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

February 23

How to lock article on company

How to lock article on Target so only target employees can edit it — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8805:BC80:B900:E1AB:4342:76E1:6735 (talk) 01:45, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

You may not do that. If fact, Target employees should read WP:COI and probably not edit the article. RudolfRed (talk) 01:56, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Cannot Move Pages

I cannot move pages, the only option under More > Purge. I'm extended confirmed, 812 edits, and started editing: 18:22, February 18, 2017. If I reload, I can see the move option for a second, and then it disappears.

Why? SwagGangster ^• 02:16, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

SwagGangster Hi, can you see the "move" under "page" menu tool? CASSIOPEIA^(talk) 02:35, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@CASSIOPEIA: I can, and I can access it, so it was moved there. Why isn't it in any of the help pages? SwagGangster ^• 02:50, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@SwagGangster: You must have enabled "MoreMenu: add Page and User dropdown menus to the toolbar with links to common tasks, analytic tools and logs" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. I have added this possibility to Wikipedia:Moving a page.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 03:02, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: It was exactly that, thank you. SwagGangster ^• 03:05, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

hi

Hi I need to know how to make my own page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Historyforyou123 (talk • contribs) 03:27, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Historyforyou123 Hi Welcome to Help Desk. Not sure what you meant by you own page; however, if you meant "Your User Page" then it is HERE. You could go to Wikipedia:User pages for info and guidelines on what the user page is for, what could and could not be included in the user page and some other tips on placing "userboxes". If "Your user page" is not what you were asking for assistance, then pls pop back here and be more specific of your question for us to help you. Thank you. CASSIOPEIA^(talk) 04:17, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Formal abbreviations, general formatting

Is there a policy in regard to use of standard abbreviations? It would be nice to have guidelines, for example, suggesting the use of the international system (System Internationale, SI) for abbreviations and formatting. SI could be suggested as the preferred way to use abbreviations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:A9BB:FB00:2C7D:80CE:D458:5F0D (talk) 07:16, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Abbreviations . Anybody else know other pages? (I'm not part of the Help Desk, but I thought I might be able to help) OkayKenji (talk) 07:19, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@OkayKenji: you helped, so now you are part of the Help Desk. --Gronk Oz (talk) 08:47, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Out of control infobox

Anyone want to take a crack as making the infobox at Syrian Civil War not sandwich the text so much that its non readable? Fragmented sentences makes this lead almost impossible to read. --Moxy (talk) 15:43, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

The level of sandwiching depends on the window width and text size but it is a very wide infobox with those four columns. The simplest way to make it more narrow is to remove all {{nowrap}} from Template:Syrian Civil War infobox but maybe that should first be suggested on the talk page. It is things we often nowrap but I think it makes this infobox too wide. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:42, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Wow. That must be the biggest infobox on Wikipedia - it is HUGE from side-to-side and overwhelms the text. Anything having to do with the subject is fraught will all sorts of difficulties. Yeah...just took a look at the template's edit history...lots of edit-warring protections. It used to be quite a bit smaller back in 2013-2014 and reached its present size sometime in 2016. I'm not sure I even want to touch it.

Moxy I see you posted about this the infobox on the article talkpage earlier this month and no one's objected to shrinking it down.... Shearonink (talk) 17:32, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

I experimented with removing all the nowraps and that does reduce the width. Moxy - maybe you could post a follow-up on the talk page, proposing reducing the Template's width. I'd be glad to do it if there's a consensus for doing so. Shearonink (talk) 18:00, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

I have tried many times .....never any luck getting the format correct.--Moxy (talk) 01:36, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

VC question

I Question Why Lt.Philip,Curtis V.C. Winner in The Korean War Is Not Listed on Wikipedias List of Recipients.......................?

My Question is Listed as my Headlin — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:5F8E:F500:FC6F:12CF:C729:6F75 (talk) 16:41, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Philip Curtis is listed in Category:British Army recipients of the Victoria Cross, Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross, List of Victoria Cross recipients (A–F) and List of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign. Which list are you referring to? PrimeHunter (talk) 16:54, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Nationalist propaganda

