Wikipedia:Help desk

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Wikipedia Help Desk
  • This page is only for questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia. For other types of questions, use the search box or the Reference desk.
  • Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
  • We are all volunteers, so sometimes replies can take some time. Please be patient. Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.

  • New users: While this is a good place to ask questions, new users may prefer to ask for help at the Teahouse, an area specifically for new users to get help with editing, article creation, and general Wikipedia use, in a friendly environment.
Are you in the right place?

January 21[edit]

Is there then a way to download a dump of wikipedia pages and another separate one from their discussions?[edit]

BTW: from the little corner from which I see reality, I can't see how to continue a thread, even though I see other people doing it. Great! This is exactly what I need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Semiotics&offset=&limit=500&action=history

I have a few more questions. Let me explain first the background of what I have in mind in order to make my objectives a bit clearer. I research on semiotics/corpora and one of the aspects that interest me about communication is its multimodality and as part of its multimodality, people's "finger" (the patterns that people display as they communicate (during WWI individuals operating telegraphs could be fully reliably identified by their keying patterns, about which they were not even conscious)). Using as example the wikipedia page about semiotics:

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

You get the back and forths of users as they edit the page from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Semiotics

and the archives:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Semiotics/Archives/ {2015, 2014, 2013, 2012}

So, I need snapshots of: 1) wikipedia pages 2) Talks (current and archived ones) 3) their history (which you could stratify from §2 anyway) I was checking out the dumps and I am having a hard time making sense of them. Writing some script to hit wikipedia millions of times doesn't make any sense either. Any idea about how could I get wikipedia sources in a relatively sane and sensical way? Albretch Mueller (talk) 02:14, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Welcome Albretch Mueller. Wikimedia has a page about Data dumps, which may help you, and you may want to check out their Research page.
In the meantime to continue a discussion thread, you enter your text just below the comment you are replying to, indented by one or more colons (:). (I have altered the indentation on your post above, for greater readability). An example of how a discussion thread should look in wikitext is shown in this link: Bhunacat10 (talk), 10:17, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Re : question regarding submitting info[edit]

Hi there,

I wondered how I can submit info about myself in Wikipedia? is that possible? I am a Visual Artist.

Kind regards Fiona Maclean — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.51.20 (talk) 06:02, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Normally, writing about yourself is discouraged. If you are really notable someone will write an article about you at some point. Beeblebrox (talk) 06:23, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

why my articles is rejected[edit]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Ronsolanki (talkcontribs) 06:15, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

@Ronsolanki: Your sandbox was nominated for speedy deletion because it serves only to promote the subject. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not an advertising medium. —teb728 t c 06:34, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Summoning bots?[edit]

Hi all,

Is there an easy way to summon bots to a page I'm working on, to clean up things like unit conversions and merging references?

Anothersignalman (talk) 09:49, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi Anothersignalman, sorry for the late response. I'm not sure about unit conversions, but you can merge duplicate references semi-automatically. ReFill, although it's main purpose is to expand bare URLs, will automatically merge refs that are duplicates with preset ref names as long as the content in them is exactly the same. Hope this helps.--SkyGazer 512 Oh no, what did I do this time? 16:14, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for that. I've tested it and it can change the current 200ish references to 130, so I'll give it another try after I finish the article I'm working on. I still have another 85 references to incorporate, plus some books I need to find. Anothersignalman (talk) 17:03, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Deletion of article Those Who Inspire Ltd[edit]

Hello,

My name is Nicoleta and my wiki username is Nicoleta 1992.

I am getting in touch with you here since I have created an article called Those Who Inspire Ltd that has been deleted.

It is my first time creating an article on wikipedia. I am not paid, I am only a fan of this organisation. Therefore, I have uploaded the article and different Wiki contributors have started to write on my talk page saying that the article is promotional (I have asked many times in what regards and I never got an answer), one of them deleted the article, and one of them alleges that I am paid to write this article because they found me on a freelancer website that I have never used.

I would kindly like to know how does it work more precisely and why the article is considered promotional, what can I do to create an article on Wikipedia that can be accepted?

