Wikipedia:Help desk

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• 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.
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March 10

Sending a message

How do I send a Message to someone — Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.230.204.47 (talk) 04:43, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

You can send a message to a specific Wikipedia editor by editing his/her user talk page; for example I will send you a talkback message at User talk:60.230.204.47. Or you can send a message about an article by editing the article talk page. Is that what you want to know. —teb728 t c 04:58, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Many editors also have email enabled, so you could send them an email. This is not done very often though since most communication between editors is handled on their talk pages. Dismas|^(talk) 05:29, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Saving terms

Is it possible to favorite terms to create a saved list of terms on Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zxjonny (talk • contribs) 06:32, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

You can click the "watch" tab on the top of the article and add it to your watch list. you can use your user page or your sandbox as well. or you can use your browser and create a folder and bookmark/favorite them. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 06:40, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Referencing errors on HMS Terror (1813)

Reference help requested. ISSN is as printed on p.3 of the magazine. Also affects the London and Greenwich Railway and HMS Erebus (1826) articles. Mjroots (talk) 06:43, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

@Mjroots: It appears that Jonesey95 (talk · contribs) has worked out what the ISSN should be. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:37, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

So I saw. Have informed the publisher of the problem, should be fixed for issue 201. Mjroots (talk) 10:46, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Combis

Because I am writting an article for Combis I want to allow Wikipedia to use the text, and I will verify it. Combis agrees that the text may be freely redistributed and used, it may be freely modified. Can you please tell me, where I need to send that explanation and will you give me some time to do it, and not delete my work on Wikipedia? Integrator 30 (talk) 09:46, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Combis (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

See the procedure for donating copyrighted material. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:23, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

However, sorting out the copyright problem may not be enough to save the article, as it is also tagged for deletion as a non-notable company. To fix that, you will have to find references to reliable sources that are independent of the company, to demonstrate that other people have already found the company an interesting subject to write about. Only then can it be included in the encyclopedia. There's more on this at Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). -- John of Reading (talk) 10:43, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

There are not only notability issues. The article is very spammy in tone, so even if reliable sources can be found to demonstrate notability, it will have to be rewritten from a neutral POV.--ukexpat (talk) 12:50, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Unsourced criticism in BLP

I removed an unsourced criticism from Suze Orman, but the anon restored it saying that he personally was the source. I don't believe he will be receptive to persuasion based on policy, and I don't want to get in an edit war. So I don't know how to proceed. —teb728 t c 09:57, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Bencherlite removed it again and left a personalized note on the IPs talk page. We will see if that fixes the problem. -- GB fan 10:15, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

(e/c) Well, as no-one has tried explaining policy to him before, despite this being the fifth addition of this material since last September, I tried explaining policy to him: User talk:75.92.7.57#Suze Orman. It's a bit difficult to say that he won't be receptive to persuasion when nobody's tried persuading him not to do this... Bencherlite^Talk 10:16, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

error in data on 2 different pages.

HVAC control system : this page says "Central controllers and most terminal unit controllers are not programmable, meaning the direct digital control program code may be not customized for the intended use. "

and Direct digital control : this page says exactly opposite; "Central controllers and most terminal unit controllers are programmable, meaning the direct digital control program code may be customized for the intended use".

please rectify. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.104.121.194 (talk) 15:14, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

The Help Desk is for questions about how to use and edit Wikipedia, not for resolving factual discrepancies in articles. There are two ways to resolve the disrepancy, depending on how active you want to be in editing Wikipedia.

The first is to (1) find one or more reliable, published sources that resolve the question, and (2) edit the incorrect article, correcting the error and providing references as inline citations.

The other way is to start a discussion on the Talk page of the incorrect article, preferably including links to online sources in your comments. If you don't know which article is incorrect, then choose one. Another editor may then choose to make the correction. If you don't know how to start an article talk discussion, we can provide assistance with that here. ―Mandruss ☎ 15:28, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Or you can look at the article history, and spot where the problem occurs. In this case it was obviously this vandalism to the HVAC control system article in January. I have reverted the vandalism. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:21, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

True, assuming it was in fact vandalism. It was unsourced, but so was the original content. It was the only edit by that IP, but that could have been a legitimate editor who forgot to login. Granted, it resembles a lot of vandalism, but such a resemblance is not definitive. Deferring to your greater experience. ―Mandruss ☎ 17:36, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

You are right, of course, about it being unsourced. There is reasonable confidence in which version was right, given that the version prior to the IP's edit agreed with the other article, and had been in the HVAC control system since its original version in December 2003. It also makes sense given the context. Sources, of course, would be welcome. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:49, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

RationalWiki

Hi I would like to know if there is a relationship between your site and RationalWiki?