Today I was informed that article List of Albanians in Serbia includes many ethnic Serbs and one person who identifies as Montenegrin. I removed such names from the list including former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević and multiple members of Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty (yes, even they were included), however my update was reverted by Serols. Same user made the same revert again after somebody restored my update. It is very easy to confirm that none of people that I removed from list never self identified as Albanian. While I understand that some people are working really hard to push their nationalist agenda and see this platform as a good tool, such propaganda should't have place here and behavior like this should be sanctioned. Tresnjevo (talk) 18:26, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@Tresnjevo: This is a content dispute. Please initiate a discussion at the article talk page. The editor concerned is an experienced contributor and would not have reverted your edit without good reason. Note that referenced material was removed. (Serols: courtesy ping for editor who may wish to respond here.) You could also raise the matter at the other editor's talk page. Eagleash (talk) 18:38, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

It would be nice if you actually read what I wrote. It would be sufficient if you just clicked on Karađorđević dynasty link that I posted in order to see that this family is not Albanian. Not to mentione that Serbia was at war with Albanians at a time when Slobodan Milošević was Serbian president. Instead, you are telling me that editor "would not have reverted your edit without good reason". Nice work, thank you so much for your dedication to help! Referenced "material" that was removed is a link to interview with Montenegrin basketball coach Duško Vujošević who lives in Serbia where he mentions that he declares as Yugoslav and Montenegrin, yet he still ended up in this article about Albanians in Serbia. By the way, very same "experienced contributor" directed me to this page. Tresnjevo (talk) 19:12, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@Tresnjevo: The help desk is not a place to discuss article content. Your edits have been reverted so now you initiate a discussion per WP:BRD. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 19:31, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

It looks like Serols was editing too fast here. That can happen when you review a lot of edits at a site with a lot of vandalism. Tresnjevo removed a large part of the list. That would usually be bad. But in this case it was cleaning up after earlier vandalism by 80.255.97.36 who added a lot of non-Albanians and was later blocked. I have reverted to an old version before 80.255.97.36. @Tresnjevo: You made a good edit and gave a good edit summary to explain it. After seeing so many wrong people, it would have been even better if you had first clicked the "View history" tab to check whether the page had been vandalised recently and could be reverted to an old version. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:57, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Yes, I should have checked first to see if page was vandalized and just revert to last valid version. Thank you for solving this. Tresnjevo (talk) 00:40, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Candidate for bizarre question of the day.

I'm logged as admin on my iPad II, which limits what I can do on a talk page. I'm logged in at the town library at a terminal tha won't be allowed to edit in the next few months. Should I try another terminal, or is it possible I just have soldier on with the iPad ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerzy (talk • contribs) 20:14, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@Jerzy: What stops you from editing through the library terminal? You should be able to edit through any IP blocks as an admin. Danski454 (talk) 20:45, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm unsure what the issue is. If your iPad is on the mobile version then you can click "Desktop" at the bottom. Have you forgotten your password? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:01, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

Ana Guerra singer

Hello, this data is deleted by a registered user -Tajotep- because it says it has to be examined. But this has references and also appears in the Spanish version: Ana Guerra. Can someone review it? I assure you that this is true.--87.223.110.12 (talk) 20:24, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

When questions like this one become too complicated for the edit summaries, you should start a conversation with the other editor in a new section on the article's talk page. Notify the other editor with a {{ping}}. If you cannot reach a consensus, then come back here. -Arch dude (talk) 01:50, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

How to delete or edit Wrong informations

If I have added new or edited some old records in wikipedia according my own knowlege ,but later i realised that my informations were wrong then what to do? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tajgul Afridi (talk • contribs) 21:00, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

@Tajgul Afridi: You can go to the history tab of the page and click the undo button to undo one edit. If you want to undo multiple edits, you can click on the date of the last version that was correct and click edit. See WP:REVERT for more info, I can also revert the edit if you want. Danski454 (talk) 21:05, 23 February 2019 (UTC)

February 24

Using Photos from Athletic departments of schools for the subject's article

Essentially, if there is an article for the coach of a Div 1 college team, can I upload the photo of that coach from the athletic department's website for use in his article? In the specific case that prompted this question, David Carle, who is the head coach of the Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey team, has no picture on his article, can I use the picture from his profile on the DU hockey site for his article?

Just wondering about the copyright for these types of images, and whether they are covered under fair use and such. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Jeancey (talk) 05:37, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Nope. We only use copywrited photos of living persons in extraordinary circumstances.

Since the person's alive, what we need to do is get somebody to take a picture of him and donate it, and that's usually reasonably doable. Copyright resides with the person taking the picture, so if you can get a good candid -- a shot from a press conference sat, we can use that.

And if we were more cavalier about that, one downside (there are others) is that we'd lessen the incentive for people to take the trouble to actually go get or make these free images.