Thank you.

Nicoleta1992 (talk) 11:24, 21 January 2019 (UTC)Nicoleta1992, 12:24, 21 January 2019 (CET)

Nicoleta1992, this isn't the right place, I'll post advice on your talk page shortly Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:36, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Incorrrect information on page[edit]

Hi there,

We have a page on wikipedia which we have noticed has some incorrect information present. We are aware that updating this information first hand may cause issues due to it being biased, however the information on the page is actually incorrect and needs to be updated.

Please could you advise the best alternative for this to ensure any changes made by us will not be removed by Wikipedia.

Kindest regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.31.61.190 (talk) 13:59, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Who is 'we' and what is the page title? --CiaPan (talk) 14:02, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
Hello, you'll find some basic advice about editing with a conflict of interest at WP:COI (especially in "COI editing" and "Paid editing"). But, as CiaPan mentioned, it would be better if you could specify the article in question, so editors here can offer more specific advice. One final point though: all uninvolved volunteer editors can always edit and remove content on Wikipedia, if it is deemed false or inappropriate for an encyclopedia - there's no way to prevent that. Editors disagreeing about specific content should discuss such issues on the article's talkpage. GermanJoe (talk) 14:21, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Where did Phillips serve in VietNam?[edit]

If he is 64 he would have graduated HS in June 1972 at earliest. At that time there were fewer than 25,000 US troops in country VN. Even if he went to boot camp right out of HZ he would not have graduated until late August or early September, then 8-10 weeks of AIT training plus a couple of weeks of leave easily puts him in-country in early 1973. By then there were only 50 US troops there, all of them were Embassy guards (Marines). He is lying about his service and Wiki should ask for his proof of service (DD214) otherwise it is another case of Stolen Valor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.155.84.158 (talk) 15:01, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Please see the top of this page. This page is only for questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia. It is unclear who you are referring to in any case, and we do not contact our subjects to ask them to prove anything. We rely on published, reliable sources for our content. If there is content that lacks a reliable source at an article, you can comment on that article's Talk page and suggest it be removed. General Ization Talk 15:09, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

LASEK[edit]

To Whom it may concern,

I have been trying to add basic information regarding LASEK laser eye surgery. The page keeps getting deleted and I don't understand why. The information is informative and helpful to people considering this treatment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tamara Drover (talkcontribs) 17:35, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

The page isn't being deleted, but your edits have been reverted because they were on the wrong page (and also didn't contain correct citations). Please read what what you were told in the first warning on your user talk page, and in the edit summary in this edit, and then read the page on the relevant subject. Before you do try any edits, please read WP:Referencing for beginners. - David Biddulph (talk) 17:49, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
Your wording was also blatantly promotional. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:51, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

To Whom it may concern,

I don't understand why my edits are being deleted. Where can I post information about the LASEK treatment? Can I start a new page rather than edit this one, if so how?

Please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tamara Drover (talkcontribs) 20:48, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Your question was answered above, and previously. --David Biddulph (talk) 20:54, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
@Tamara Drover: There is already a section on LASEK at LASEK. Do not be tempted to add promotional content there. —teb728 t c 21:20, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Submitting an article[edit]

I thought I followed the correct procedure to submit an article "Field Precision LLC", but I have had no acknowledgement and it does not appear when I type it in the Wikipedia search. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snegtrail (talkcontribs) 19:53, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Snegtrail, the article is at Field Precision LLC which appears to be getting deleted soon. †dismas†|(talk) 21:27, 21 January 2019 (UTC)


January 22[edit]

Martin Luther Ling Day Wikipedia page[edit]

Dear wikipedia the martin luther king jr day page has been hacked or something there is a disturrbing image of genatailia on the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:140:8200:F3E5:DFA:DE0:619A:A1F (talk) 00:22, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello IP and welcome to the Help Desk. The offensive image has been removed, and the user blocked. Rubbish computer (Talk: Contribs) 00:27, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Roger Lupton[edit]

Please help with IBSN number in reference number 17. Thankyou in advance. 175.32.165.144 (talk) 00:44, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