I have some issues with the content of certain articles on RationalWiki, and I was wondering what the best course of action would be to express a dissenting view? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Boris Missiuna (talk • contribs) 17:07, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

No, there is no connection. Some of the differences are described at RationalWiki. The only connection is that they use the freely available MediaWiki software. If you wish to raise any issues, you need to do so with RationalWiki, rather than with Wikipedia. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:15, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

help

I need to use sandbox and source code how do I get coding to come up — Preceding unsigned comment added by Takingnotes21 (talk • contribs) 17:59, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

@Takingnotes21: I am not quite sure what you mean, but I have modified the redirect on your sandbox User:Takingnotes21/sandbox so that now when you go to your sandbox you are not automatically redirected to the draft space version where your content was moved. see WP:REDIRECT for more information. If that does not address your actual question, can you please provide more detail. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 18:44, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Transcluded templates using another page's text in a #ifeq

I'm trying to setup a table on my user page, which is fully protected, in a way that allows other users to change a page from saying "true" to something else ("false" or whatever really) to hide the table from all users viewing the page. I have a .css transcluded to my user page so I can edit it. I've tried putting the #ifeq in the .css and a normal page that is then transcluded to the .css but with both of those the table's visibility only updates after the .css is edited. Here's my user page, the variable page and the table transcluded to the .css. PhantomTech (talk) 20:00, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Never mind, purging the page cache fixes the problem... silly me. PhantomTech (talk) 20:02, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Article with a "/" in title treated as a subpage

I moved the page 1809 VEI 7 eruption to 1808/1809 mystery eruption, since I thought that was a more accurate title. However, it seems that the page is now treated as a subpage of 1808 (on Talk:1808/1809 mystery eruption it has a link to Talk:1808). Is there any way to use a title with a "/" in it and not have it be treated as a subpage? If not, then do I need to choose another title, or is it acceptable to leave the article at the title even though it gets treated as a subpage (i.e., is the title I chose a violation of the Manual of Style or any other guidelines)? I suppose the title could be something like "1808-09 mystery eruption", but I didn't want to imply that the eruption occurred during both years (instead it is unclear which of the two years it occurred in). Calathan (talk) 20:49, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Subpages are disabled for articles but not for talk pages, so Talk:1808/1809 mystery eruption is technically a subpage while 1808/1809 mystery eruption is not. That's OK, we have lots of such cases. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:57, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the information. Calathan (talk) 21:13, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Best way to handle this is to redirect Talk:1808 to Talk:1808/1809 mystery eruption. --  Gadget850 ^talk 21:55, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Talk:1808 is the talk page of a different article. Based on PrimeHunter's explanation that this situation is common and acceptable, I don't think anything needs to be done. Calathan (talk) 21:58, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I knew that it was a dumb suggestion as soon as I sent it. --  Gadget850 ^talk 22:19, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I once put a note on Talk:9 which is the parent of many talk pages related to the 9/11 attacks, but I don't think Talk:1808 should do that for a single article with low activity. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:45, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

How difficult would this be to fix? From a design standpoint it would seem that there would be something like "If Articlespace = 1, and there is a page with the same name in ArticleSpace = 0, skip code that handle additions for subpages like the link to the 'parent' page"Naraht (talk) 15:43, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

That would probably give the wanted behaviour in nearly all cases. Link issues involving talk subpages have been reported several times but replies show concerns about consistency and spending effort on a minor problem. See for example phab:T3102, phab:T5455, phab:T15119, phab:T24597, phab:T31765. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:18, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Article denied

Hello,

I've been trying to get my article published on Wikipedia and it keep getting denied.

My article falls under number 9 in the criteria as we won a major competition. The last editor who denied me was saying that we needed to win a major award but that is listed as number 8.

here is the link to look at if you can't get to it. User:Lamontcald/sandbox

All I'm trying to do is get my article published as we are deserving of the page. Let me know if there is anything you can do to help us.

