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December 30

Creating my biography on wikipedia

I have been trying to create my biography on Wikipedia just as I have seen for several people but the whole process is quite completed. I am willing to pay anyone that will teach me on how to go about it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Omata David Omakoji (talk • contribs) 07:21, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

It's not a good idea to create an article about yourself on Wikipedia, as we aim to create a neutral reference encyclopedia. If you wish to write about yourself, do it elsewhere. If you are or become a notable person, you are free to request an article to be written by someone else, but be aware that policies strictly forbid promotion, and a neutral point of view may mean the inclusion of unflattering content. An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing – Anon423 (talk) 07:51, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Omata David Omakoji Wikipedia itself cannot be used to provide payment to editors, who are largely volunteers. Third parties claim to offer paid editing services, but these are not endorsed by Wikipedia, and are of varying quality and reputatbility. Anyone you pay to edit for you must formally declare that, per the paid editing policy. Do not hand over any money until you see the completed offering. Also, despite what they might tell you in their sales pitch, they can make no guarantees(such as writing an article that will not be deleted).

Whether you pay someone or not, what matters is if you meet the special Wikipedia definition of a notable person and receive significant coverage in independent reliable sources, whether you pay someone or not does not change that. The best indicator of notability is when independent editors completely uaffiliated with you take note of you in such sources and choose to write about you, trying to force the issue yourself does not often work. As Anon423 correctly notes, there are actually good reasons to not want an article. 331dot (talk) 08:31, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Need help with a biography of an Arabic subject

Jasim Abdulaziz is a new article about a Qatari journalist and tv presenter. Could someone able to read Arabic please check Wikidata for possible interlanguage links. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:31, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@Dodger67 You could try WP:TRLA. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:19, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

I want to change the title of my submitted page

I have submitted my draft of the Zaeem Ahmed page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Zaeem_Ahmed), but unfortunately I forgot to rename the page. It is showing Draft:Zaeem Ahmed. How can I edit the title? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Foyjul90 (talk • contribs) 11:18, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

In the unlikely event of it being accepted (most of it is completely unreferenced), the accepting editor will do that. While you wait, I suggest you add a reliable source for every statement.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:02, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Juvenile Oscars

I copied and pasted addresses for 4 magazine page of an article about Juvenile Oscars. I did not write an article. I have no interest in learning how this is all done. The info is there. I hope someone will put it in the article properly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sunshine Anderson (talk • contribs) 14:58, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

We cannot link to scans of print magazine pages, and I can't find a byline for that article, which is a massive issue as byline is a hard requirement for citing print magazine articles. —A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Jéské Couriano} 15:52, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@Sunshine Anderson:, OK, Academy Juvenile Award is the article in question. Thank your for contribution (on the talk page), I'll look into seeing if the material can be used in the article (possibly not, if the sources are not reliable). Your talk page edit should not have been reverted, no; that was a mistake; sorry about that, thank you again, and I hope you won't give up on Wikipedia because of that! (UPDATE: I wrote about the sources you gave in the article talk page; sadly, it looks like they are probably not usable for our purposes yet. But keep at it! It takes while to get the hang of all this. Herostratus (talk) 18:24, 30 December 2021 (UTC))

@Jéské Couriano:, we very frequently link to web pages in our refs, and this is fine, even tho they're copyrighted (as most are). You're misunderstanding the rule, I would say. Also, an author byline is not a requirement for most refs.Herostratus (talk) 18:03, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@Herostratus: Hero, we link to articles which are online, yes. But we do not link to what purport to be scans of articles from print media. Completely aside from copyright issues, in this age of Photoshop no purported scan can be completely trusted unless from a source like the Library of Congress. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:24, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

User talk:Orangemike, I don't know who "we" is, but it sure doesn't include me. I've linked to microfilm images of news stories a number of times and don't intend to stop. I also intend to keep linking to the Los Angeles Times and other copyrighted sources.