You have entered two ISBNs, a 10-digit and a 13-digit one, separated by a comma. It may be that both are valid, but from reading the linked help in the error message I am given to understand that the ISBN field will only accept one ISBN, and will not accept commas. You need to choose which of the two you want to use and eliminate the other one (and also the comma). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.217.251.247 (talk) 00:57, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
Pease see above request. help please. I would like to choose the first 10 digit IBSN - but I Cannot do it on current device. Please do it for me. Sorry and thanks 175.32.165.144 (talk) 02:36, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
 Done Eagleash (talk) 05:10, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Copyright Issue with David E. Shaner[edit]

The article on David E. Shaner has been tagged as probable copyvio and blanked since 2 November 2018. It was first tagged for G12 by User:PRehse, and then blanked pending copyvio work by User:Justlettersandnumbers. (I thank both of them for keeping Wikipedia free of copyvio.) How long should an article be tagged in this fashion before it goes back to G12 and then into the bit bucket? Is there something that should have been done, or is there something that editors need to do to continue to deal with copyvio? Robert McClenon (talk) 01:00, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

This copyright problem already listed under 2 November at Wikipedia:Copyright problems#Listings of possible copyright problems, that's the normal assembly point. You'll see that there are a few outstanding issues older than this one: Bhunacat10 (talk), 11:19, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks, Robert McClenon, Bhunacat10; yes, unfortunately the copyright problems board is pretty much chronically back-logged. A month or so ago I did look at the rewrite proposed for this article; I found it acceptable from a copyright point of view, but so unencyclopaedically promotional in tone that I wasn't prepared to move it into mainspace, and so left it for someone else to review. It's since been moved into draft space (passing note to ColinFine and Hamster Sandwich: Talk:David E. Shaner/Temp actually was the right place for a copyvio rewrite). Ptarry seems to have been working on the draft; with his/her agreement, and if no-one else objects, I suggest that I now delete the previous version of the page – which will resolve the copyright problem – and let the draft proceed through the AfC process. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 11:59, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
It's a bit difficult sorting the wheat from the chaff on that page, but the article concerned is also listed at Category:Wikipedia pages tagged for copyright problems. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:25, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
All, thank you for your help. I am glad the copyright issue has been resolved. I would be fine with taking the David E Shaner article off of the mainspace and continue to work on Talk:David E. Shaner/Temp until it is neutrally acceptable in tone. At that point the revised article could be put on the mainspace. For background, I have no financial ties to David Shaner. I know David Shaner through my time as a student at Furman University and continuing study of Aikido. (Ptarry (talk) 14:36, 22 January 2019 (UTC))
User:Ptarry - The currently blanked article on David E. Shaner has been nominated for deletion. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/David E. Shaner. If the copyright issue has indeed been resolved, it would useful if someone could restore the non-copyvio text. As it is, with the entire article overwritten by a huge copyvio banner, I have a hard time imagining that it will survive the AFD. I see three problems with it, of which one may be resolved. The first is the matter of copyvio. The second is that the notability of Shaner is being challenged, and is the primary basis for the AFD. The third is that the draft is still very promotional and non-neutral, and this leads editors at the AFD to wonder further whether there is anything besides puffery, and puffery is not a reason to keep an article. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:50, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia related[edit]

Sir I am missbahuddin Ahmad.why do you delete all my wikipedia contributions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 0786dcba (talkcontribs) 03:41, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Well, for example, the Principal Secretary of Home Department (Bihar) is not notable enough for an article. Your edits have bad grammar and capitalization, and inevitably lack any kind of reliable sourcing. --Orange Mike | Talk 04:46, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

A potential factual issue on multiple pages (possibly subtle hoax?), and unsure where to put this[edit]

(Sorry, I don't really know what the right place for this is, I am not really experienced at all with wikipedia editing or contribution)