And anyway, portraits, *usually*, are *mostly* decorative (which is fine, for free images), atho to some limited degree it might be possible to discern useful information (which can't be easily expressed in text) about a person by looking at a picture of him. But usually, not so much, really.

Anyway, a non-free photo of a living person can't be accepted, it'll be deleted. It's covered in detail in Wikipedia:Non-free content, specifically WP:NFCI and WP:NFC#UUI for images. Herostratus (talk) 06:36, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Wrong information in India U-19 world cup 2018 winning team's captain

Hello

My name is Tipu Saikia, I want to inform you on a topic about India U-19 National cricket team where the 2018 U-19 Cricket world cup winner Indian team's captian name is misspelled as Pavan Shah, but it's originally Prithvi Shaw.

Here is the link : htps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_national_under-19_cricket_team

The correct name is Prithvi Pankaj Shaw.

Thank you 🙂 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.29.225.24 (talk) 07:59, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

According to 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup squads, Shaw is listed as the captain. But he's now over 19, so the current captain on India national under-19 cricket team appears to be correct. Where exactly do you see a problem? Joseph2302 (talk) 09:53, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

About Européan Championship Badminton U15

the english version (  : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_U15_Badminton_Championships )is correct.

The french version ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championnats_d%27Europe_de_badminton_des_moins_de_15_ans ) is'nt complete. The french version cannot be modifie...

Could you complete the french version

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.41.37.253 (talk) 11:34, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

• This is the English language help desk. You would need to ask the French language help desk, located here. Joseph2302 (talk) 11:54, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no key

Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting

Berrys Creek

I can't see what is going wrong. Help! Talk about confusing (talk) 11:41, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

You can't put {{cite NJSA}} inside of <ref>...</ref> tags because {{cite NJSA}} uses {{#tag:ref}}.

You can write:

{{#tag:ref|State of New Jersey. [https://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/regs/statutes/spill_act.pdf Spill Compensation and Control Act.] {{Cite NJSA |title=58 |chapter=10 |section=23.11}} ''et seq.'' L.1976, c. 141.}}

References

But, you probably shouldn't because of the reference within a reference (reference 2 cites reference 1). Better to rewrite.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 12:42, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Changing the flag at Portal:Czechoslovakia

Hi! I'm trying to find how to change the flag at Portal:Czechoslovakia from the old Austria-Hungary flag to the Czech Republic flag. I'm not sure why the wrong flag is displaying...

Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 12:35, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@WhisperToMe: This was being added via the template line {{Transclude lead excerpt|{{#titleparts:Czechoslovakia}}| paragraphs=1-2 | files=1}}, by which the "files" part seemingly denotes which image to show from the included collection. Changing this to "4", as I have done, adjusts the flag accordingly, as per your query. Bungle ^{(talk • contribs)} 12:52, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@Bungle: I see. Thank you so much! WhisperToMe (talk) 12:53, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

BTW how do I add the flag as the icon of Portal:Czechoslovakia? I forgot how to do this WhisperToMe (talk) 12:54, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Module:Portal/images/c. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:02, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I suspect the country entry would need adding to Module:Portal/images/c so that it can reference it against an image icon (i.e. China is listed there, and the flag icon denoted is the one returned on the "{{Portal|China}}" template). This is a module though, which is protected, so I don't think you can do it yourself. Bungle ^{(talk • contribs)} 13:05, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@Bungle: Thanks! I found I could add a new entry for Czechoslovakia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Module:Portal/images/c&diff=884887149&oldid=884881374 WhisperToMe (talk) 17:47, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Glad to see you have managed to sort it now (and hadn't initially picked up on the fact you have the administrator flag, thus you're able to make those changes). Bungle ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:07, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

But why wouod you want to add the flag for Czechia to the former country portal? And why do we even have this portal on a defunct country? Legacypac (talk) 18:02, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

The portal only seems to have been created last month. I guess it's inclusion would entail a different discussion beyond the flag allocation that relates to this query. Bungle ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:07, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@Legacypac: The Flag of the Czech Republic is the same as the flag of the former Czechoslovakia. The flag file is not linked by {{Portal|Czechoslovakia}} so there should be no risk of confused readers. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:09, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Dyana Dafova

Please, edit the information about my year of birth.It is not 1958, but 1962. This wrong data creates s lot of confusion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.39.89.179 (talk) 13:05, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

