Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 March 13

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Help desk
< March 12 << Feb | March | Apr >> March 14 >
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.


March 13[edit]

Reviewing all edits (pending changes protection everywhere)[edit]

Hello, I have a question that I've wanted to ask: Could it be that the English Wikipedia doesn't have a system that forces every edit made by an unregistered or new user to be reviewed by a reviewer like in the German Wikipedia? Doesn't this expose a lot of articles to vandalism or minor changes that are just wrong, which can then only be discovered randomly by reading the page or by viewing the latest edits? In the German Wikipedia, you can get a role after having many reviewed/confirmed edits that automatically reviews all of your future changes.

Could the English Wikipedia profit off the same system? --Ceiridge (talk) 00:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you're asking about policy, you're at the wrong place. If you're asking for help, what kind of help is it that you want? -- Hoary (talk) 00:26, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Eh, then I need help finding the right location to ask this question. --Ceiridge (talk) 00:31, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This is probably not the wrong place, unless you want to start proposing changes. Enwiki uses Pending changes, which can be added by administrators. The history of finding the right 'flagged' protection for enwiki is long and tortured. The main issue is that enwiki is very busy, and we quite enjoy unknown people being able to update articles. The statistics at de:Spezial:Sichtungsstatistik would be much much worse here (compare this). If you want some background about this topic, here, you might want to start at WP:FPPR. -- zzuuzz (talk) 00:43, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How to replace a photo[edit]

Hello,

I would like to replace a photo that is featured on your website. Please advise on how to do so.


Best, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.112.123.64 (talk) 01:24, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

  1. find or produce a photo to which you own the copyright. If you do not own the copyright, we will delete your file.
  2. get an image file of that photo onto your computer
  3. create an account here. You cannot upload an image unless you are logged in.
  4. go to the upload page (Wikipedia:File Upload Wizard) and follow the instructions to create new image file on Commons. Do not attempt to "replace" an older file. You will license your copyright of the file to us during this process.
  5. go the article where you wish to change the photo
  6. replace the "file:" syntax in that article with the name of your new file.

Come back here and ask if you have problems with all of this. -Arch dude (talk) 02:23, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Which photo on which page and where is the replacement? There are many possible circumstances. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:56, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sections not appearing in navbox[edit]

Why aren't all of the sections appearing in the navbox Template:Mosques in the United States appearing? Only 16 sections appear while the last 4 don't seem to appear in the navbox. Is there some sort of limit? —  Melofors  TC  03:12, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

They just needed the right list numbers. Fixed by [1]. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:27, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Please repair my disastrous edits on a bad moblie1.136.110.219 (talk) 05:47, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Damn those pesky mob lies. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:56, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Have you considered getting a better mobile or not edit WP from it? Assuming you can't use desktop view for some reason, then you would be able to undo your own edits. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:46, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Gråbergs Gråa Sång: Looking at the contributions (two edits to UK nobility articles + help desk question), I would bet the IP user asking above is User:Srbernadette. The Help Desk crowd had a chat four years ago about her phone editing, and the general consensus majority opinion was to let her edit, make mistakes and ask for corrections on the Help Desk. Of course if she can improve her technical abilities it would be great, but (with all due respect to her) I do not think that is likely to happen anytime soon. TigraanClick here to contact me 15:09, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation pages with content[edit]

Hi, I often come across some pages that act as stubs while also disambiguating to other pages; an example is this version of the page Kolpak before it gets reverted. Is this kind of "Disambig-stubs" discouraged by the community? Thank you, from tLoM (The Lord of Math) (Message) 07:42, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Definitely not right. It can't be both a regular article and a disambiguation page. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:22, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@The Lord of Math: Based on what I've seen, normally, if there are only one or two other possible targets, all the articles can be given an {{About}} hatnote to link to the other two and avoid a separate dab article. Otherwise, no, there should be a separate dab page. See WP:DAB, which may easily contradict or modify what I've said (sleep time). —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 08:36, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Unsure if it is suitable in this case - but a WP:CONCEPTDAB is also something that can exist. It's almost like a disambiguation article. The one you linked above is (as suggested) not suitable. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski (talkcontribs) 15:34, 14 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Undisclosed paid editing?[edit]

