Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 August 1

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August 1[edit]

Enabling the 2010 editor[edit]

I've been using the 2017 editor for a while, though I feel that the 2010 editor is more user friendly. I'm not sure how to change it, however. Can anyone help me there? Jerry (talk) 00:40, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Open Preferences → Editing, you'll see an option: "Enable the editing toolbar" (under the editing tab), then check it. However note that it's only available as a source text editor not visual. – Ammarpad (talk) 05:39, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The 2017 wikitext editor is disabled at "New wikitext mode" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures. Also disable "Automatically enable all new beta features" if it's enabled. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:19, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Image Use[edit]

I am trying to add a picture of Leslie A. Bellrichard to his page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Allen_Bellrichard).

I found an image on Google that was attributed to "The Virtual Wall" (http://www.virtualwall.org) and emailed the site for permission to use it. I received permission to use any image from the Virtual Wall webpage that was not hand-drawn or hand-colorized; I can provide the email from Jim Schueckler, Founder and President of www.VirtualWall.org Ltd. giving permission to use an image.

Which of the copyright options should I use when adding the image?


Jdyates751 (talk) 00:55, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Jdyates751: Please look at the copyright info page at virtual wall. Mr. Schueckler does not have the authority to license the copyrights of those pictures, as neither he nor virtualwall.org owns the copyrights. Wikipedia (i.e., WMF) requires that the copyright owner license the copyright to us under a compatible free license, usually the CC-BY-SA. These are not our arbitrary rules. Rather, this is what is needed to comply with copyright law. -Arch dude (talk) 02:53, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Jdyates751: I've been worrying about this all night. We do have a way to use the picture without anyone's permission. Take a look at Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline. This English Wikipedia, but not Wikimedia Commons, recognizes the "fair use" doctrine, and I think it applies to PFC Bellrichard's picture. So, copy the picture (but not any other material) from virtualwall.org. Then upload it to en.wikipedia, not commons, by clicking on the "upload file" link in the left-hand column of this (or any other) page. Follow the instructions there. Declare it as "fair use". Provide the free-use rationale as described at Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline, being careful to provide both the general and the specific portions. List the virtualwall.org URL of the image as the source. Do not mention any permission granted by them: it is not relevant to fair use. I'm sorry this is so complicated, but copyright law is a total fiasco and common-law fair-use is really murky. Wikipedia must defend itself against potential censors who would use specious claims of violations to try to shut down the whole site, so we use a narrow and rigidly-defined definition of fair use. -Arch dude (talk) 15:48, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Limits?[edit]

So I am an active fighter against vandalism (and a Rollbacker) but I have quite wondered... Is there a limit to how many anti-vandalism tools you can use? (Twinkle, Huggle, STiki, etc. I only use the first two.) James-the-Charizard (talk) 04:20, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No. – Teratix 04:29, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Teratix: Ok. I just wanted to make sure first... James-the-Charizard (talk) 04:30, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
That's quite all right. – Teratix 04:31, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Facing problems in creating a wikipedia page[edit]

Dear Team

My Wikipedia username is amlan46 and I have been trying to create an owner page related to this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buddha_TV, but the page has been deleted after review. Kindly, help me in the creation of the page as Sharad DAhiya is the owner of Lord Buddha TV and the information that we provided for his Wikipedia page is a 100% authentic. If you want, you can check that on this link: https://www.lordbuddhasharnam.com/about-us/. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amlan46 (talkcontribs) 06:43, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Amlan46. Do you have some connection with the subject of the article you are trying to create? If so, you need to comply with WP:CoI and probably WP:Paid. To create an article, you need to find independent WP:Reliable sources in which the subject has been written about at length, and your article should be a summary in your own words of what these sources say. Please note that your spelling of Sharad DAhiya differs from that given in the article. I am not able to see what was deleted. As I expect you know, you must not copy material from the website to which you link, and Wikipedia has little interest in what a person says about himself. Perhaps an administrator could give you more specific advice. Dbfirs 07:00, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to edit pages through a VPN, even when logged into my account.[edit]

When I try to edit a page while logged into my account, I get blocked from editing and receive this (or a similar) notification.

