Help desk
< July 14	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 16 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

July 15

Reference name and|or tag errors

Is there a category, a list, or a method of finding <ref></ref> errors. I correct them when found, but this is discovered randomly. Errors found and corrected so far, relate to reference naming, but could contribute correcting them on a regular basis.— Ineuw talk 00:48, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Ineuw: If you mean pages saying <ref></ref> with no content then it adds the hidden categories Category:Pages with reference errors and Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:01, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I searched for 'articles with ref errors' and found this list which I bookmarked and use to find errors to correct. Eagleash (talk) 01:03, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Much thanks to both of you. This is what I was looking for, and have been correcting when found, Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "" defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). but will correct any error. — Ineuw talk 01:32, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That message adds Category:Pages with duplicate reference names which currently contains 18,882 pages. Have fun! PrimeHunter (talk) 01:53, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You should find plenty of those in the list noted above! Eagleash (talk) 06:49, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Phew, one down, 18,881 to go. :) — Ineuw talk 15:46, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Image slideshows?

I believe I saw that MediaWiki now has the capability to have slideshows of media. True? I'd be using it on Wikinews, not here. -- Zanimum (talk) 01:57, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Zanimum: Looks like it. The documentation with example can be found here: mw:Extension:JavascriptSlideshow. Note, I have not tested this myself so I do not know if it works as intended. --Majora (talk) 02:01, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Majora: Thanks for finding this! -- Zanimum (talk) 02:18, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Zanimum: wikinews:Special:Version does not list JavascriptSlideshow so this extension is not installed there (or at any other wikis I tried). There may be other ways to make slideshows. Commons has commons:Help:Gadget-GallerySlideshow. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:23, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) I was just about to say that I tested it in my sandbox here and it didn't work. It seems like it would be useful to have. Especially on Wikinews. Wonder if you can request it be installed. --Majora (talk) 02:25, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

GRENADA CARRIACOU AND PETITE MARTINIQUE

GRENADA IS NOW CALLED GRENADA CARRIACOU AND PETITE MARTINIQUE (G.C.P.) THE NAME CHANGE WAS DONE IN JUNE 2016 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2606:6000:E71B:1C00:2D47:EED0:3AF3:FCC1 (talk) 03:57, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've raised this on the articles talk page. If you can provide a reliable source to confirm the name change, there's no reason you can't add it to the article yourself. But please STOP SHOUTING! Rojomoke (talk) 04:29, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Note that we have an article: Carriacou and Petite Martinique that explains "Carriacou and Petite Martinique is a dependency of Grenada"; see also talk page there. --2606:A000:4C0C:E200:A99B:8185:FE40:CECC (talk) 17:29, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Top icons: Custom sort/order

Wiki software displays them in A-Z order (I guess). Consider my userpage, I like to sort them like this:

Autoconfirmed, Extended confirmed, Rollback, Reviewer, File mover, Page mover

But Wiki displays them in this order:

Autoconfirmed, Extended confirmed, File mover, Page mover, Reviewer, Rollback (a-z) --Wario-Man (talk) 07:53, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Wario-Man: I have added sortkeys.[1] The sortkey parameter is documented on some of the template pages like Template:Page mover topicon. It should have been documented on all of them. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:15, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. --Wario-Man (talk) 11:18, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Making a new page

Please tell me how to make a new page. I am going to make a page about my alma mater, Sto. Tomas Central Elementary School SPED Center. Thank you.DJ Baguio (talk) 10:40, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Just go one Sto. Tomas Central Elementary School SPED Center and click on create article. 2A02:908:5C8:F240:503F:B6B3:301D:E1C5 (talk) 10:45, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

While that reply is factually correct, DJ Baguio, it is very bad advice. Writing a new article in a way that makes it accepted is difficult. Please read Your first article carefully, and then, if you decide that it meets the criteria for WP:NSCHOOL, use the Article wizard to create a draft. --ColinFine (talk) 10:55, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Coat of arms template doesn't work for some cities

Template:Coat_of_arms returns for some cities the default coat of arms icon even if these cities have a coat of arms logo in their wikipedia entry. For example Tours or Pas-de-Calais. Am I missing something? 2A02:908:5C8:F240:503F:B6B3:301D:E1C5 (talk) 10:45, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The template has a list of cities with their COAs. If it doesn't display the CoA, you need to edit the template page to add the city and the coat.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 10:53, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Linking a name to Wikidata

Is it ever proper to link a name in an article or a disambiguation page to the person's entry in Wikidata? Lets assume they are not notable enough for a standalone article. This would allow the reader to see additional biographical information on that person. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 11:55, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ): For the DAB, no, per WP:DABSISTER. For an article, WP:EL defines all non-WP links as external, and as such they should not appear in the body; but WP:ELMAYBE allows linking in the "external links" section. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:41, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Search terms

Hey everyone,

Some time ago, a suggested adding search terms to a wikipedia article in its talk page (Witchcraft_accusations_against_children). The article in question is interesting but difficult to find both on general search engines and the wikipedia search engine, due to the specific wording of its title and lack of other more known terms. Nobody did it, so I'd like to know how to add search keys words for the mentioned article and others if the need arises?