Yes in this age of Photoshop anything could be an elaborate hoax. These scans were hosted at "davidcassidy.com" which is Cassidy's official website, and attributed to various editions of Movieland and TV Time magazine, which is a defunct rag. Yes it possible that the folks at David Cassidy's website decided to make an elaborate hoax and create magazine pages that didn't exist in Photoshop, using professional-level skills, about a very obscure subject that is not central to their mission (Cassidy is mentioned in passing and shown in a group photo) and for no good reason, and reffing to a magazine which of which hard copies could be obtained. It's also possible that the folks at David Cassidy's website are all Reptilians. But how far down that rabbit hole do we we want to go. Since it's the age of Photoshop, should we be deleting all our images that aren't from sources like the Library of Congress? We'll have to get rid of most of our images. We don't need to operate as if we are afflicted by clinical paranoia.

And not only that. The scans in question were on the talk page, presented with the as "here are some sources if anybody finds them useful". They were still deleted on grounds of "you can't link to material which is copyrighted" which if true would make {{cite web}} 95% unusable. This was OPs complaint. (In fact, it turns out that the sources aren't useable in the article. The question was can they even be discussed?) Herostratus (talk) 03:00, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Mobile Editing Error

I've recently noticed weird outcomes when editing Wikipedia from my phone using the Desktop view and I believe it has been mostly while doing the source view rather than the visual editor. When publishing an edit the line after where I editted appears to duplicate. For instance, Talk:CBC_Radio, WNYC Studios, and even on my own user page. Is there a known issue related to editing from a phone or perhaps it has something to do with one of my preferences/settings? I would like to avoid accidentally causing disruptions while editing. TipsyElephant (talk) 19:57, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@TipsyElephant: I don't see any duplicate text at the link you shared. Do you still see duplicate text there on your phone? TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 23:05, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Yes. For instance, the talk page for CBC Radio now has two wikiproject banners for Media and when editing WNYC it appears that it duplicated a newline character or carriage return at the end of some subsections. I was able to fix the duplicate text on my user page, but I believe I did that from my computer. TipsyElephant (talk) 03:28, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Creating a states-specific map

How do I edit File:BlankMap-USA-states.PNG to shade Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia? It's for the Southern States Conference infobox. I want it to appear like the map in the American West Conference infobox. SportsGuy789 (talk) 20:09, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@SportsGuy789: I downloaded the file, used Paint 3D to fill the three states with black color, saved with a new file name, used Wikipedia:File Upload Wizard to upload to Wikimedia Commons as File:Southern States Conference-USA-states.png, and then added to the Southern States Conference infobox. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 22:00, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: Thank you it looks awesome! SportsGuy789 (talk) 00:06, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: I hate to ask you for this, but in my additional newspapers.com research I discovered that the University of West Florida was a member for 19 years. Could you please re-do the map to include Florida as well? SportsGuy789 (talk) 22:05, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@SportsGuy789:  Done! GoingBatty (talk) 23:16, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks again! SportsGuy789 (talk) 23:30, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: I hope you dont mind it. I just uploaded a version with better visible outlines. --Momo17 (talk) 13:47, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Photo

Hi, I found a photo from your website. I want my friend to paint from the photo. She will charge me to buy it. May I ask your permission for me to use your photo?

Jeanne — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.56.42.5 (talk) 21:13, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

If you click on the photo it will show you the license info. In many cases, no additional permission is needed. RudolfRed (talk) 21:21, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Are you allowed to use slashes in Wikipedia articles?

/

Ak-eater06 (talk) 21:40, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Do you mean the article name? Yes, for example 9/11 (2017 film). Otherwise please clarify your question. RudolfRed (talk) 21:42, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

See MOS:SLASH for how to use slashes within articles. Bazza (talk) 10:35, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Is an old newspaper cutting public domain or fair use? Help!

Hello, I want to use photo of a small cutting from a newspaper article in an update to an article of mine. The newspaper was published in 1960 in Australia. The cutting contains text only and no picture. Could someone point me in the direction of determining the copyright status on Wikipedia.

Under Australian copyright law "The copyright in the layout expires 25 years after the end of the year in which it was first published". Is this of relevance to a newspaper clipping? If so is it public domain for Wikipedia Commons?