Thanks

Lamont Lamontcald (talk) 23:18, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

There are a number of issues that I see and you seem to be concentrating on just one of them. In no certain order, here are my concerns with that article:

1. The "Guitar Center’s Onstage with Slash contest" is not a major music competition in my opinion.
2. The article is not written in a encyclopedic tone. Phrases like "Sebastian has rock and roll in his blood..." and "He learned the rock ethic and began to experience touring life..." are not phrases that I would find in an article on, for example, The Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd. Articles need to be much more objective in style and not have so many metaphors.
3. You really shouldn't be writing about yourself. See WP:AUTOBIO.
4. The references that you have listed are a paragraph from the Slash web site and two YouTube videos. Of course the Slash web site has something about you. You won their contest! References must be from independent sources. If Spin or Rolling Stone magazines were to write about that contest (and your winning of it), then they would be independent and reliable sources. Someone else, other than Slash and Guitar Center, have to view the contest (and the winners) as notable.
5. The YouTube videos simply demonstrate existence, not notability. Many bands exist but not all of them are notable.

Does that help? Dismas|^(talk) 01:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

March 11

Referencing errors on Michael Colton

Reference help requested. I received an unnamed parameter error on the Michael Colton page. I looked at what this means and I am still unsure. I would like to fix it, but I am not good with coding and don't know what to do or what exactly needs to be fixed Thanks, Ded1996 (talk) 01:38, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

You can find some additional help with references at WP:REFB. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 01:55, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@Ded1996: this issue was that the citation tool and the citation display software didnt talk to each other very well.

The citation tool tried to discern the "name" of the web page, it came up with: February 2008 | Mike Colton 97

Within the software that displays the citations, a "pipe" | means the end of one bit of info about the citation and the beginning of the next one. So the displayware said , the title is February 2008 then there is the pipe that tells me the next bit of info is coming, and the next bit of info is Mike Colton 97 - I dont understand what that means. ERROR! -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 02:20, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Accessing Template:Infobox fields from another page?

Is it possible to access the value of a field that belongs to a template located in another page? Eg: from the sandbox page I want to access the field "birth_date" of the {{Infobox person}} available at Bill Gates page. So I would do a command similar to this: {{Bill Gates|Infobox person|birth_date}}, which should return the value of the "birth_date" field of Bill Gates (in this case: (1955-10-28) October 28, 1955). | Faltur (talk) 01:40, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@Faltur:You could use {{String-handling templates}} like {{Str find}} and {{Chop head and tail}}. I tried to set something up but I couldn't find a search string that let Str find get the right index so there may be a limit to the size of the search string. PhantomTech (talk) 04:00, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

There is no builtin feature and I don't recommend trying to do it with string functions. That would be complicated, unstable, and expensive per Wikipedia:Template limits. If you have cases where the target page can be prepared for this then you could consider Help:Labeled section transclusion. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:13, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

PrimeHunter brings up a good point about the template limits, if you did manage to set this up it might not be useful for anything other than as a substitution template. What are you planning on doing with this outside of the sandbox? If there's a good enough reason the infobox template might be able to be updated to automatically add labeled sections to each field so that something like {{#section:Bill Gates|infobox person__Bill Gates__birth date}} would get you the birth date. Notice that info boxes would need a way to be told apart from others on the page, in this example they are identified by their type first then use the name field to separate infoboxes of the same type. PhantomTech (talk) 05:05, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I don't think a template can produce {{#section:}}. {{#section:}} applies to the page it is written on so Bill Gates and other articles of interest would have to write {{#section:}} at the wanted parameter in their own code. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:23, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Section transclusion uses <section begin=name/> and <section end=name/> to mark sections in articles which templates should be able to insert in the same way that they can insert things like <nowiki>. You probably wouldn't be able to mark the infobox template's input but you should be able to get what it displays based on the input, in the Bill Gates example it would be "October 28, 1955 (age 59)" PhantomTech (talk) 16:44, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@PhantomTech:, thanks for the answers guys. The reason for this is to decrease the translation time by centralizing the known information into a single place, and by accessing it in a interwiki portable way (just through code). As I can see, there is no such function for this specific goal, unfortunately. Faltur (talk) 16:30, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

You're welcome, good luck with your translations. Sorry we couldn't find a way that works. PhantomTech (talk) 16:44, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

cannot use a template with variables, although you could hard code the sections. See {{section}} for issues.

I set up {{Scoutorg BSA}} with statistics that can be inserted into any article, which means I only need to update one central repository and all the numbers are updated across a series of articles. I can't think you need to replicate a birth date across a lot of articles though. Should be able to replace this with Wikidata someday. --  Gadget850 ^talk 16:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Removal of contested deletion comment by poster

Should talk page comments such as "contested deletions" be removed by the poster if they have not been commented on by anyone else? In this case the page creator contested deletion, then after 35 minutes replaced it with standard type talk page project templates, then removed the Speedy Deletion template from the article page, which they are not suppose to do. (they were actually reverted ) BUT...
On second look, the wp:CSD#A7 should not have been applied as it is a page about an educational institution, the Police Lines School and College in Rangpur District, Bangladesh.

