Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 September 6

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September 6

Recurring Payment Donations

Hello... I donate each month to Wikipedia via automatic recurring payment on my credit card. I need to change the payment method (a new card). How do I do that? Thanks! Doug Kratz (talk) 00:24, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

@Doug Kratz: Reach out to donate@wikimedia.org for help with donations. RudolfRed (talk) 01:20, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

(Redacted) 109.43.177.185 (talk) 04:26, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Please use the email address just given. Don't post any details on this page. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:35, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

See more at donate:Cancel or change recurring giving. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:08, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Tau'a

The woman who allowed let Muslim ibn aqil into her home when he was alone at kufa is pretty known in the islamic world ( especially shias) shall i make an article about her? Mac O'Donnell (talk) 00:40, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

It will depend on how much coverage has this person received in published reliable sources. See WP:NBIO for the guideline. RudolfRed (talk) 01:28, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

@Mac O'Donnell Tau'a isn't mentioned in that article but if Muslim scholars have reported on her as a figure from history there is no reason an article can't be created. Some of the sources already at Muslim ibn Aqil may be helpful. Others may be in Arabic but that is no problem, assuming you can translate and paraphrase them. You are a relatively new editor, so I suggest you use the WP:AfC process and also read this advice. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:07, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

She's mentioned in failed revolution and execution section as (Taw'a) Thanks that helpful! And she has an article in Arabic, how can i connect them both? Like create an English version of it. Mac O'Donnell (talk) 20:31, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

User:Mac O'Donnell, once your draft has been approved through the AfC process, you can go on Arabic Wikipedia to the Tau'a / Taw'a article (apologies I have no idea how to find or write this name in Arabic), tap the "three vertical dots" menu, and go to the Wikidata item. You can create a new sitelink from Wikidata to your new English Wikipedia article, which is an intuitive process. This will connect it in with the Arabic article and any other articles already present on other sister language projects. Folly Mox (talk) 08:46, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

@Mac O'Donnell You can use the existing Arabic article content for part of your English draft: if you do that, please read WP:Translation for some advice, particularly about attribution. Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:18, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

How do you add a brief description that appears on the subject's searchbar?

When you type up something at a search bar, there's a brief description on the subject before clicking on to it. How do you do that? XXzoonamiXX (talk) 02:00, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

XXzoonamiXX, you're looking for Template:Short description, which should go at the top of each article. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 02:33, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Benefit of name redirects with lowercase letters

What is the actual benefit of redirects like Albert einstein and Humphrey bogart? --KnightMove (talk) 08:23, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

None really. They're just holdovers from days of yore (2004 and 2006, respectively, and the latter by a bot apparently), and they're not causing any harm, so nobody's bothered to delete them. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:53, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Back then, the Go feature of the search box didn't go directly to a page name with other capitalization but just displayed search results if there was no redirect. Special:WhatLinksHere/Albert einstein shows some links from outside articles but they probably wouldn't have been made if there was no redirect. There may be some external sites which link to titles with lowercase letters. There is little point in creating new redirects like this but it may break some links to delete old ones. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:29, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Per the above, in older iterations of MediaWiki, "Albert Einstein" and "Albert einstein" were treated as different article titles, and as such, redirects had to be created from the one to the other. Per WP:CHEAP, there's no reason to get rid of them even though they are basically useless today. --Jayron32 16:17, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Albert Einstein and Albert einstein are still treated as different page names in wikilinks and url's, and they could have been different articles instead of the latter redirecting to the former (GOLD and Gold are different pages). Without the redirect, Albert einstein would have been a red link but entering "Albert einstein" in the search box would have gone directly to the other capitalization Albert Einstein. Similar to how Albert EINSTEIN is a red link, but it works to enter "Albert EINSTEIN" in the search box. If there is no match with the same capitalization but more than one match with other capitalizations then I don't know which is picked by search. "Albert EINSTEIN" picks the redirect Albert einstein although the article Albert Einstein is closer in capitalization. "GOLd", "GOlD" and "GoLD" all pick Gold instead of GOLD so maybe lowercase is prefered by the algorithm. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:23, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

That's a better and more complete explanation than I gave. Thanks. The redirects exist from a time from before there was hidden logic to deal with searches that had alternative capitalizations. To answer your last bit, I am pretty sure that the algorithm defaults to standard Wikipedia title case, which is always 1 initial capital and all the rest lower case, in which case the algorithm would first look for Albert einstein before trying Albert Einstein. There's probably something under the hood that looks for the first instance of a real article using all combinations of capitals and small letters; my guess is the first attempt is always using Wikipedia's standard titling rules. --Jayron32 18:14, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

Videos

videos Colin Adversky (talk) 08:27, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Do you have a question about editing Wikipedia, Colin Adversky? -- ColinFine (talk) 11:51, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

location question

For template:cite book, there is a field called location. If the city and/or the state abbreviation for the location have changed since the book was published, what should be used? For example, if it was published in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1968, should it say Lincoln, NB (the abbreviation at the time) or Lincoln, NE (the current abbreviation). Similarly, something published in Constantinople in 1910, Constantinople or the modern Istanbul? Naraht (talk) 17:43, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Spell out Nebraska. Use the city name that is listed in the source.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:55, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Trappist the monk I started this because I ran into a state abbreviation of Kansas as KA which is never right, but I moved onto Nebraska because it did change. I think going in and changing all to include the state name would be a *massive* project.Naraht (talk) 18:54, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Please also bear in mind that "Lincoln, NE" looks like an area to the north-east of the City of Lincoln in the UK. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 19:47, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Martin of Sheffield, perhaps somebody who's at least moderately bookish would realize that "Lincoln, NE" would be a very odd way of expressing what could otherwise be expressed as, for example, "Market Rasen, Lincs". -- Hoary (talk) 09:06, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

