Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 November 28

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November 28

Weird login problem

I am getting an error when trying to log in on some projects. I logged out, rebooted and logged in again but it didn't help

Error message: "There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please resubmit the form."

Error occurs on: Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote

Normal unified login: MediaWiki, Wikipedia Commons, English Wikipedia, French Wikipedia

--Guy Macon (talk) 01:21, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

@Guy Macon: looks like blocked cookies. Central auth login works via cookies from login.wikimedia.org and local cookies (IMO a total of 5 starting with centralauth_* Note that some browser's tracking blockers can intefer with central login. The domains to be whitelisted are mainly login.wikimedia.org and all of the domains you want to login on. Victor Schmidt (talk) 09:31, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

That fixed it. As soon as I enabled cookies for wikiquote.org it instantly did the usual central authority logon. Thanks!

I should probably ask the W?F to create a more helpful error message. --Guy Macon (talk) 09:50, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Uploading non-free image for identification purposes

Hello! When I created the page Wedding of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and Grace Kelly, I originally used images uploaded over a decade ago by others, which were apparently not commercially available and deleted shortly after. A few weeks ago, I uploaded a non-free, identifying image of the event to the infobox, in the style of Wedding of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Charlene Wittstock and Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, under the "This is some other kind of non-free work that I believe is legitimate Fair Use." option, as I didn't feel any of the other categories fit. However, it was speedily deleted shortly after. It is not possible to upload any identifying image to the page, despite it being in practice on other pages of the same topic? Also, I noticed that other identifying images, such as File:Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh photo.PNG and File:Wedding of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and Charlene Wittstock.PN] both contain the licensing "This work is copyrighted...To illustrate the subject in question". However, an option to "illustrate the subject in question" was not available when I chose reasoning for my uploads. Is this why it qualified for deletion? Thank you so much.--Bettydaisies (talk) 01:22, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

@Bettydaisies: In my opinion, "To illustrate the subject in question" is not a valid purpose, and probably the two uses which you cite should be removed. The purpose must generally amount to "its presence would significantly increase readers' understanding of the article topic." Typical acceptable uses of images are given at WP:NFCI. If your original photo were not a Getty image, it could be used opposite sourced commentary on her dress, but I can't imagine a wedding photo in the infobox of a wedding article. —teb728 t c 13:03, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Obama

When googling Obama, it is my understanding that he was the president of the United States from 2008-2016. This is not the information stated on his wiki page. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.26.92.64 (talk) 03:32, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

You are confusing the years of the elections with the term of office. See the first sentence here President of the United States#Inauguration which explains when he was sworn into office. MarnetteD|Talk 04:01, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Heading disappears below a table

The heading, here, when following the table, disappears from view and there are 2 or 3 superfluous blank lines too.

I have added a non-breaking space as a temporary measure to at least make the heading visible.

Can anyone tell me how to fix the disappearing heading and spaces, please?

Cheers, Simon – SCHolar44 🇦🇺 💬 at 12:58, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

For the blank lines, the best thing you can do is fill them in yourself. Seemplez 14:44, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

The broken version is [1] where the heading "Garratts around the world" should have been visible below the table. The problem is apparently the pointless combination of style= "width:100%; ...; float:left;" Maybe browsers try to display the heading in a space of width 0 to the right of the table. You can remove one or both styles. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:48, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, many thanks, especially for taking the time to explain the cause. Cheers, Simon – SCHolar44 🇦🇺 💬 at 23:14, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Would {{clear}} do the trick, maybe? —Wasell^(T) 16:22, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Automatic login across wikis

Is there any way to prevent my account from automatically logging on in the Wikipedia sister projects such as Wikimedia etc. I started a Wikibooks account recently with a different username that I would like to use separately to this one but when I log in on either of the accounts on either of the projects, it automatically logs me in on that account on everything. No problem if there's no way of doing that, it's not such a big deal. Thanks Alduin2000 (talk) 18:31, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

@Alduin2000: blocking cookies from login.wikimedia.org should AFAIK do the deal, as that domain is used for central login. Victor Schmidt (talk) 19:54, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Need to correct spelling of name of subject

Hi, the page "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Rohrschach_Jr." INCORRECTLY SPELLS HIS NAME. I have edited the page to correct the spelling within the article but the TITLE needs to be corrected. It is clear from the references that the correct spelling is RORSCHACH (only two "h"s). How do I (or someone) fix this? thanks... 19:14, 28 November 2020 (UTC)Patricia H. Reiff (talk)

 Done. Maproom (talk) 19:24, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

замени дурнев

ти тихнинологии — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.140.193.240 (talk) 20:25, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

This is the help page for the English Wikipedia. Try here instead: [2] RudolfRed (talk) 20:42, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

new p0lice and fire line of duty card

my cards got ruined how can I get new cards — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.5.120.176 (talk) 20:25, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

This is not a general help desk, sorry. 331dot (talk) 20:27, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

ит ити — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.140.193.240 (talk) 20:33, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Creating a form

How can I create a form which will let a user fill out a template correctly? --Uncle Ed (talk) 20:41, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Hello, Ed Poor. Nobody has picked this up, so I'll have a go, but I don't know much about it. I don't believe it is possible to take user input in Wikimarkup. It may be possible in Lua - I don't know: if it is, then it is likely somebody has wrapped the ability in a template, but I haven't found one. I suspect this can be done only at the Mediawiki programming level. I suggest asking at VPT, --ColinFine (talk) 12:16, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Hello again, Ed Poor. It appears I was wrong: Victor Schmidt has today used an <input box> at the Teahouse, and may be able to advise you how to use it. I have failed to find any help or documentation on the facility. --ColinFine (talk) 19:40, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

@ColinFine and Ed Poor: that was the input box extension, which can generate a limited amount of inputbox-based forms, usally an inputbox and one or two buttons, to allow certain features to be used on Wikipedia pages that involve dynamic input boxes. See the Extension page linked at the beginning of my post for the documentation of what is possible. Howewer, I can already tell you that these cannot be used to fill template params. Victor Schmidt (talk) 19:44, 30 November 2020 (UTC)