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March 27

List of uncategorized redirects

I've been adding rcats to a few templates and I'm wondering if there's a category for redirects with no rcats added. I know of Category:Miscellaneous redirects but that's for redirects that have Template:Rcat shell with no parameters. MaterialWorks ^{ping me!} 01:14, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@MaterialWorks: There's a discussion about this at Wikipedia talk:Special:UncategorizedPages#Uncategorized redirects, and a link to a database query listing one million redirects that were uncategorized in 2019. I spot-checked a few on the first page of the results, and they were all still without categories. So that list should give you plenty to work with. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:07, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

How Fork an Essay or Article and preserve history?

Aware that POV-fork is forbidden for mainspace articles, is it permitted for Essays? It seems we have many that directly contradict each other, or that argue opposite opinions.

I wish to take a neglected essay whose author left the project and fork it into a related but noticeably different thesis. Rather than start a whole new essay, I'd rather keep the history. How to do this?

Also in mainspace this may be necessary where an article has grown too big and needs to be split two or more smaller topics.

Regards, Jaredscribe (talk) 03:01, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Jaredscribe: If the essay is not being used for anything, you can continue maintaining the essay where it is, or move it to a new name. Either way retains the history. Otherwise you can reference the original essay somewhow, like in a "See also" section, for attribution. ~Anachronist (talk) 05:08, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

I've tried maintaining the essay, but since others are using its original thesis, it would be better to fork, in order to make the divergent opinions clear.

I'm rewriting as a separate essay, and giving attribution, but it would be nice to have the history and talk archives.

There should also be a way to preserve history for mainspace articles that get too big and need to be split. No? Jaredscribe (talk) 18:35, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Jaredscribe Reusing content is perfectly valid with attribution. See WP:REUSE, and templates like {{Copied from}}. It is not needed here, but in article mainspace, sometimes complex merges require Wikipedia:Requests for history merge ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 13:04, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

FYI, the forked essay is Draft:Wikipedia:Competence is desired

I welcome discussion on the talk page, and WP:Bold improvements to the diction and tone of the essay.

If you disagree with the basic thesis, then consider arguing your point by contributing to WP:Competence is required instead. Jaredscribe (talk) 18:06, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Move an AfD article from mainspace to draft?

I have an article that was published too early, and now its in AfD.

Can I withdraw the article, put in draftspace, and publish it in a few months, years, or whenever I get more reliable sources to establish independent notability?

Jaredscribe (talk) 03:03, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Hi Jaredscribe You can propose that the article be draftified in the AFD discussion, but you probably shouldn't unilaterlly do so yourself now that the article is being discussed per WP:AFDTODRAFT. "Draftification" is sometimes an alternative to outright deletion, but usually only when the prospects for the draft someday becoming a viable article are considered to be fairly high. The draft namespace is not really a place for storing content that has no realistic chance of ever becoming an article. If you propose "draftification" as an alternative to deletion, and the consensus agrees with you, then that's what will happen. If not, then the draft will just end up being deleted. -- Marchjuly (talk) 03:16, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

When sources become available, the deleted article can be restored to draft space for improvement. You would simply ask the deleting admin to restore it to draft space, or send you the wikisource code for you to create a new draft. ~Anachronist (talk) 05:28, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Jaredscribe Or you could copy/paste the wikicode out now to store somewhere on your own device. Then you wouldn't have to ask anyone but could just start over and expand that when you were ready. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:03, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

ok thanks, Jaredscribe (talk) 18:07, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Athlete

How to add an athlete on Wikipedia Mangoisthebest (talk) 05:24, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Mangoisthebest: See WP:YFA and WP:AFC for guidance. ~Anachronist (talk) 05:28, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Mangoisthebest, please also read Wikipedia:Notability (sports). Cullen328 (talk) 07:13, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Edit

Good morning. Is there an administrator who would like to correct this word on the Israel page?: "Israel,"; the comma should be placed outside the quotation marks. Non-administrator users may not edit this page. JackkBrown (talk) 09:06, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: you can make an edit request on Talk:Israel. See {{Edit fully-protected}}. You have to be more specific when making your request though, there are at least two occurences of Israel, in that article. Victor Schmidt (talk) 10:10, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

That seems to be a misunderstanding; there was only one with the comma inside quotes, as described. ◅ Sebastian 10:20, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Done. Since you are an experienced editor, and since this is the help desk, allow me to add that the suggested process in such cases per WP:FULL is “proposing them on its talk page, using the {{Edit template-protected}} template if necessary to gain attention.” (Maybe that should be mentioned in the hat note.) ◅ Sebastian 10:17, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@SebastianHelm: I believe @Victor Schmidt was correct when he stated that {{Edit fully-protected}} is the proper template for @JackkBrown to use for an article. GoingBatty (talk) 14:12, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

What to do about unsourced pronunciations?