Multiple articles relating to the First Jewish-Roman War gave me some suspicion. There are references to a "Judean Free Government" which sounds somewhat anachronistic, and the "Judean Free Government" page itself refers to a "Judean People's Assembly" which sounds even more anachronistic, with there being no google results for such an assembly except wikipedia and a couple mirrors. I am also having a hard time finding any sources from Google (apart from blogs that seemingly copy from the wiki) refer to the Jewish rebels as a "Judean Free Government", and a look at some of the sources cited in the articles doesn't seem to show any such references, or it isn't cited at all. Also, some of the usages on some pages seem grammatically clunky, and edit page histories for a couple of the pages I looked at showed that the "Judean Free Government" was just referred to as Jewish rebels or something like that, until edits made by one user in 2017 and 2018. Part of me is kind of suspicious that this might just be a Monty Python/Life of Brian joke (Judean People's Front/People's Front of Judea/etc).

TL,DR: found some questionable stuff in an article. I am suspicious that something is up here, but while I have some knowledge of history, I am no expert. I also don't really know where to post this or where to get the attention of those more knowledgeable in wiki editing and the subject area. It sounds like talk pages are for that, but there's a bunch of pages with these potential issues (maybe that's where this belongs anyway, I just don't want to spam it or anything if that's not cool or whatever)

HelpPls? (talk) 14:58, 22 January 2019 (UTC)-

@HelpPls?: Welcome to Wikipedia and thanks for wanting to make it better. You should post on the talk page for the article's in question. Editors who are interested in that article will see it there. Also, some article's are associated with a WikiProject. If you look on the article's talk page, you will see a link to the project page and you can also post questions there. RudolfRed (talk) 19:13, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
This is first-class BS. It doesn't quite qualify for WP:SPEEDY deletion, so I've nominated it for deletion via WP:AfD here. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:58, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Contact another user?[edit]

I would like to contact another user who has been editing some of the same articles that I've been working on so we can discuss the subject. Is there a way to do this?

(Probably a newbie question but...)

Thanks!

Michigan Gold Diver (talk) 18:47, 22 January 2019 (UTC)Michigan Gold Diver

Michigan Gold Diver Every user has a user talk page, which is used for communication. If you look at your signature above, there is a link to yours included; most signatures have such a link. If you look at an article's edit history, there is also links to user talk pages there. 331dot (talk) 18:50, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
I will shortly post to yours, as an example. 331dot (talk) 18:51, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
(edit conflict) If you look at the article's history it shows the user name for each edit, and there will be a "talk" link alongside each user name. There is advice at WP:Talk page guidelines. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:52, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

How to share the mobile app Saved lists with my desktop web broweser[edit]

I love the app and save many articles there for reading. Can I do the same on-line? and can my saved lists be accessed via a web browser?

thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uselessbay2000 (talkcontribs) 23:38, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Using Who's Who as a reference[edit]

Hello, I'm just wondering if Who's Who is considered to be a reliable source for BLPs. I came across its use in a couple of articles a few minutes ago when it was added by someone. Can someone advise? I'm pretty certain it's come up in discussions in the past but can't recall where. I tried Wikipedia:Who's who but it didn't give me the information Id hoped. Cheers in advance, This is Paul (talk) 23:39, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello @This is Paul: There have been several discussions on various Who's Who publications:
  1. 2007 discussion on notability
  2. Marquis, Feb 2008
  3. Marquis, Dec 2008
  4. Canadian Who's Who, 2009
  5. Marquis, 2010
  6. Who's Who UK, 2010
  7. Who's Who UK, 2011
  8. Who's Who UK (notability), 2015
  9. related AfD, 2015
  10. Marquis, 2017
The general consensus seems to be that since the subjects write their own entries (or at least provide the information via a questionnaire), they can be considered self-published sources – good for basic biographical information on the subject, but not for determining notability or self-serving claims. Editors make a distinction between the Marquis Who's Who and Who's Who (UK), which are compiled by different publishers. The UK edition is sometimes said to have more editorial oversight regarding the notability of its subjects and accuracy of information, but the core biography is still dependent on information provided by the subject.
For future reference, there is a dedicated noticeboard for discussing the reliability of sources. – Teratix 00:55, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Correction: Canadian Who's Who is not related to Marquis Who's Who. – Teratix 04:56, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for getting back to me. It was used for background information for some biographies of UK politicians. I'll mention it at the niticeboard anyway. Cheers again. This is Paul (talk) 09:39, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