That's why I left it as "looks like". In a place name "NE" looks like a point of the compass, I would never have associated it with Nebraska, USA. Have a look at Lincoln and you'll see there are many such names spread across the globe, just adding an obscure "NE" doesn't disambiguate it except possibly to Americans. Not a big issue, just a point to bear in mind as I said. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:28, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

For what it's worth, MOS:STATEABBR says that postal abbreviations should not be used (except in tables, where the first use should be marked with the {{abbr}} template). CodeTalker (talk) 16:54, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

Forcing stack

I frequently come across articles with a very long infobox, an entire screen of blank space to its left, and finally a navbar. I think these would be more readable if the navbar were placed in that blank space. With some navbars, like in Balaustium vignae, this can be done by placing the navbar in {{stack}} and adding {{clear left}}. However, if the navbar holds multiple lines, like in Balaustium medicagoense, this doesn't change the layout. I think this is because using {{stack}} results in this order:

1. The contents of {{stack}} lay themselves out and state how much space they would like.
2. {{stack}} determines whether they can be stacked, and if so, stacks them.

I want to do this instead:

1. {{stack}} determines what room there is for stacking.
2. It tells its contents to lay themselves out within that limited space.

This is both (theoretically) possible and desirable, since navbars are perfectly capable of fitting themselves into smaller widths while remaining readable. However, I don't fully understand how {{stack}} is implemented. Is there any way to do this (possibly with a new template)?

Notes

jlwoodwa (talk) 17:53, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Signature font

Does anyone know how to use a different font for a signature I noticed some people have different fonts for theirs Isla 20:06, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

@Isla, check out Wikipedia:Signature tutorial#Getting colourful... - the last examples show how to change font. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 20:28, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Thank you Isla 23:01, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Lokesh Kanagaraj

His recent movie is Leo.I have seen a message saying 3 instalment of LCU few days back.But now it's been removed 49.205.81.206 (talk) 20:51, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

We do have an article on Lokesh Kanagaraj. If you want to suggest additions to the article, IP editor, the place for such suggestions is Talk:Lokesh Kanagaraj. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 21:13, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

We also have Lokesh Cinematic Universe, which discusses future projects. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 21:18, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Someone randomly removing birth and death dates from pages

Hi, @Hyphenation Expert is removing birth or deaths from date pages saying "uncited" despite leaving many other uncited names. [1][2][3][4] It looks almost random. I hesitate to call it vandalism but since he is not removing all names, just one here or there, it doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply copy the appropriate citation from the biography where needed? Is there something here going on or maybe the person's account got taken over by someone? 76.143.192.237 (talk) 21:16, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Hyphenation Expert is correct. See WP:DOYCITE * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:18, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

@Pppery But he's removing the listing of people who have wikipedia articles. "the births and deaths of non-fictional people who are themselves subjects of Wikipedia articles should be listed." For instance he removed Adam Exner from December 24. 76.143.192.237 (talk) 21:25, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed and should not be restored without an inline citation to a reliable source. A blue link to a Wikipedia article is not sufficient. Most project members are reverting new additions without direct sources on sight. seems clear enough and supersedes the guidance you quoted. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:53, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

If that's the case he should be removing ALL the ones that don't have a direct citation, not just one here or there. Your explanation isn't consistent with what's being done. 76.143.192.237 (talk) 12:44, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

Everyone is free to do as much or as little cleanup as they wish. This is a volunteer project. Similarly, if you want to either re-add the information with citations or help the cleanup effort by removing other uncited information, you can. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 13:35, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

photo

how do I get a photo of Reginald Frederick Chapman that I uploaded to Wikimedia commons to his wikipedia entry LizandReg (talk) 22:42, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Read Help:Pictures. You'd probably want a thumbnail style (which would use a default size) and probably placed on the right (unless he's looking to his right). Clarityfiend (talk) 00:04, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

If you go to c:File:Reg Chapman.png, you will see a link at the top saying "use this file" with the Wikipedia icon: pick that, and it will show you what to copy and paste into the article.

I see you have uploaded the picture as "Own work". This suggests that you were connected with Chapman. If this is the case, please be aware of the advice for editors with a conflict of interest. I don't think there's a problem with adding a photo to the article, but if you wanted to contribute to it further, it would be better to make edit requests, rather than editing it directly.

Following on from that, I am wondering about your user name, LizandReg. Wikipedia accounts are personal, and may not be shared. I observe that Chapman died in 2003, so I'm guessing that the name is in homage rather than actually shared; but if it is shared, please create separate accounts, and if it is not, it might be a good idea to put a note on your User page clarifying that the account is only used by one person, in case other people get suspicious as I did. ColinFine (talk) 09:51, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

How do I add the Foxboro "Special events" train stations to Pawtucket/Central Falls station infobox?

How do I add the Foxboro "Special events" train stations to Pawtucket/Central Falls station infobox in a manner similar to South Attleboro station? --Jax 0677 (talk) 23:38, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

 Done See Special:Diff/1174240483. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 05:54, 7 September 2023 (UTC)