Wikipedia:Help desk

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• If your question is about a Wikipedia article, draft article, or other page on Wikipedia, tell us what it is!
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).

Ask a question

December 10

2022 Nebraska cornhuskers football season

Can you fix the error i made on the article on the 2022 Nebraska Cornhuskers football season article please. 98.186.54.177 (talk) 01:17, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

I've fixed the syntax error in the reference. What I haven't fixed is the fact that the link is dead (and to a page that I suspect never existed). -- Hoary (talk) 02:02, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

I see that you replaced the dead link in 2022 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team with a different dead link. And that's the only "reference" there is. So the article still comes with no meaningful references. -- Hoary (talk) 05:32, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

I'm thinking the article might be WP:TOOSOON. Everything still appears TBD. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 16:03, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

The article now has a source that actually works. A total of one source, and it's not independent. I sense that this article is ripe for AfD, but I have no experience of this subject area. -- Hoary (talk) 21:54, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

@Hoary: I added that source so we would have a working source. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 21:56, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Well done, Blaze The Wolf. I'd been strenuously "assuming good faith" about the previous (pseudo-) references, or anyway attempting do do so: the thought did occur to me that they were not so much "dead" as merely fictional. -- Hoary (talk) 08:21, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

@Hoary: Yep. Despite me hating football I do still cheer on the Huskers as I'm from Nebraska myself. Regardless if this article is TOOSOON then I can take it to AFD. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 14:21, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Creating an organization page

Dear colleague, We need to create a page on the World Society for organization. The page is not for marketing or promotion but information to public about the society, history, organization, linked societies and journal. To avoid deleting the page kindly guide us. Is it free of charge or needs a charge. Our founder Prof. Ahmed Abdel-Moneim who added a wikitalk about it [1]. Could we transfer this data to an official wikipage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by WSV - World Society for Virology (talk • contribs) 11:46, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello, WSV - World Society for Virology. I'm afraid that, like many people, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what Wikipedia is. Wikipedia is not a place for organisations to tell the world about themselves (that is called promotion): it is an encyclopaedia, which summarises what reliable independent sources say about a subject. If your organisation meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability, then we could have an article about it. That article would not belong to you, would not be controlled by you, and should be based almost entirely on what people with no connection to you have chosen to publish about you, not on what you or your associates say or want to say. You are discouraged from writing it yourselves, but if you are convinced that you can find the necessary independent reliable sources that have significant coverage of your organisation, you are permitted to try: please see your first article. As for paying: Wikipedia will not in any way accept payment for an article. There are people who will offer to write an article for money: some of them may be honest (if so, they will tell you that they cannot guarantee that an article will be possible, or that it will say what you want it to say). Many of them are scams.

On a related topic, your user name is not acceptable: user accounts are personal to individuals, and may not have names that suggest that they are editing on behalf of an organisation. It is easiest simply to abandon that account and create a new one (or new ones if there are several of you) personal to you. --ColinFine (talk) 12:09, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

I have moved the draft from a user's talk page (which is intended for discussions with the user) to Draft:World Society for Virology. It is currently a long way from being acceptable as an article. It cites no independent sources, and so fails to establish that its subject is notable, in the peculiar sense in which that word is used here. Maproom (talk) 12:31, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Anyone know how to remove the non-breaking spaces...

...from a reference on 1257 Samalas eruption? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 12:29, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Done. You just go to the position in the reference warning and delete the character that's there. In this case it was a non-breaking space, so just delete it and add a normal space. - X201 (talk) 12:42, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 15:53, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Article on Nicholas Clough

Hello, I want to add data to the article about pirate captain Nicholas Clough, 1682 - 1683, thank you, Neil, South Africa — Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.160.125.212 (talk) 13:25, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello Neil, and thanks for stopping by! You can edit the article directly by using the "edit" tab at the top of the screen while you are reading the article. When you add new information, it is best practice to cite the source of information where you got the data from, but otherwise please feel free to edit the article as needed. --Jayron32 13:42, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Donation

Hello,

It might be socially better to ask for a $5 donation on the donation banner.

