Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 March 4

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March 4[edit]

Documentaries as citations[edit]

Are documentaries valid citations if the source is trustworthy, in my case the Iowa PBS? ✶Mitch199811✶ 00:09, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Mitch199811: I would say yes, especially if you are able to cite it in a way that is verifiable by others. Things like radio news broadcasts may be reliable but not possible to verify unless there is a transcript or recording available (and the transcript or recording cannot be a copyright violation). ~Anachronist (talk) 02:06, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Mitch199811: Depending on the program, you might be able to use {{Cite AV media}} or {{Cite episode}}. GoingBatty (talk) 02:25, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

RSA Fellow and INTJ[edit]

Hi I'm a Royal Society of the Arts Fellow and true INTJ with testing I can prove I did test as a genius And I can prove it Jdm7dv (talk) 00:26, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I would like my own wiepedia page. Jdm7dv (talk) 00:28, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I am a INTJ-T top 1% of the global population and if that's not notable I dont know what is and I have the testing to prove it. Jdm7dv (talk) 00:55, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
And I'll show you according to what book when you ask. According to the Book 'Please Understand me' by David Keirsey and Marylin Bates Jdm7dv (talk) 00:59, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
https://www.reverbnation.com/artist/jonathanchapmanmoore was #1 on reverb nation in Ireland. Jdm7dv (talk) 01:31, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdm7dv, I'm gonna note that 1% of the global population still means 80+ million people. Being INTJ doesn't necessarily mean you automatically deserve an article. Additionally, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has a lot of critics in the scientific community for whether it is valid (many people regard it as pseudoscience or just not reliable and accurate in general). 💜  melecie  talk - 01:19, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
information Note: 1% of the world's population is not 800m. 💜  melecie  talk - 01:42, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Melecie Wikipedia will here from my Microsoft Lawyer. Jdm7dv (talk) 01:33, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Melecie I do Have a 25 year Microsoft case load and Partnership too. Jdm7dv (talk) 01:41, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
With Letters of recommendation from Bill Gates Jdm7dv (talk) 01:42, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdm7dv: You have been blocked in the past for making legal threats. Retract this one immediately before you are indef-blocked again. ~Anachronist (talk) 01:44, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Melecie and a letter of recommendation from Predident Obama Jdm7dv (talk) 01:44, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
A Microsoft lawyer? Ok. David10244 (talk) 08:22, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdm7dv: Please read WP:NBIO for the guidance in general and WP:AUTO regarding an article about yourself. After that, you may follow WP:YFA to create a draft article for review. RudolfRed (talk) 01:07, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdm7dv: I'll add that being in some arbitrary 1% group (and it is emphatically not a "top" 1%, it's just a 1% proportion) isn't a differentiator, and it certainly isn't a valid notability criterion to merit an article in Wikipedia. As an analogy, people with AB-negative blood type are even more rare, and we certainly don't have an article on everyone with that blood type. ~Anachronist (talk) 01:34, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdm7dv: Please also read WP:NLT, legal threats will get you blocked. RudolfRed (talk) 01:43, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Indeffed for NLT, CIR, and most of all, NOTHERE. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 01:47, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wiepedia? Clarityfiend (talk) 01:59, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
What percentage of INTJ's can't spell or use the correct words or punctuation? There are lots of typos in their posts here. David10244 (talk) 08:20, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Searching for an article that needs more updating..[edit]

Like C class articles, or even a list of topics that need more added? Thank you. Phoenix3305 (talk) 01:34, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Phoenix3305: See Category:C-Class articles or Category:Start-Class articles. You might also check Category:Articles to be expanded and Category:All stub articles. Lots of ways to slice and dice this content of articles needing work. You can also see WP:WANTED for a list of most-searched topics that don't have an article. ~Anachronist (talk) 01:37, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Phoenix3305, you may also find articles in your field of interest or expertise through WikiProjects. for example, WikiProject Poetry has a list of poetry-related articles that could use some improvements through the table in the right of the page, then clicking the C-class or Start-class links. happy editing! 💜  melecie  talk - 05:26, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing a table[edit]

Working on Draft:Car Seat Headrest discography and can't get the table in the "Live Albums" section to display right. Can anyone help? The Midnite Wolf (talk) 05:01, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

hi @The Midnite Wolf and welcome to the Help Desk!  Fixed, the issue is caused by the rowspan parameters in the column headers which made the code thibk the columns were intended to span two rows, which included the row where Live at WCWM was on, pushing it to the right since the first two cells were already occupied. happy editing! 💜  melecie  talk - 05:22, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you!! The Midnite Wolf (talk) 23:12, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Visible markup[edit]

Article List_of_airline_codes contains a (huge) table. There's also some visible markup near the beginning of the article. Is any of that necessary, or meant to be part of the table markup, or is it just "extra"? David10244 (talk) 08:05, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@David10244 I have undone the last edit which has fixed the visible markup. It seems the page was vandalised. Paulpat99 (talk) 08:41, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Paulpat99 Thanks, now the list of clickable letters is there. David10244 (talk) 10:07, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a style guide policy on linking author names in references?[edit]