Or is it a classified a "non-free newspaper image" for Wikipedia fair-use purposes? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beau.mitchell (talk • contribs) 22:25, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Why exactly would you want an image of the clipping, rather than just summarising the info if there is no image? Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 22:31, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Beau.mitchell, I know nothing about Australia's copyright law about "layout" which sounds like graphic design to me. But in the U.S., where the Wikimedia Foundation is headquarted, newspaper text is copyrighted for 95 years, and so the text must be assumed to be copyrighted unless there is solid evidence to the contrary. It would be unusual that an image of of a 1960 newspaper cutting (clipping in the U.S.) would add encyclopedic value to an article. Normal practice would be to cite it and summarize it in your own words. Cullen328 (talk) 02:32, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

How Do I Move An Image On Wikipedia?

I want to place an image onto an already existing Wikipedia article. But it always appears at the very top-right of the page. And I was wondering, how do I move this image down to other parts of the page.

Google doesn’t help either. Instead of telling me how to move an image, it tells me how to move a page. Google’s Quick answer doesn’t help either. Instead, that tells me how to add an image to the article, not moving the already added image.

I’m on Mobile if that helps. Roastedbeanz1 (talk) 23:56, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@Roastedbeanz1: When you view the source of a Wikipedia page, the code for the image looks like this: [[File:Map_of_fertile_crescent.svg|thumb|260px|Map showing the larger area including Cyprus]] If I wanted to move that image to a different part of the Fertile Crescent article, I would cut that text, paste it to the section of the article where I want it, and preview the article. If it looked better in the new position, I would then click "Publish changes". Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 03:57, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@Roastedbeanz1: also, [[File:Map_of_fertile_crescent.svg|thumb|left|260px|Map showing the larger area including Cyprus]] will move the image to the left side Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:16, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

December 31

Wikipedia solicitations for donations

How do I turn off your annoying please for donations? I donated to Wikipedia for a long time, but based on your policies, I withdrew my monthly donation, and will NEVER give you another penny. I will use your service as often as I want, but won't ever donate to your "cause". Stop asking for my money, until you revise your stupid policies ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerry-hogan72 (talk • contribs) 05:05, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can create an account and uncheck Preferences → Banners → Fundraising. The 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.
None of the Wikipedia volunteer editors here who add and improve content in articles receive any financial benefit. We all simply contribute our time because we care about building a great encyclopedia for you and innumerable others around the world to use.
If you cannot afford it, no one wants you to donate. Wikipedia is not at risk of shutting down, and the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the Wikipedia platform and is asking for these donations, is richer than ever.
We are led to believe that users who allow cookies are less likely to see these banners on repeat visits (further information is available here), and you are welcome to communicate directly with the donor-relations team by emailing donate@wikimedia.org. Thank you! ClaudineChionh (talk – contribs) 05:14, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@Jerry-hogan72: You're going to want to go to uncheck Preferences → Banners → Fundraising. Donations (which editors don't even receive in the first place) don't dictate policies, so do as you will. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:14, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@Jerry-hogan72: Please do not donate if you do not like Wikipedia's policies. Our policies are the result of twenty years of consensus and refinement. You can discuss each policy on the talk page of that particular policy if you think it should be changed. We at the help desk cannot respond to a generic complaint about "policies". We would need to know specifically what you object to. -Arch dude (talk) 06:00, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

• Jerry-hogan72 If there is a policy that you wish to change, you are free to work towards changing it. Or, if a policy is not being applied properly, we want to know about that too. You are free to donate or not donate based on whatever criteria you wish, but donations do not determine what policies are, we do. 331dot (talk) 10:39, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Image upload

Hi, I'd like to request this image (source) of the band Mecano be uploaded to Commons please.
I'm assuming it's fair use, being the cover of their single "Perdido En Mi Habitación / Viaje Espacial".
I'd like to add it to the "Characteristics" section of the New Romantic page, as an example of Middle Eastern or gypsy-inspired clothing mentioned at 1980s in fashion#New Romantic, also worn by Spandau Ballet and Steve Strange. -- Franbegbi (talk) 10:38, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello, Franbegbi. I'm afraid that you have misunderstood Wikipedia:image policy and fair use. Commons accepts only freely reusable images - either public domain, or licensed under a licence such as CC-BY-SA. Wikipedia allows non-free images in certain circumstances (narrower than "Fair use"), laid out in the non-free content criteria. I'm afraid that your proposed use would not meet those criteria. --ColinFine (talk) 12:10, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Fixing list

Hi All,

Could someone help fixing the automatically generated list in Wikipedia:Academic studies of Wikipedia? It stopped a while ago, I've tried to fix it but I don't really know SPARQL. Thank you!