Header added by ColinFine (talk) 09:22, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This article may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments, a violation of Wikipedia's terms of use. It may require clean-up to comply with Wikipedia's content policies. how do I resolve this from Henrietta Bowden-Jones as it is not true? Please advise me — Preceding unsigned comment added by Frankieatkinson (talkcontribs) 09:05, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Courtesy link: Henrietta Bowden-Jones
From the article history, it appeared that the "This article may have been created or edited..." tag is not directed at you, but by its previous editors. According to its talk page (at Talk:Henrietta Bowden-Jones, it said that the users "CNWL communications" and IP "89.197.31.125" may have had a conflict of interest editing that article. In this case, you're not related to it, so you should leave it alone. (Unless, that is, that you DO have a conflict of interest with that person, in this case you should stop editing that page altogether.) Thanks, and I hope this reply helped! tLoM (The Lord of Math) (Message) 10:09, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Monira Al Qadiri - add this artist?[edit]

Hi there,

I would like to know whether Monira Al Qadiri can be added to Wikipedia. You can check out her work on her website and other articles:

https://www.moniraalqadiri.com

http://edgeofarabia.com/artists/monira-al-qadiri

And her sister Fatima Al Qadiri already has an entry on Wikipedia. --Shiransh12 (talk) 10:30, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Shiransh12. The question is never "what has she done or created?" The question is "what has been published about her, by people unconnected with her?" Plese see WP:GNG and WP:NARTIST. --ColinFine (talk) 11:29, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Colin, thanks for your quick reply. How do I proceed then? Post the links to the articles about her here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shiransh12 (talkcontribs) 11:52, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ColinFine --Shiransh12 (talk) 11:57, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Shiransh12, in general that's not the best way to proceed; but if you were to post what you think are the two or three best sources here, I or somebody will have a look and tell you if we agree. (Remember that they must be wholly independent of her - not written, published, or based on a press release or interview, by her or anybody associated with her; and they must have some substantial text about her, not just passing mentions).
If we agree that you have found sources that establish her notability, then you have two choices: write the article yourself, or try and engage somebody else's enthusiasm to write it. Writing it yourself is difficult, one of the most difficult tasks on Wikipedia; but it can be rewarding. If you want to do that, start by studying your first article. Finding somebody else to write it can also be hard. You can post a request at Requested articles, but in honesty there's a very low take-up rate. Alternatively, you might find somebody interested in working with you at a relevant WikiProject, such as WP:WikiProject Kuwait, WP:WikiProject Sculpture or WP:WikiProject Women in Red. (I like the works shown on her website, by the way). --ColinFine (talk) 17:52, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
ColinFine Thanks for your lovely reply. I'm new to this (I joined an editing workshop on Friday to add/translate more women artists to wikipedia, so I'm very excited about this!) and don't really know where to message or post but was shown this way and I hope I write this all correctly. Here are 3 sources (there are more, simply google her name, where she is mentioned at festivals but these seem the most significant ones):
https://hausderkunst.de/en/exhibitions/capsule-12-monira-al-qadiri
https://anti.athensbiennale.org/en/artist/monira-al-qadiri.html
http://edgeofarabia.com/artists/monira-al-qadiri
Once you approve I will check out these WikiProjects or start writing it myself. Let's see. --Shiransh12 (talk) 11:11, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid not, Shiransh12: none of those are independent of her. Two of them are galleries that have shown her, and the third appears to be a directory of artists. All the content is likely to have come from her. You need places where people unconnected with her have chosen to write about her. --ColinFine (talk) 11:58, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Trivial parts of a memoir[edit]

(a copy from the WikiProject Biography talk page.)
Hi! I'm currently writing an article about an influential academic in Indonesia. I've currently reading two of his books, and there are parts where he recounted his experience during his childhood and adolescence. Collecting the information has started to be somehow overwhelming, and I've been wondering whether there's a fine line between what information is still considered acceptable and/or trivial (trivial, in the sense of, encouraged to not be included in the article). As examples, what would these parts of the memoir be considered?

  • In elementary school, I liked a hobby... or, I liked this or that book...
  • In elementary school, I had to follow this class and that class... (or this-that activity.. or the curriculum is like this...)
  • Personally [in the memoir], the best and worst parts of this-that activity/class/etc were A, B, C, ... and so on.
  • The first time I went to school, Sundanese was the spoken language in class. However, in 2nd grade, it was Dutch.... and then Indonesian supplemented by Japanese as the Japanese military came in 1942... and so on.
  • Before my father passed away, the local doctor taught me to inject penicillin because my father needed them daily.
  • Among the secondary ed textbooks I had learned from are the books by X, Y, Z,....
  • The high school I had enrolled in was lead by X, who later became a president at university Z.
  • The chemistry teacher had this and that experience... that was probably why he taught so well and indirectly built my aspiration to be a chemist.

