Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 April 23

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April 23

Nanjing Massacre

I would like to know why Pearl Buck’s novel Dragonseed is not listed in the Literature/Fiction section. It’s about this event and is an excellent book. And she is a Nobel prize winner. It seems to me she should be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Intelmom017 (talk • contribs) 04:36, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I added it on your behalf, since the page is semi-protected and you're a new user. But just so you know, if you see something to improve, be bold and fix it! bibliomaniac15 04:53, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

@Intelmom017:Thanks for pointing this out. Wikipedia is a crowdsourced encyclopedia built by volunteers, each of whom does whatever they wish to do with no overall assignment of tasks and responsibilities (but subject to our guidelines and policies). You have just as much responsibility for this oversight as any of the rest of the 100,000 or so editors who have been active this month, or the many millions of editors who have contributed over the last two decades. I realize this can be intimidating to a new editor. I see that another editor responded and added Dragon Seed (novel) to the Nanjing Massacre article. -Arch dude (talk) 04:58, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

And I may respond by trimming un-sourced pop-cult from that article... Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 06:06, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Please help to contribute in topic Spirituality

Thanks in advance, I want you to acknowledge few facts & then do needful contribution after thorough investigation. I have written reliable source which you can verify from book "Quran" and Online source both. There is a search button in almost all online Quran websites/books where you can search in English "Spirit/Spirituality/Soul" or in Arabic; "Ruh/arwah/روح‎;". The result will show that there is no information about spirituality. The only useful information you will find is written below in Quran 17:85. ﷽ وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ ۖ قُلِ الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي وَمَا أُوتِيتُمْ مِنَقليل

Quran 17:85 Actually says this: "And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul". Say, "The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except a little." Here Prophet Mohammad himself reveals that there isn't much about spirituality. Isn't it? Source: https://quran.com/17/85 In case if they delete this link; I request you to read Quran from library.

Now its everyone's {especially the one who thinks my source of information is wrong} duty to give at least 1 citation from Quran which teaches/contributes significantly about spirituality. Suppose some one wants to lean Islam, Wants to learn about spirituality then what will he get after reading Quran? Some information must be there. Kindly give exact source from Quran. Hadith etc are not authentic and they are controversial among Shia, Sunni, Ahmadi etc. My question is; What is written in Quran about Soul & Spirituality? {The Wikipedia page is "Spirituality".Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality }

If I wrote anything wrong, then I am ready to correct it without arguments. Less is the truth, more strongly it gets revealed....nothing can hide the truth. Spirituality deals with "immortal soul" or an incorporeal part of the human being "that can survive death of the body" as the "spirit" of dead. Is it my fault if there is no word for “Spirituality” in Quran? If there is no word for “Rocket” in Quran will you punish “Neil Armstrong”? Its the duty of scholars to prove there exists spirituality in Quran before contributing under that topic. Rest is your decision. Thank you. 139.5.242.143 (talk) 10:51, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree with the prophet, God only knows the truth you seem to seek down here at the English Wikipedia Help Desk, brother! InedibleHulk (talk) 11:37, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

References

This time I wrote it in 15 lines only, which is normal. Therefore please don't blame for a) long writing, b) non authentic source c) Personal insights. Citation from Quran is most authentic and doesn't fall upon Copy-right policy since nobody has copyright over this book. The USER El_C has deleted my response repeatedly & he doesn't prove me wrong. This is against wiki policies. Please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.5.242.143 (talk) 13:05, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. You are involved in what we call a content dispute. This is a perfectly normal part of how Wikipedia is developed, and the procedure for resolving it is described in dispute resolution. Please follow it. --ColinFine (talk) 13:24, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

The most important part of WP:DR is WP:DISENGAGE. If that isn't possible, a block is needed to enforce this kind of dispute resolution. This time, for two weeks. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 13:26, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for bolding my message, in any case, looks deeper now! InedibleHulk (talk) 15:09, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Too difficult to use anymore