I suppose that in this case the contested deletion is moot and void, but the creating editor didn't give an edit summary to point that out. So, in general should such comments be deleted even if, such as this case, they are not replied to or 'acted' on by other editors? --220 of ^Borg 03:39, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

the talk page comments probably shouldnt have been removed and it might make sense to restore them under the project tags. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:26, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

wordpress blog

Hi, Its certainly not my aim to be impertinent but I just want to substantiate my point that since I have written all the post in my blog i.e www.prerna858.wordpress.com then why can't i put the same material in wiki just to create awareness, I don't know much about your policy please guide me on the same, For the time being I have deleted my post as i want to do all my work in ethical manner — Preceding unsigned comment added by Prerna858 (talk • contribs) 04:19, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@Prerna858: Wikipedia is not an advertising platform to "create awareness". Content must be from reliably published sources with a reputation for fact checking and editorial oversight not some blog on the web. Subjects of an article must meet basic criteria of being "notable" (as Wikipedia defines the term) to qualify for having an article-- -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 12:24, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Public Domain Document not Online

I was sent a public-domain, US Federal Gov't PDF document that I want to use for reference on a historical article. However, the document hasn't been posted online (it's pre-Internet and low-priority for digitizing). Is there a way to make it viewable from Wikipedia (like an image file would be), or will I have to cite it in plain text without a link? -- Veggies (talk) 13:10, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi Veggies, I suggest you upload it via Wikimedia Commons as an image. Then make a page at Wikisource in which you put that image. You can then link to the page on Wikisource if you wish to refer to the PDF in a Wikipedia article. See here for more information. Sincerely, Taketa (talk) 15:13, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Done! Thanks! -- Veggies (talk) 19:45, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@Veggies: If the document has been "published", there is no need for access online. If it is not an actually "published" document, then as a primary document it is of little use. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 20:59, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

It's an NTSB Final Report. My feeling was that it would be hard to verify my citations if they were all unlinked, and it would be better to upload a digital copy rather than having people either take my word for it or call the NTSB for a copy themselves. -- Veggies (talk) 21:06, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

As a public domain document you, or anyone else, can make it available on a file hosting site. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 21:37, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I can see a potential problem with doing that: how can we tell that the document is genuine and has not been tampered with? --ColinFine (talk) 23:55, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

it would be best to find a source that quotes or summarizes the official report and use that. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:38, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

wrong word used 'Country' of Georgia for University of Georgia article (search)

in University of Georgia page: article states 'country' of Georgia versus county. See below:

For the University of Georgia in the country of Georgia, see University of Georgia (Tbilisi). The University of Georgia, founded in 1785, and commonly 141 KB (15,934 words) - 04:31, 5 March 2015

states 'in the country of Georgia 13:44, 11 March 2015 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.193.194 (talk)

I don't understand what you are saying. Where it talks about University of Georgia (Tbilisi) it is indeed referring to the country of Georgia, and that is what it says. Where do you think it ought to say county, and why? - David Biddulph (talk) 13:50, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Yes, Tbilisi is in Georgia (country). And anyway, Georgia (U.S. state) is not a county (United States). PrimeHunter (talk) 14:17, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

A copyright query

A quick question. I accidentally posted the text of an article rather than a url into a reference template. I've reverted it and replaced it with the correct information, but do I need to request oversight or that the version with the copyright material be deleted from the page history? This is Paul (talk) 14:13, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi This is Paul, in this situation I think it is sufficient revert the edit. Oversight is only for more severe cases. The thing that could be used here is revision deletion, however I do not believe it is needed. All the best, Taketa (talk) 15:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, thought I'd better check. This is Paul (talk) 15:33, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Mikenseco1 new page

Hi, I have just created a new page and I'm auto-confirmed, how do I upload my page and make it live in Wikipedia for other people to see it..? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikenseco1 (talk • contribs) 14:29, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

What you have created is a WP:user page, but the content is not appropriate for a user page. If it was intended to be an article, you would need to read WP:Your first article, and in particular the requirement for demonstration of the subject's notability by references to published reliable sources independent of the subject. I wonder, though, whether you yourself are the subject, because if so you need to read about Wikipedia's views on autobiography and on conflict of interest. - David Biddulph (talk) 14:59, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I have moved the content to a more appropriate user sandbox: User:Mikenseco1/Sandbox.--ukexpat (talk) 15:50, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

The Co-op?

