Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 February 10

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.

February 10

live help channel

I dont have a history. This happened recently and this started because people had a negative view on my screen name. I won the appeal but I got blocked in the channel for the same reason. The disruption came when I started retaliating over what was said about me and this happened after i was already blocked. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Threesom666 (talk • contribs) 20:44, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Blocked from Live help channel. Post it before but have gotten no help and no resolve. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Threesom666 (talk • contribs) 00:23, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Threesom666: From the messages on your talk page, you have a history of trolling and disruptive edits resulting in some editing blocks here. I will guess that perhaps your behavior on IRC also resulted in the admin there blocking you. If you have any questions about using or editing Wikipedia you can post them here or at WP:THQ RudolfRed (talk) 03:04, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Citations in lead

Not sure if Help Desk is where to ask this question, but I wanted a third party perspective.

I have found myself in a tussle with another editor over a citation.

In the lead text for Drivers License (song)‎ I put a citation for the statement "(stylized in all lowercase)[citation to official YouTube video]" because I was curious where the statement came from, but the citation was removed. According to them, there is already a sufficient citation further down in the article under credits, and lead text should not be cluttered with citations. I am a bit perplexed at the push back, because based on what I've read about verifiability, it's almost always better to include citations.

So I'm not really sure what to do--leave it be? add the citation anyways? ask somewhere else?... It could be their point is valid but I don't know. I also don't know how I can/could have de-escalated things.

Anyhow, any input would be appreciated. Cheers, Fredlesaltique (talk) 03:38, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Fredlesaltique: Welcome to Wikipedia and thanks for wanting to cite the sources. There is no prohibition against citations in the lead, and if citations are required they must be there. See WP:CITELEAD for the guidance on what should have citations in the lead. You should discuss on the article's talk page to get consensus for what to do for this article. RudolfRed (talk) 03:53, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@RudolfRed: Thanks for the link; sounds like the most recent consensus is that it's a bit of a toss up for leads... no sure how much it helps ha. So would you keep engaging the editor? Like at this point it's just exhausting to put in so much effort for a citation. Fredlesaltique (talk) 07:41, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

People editing Wikipedia

Hi I’m Laasya a student I want want to give an complaint on people editing Wikipedia’s articles , statements etc . So in my class people say that never trust Wikipedia so just wanted to tell that wiki is successful but this statement editing may low your reputation bye — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.193.77.247 (talk) 04:05, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Correct, you should not trust Wikipedia. Instead, use the citations in the article and look at what the source says. Also, if you see an error, you can report it on that article's talk page or even better -- fix it. RudolfRed (talk) 04:13, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

You might also be interested in the article Reliability of Wikipedia. GoingBatty (talk) 04:22, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

How to flag huge edits marked as "minor"?

I'm just not here enough to know where I should flag something like this. Massive edits to a page on my watch list led me to discover similar more massive edits by a user tagging them as "minor" (when they are 10,000+ characters in length) and no explanations included either. Let me know where to flag and I will or I can list pages here? (I know talk pages are theoretically the place to discuss but they are rarely checked, I've had too many questions sit unanswered on talk pages for years.) Thanks all. --gobears87 (talk) 04:20, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Gobears87: I suggest you gently remind the user on their talk page. GoingBatty (talk) 04:25, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Gobears87, if you need a template, you can use {{Uw-minor}}. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 06:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Regarding adding the "Curatorial Associate" , "IT Manager", "Coordinator Visitor Services" heading and their associated names

The bihar museum wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihar_Museum has missing information. I, Nand Gopal Kumar, curator, would like to request you to add some more informations as below:

"Curatorial Associate : Vishi Upadhyay, Ravi Shankar Gupta, Shankar Jaikishan" "IT Manager : Rakesh Ranjan" "Coordinator Visitor Services : Swati Kumari Singh".Bmcurator (talk) 08:05, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Bmcurator: You may make suggestions at the article talk page, Talk:Bihar Museum, and provide a reference so others may verify the information. However, others may feel that the names of these employees may not improve the article. When making suggesstions, please use the {{request edit}} template and disclose your conflict of interest per WP:PAID. GoingBatty (talk) 01:26, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Gab description

Your Gab social media description of followers is insulting and incorrect.Neo Nazis and extremism?It is a free speech platform.Correct this or you will be sued. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7D:AEF5:9F00:391E:180E:5C65:EC8B (talk) 08:23, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

We are not connected to Gab.com so legal threats to another entity have no power here, even if they were a good idea, which they are not. Britmax (talk) 09:15, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia articles are based on what reliable sources say. If you withdraw the legal threat, then you are welcome to open or continue a discussion on the article's talk page Talk:Gab.com, citing reliable published sources for any changes you wish to see to the article. If you do not withdraw your legal threat, then you will be blocked from editing here. See no legal threats --ColinFine (talk) 12:51, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Just to add that the relevant talk page is Talk:Gab (social network).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:20, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Proper name for "battle cards/templates"

Greetings,

I would like to know if these.... templates with "Belligerents", "Commanders and leaders" and "Strength" that are always on Wikipages telling about great wars and battles have a proper name? Or are they just "templates" and nothing more? Thank you kindly.