Best, --Adam Harangozó (NIHR WiR) (talk) 13:39, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

I don't know SPARQL, either, but I've done one more change to put the query back to how it was when it was working, so let's see what happens when the bot next runs. --David Biddulph (talk) 14:17, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. When I click on "update list know" it still comes back with an error. --Adam Harangozó (NIHR WiR) (talk) 14:43, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

I think it works again. The sparql parameter of the {{Wikidata list}} needs to be in lower case and there was a missing WHERE statement. Vexations (talk) 16:32, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

A change to Bethune history from France & Scotland

Hi to all Happy Holidays and my question is can you please edit stuff about Bethune to be nice and kind and instead of saying no one is alive today, maybe say there maybe people alive, but we are not sure. As we are descendants of the Bethune family and clan Bethune from Scotland and France. Thank you and I hope this year is awesome!! We just don't want to be wiped out but be a possibility. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.7.157.37 (talk) 16:42, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi, IP editor, which articles are you referring to? There is a list at Bethune (disambiguation). Bethune (surname) lists several living people. TSventon (talk) 16:49, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

House of Béthune says "This family became extinct in 1807 with Maximilien-Alexandre de Béthune, duke of Sully", and Bethune baronets says "The title became extinct on the death of the tenth Baronet in 1997". If any of this is incorrect, provide a source that says otherwise. The place to discuss changes to the article text is the talk page of the article, Talk:House_of_Béthune or Talk:Bethune_baronets. Vexations (talk) 17:17, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Line spacing after tables (done)

How can I get rid of the excess line spacing after the tables, before the section heading here?--Hildeoc (talk) 16:44, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Remove the empty line before

{{col-2}}

, it inserts an empty paragraph Vexations (talk) 17:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

@Vexations: Thanks a lot – that works! Happy New Year--Hildeoc (talk) 19:02, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

How do I edit my talk page?

I want to know how can I edit my talk page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ReallyAmazingDude13 (talk • contribs) 17:24, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Go to User talk:ReallyAmazingDude13 and click the word "Edit" at the top of the page. Type what you want in the text box, then click on "Publish changes". You can also preview the page before it is saved.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 17:29, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Money

Can you (Personal attack removed) stop begging for money? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A601:ADB1:1400:18C6:DA79:FB77:B516 (talk) 19:37, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can create an account and uncheck Preferences → Banners → Fundraising. The 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.
None of the Wikipedia volunteer editors here who add and improve content in articles receive any financial benefit. We all simply contribute our time because we care about building a great encyclopedia for you and innumerable others around the world to use.
If you cannot afford it, no one wants you to donate. Wikipedia is not at risk of shutting down, and the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the Wikipedia platform and is asking for these donations, is richer than ever.
We are led to believe that users who allow cookies are less likely to see these banners on repeat visits (further information is available here), and you are welcome to communicate directly with the donor-relations team by emailing donate@wikimedia.org. Thank you! --David Biddulph (talk) 19:42, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Requesting template edit/revert to fix parameter error

Hello! I hope this desk is the right place to ask this. If it is not, please redirect me to where I could find better help for this issue.

I'm an editor that cleans up Category:Lang and lang-xx template errors, fixing errors in uses of Template:Lang. I usually check the category monthly, and at the beginning of November there were no pages in it. Currently, there are over 1,600 pages in the category. All the pages I have skimmed through are about rivers, lakes, hills, mountains, or streets. River pages seem to make up a majority of the errors. I also noticed that a number of infoboxes are in this error category, including Template:Infobox mountain, Template:Infobox river, Template:Infobox street, etc.