I just came across Wikipedia:Co-op. Is this a Foundation initiative? Was it created because other resources for new users were considered deficient? I'm confused.--ukexpat (talk) 15:56, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Co-op/About has some background. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:04, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

OK thanks.--ukexpat (talk) 16:26, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Help: how do I correct a Cite error ref no input?

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.83.47.253 (talk • contribs) 16:31, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Well, you could start by reading what it says in the box at the top of this page when you are editing it, including:

• "Please give the exact title or URL of any page you want help with.
• If possible, please be specific in your question rather than general and link to any page or article your question involves, or at least tell us the title of the page.

Finally, please 'sign' any statement you post here by placing ~~~~ at the end of your post. "

- David Biddulph (talk) 16:38, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@165.83.47.253: You were on the help page, which clearly states "There is no content between the <ref>...</ref> tags."

I reverted your edits to Redwood National and State Parks. Please see Help:Referencing for beginners. --  Gadget850 ^talk 16:51, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Can Categories be viewed on mobile phones?

When I'm on my iPhone reading Wikipedia, i can never see what categories a page belongs to. Is there any way to see them? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr. Nile (talk • contribs) 20:41, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

@Mr. Nile: I don't have an iPhone and there are different ways to access the site with mobile devices. Is there a "Desktop" link at the bottom to see the desktop version of the page? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:28, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

March 12

Tool for calculating edit differential?

Is there a thingamabob to count up the bytes a user adds to Wikipedia, and what it takes away? I'm pretty sure I'm more destructive than constructive (in a good way), but would like some less fallible numbers. It should just count article space, not desks or talks. And no, I won't consider tallying it myself. That's nuts. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:12, March 11, 2015 (UTC)

action=query&list=usercontrib&ucprop=sizediff from the API will show you how many bytes a user added or removed in their individual edits (example). If you know a scripting language, you could very easily sum these totals. I'd do it but I'm surprisingly lazy. Scarce2 (talk) 07:21, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

"Ah sitting, the great leveler. From the lowliest peasant to the mightiest pharoah, who does not enjoy a good sit?"

I'm pretty script illiterate (no idea what your example is supposed to show), but a bit closer now. Thanks! InedibleHulk (talk) 07:40, March 12, 2015 (UTC)

Fixing an article talk page archive

I don't use automated archiving so don't know how to fix this. There is something weird about the archiving at Talk:Plutocracy. I could find Talk:Plutocracy/Archive 61 but not Talk:Plutocracy/Archive 1. Does anyone here know how to fix this and set up auto archiving so it works? Cheers. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 05:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I have fixed the archive counter [1] and moved the archive. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you PrimeHunter! --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 00:59, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

yet not received the login info from wikipedia

i signed up for wikipedia and i got a mail in response that i will get my login info soon but i have yet not received any email after that. The mail was as following :

Many thanks for your interest in joining Wikipedia. I've gone ahead and created the account for you. You will receive a separate automated e-mail from wiki@wikimedia.org with your login credentials. You can use these to log in for the first time, when you will be prompted to create a new password.

When you have successfully logged in, you may find the "getting started" section of our help pages useful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents/Getting_started). Of particular interest may be the introduction to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction) which has some information to help you get up to speed with the way things work on the encyclopedia.

One useful hint: when you have logged in for the first time and created your own password, go to your preferences (the link for them is right at the top of the screen), and ensure your email address is set where indicated. Should you forget your password, then this will allow you to have a new one sent to you!

I wish you all the best and hope you enjoy your time on Wikipedia.

• If you did not make this request, please ignore this email. If you wish to report this, please send an email to accounts-enwiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org with a copy of the original email.*

Regards,

Anup Mehra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anupmehra English Wikipedia Account Creation Team

Kindly send my login credentials soon so that i could start using wikipedia — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.57.188.135 (talk) 07:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that you have not yet received your login credentials. I would however suggest you to check your mailbox folders other than inbox such as, junk, spam, etc. in case it reached there. If you are a Google mail user, please do check "social media" inbox tab (fourth one) too. You can also search for the login credential email from wiki@wikimedia.org using your mail search feature (type "from:wiki@wikimedia.org" without quotes in search box and hit Enter key).