Howard — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:8C:4001:6B10:BDA7:D152:1930:F497 (talk) 16:26, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Please offer any suggestions about the donation process to the Foundation directly; we editors have nothing to do with it. You may email donate at Wikimedia dot org. 331dot (talk) 16:29, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Creating a new page

Hello, Our non-profit underwent rebranding in February 2021, which included a name change. A reference page exists with our old name and we would like to either create a new page and add a link to the page with the previous name or simply update the name on the previous page. Essentially, the information is the same, just need to update the name. Is there something that can guide me through that? I created an account under the new name, but rec'd some type of "blocked" message because the name is attached to a non-profit? I'm not sure I understand that. I am asking for some help or guidance in either updating the existing page to reflect the new name or creating a new page with the new name. Thank you. Virginia Rud, CVT — Preceding unsigned comment added by Virginia Rud, CVT (talk • contribs) 16:34, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Virginia Rud, CVT Wikipedia has articles, not mere "pages". I have posted some information about this on your user talk page, User talk:Virginia Rud, CVT, please review it and make the required disclosures. 331dot (talk) 16:39, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

@Virginia Rud, CVT: Basically, the previous account was blocked because it contravened Wikipedia's username policy, particularly the part about corporate names. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 17:48, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

What are the rules regarding reintroducing material originally introduced by a sock?

The David Collier (political activist) page has just had a rather large amount of text deleted[2].

At least some of reverts made by Aquillon were wrong. One paragraph had a number of editors make changes to it, but the entire paragraph is now just gone.

Are there any issues with restoring content which I believe is well supported by references?

-- Bob drobbs (talk) 20:25, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Note: The article has since been deleted (AfD discussion). —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 23:23, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

Unfortunately the talk page is also gone. On that talk page, @Aquillion: asserted that there is no problem with restoring text that has been deleted, so long as I stand by the text, it's relevance, and verify the sources, etc just like any other edits. I believe other content has been deleted elsewhere, so I just want to verify that there's no issue here, especially as I can no longer reference Aqullion's earlier statement. -- Bob drobbs (talk) 23:32, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

You edit, it's your edit. You might want to think a bit why the sock put it in to begin with especially if was something controversial.Selfstudier (talk) 00:43, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Sure. I certainly didn't agree with the sock on everything. The edit log is gone, but I'd already deleted the most egregious of the text as part of my cleanup of the page. Using Alliance for Workers' Liberty as a major source? WTF? -- Bob drobbs (talk) 00:51, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

wrong edit name

Oh Se-hun (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Ohsehunwifey edited se hun page in 28 november.the ditor you refer toafter Sumanuil corect his edit and write my name as editor in 28 november. how can i corect it? Kiakai (talk) 23:46, 10 December 2021 (UTC)

@Kiakai: Hello, it seems that some unconstructive edits were made by the editor you refer to. These were corrected by Sumanuil by reverting the page to a stable (correct) version which you were the last person to edit. There is nothing needing to be corrected here, Sumanuil is saying that your edits were correct. This kind of edit summary is fairly often seen and is not in any way critical of you, the opposite in fact. Eagleash (talk) 00:00, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

December 11

Asking for Donations

Where's the page for Wilton Manors Little League? I'll donate if you make the page accessible. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:1F40:1680:D902:A65F:1C:4533 (talk) 04:42, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Provide the sources first. Don't try to blackmail us volunteers who don't see any of that donation money. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 04:48, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Jéské Couriano is of course entirely correct, but let's try to answer the question all the same. The article's deletion was proposed, with the rationale "Local Little League fails WP:NSPORT". Nobody objected, so it was deleted. A warning that it lacked any independent references had been placed on it in 2008; in the seven years thereafter, nobody added a single one. If you believe that you can make this (currently deleted) article satisfy either WP:NSPORT or WP:NORG, you're free to request its "undeletion". The place to ask is Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion. HTH. -- Hoary (talk) 08:32, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

I wonder if the WMF's excessive and intrusive pleas for donations give the impression that we might be open to bribery? Maproom (talk) 09:34, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Cropped uploaded SVG file

It has got to be something simple, but how do I fix this file. And, what did I do wrong in the first place?

The file displays perfectly well for me locally. Aoziwe (talk) 11:05, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

@Aoziwe: I am not an expert at SVG, however, here are my notes:

• Your CSS width: and height: -declarations are invalid. In CSS, all widths, heights and other values of length need to have a unit such as px or em.
• The width and height-attributes of your <svg>-Element are absolute. This is generally not done, because you do not know how big the canvas is your image is rendered on. If the canvas (or the container) is larger than the values here, this leads to unexpected results. What rather is done is that this value is a unitless number that defines the width and height of the image in the same format the attributes x1="", x2="", y2="", y1="" etc do. Everything outside of this limit will not display, because the image technically is only so big as defined here.
• In addition, the W3 Validator as a few errors.