This is the English Wikipedia. We have no mention of you. Are you referring to bg:Диана Дафова at the Bulgarian Wikipedia or Dyana Dafova (Q5318420) at Wikidata? We do not use personal knowledge. Do you have a published reliable source for the year? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:15, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) There's no article for Dyana Dafova on English Wikipedia. And the issue seems to be on Google search, so you'll need to contact them directly about it. Joseph2302 (talk) 13:17, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Are you by any chance referring to a photo or text shown to the right of a Google search? Google's Knowledge Graph uses a wide variety of sources. There may be a text paragraph ending with "Wikipedia" to indicate that particular text was copied from Wikipedia. An image and other text before or after the Wikipedia excerpt may be from sources completely unrelated to Wikipedia. We have no control over how Google presents our information, but Google's Knowledge Graph has a "Feedback" link where anyone can mark a field as wrong.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:23, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Request edit

Hello, My wikipedia page needs editing. Before 2016 it was inaccurate and not comprehensive about my art and art career. I tried to ask for a clean up but could not find a way. Could I please request a clean up? Many thanks Tara

Hello Wikipedia editors, My wikipedia page needs editing. Before 2016 I found an article that was inaccurate about me and my artwork, and too centered on one phase of art work following my husband's death. In 2016 I tried to ask for a clean up but could not find a way. Could I please apologize and request a clean up? Many thanks Tara — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.21.111.188 (talk) 15:15, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

This is the help desk for all 5.5 million articles on the english Wikipedia. Please make your request on the talk page the article in question. We cannot know which one you mean. -Arch dude (talk) 15:29, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@Arch dude: There are 5.8 million articles now. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 15:50, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Actually there are 6,897,676, but it doesn't change my point. -Arch dude (talk) 20:37, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Unless the article is very well-trafficked, it often isn't likely people will read the talk page :\ WhisperToMe (talk) 17:44, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

She added a {{request edit}} here, so I knew she knew to do it there. She added it here, in the section header of the section, which totally hosed the formatting. I had to repair that before I could even get to the section to edit it. By then, I had run out of time. -Arch dude (talk) 20:37, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

She appears to have submitted a vague edit request to Talk:Tara Sabharwal. --Danski454 (talk) 17:08, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Visual editor

When I go to https://ca.wikiquote.org and attempt to edit my talk page, I get the visual editor with no obvious way of switching to the Wikitext source editor. Is there a way to turn off VE on that site? --Guy Macon (talk) 15:25, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

You might be best asking at an equivalent board on Https://CA.wikiquote.org RhinosF1^(chat)_{(status)(contribs)} 16:25, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

That would be difficult, because I don't speak or read Catalan, so I can't even find the board. So, you might ask, what am I doing on the Catalan wikiquote? I am putting together some documentation about how easy it is for a brand new editor to edit on the various projects and languages. Most of the projects make it easy, but I am finding things like one project that allows a new user to create an article but doesn't allow him/her to include any citations and another that won't let you post a link to www.wikimedia.org because it thinks it is a spam link. :( --Guy Macon (talk) 16:52, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

@Guy Macon: Catalan Wikiquote uses Structured Discussions, so there is no traditional editor for talk pages. Danski454 (talk) 17:02, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

You can use the 2017 source editor and visual editor in these talk pages, use the button in the bottom right of the edit window to switch between these. --Danski454 (talk) 17:19, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Sign up For Admin

I sign up for wikipedia yesterday and i haven't got my password for requesting an admin. so can i get it now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.199.151.245 (talk) 17:20, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

If you mean that you want to become an Administrator, you can't simply sign up to be one, you have to apply, and have your application approved by others. Success usually requires a firm grasp of Wikipedia guidelines and policies demonstrated over several years and at least several thousand edits. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.1.40 (talk) 18:20, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia allows anyone to edit articles: no permission is needed. Some actions like page creation require that you have an account and that you have made a few edits, but nobody sends you a password: you create it yourself. Most activities that would require "admin privileges" on a typical site do not require them here. Arch dude (talk) 05:23, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Book sources

Hi, regarding the above document, is there any way to create a "regular" (i. e. visible) heading paragraph line spacing before the two headings Bookselling and swapping and Non-English book sources, which is to say without using new line tags such as <br> (creating a line spacing larger than usual)?--Hildeoc (talk) 18:12, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text

In the article "Ash Wednesday," I added a church (Anglican Church in North America) that observes this Christian holy day, adding the acronym as per the church just above it. Not being a programmer or a frequent editor, I don't understand what I did wrong that brought this error message. I then attempt to add a link to the website of this church which list Ash Wednesday and links to the proper service for that day, but that also did not work. Help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bradyvero (talk • contribs) 22:46, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