Hope I am asking in the right place. I notice some editors like to add links from author names listed in citations/references to Wikipedia bio articles about those same people. So, for example, if you look at Battle of Hastings#References, you can see quite a few of the authors there are linked to relevant bio articles. But it doesn't seem to be a general practice: it's easy to find many articles where such links are missing. Indeed, that seems the default. So, my question is, is there any actual guidance on doing this beyond the general guidance on internal linking? Is it generally a good thing to do, or is there no special policy? Thanks. :) 45154james (talk) 11:39, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@45154james: I'm not sure about any explicit style guidance, but most of our citation templates (e.g., {{cite book}}) have a specific separate parameter for the author-link. I have always assumed that the existence of such a parameter indicates that using the parameter is acceptable and is even encouraged, unless there is more specific guidance in the template documentation. -Arch dude (talk) 17:19, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That's really helpful - especially to know about the parameter. Thank you. 45154james (talk) 18:07, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
From {{cite book}} section on author/last: "Do not wikilink—use author-link instead.", the same applies to first. "contributor" and "translator" are handled similarly. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 19:43, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yep. The point is that we DO want a clickable wikilink as an issue of style. However, we prefer to use the template's mechanism to create that link instead of using linking "by hand". The reason is simple: it is much easier to create and maintain. As a matter of style, if for some mysterious reason you needed to create an entire citation "by hand" because none of our citation templates is suitable, you would create the link by hand. -Arch dude (talk) 20:09, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@45154james Some featured articles, such as evolution have more than the normal number of author links, which I think are helpful as they reveal which authors are themselves notable enough to have articles on Wikipedia and which in a multi-authored work are the more senior, usually. That said the use of author links is patchy and by no means as important as getting other aspects of the citation correct. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:05, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! It's the "patchiness" aspect that bothered me enough to ask the question. If you add links to a list of citations that are otherwise devoid of them, they seem conspicuous - but I guess that's no reason not to make improvements. The other aspect, I suppose, aside from the potential value to readers, is that it is (or may be in future) "semantically useful" to have these links, which add connections between articles that otherwise might not exist. 45154james (talk) 15:20, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Some of us always cite "by hand" because we don't care for the templates. (WP:CITEVAR explicitly permits it.) In that case, of course, construct links manually. If I think an author's notable, I tend to link his name, and ditto for editors etc., and also publisher names — it provides a sense of verifiability for the reliability of the author or publisher. It's also useful for disambiguity, e.g. if a book by John Smith is published by Springer, a properly constructed link will help the reader figure out which of the many John Smith articles is intended, and it avoids confusion between Springer Nature and Springer Publishing. Nyttend (talk) 06:39, 6 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

How to delete Wikipedia Pages about hardcore criminals or gangsters who are making threat calls to innocent people to extort money or involving in murders or involving in smuggling of narcotic drugs and liquor, etc. ?[edit]

I'm new to Wikipedia and I want to know the legal process to delete Wikimedia Pages about hardcore criminals who are deliberately making threat calls to innocent people in order to extort money or involving in firing incidents or involving in smuggling of narcotic drugs and liquor or involving in murder of innocent people or involving in other criminal activities. Many hardcore criminals are misusing Wikimedia Platform in order to glamourize through their followers. Please suggest me the legal process or other way to remove Wikimedia Pages that are glamourizing gangsters directly or indirectly and thus having negative impact upon the minds of innocent common people. Cops.cp (talk) 13:01, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Cops.cp! There is no "legal way" to delete articles about criminals in Wikipedia. I understand that some people might be tempted to emulate them, but Wikipedia is not here to WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS but Wikipedia is here just to provide information. If there is any information in the article that is "too glamorous" that is wrong and not factual, you can edit the article by yourself. If you need help with that, please let me know. Have a good day! ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 13:05, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
We have articles about criminals. We have articles about nuclear weapons. We have articles about topics considered blasphemous in some religions. Wikipedia is not censored for any reason. 331dot (talk) 13:11, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Well, Wikipedia is now being used by Russian troops that are invading Ukraine for instruction on how to handle weapons. ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 13:21, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Very interesting. Thanks 331dot (talk) 13:27, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@SunDawn Does ru.WP not have a NOTHOW rule? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 14:48, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In my opinion, if there is "Evidence of Paid Page Creation" in order to glamourize a gangster, then Wikimedia Foundation Office should take action to remove or delete that particular page permanently. Cops.cp (talk) 13:38, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Cops.cp That's not an office action. See WP:PAID for information on reporting undisclosed paid editing. Are you a police officer here in an official capacity? 331dot (talk) 13:44, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Please edit this existing section, instead of creating additional sections. 331dot (talk) 13:45, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Also, could you name at least one Wikipedia article which is glorifying a criminal, so other editors can have a look at it. At the moment, you are talking in very general terms about this.--♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 13:48, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
We will absolutely not be deleting the page on Donald Trump. --GRuban (talk) 18:12, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Heck no, he's hosted SNL twice! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:06, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