In general, asking these questions at Wikipedia:Graphics Lab is probbably better, because that is where the eperts are. I have uploaded a fixed version, which should at least display. If you don't like it, feel free to revert it. Victor Schmidt (talk) 16:52, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Many thanks Victor Schmidt. I have tweaked it a bit more. Aoziwe (talk) 10:47, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Updating less-frequented but outdated pages

Hello, I am very new to editing on this website but I frequently visit pages which appear to be more obscure and often have not been edited for many years.

I recently viewed the Africa portal and the summary for Libya in the 'selected country' section is very outdated, using the Gaddafi-era official title of the country, along with a more recently outdated national emblem, and outdated population statistics.

I have attempted to edit the official title, but Wikipedia notes that this is a less frequented page and so a response may take some time. Is it worthwhile attempting to draw more attention to this issue? If so, is this the correct place to do so in future?

Thank you

DanielMichaelPerry (talk) 14:39, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

@DanielMichaelPerry: It seems you've gone ahead and been BOLD, which is fine. If someone has an issue with it and reverts you, continue what you did at the portal's talk page to discuss. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:45, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Donations for the Biased

You know, I see the need for donations to keep the site afloat but would like to know - without a central board to keep it neutral why would I want to contribute $$ to a site that is so biased in the political realm? Some really good information here on the site, but Wikipedia is part of the problem leading to the tribalization of the U.S. to that end, I could not see donating a nickel to the rag. Now, if you were to separate all politics to an area overseen by a composite board - that could be the difference. 2600:1700:1100:2190:D8D0:7A50:93FE:E720 (talk) 14:58, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

The fundraising is handled by the Wikimedia foundation, not Wikipedia. It used (among other things) to maintain servers and those sorts of things. Items added to Wikipedia are not funded by donations, they are done by volenteer editors, such as yourself. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:07, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

In essence, all articles are overseen by a board- the body of editors. That can include you. If there is article content that does not conform to Wikipedia guidelines, please bring that up on the article talk page. Wikipedia does not claim to be free of bias, as everyone has biases. Sources are presented to readers so they can evaluate and judge them for themselves. Wikipedia strives to have a neutral point of view, which is different. Wikipedia does not give equal time to all sides, coverage gives due weight to how a topic is covered by independent sources. We want to hear about any problems, but articles will not be whitewashed to provide a WP:FALSEBALANCE that coverage does not provide. 331dot (talk) 15:50, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Any such board would quickly turn into a cadre of blocked/banned users which would annihilate any possibility of its usefulness. Discretionary sanctions don't get levied unless there's extreme and intractible behavioural problems amongst the body of editors working in a given topic area, and such topic areas also tend to see higher-than-usual amounts of sockpuppetry used to evade sanctions, blocks, and bans. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 22:20, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Please do not contribute money to a site if you disagree with the way the site is run. I suggest you try a few sites that operate differently to see if you can find one you like better. -Arch dude (talk) 15:33, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Donations

I recently made a donation to Wikipedia, as I have done for a number of years now. However, every so often, when launching Wikipedia I'm asked to make a donation. Is there anyway I can stop this happening? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C7:A0F:3C01:807B:C0AF:C7D7:A218 (talk) 17:08, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

If you create an account, you can turn off the donation requests in your account preferences. As you use an IP address, Wikipedia has no way to know if the person sitting at your computer has seen a donation request or donated. If this IP is fixed for you, allowing cookies should prevent the future display of donation requests. 331dot (talk) 17:13, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Images pushing table inwards

Hi, the images in the section above Strategic bombing during World War II#The British later in the war are pushing the table ("RAF estimates") inwards for me with two different browsers, causing a large amount of white space on the right hand side of the article. What's the best way to fix this? Cheers, Jr8825 • Talk 18:40, 11 December 2021 (UTC) (please ping on reply)

@Jr8825: this could be fixed by adding {{Clear}} before the table, but then it might show an empty section next to the images. The article currently has many images sprinkled around; a better way might be to organize some of the images into galleries at certain points of the article to keep them more compact. MKFI (talk) 12:08, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Technical problem with math formulas in table of contents: for example, $E=mc^{2}$

Since a few weeks/months ago, math formulas are incorrectly displayed in tables of contents. For example the $E=mc^{2}$ of this section's title is displayed as '"`UNIQ--postMath-00000001-QINU`"' in the table of contents (as I see it on Firefox). This is was a problem for example in this article. What happened? Sylvain Ribault (talk) 20:33, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Ssection heathings should not contain <math> markup, I suppose for this sort of reason. See MOS:NOSECTIONLINKS. Thincat (talk) 22:12, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