Your edits were well intentioned, but misguided. The "name=" parameter links several similar references, not necessarily using an acronym for the subject. You need to read WP:CITE as a minimum. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 23:13, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) @Bradyvero:  Fixed with this edit. Please see WP:REFB for a guide to adding references. A 'ref name' needs to be defined. I.e <ref name=XXX>{{ref content}}</ref>: you can then just type <ref name=XXX/> to use the same ref. later. Eagleash (talk) 23:16, 24 February 2019 (UTC)

February 25

Non sourced list of LGBT people

How would one go about removing a list of people and images that are unsourced at a cultural article? The article is LGBT culture in New York City and has an image of me that I don’t want to see there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:8D80:543:9626:A07C:B368:D445:D6D3 (talk) 03:28, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Anyone may remove unsourced material at any time, although it's more courteous to start by proposing the removal on the talk page of LGBT culture in New York City in a new section and reaching a consensus. If you are not comfortable with editing the article yourself, then just ask for the removal on that talk page. If nobody adds sources, the material should be removed based on our fairly stringent WP:BLP guidelines even of no consensus evolves -Arch dude (talk) 05:17, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Impossible to use or enter date into your Wikipad!

I’ve been trying now for a week. Replaying Wiki youtube links. I download wiki. It is installed. I put information into the program and it doesn’t save anywhere. My RECENT files have some information but I can’t use it. Nothing is saved and it is GONE into cyberspace! Impossible to contact or email any Wiki help! NO emails. No telephone numbers. NOTHING! If no one responds, I will delete Wiki forever. Wiki need BASIC tut

Impossible to use or enter date into your Wikipad! I’ve been trying now for a week. Replaying Wiki youtube links.

• I download wiki. It is installed. I put information into the program and it doesn’t save anywhere. My RECENT files have some information but I can’t use it. Nothing is saved and it is GONE into cyberspace!
• Impossible to contact or email any Wiki help! NO emails. No telephone numbers. NOTHING!
• If no one responds, I will delete Wiki forever. Wiki need BASIC tutorials – with step by step initial startup information.

Carl Water – New Jersey — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.80.40.114 (talk) 04:15, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

This is the help desk for the English language Wikipedia, which is one of thousands of unrelated sites using one of hundreds of types of Wiki software with "Wiki" somewhere in the name. Are you sure you are in the right place? In general, there is no need to download anything to use this site. If you are in the right place, then please use a plain old web browser to read our introductory material. You can start at Help:Contents. If you are still stuck after that, come back here.-Arch dude (talk) 05:07, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

And specifically, we have no connection to wikipad.com. Rojomoke (talk) 06:09, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

How To Contact People Make Simple

There is way too much information and I can't figure out what I need help with. I was trying to update an article to be more accurate and after only 1 or 2 back and forths with edits shortly thereafter I am blocked from a page and from the talk page. I see no way to contact any admin. I am new to this and feel very confused, frustrated, and offended at how this community has treated me in the short time I've been here. It is very frustrating to see what appears to be very biased treatment and impatience and lack of kindness from people here and I can't even figure out how to private message people to discuss my disagreement. Very frustrating and unwelcoming and unkind experience so far. Makes me feel like boycotting wikipedia if this is how honest kind people get treated who are just trying to do good!

Is there anyone who isn't mean here that will help? Very frustrated. I clicked a persons name but instead of going to a private message box it goes to their page and I see no button to PM so it's not clear what to do. I don't even know if this is where I am supposed to post my question.Rcontributor777 (talk) 05:54, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

@Rcontributor777: I'm sorry your initial experience was frustrating. You started right out by editing an article that was created in October of 2001, (over 18 years ago) and that has been evolving with contributions of hundreds of editors ever since. Your contributions were unsourced and not written in an encyclopedic form, so an experienced editor reverted them. You next move is to discuss your edits with that user, on the user's talk page or on the article's talk page, to reach a consensus. We very rarely use private communications on Wikipedia, because we are trying to reach a collegial consensus. Discussins on user talk pages are not strictly private, but are really intended to the kind of person-to-person interaction you want here. You are not blocked from editing. The Yaweh article is protected because of persistent disruptive editing. Your attempts were therefore perceived as a new instance of this ongoing problem with that article, so the article's protection level was raised. Please read the introductory material on how we work on articles: links have been provided on your talk page, then try again. You will probably have a better experience if you discuss your proposed edits on the article's talk page first, so experienced editors can help you through this mess. -Arch dude (talk) 06:36, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

