Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 December 9

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December 9

File (commons) has a spelling mistake

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Postcard_of_Newton_Hall,_Potternnewton,_near_Leeds,_England,_c.1900.jpg

This file (commons) has a spelling mistake in the title - it needs to be changed to Potternewton - not with 2 "n"'s - Potternnewton.

I cannot change a commons file title Sorry 02:59, 9 December 2021 (UTC) please fix. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.70.23.77 (talk)

Commons files can only be renamed by file movers and administrators at Commons. I have made a rename request. PrimeHunter (talk) 06:29, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

New Appearance

Is there a way to revert the new appearance? (this one https://diff.wikimedia.org/2020/09/23/wikipedia-is-getting-a-new-look-for-the-first-time-in-10-years-heres-why/). Is there a skin or some sort of setting that would restore the old appearance? I dislike the new one. --149.175.254.1 (talk) 03:15, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

If you create an account, you can set a preference to use the "Legacy Vector" skin (the one up to 2019) until that skin is no longer supported. ClaudineChionh (talk – contribs) 03:34, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

How do I show/hide with a ">" symbol?

I like how Wikipedia shows collapsible chapters with a title and an arrow immediately to the right that shows/hides the associated content. Yet there are ZERO pages (that I can find) showing how to replace "show/hide" with a ">" symbol.

It drives me batty that such a commonly used solution for elegantly showing and hiding is nowhere popping up when I Goggle the question.

Am I not using the right term?

> = toggle switch? carrot? caret? What is the sideways V called?????? And why is there NO info on the code for Wikipedia pages?

Thanks for helping! EEEEEK! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shipsmasthub (talk • contribs) 03:35, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Shipsmasthub. First off, see Bracket#Angle brackets, there are many terms for them, apparently! Second, can you link to a page here on Wikipedia where you saw one of them things being used to show/hide chapters? Help:Collapsing doesn't mention such an option, and I can't find an example of it anywhere. Wikignome Wintergreen^talk 16:29, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Shipsmasthub: Are you using the mobile app, by any chance? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:59, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

What does "group results by page" in watchlist mean?

I'm not new, I've been here for nearly a year, but I'm wondering what this means. Ak-eater06 (talk) 05:00, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Ak-eater06: If you enable "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-watchlist then it shows multiple edits to a page together and not spread out chronologically among other edits. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:09, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

How to create a multi-level vertical list that shows the difference in level?

MOS:HLIST tells me how to create a multi-level horizontal list:

Example of flatlist

Wikitext	Renders as
{{flatlist | * White rose * Red rose ** Pink rose * Yellow rose }}	White rose Red rose Pink rose Yellow rose

And MOS:VLIST tells me how to do the same for a vertical list:

Example of plainlist

Wikitext	Renders as
{{plainlist | * White rose * Yellow rose ** Pink rose * Red rose }}	White rose Yellow rose Pink rose Red rose

But you can see that the horizontal list shows that PINK is on a different level (with parentheses) while the vertical list doesn't.

Is there a way I can use a vertical list that shows PINK is on a different level (for example, by right-indenting PINK). I know that I can manually mark up to get the effect I want, but would prefer to use lists for accessibility and semantic meaningfulness. Aithus (talk) 05:04, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Aithus: You may use {{Tree list}} for this. Note that it has slightly different syntax from plainlist and flatlist.

Example of Tree list

Wikitext	Renders as
{{Tree list}} * White rose * Yellow rose ** Pink rose * Red rose {{Tree list/end}}	White rose Yellow rose Pink rose Red rose

Cheers! ---CX Zoom(^he/_him) (^{let's talk}|_contribs) 08:37, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@CX Zoom: Thank you! This is exactly what I need. Aithus (talk) 11:31, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Double Standard!!