The infobox template itself appears to have an error relating to the native name parameter, which affects the pages using it. I don't know why this occurred, nor am I experienced at fixing issues like this and don't have template editing permission, so I'm not sure how to solve it. If anybody here can edit/revert (or knows someone who can edit) these infoboxes to fix this issue, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and Happy New Year,

Normal Name (talk) 23:28, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

I did that. The problem is with the logic that underlies |native_name= (and |name_native= in {{infobox river}}) in that is suppresses valid errors. The topic is discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Infoboxes § native name parameters. I hope that the lack of participation there is an artefact of the holidays and not apathy.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:55, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for explaining and linking the discussion, I understand the reason for the change now and support the initiative. I assume all the pages left in the category have to be manually edited to fit the changed parameters then? I can get started on that if so. – Normal Name (talk) 01:56, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

I wouldn't do that just yet; except in certain cases. When you can determine from the article text what IETF language tag should fill empty |native_name_lang= (or replace a malformed parameter value), that is a worthwhile accomplishment. And keep a weather eye on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Infoboxes § native name parameters.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:40, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

January 1

Error in 2021 in baseball

Can you fix the error in 2021 in baseball please. 98.186.54.177 (talk) 01:54, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

What error do you need fixed? - Garfield cat and lasagna — Preceding unsigned comment added by Garfield Cat & Lasagna (talk • contribs) 03:24, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

2021 in baseball displayed a red error message because a closing </ref> was removed in [1]. I have restored it. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:31, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Useless redirect article.

I found a useless redirect article that redirects to Among Us when you type in Among us (lowercase us). I think its useless because when i try to use it on my echo, it doesn't do anything. Please help me get the article removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Garfield Cat & Lasagna (talk • contribs) 03:23, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@Garfield Cat & Lasagna: Wikipedia:Redirect#Purposes of redirects includes "Likely alternative capitalizations". The redirect means that the wikilinks Among us and among us work. I don't know what "my echo" refers to (Amazon Echo?) but we are not going to delete 400,000 redirects with {{R from other capitalisation}} due to a poorly performing program or device. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:19, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Question about dates and times

I am new to the idea of Wikipedia projects, but not new to technology, I worked as a technical administrator (AKA 'systems programmer') for mainframes, but for a good part of a decade I was the tech person for email and calendaring on that mainframe. I have an idea for a project, but before I propose it I would like to find a page about rules for expressing dates and times in Wikipedia. There are lots of issues that I hope have been discussed before, but here are two on my mind right now:

1. What is expected for dates prior to the adoption of the Gregorian calendar? What about dates during the period when some were transitioning and some were not? 2. Are times presented in the time zone of where the 'event' happened, or in UTC?

If someone can point me to a standards page for this part of Wikipedia editing, it will help me formulate my writeup for a proposed project. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by TimHare (talk • contribs) 05:32, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@TimHare: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers is detailed. Changes can be suggested at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. First search the archives for old discussions. Wikipedia:WikiProject Time may also be of interest depending on what exactly you want to do. Before spending significant time on a proposal, you could outline your idea here. Maybe it has already been rejected or is not practical with the current software, e.g. allowing readers to see their own time zone and calendar in articles. Our MediaWiki software is used by thousands of wikis. See Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests for changes to MediaWiki. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:48, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter:I will search the archives. The basic idea I had was to try to add HTML5 "date" and/or "time" tags to all the places where it is appropriate - probably using UTC datetime values. I'll try to search the archives. I hope I edited this correctly- I'm new to this aspect .

TimHare (talk) 06:42, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@TimHare: Replies get one more colon than the post they reply to. Signatures belong on the same line as the last text. See more at Help:Talk pages. MediaWiki doesn't allow insertion of all HTML tags but it does allow Help:HTML in wikitext#time. That means we can do it here at the English Wikipedia without a MediaWiki change. Most editors don't like messing with HTML tags so it would mainly be done by templates. A search only finds a few templates doing it. If you want widespread use then a suggestion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers with a neutral notification (note Wikipedia:Canvassing) at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Time is a good way to start. Include reasons which can be understood by people who don't know HTML and haven't heard of the tag. You can also make suggestions for specific templates on their talk page but they have a much better chance of being approved if a recommendation in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers can be linked, or you learn enough template language to make the code yourself. Many templates are protected so you may still need approval to add the code. Before any official suggestion, I suggest you get familiar with Help:Talk pages, Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines, and at least some of Help:Wikitext. People who don't know "the basics" may be dismissed by some users as newbies who lack knowledge of Wikipedia, even if they have great knowledge in other areas. For example, your first post has a misformatted list and lacked a signature. It's great if you are willing to learn, and it looks like it. Outsiders who storm in and want us to make big changes without knowing how we work are rarely successful. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:54, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@TimHare: There are many potential pitfalls when you don't know Wikipedia well. You could make a draft first, e.g. on the "Sandbox" link at top of pages, and ask me and others for feedback here before going live with the real suggestion. It's hard to overcome a poor start to a discussion like a bunch of opposes because it's considered unworkable or too impractical as suggested. Simply expecting that editors manually add the time tag without using a template could get such responses. Your sandbox is public but few people will see it if you don't ask for it. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:57, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Question moving draft to article