TonyBallioni - Something’s not right. Brand new account showing unexpected editing and forum experience, and reverts which triggered article protection being implemented. Possible sock? TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 07:33, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Deletion review of a category

I have never really understood the category category, but recently a category was deleted. It seemed to me that a version of the category would be useful for people who make use of categories. I went to the discussion of its deletion, but it was closed. There was a message to go to the deletion record. But I couldn't find any record there of this particular category. The category is "category:Lists of works of fiction, by geographical setting..." (it continues with text about being in chronological order). I concur that the chronological order is extraneous, but (if I figured out how to use the categories pages, then) I would find a list of lists of fiction according to setting helpful since many of these places don't have links to fiction about them. Apparently, such a category does not exist, since I couldn't find it by searching under the shorter name. So, how, without incurring the wrath of speedy deleters or the editor who eliminated the long category, do I try to get the shorter category going?Kdammers (talk) 13:49, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Category:Locations in fiction exists. It has subcategories for, e.g. Category:Countries in fiction, and those subcategories have subcategories for regional and local levels. So, The Great Gatsby is part of Category:Long Island in fiction, which is part of Category:New York City in fiction, which is part of Category:New York (state) in fiction, which is part of Category:United States in fiction by state... etc. Is that what you're looking for?~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 13:59, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Cannot reset password

I want to edit Wikipedia articles but I forgot my password. When I tried to reset it by specifying a mail, no mail is received. Could be that I have created my account without specifying my mail? Is there a way to use the account or can I connect it to my Google account?

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.57.20.13 (talk) 15:46, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Sorry, but there is no way to recover the account. You will need to create a new account. See: Help:Logging in. You can then redirect the old userpage and user talk page to your new user page and talk page. Make sure to specify an email address this time. -Arch dude (talk) 17:21, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

If you give the username then we can see whether it has an email address but we cannot see what the address or password is. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:24, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Pronouns in Infoboxes?

Currently, Infoboxes for people do not include a given person's pronouns (or information about their gender identity). Yet that would appear to be relevant information to know about a person that also should be available at a glance.

MOS:IDENTITY states that we refer to anyone using the latest known pronouns / gender identity. It would be helpful to collect and note such information and the infoboxes seem like a good place to do so.

Where would I need to go to start a discussion about implementing this change? I have not found any previous such discussions in the archives. --Jonas.betzendahl (talk) 16:01, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

@Jonas.betzendahl: Hi there, I'd recommend Template talk:Infobox person as a place to get some initial feedback, but this is a big proposal that will require widespread community input I think, so it will almost certainly require a Request for Comment (RFC). This sort of discussion would affect several biographical infoboxes Template:Infobox musical artist, Template:Infobox YouTube personality, etc. so maybe another Help Desk participant might have a better idea as to where the discussion could begin?

You could also ask what the folks at WikiProject LGBT studies have to say. This seems like a change that would only affect a small percentage of biographical articles, since we'd probably require self-identification of preferred pronouns. Unless Tom Cruise has gone on record to declare his pronoun preference, we probably wouldn't presume to add his. However, I can envision this creating issues with overeager editors blanketing articles with these changes, but that's just me being negative. Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:39, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

@Cyphoidbomb: Thank you for your answers. I will follow your suggestions and gather some input before starting the discussion on Template talk:Infobox person.

Concerning your other point: It would appear to me we already do presume Tom Cruise's (and almost everyone else's) pronouns. The second sentence of the article starts with "He started his career at age 19 [...]". However, while I think it would be prudent to include this information for a large number of people, even if it includes only few people, it would already be a big step in the right direction.

Thanks again for your feedback! --Jonas.betzendahl (talk) 13:26, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Bold

Hi helpful bunch, table formatting isn't my cup of tea. Can someone please look at Mouni Roy#Films and figure out why the last four titles are rendering in boldface? I'm missing something. Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:28, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The cells were formatted as heading cells. I've cured it in this edit. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:00, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

typo

Hi there I don't know how to submit an typo message but you should know, your Platt Amendment article says that it was signed in 1803 but I think it's actually 1903 Thanks, 147.126.10.153 (talk) 17:38, 25 February 2019 (UTC)college student studying for midterms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Amendment

• Note: David has fixed this. Eagleash (talk) 18:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

New logo for Creative Technology

Creative Technology have new logo. Please update... thanks! --151.49.64.189 (talk) 19:50, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

You're better off posting this on that article's talk page. TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 00:29, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Timtempleton:, I have posted in that page, but no answer yet... --151.49.64.189 (talk) 12:13, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

You posted here less than six hours after posting on the talk page. Give it some time. It would also be helpful if you were more specific about what to look for. I went to the creative website and all I could see is that the logo is all black now. No public announcement about the rebranding. Is that the change? TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 14:52, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Timtempleton: is not changed only the color. If you examine the details, you notice that the serif are deleted and the font is in sans... --151.49.64.189 (talk) 19:09, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

changing photo

I am trying to change a photo on the school portion of the Johnson Creek Wi page. The current picture shows our old school and now 2 1/2 years into the new school it would be nice to have that picture.

