Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 March 10

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March 10[edit]

Profile[edit]

How do I add a user box? I’m a newcomer, and I’m really confused. Sleepingkitten 🐠 Sleepingkitten7110 05:01, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sleepingkitten7110: This page has instructions and a userbox search option: Wikipedia:Userboxes Also, you can click on the "edit source" or "edit" button at the top of any user's page, if you see something you relate to. Good luck, editing, Rjjiii (talk) 06:44, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Lua Error[edit]

In the Maldives Portal, the section "Selected articles" there is a Lua Error, but the pages are done fully, please check and fix it as soon as possible. MAL MALDIVE (talk) 06:42, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@MAL MALDIVE: I've made an edit. Since you've configured the selected articles in subpages numbered 1 to 25, I think {{Transclude random subpage}} is the correct way to display one of them. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:44, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
thanks MAL MALDIVE (talk) 07:46, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding MAP in de wikipedia.[edit]

Hello, I recently visited the German-language Wikipedia page about India (here) and noticed that the map used there (here) is completely different from the ones used in other language versions, including English one (here). However, when I tried to raise this issue, I was told that the German version has its own rules for maps that don't make sense (here). Can anyone help me with this or suggest what I should do next? This is not just about the map used on the India page, but also for maps of other countries as well. It would be greatly appreciated if you could participate in the German Wikipedia talk page.(here) Thank You. राजकुमार(talk) 07:14, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest you do nothing. We certainly can't do anything about the German Wikipedia. You have already been told that the German Wikipedia has its own rules. You need to discuss it over there. Shantavira|feed me 09:24, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Shantavira, Thank you for your reply. But isn't it crucial to ensure that all wikis have accurate and particular standard maps in order to maintain the high standard of accuracy that Wikipedia is known for? Otherwise, it will become similar to Reddit. राजकुमार(talk) 11:11, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It may be desirable, but it is certainly not "crucial". Each Wikipedia is a community project, and chooses independently how it will do things. There is certainly no pressure on any one Wikipedia to be like others. ColinFine (talk) 12:18, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@ColinFine, You are correct that each Wikipedia has its own set of rules. However, I am specifically referring to maps that display disputed regions. Wikipedia's core value is to present the truth in various languages. The challenge lies in determining how each Wikipedia should identify and classify disputed regions. If it happens, then every Wikipedia page will have its own disputed regions. राजकुमार(talk) 17:35, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Shantavira: No, it's not crucial. It's not even a Wikimedia Foundation policy. If you wish to discuss a policy change, you will need to do that at the WMF level, not here at the English Wikipedia. -Arch dude (talk) 16:18, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think you meant to ping @राजकुमार rather than Shantavira, Arch dude. ColinFine (talk) 17:05, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Arch dude, I am seeking suggestions here before I escalate the matter to the WMF level. राजकुमार(talk) 17:24, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The only suggestion you are going to get here is to discuss issues concerning the German Wikipedia at an appropriate place: which isn't anywhere on the English-language Wikipedia. AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:29, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@राजकुमार: I think any attempt to homologate policies among the Wikipedias is a bad idea. Some of the Wikipedia communities are subject to government influence or control. Furthermore any sort of top-down control tends to stifle the consensus building approach that has worked for the last two decades to make Wikipedia the best encyclopedia the world has ever seen. This is beyond the scope of the help desk. -Arch dude (talk) 17:55, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Arch dude, I completely agree with you. However, initiating a conversation isn't a bad idea. राजकुमार(talk) 18:03, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@AndyTheGrump, I am currently working on it, but I'm concerned about maintaining neutrality in the text, as there have been some discussions on the talk page.(here) राजकुमार(talk) 18:08, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Work on it there. Not here, there. This is the help desk for the English-language Wikipedia only. We have absolutely no authority over the German-language Wikipedia. Not any. None. AndyTheGrump (talk) 19:24, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I can tell, there don't seem to be any specific rules about using maps on this wiki. Therefore, it may be considered acceptable to use a map from there on this platform as well. राजकुमार(talk) 07:58, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But isn't it crucial to ensure that all wikis have accurate and particular standard maps in order to maintain the high standard of accuracy that Wikipedia is known for?

No.

Otherwise, it will become similar to Reddit.

No it will not. Remsense 08:00, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Remsense,Why and How? राजकुमार(talk) 08:21, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It's simply none of my concern what German Wikipedia does. They can take inspiration from elsewhere if they wish. The Reddit analogy is contrived to the point where I can't really even argue against it, the structures and incentives of Reddit versus Wikipedia have no meaningful overlap. Wikipedia quality has gone up over time, not down—and crosswiki discrepancies are simply not correlated, because again, they're editorially independent. Remsense 08:30, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

About the name of the country[edit]