Resolved

 – 12:50, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Many articles, such as Xi Jinping begin with unsourced pronunciations. While last year, in reply to I_want_to_add_pronunciation the consensus was that WP:RS applies, this is rarely followed in practice - in particular, when dealing with unofficial makeshift pronunciations of foreign names, such as in the case of Xi Jinping. Should those unsourced pronunciations be removed, then? I can see some use in them, since it is certainly better to pronounce “Xi” [ʃiː] rather than something like [ksaɪ]. — Sebastian 10:41 — continues after insertion below

I suspect WP:RS applies only in theory. If you see one that you believe is wrong, remove it. If you aren't challenged, then there is no problem. If it isn't sourced, but seems right, then there is also no problem. Gah4 (talk) 11:52, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, Gah4. I agree with your suspicion. However, the term your reply hinges on seems to be “wrong”. As long as we don't have a source, that remains a personal judgment call. To my ears, the given pronunciation is clearly “wrong”, but the right one requires sounds that are not used in spoken English, and as I said, it's still better than some other alternatives, which is part of why I'm asking. That said, I now realize that it's less of a Help desk question, but rather a policy related one, so it may be better to move it to Village pump (policy). ◅ Sebastian 12:10, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Reminds me of TeX, which many also don't know how to pronounce. I suspect, though, that it is even worse. Many (most?) don't know IPA well enough to know. There was someone on late night TV a few days ago, who learned to read young, and so learned many words without knowing how to pronounce them. The only one I remember from when I was young, is hysteresis, which I pronounced wrong for a long time. And I suspect for many, there is just close enough. Also, note that IPA only works if you know how to pronounce the sample words. Gah4 (talk) 13:19, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Related previous questions:

• How_do_I_go_about_adding_IPA_pronunciations_to_Wikipedia? (2009): “I've not been able to find a page on the conventions for IPA notation.”
• Pronunciation (2019): No reply to question about policy.
• What_is_.28or_should_be.29_the_policy_regarding_spellings.2C_pronunciations_and_foreign_names_in_the_first_sentance_of_an_article.3F (2019): Answer refers to MOS:LEADLANG, which says nothing explicitly about pronunciation.

◅ Sebastian 10:41, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

The above discussion reminded me of eine kleine Nachtmusik, which I've heard pronounced “Nacktmusik” even by educated people. But that would mean "naked music"! So I looked up that article - and found a good solution there: Use a footnote. So I did the same for Mr Xi, which resolves this question. ◅ Sebastian 12:50, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Here’s a very funny but absolutely untranslatable oral French pun.

A duchess invites a famous music critic for dinner. The duchess's daughter sings some Schubert. The duchess and the critic then exchange words: "Comment trouvez-vous que ma fille a chanté ce [lje]?" "Comme un [pi:d]!"

The duchess is asking the composer how her daughter sang the lied, but she mispronounces the German word as [lje] instead of [li:d]. The critic replies something incomprehensible due to his (voluntary) mispronounciation of "pied" (foot) in the opposite direction ([pi:d] instead of [pje]). Presumably the duchess does not understand, although more educated listeners might have picked off the duchess’s mistake and look for a spoonerism. The actual sentence is rather offensive ("comme un pied": lit. "like a foot" i.e. very poorly, especially in the context of singing - you would never give such direct feedback to a close friend, let alone to your hostess).

Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 11:50, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Help restoring edits

Hello,

I have done some edits to this page Clare McGlynn but another user @AlexBalder01 has taken them down saying my changes were not constructive. I have only updated the information regarding the scholar's most recent work (I am her research assistant). I understand there was a copuright issue with a photo but can you please leave the edits I made to the text?

Thanks in advance BelMattC (talk) 14:48, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Since 2015, the photo is on the page. How many years have passed, then you didn't say there was a copyright issue with the photo, are you saying it now? AlexBalder01 (talk) 14:58, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

What are you talking about? I'm talking about the new photo I have tried to upload which has been rejected. I have no idea about the photo from 8 years ago.

I want the edits I made back because the information that is currently on the page is no longer accurate. BelMattC (talk) 15:01, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

But you're removing the photo from 8 years ago. AlexBalder01 (talk) 15:05, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Only because the new one got rejected. Go on and leave the old photo until I contact my professor and get another one but leave my edits BelMattC (talk) 15:06, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

How do we know he's a research assistant? AlexBalder01 (talk) 15:01, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Well for starters you could bother checking the references in the edits I made instead of just deleting them without any reasonable argument other than "it's not cosntructive". BelMattC (talk) 15:05, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@BelMattC & @AlexBalder01: The best place for a civil conversation would be Talk:Clare McGlynn#Content dispute, so that other editors interested in the article can also participate. GoingBatty (talk) 15:06, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@BelMattC, since you have a conflict of interest, please read and comply with WP:COI. If you are actually being paid by the subject as their research assistant, WP:PAID applies instead. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 15:07, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@BelMattC and AlexBalder01: This matter is being resolved at Talk:Clare McGlynn. I don't believe further attention is required here. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 15:10, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Sandbox documentation update