If I move my draft to the article through 'move' that is moving the draft to the article main page will it be visible and published in Wikipedia. Does my article be indexed at google search? If that happens then it will be published without review? How long it takes to index it on google search? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.173.24.182 (talk) 06:18, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Hi there! Per Wikipedia:Controlling search engine indexing: "Articles older than 90 days are automatically indexed....Articles younger than 90 days are not indexed, unless they have been patrolled and do not have the {{NOINDEX}} template on them (or a template that transcludes the {{NOINDEX}} template, such as the speedy deletion templates)." However, if your article does not demonstrate that the topic meets Wikipedia's notability criteria, it may be deleted or moved back to draft space. Instead, you may wish to use the Articles for Creation process, to ensure your draft meets Wikipedia's criteria before it is moved to articlespace. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 06:38, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

missing section edit links

Why doesn't Agriculturist have edit links? --Espoo (talk) 09:56, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@Espoo: I have removed __NOEDITSECTION__.[2] It's not for articles, usually added by a VisualEditor user who clicks a button without understanding it. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:03, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. I looked for something like that, but not at the end. --Espoo (talk) 10:16, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Translation of a French Wikipedia article

In my sandbox I tried to translate an article about the French mathematician Maurice Clerc

Please, could you tell me if I can submit it, or if I have to do some modifications, and in that case which ones?

Thank you in advance for your help,

--JulieFr (talk) 10:29, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

You need to provide attribution if it has been translated from the French article, see Help:Translation. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:40, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Maybe

Love 😃 Sorry 🤣😃 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.116.69.39 (talk) 16:44, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

No heed to apologize, the help desk can use all the love it can get. 2603:6081:1C00:1187:1E8:92A1:1E50:D2B (talk) 18:37, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

How to request specific bots to go to perform specific tasks on a given page?

Hello. I would like to know ow to request specific bots to go to parform tasks on a specific page. For example, if I would like User:AnomieBOT to perfom its OrphanReferenceFixer task on an article I choose. Veverve (talk) 18:00, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Per user talk:AnomieBOT/Archive 11#Manually invoke orphaned ref rescue, there's no way of doing this for AnomieBOT. A few other bots have some way of manually requesting they run on a specific page, but not this one. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 18:39, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@Pppery: thanks for your answer. Is there another way I could make a bot perform a OrphanReferenceFixer task, or am I bound to wait until AnomieBOT stumbles upon the article I need to be fixed? Veverve (talk) 18:59, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Not aware of any such tool (but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist). * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:02, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@Pppery: Fixed the link you kindly provided. GoingBatty (talk) 19:17, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

How do you correct an incorrect heading?

How do I correct an incorrect heading?

St Catherine in Bath and N.E. Somerset and South Gloucestershire. St Catherine is not JUST in Somerset, which changed name in 1996 anyway to B&NES, short for Bath and N.E. Somerset. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Betsy.Trot (talk • contribs) 23:34, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

@Betsy.Trot: Hi there! I'm guessing that you would like to change the name of the article St Catherine, Somerset. I suggest you start a discussion on the article's talk page - Talk:St Catherine, Somerset - so editors can come to consensus before anyone moves the article. Note that St. Catherine is a disambiguation page, so there's a need for the article name to be more specific than that. Hope this helps, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 01:18, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

@Betsy.Trot: The village St Catherine, Somerset is apparently partly in Bath and North East Somerset in the county Somerset (which still exists), and partly in South Gloucestershire in the county Gloucestershire. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)#Disambiguation says:

• Ambiguous place names within the United Kingdom should generally use the county as the disambiguator; see Wells, Somerset (not Wells, England, which is a redirect).