Thank you Amanouz (talk) 13:47, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Amanouz,

(I wikilinked the article name in your request.) As far as I am aware, there is no policy to do SEO to improve WP hits in (say) Google, and there is no way to add "keywords" (there are categories, but that is not quite the same).

This being said, redirects exists that point from one title to another article. Those do get counted by external search engines (but you should only create redirects that are useful, i.e. when the title is a relevant topic that is dealt with at the article of another name). In that case, I agree that Witch child should redirect to the article you pointed out; I created it. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:30, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} , that's exactly what I wanted, "witch child" is a more common term to search for to read about the subject than "witch accusations". Thanks again. Amanouz (talk) 11:08, 18 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

How to find edits with "no summary"?

Is it possible to find them by using edit summary search tool? --Wario-Man (talk) 14:00, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

World cities

What is the guideline, policy, or style guide which addresses the need to clarify where a city is. If I write "Tokyo" it is unnecessary and annoying to clarify by adding "Tokyo, Japan" just as it is to write "Paris, France" or "Chicago, Illinois" since these are cities with millions in population, involved in worldwide commerce, and are known to most literate people worldwide. But what about some city of 300,000 population?Edison (talk) 14:55, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Try Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) and see if that helps. RJFJR (talk) 16:34, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Birth name parameter

Question, if the article title has a persons first and last name, for example Jon Smith, can the birth_name parameter inside the infobox include his middle name, example: Jon Alexander Smith? Or should it be left blanked? I have seen that it is a common practice to insert the middle name in this parameter. Now if he had no middle name, then of course to leave it blank. Notice two examples: Nicole Kidman and Emily Hart have middle names included. 2 editors refer to template:infobox person stating that it is not necessary to include such information and that it's redundant, where it is mentioned in the lead as well. We can say that about the birth date too but that's there. Tinton5 (talk) 19:04, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The title of the article is in no way related to the infobox template parameters. The title is just the most common name that the person is known under. Ruslik_Zero 19:11, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot update image

A while ago I uploaded the image File:English monarchy family tree.png. I wish to make a minor amendment to this, but now it seems I cannot update it. At the page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:English_monarchy_family_tree.png I see no option to update, and at the page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_monarchy_family_tree.png I see a message "You cannot overwrite this file". Yet I have previously updated it twice (last year). Why can't I update it now, and what can I do to fix this? Another Matt (talk) 19:27, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Another Matt. It is not in Wikipedia, so it is unsurprising that you can't update it in Wikipedia. But at commons:File:English monarchy family tree.png I do not see such a message. Where does that message appear on it? And are you logged into Commons when you try? (I don't know whether or not that is relevant). By the way, I got that link by typing [[:commons:File:English monarchy family tree.png]], with the initial :commons. --ColinFine (talk) 20:05, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

commons:File:English monarchy family tree.png takes me to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_monarchy_family_tree.png which is the same address I mentioned. The message "You cannot overwrite this file" appears at the bottom of the "File History" section. Yes, I am logged in to "Commons", at least according to the status line at the top of the page. While I have never knowingly registered there, it seems my Wikipedia log-in works anyway. Or perhaps it isn't working properly? Could that be an explanation? Another Matt (talk) 20:29, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, Another Matt, I was meaning to make a different incidental point, but I wasn't clear. It's clearer to use wikilinks in messages here rather than URL's: I was showng how to make a wikilink to a commons file, but didn't clarify why I was saying it. --ColinFine (talk) 10:51, 16 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Another Matt: You uploaded and updated it at the English Wikipedia but it was later moved to Commons so it can be used in other wikis. It's currently used in the Hindi and Tagalog Wikipedia. You need an autoconfirmed Commons account to update files there. Your Commons account was created today so you can update it in four days. You can also post a link to the file somewhere else and ask one of us to update it, but then your username will not be on the upload. Waiting four days is best. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:34, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, thanks, I will wait then. But when you say "Your Commons account was created today", how did that happen? I am not aware that I created any account today. Another Matt (talk) 20:55, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Another Matt: If you view a page at a Wikimedia wiki while you are logged in then your account is automatically created there and you remain logged in. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:53, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I see. Thank you very much for your assistance. Another Matt (talk) 22:08, 15 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The confusion is understandable. To the software, you technically have a local account at each Wikimedia wiki you edit on, and these local accounts are all tied to your global account. When you're logged in to a global account and edit a wiki you haven't edited before, the software creates a new local account "behind the scenes" for you on that wiki. See Wikipedia:Unified login for some information. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 11:19, 16 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]