You want people to donate to you guys, and you attempt making people feel guilty asking for a donation when looking up something on Wikipedia, yet you prevent certain profiles of people whom you consider gods or controversial from being edited, blatantly violating the Free Speech Amendment. You guys should all be ashamed of yourselves for having the nerve to make people feeling guilty not donating to you when they can't change the very profiles that they want to edit!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.103.228.41 (talk) 06:02, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Free speech doesn't mean the right to edit websites you don't own. Articles are protected if there has been specific problems with edits to them. See Wikipedia:Protection policy. You can make an edit request. The easiest method is to first click "View source" and then "Submit an edit request". PrimeHunter (talk) 06:22, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not allow any profiles because we have no profiles, we have articles. Please see WP:FREESPEECH. Free speech means that the government cannot jail or punish you for your speech; it does not mean private entities, like Wikipedia or you personally, must allow anyone to say or do whatever they wish. Just as you can determine what is said within the four walls of your residence, Wikipedia can determine what appears on its computers. We don't consider anyone "gods"; some subjects are controversial, but we do the best we can to cover them with a neutral point of view and due weight. This does not mean we are free of bias, as everyone, including you and me, has biases. If there is a certain article for which you have a concern that policy is not being followed, please discuss it on the article talk page. 331dot (talk) 10:17, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

"The right to free speech...doesn't mean that anyone else has to listen to your bull----, or host you while you share it." —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 11:55, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

And one more point: the "we" who you are addressing are volunteers who edit the encyclopaedia, and (some of us) do our best to answer people's questions on pages like this one. We have no involvement in any part of the donation process, which is entirely managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. --ColinFine (talk) 21:47, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Please do not donate to Wikipedia if you do not agree with our goals or policies. Please feel free to create your own website. You can even start by downloading a snapshot of Wikipedia (free) and the Wikimedia software to run it (also free). It's only a few terabytes, so in today's world it won't cost very much to find a web host and put it up on the web: a few hundred bucks a month unless you get a lot of traffic, and if you do you can start to ask for donations, or even find a wealthy donor who shares your views. You can change any or all of the six million articles to say whatever you want them to say. On your site, you can enforce whatever rules you want to. Take a look at Conservapedia to see how successful they have been.-Arch dude (talk) 22:42, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

You don't say which article[s] you're referring to, so we don't respond specifically. If you have a specific suggestion for a change to improve an article, and if it is backed up by reliable, independent sources, then please feel free to submit the request as described above. There may be some discussion about the pros and cons of the proposed change, until the editors come to a consensus and that is what will be implemented. But I need to stress how important the sources are - without those, it won't even be considered.--Gronk Oz (talk) 23:56, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Please fix up problem with spelling

Please respond to my message about the commons file which has Potternewton spelt incorrectly please see 7 entries ago. Thanks 1.136.111.128 (talk) 06:09, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Commons files can only be renamed by file movers and administrators at Commons. I have made a rename request. PrimeHunter (talk) 06:29, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Sister, when you made your request from Australia, it was late evening or the middle of the night here in Europe and the Americas where the majority of Wikipedia's editors live. We are all volunteers who operate mostly from home – none of us are paid to do this "work" (it's really a hobby) and we are not on some kind of 24-hour watch system (or indeed organised in any formal way at all), so requests may take some hours (or even days) to be implemented. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.90.66 (talk) 09:38, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Donation

Despite having donated again this year I keep getting a pop up (4th, 5th, 6th time you have logged in) and somewhere have a thank you to prove it! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:1E42:E900:C90:26EC:AF2:1001 (talk) 08:50, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

As the Donation Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) explains, the banner will be hidden if you stay on the same computer and allow cookies in your web browser, or you can create a Wikipedia account and set a preference to hide the banner permanently. (The FAQ appears directly under the donation appeal but in smaller print so you might have missed it.) ClaudineChionh (talk – contribs) 09:10, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

[Edit Conflict] The only "identity" that Wikipedia's servers are perceiving when you link to them is the IP address "2A02:C7F:1E42:E900:C90:26EC:AF2:1001". That is the internet designation of the device you are using now, but that device's IP may have been different yesterday and be different tomorrow because many IP addresses (including my own) are dynamic. You used that device to send your post above, but many devices (for example, Library and other publicly provided PCs) are used by multiple people, and many people use multiple devices (e.g. Work PC, Library PC, Home PC, other laptops, tablets and smartphones, etc.), each of which has a separate, probably dynamic, IP. There is therefore no way that the servers could possibly know for sure which human (assuming you are) is currently using "2A02:C7F:1E42:E900:C90:26EC:AF2:1001". The Internet cannot read your mind (yet).