Anyway, if it is not even there, please send an email to accounts-enwiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org with request number (six digit number from subject) and I will do what I can to help you out. Regards, Anupmehra -Let's talk! 07:58, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

User warning template for dodgy usernames?

Is there a standardized template for warning a user whose name appears to violate WP:U#Usernames implying shared use? I've seen a few of these, but am feeling a bit tongue-tied in regards to gently advising them to correct such errors. (e.g. User:VP Publications ISBS)--Robin Thayler (talk) 08:32, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

As it says at WP:BADNAME on the page to which you referred, you can use {{uw-username}}. That allows you to explain the reason. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. It was indeed there, but I didn't see it.--Robin Thayler (talk) 08:51, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Robin Thayler: {{uw-coi-username}} might be better depending on what the actual username is, the warning itself goes a bit more into the policy than the general one. PhantomTech (talk) 16:12, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

wanted a title to be created

Sir I wanted to research a topic that is iWebsite and when looked found that there is no such article on wiki so request you to grant me rights or access to work on and provide guidance. your sincerely — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pankajsmishra (talk • contribs) 09:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Your first article. You don't need 'rights' to create an article. What you do need however is evidence in third-party published reliable sources that the subject meets our notability criteria. AndyTheGrump (talk) 09:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input

Hello, I keep getting the same message. I've deleted the cite errors, then put then in again. I have put the cite signs on either side of the references I've included - is this wrong? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malcolm vex (talk • contribs) 09:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Malcolm vex, the error on the page speficially pointed to a situation where you had a set of empty <ref></ref> tags on the page. I have removed them with this edit [2]. The references you have added are formatted suitably but should be moved up into the article text, next to the facts that they prove. CaptRik (talk) 09:27, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Featured Portal

Is having the DYK section necessary for a Featured Portal? RRD13 দেবজ্যোতি (talk) 11:27, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I would have thought that it depends on the topic, but a portal that has a sufficiently large topic area to reach featured status is likely to have enough articles within its scope to make a DYK section (and therefore likely to fail FPOC without one). What's the portal? Bencherlite^Talk 11:33, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Bencherlite: Hi, its still under construction, Portal:Mughal Empire. By the way, can you help me by looking into it and pointing out how the syntax has broken? Thanks! RRD13 দেবজ্যোতি (talk) 11:46, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Royroydeb, fixed I think. You had some misplaced pages, some bad syntax in the /header and /footer, and too many /headers around the place. Now you can the format for the /articles for the /biographies section, for example. If you want to check some code in a functioning portal try P:OXFORD (said he modestly). Oh, and I removed the Wikinews section because it will never have anything in it, so that saves you some work. Bencherlite^Talk 12:26, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

'Moving' article name

Hello,

I'm writing to you because I'm having some trouble changing the name of my article. The page I'm talking about is our company's - ESNA European Higher Education News, which I would like to rename 'ESNA' following a change up within the firm ESNA European Higher Education News.

I've researched how one would normally go about changing or 'moving' the title of an article, but the drop-down arrow which is supposed to appear in the edit toolbar simply isn't there. Online it says that this could be because I'm not an 'autoconfirmed user', but that's only the case for users who haven't been on for more than 10 days or made a certain amount of edits, I think?

Thanks in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by Isidor.grim (talk • contribs) 12:01, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

4 days and 10 edits, see Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed#Autoconfirmed users. You meet the first requirement, but not yet the second. I have taken the liberty of changing the url in your question to a wikilink. --David Biddulph (talk) 12:07, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

As a side note, be careful with the words you use, please read WP:OWN Its not your article. Secondly, you have a Conflict of interest and are advised to not edit it. - X201 (talk) 14:06, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Please remove the information here.

Spam (food)

Please remove this statement in the South Korean segment: "Spam products currently being sold in Korea are made with more high-quality ingredients than other countries." This statement is not true. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snelsen (talk • contribs) 13:23, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

This dubious and unreferenced information has now been removed by TheRedPenOfDoom. Maproom (talk) 14:09, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

search for Shad

Hi there. Shad was just announced as the new host of Canadian radio show Q, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_%28radio_show%29 replacing Jian Ghomeshi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian_Ghomeshi When you search for Shad on Wikipedia you get the article Alosinae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alosinae. So it looks like there is no article on Shad. Can someone fix it so you get one of those pages that give the different definitions instead, so the searcher also gets the option for Shad (rapper) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shad_%28rapper%29 (which does exist, but how will people get to it). Thanks you. 142.150.38.155 (talk) 14:52, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

If you look at the top of Alosinae, it says ""Shad" redirects here. For other uses, see Shad (disambiguation)." --David Biddulph (talk) 15:03, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Shad redirects to Alosinae which already has this hatnote at top:

"Shad" redirects here. For other uses, see Shad (disambiguation).