I watch Wikipedia:About the sandbox, which used to contain this text: "For easy access, there is a link labeled "sandbox" at the top right of every page between the Talk and Preferences links." However, at this talk page thread, a user pointed out that this is not applicable to Vector 2022. I've commented out the text for now because, as a screen reader user, I'm in no position at all to help out here. Could someone here update the offending text? Thanks! Graham87 15:00, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

I have added "on a user icon menu or ...".[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 15:14, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

If I'd known earlier about this technical village pump thread, I wouldn't have started this one. Graham87 05:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Help with formatting

Hey. On my user page, I am trying to format my page so that a template can show up on the left and userboxes can show up on the right, using <div style="float: left"> and <div style="float: right">. I want the userboxes to be placed all the way to the right, but it isn't working. I also tried to nest the userbox div inside the template div, and to not include a div for the userboxes at all, but neither of these worked. I really don't know what to do, and I would appreciate any help. Cessaune [talk] 15:31, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

The Wikipedia:User page design center is defunct as an active project, but there are dozens of help pages there. Perhaps browsing through there will help you find out how to do what you want to do. --Jayron32 15:50, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: Hello Cess! I might be able to help you. Would you mind telling me what the template you want to be placed on the left is? ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:25, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

{{User:FormalDude/Contributions/Templates/Random Cool Picture Generator}} Cessaune [talk] 19:26, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune:  Done, the issue was the template wasn't even placed inside the div. If you want all the userboxes to the right and not next to each other then I'll just have to place them in individual divs. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:31, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Is there a way to have them align to the opposite side of the image? Like, directly to the right of the image? Thanks for your help. Cessaune [talk] 19:34, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: Yep. That would be placing each userbox in its own div because the image is being pushed down so all the userboxes can be displayed next to each other inline on the right side. I'll go ahead and do that now. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:35, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

I was wrong. The solution was to add a line break after the first and second userboxes so that they would go underneath each other. I don't know why I htought placing them in their own divs would work as divs function horizontally and don't automatically add a line break. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:39, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your help! This is exactly what I wanted. Cessaune [talk] 19:45, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: No problem! If you need help with anything else regarding things that have to do with HTML and CSS feel free to ask me. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:52, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

lock? block?

Hello! Something I've always been confused about has been the difference between a global lock and a global block. Both seem to do the same thing so I'm not exactly sure which term is correct. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:23, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Blaze Wolf: Actually, I have asked this question to a candidate during the most recent steward election, at meta:Stewards/Elections 2023/Questions#Klein Muçi. Adapting from the reply there, a global block can only be done to IP adresses, do not affect meta, do not prevent people using that IP from reading Wikipedia, and has an error message that tells you pretty exactly what happened and for what reason, and allows fine-tuning of block settings (e.g. wether to block anonymous users, allow account creation or talkpage access). A global lock on the other hand applies only to registered users, will automatically end any active login session for the account and disallow creating new ones (which means its effectively enforcing an upper limit of zero concurrent login sessions), always affects all Wikimedia Wikis, does not allow fine-tuning (I believe the settings are effectively autoblock disabled, cannot edit own talkpage, email disabled, though the last two are a consequence of not allowing login sessions), and the error message you get when logging in does not tell you the lock reason, nor is the lock reason displayed on Special:CentralAuth or Special:Contributions unless you visit that account's version of these two on meta. Victor Schmidt (talk) 20:18, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@Victor Schmidt: Interesting. I was not aware that it would not tell you the reason if you were locked. I wonder if there's a reason for that... ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 21:51, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

I think you can look at locks as an early crude interim hack, or charitably a blunt tool, until global blocks one day get implemented for accounts. See for example phab:T17294 which is a 15-year old bug. Don't hold your breath.. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 22:16, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Quoting in Book

I'm working on a book that will feature about 15 chapters, and each chapter will have an average of about four fairly extensive quotes from Wikipedia articles. Is it sufficient to display the Creative Commons license on a Credits page, or do I have to paste the license in every block of text that I quote?

Thank you. WickedBear (talk) 20:27, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@WickedBear: You must attribute each quote to the appropriate specific place in Wikipedia separately (in a footnote, perhaps). Each attribution could reference the license but does not need to include the text of the license in full. Then, place a single instance of the full text of the license in an appendix. However, at some point the amount of Wikipedia material becomes so large that your book as a whole becomes a "derivative work". At that point, you will need to license the entire book under CC-BY-SA. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know when that point is reached. -Arch dude (talk) 20:44, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. WickedBear (talk) 20:48, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

@WickedBear: Hi there! You may find the information at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia helpful. GoingBatty (talk) 14:15, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

March 28

content translation

I am attempting to translate an Arabic wiki page to english with the translator but I keep running into "Translation services not available for the selected languages". Arabic is cleary a supported language so I don't know what is going wrong. you can translate it here PalauanReich (talk) 00:56, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@PalauanReich: It refers to machine translation which is disabled at the English Wikipedia for quality reasons. It is therefore not available for any language. You should still be able to start manually from empty paragraphs or by first copying the original Arabic text. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:51, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