Moreover, donations are made to The Wikimedia Foundation, and there is, very deliberately, no link between data about donations held by The Foundation and the software that runs Wikipedia , which is only one of several projects that the Foundation operates.

If you have a Wikipedia account (and it's perfectly OK not to have one – I choose not to even though I've been editing here for more than 15 years), when you log into it Wikipedia recognises that account, which hopefully will always be you since accounts are not supposed to be shared. You can set a preference on your account to not see the donation requests. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.90.66 (talk) 09:27, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi

Hi and hello, is it good to practice in bots user page? Like sending wikilove, messeges, etc. —Moon twitt (talk) 11:41, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

No, please don't post anything to any user page other than your own. If you have a reason to send a message about a bot, see what is said on the bot's talk page about messages. -- Hoary (talk) 12:45, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Moon twitter: You can use User talk:Sandbox for user warnings for testing sending messages and things. 192.76.8.80 (talk) 13:35, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Hoary: and @192.76.8.80: thanks! Moon twitt (talk) 13:41, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Please Help!

Hello, i really need help with my user page, can somebody please fix it? ——Moon twitt (talk) 12:51, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Please consider putting aside your user page and instead working to improve one or two articles. -- Hoary (talk) 13:03, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

I wouldn't normally touch somebody else's User page, but since you specifically asked, I made one simple tweak. I am not clear what you wanted "fixed" but I guess it just needed {{clear}} before the headings, to prevent the sections from overlapping. Now, as Hoary said, it's time to get to work on some articles... --Gronk Oz (talk) 00:03, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Why does wiki increase pleas for& $ after I have just donated?

Your service is becoming less valuable to me because of Increased interruptions. I make periodic donations but your pleas do not seem to acknowledge that fact. Just days after I donate you are back to assuming I’m a freeloader which I am not and I don’t plan to be. So please accept the donations I periodically make and let me enjoy your excellent service. Thank you

PS. I am not an editor and I d don’t want to be be one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:681:201:9C50:9CB:2FE9:55F4:46FD (talk) 16:01, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not know that the person sitting at the computer/holding the device on your IP address at any given time has donated. If this is your permanent IP address, allowing cookies will prevent the display of the donation requests. If you create an account(even if you don't intend to edit), you can turn off the donation requests in your account preferences regardless of if your IP is fixed or floating, or you view Wikipedia from different locations. 331dot (talk) 16:06, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

I would further add that no one considers you a "freeloader". Wikipedia is free for the public to use and donations are not required(otherwise they would not be "donations"). 331dot (talk) 16:08, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

About all these donation-related questions

Every time Wikipedia asks for donations, the Help Desk is flooded with questions "I donated to Wikipedia but it still keeps asking me for donations!" which are instantly replied with "Wikipedia has no way of knowing whether the physical user sitting in front of the computer with this IP address has already made a donation". Couldn't this explanation be added to the donation request message itself so that people would actually read and understand it? JIP | Talk 16:33, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

m:Talk:Fundraising would probably be a better place for this query. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:37, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

I'm not sure that would work, either. 331dot (talk) 16:38, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

This is something that could be covered by an edit notice, subject to consensus. Mjroots (talk) 16:54, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

It needs a template, eg {{donation info}} that displays a box (initially collapsed) with all the basic info, such as:

• If you have donated to us, thank you very much!
• All donations are taken and handled by the Wikimedia Foundation, for the benefit of every related project, including this one: English Wikipedia
• This project does not know whether you have donated or not, so it cannot avoid asking people who have already donated.
• If you do not wish to see donation requests, the best way is to create an account.
• If you have an account, go to Preferences, select Banners, and untick Fundraising

(Add links to appropriate information at the foot.)