It's reported in phab:T295091. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:23, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for these references! To summarize, using math in section titles is not recommended but it used to be technically possible, until suddenly it wasn't. Now math in section titles has to be scrubbed case by case... Sylvain Ribault (talk) 10:07, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

donations redux

I have given two donations in the last year Please quit hounding me — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:40E0:4CA0:F09A:B14A:E33:9433 (talk) 21:36, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

You could be a supermodel or Norman Mailer and Wikipedia would never be able to know the difference because MediaWiki - the software it runs on - is configured to not compromise your privacy in that manner. If you have or register an account, you can turn off the fundraising banners in your account preferences under the "Banners" tab. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 21:42, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Donation yet again

Why do you keep tell me you are asking for money a d this is the 4th time we interrupted you I ALREADY DONATED AND WOULD LIKE YOU TO STOP THE HARASSMENT OR I'LL NEVER DONATE AGAIN AND YOU CAN GO OUT OF BUSINESS — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.69.227.228 (talk) 21:48, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

You could be a supermodel or Norman Mailer and Wikipedia would never be able to know the difference because MediaWiki - the software it runs on - is configured to not compromise your privacy in that manner. If you have or register an account, you can turn off the fundraising banners in your account preferences under the "Banners" tab. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 21:49, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can 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.

 ― Qwerfjkltalk 23:37, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedia Redirect-Class vital articles in Geography

What's going on with the template on this category? ― Qwerfjkltalk 23:40, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: I can't see the exact issue immediatley, but it looks like the kind of error you get when you over escape pipe characters (so the output of {{Vital article by topic by class}} is something like {{Vital article by topic by class/core {{!}}class=Redirect |topic=Geography}} instead of {{Vital article by topic by class/core |class=Redirect |topic=Geography}}. 192.76.8.80 (talk) 00:23, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

I haven't deciphered all the code but I think you are trying to only assign a parameter in certain circumstances with code like this:

{{Vital article by topic by class/core
{{#ifeq:1|1|{{!}}class=Redirect}}
}}

That doesn't work:

{{Vital article by topic by class/core |class=Redirect }}

The pipe must be an actual pipe in the template's own code. The only workaround I know if you really want to do this:

{{Vital article by topic by class/core
|{{#ifeq:1|1|class|dummyparameter}}=Redirect
}}

If the condition is not met then you get |dummyparameter=Redirect which will presumably be ignored by the called template. dummyparameter is an example name I picked. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:44, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Thanks, I think this should have fixed it. ― Qwerfjkltalk 12:48, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: I've encountered another strange problem: on Category:Wikipedia vital articles in Biology by class: It should categorise under Category:Wikipedia vital articles in Science by class, but it doesn't work (I've added × to show this). However, it did work (in the preview) when the relevant code (under Matches "Wikipedia vital articles in TOPIC by class in {{Vital articles by topic by class}}) is substituted. ― Qwerfjkltalk 16:36, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: The problem is unclear to me. Are you saying that if you preview {{Vital article by topic by class}} alone on Category:Wikipedia vital articles in Biology by class then you expect it to automatically add Category:Wikipedia vital articles in Science by class? PrimeHunter (talk) 04:02, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Yes, this part of the template should do it:

{{Vital article by topic by class/core
|topic={{#invoke:string|replace|source={{PAGENAME}}|plain=false|pattern=^Wikipedia vital articles in ([%a ]+) by class$|replace=%1}}
|<!-- Check if "Physics" or "Biology"
-->{{#ifeq:{{#invoke:string|match|s={{PAGENAME}}|plain=true|pattern=Biology|match=1|start=1|nomatch=%%nomatch%%}}|%%nomatch%%|<!--
-->{{#ifeq:{{#invoke:string|match|s={{PAGENAME}}|plain=true|pattern=Physics|match=1|start=1|nomatch=%%nomatch%%}}|%%nomatch%%|dummyparam=yes<!-- Return nothing -->|
sciencesubcat=yes}}|
sciencesubcat=yes}}
}}

 ― Qwerfjkltalk 07:05, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: If the whole of sciencesubcat=yes is the value of an expression then no parameter assignment is made. In an assignment a=b, the parameter name a and the value b can be the result of expressions but the equality sign cannot. It must be directly in the code. You have unnecessary complications. There is no need for the parameter name to be an expression if it's allowed to pass an empty |sciencesubcat=. Module:String#find is simpler than match for testing for a substring. I suggest the below. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:44, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