PalauanReich, please read Wikipedia:Translation. You need to have a reasonable level of competency in both languages, and you also need to be sure that the translation complies with the relevant Policies and guidelines, especially that the references transferred over actually verify the content. And for important legal reasons, you need to be sure that you have properly attributed the translation to the source article. Cullen328 (talk) 03:11, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Good to know, thanks PalauanReich (talk) 14:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Editing|Sandbox

 Courtesy link: Draft:David Greg Harth

I was wondering if I could get some help from someone. I was trying to create a page (I rarely edit wiki) but when I didn't have enough info, the subject of the article wasn't "notable" and when I added too much, the article "read like an advertisement." I am tying to find that balance of notability without coming off like an advert. I think the time has nearly past where the draft will be removed from my sandbox. Thank you for any advice! Bequebmemory (talk) 03:33, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

One thing that might be helpful: the article should not contain any 'value judgements' or 'descriptions of quality' written in Wikipedia's voice, so to speak. So if the subject is a scientist, phrases like '. . .he published an influential paper . . .' or 'he made a groundbreaking proposal . . .', etc., would be non-neutral and sound promotional or like advertising – negative descriptions would be just as bad. Such terminology could only be included as a cited direct quote: see Wikipedia:PEACOCK and WP:NPOV. As a test, take any adjective, etc. in your draft that describes a quality of the subject or their work, and substitute one meaning the opposite. If it makes you wince, the original adjective was probably peacock; if it merely seems incorrect, the original was probably OK in non-promotional terms. {The poster formerly known a 87.81.30.195} 90.205.101.197 (talk) 04:34, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@Bequebmemory: It looks like you're approaching this from the wrong direction by trying to make your subject notable after you've written about it. Have a read of WP:BACKWARD. Bazza (talk) 11:31, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

It might help to realise that Wikipedia is not interested in what the subject of an article says or wants to say about themselves, or what their associates say about them. Wikipedia is only interested in what people who have no connection with the subject, and who have not been prompted or fed information on behalf of the subject, have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable sources. If you find yourself writing anything about the subject that the subject or their associates have said, stop and ask yourself whether that is neutral. ColinFine (talk) 11:45, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Unless the articles listed on Harth's press site are all trivial mentions establishing notability should not be hard. One thing that stands out to me in the draft as it currently stands is that it lists some projects without giving any information as to why they are important or noteworthy. Adding a sentence or two to each about its reception would probably help. If there are reliable sources for it information about the reception of the artist himself would also improve the article. I mean things like is he controversial, is he influential, is he held in high regard, are his works expensive, are they displayed in notable museums, etc. Random person no 362478479 (talk) 00:41, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Biography

Hi, After my page was accepted and published in the Hebrew Wikipedia - I would like your assistance with the English version. In fact, I wrote the entire biography in English, following all the remarks I received with the Hebrew one. So, your assistance please. How do I start? Shall I upload it ? Thank you very much. Dan Gaton MD פרופ. דני געתון (talk) 09:36, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

פרופ. דני געתון Please see WP:TRANSLATE for guidance. As different language versions of Wikipedia have different standards and policies, it's probably a good idea to run a translated article through the Articles for Creation process. 331dot (talk) 09:45, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Hello, פרופ. דני געתון . A couple of things I notice about he:דני געתון: first, it has not a single inline citation. That is not acceptable for an article in English Wikipedia, especially for a biography of a living person. Secondly, it does not appear to have any sources independent of Gatton. That means that it is incapable of establishing that Gatton meets English Wikipedia's criteria for notability, and will not be accepted here without a complete rewrite based on such independent sources. Thirdly, judging from your user name, you are Danny Gatton. Autobiography is strongly discouraged in English Wikipedia, and if you choose to try it, you must use the Articles for creation process. ColinFine (talk) 11:56, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Article Submission

Exactly how does one go about submitting sn article for inclusion on Wikipedia? The article in mind is about a renowned academician who is mentioned in various wikipedia articles but whose bio isn't available. Seems an injustice. Thank you 74.98.241.237 (talk) 13:36, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

If you are talking about Articles for Creation, see WP:AFC. Writing an article is one of the hardest tasks you can try on Wikipedia. See WP:YFA for not-so-simple instructions. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 13:41, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@74.98.241.237 who is the person? Just because they are mentioned on other Wiki articles doesn't mean they are automatically notable or merit and article of their own. See WP:PROF PalauanReich (talk) 14:08, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

• Step 1: make absolutely sure that the subject is notable. See WP:N. Notability is our only absolute requirement. If the subject is not notable by our definition, then we will delete the article, wasting your time and ours.
• Step 2: read a few articles on subjects similar to yours to see what a Wikipedia article should look like.
• Step 3: proceed to WP:YFA.