New article[edit]

Good morning. I wrote new article "Jacek Bocheński" a few days ago. It is in my sandbox. Jacek Bocheński is one of the most famous Polish writers. His most known cycle is ".Roman Trilogy". Book one and book two od this cycle were recently translated into English by Tom Pinch and edited by Mondrala Press. It's good reason to familiarize English readers with this author by adding his biography to English version of wikipedia. Could You view and check this article? It is in my sandbox. I couldn't add any external links, I tried, but I couldn't, there wasn't any space free. In the section "Bibliography" there are only three books. Most of articles about Jacek Bocheński were written in Polish and German. In the next week a new article on English will be edited in one of the Polish newspapers and I will add it. I couldn't add any German articles because there wasn't any space free. Thank You very much for Your help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by J.D.K. (talkcontribs) 15:20, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, J.D.K. I have added a header to your sandbox User:J.D.K./sandbox, so that when it is ready, you will be able to submit it for review. ColinFine (talk) 16:59, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, it is nowhere near ready for review. The problem is that most of it is unreferenced. Sources do not have to be in English (English ones are preferred if they exist, but are not essential), but the sources must be reliably published and most of them must be independent of the subject.
Like many new editors, you have plunged into one of the most difficult tasks there is in editing Wikipedia, and tried to create an article with your very first edit. Most people who try this have a frustrating and disappointing experience, because there is so much that they do not yet understand about how Wikipedia works. My advice would be to put this project aside for a few weeks or months while you learn how Wikipedia works by making improvements to some of our six million existing articles.
Then I suggest reading your first article, WP:NAUTHOR, and WP:REFB.
I do not understand what you mean by "there wasn't any space free". There is no practical limit on the size of articles. ColinFine (talk) 17:06, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I have tweaked the article to use standard Wikipedia format. TSventon (talk) 17:24, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Short Description[edit]

When I was last active on Wikipedia there were no such things as "Short Descriptions" so I'd just like to clarify what they're for and why we have them?

The context of my enquiry is this edit to Intestacy.

It's clearly a good faith edit, but the user was presumably someone who didn't know about intestacy so for the sake of brevity removed the wrong half of the sentence. In fact it is not having a will that is the defining feature of intestacy (a "testament" is an alternative term for a will, so an "intestate" is someone who doesn't have one). I can correct it by putting it back as it was. But is there any reason I cannot make it briefer but sill correct. "Dying without a will" would work for me. Any thoughts? AndyJones (talk) 15:22, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you browse wikipedia on a mobile device, you can see exactly how they're meant to work and why they need to be very short (often just 2-3 words sometimes). On mobile, each article gets an autogenerated list of related articles appended at the bottom. Each one of these has its shortdesc alongside. If the shortdesc is more than a few words, it gets truncated and becomes effectively useless! I often shorten long ones when I see they have been truncated, and that's probably the reason for the edit you noticed. Your proposal seens OK to me. See also WP:SHORTDESC. 45154james (talk) 15:57, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Brilliant, thank you. I've made that change. AndyJones (talk) 16:15, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Problem[edit]

Hello, I can no longer access the e-mail address linked to my profile; to solve this problem I would like to change the e-mail address and link it to my profile, is this possible? JackkBrown (talk) 15:51, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You can change your email address under Preferences → User profile → Email options ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 15:55, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot, I solved the problem! You have been a great help! JackkBrown (talk) 16:04, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The weight of Gymnast Kim Zmeskal[edit]

I want help and I go with permission that I have found about how much did the Gymnast Kim Zmeskal weigh and tall is she? And I found this in this https://informationcradle.com/kim-zmeskal/ Magnolia677 did to me. And I did make an updates of her story and record. I just want to apologize. I looked carefully and pay attention. 100.2.114.167 (talk) 16:19, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Reliable sources. 'informationcradle.com' clearly does not meet that standard. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:25, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Kim Zmeskal's children sons and a daughter[edit]

I need help here about the article of her family. She is married to her husband Chris Burdettte, and she a mother. She has three children, two sons Riven Burdette and Robert Burdette and Koda Christopher Burdette. Wasell gotten mistaken for deleting her story. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Wasell&action=view 100.2.114.167 (talk) 20:39, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As Wasell's edit summary states:

WP:BLPNAME; also rm long catalog in lede

You're going to have to explain how adding details about a non-notable family member enriches the article. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 21:42, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Edit to one section breaks another[edit]

In this diff, I edited the "Overview" section by changing "are" to "is", since the singular was indicated. Before this edit, the maths in the "Calculation example" section displayed fine. But after this edit, that section's giving a failed to parse error. Any idea what went wrong, and how I caused it? Unfortunately, none of the error message is clickable, unlike the Help:Cite errors link in the error messages you get when you make a referencing syntax error. Nyttend (talk) 21:01, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I WP:NULLEDITed the page, and that fixed it. So it's nothing you did, just the server responsible for parsing math tags having a bad day. * Pppery * it has begun... 21:04, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I purged the page cache and it seems to have resolved itself. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 21:04, 4 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]