{{Vital article by topic by class/core
|topic={{#invoke:string|replace|source={{PAGENAME}}|plain=false|pattern=^Wikipedia vital articles in ([%a ]+) by class$|replace=%1}}
|sciencesubcat={{#ifexpr:{{#invoke:string|find|{{PAGENAME}}|Biology}} or {{#invoke:string|find|{{PAGENAME}}|Physics}}|yes}}
}}

December 12

Monthly donor, annoying solicitation

Hey, I give monthly to Wikipedia, but every time I go to the site, I get the annoying "this is the xth time" notice. How can I contribute without getting the annoying hassle? Mark Chattanooga — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1005:B1EF:6D2C:A106:456:E978:4202 (talk) 02:37, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can 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. Wikignome Wintergreen^talk 02:55, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Why do you shoot yourselves in the feet?

I used to donate every year and even submit the payment info for a corporate match. However, when I saw how blatantly political many of the entries became, I stopped.

Why can’t you be a trusted resource? Why did you have to shoot yourselves in the feet?

I’ll take my answer offline, just like I took my money. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.255.139 (talk) 08:11, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

No, you should not trust Wikipedia as Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Wikipedia summarizes what independent reliable sources state about a topic. If there is any article that does not do that, please point that out on the article talk page along with any reliable sources you have to support your proposed changes. Wikipedia does not claim to be free of bias, as everyone, including you and me, has biases. Wikipedia presents sources to readers so they can evaluate and judge them for themselves. We don't claim anything here is the truth, see WP:TRUTH, only that we do our best to present what is here with a neutral point of view. Again, if there is an article where that is not being done, please tell us, and why. You are, of course, free to donate or not donate based on whatever criteria you wish to use. 331dot (talk) 08:19, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello

Hi, how do i sign in? Im using tablet. Thanks--130.105.118.77 (talk) 12:42, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

If you already have an account, you can log in here (see also Help:Logging in). If you don't have an account yet, you can create one here. Please remember to review the username policy in that case. Victor Schmidt (talk) 14:14, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

If I am a living Artist and am not on Wiki ...Do I exist?

I request a third-party Wikipedia real Author to create my existence on the Wiki pages, I am a Visual Artist and as noted to me by Art Collectors, I do not exist if I am not on Wikipedia and sister art sites. Could someone please create me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dimitris C. Milionis (talk • contribs) 13:02, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Can't help as to whether you exist, but whether you are notable is a different matter. Look up Existentialism for the former, and Wikipedia:Notability for help on the latter. Chaheel Riens (talk) 13:34, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Dimitris C. Milionis, if it's any consolation, I don't exist either. Try Wikipedia:Requested articles. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 13:38, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello, Dimitris C. Milionis. Unfortunately, many people have a completely and fundamentally wrong understanding of what Wikipedia is, and it sounds as if the collectors you mention have this problem too. Most artists, most musicians, most people, most bands, most galleries, most CEOs, most companies, most brands, most academics, most non-profits, most members of nearly any category you can think of, could not be the subject of a Wikipedia article, because not enough material has been independently published about them - the jargon for this is that they do not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for notability. This says nothing at all about whether these various people and things exist or not: it just says that there is not enough independent published material about them to base an encyclopaedia article on. If enough material has been written and published about you (by people wholly unconnected with you, and not fed information by you or your associates), or if you meet the special conditions mentions in NARTIST, then it is possible that we could have an article about you. If so, this article should preferably not be written by you, and in any case it will not belong to you, will not be controlled by you, will not necessarily say what you want it to say (and may not be used for promotion of any kind), and should be based almost entirely on what those people unconnected with you have chosen to publish about you (whether you like what they said or not), and not on what you or your associates say or want to say. --ColinFine (talk) 17:54, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Dimitris C. Milionis, there are no "sister art sites" to Wikipedia, just as there are no "sister art sites" to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Uporządnicki (talk) 18:42, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

I would ignore those art collectors - anyone relying strictly on a crowdsourced, potentially-inaccurate general encyclopaedia as opposed to dedicated art-criticism fora for something like this is not worth your time. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 22:47, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

It's presumably not about time but money. If some art collectors are more likely to buy works by an artist with a Wikipedia biography then I can certainly understand that they want a biography. It's just not a factor for us. We aren't here to promote people or products. @Dimitris C. Milionis: Thanks for only trying to request an article and not making one like you did in 2005. Sixteen years is a long time to wait but I'm afraid our policies have only become stricter. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:18, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Thomas Beaumont (died 1614)

Hi from France !

Thomas Beaumont can't neither be born in 1576 nor having died at the age of 38 (8th line), as his daughter Elizabeth Richardson, 1st Lady Cramond was herself born in 1576 and married on 27 November 1594.