I'm sure this can be improved on, but even as-is it would cover most of the queries here or on the Teahouse; any more specific queries can be dealt with by hosts/responders who will have so much more time to do so, having used the box to save it. People who don't want to read all this can just not open the box.—Verbarson (talk) 17:46, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Unindent, I’ve created {{HD/Donation}} for this purpose. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 17:52, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

It's worth a shot to see if it even just cuts down on the postings. 331dot (talk) 17:55, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

And tested right below.--Verbarson (talk) 19:29, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

As @Blaze_The_Wolf spotted, it is not possible to enter the correct level of indentation directly. Perhaps it should default to a single indent, on the assumption it will usually be the first reply? Verbarson (talk) 19:36, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Verbarson: Were you using the reply tool by chance? ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:39, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

No, I used the source editor. But I will reply to this with the reply tool, just to check it out.--Verbarson (talk) 20:38, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

@Verbarson: Interesting. I think the issue is there's commented text at the top which the indent is applied to, therefore not applying the indent to the actual text. I'm willing to move the commented text to the bottom in the template but I don't know how to edit the template to make said change. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 20:42, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! You are going to want to create an account, go into your preferences, navigate to the Banners tab, and uncheck Fundraising. Wikimedia Foundation does not track the identity of IP addresses, so it doesn't know your age, income level or whether you donated in the past. Verbarson (talk) 20:39, 9 December 2021 (UTC) Verbarson (talk) 20:39, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

No indent. Perhaps if it was turned into a collapsible box, it wouldn't matter if the indent wasn't right? Verbarson (talk) 20:40, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

This will give about one level of indentation to the post, but it's a tad unwieldy: {{block indent|left=1.5|{{subst:WikiDonation}}}}. Wikignome Wintergreen^talk 23:57, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Financial development of the Wikimedia Foundation (in US$), 2003–2020
Black: Net assets (excluding the Wikimedia Endowment, which currently stands at $100m+)
Green: Revenue (excluding third-party donations to Wikimedia Endowment)
Red: Expenses (including WMF payments to Wikimedia Endowment)

I think it might also be appropriate to show people this graphic (taken from Wikimedia Foundation#Finances). So many people comment online that they are distressed about Wikipedia once again being so hard up for money, when the reality is obviously that the WMF is richer than ever and has increased its revenue goal for the year by nearly 40%. They also just exceeded their 2020/2021 fundraising goal by $46 million. --Andreas JN466 20:11, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

And there is an interesting viral tweet about this people might want to share: [1] --Andreas JN466 20:14, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

NS

Dear Wikipedia nearly every time you ask for donation I donate, however on times that I cannot I am unable to scroll past your asking. Some of us give on a regular basis and I realize not all do, however it is very off putting to us that do donate to not be able to scroll past when we cannot. As much as I use and like your site I am starting to hunt for other resources because of it. It's OK to ask but not try and force it. A fan...for now — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:6010:5642:D323:B895:62C9:CD98:2DA9 (talk) 19:06, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! You are going to want to create an account, go into your preferences, navigate to the Banners tab, and uncheck Fundraising. Wikimedia Foundation does not track the identity of IP addresses, so it doesn't know your age, income level or whether you donated in the past. Verbarson (talk) 19:28, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Editing issues w/ shift key

Pressing shift when editing seems to move my cursor back to the beginning of a section whenever it's pressed - happens both with visual editor and normal editor. Can't figure out why/if it's supposed to happen, and if so how to get around it to capitalize or use symbols requiring the use of the shift key. Only seems to happen sometimes. Any ideas? A Magical Badger (talk) 19:35, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

Good to know someone else has this issue. I had the same issue in the past, however I don't remember/don't know how I resolved it, so I'd be interested to here what the solution is in case it happens to me again in the future. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:36, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

I've experienced this with the syntax highlighter turned on before, not sure if that helps. Not sure why, or what the fix is other than turning it off. Perhaps something for WP:VP/T Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 12:57, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Happening with syntax highlighter on and off - had it off to begin with. I'll bring it up at VP, thanks! A Magical Badger (talk) 13:46, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Picture is not uploading

Can u please help me to upload my photo on my page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mansoorqr.consultant (talk • contribs) 23:59, 9 December 2021 (UTC)

As I look at your (short) list of contributions, Mansoorqr.consultant, I get the impression that your purpose here is to publicize yourself. Am I mistaken? -- Hoary (talk) 00:42, 10 December 2021 (UTC)