Help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oneilcjo12 (talk • contribs) 20:05, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

@Oneilcjo12: Its less difficult if you use a picture you have taken yourself, because you own the copyright that way. Go take the picture and get it onto your computer as an image. Then go to the upload wizard for Commons, at c:Upload Wizard, and follow the instructions there. Finally, edit the article to use your file at Commons in place of the existing picture. If you have problems with any of this , come back here for help. -Arch dude (talk) 02:02, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Question on policy interpretation

Hello,

Is there anything like precedent like in common law, but for Wikipedia policies? Like is there somewhere where people can look at how one policy is weighed against another? It seems like it would be helpful to have something like that if not. Also, where can I suggest a policy for rating the quality of essays?

Cheers, Pokerplayer513 (talk) 23:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

@Pokerplayer513: Does this article about content assessment help? Wikipedia:Content assessment TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 23:52, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

TimTempleton does this also apply to Wikipedia:Wikipedia essays as well? Pokerplayer513 (talk) 01:54, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Probably something more like this actually Category:Wikipedia supplemental pages Pokerplayer513 (talk) 01:56, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Pokerplayer513: That question about "precedent" is very broad, and many parts of it are recorded in different places. For example, when articles are proposed for deletion, common themes started to emerge so the editors have tried to document those precedents at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes. Perhaps if you could be more specific about what you're looking for, we might be able to point to something relevant.--Gronk Oz (talk) 02:57, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Visual Editing and Award Tables

I am trying to edit the page for musician John Daversa and wanted to add an Awards table for his grammy awards. When I am editing using the visual editor, everything looks fine, but when I go to publish, it puts the additional information, reference list and other stuff into the table. I don't know how to fix this as everything seems to be codified correctly in the table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:B860:14D0:D5B7:A08C:7DF1:AA70 (talk) 23:51, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

As usual in such situations, the problem was an unterminated table. Cured in this edit. --David Biddulph (talk) 00:13, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

February 26

Link to version of page from specific date (without knowing oldid)

also posted here

Hello all, Is there any tool that will link to an old version of a page when just given a page and date (no oldid)? Alternatively, is there any tool that can calculate an oldid when given a page and a date? T.Shafee(Evo&Evo)^talk 00:32, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@T.Shafee(Evo&Evo): In wikitext, the best you can do is link to a page history only showing the latest version at the time. You can include UTC time in YYYYMMDDhhmm: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=history&limit=1&offset=201801012359. Using url encoding for page names with special characters: [2]. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:58, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Evolution and evolvability Note this is only what is actually from that page. So if for example a template is included of other articles on the topic, that template will show as it is *now*, not the way that it was on the date. The only way around that is if the wikipedia is actually on archive.org or archive.is at that date.Naraht (talk) 16:54, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

TMS list

Hi !

How can i get on the list of TMS practicioners?

I am an CanStat Certified Alexander Teacher in BC, Canada. We have a lot to offer for people dealing with chronic pain. We work with pain contractile response. Our biggest contribuation we can help people with fear of pain to move and excercise again with less self contraction and tension.

Thank you ! Alena Minova — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:569:72A4:E400:79B1:8EB3:7229:213B (talk) 00:44, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

This is the help desk for the entire English Wikipedia. Are you referring to a list in one of our 5.8 million articles? if so which one? -Arch dude (talk) 01:53, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

(e/c) I've just looked and don't see any article listing people in relation to practicing transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is what I think you're talking about. Can you clarify what article this is about? Meanwhile, generally speaking, only people who already have articles dedicated to them because they are notable are properly included in lists embedded in other articles. Are you aware you're at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:55, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Question about page protection

Out of curiosity, is there a reason user’s aren’t able to protect their own pages? SportsFan007 (talk) 05:23, 26 February 2019 (UTC)SportsFan007

Because otherwise someone could move an article into their userspace and then protect it, creating a mess that needs an admin to revert? {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 05:25, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Ah ok, that makes sense, thank you!!! SportsFan007 (talk) 05:26, 26 February 2019 (UTC)SportsFan007

Also, SportsFan007, because there is no such thing as "their own pages". Nobody in the world owns a Wikipedia page, not even Jimmy Wales. --ColinFine (talk) 08:47, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@ColinFine: I meant user pages and user talk pages. SportsFan007 (talk) 10:10, 26 February 2019 (UTC)SportsFan007

If you want userspace pages protected, ask at WP:RFPP, and they usually get done. Joseph2302 (talk) 10:46, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

How I can Publish the Article on Wikipedia?