(sorry if this question has been already answered, alas I do not know how to look for it, because I do not know the name of it) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MobileDevice1337 (talk • contribs) 08:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@MobileDevice1337: The general term is infobox. See Help:Infobox. The terms you mention are in {{Infobox military conflict}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:03, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Thank you very much for your answer — Preceding unsigned comment added by MobileDevice1337 (talk • contribs) 09:24, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@MobileDevice1337: If you want to see how something is done, you can look at the wikitext of the page by editing it (just don't save any changes). E.g., if you go to Boer War and click the Edit tab, you will see, after a few lines of housekeeping, {{Infobox military conflict}} and many lines with its parameters. Is there a particular war or battle that does not have one? —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 01:37, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Financial accounting

What is it all about — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.112.77.227 (talk) 08:56, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

See Financial accounting. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:58, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Alternatively, see Hokey Cokey Chuntuk (talk) 22:10, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Merging accounts

Good morning,

I cannot seem to access my main account and have created this one to ask questions on how to recover it. Was hoping somebody could direct me to the correct the place. Thanks. D82m (talk) 15:08, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

See Help:Reset password. You can't get access to an old account unless you set it up with an associated e-mail address. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:27, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

D82m Accounts cannot be merged. If you are unable to regain access to your old account, you will need to identify your current account as a successor to your old account. 331dot (talk) 15:31, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. I did that, having posted on my user page that it is an alt account. But permissions such as page mover, do I start over from the beginning on those? D82m (talk) 16:03, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Llammakey appears to have set an email adress. Does Special:PasswordReset not work for you? You might need to enter both the username and the email adress if the corresponding pref was turned on. Victor Schmidt (talk) 16:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

I did, but I cannot remember which email I used. I created one for sites like this so that my work or personal email wouldn't get clogged up, and I thought I used it here, but I didn't get the email. So I might have changed it and it says you can only do the reset once every 24 hours. So I guess I will just have to wait. Thanks though. D82m (talk) 19:37, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Why are you changing people's personal pages?

Why are you changing Mike Lindell's page? Why are you not allowing him to handle his own page? Why are you lying about him? Why are you spreading disinformation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.2.223.49 (talk) 15:58, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

I think you are confused as to what Wikipedia is. There is an article about Mike Lindell but it is not "his": it is, like all articles here, editable by anyone provided they only include information that is verifiable in reliable sources and sticks to the policy on the biographies of living people. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:18, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Incidentally, if you think the article can be improved in any way, including removing misleading information, please discuss this at Talk:Mike Lindell and interact with other interested editors. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:28, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

I suspect that the OP is not actually interested in removing misleading information, but in adding it or whitewashing it to portray Lindell more favorably. 331dot (talk) 19:44, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

There are many places on the Internet where Mike Lindell can create a page to tell the world about himself and control the contents of the page. Wikipedia is not one of them. Informationon Wikipedia is supposed to come from published reliable sources. -Arch dude (talk) 17:03, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Arch dude Twitter is not an option for him. 331dot (talk) 19:44, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

He can begin his own Mikeypedia of alternative facts.  --Lambiam 20:52, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@331dot: He operates his own site at michaeljlindell.com. We even link to it from our article -Arch dude (talk) 22:24, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

He made his own bed (pillow), now he can lie in (on) it. And I do mean lie. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:24, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

History Merge, we think?

Pages:

• Jewish Vocational School Masada 2012 AfC submission/approval by SarahStierch.
• Masada Jewish Vocational School 2011 creation.

Two articles about the same school, with long histories. I declined the speedy as I think it needs a history merge or.. something? Can anyone more experienced drop in on what needs doing? Thank you and courtesy @Geewhiz and Gilabrand: StarM 16:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

History merge would not be appropriate due to parallel histories. It should be text merged and then a redirect should be created from one article to the other, with the appropriate templates added to both talk pages for attribution purposes. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 17:30, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks @ONUnicorn:. For some reason I thought it would be more complicated since they were literally the same topic. StarM 21:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Money

Please help me ..I can't study due to lack of money.I can't study due to lack of money. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:3A80:1172:C2A2:9B96:D41E:A9F6:ED47 (talk) 16:59, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

This is the help page for Wikipedia, we can't help with other matters. RudolfRed (talk) 17:30, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Where can I find deleted wiki articles list?

@Lambiam: @AlanM1: I know some wiki articles get deleted due to biography rules. Where can I find deleted wiki articles list? Rizosome (talk) 20:04, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Rizosome: Try Special:Log/delete RudolfRed (talk) 20:10, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

There's also Deletionpedia.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 20:35, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Copyvio help?