His father Nicholas Beaumont was born about 1520 and his brothers Henry Beaumont (died 1607) about 1545 and Huntingdon Beaumont about 1560, so Thomas should be born about 1550/1555.

Could someone verify in primary sources ? Thanks a lot ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jagellon (talk • contribs) 17:27, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@Jagellon: Please discuss at the article talk page or you can use request edit to propose changes and you will need to provide sources. (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 17:37, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Sorry for not having signed, I always forget... In the french Wikipedia, those sort of comments are added in this section, that's why I did so. I don't have any sources, that's the reason why I ask someone to verify ! But one thing is clear : these data in englisch Wikipedia are incoherent and must be corrected, as a father and his daughter can't be born in the same year :). And now I'll copy my request in the article talk page, as you told me. Jagellon (talk) 17:50, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Looks like this has been fixed to 1955. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 22:42, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Could I copy the text from an article into a Wiki article without changing anything or would that be plagiarism?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59623970

For example could I take this text from the article, "At least 80 people have died in the state, including dozens in a candle factory, and the death toll is expected to rise above 100." and put it in the Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021 article without changing any words? Or would that be plagiarism? Ak-eater06 (talk) 18:49, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@Ak-eater06: See Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. ― Qwerfjkltalk 18:50, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

User:Qwerfjkl I'm not copying within Wiki, I'm copying from another article (BBC). Ak-eater06 (talk) 18:51, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

@Ak-eater06: Copying from that article would be plagiarism and a violation of the copyright policy because the BBC article is protected by copyright, so please be sure to always summarize information from sources using your own words. There is more information about this at Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright, and feel free to ask more questions if anything is unclear. DanCherek (talk) 18:54, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Even if you could copy it, it would be inadvisable because encylopedia articles are written differently from news stories. News sources report events sequentially: this happened, then that happened. Encyclopedias organize information according to importance. TFD (talk) 19:04, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

I’ve already donated

Hello. I donated to your org within the past two months. Why do you keep asking. Please stop. Peter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.113.40.167 (talk) 20:13, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can 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, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

You could be a supermodel or Norman Mailer and Wikipedia would never be able to know the difference because MediaWiki - the software it runs on - is configured to not compromise your privacy in that manner. If you have or register an account, you can turn off the fundraising banners in your account preferences under the "Banners" tab. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 21:23, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

There's no need to add unrelated wikilinks when the above message gets the point across clearly. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 07:09, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

The wikilink isn't unrelated; that line is a reference to one of their songs. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 07:16, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

It's a confusing link when the line isn't mentioned there. As I said at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 December 2#My edits don't show up: Please don't use weird easter egg links when helping users. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:54, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

It's not funny, and frankly it's quite rude to someone who's looking for a simple and direct answer. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:50, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

How to remove blank search suggestion

When I start Wikipedia on the main page obviously the search box is blank.

When I click on the search box a suggestion appears. How do I remove that suggestion? I cannot find where it has been stored.I am using Windows 10 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pstaveley (talk • contribs) 22:35, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

This might be something browser-side. As far as I know, the only time it should offer suggestions should be when you've begun typing in it, and even then the suggestions should match what you're already typing in. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 22:49, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

That's the magic of autofill. Depending on your browser, if you turn if off you might have to turn it off for all forms. I suggest you Google (your browser name) + autofill + settings.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:30, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@Pstaveley: In most Chrome-based browsers (so including modern Microsoft Edge) you can hover your mouse over the unwanted suggestion and a "trash" icon should appear next to it, allowing it to be discarded. It is nothing specific to Wikipedia. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:29, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for everyone's help. A trash can does not appear. However, the suggestion about clearing the browsing history seems to have worked. I am not certain exactly where it was held but I found that by selecting Browsing History, Download History, Password and other sign-in data, Auto-fill form settings, and Site settings seems to have cleared the issue. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pstaveley (talk • contribs) 18:43, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

December 13

Looking up a German court case

Hi Folks!! Does anybody know to look up a German court case and point me to it@ I have this number. It is : Case 8K 5055/94 under judge Kohlheim. Seemingly the case settles the question of whether Rudolf von Scheliha was paid for his efforts. According to the source he is. Thanks. scope_creep^Talk 00:10, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@Scope creep I have no idea, but I imagine Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities would be a better place to ask along with WP:WikiProject Germany which has many German experts. Good luck researching! ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 11:17, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@Shushugah: I will give it a try. Thanks. scope_creep^Talk 11:46, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Title with violation of rules.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Van_(1915)

As you can see in the article, the war takes place within the Ottoman lands. likewise, it is stated as rebellion in the Turkish version of the article.In 1915, a group of Armenian rebelled in the Ottoman lands and took control of the city. The city was not already in the hands of the Armenians. They took the city as a result of an uprising. It's called a rebellion, not a defense.

rebellion : a situation in which people fight against the government in their country , defence : the weapons and military forces that a country uses to protect itself against attack https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

The title was requested to be corrected many times, but it was corrected again in a biased way.The fixers are restoring the old version again, with no logical arguments and no answers.There are many complaints about this, I would be glad if you could help.