If we name both parts in the article title then it would be "St Catherine, Somerset and Gloucestershire". It's better than the unwieldy "St Catherine, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire" which is very long and confusing about how to parse the two "and" which have different meanings. But I have never seen an article naming two separate places in the title. Does the village have a "primary" part in one of the counties? The guideline only says "should generally use the county". If it causes an issue like here then it doesn't have to be followed. Both counties are in the region South West England so we could say "St Catherine, South West England". It's the only place in the disambiguation page St. Catherine which is just called St. Catherine and is in South West England so it works as disambiguation. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:39, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

A lot easier just to use St Catherine, Somerset and the few houses that are over the county border can just be explained in the article. MilborneOne (talk) 11:46, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

January 2

Server malfunction?

The page history at WP:RD/C contains a sequence of 19 entries, related only by timespan, which appear in the page history (and user contributions) as double-struck, with no diffs. What caused that? Did the database lose the data?  Card Zero  (talk) 00:39, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Not a server malfunction. Those 19 edits were oversighted. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 00:41, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I looked at that link, but then it made no sense. The edits are in different sections, from different people, and in a few cases from a bot. And the results of the edits are in plain sight on the page, it's only the diffs that are concealed. Whuh?  Card Zero  (talk) 00:45, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Something that was on the page during those edits has been removed, and deemed suitable to be oversighted, so users and even admin cannot see it. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 00:51, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

I understand the concept, just not why it manifests as pouring napalm on 19 diffs in a row to hide what might be one phone number or whatever. I suppose the time period reflects the time between insertion and deletion of whatever it was, but aren't diffs, well, differences? Vectors Deltas, I think they're sometimes called. I mean only the insertion really needed removing, surely? The rest of the diffs ought to smoothly follow on with or without the redacted part, if they didn't include editing whatever it was. Well, wiki software is clunky like that I guess, I don't know how it works.  Card Zero  (talk) 01:03, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

"Diffs" aren't what's stored on the servers in the first place; revisions are. When you click "diff" the difference is computed on-the-fly. So if you want to see the difference between revisions A and B, and either A or B were hidden, there's nothing to compute the diff from. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 01:27, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Is that Delta encoding that you're explaining, or something else?  Card Zero  (talk) 01:33, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

I don't know what sort of encoding is used internally to compress the database. That's not really relevant, because it's never exposed to users. A "revision" is just the full text of the page at a particular time. A "diff" is not really an encoding. It's a human-readable comparison of two revisions, generation by an algorithm similar to one used in diff or git. Most diff algorithms start with the longest common subsequence or an approximation thereof. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 01:44, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

I think delta encoding is commonly used when software needs an undo function. Each delta contains only the change from the accumulated product of the previous deltas. I kind of assumed a page edit was a delta. Thus, removing a single delta ought to be fine if no subsequent delta built on what that first delta changed. But, I got my basic answer some time ago and am just indulging in quibbling at this point.  Card Zero  (talk) 02:19, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

mw:Manual:MediaWiki architecture#Database and text storage talks about what is actually stored. MediaWiki has no way to display part of a page where something was oversighted earlier. You can either see the whole page or nothing. Oversighting hides all revisions where the oversighted material was present. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:38, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

- basically, if we didn't oversight the revisions, the offending material would still be visable. This is clearly worse than a phone number, which would be revision deleted, rather than oversighted. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 12:50, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Authority control, adding a library?

On an article, in the Authority control section, I'd like to add a link to the National Library of China. Is it possible, and if so, how?

--JulieFr (talk) 13:30, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

@JulieFr: The National Library of China isn't listed at Template:Authority control#Wikidata and tracking categories so it's not currently possible. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:09, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

External links and Bibliography

Some articles have External links sections, some articles Bibliography sections whose contents are often links to external sites, some articles have both. What difference is there supposed to be between the two? Mcljlm (talk) 15:44, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

@Mcljlm: "Bibliography" headings are used inconsistently. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:09, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

References on disambiguation pages

Are disambiguation pages supposed to have references? If yes, where should one place the {{reflist}}? Should it be before or after the {{Disambiguation}} template? --217.149.171.189 (talk) 16:38, 2 January 2022 (UTC)