Shad (rapper) is the first listing on the linked page so the article can easily be found. In addition, Shad K., Shad K and Shadrach Kabango redirect directly to him. It would be possible to make "Shad" the disambiguation page but I don't see a strong need for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

if you click on the history and then where it says Page view statistics you can see Shad the rapper has far more people looking for it. Thank you. 142.150.38.155 (talk) 15:56, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

We go by who has had the most significant depth of coverage over the longest period of time in the widest array public spaces. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 16:38, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

The fish, by a large margin! :) Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 19:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Follow Up on Undeletion of a Page

I submitted an "undeletion" request for the page "Leigh Bardugo" last week. How do I follow up on the request? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Essa 17 (talk • contribs) 16:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

According to Special:Contributions/Essa_17, you didn't. Perhaps you forgot to press "Save page"? You might try again, but first of all you ought to look at the delete log for Leigh Bardugo, which says "Circular redirect with no obvious alternate target". There is therefore presumably nothing worth undeleting. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:51, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

With the benefit of my admin x-ray vision for deleted pages, I can tell you that it was simply a redirect to Shadow and Bone. Bencherlite^Talk 17:10, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

World Sindhi Congress- article needs additional citations for verification

I am in the process of improving the WSC wikipedia page as I am a media manager for this nonprofit. I know that all the information I have added and will add is true and correct because I work directly with this organization.

How can I verify the page further in order to remove this message?: This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2013)

I want my group to be able to gain recognition and many people turn to wikipedia for a quick look at something new they haven't heard of before. I don't want wikipedia users to associate our organization with incorrect information. I most definitely don't want them to think we aren't paying attention to our media presence, because it's something I work hard to maintain.

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marisatw (talk • contribs) 17:38, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

To editor Marisatw: We cannot rely on your personal knowledge or solely on the organization's website and social media. Articles should primarily be based on independent, reliable sources of information (newspapers, books, magazines, and so on). Anon126 (notify me of responses! / talk / contribs) 18:28, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Marisatw. While we want Wikipedia articles to be accurate (according to reliable published sources), it is no part of Wikipedia's purpose to help anybody "gain recognition" or to be part of anybody's "media presence". While you are encouraged to make suggestions for improving the article on its talk page, you have no control whatever over its content, and are strongly discouraged from making any edits directly to it because of your conflict of interest. --ColinFine (talk) 23:16, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Help with a file

Please tell me where I can find out if the last two files are at Wikipedia. If so why can't I insert them in an article?

Thank you for your help.

SirSwindon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.102.212 (talk) 18:47, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@76.89.102.212: They should work if you remove the period following "jpg". ―Mandruss ☎ 18:58, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

So simple......Thank you, Thank you and Thank you again!!!!!!!!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.102.212 (talk) 19:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I've changed to links, rather than trying to transclude the images onto this page. - David Biddulph (talk) 19:20, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Accidental creation of a user page

I edited a page in my user space. Then I tried to move it to the main space, but accidentally, I forgot to change the name space. So the following page was created in error: User:Equitable division. Now, it redirects to the actual page, but, I think it should be deleted. --Erel Segal (talk) 19:14, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I've tagged it for speedy deletion. --David Biddulph (talk) 19:17, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Adding text which is partially supported

According to wp:Verifiability "any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material". I understand that an undisputed factual text can be added without a support, or with a partial support. Am I right?

more details: my added text was: "the war resulted in significant reduction of Israeli civilians killed by infiltrating Egyptian Fedaeen units.(ref name="Morris2011p300")". this is an undisputed factual sentence, and I have not expected it to be challenged. However, this edit was erased by user:Malik Shabazz who noted: " as noted on Talk page (and in text quoted in footnote), this sentence misrepresents what the source says". Moreover, he warned me in User talk:Ykantor. I have asked him to apologize but he refused.( see [3])

Why I added a partial support: I have read the source and while reading the relevant text("The 1956 war resulted in a significant reduction of...Israeli border tension. Egypt refrained from reactivating the Fedaeen, and...Egypt and Jordan made great effort to curb infiltration") , It reminded me that the reduction of Fedaeen infiltration resulted in significant reduction of Israeli civilians killed by infiltrating Egyptian Fedaeen , so I added it. Ykantor (talk) 19:34, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Please engage with the other editor on the article's talk page. The Help Desk does not arbitrate content matters.--ukexpat (talk) 20:11, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, but I do not understand that. There is no content dispute. The question is whether I am right in my interpretation of the rule. I would like to know what should be done if it happens again. Please. Ykantor (talk) 21:46, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