Thank you in advance! Dhio (talk?) 12:04, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

  • @Dhiosk: Well, the Wikipedia guidelines are WP:IINFO and WP:TRIVIA, but the interpretation is not always obvious. In my opinion, all of your examples are plainly trivial information, and should not be mentioned unless picked up by a third-party source (or at the very least, unless the subject insists on the importance of the event in the course of their life). For example, Jean-Paul_Sartre#Early_life is full of stuff I would personally prefer to remove (e.g. that he was a notorious prankster at school - probably true, but so what), but all of it is sourced to third-party accounts, so presumably is worthy of mention in an encyclopedia. TigraanClick here to contact me 15:23, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Dhio. I would exclude pretty well all that information, not just because it is trivial, but because it doesn't come from an independent source. Primary sources (including pretty well anything written by the subject) can only be used in very limited ways. --ColinFine (talk) 17:54, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle problems[edit]

I do new page patrolling, and of late all the nominations for AfD have not worked. The latest is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Alice Jemima, which does not appear on the list. In future I'll go thru the faff of nominating by hand, butI would be grateful if somebody could fix this one since I'm not entirely sure I know hoe to do so.TheLongTone (talk) 12:48, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@TheLongTone: According to edit summaries like [2] at Special:Contributions/TheLongTone you use Page curation and not Twinkle to nominate for deletion. Twinkle is on the "TW" tab at top of pages. I haven't tried to use Page curation for nominations. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:37, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Ah well. I've simply been doing what I've done in the past, click the delete option, enter the rationale, & click; the result has generally been that the discussion page is created, the article is added to the list & the page creator notified. I'll do it manually in future.TheLongTone (talk) 14:50, 14 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

OTRS Question[edit]

In a current discussion at Miscellany for Deletion, the nominator provided a link to an OTRS ticket. I tried to use the link to view the ticket, and it tried to log me into OTRS using my unified login, User:Robert McClenon, but I got an error message saying that my user ID or password was not recognized. It provided a link for me to use for help logging on. I didn't use that link out of concern that it might permit me to change my password, but then change my password for all Wikimedia systems (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Commons, ). Should I be able to view OTRS tickets using my unified login? If so, is my password the same as my Wikipedia, etc., password? Can I safely use the login help link without risking breaking my existing password? Or does this mean that I don't have access to OTRS and can just leave it alone and shouldn't have been given the link? Robert McClenon (talk) 15:41, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Robert McClenon: OTRS and SUL are different accounts with (ideally) different passwords. For OTRS access, you have to apply at Meta. If you want to provide the ticket number I can take a look and see if there's information I can release about the ticket that wouldn't be privacy sensitive. GMGtalk 15:43, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
It must be about Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion#Draft:Farhan Wilayat Butt. I don't have OTRS access but it looks like the nominator already gave the relevant information. It's common to mention an OTRS number for those with access while also giving some non-private information for those without. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:43, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. That is it. I will ignore the OTRS link. I already had enough info to !vote. I will ignore OTRS links. McClenon mobile (talk) 18:07, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Heather Purser[edit]

I really need the information on me taken down from wikipedia. I never consented to this! I know it is public knowledge but I made a huge mistake in letting all that information out there and it has caused nothing but shame and humiliation. Please help me out. Either take down my early life and sexuality sections or take me off wikipedia entirely. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Heather.Purser (talkcontribs) 17:16, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Information was removed by El_C in this edit. --Info-Screen::Talk 17:37, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Whitespace[edit]

Outside of the obvious solution of expanding the sections before it, is there anything that can be done to remove the large gap of white space between the end of the text in the Climate subsection and the climate box in the DeKalb, Illinois article? Thanks. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 17:36, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Template that is creating this Box is {{Weather box}}. This Template has a width parameter that can be used to resize the table. Setting it to auto will make the table to be as small as possible. Other values (preferably percent values) also work there. --Info-Screen::Talk 17:49, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The infobox could also be shortened, e.g. by choosing a wide instead of tall image in commons:Category:DeKalb, Illinois. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:58, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Between adding a width=auto and collapsed=yes, that did the trick. Thanks! Jauerbackdude?/dude. 18:02, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Jauerback: I think having the climate table collapsed by default is probably not recommended practice; other random cities in Illinois I checked do not do so. One issue with collapsed content is that some browsers' (at least FFox) "Find in page" does not find text inside a collapsed element. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 02:11, 14 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@AlanM1:, no argument there. It's not ideal, but I also thinks it looks better than the way it was. If you can find a better solution, have at it. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 03:29, 14 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Upsetting offer to promote position on Wikipedia[edit]

I just received from johndaniel4uz@gmail.com the following, which seems a flagrant violation of the spirit of Wikipedia. How can we suppress this kind of activity?