Hello

I have created the userpage on wikipedia and want to publish the article on wikipedia also. Please guide me or send me the steps that how I can publish the article with name "Jaswant Singh Mann".

Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mxmcms (talk • contribs) 06:24, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

See WP:Your First Article. You can also ask questions at WP:Teahouse. Rmhermen (talk) 07:00, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Selectively suppressing the "sort" function in sortable Wikitables

Hello. I have two questions about the ability to selectively suppress the "sort" function in sortable Wikitables. (1) Can one (or, perhaps, more) specific columns be "suppressed" – or "turned off" – from the sorting ability? (2) Same question for certain specific rows. If so, what is the exact "computer code" to do so? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 12:58, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Joseph A. Spadaro: (1) is explained at Help:Sorting#Making a column unsortable, (2) at Help:Sorting#Excluding rows from sorting. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:23, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Perfect! Thanks! I will check out those links. Thank you. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 14:13, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

created new page on Leslie E. Anderson

Dear Wikipedia, On February 8, 2019, I created a new page for Leslie E. Anderson. That page has never gone live and is not available on Wikipedia. I am writing to ask if you are still reviewing the page or if you have decided not to create it. Thank you.Landerso (talk) 16:26, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Landerso: Hello. If you are Leslie E. Anderson, you should read the policy on autobiographies. If you are not, you will need to change your username(instructions can be provided). If you are referring to User:174.16.224.61/sandbox, you have not submitted the page for review. Even if you did, however, it would not be accepted, as there are no sources provided to support its content, and it reads as a resume or other list of accomplishments. Wikipedia is not for merely telling the world about someone(or yourself). Please read Your First Article. 331dot (talk) 16:31, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Seeing the sortkeys in a category?

Is there any tool or setting that would allow for seeing what the sortkey is for each entry when viewing a category?Naraht (talk) 16:39, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

My reason for asking is that I'm going through and trying to fix all of the entries in Category:Pages_using_infobox_university_with_unknown_parameters and it would be easier if I could see that there was a large group that (for example) all had "Facebook =" as a unknown parameter. (In fact if there were enough of a specific word, I could use AWB to augment my work.Naraht (talk) 16:42, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

@Naraht: Playing with the API documentation, does this API query help? You'd have to run it from a bot account to see the full results, or someone more familiar with the API could work out how to use the "cmcontinue" parameter to get the results in chunks. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:06, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

I don't know a tool which works when you view a category page. The API is designed for programs and I don't know a more human-friendly method. Here are the current API queries to get all pages with cmcontinue without a bot or admin account: [3], [4], [5]. The cmcontinue values will change when the category members change. My admin account can show up to 5000 at a time instead of 500 so you can also ask me for a long list. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:53, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

John of Reading, PrimeHunter This is somewhat useful, but given this, I'm not sure if what I want is available. Because Wikipedia uses the name of the article as a tiebreaker, it automatically appends it to the sortkey. For example (one in both of your lists) for Barnard College, I'd like to get the text "acceptance rate", not "acceptance rateBarnard College". Any ideas?Naraht (talk) 19:02, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

How could I copy edite my Article

I created an Article a few days ago. My Article name is The Hell of Good Intentions. I recived a noification which say my Article need to copy edite or review in it's english grammeral. How can I do this copy edite or is there someweher that do this edite?Forest90 (talk) 17:23, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Visual Editor / MediaWiki edit toolbar

Do we have any statistics on what percentage of editors are currently using Visual Editor and/or MediaWiki edit toolbar? I would like to update the percentages I have on my WP:CANCER page. --Guy Macon (talk) 17:34, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Phonetics guidelines and the IPA template

Is there a way to have Template:IPA-es to indicate things like Venezuela Spanish or Argentinian Spanish? Also if there is an article about a local celebrity, like for example the president of Peru, is there any guideline to decide if we should use standard Spanish or Peruvian pronunciation? --MaoGo (talk) 17:36, 26 February 2019 (UTC)