-Arch dude (talk) 15:46, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Missing Page

Hello, years ago we created a page for artist, Hubert Shuptrine. It has been a while since it was updated (maybe 2 years) but I can no longer find the page on Wikipedia. How can a page be deleted or go missing? Thank you. Shuptrine's (talk) 15:47, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@Shuptrine's: Are you sure it was Hubert Shuptrine or Draft:Hubert Shuptrine? I'm not seeing a deletion log on either page. Also please be aware that sharing an account (by your use of we) is not allowed by Wikipedia's account policies, not to mention that Wikipedia is not a site for promotional purposes, and that if you're editing on behalf of someone, you must disclose a conflict of interest on your userpage, especially if it's a paid relationship. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:04, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. It would have been Hubert Shuptrine, I don't think I even did a draft. So you can see no history of this page? I appreciate your help. By "we" I meant the family, nothing promotional. Shuptrine's (talk) 16:09, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@Shuptrine's, it seems you have an undeclared conflict of interest around the Shuptrine family. Please review WP:COI. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 16:16, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@Shuptrine's: Phrases like Shuptrine continues to create new works as he plans for his an upcoming museum exhibition. He also provides watercolor lessons and workshops geared towards all levels of artists and [h]e will [be] offering workshops and an exhibition of his works in the on-site FLOW Gallery seem pretty promotional to me. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:45, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

@Tenryuu: There's always Alan Shuptrine, with a considerable amount of promotional text by the same user. Bazza (talk) 16:14, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Yeah it looks like an unregistered editor had done some trimming down themselves. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:27, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Yep, I removed what looked like the worst of it and have added a COI tag (the article still needs work). I'll leave a note on the talk page. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 16:38, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Why are some people missing

I would like to know why some people e.g. the author and explorer Graham Hoyland do not have Wikipedia pages or entries. Are some people allowed to refuse entries? Pfpm1956 (talk) 18:39, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

There are basically two reasons why there is not an article about a given subject: either because it isn't notable according to wikipedia's criteria or simply because no one has bothered to write an article (yet). Random person no 362478479 (talk) 00:45, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

I think Graham Hoyland probably doesn't meet the general notability guideline for a standalone article. He was married to Sarah Champion.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 18:47, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. (Yes I spotted he was once married to Sarah Champion.) Good to know that once you become notable enough to get an article you can’t influence its existence :) Pfpm1956 (talk) 19:12, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Teradoctyl

why p-teradoctyl and not teradoctyl 84.217.35.16 (talk) 19:20, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

The article Pterodactyloidea states the word is "derived from the Greek words πτερόν (pterón, for usual ptéryx) 'wing', and δάκτυλος (dáktylos) 'finger' ". GoingBatty (talk) 19:44, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

I thought it was because English has its own rules that it usually doesn't follow. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:46, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Is p-teradoctyl an isomer of teradoctyl? One must distinguish between the wing-fingered dinosaurs and the scary-fingered ones. The latter are terror-dactyls. Ok, but seriously: there is discussion about Greek initial pt- at [2]. As pointed out there, we have medial -pt- in words like archaeopteryx and helicopter where pteron is the suffix rather than the prefix. ⁓ Pelagic ( messages ) 20:38, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Privacy

I am begging someone to help stop the accessing my device thru my calendar sto selling my information and IP address on here and other websites my Amazon account is hacked I believe it’s been going on for years from my MSN account I had since 2001 because last I checked their was a Linux computer logged in my email in Chicago Illinois and I am in Ohio also someone has added a vpn to my kids device and grouped my family 2603:6011:853A:692A:D07E:2B7E:709B:E2AF (talk) 21:25, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

This is the help desk for editing Wikipedia (i.e. how to edit Wikipedia), not for trouble shooting hacking of your various online accounts or devices. Sorry, I do not think we can help you. Heiro 21:27, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

If you don't want your IP address to be displayed on Wikipedia, you should create an account. Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:29, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Caption

The caption I will show below is not understandable, so if it needed editing, I could not do it. Would someone kindly correct it? Thank you in advance. "Sir Muhammad Iqbal 1935 by Lady Ottoline Morrel". JackkBrown (talk) 22:32, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

You didn't provide a link, but I assume that this is a caption for a photograph, painting or drawing of Muhammad Iqbal, created by Ottoline Morrel. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:58, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

I assume that it is this photo File:Sir Muhammad Iqbal 1935 by Lady Ottoline Morrell.png used at Muhammad Iqbal#Urdu. I see no problem with the caption used there: "Sir Muhammad Iqbal in 1935, by Lady Ottoline Morrel". Random person no 362478479 (talk) 00:33, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Random person no 362478479: because the caption was corrected at 22:40, by @Deor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1147111289. JackkBrown (talk) 00:47, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

OK, that explains it. Problem solved. Random person no 362478479 (talk) 01:00, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Now it's solved. She wasn't a mushroom, either. MinorProphet (talk) 10:02, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

March 29

"Ugali or posho or sima"

Does it need a comma after "or"? "Ugali or posho or sima" (ugali). JackkBrown (talk) 01:06, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: Nope. GoingBatty (talk) 05:40, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Better to avoid the repeated "or": "Ugali, posho or sima". Martin of Sheffield (talk) 07:30, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

