Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 April 2

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April 2[edit]

What is user FlightTime criticising?[edit]

Could a well experienced Editor please explain, what user FlightTime is criticising about my contributions in " 06:56, 2 April 2022‎ FlightTime " in Talk:Cesar Millan, he seems to be unwilling to explain. 77.189.7.149 (talk) 07:49, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Article talk pages are generally places to discuss ways to improve articles or to discuss concerns about article in the context of relevant Wikipedia policies and guidelines as explained here. They are not, however, intended to be general forums for discussion of the subject matter as explained here and here, and it is because of this that FlightTime removed your posts and left a corresponding warning on your user talk page. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:26, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for these spot-on links.
What I would have expected from FlightTime would had been something like: "personal opinion, see
<the links which you, Marchjuly, have given>." This ! would have saved us all time, and I would have answered: Nothing of this is my ! opinion, I described and cited, in my own words, what Millan ! has said and demonstrated in his videos. I ! have seen over 20 of his videos. It seems to me that FlightTime has not seen one. 77.189.7.149 (talk) 09:04, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The only edit summary I can find on that date is "not a forum", which is exactly what the content was removed for. We do not care what is "demonstrated in his videos", we care what secondary reliable sources say about a subject. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski (talkcontribs) 09:35, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Please note that Wikipedia is not interested in what the subject of an article says or wants to say about themselves, or what their associates say about them. Wikipedia is only interested in what people who have no connection with the subject, and who have not been prompted or fed information on behalf of the subject, have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable sources. ColinFine (talk) 09:40, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@77.189.7.149: The warning FlightTime actually did contain links (they are the words in blue) to relevant Wikipedia pages, but perhaps it would've been better to start you out with a level-1 warning template than a level-3 warning template to make things a bit clearer. As to what you posted, your first edit to the talk page actually was one that made changes to a post previously made by another user. They were minor and perhaps well-meaning changes, but generally it's not a good idea to do such things for the reasons given here. Your next edit was a comment about dogs not being human, which is does seems to be more of general discussion of dogs and how some people treat them than anything to do with the article. Your third edit and fourth edit were yet again another example of editing of someone else's posts, which is simply not appropriate for a Wikipedia article talk page. There's no need for you to copyedit the talk page posts of other users unless there's a very strong Wikipedia-based policy or guideline reason for doing so. If someone makes a mistake in one of their posts, you can request clarification or simply politely point it out if it somehow affects the meaning of the post; otherwise, talk pages are not held to the same standards as articles and it's best to just leave it be. Finally, your last edit was almost like your own personal assessment or review of Millan and what he does without making it clear how any of that is related to improving the article. Once again, a level-3 warning might've been a bit harsh, but a warning over this was appropriate because none of your edits seemed connected to discussing ways to improve the article. Perhaps, you thought the connection was obvious or otherwise implied, but implied connections are pretty much always going to run afoul of WP:NOTFORUM and what's obvious to you may not be so obvious to others. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:12, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanx to all who replied, a special thanx to Marchjuly for the extended explanation. @77.189.7.149: The edit summary I left "Not a forum" is my standard summary for such edits, however, I now see I need to provide more, something more along the lines of this one I left you. For the record, after watching many of his TV shows, (and this is just my opinion) Millan probably understands more about K9 behavior and mind set than anyone on the planet. If you would have posted this query on my talk page, you might have noticed the two pictures posted there and most likely a response, which would of (as you mention) This ! would have saved us all time. Cheers, - FlightTime (open channel) 00:20, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

BP MESURING TRACKER NOT WORKING[edit]

Sir , The BP measuring tracker in the watch is not working with the remark " Please connect with APP to enable BP . " This should be rectified . Waiting for a quick response . Hirak Shubhra Sen — Preceding unsigned comment added by HIRAK SHUBHRA SEN (talkcontribs) 08:24, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@HIRAK SHUBHRA SEN: This help desk is for asking questions about Wikipedia. If you're having problems with your watch, you should try and contact the manufacturer by email or phone, or check to see if the company has an official support website where you can seek assistance. You might also try doing an Internet search of the problem you're having because there are often forums or other websites where people post about problems they're having with products they've purchased. You might even try going back to the store where you purchased the watch and see if it can help in some way. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:31, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nominating an article for translation[edit]