I tried switching VPN servers to different locations but all of them that I tried are blocked. However, since I have an account and am logged in, I shouldn't get blocked from editing. I already tried logging out and logging in again, editing different pages, etc. but Wikipedia continues to block me simply because I use a VPN.

How can this be fixed? In order to make this post, I had to completely log out of my VPN and change the browser proxy settings. This seems unacceptable considering a lot of users might come from countries where Wikipedia is only accessible through a VPN. Blocking even registered users from editing pages simply because they use a VPN seems like a rather important bug. Sarrotrkux (talk) 13:26, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

  • It might be a case of a hard IP block, i.e. even logged-in editors are not allowed to edit from that IP - see WP:HARDBLOCK. In particular, Tor exit nodes are hardblocked. You would need to provide your (through-VPN) IP address for further investigation.
Another possibility, judging by the error message you post, is that you were not actually logged in your account. Did you make any cookie shenanigans with your browser? (Sorry if that comes across as "turn it on and off again" but hey, we have to check) TigraanClick here to contact me 14:04, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How do use the talk page[edit]

Sorry brand new at any of this and no idea what i'm doing. I usually just post in the talk pages with potential suggestions. Dont want to change the main text on anything because i have no idea what i'm doing. I found a nice article for a page from a news site and wanted to suggest that it is used to alter the Lead and give a potential new Lead. but the talk page is semi protected. How do i make a suggestion on the talk page.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.159.132.48 (talkcontribs) 1 August 2019 15:00 (UTC)

Give us a link to the article in question. It isn't usual for a talk page to be semi-protected, so someone can look at that if you tell us which it is. --David Biddulph (talk) 15:58, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

guarantees[edit]

Hello. Can I be guaranteed that if I ask a question my edit will not be reverted and I won't be blocked? --Jaja1928 (talk) 19:19, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Jaja1928. As long as you're asking a good faith question about how to edit Wikipedia, then this is the place to ask. You may want to start with our interactive tutorial at The Wikipedia Adventure, which can help you get used to the way things generally work on Wikipedia. GMGtalk 19:21, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Jaja1928: I can think of "questions" that would get you reverted and blocked, so no guarantees. But User:GreenMeansGo's answer is good for this help desk, and even non-wikipedia-related questions are OK on the reference desks assuming they are not grossly offensive and the question is not itself illegal. (I can think of a few deletable questions there, too.) Remember also that we are a community of volunteers that operates by consensus, with only a very few absolute rules and policies. This means that a consensus to block or revert you can develop within a few minutes if you really and truly try hard to create such a question.-Arch dude (talk) 21:28, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The OP was, of course, not asking in good faith, and has been blocked. Previously blocked as Special:Contributions/82.13.185.12382.13.185.123. --David Biddulph (talk) 22:14, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Seldom does anyone ask about blocks who hasn't been blocked before. GMGtalk 00:02, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Linking articles and translating into other languages[edit]

I have just translated into English the article that exists about me in Serbian and Italian. I would love if you could help me just link the links of those pages so they would be networked. Thank you very much in advance for your cooperation and understanding. Milan Aksentijević Milan Aksentijević (talk) 23:37, 1 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Milan, if this is supposed to be your user page you can link to your profile on other Wikipedias by adding [[it:User:Milan Aksentijević]] to the page. If however you meant to create an article on you, you can do so by using the Article wizard, however it's usually never a good idea to write about oneself. – Thjarkur (talk) 00:11, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

When it came to Serbian Wikipedia, I did not write an article about myself, but one of the administrators did it for me. I only translated the texts into English and Italian with my friends. Hopefully I can manage the links. Thank you very much for your cooperation and help I will try to do as you told me. Milan Aksentijević. Milan Aksentijević (talk) 00:20, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Some things you might want to be aware of: Different-language Wikipedias have different standards of notability, and translated articles on English Wikipedia need to follow [attribution rules].--Quisqualis (talk) 03:39, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]