I just want to point out that a large number of articles are severely biased

Hi, I would only like to point out (Think of it like a type of complaint) that certain topics on Wikipedia (I am now referring to religious demographics) are very heavily biased towards a very specific viewpoints completely going against Wikipedia's rule of a "Neutral point of view". What I am refering to is that articles about a country's religious demographics are biased towards either a very secularist bias or a bias towards a minority religion. I would like to recommend a massive cleaned operation. Hope more people could understand. Belson 303 (talk) 05:39, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Belson 303: Hi there! The best place to suggest improvements to a specific article is on the article's talk page. GoingBatty (talk) 05:42, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

I don't agree, but your comment is very vague. It would really help us to understand your complaint if you could provide specific examples. But as GoingBatty says, the best place to address this is on the talk pages of the relevant articles. Please make it clear exactly what you think needs to be changed, and include reliable sources that back up your assertions. Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:25, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Belson 303, there are many articles that to some extent are "about a country's religious demographics", and if you're envisaging a "massive cleaned [cleaning?] operation", I fear that the suggestions above could lead you to post near-identical comments/complaints/recommendations on many talk pages. This would be a great waste of people's time. So, if you believe that a number of articles are similarly "biased towards either a very secularist bias or a bias towards a minority religion", then choose one article and write on its talk page. After you've persuaded editors there to change the article, move on to a second article. And thence (but not simultaneously) to a third, and so on. -- Hoary (talk) 12:55, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Searching for text strings in references?

Hello I would like to search for a four-letter text string (eg abcd) in the *references* of all Wikipedia articles. I have tried simple searches, no luck. Then I looked at Help:Searching to see if there are any tips - and this page was rather too hard for me to understand (however I searched the long article for the word "reference" and there is nothing specific to that).

I assume I am using the search facility wrong. What should I be doing? Many thanks for help.

AnOpenMedium (talk) 11:32, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

It would really help if you tell us exactly what you are searching for, as it makes it so much easier to supply you with a working solution. - X201 (talk) 11:58, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@AnOpenMedium WP:Village Pump (Technical) has more people who are familiar with regular expressions and scripts you could use. I suspect all the references you want are mostly commonly wrapped in {{cite}} template so something like

{{cite journal| title="ABCD"}}

could be found by using something like

{{cite.*ABCD

in a search bar. But my regex sucks. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 12:10, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@AnOpenMedium You can just use an insource search. Hence this search finds all articles containing ABCD, giving 1395 hits. Finding it specifically within references would be more tricky but provided your search string is fairly specific you should be OK just to look at all the answers. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Mike Turnbull: thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed. As you say this works fine on unusual search strings. @Shushugah: thank you also but sadly my Wikiskills are limited so I am not understanding. But I appreciate the support! AnOpenMedium (talk) 13:55, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@AnOpenMedium: If you need a case-sensitive search, you could search for "ABCD" insource:/ABCD/ instead, which only gives 1,017 hits. GoingBatty (talk) 16:15, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

User spamming fake edits

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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User @Bluutankalpha has been spamming fake edits. I am not sure if this is the right place to report this. Blutankalpha (talk) 13:00, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

This is incorrect, I am the real bblutankalpha and you are a naughty little rapscallion!!! Bluutankalpha (talk) 13:01, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

This is fake pls ban Blutankalpha (talk) 13:02, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

l+ration+dadless+blutanknoasdiherjh+ccgs+cock+balls Bluutankalpha (talk) 13:02, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

ratio* Blutankalpha (talk) 13:03, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Please Fix This Error

I edited the page called Farzand and I added a link to Kondaji Farzand to the Wikipedia Marathi page and this backlink show error and does.

not redirected to the original page of Kondaji Farzand In Marathi. VIPsupport8513 (talk) 13:07, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@VIPsupport8513 You needed an interlanguage link ({{ill}}), which I've done for you. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:27, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Question

Good morning. In the following sentence, which words should be written with a capital letter and which with a lowercase (I don't think the word 'regions' should be written with a capital letter)? "the Province of St Francis of Assisi in Pakistan and St Clare's Province in India, as well as three Regions, which are expected to develop into full provinces.". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Sequeira. JackkBrown (talk) 13:35, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown agreed with you in this case. See MOS:CAPITALIZATION and generally keep the article consistent. There is WP:ENGVAR and sometimes bad grammar on Wikipedia. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 13:51, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Article deleted strangely?

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Please could admin have a quick check that everything is above board. 2023 global banking crisis now deleted - the discussion was ongoing with a great many 'keep' and 'merge' votes. A huge amount of well referenced information has just been binned. The page on the March 2023 United States bank failures has four lines on 'Beyond US' then 'see 2023 global banking crisis' - the page now gone. Is this foul play? Thanks Thelisteninghand (talk) 14:52, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

See closure message at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/2023 global banking crisis. The correct place to appeal deletions is WP:DRV, but as the close states, things need to be notable when something is created, not sometime in the future. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:12, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

It is notable now. There are 8 KEEP or MERGE votes, 6 Delete. Bizarre. Thelisteninghand (talk) 15:18, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

WP:AFD is WP:NOTAVOTE. Once again, DRV is the suitable location to talk about the result of an AfD. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:20, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Where to discuss a category of undersourced articles?