You are incorrect. There is a content dispute stemming from a difference in interpretation of policy. This is outside the scope of the Help Desk. Please see Wikipedia:Dispute resolution#Noticeboards. ―Mandruss ☎ 21:56, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Alterity

Trying to do major edit Error message: Incorrect or missing CAPTCHA. I do not understand the message, nor do I know how to fix the problem. --Rev.trw379 (talk) 19:59, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

@Rev.trw379: I guess you tried to add an external link. Your account is not autoconfirmed yet and then you have to fill out a CAPTCHA when you add external links. Some users say they don't see a CAPTCHA but just get the error message. When you have saved two more edits anywhere your account will be autoconfirmed and the problem will probably go away. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Article creation, not yourself for your article

I find it incorrect that a person cannot write an article about themselves. Who knows a person better than themselves? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.32.2.34 (talk) 20:16, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Who has a clear unbiased view of themselves? Maproom (talk) 20:28, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

That's fine but this is not the place to discuss it. Bring it up at Wikipedia talk:Autobiography. Dismas|^(talk) 21:18, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

How can Wikipedia be more inviting to non-Christians?

Read the article on Surrender (religion). Christianity gets a long section and a page redirect. Hinduism gets a long section but no page redirect. Islam gets only four sentences. The article on Theology seems to really focus on Christianity and European history, which may give the impression that somehow Islam or Hinduism don't really have any significant developments in their belief systems to warrant any discussion, or perhaps, there is really nothing interesting to talk about for non-Christian religions. Perhaps, there should be a massive, intentional effort to write about non-Christian religious perspectives and histories. The only problem that I find is, this may require the ability to understand multiple languages, as not all resources are written in English. SSS (talk) 21:19, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

It is well recognized that there is a systemic bias on Wikipedia. --  Gadget850 ^talk 21:57, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

It does seem odd that the Arabic-language Wikipedia article on theology has two pictures, one of Albert of Cologne and one of Calvin. Maybe, to a Muslim, "theology" means something that Christians do.

But, to try to answer your question, I am sure that if Muslim, Hindu, etc. theologians make additions to the theology article, their work will be appreciated. What you observe is the consequence of what editors have chosen to contribute, not of any policy. Maproom (talk) 22:01, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Feel free to add to the articles in areas you feel are lacking. Like Maproom said, there is no bias in policy. As long as your additions meet the same requirements as the rest of the content there's no reason why it can't be there. PhantomTech (talk) 22:07, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

One question which comes to mind to me is the matter of article titles. Obviously, old Buddhism and Jainism don't really have a "theology," because they are basically atheistic. I wouldn't expect to find anything related to them in the "theology" article, although, maybe, it might be covered at length in some article on their worldview. And for a lot of religions which have had their longest history in some other language, there are separate articles for their conceptions in articles named after the term in that language.

Even that won't be enough to really satisfy some people, not unreasonably. But matters of WEIGHT will apply to lots of the articles which relate to terms in multiple languages, and including at least some information on each is going to be problematic.

The best thing I can think of is to look at the content in either the Eliade/Jones Encyclopedia of Religion, the German Religion Past and Present/RGG, and other highly regarded reference works and see both how long their articles on interfaith topics are and where they put content related to specific topics within specific religions. If it can be demonstrated that either article structure or number and content of sections of interfaith articles could reasonably be changed here, I don't think there would be much disagreement. Alternately, it might be possible to find a specific single-faith-related subtopic which can be spun out and linked to in the article on the broader interreligious topics. That can be some work, but at least the first of those two sources I named is I think fairly widely available. — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Carter (talk • contribs) 22:18, 12 March 2015‎ (UTC)

Philadelphia Fire Department

Would someone there have a moment to look at Philadelphia Fire Department. A gigantic amount of info was removed by two editors in a short time, and some of it was sourced info. Thanks!

The largest amount removed was a list of firefighters killed in the line of duty. That is already being discussed on the article's talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 22:26, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

March 13

How to change wiki url

Hi,

Today, I have created https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Radcliffecardiology and watch list page as showning "User:Radcliffecardiology", but by mistake, posted in user section. Please give suggestion for removing "user:/" in url structure and watch list area.

Thanks