of Reading (talk) 19:12, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a fair use image to a Wikipedia page when the infobox is pulling everything from Wikidata[edit]

Hello -- I'm not sure if this needs to go to the technical section or not. I have been adding images of deceased people to Wikipedia using the Fair Use rationale "deceased person." Here is a basic example. However, when the deceased person has a Wikipedia page where all the infobox information is being automatically included from Wikidata using the fetchwikidata feature, there is no way to manually add a picture to the infobox. And the fair use rationale only works if the image is at the top of a person's Wikipedia page. I am fairly sure, though may be wrong, that I can NOT add these images to Wikidata because of the differing rules governing the site. So my question is, is there any way to make this system work, or do I just have to re-do the infobox by manually pulling in the information (example diff here), a situation that is sub-optimal. There are conflicting values here: pulling in Wikidata information is clearly useful for some reasons, but having images of people on their Wikipedia pages (when free ones do not exist) is also quite useful. Suggestions? Thank you for your time. Jessamyn (talk) 18:34, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You can override any fields pulled from Wikidata like this:

{{infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL |image=Example.png}}

If this were on the subject's page instead of here, the rest of the fields from WD would be in the infobox also. MB 18:41, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@MB: Unfortunately a non-free image can't be displayed at the help desk, so I have edited your post. -- John of Reading (talk) 18:46, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@MB: Thank you very much that was exactly what I was looking for. I have been informed by other editors that there is a "six month rule" (guideline?) in terms of adding fair use images of recently-deceased people which presumably allows more time to try to track down an image. While I do understand the spirit of this idea, I am not sure if this is an actual Wikipedia rule or guideline, or just some editors' idea of what the rule/guideline should be. I'm aware this may be an all-new question best split out, but if anyone can point me in the right direction (I've read through WP:F and clicked around reading about Fair Use on Wikipedia for the past 20 minutes) I'd appreciate it. Jessamyn (talk) 00:12, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is a current discussion about this here MB 00:21, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Woof, that's a lot of disagreement. Thank you for pointing me to it. Jessamyn (talk) 02:58, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:EasyTimeline[edit]

Greetings, Helpdeskers! Look... if anyone has come across this kind of thing before, could you have a glance at the timeline I've (tried to) put into this new article? I started off with about 40 errors thrown up so I'm quite pleased with myself for just having it show as an image rather than a bunch of error codes, but I'm sure there's a way of getting the text on separate lines, though it beats me. Something in that opening code I guess? Any help is much appreciated in advance! (And subsequently too, I imagine ) 19:00, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Greetings anonymous help seeker. Please remember to sign your edits. Writing source code is not my forte, so when I am faced with problematic editing such as what you are encountering, I look for articles that already have similar edits within them. Then I copy and paste. So while I cannot directly answer your question, perhaps I can offer some assistance by directing you to look at these articles:

To search for further articles that might have the code you require, you can begin here: List of timelines.

You might also inquire of editors listed HERE.

You have made significant progress on a complicated matter, and I understand that this does not completely address your question; however, I do hope my response is of some help. I'm confident you will succeed. Most kind regards,Hu Nhu (talk) 03:15, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Rollback[edit]

Hello. I Recently found out that my account can rollback but i dont have rollback perms. I do do anti vandalism and want rollback perms but keeping them would not be the right thing to do so i am reporting this.— Preceding unsigned comment added by ChromiumOverload (talk • contribs)

You don't currently have rollback, but it looks like you are using RedWarn, which provides a rollback-like tool. It's fine, you aren't doing anything wrong by using it. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:51, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How to fix rollback embarrassments?[edit]

I can only use the thumb on my right hand to operate my keyboard. Long story. Sometimes when scrolling down on my watchlist a message pops up saying I am about to rollback someone else’s edit, and asks do I really want to do that. I am not conscious that my thumb had hit the rollback button! I press cancel to prevent the rollback and that clears the screen, and appears to fix the problem. But, if I wait a little bit and click on Watchlist again, I see that the rollback has actually taken place. So I do a manual fix. These unwanted rollbacks have been of genuine contributions made by longstanding good faith Wikipedians and it appears that I have vandalised or made unhelpful edits. Anyone help? Moriori (talk) 22:11, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Moriori: You should be able to go to the page's history and click "undo" next to the inadvertant rollback. RudolfRed (talk) 23:14, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think that's what they mean by a manual fix. -Floquenbeam (talk) 23:20, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Moriori:, you can add something to your .js or .css page that prevents the rollback button from even appearing on your watchlist. That used to happen to me, so I installed it, but with someone else telling me what to do, so I don't recall the details. But I can look and see where I have it installed if you want. --Floquenbeam (talk) 23:20, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have the following 3 lines installed in my common.css file:

.mw-special-Watchlist .mw-rollback-link {

display: none;

}

I think that's all you need to do. --Floquenbeam (talk) 23:24, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) You load User:MusikAnimal/confirmationRollback in User:Moriori/common.js. Try "Show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering instead. If you don't want rollbacks links on the watchlist then see Wikipedia:Customizing watchlists#Remove or modify the .5Brollback.5D link. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:25, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

FYI, @Floquenbeam:: You can use the <syntaxhighlight> Tag to highlight code in a multitude of different languages. For your example above:

.mw-special-Watchlist .mw-rollback-link {
    display: none;
}

Hope this helps, Victor Schmidt (talk) 08:50, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Column question[edit]

Barbadian Canadians is mostly a long list divided into sections with section headers. In my view with my screen width, the column breaks right after the heading "Media, film and television" leaving the header with nothing immediately following - the first item is at the top of the next column. It there a way to prevent this so there is at least one item after the header before the column break, like the way a nbsp can be used to prevent a line break? MB 22:50, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think what's happening is that the list item directly following the header uses the ccss rule break-inside: avoid-column; that keeps the list together when it would otherwise span two columns, but it separates it from the header. I'm not sure if there's a workaround for that. Vexations (talk) 23:19, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

RS's for birth dates[edit]

I was told by another user that "Government documents and records cannot be used to source birth dates." I cannot seem so locate a policy/guideline to support or denounce. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Thanx, - FlightTime (open channel) 23:31, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:DOB MB 00:19, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@MB: Thhank you. - FlightTime (open channel) 05:26, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@FlightTime, this discussion could be of interest: Wikipedia_talk:Biographies_of_living_persons/Archive_48#Tweets_announcing_"Happy_birthday_to_me!_I'm_21_today!". Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:53, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A key thing to notice is that WP:DOB is part of the "Biographies of living persons" policy. Government records may be used in articles about dead people, although care is needed to assure that the record really is about the person covered in the article, and not just someone with the same name. Jc3s5h (talk) 11:31, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Outside privacy concerns (which apply only to living or recently deceased persons), if we go by policy, government records are primary sources, and are therefore considered not OK for controversial statements. That seems crazy to me - consider the case of Gracie Allen, where the DoB is a controversial statement with multiple options flying around the media ("reliable secondary sources"!) at the time; surely the government record is the most reliable source in that context. Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 18:13, 7 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Great, Thank you all. - FlightTime (open channel) 03:24, 8 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]