January 23[edit]

Trying to find out how to discuss an editor that is deleting too many edits of many users[edit]

I want to report some behavior of a user that is deleting edits, even when people have gone through considerable effort to make their edits better. This person is not acting in the spirit of Wikipedia being a place where many people can contribute to knowledge on a subject. It is hard to figure out exactly how to report this confidentially to Wikipedia. I have already discussed this on the user's talk page. I don't think someone should be allowed to delete edits the way she has been doing to many users. Thank you! - InspireEdit — Preceding unsigned comment added by InspireEdit (talkcontribs) 00:31, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

(courtesy ping User:Melcous) Hello @InspireEdit: I see nothing wrong with Melcous's conduct in this instance. She has clearly explained to you why she reverted your edits (because they were promotional and broke reference formatting), and I agree that language such as "The Size2shoes duo have performed all over the world and are respected and esteemed by fellow performers ..." is problematic. What you should do next is:
  1. Declare any conflicts of interest you may have
  2. Refrain from adding promotional material to the article
  3. If you can phrase the edits in a sufficiently neutral way, discuss them on Talk:Size2shoes to form a consensus as to which, if any, should be included.
Teratix 01:14, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

References[edit]

Where do I put references on my article ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bigz8484 (talkcontribs) 02:56, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

@Bigz8484: Read Help:Referencing for beginners. If you have questions after that please come back here. -Arch dude (talk) 03:03, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
- also see MOS:ORDER for article layout - cheers - Epinoia (talk) 16:30, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

"Formatting error: invalid input when rounding"[edit]

I got this error message after I entered the elevation in meters (810) for Silvan, Diyarbakir into the InfoBox, followed by the source citation. What can I do about this? The citation is causing the error message, and placing one space between the number and the cite does not help.--Quisqualis (talk) 03:27, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello @Quisqualis: You will want to add the "elevation_footnotes" parameter to the infobox and insert the citation there. (Put 810 in "elevation_m" as normal). – Teratix 03:33, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks, Teratix. Apparently, I did not implement your instructions properly. I saved the bad result at Silvan, Diyarbakir, so you can see exactly what I did wrong.--Quisqualis (talk) 03:52, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
I fixed it for you. – Teratix 04:10, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Bug when editing - closes up spaces[edit]

I experience this problem erratically but quite often. When I press enter to start a new paragraph, sometimes the preview version (and sometimes the saved version if I give up on it after fiddling around with it long enough!) doesn't leave a gap at all. Sometimes I try putting a "br", which causes it to start on a new line, but often without paragraph spacing. Sometimes I try just hitting enter to create a lot of lines of spaces, which intermittently gives the right result, too much space, or just continues showing none at all. This is rather frustrating to say the least! Has anyone else encountered this problem, and/or know if there's something I'm doing to cause it? I use a Firefox browser (latest version, whatever it currently is). Laterthanyouthink (talk) 05:42, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