There was a disagreement with some user. Originally, I work in a different language version of Wikipedia, not in English, and the title of the article "China" was listed as the official name, "People's Republic of China." But all articles about other countries were listed as abbreviations, not formal names. (except in the case where formal names are often used.) So I made a "proposal" to change China to China as well, not to the People's Republic of China. But someone said, "The title of an article about the country is based on an official name." But in my language, most of the articles about the country were listed as abbreviations, not formal names. The title of the article was not listed as a formal name, except in the case where it was more widely used in my language. For example, in South Africa, the official name of South Africa was originally used more widely in my language, and the official name of South Africa was listed as the title of the article. However, one user said, "An article about a country is based on a formal name," citing a small number of such cases as South Africa. So I said, "In South Africa, the official name is only listed as the title of articles about the country because the official name is more widely used, and most articles about other countries have abbreviations, not official names." But he said to me, "The title of the article about the country originally starts with the official name, and if it is okay to abbreviate the title, it will be abbreviated. But in the case of China, the title of the article is China, it is very controversial that if only one country were to be named China, it would go against the claims of the Republic of China that it claims to be China." Is the title of an article about a country really based on a formal name like that guy said on Wikipedia? Mamiamauwy (talk) 12:23, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Different language Wikipedias have different editorial policies from one another. See ours, which is WP:COMMONNAME. Not much else to say here. Remsense 12:29, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

County/Welsh principal area weather box[edit]

I'm wanting to create a weather box for a Welsh county/principal area. I'm thinking of something like the London weatherbox which appears to be a template specifically created for London. Does an English county / Welsh principal area template already exist for this? Copying I can manage, but creating one from scratch will likely exceed my technical ability. Thanks for any advice. KJP1 (talk) 12:56, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Now found one at Dorset which is usable. KJP1 (talk) 14:52, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

My article is not published yet[edit]

Hello,

More than two months ago, I have published my article on my profile. I would like to know about my why my article hasn`t published yet? SMAfzal123 (talk) 13:02, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Your draft was deleted as unambiguous advertising. Theroadislong (talk) 13:04, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I want to add my details whenever search me its show on about section. How can I add? SMAfzal123 (talk) 10:19, 12 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mistake while citing[edit]

Hello. I think I made a mistake at Bahmani–Vijayanagar War (1362–1367) at this revision [1] but I couldn't fix it. Can anyone help. Imperial[AFCND] 17:29, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is that better? Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 17:41, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed it is. Regards. Imperial[AFCND] 17:50, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hope its ok, but can any one take a look?[edit]

Draft:The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth - Wikipedia

Anything should be edited or missing or reducted? Omadacycline (talk) 18:30, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey @Omadacycline,
An advert tag was added to the draft, so you may want to take a look at that. A good place to start is to make sure you are writing from a neutral point of view and aren't writing in a way that promotes the article.
Cheers, Cocobb8 (💬 talk • ✏️ contribs) 19:00, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Can you point out any portion, which is promotional..... Any sentence or section.
And accept my apology, i know i am disturbing you. Omadacycline (talk) 19:03, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
The paragraph which starts "The four-part docuseries that delves into the complex and scandalous Sheena Bora murder case, unfolding the convoluted relationships within the Mukerjea" is absolutely not encyclopaedic in tone. "Delves into" and "unfolding" are advertising-speak, probably for something like "describes" and "investigating". "Complex and scandalous" is absolutely unacceptable in any article speaking in Wikipedia's voice (it may be acceptable in a direct quotation of an independent reliable source). Ditto "convoluted". That's as far as I bothered to go. ColinFine (talk) 19:47, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Template substitution not working as expected[edit]

I recently created Template:Opacity, which wraps the given text inside a span element with the given opacity. Example: <span style="opacity:0.75">Example Text</span>.

I made the template so that if no opacity is specified, it defaults to 0.5

{{opacity|Example Text}} -> Example Text

{{opacity|0.75|Example Text}} -> Example Text

I used the #if parser function to test for a 2nd parameter and set the opacity from there:

{{#if:{{{2|}}}|<span style="opacity:{{{1}}}">{{{2}}}</span>|<span style="opacity:0.5">{{{1}}}</span>}}

When substituting the template, instead of producing just the span element, it produces the entire #if parser function:

{{subst:opacity|0.75|Example Text}} -> {{#if:Example Text|<span style="opacity:0.75">Example Text</span>|<span style="opacity:0.5">0.75</span>}}

How can I avoid this? I'd like the template only to return <span style="opacity:0.75">Example Text</span> when substituted. Theooolone ( Talk ) 21:12, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Theooolone: I have added {{{|safesubst:}}} like in Help:Substitution#Further examples.[2] It's bad template design that the text can both be the first and second unnamed parameter. Other options include to use named parameters, let the optional parameter be second, or call with an empty parameter like {{opacity||Example Text}} to use a default value. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:32, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the advice! I’m still quite new to template creation so this greatly helps, I’ll modify the structure of the template and read Help:Substitution#Further Examples when i’m next at my computer tomorrow. Theooolone ( Talk ) 22:38, 10 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter I've updated the template so the second parameter is always the text, thank you for your help! Theooolone ( Talk ) 01:03, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]