Resolved

— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:44, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Hi, I need some help with inserting a copyvio template. I've added the copyvio template and a notice on the talk page of the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salish_Sea_human_foot_discoveries . I also blanked the section that contained copyrighted text. I'm not sure if I did it correctly, though, would someone mind giving it a look? Thanks, Gageills (talk) 20:23, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Page with two connected categories

Could anyone please tell me if there are any circumstances under which a page can have two categories at the end, one a subcategory of the other? This part of the MoS would seem to indicate that the answer is "yes" but I wanted to be sure.--Thylacine24 (talk) 21:20, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Thylacine24: Yes. Specifically, WP:DUPCAT says These are called non-diffusing subcategories. They provide an exception to the general rule that pages are not placed in both a category and its subcategory: there is no need to take pages out of the parent category purely because of their membership of a non-diffusing subcategory.. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 02:21, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

@AlanM1: Thanks. Are there any circumstances where a page shouldn't have two categories like that? Could you also please tell me if this applies to category pages themselves?--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:31, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

@Thylacine24: All of the above. It depends on the categories (whether they are diffusing or not). You might find better help at WP:WikiProject Categories and its talk page, with the specifics of whatever page/categories you're concerned about. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 05:50, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

@AlanM1: Thanks; I think I'll take your word for it.--Thylacine24 (talk) 06:07, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Redirect pages

Hi I have created a page which is a redirect. When the redirect disappears, will the creator of the redirect have the "honor" of creating the page? Why do pages created in the form of redirects not appear on Xtools? Dr Salvus (talk) 22:01, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

What do you mean by "when the redirect disappears"? Dr Salvus. Do you mean "when somebody decides that the subject which is named in the title of a redirect is sufficiently notable for a Wikipedia article, and puts in the significant time and effort required to create one, to replace the redirect?" If so, it would seem appropriate that that person gets the "honour" of creating the article (though I don't know exactly who it is that cares about this "honour" - certainly I don't. --ColinFine (talk) 12:18, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

@ColinFine: I have created a page which is a redirect. Why doesn't it appear in the "Pages Created" section on Xtools? Dr Salvus (talk) 13:32, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

No idea, Dr Salvus. Maybe the people who work on Xtools (which is outside Wikipedia) decided to ignore them? I don't know. You could try looking at [1]. Alternatively, given what you said at #Milestone below, you might decide to start tackling you concern by stopping worrying about "honour" or "credit" or "authorship", and just get on with working on the encyclopaedia. In the end, absolutely the only thing that counts for somebody's status at Wikipedia is whether and how much they have improved the encyclopae. Not number of edits, or number of articles created, or number or articles deleted, or number of badges, or prettiness of their user page, or even the number of barnstars : just how much Wikipedia is better by their activity here. Also see WP:editcountitis. --ColinFine (talk) 16:58, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Milestone

Hi. I would like to understand why I always think that the author of an important page is remembered as "a milestone". How can I solve this problem? Dr Salvus (talk) 22:02, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Dr Salvus I don't understand your question. Would you please try to rephrase it?~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 00:22, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Hello again, Dr Salvus: I guess this relates to the "honour" you mentioned in the previous question. I don't think anybody here can help you much with your habitual patterns of thought, but it might help to point out that for most articles, and (I would guess) pretty well all important articles, there are dozens or hundreds of "authors". Given that in many cases there is little in common between the very first version of an article and the current version, there is nothing special about the person who happened to create the first version. --ColinFine (talk) 12:22, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

On the other hand, some articles about less popular topics are sometimes adopted and maintained by a single overbearing editor, who may become particularly obsessed with its subject and possessive about the article (see Ownership of content); thus, attempting to change anything is unlikely to meet with anything except rejection since there are few other editors with the relevant knowledge and access to to specific reliable sources to mount a successful challenge: or they may have better things to do with their time than engage in pointless willy-waving, since both have long since lost the ability to pop a boner at will and—furthermore—are unlikely to admit it. See, perhaps, Interrupter gear. MinorProphet (talk) 15:26, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Tables

How can I get my table to have the aspect where a row is split with the columns. Like this.

This picture includes what I want to do.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Leoellsworth (talk • contribs) 23:38, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Leoellsworth: Use rowspan. See Help:Table#Combined use of COLSPAN and ROWSPAN. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:16, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

@Leoellsworth: In particular, the code (without the links, refs, etc.) for the two rows you have identified would look like:

|-
| rowspan="2" | Rio de Janeiro
| rowspan="2" | Brazil
| Santa Teresa Tram
| 1877
|-
| Rio de Janeiro Light Rail
| 2016

Logos hosted on another language's Wikipedia

I would like to link the logo from this page https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_en_France_(chaîne_de_télévision) to the equivalent English language page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_en_France Do I have to reupload it on the English side? Do I have to upload it to Wikimedia Commons? If yes, do I have to replace the original on the other language's page after I upload it to Commons? Thank you. Note: the image to the right of this text pertains to the question above mine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Redacwiki (talk • contribs) 23:48, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

@Redacwiki: Commons can only host free content. You will need to upload it to the english Wikipedia if it meets all of the WP:NFCC criteria. RudolfRed (talk) 23:50, 10 February 2021 (UTC)