You have to put a space between paragraphs, or put in the </br> code to just skip one line. It's how the HTML renders, similar to how multiple spaces only appear as one. TimTempleton (talk) (cont) 06:12, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
It's <br />, but use two newlines for a new paragraph. See more at Help:Line-break handling. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:59, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks, TimTempleton. I have returned to the troublesome section and tried pretty much every variation of <br> and </br>, text running on, just one return/enter, one return plus space line (i.e. another return), with or without <br>s and every variation I can think of - but it still seems to behave erratically, often giving differing results using preview after not even changing anything. I finally got it to work as intended by just using <br> at the end of the offending paragraphs plus one return - for that particular save, anyway! In the same section, previous paragraphs have no <br> but just the space line and it has worked fine - as it does most of the time. It seems to be an erratic problem without a discernible pattern. Oh well, I'll push on in the hope that it doesn't happen again... Laterthanyouthink (talk) 10:03, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Your <br> are unnecessary and I have removed them.[1] I noticed they were all after inline references. Maybe you have a display problem with that. Please just make two newlines. It works fine for others. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:24, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks PrimeHunter, but unfortunately I was in the middle of a huge edit session when you wrote your comment here and and did not see it, and only discovered your change in the article when I tried to save my changes and it told me that there was an edit conflict. I then (in a slight panic) reverted your edit, thinking that I could preview and then save all of my changes I'd been making, but have now found that it has lost them all and no amount of paging back gets me back to where I was where I am able to see my changes. I have now lost my restructured section, reworded and added info and all of the extra citations I'd added, so will have to start again tomorrow or whenever I next have time. I appreciate that you were trying to help but I wish you'd pinged me in that instance! I assure you that I had tried every variation of newlines and spaces - one, two, many, and only later tried with and without <br>s. I haven't noticed that it only happens after in-line refs but I'll play with that a bit more tomorrow and see if there's any pattern there. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 11:39, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
I find edit conflicts infuriating, too. It's a good idea to make edits one section at a time to reduce the problem, but, if it happens to you again, you should copy your revised text from the edit window (where it says "your text") then at least you don't lose all your work. Dbfirs 14:47, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
I confirm the original report by Laterthanyouthink. I have been editing Wikipedia, using the Firefox 32-bit browser for Windows, for years, and know how to separate paragraphs (as explained in earlier responses). A few months ago I started to have this problem when editing, probably after a Firefox update: I type or edit a paragraph, press carriage return twice as usual, and type new text. It displays, unsaved, as expected in the editor with one blank line, but when saved or previewed the new text follows immediately after the previous paragraph, with no line break and no blank line; the edit text after save/preview has also lost the line break. I haven't tried to debug this seriously (I can't see anything wrong if I copy the text into a text editor and look at it as hex). I confirm Laterthanyouthink's report; this is definitely something wrong, not user error.

I have some workarounds:
1: after a paragraph I press Enter twice or more, then <br>, then Enter once or twice more, followed by more text. I preview the result, and find that most line breaks have been removed, but typically there is <br> on a line by itself, followed by one or more blank lines (sometimes there is a blank line before the <br>). I put the cursor on the last blank line, and backspace to delete all except the first blank line. When I save that it is usually OK.
2: I open the page in Google Chrome, which does not have this problem, if necessary copying the page in edit mode with my edits from Firefox.
3: I think that copying the edit page into a text editor (Notepad++), getting the blank lines right, and copying back, works. I don't remember as I rarely do this.

My conclusion is that a few versions back something happened to Firefox (32-bit for Windows, at least) that makes it malfunction in this particular interaction with Wikipedia, only. Or maybe something in my profile or setup, which would clear if I started a new profile? For the time being I simply live with it, doing extra previews and checking. I have just started looking into it, which is how I found this page. Best wishes, Pol098 (talk) 16:40, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Yes, indeed, Dbfirs! I should have thought of this before, but I have just rediscovered the {{Under construction}} template and added that, having just had another clash with an unsuspecting editor trying to improve one of my changes. At the time I was very tired and fed up with trying to work around the spacing bug, and and that led to my acting too fast instead of taking a deep breath and engaging my brain. (I have been mostly editing the whole article as there are some structural changes that I wanted to make to sections.) Laterthanyouthink (talk) 02:02, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks, Pol098. I was pretty sure it wasn't just my ineptitude, so thanks for your confirmation (although sorry to hear that you've experienced it too, because it's very frustrating! Thanks very much for taking the time to explain your workarounds. I might try using Edge next time - although just at the moment, it is behaving itself and spacing as expected... Laterthanyouthink (talk) 02:02, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Canadian Who's Who notable?[edit]

While answering a question on the Help Desk I came across Canadian Who's Who, currently only sourced to the official website. I was strongly considering nominating for deletion, but I found two sources: a local newspaper article talking about the 1910 edition and a column by Robert Fulford in The Globe and Mail (though I can't verify as it was published pre-2000) critiquing the 1998 edition. I'm not sure whether this constitutes a pass of WP:GNG/WP:NBOOK, so I wanted to ask for a second opinion before nominating. – Teratix 07:34, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Village pump (technical) archive[edit]