@ZaniGiovanni: Why are you insisting on this one-sided title? What is your logical explanation and argument?Talatr (talk) 00:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

I see this referenced statement in the article: "The governor-general of the Ottoman Empire in Erzurum, Tahsin Bey wrote that: 'There was not and could not have been an uprising in Van'". Anyway, the best place for this discussion is the talk page of the article. Maproom (talk) 09:24, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Password resets don't work.

Every time I go into Wikipedia I am asked to donate. However I get e mails from you telling me what I have donated so my e mail address must be known by Wikipedia. When i try to reset my password using the e mail address Wikipedia uses to advise me of my payments nothing arrives including in spam. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.107.64.147 (talk) 03:18, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Donations are independent of having a user account. You may have given one email address when you donated and stored another in your user account. If you tell the username then we can check that it does have an email address stored (this is optional), but we cannot see the address. We can also see when the account was created if it can help you guess which email may have been used. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:33, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Help

Hi and hello, i keep logging out automatically. Please help (User: Moon twitter) —130.105.118.77 (talk) 09:30, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

I think accounts are automatically logged out after a time. You can check the box that says "keep logged in for a year" if your computer/device is reasonably secure. 331dot (talk) 09:32, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! — ^{Moon tw!ttT@LK 10:49, 13 December 2021 (UTC)}

need to publish draft article please help

need to publish draft article please help

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:NK_Dairy_Equipments:_Milk_Processing_Van — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sunny singhs (talk • contribs) 11:19, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Looks more like an essay than an encyclopedic article to me. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 11:45, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Also very promotional. Sunny singhs, Wikipedia articles summarise what independent sources say about a subject: they should not contain your own knowledge or thoughts about the subject. If you have some connection with NK Dairy Equipment, you must read about conflict of interest and paid editing. I have added a header to your draft to allow you do submit it for review, but I don't think it has much chance of being accepted in its current state. Please see your first article. --ColinFine (talk) 13:29, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Wrong Spelling For NAMES with OLIVIER FAMILY

Hello,

My name is Alessandra Olivier, the Grandaughter of the actor Lawrence Olivier and actress Dame Joan Plowright. While searching my Grandma I noticed there is incorrect spelling on her description on the following page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Plowright

I am Alessandra Olivier or Ali Olivier, not ALLY olivier as stated on wikipedia.

My brother is Troylus Olivier not Troilus.

Please change these to the correct names, many thanks

Ali Olivier— Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.242.117.202 (talk • contribs) 13 December 2021 13:42 (UTC)

I'm sorry, Ms. Olivier, but I can't find anywhere at the page you cite above where your name is mentioned in any spelling you cite above. Can you double check that you have the correct article? Make sure it wasn't a different article. --Jayron32 14:24, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Ditto. No mention at Plowright's article AFAICT; if by any chance, you are seeing the results of a Google search, their 'knowledge graph' often displays information in a way that implies it comes from Wikipedia. Unfortunately Wikipedia does not have control over what Google displays. If this is the case, there is a feedback link in Google's panel which cna be used for feedback. Eagleash (talk) 14:28, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

combining multiple usernames and IPs into one (preferably new) user account

Your policy says "... Equally, a given user may have used multiple IP addresses and/or usernames (which may well be illegitimate use of multiple accounts, or "sockpuppetry"). Where a user legitimately uses alternative accounts, the alternative accounts should be clearly identified by the user. In any case, each account or IP address will have its own contributions page."

Years ago I edited under a certain username. Then I switched to IPs. Now I seem to have a new username, one I don't want. Is there a way to start a completely new username page? Do I just ignore the existing ones, which I don't seem able to retrieve?