Hello, I am a teacher and am finding your site too difficult to even use anymore. I do not have a doctorate, but I do have a masters in science education and I don't even find your resources helpful anymore. They are too full of jargon and spiraling, confusing content that does't even teach me anything! I give up! Then I tried to ask a question and it took me 20 minutes and a google search to find this. Make it easier and move useless jargon to the end under a scholarly section. You have gone too extreme pampering to scholars and need to dial it back. I know high schoolers want a synopsis in the first paragraph. I was trying to find out why Prince Albert was born a prince when his dad was a duke. Instead I got miles of titles that did not explain what they actually ruled or became royal higher up on their family tree. Clicking on parents just gave more miles of titles without a clear family tree. I couldn't even use the so called talk page and your help pages that were miles long without ever telling me the answer on how to ask questions on the talk page. Instead those pages were full of jargon and endless loops of links that also lacked an answer. Ever hear of being concise? Straight to the point at the beginning and then add as much jargon as you want after! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.169.248.20 (talk) 15:58, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm sorry you find Wikipedia difficult to use. Perhaps if you give some examples of articles that you find confusing we can take a look and work on improving them. You mentioned Prince Albert, saying you were trying to learn why he was born a prince when his dad was a duke; I'm not sure which Prince Albert you are referring to; there are/have been several. Albert II, Prince of Monaco is still alive, were you referring to him? If so, his article indicates his dad was a Prince; Prince Rainier III. As for how to ask questions on a talk page, more or less the same way you did here. For example, if you wanted to ask a question about our article on Albert II, Prince of Monaco, you would visit Talk:Albert II, Prince of Monaco, click on the button that says, "New section" and then ask your question/make your comments. Please keep in mind that talk pages are supposed to be about ways to improve the article, not general discussion about the article's subject, but saying that you are confused by something you read in the article is a perfectly acceptable use of the talk page as it should lead to improvements that make the article less confusing. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:10, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

From the "his father was a duke but he was a prince", I'll guess you're talking about Albert, Prince Consort. If so, the reason the article is confusing isn't our fault, but the fact that the German title Fürst doesn't have an English equivalent; the Holy Roman Empire's abolition in 1806 overnight transformed a whole bunch of semi-autonomous German counties and duchies into sovereign states, but the titles of the ruling families didn't change to match their new status. Albert was the son of a Fürst (a ruler but of a lower rank than a king), which gave him the title of Prinz as a non-ruling member of a ruling family, and that in turn was translated into "Prince". ‑ Iridescent 17:24, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Prince Albert was the younger son of a sovereign duke, and therefore had the title "Prince". I agree that the article German nobility has a poor ratio of comprehensibility to words. Uts sentence starting "The Bavarian constitution of 1998", with no usable reference, is suspect. By 1998, Bavaria had long been a Land of Germany, and did not have a constitution. If I found this subject more interesting, and knew more German, I might try to knock some sense into the article. Maproom (talk) 17:15, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

German states (Länder) do in fact have constitutions. Here’s the one in question. Cheers ⌘ _hugarheimur 14:31, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

The endless blather on talk pages is supposed to be about improving the article. It is NOT there for asking questions about the article's subject. For that, you may use the reference desk, Just as it says at the top of this helpdesk page. -Arch dude (talk) 17:21, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. "Anyone" includes you. You have the same responsibility to fix this as any of the rest of us. There are about 100,000 active editors this month, and we are all volunteers. Each of us does whatever we want to improve Wikipedia, with no assigned tasks and no direction (but subject to policies and guidelines). If you see a problem, then feel free to help fix it. -Arch dude (talk) 17:27, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Stratosphere

This is a question i want to ask Wikipedia if is there any Greek word for Stratosphere — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:16A2:382E:2400:D0F2:4F08:96A6:108F (talk) 16:03, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

If you go to the enwiki article Stratosphere, the lower part of the left-hand menu has many language links, including the Greek link to el:Στρατόσφαιρα. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:13, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Surprisingly, though it sounds like it might have had Greek roots, the way I read it, the Greek word was "borrowed" from English or French, in which it was formed from Latin roots. You might ask at the reference desk for a better opinion. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 21:09, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