All the articles in "Category:Western astrological signs" have a serious absence of sources. In particular, they all have {{Infobox zodiac}}, and few if any articles provide sources for the parameters element, quality, domicile, exaltation, fall, detriment, or varna. There is a steady stream of edits changing these parameters with little to no discussion of why the changes were made. What would be an appropriate forum to discuss this issue? Jc3s5h (talk) 15:54, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

You can try the talk page of the Astrology WikiProject. But I don't know how active that project is. Random person no 362478479 (talk) 16:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Prev icons

When I click on Prev, I see two icons toward the upper right of the screen saying "Visual" and "[[]] Wikitext". I'm fairly certain this just started today. No idea what they do and doubt I care; how do I get rid of them? Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:18, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

The buttons allow you to change diff view between visual and source. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 16:46, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

The buttons are for switching between Wikitext diff (what you're used to) and visual diff (showing changes in the rendered result instead of in the source code). This had been a beta feature for a while, but was enabled for everyone this week (T314588). There doesn't seem to be any setting for turning it off completely, but it won't affect you if you're not interested. That said, if you really just want to hide the buttons, adding the following to your common.css should do the trick:

.ve-init-mw-diffPage-diffMode {
    display: none;
}

Rummskartoffel 17:21, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Rummskartoffel: I added the code, and it seemed to work when I tested it on common.css itself, but then when I tested it on other pages, e.g., this page, the buttons were hidden but the diff showed in visual, which I don't use. I suspect I'm doing something wrong, but what? I've backed out the changes from common.css. Better to have the buttons than look at a diff in visual. Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:54, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Bbb23, did you try out the visual mode before you added the CSS? I just tested it, and it seems to remember your last choice. The reason it seemed to work on common.css is because there are no visual diffs for CSS pages.

In any case, that snippet is just a quick hack. There may be more reliable ways to do it. Rummskartoffel 19:30, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Rummskartoffel: You're absolutely right. Seems to be fine now. If you ever hear of something more "reliable", or especially one that eliminates it completely instead of hiding it, please let me know. Meanwhile, thanks very much for your help.--Bbb23 (talk) 19:35, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

What should I do now, after I have finished editing my new article?

https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilizator:The_Movielizer/teste The Movielizer (talk) 16:53, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@The Movielizer: This is on the Romanian Wikipedia, which we have no jurisdiction over on here, the English Wikipedia. You're best served asking on that project instead. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:57, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

There is a problem with this article currently, as it does not have any citations at all. This would lead to a problem with verification and notability guidelines.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 17:00, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

You appear to be trying to write an article in English, in Romanian Wikipedia. This will not work. I suggest you create a draft in English Wikipedia (see Articles for Creation), and copy the source (not the text - use the source editor) from your original in ro-wiki.

But, as IanMacM says, your complete lack of sources means that the article has no chance of being accepted in to English Wikipedia in its current form. See BACKWARD. You need to start by finding the independent reliable sources which contain significant coverage of the film, because if you cannot, then the film does not meet English Wikipedia's criteria for notability, and all further time you spend on the article will be time wasted.

Another problem is that you have made a legal assertion that you are the copyright owner of the poster. If you are, then you evidently have a significant conflict of interest in writing about this film. Please be aware of our practice in this case. (You might also wish to be aware that you have already granted an irrevocable legal right to anybody in the world, to alter or reuse the poster for any purpose, as long as they attribute the source). ColinFine (talk) 18:49, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@The Movielizer You created a Draft on Romanian Wikipedia, but it should be on English Wikipedia (the prefix ro.wiki... is a hint that it's wrong language edition). Additionally, as it is, it would not be accepted on English Wikipedia. See WP:Verifiability and WP:Notability which it is not right now. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 22:34, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

copyright

Hi Guys,

On the Swiss Saber page the picture entitled "A Swiss Saber" is my picture of my work.

How do I get credited for the work and the picture?