My work is mostly minor edits of Articles and discussions on Talk pages. I've been inactive and look forward to getting involved again. Thank you. Msjmsj (talk) 14:40, 13 December 2021 (UTC) --Msjmsj (talk) 14:40, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

The simplest way is to simply vacate an account. When you create the new permanent account it may be wise to put something on the user page stating that you previously edited under the names and as an IP. Sockpuppetry is when someone uses an account to decieve others; but it's probably still wise to denote that this is the case. You can (alternatively), request a name change for your current account), but you'd still want to denote that you previously used other accounts. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:03, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Virology Immigration

Virology bio dextrest Imigration.

Viris. Immigration. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drdavideferreiratorres (talk • contribs) 18:17, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Did you have a question about editing Wikipedia? Or maybe you are looking for WP:RDS to ask a science question. RudolfRed (talk) 18:19, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Page editing

Dear Friends,

I have a Page with my name Olga Mykytenko, which has been created by my webdesigner many years ago.

I have succeeded to exchange a photo on the German version of the page, which was already almost 10 years old. Though, the old photo is still remaining on the english, russion and german version. I would like to ask you guys to help me to change the photo on the remaining 3 versions of my page, because till now I am not able to do that, I can not find the necessary tools for that option.

Thanks in advance!

With best wishes,

Olga Mykytenko — Preceding unsigned comment added by Olga Mykytenko (talk • contribs) 19:12, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello, Olga Mykytenko. I have updated the photo on the English Wikipedia. I do not edit in other languages. Cullen328 (talk) 19:23, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Ads

instead of asking for money people may not have as most of the users accessing info from Wikipedia are young, find sponsors. Every few minutes play mandatory advertisements like almost all sites have. I would love to donate but I have nothing to spare for you guys. Just an idea. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:1970:4A5B:F00:F957:FB16:8FB5:41B1 (talk) 19:17, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can 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. Not one of the volunteer editors here who add content to articles receives any financial benefit. We simply contribute our time because we care about building a great encyclopedia for you and innumerable others around the world to use. Thank you! ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 20:36, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Ads are a nonstarter because they are (1) inherently non-neutral and (2) allow external forces to exert more pressure on article content than they already do. See WP:Perennial proposals#Advertising for more details as to why this has always been shot down. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 21:05, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Honestly, i'd say that a "mandatory ad" would be worse than a banner that you can close or scroll past (or even disable if you have an account) since it blocks your ability to view content on Wikipedia until the ad is over. ― Blaze The Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 21:12, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Policy on contacting a reliable source and asking it for a correction

Not sure if this is the right place to ask. The folks on #wikipedia-en-help suggested here, after I got into a bit of a circular loop between Help Desk, Reference Desk, and Village Pump policy. If I should re-ask this elsewhere, please let me know where.

This is related to a discussion that's happening at Talk:LGB Alliance#Founders. Is there a policy on whether or not editors are allowed to contact secondary sources, and requesting them to make a correction, in favour of a version of an article that editor is otherwise disputing content towards? If there is a policy, what is it? I also just want to make it clear, I am not the editor who has done this. Sideswipe9th (talk) 20:31, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Nothing in the Wikipedia policies forbids you from submitting corrections to published sources (if such a procedure is available). Ruslik_Zero 20:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Cheers Ruslik. And just to clarify, is that so even when the change that source makes is in favour of a version an editor is proposing? Sideswipe9th (talk) 20:42, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

If you found an error, you should be able to correct it. Ruslik_Zero 20:47, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks for the confirmation. Sideswipe9th (talk) 20:51, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

"What links here" and transcluded boxes of links

The "what links here" tool is very useful, but it's lacking a filter. Many articles have templates at the bottom, with a mass of themed links, such as Template:Fortifications. ("Navboxes", I think.) Some 250 articles use that template. Consequently, if I do "what links here" from, say, Turret, they all appear on the list, even though they aren't saying anything about turrets, or any more than slightly related to the subject. Is this a recognised issue? Is there some way to filter those links out? (Unchecking "transclusions" just filters out pages that link to the page by transcluding it, if any.)  Card Zero  (talk) 21:18, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

@Card Zero I had exact same problem and User:Primefac made a handy script that you can insert inside User:Card Zero/common.js with importScript('User:PrimeHunter/Source links.js'); // Linkback: User:PrimeHunter/Source links.js, which adds a "source link" tab underneath "what links here" and excludes templates. See my common.js for an example User:Shushugah/common.js 21:22, 13 December 2021 (UTC) ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 21:22, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Very nice! Also led me to press "help" from the advanced search page and discover all the unmentioned options (like linksto, which is what the script is using).  Card Zero  (talk) 21:33, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

I'm not Primefac but you are not the first to confuse us. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 13 December 2021 (UTC)