I found an article on the German Wikipedia which has no equivalent here, so is there a procedure for requesting for it to be translated and added? I can't speak German so I'm unable to do it myself. KaraLG84 (talk) 11:02, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi KaraLG84. Can you read and write German? If you can, then perhaps you'll find Wikipedia:Translation helpful. Translation (per se) has more do to with being able to read and write a language than being able to speak it. If, on the other hand, you can't even read German, then I'm curious as to how you're able to understand the German Wikipedia article. Anyway, there are two things (in my opinion) that you might want to try. The first thing might be to take look at Wikipedia:Translators available and see if you can find someone to help with this. The other option might be to ask about this at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Germany and see what the members of that WikiProject think. An important thing to understand is that any article about the subject will be expected to meet relevant English Wikipedia policies and guidelines, and is not going to be automatically accepted because a corresponding article already exists on German Wikipedia. It's going to make no difference how good the translation is if the subject is not considered Wikipedia notable by English Wikipedia's standards. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, KaraLG84. I'm not aware of a particular place for nominating articles to be translated, though there might be one. But, to be frank, with the way that Wikipedia works, you can request as many articles as you like at requested articles, but it's unlikely they will get written unless you enrol an editor into wanting to work on the particular article. Your best bed, as Marchjuly mentioned in passing, is to find an appropriate WikiProject and ask if somebody there is interested. ColinFine (talk) 14:42, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks both. The article in question came up in a Google search and the only Wikipedia result was for the German version. I'll ask on a project. KaraLG84 (talk) 15:59, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
If you'd like to join the project, we do have tools to help with translating articles, such as WP:CXT. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski (talkcontribs) 17:27, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Listing an author´s publications.[edit]

I am writing an article based on an article in French Wikipedia. This is the template used for listing publications of the author: Écrit|titre=|éditeur=|année=|isbn=|commentaire= It begins and ends with curly brackets. Is there an English wiki equivalent that would allow me to cut and paste from the French article and just change titre to title, etc? Thanks. Roundtheworld (talk) 12:39, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

{{cite book}}. But, there is no equivalent to |commentaire=, |coauteur=, |éditeur fr=, |isbn_orig=, |pseudo=. These other parameters may have equivalence:
  • |année fr= – perhaps |orig-date= applies
  • |titre fr= – this may be the French equivalent to the English |trans-title=
  • |genre= – perhaps |type= applies
Documentation for the French template is at: fr:Template:Écrit
Trappist the monk (talk) 13:13, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Further: As a first step, simply change Écrit to cite book and then preview. {{cite book}} will usually suggest appropriate parameter names to use. For example:
  • {{Écrit|titre=La Ceinture|éditeur=[[groupe Flammarion|Flammarion]]|année=1980|isbn=978-2080642462|commentaire=Sous le nom de Jeanne Rusca}}
changed to {{cite book}}:
  • {{cite book|titre=La Ceinture|éditeur=[[groupe Flammarion|Flammarion]]|année=1980|isbn=978-2080642462|commentaire=Sous le nom de Jeanne Rusca}}
    . ISBN 978-2080642462. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |année= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |commentaire= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |titre= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |éditeur= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
But, caveat lector, it isn't always correct; in this case |éditeur= should be |publisher= though it can also be |editor=. Replacing parameter names and including the author's name – because the author name(s) should always be present in these sorts of lists:
  • {{cite book |author=Jeanne Faivre d'Arcier |author-mask=2 |title=La Ceinture|publisher=[[:fr:groupe Flammarion|Flammarion]]|date=1980|isbn=978-2080642462}} Sous le nom de Jeanne Rusca
    —— (1980). La Ceinture. Flammarion. ISBN 978-2080642462. Under the name of Jeanne Rusca
Trappist the monk (talk) 15:01, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your help. I should be able to take it from there. Roundtheworld (talk) 15:17, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Using Wikipedia[edit]

Is there a basic guide to the "mechanics" of using Wikipedia? By this I mean which buttons to press to get a given result. WIKIPEDIA appears dramatically different when I access it from my Android tablet via the App, a web browser (different again in each of Chrome and Duck Duck Go) and again different if I select the "show Desktop ..." option. And of course different again when using a PC or Linux with a RaspberryPi.

Most sites have prominent help buttons but that's not the case with Wikipedia - I ended up here after being told I was now a new editor when I was trying to find out how to find my saved searches (I'm interested in astronomy and spaceflight), but they seem to have gone for ever.

It all seems to be designed by intellectuals for intellectuals (I've only just established what "disambiguation" means (probably)). Please excuse my rant but I do value Wikipedia and I even contribute financially from time to time.

So, where is that dummies guide. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PaulEmm (talkcontribs) 14:28, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Paul. Does Help:Introduction help? ColinFine (talk) 14:44, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@PaulEmm You can also try WP:ADVENTURE. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:00, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@PaulEmm: Some Wikipedia apps have a reading list or saved pages feature which is local to the app. Help:Watchlist can be used across devices and browsers but has a different purpose. It's meant to monitor edits to pages of interest but Special:Watchlist has a link View and edit watchlist with an alphabetical list of all watched pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@PaulEmm, many people use the desktop version of wikipedia in a browser, instead of the app, even on a cell phone. If you are at a "mobile device page view" in a browser, there us a tiny link at the bottom of each page labeled "Desktop". That will give you the desktop view. I personally have never used the app at all. This opinion is not universal, but at least, things are consistent this way. Hope this helps. 73.127.147.187 (talk) 06:13, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]