Please credit <redacted>

Thanks

tod at todsworkshop 78.143.204.143 (talk) 19:01, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Article is Swiss saber and file is File:Swiss_Sabre.png#file. The image was incorrectly uploaded as having a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. I have requested that it be deleted as a copyright violation with an incorrect description. Meters (talk) 19:16, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Todsworkshop.com: We will delete the picture because the uploader violated its copyright. You are under no obligation to do anything, but if you would like to share it with the world but require that you get credit, and if you own the copyright (because you took the photograph), then please consider uploading it yourself, using Wikipedia:File upload wizard, under a CC-BY-SA license. As a technical matter you might want to edit the metadata in the image file to embed your copyright and the license. We don't need that, but it might help you if you find it on some random website that neglects to honor your copyright. -Arch dude (talk) 00:08, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindhi_literature

Absolutely nothing is understood in this paragraph; broken lines, words repeated for no reason and numerous other problems; too many to be addressed: "Mughal, Argon and Turkhan Period (1521-1718)"; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindhi_literature. JackkBrown (talk) 22:10, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown welcome to Help Desk! Other editors have marked it as needing grammar improvements in August 2022. If you can fix it, WP:BOLDLY do so. We are a volunteer project. If you have suggestions how to specifically improve this article, raise them in the talk page at Talk:Sindhi literature. Happy contributing! ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 22:36, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Shushugah: I have done what I can, greatly improving all the other paragraphs, but for the one above I cannot do anything; it is too messy. JackkBrown (talk) 22:50, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Question

In the sentence below, is the comma before 'which' better placed or not? "Agha Saleem, a renowned name in Sindhi literature, has also translated a number of 'Surs' from Risalo, which are published by Sindh Culture Department." JackkBrown (talk) 23:12, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

It's fine where it is. Why worry about such minor (non) issues? Though if a question is worth asking, it's worth titling distinctively and informatively. -- Hoary (talk) 23:23, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

@Hoary: well, thank you. I'm now sure of the correction I made, which I doubted. JackkBrown (talk) 00:34, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

I'd remove it. You already have two commas forming a parenthetical phrase. Furthermore "a number of Surs" is the subject of the verb "published" so should not be separated from it. Consider:

• "Agha Saleem (...) has also translated a number of 'Surs' from Risalo which are published by Sindh Culture Department."
• "Agha Saleem, a renowned name in Sindhi literature (...) which are published by Sindh Culture Department."

Both of the above are ways of parsing three commas, but the second is nonsense. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 08:04, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

March 30

References from books

I would like to provide additional information to some of my timelines articles but the information would come from books and not from the internet. I want to state as a reference that this information has come from a book but I would not know how to go about it. Also are references from books acceptable for Wikipedia? Rillington (talk) 08:05, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

To answer the second question first, yes. For the first part, consider either {{cite book}} or {{citation}}. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 08:10, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Books can be used as sources. You should provide the full bibliographic information like title, author, year, publisher, and an identifier like the ISBN if applicable. You can use the {{Cite book}} template for this as well. ■ ∃ Madeline ⇔ ∃ Part of me ; 08:10, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for these speedy and most helpful replies. :) Rillington (talk) 08:19, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Looking at each article individually, if the article has a consistent citation style, you should follow that style. See WP:CITEVAR. Jc3s5h (talk) 08:26, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

misuse of admin power

I've been blocked by admin Bishonen, backed up by three collegues, - without warning (!) - unlimited (!) - without having done harm to any article (!) - in spite of decennia of fruitful edits with many thanks (not all reproducable because of ip-changes by providers in many, many years, - without having insulted anybody, - simply because I didn't login every time - misinterpreted as "socketpuppetry, and - am not able to follow every discussion ad infinitum - misinterpreted as "failure to communicate", - without a concrete hint of what is concretely expected beyond all I tried. I would regard that as a severe misuse of power. Hans J. Holm 2A02:8108:9640:1A68:850E:FDF0:59BE:BB49 (talk) 09:17, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Posting here is a violation of your block. Go to your account’s talk page and post an unblock request. If you have already done so and "three colleagues" have denied your request, maybe consider a change in your approach. Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 09:28, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

I assume your account is User:HJHolm. When Bishonen blocked you she gave a clear explanation of what you should do to be unblocked. Your repeated failure to make a suitable unblock request is the main reason you continue to be blocked and have now have talkpage access revoked; Bishonen's latest message on your talkpage explains how to appeal the block now that you no longer have talkpage access. If you follow the advice in her initial blocking message, it is quite possible that you will be unblocked, but the more you edit as an IP in violation of that block the less likely that is. Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 11:39, 30 March 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the ping, Caeciliusinhorto-public. The main reason I removed talkpage access was that mr Holm called users (in this case, admins) a "KuKluxKlan gang" and "Freisler types" (=Nazis) on his page.[3] (As well as actually cursing them "forever and ever", but that I took more as a humorous touch.) That may be a problem in regard to being unblocked. But I have no interest in involving myself further; I'll be glad to leave it to UTRS admins. (PS, the IP has been blocked for 72 hours for block evasion, not by me.) Bishonen | tålk 12:38, 30 March 2023 (UTC).

I've been blocked

Hello,

I was editing wikipage https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinig%C5%B3_muziejus, but I've been blocked (my username is Behemoth1985) and I don't understand reason why... The reason I'm editing itz, its because I'm working at that institution (which is Money Museum of the Bank of Lithuania) and we decided to renew information. Text is taken from the official website pinigumuziejus.lt. Photos are made by me, so I really want to do it. 81.29.24.172 (talk) 12:57, 30 March 2023 (UTC)