New redirects

Is there a way to search for newly created redirects (Special:NewPages style) that can be looked at by anyone? Poydoo can talk and edit 16:20, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Poydoo, I think that Special:NewPagesFeed works for everyone. Go onto that, then set filters, and redirects can be selected under type. ~~ Alex Noble/1-2/TRB 18:59, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Blocked

Hi I was blocked a few years ago because of a joke between myself and my mate. I need to edit my home rugby team page and I was wondering if I could be unblocked from editing my original user name was crowe904. I promise I won’t break the rules again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 30054904crowe (talk • contribs) 17:50, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Without getting into any detail, is there a reason you cannot use the account you have now to edit that page? Since it has been over 10 years, I do not think there would be any issue with you getting a fresh start with a new account and making constructive edits. ‡ Єl Cid of Valencia ^talk 17:57, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

@30054904crowe and Crowe904: :) I totally agree with my colleague. It's good of you to be honest, but, realistically, if you'd just started editing sensibly and not told anyone, no-one would be any the wiser. (The blocking admin hasn't edited in over four months either). Welcome back, I'd say  :) (Although will ping for a second opinion.) ——SN54129 18:04, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree with the two above. The edit you were blocked for (admin only link) was unquestionably deserving of an instant and permanent block, but given that it was almost ten years ago it's not something anyone would hold against you. Unless you have a particular attachment to your old username, I'd recommend just sticking with your new one. (That said, if 30054904 is a payroll or warrant number rather than a string of random digits, I can't emphasise enough that it's a really bad idea to use it as a Wikipedia ID.) ‑ Iridescent 18:40, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Move is not minor edit

Hey. Can someone explain why a page move is by default considered a minor edit? Like when I move a page there is no box to check or uncheck, it marks it as minor edit by default. For example it happened here. Thanks. Hillelfrei^{• talk •} 18:18, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I can't answer "why", but agree this is the way the software works. <speculation> Perhaps the "actual" move is considered to be in the move log, and these minor edits are just pointers to that move in the "history". No change to content has occurred, so the software considers it a minor edit. </speculation> Even people who have minor edits turned off in their watchlist should still see the move in their watchlist, but just as part of the move log. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:46, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

watchlist

Sorry for the double question I think both are easy to answer though. Just wondering why if I have a page on my watchlist it is removed from my watchlist once I edit the article. Is that standard? Is there a way to permanently add to watchlist despite my edits? --Hillelfrei^{• talk •} 18:37, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

That is not how it is supposed to work, and not how it works for me. I suspect the problem is, when you move a page, it still shows up on your watchlist, but as part of the move log, which you sometimes have to expand to see. It doesn't show up "normally" until it is edited after the move. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:41, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Click here to open your watchlist preferences and see if "Hide my edits from the watchlist" is checked. If so, if you were the most recent person to edit a page it won't be visible until someone else edits it, which I suspect is what may be happening here. ‑ Iridescent 18:43, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

@Floquenbeam: @Iridescent: Thanks Hillelfrei^{• talk •} 19:34, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Hey @Iridescent:, I followed your advice and just noticed the problem persists. If you don't know what the problem is, do you know of anyone or anywhere I can ask? I just want to figure this out because it makes editing very hard as I can't keep adding back the pages to the list. Thanks again, Hillelfrei^{• talk •} 04:55, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Hillelfrei, the best place to ask is probably Wikipedia:Village pump (technical), where the software developers will see it. Try the experiment of adding a page to your watchlist, checking Special:EditWatchlist/raw to confirm that it's definitely been added to your watchlist, editing the page, and checking Special:EditWatchlist/raw again to see if it's actually been removed from the watchlist or if it's still in the watchlist but something is somehow preventing it from displaying. It would probably also be worthwhile trying the experiment of watchlisting a page that you know is going to edited by a lot of people (I'd suggest a minor and non-disruptive edit to something like 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic), waiting for someone else to edit it, and seeing if that edit shows up in your watchlist. ‑ Iridescent 19:16, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Making a fork of Wikipedia's Featured and Good Articles

Resolved

Hello. I was interested in trying to make a fork of English Wikipedia's Featured and Good articles (approx. 40,000 articles).