Have you ever wondered of having a Wikipedia page for yourself or your company? We can help you get a Wikipedia page for yourself or your brand.

Why have a Wikipedia page? Google loves Wikipedia and as such ranks it high in search results. Wikipedia is also the first place people go when they Google your name. By leveraging Wikipedia, you can help control your Online Profile and present yourself to the world. Usually Wikipedia only accepts pages on celebrities and famous companies, if you are looking to get one for yourself, we can help you with that. Having a page for yourself in Wikipedia, brings you more credibility and makes you more famous.

We have been editing on Wikipedia for 9+ years and We've created tons of pages for companies, people, brands, products, and of course for academic purposes as well.

We own multiple accounts on Wikipedia with page curation and new page reviewer rights, so we can create and moderate pages with almost zero risk of another mod taking it down.

There are few Wikipedia editors who are willing to create a page for money, and most of them are scared to offer this service directly, so they do it through their trusted sellers who mark up the price to $1500 - $2500 per page.

Because you're buying directly from an experienced Wikipedia editor and mod, you'll get your page a lot cheaper, faster and with more reliability.

Let me know if you are interested.

Regards John — Preceding unsigned comment added by JKR98116 (talkcontribs) 18:04, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JKR98116: Spam like this is not uncommon. There is nothing we can do about it, unless we find an editor not complying with WP:PAID rules. Just ignore it. RudolfRed (talk) 18:28, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@JKR98116: if you were willing to take the risk, you could follow up with this evil scum-sucking parasite and offer to pay for an article via an escrow to be paid after the article remains undeleted for 30 days. If the editor discloses the paid status and the article remains undeleted, you lose the money. Otherwise, we get to figure out who this individual really is, delete the article, and carry on. However, these unethical individuals appear to have many accounts, so it's probably futile and we must detect the articles by their smell instead. -Arch dude (talk) 18:48, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I just got the same letter, but supposedly from a Sofia Richards sofia@scienceaccord.com. What scum! --WiseWoman (talk) 21:00, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
You can report the spam to the abuse reporting address for the ISP that is sending the email, and for the ISP that is providing the mailbox for responses. Reputable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have Terms of Use (TOU) that do not permit sending unsolicited commercial email (UCE), and do not permit supporting services for spammers such as mailboxes for responses to spam. For gmail, the abuse reporting address is abuse@gmail.com. If you know how to read Internet headers (and you are not expected to know how to read Internet headers), they contain additional information that can be used to report the spam. See Whack-a-mole. "In a web context, it refers to the process of fending off recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants." It is a continuing and frustrating effort. Robert McClenon (talk) 21:25, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have written a biography that I would like to submit.[edit]

How do I do that?

Thanks,

Pat Calarco — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.180.162.184 (talk) 22:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

We welcome articles on any notable subject. We will delete articles on any non-notable subject. Please do not spend any more time on this until you have established notability: see WP:AMOUNT. The relevant notability guideline is Wikipedia:Notability. Not all reliable sources contribute to notability: see Wikipedia:Common sourcing mistakes (notability). Please do not get discouraged: if your subject is notable, we can help, so come back and ask then. -Arch dude (talk) 22:52, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

why i cant make a page[edit]

everytime i try to make a page,it wont let me,it says i need to make a draft,but HOW — Preceding unsigned comment added by MalucoWikipededista (talkcontribs) 23:31, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

MalucoWikipededista New users cannot directly create articles; you may submit a draft using Articles for Creation. Keep in mind that creating a new article is the hardest possible task to undertake on Wikipedia. New users greatly increase their chances of success if they first spend time editing existing articles in areas that interest them, to get a feel for how Wikipedia works and what is expected of article content. However, if you still want to attempt to create an article, go to Articles for Creation; but first review Your First Article and use the new user tutorial. 331dot (talk) 23:39, 13 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]