I followed these instructions for downloading a "dump" of the English Wikipedia (about 6,000,000 articles total), but ideally I'd only like to save the good and featured articles, and I don't know of any way to download them specifically:

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/114387-how-to-set-up-your-own-copy-of-wikipedia

If anyone could be of help here I would appreciate it, thanks.--IBBishops (talk) 18:49, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I can't imagine what "a fork of English Wikipedia's Featured and Good articles" would be. Presumably it would include a miscellany of templates; if it didn't, then I imagine that it would be unreadable. Would it include only those templates that had been found in featured and good articles (FaGA), or all those that were eligible to appear within FaGA? Would the FaGA themselves be bristling with redlinks? Would the FaGA be editable? Et cetera. -- Hoary (talk) 23:21, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

That's something I would definitely work on; I'd definitely include the templates as well as work on the links, it's primarily just a personal project. Or alternatively, do you know of a quick way to delete the remaining of the 6 million + articles, such as a bot script that's open source or direct me where I could code one? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by IBBishops (talk • contribs) 14:14, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

@IBBishops: I suggest asking at WP:VPT. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 01:15, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll ask there.--IBBishops (talk) 18:49, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

User page name

Hello,

I just created a user page in order to edit another page. I now would like to add to my user page to create my wiki profile. Problem is I though the "user name" was just my login info and now I see it's my Wiki page name. Howe do I change that? I would like it to say DJ Hollywood (Leandro Vlastaris)

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Djhlywood (talk • contribs) 18:57, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Djhlywood, unfortunately, user names are subject to Wikipedia's User name policies. They may not be promotional, as Wikipedia is not for promotion.--Quisqualis (talk) 19:12, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure where the promotional is relevant to what I asked, I just made a mistake and want to add my full name as my user name which I though I was doing in the first place — Preceding unsigned comment added by Djhlywood (talk • contribs) 19:18, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Djhlywood, just create a new account. There is no point getting a renamer to rename an account with two edits.

However, if you are here to promote yourself, don't bother. You will likely be wasting your time. We strongly discourage writing autobiographies - wp:auto, and are not a website you can use for promotion - WP:NOTPROMOTION. ~~ Alex Noble/1-2/TRB 19:39, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Help!

My computer is a Macintosh LC II with a Motorola 68EC030 CPU and a 120 MB hard disk which I was able to scrap from a PowerBook 145B, so it isn’t the greatest computer. I’ve been having trouble with my mouse and I can’t get a new computer so I was going to ask you if there’s a way I can use my keyboard for adding references and templates. Also, I had it’s central processing unit replaced with a Core 2 Quad and it’s been heating up a lot. Any recommendations for a new fan? Thanks, Rodrigo Valequez^(🗣) 23:37, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Clarification: I replaced my Motorola 68EC030 CPU with a Core 2 Quad back in 2016. Rodrigo Valequez^(🗣) 23:46, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Can you use your keyboard for adding references and templates? Yes, if your keyboard allows you to write the pair of messages above, you can type in "<ref>references surrounded by 'ref' tags</ref>" and "{{templates surrounded by doubled braces}}". (Why ever not?) If you have a question about your computer hardware, this help desk isn't the right place. -- Hoary (talk) 00:06, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

All right, thanks. The issue is that I can’t click the “edit source” button. Rodrigo Valequez^(🗣) 00:09, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

@Rodrigo Valequez: I'm not familiar with the Mac environment, but in Windows, in any window, there is always an "element" that has focus, which is highlighted/circled in some way. You generally move the focus between elements with the Tab key and "click" on them with the Space bar. Here's an article I found that may or may not be relevant or lead you to what you need. Someone at the ref desk should be able to help. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:23, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Computer mice really are dirt cheap these days -- but of course only for interfaces used by computers marketed recently. -- Hoary (talk) 00:16, 24 April 2020 (UTC)