How come there seems to be no link to WP:Village pump archive on WP:Village pump (technical)? (I can only see a link leading to WP:Centralized discussion/Archive in the "Centralized discussion" box)--Hildeoc (talk) 13:53, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Hey Hildeoc. There is a link, but I could see where you may have missed it, as it's not directly written as "archive". At the bottom of the header, you should see "« Older discussions... a string of numbers". When you click Older discussions, it will take you to the whole village pump archive, and the string of numbers are the most recent archives of VPT in specific. This should be the same for all village pumps. Hope this helps. Cheers, --SkyGazer 512 Oh no, what did I do this time? 16:19, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Mahvash biography was fully untrue. Since I am her daughter and I can prove the truth. That was rediculous and something should be done.[edit]

Editing a false contet in Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maman2014352 (talkcontribs) 15:43, 23 January 2019 (UTC) Editing a false contet in Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maman2014352 (talkcontribs) 15:46, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Maman2014352 Hello, how can we help you? Do you have published sources that support the changes you want to make? ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 15:50, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
There is no point in edit warring over dates when there is a WP:Reliable source to support the earlier date of birth. If that source got it wrong, then you need to find a better source that gets it right. Your argument is with the authors of the references cited, though it would be good to check that they really say what is claimed. Does anyone have access to those books? What connection do you have with user:O oranus and user:Mamanus? Dbfirs 17:05, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Edit with more ease.[edit]

Hello I am fan of cricket please tell me how can I edit cricket scores and how can I create new pages about Cricket Also tell that what these operations mean such as | {{ }}— Preceding unsigned comment added by Bilal190023 (talkcontribs)

Bilal190023 In Wikitext {{ }} invokes a template. A pipe, like | inserted into a link causes the display text to be different than the name of the link. So for example, [[Example|easter egg]] displays as easter egg, which if you click on it goes to the page Example. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 16:04, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Hello, Bilal190023, and welcome to the Teahouse. It's great that you want to come and help us improve Wikipedia, and you have an interest in particular articles. Since there is a lot to learn, I would advise you not to rush in and try to create articles (which is hard) before you have learnt the basics. I suggest you take The Wikipedia Adventure; and that you go to WP:WikiProject cricket and team up with some more experienced editors who want to work on cricket-related articles. --ColinFine (talk) 16:45, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

How does a 'draft' article get published?[edit]

Hello, I have drafted a Wikipedia page/article called "Sacred Attention Therapy". How do I go about getting the page/article published on Wikipedia? --RobMeagherSAT (talk) 17:47, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

@RobMeagherSAT: If you feel your draft is ready for review, you can add {{subst:submit}} (including the curly brackets) at the top of the draft. —teb728 t c 19:16, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
@RobMeagherSAT: Also, I noticed that you posted questions on pages in your user space that nobody is apt to look at. The place to post questions on how to use Wikipedia is here at the Help desk or at the WP:Teahouse. —teb728 t c 19:24, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

How do I change the name of my wikipedia page?[edit]

Hello -- we've recently undergone rebranding and want to change the name of the wiki page to reflect the changes. How do I change the page title?

This is the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRFC

We want the page title to change to: KRFC 88.9 FM Radio Fort Collins — Preceding unsigned comment added by Leannkerin (talkcontribs) 20:36, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

@Leannkerin: If you'd like to request a move, please discuss it at Talk:KRFC. Click the "New Section" link at the top, and create a section explaining why it should be moved. However, please also note that you may have a conflict of interest (based on the "we've recently undergone rebranding" it seems like you represent the company) so please make sure that there is agreement for the move. --DannyS712 (talk) 21:09, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Problem with my User Page[edit]

This is my User Page: User:Joseph A. Spadaro. There is a navy rectangle with my name. Underneath that, there is another navy rectangle; it says "ABC XYZ". In between the letter "C" and the letter "X", there should be more writing. Why is that writing not coming out in white color? I suspect that it is coming out in blue color, and it is "invisible" because the blue text/letters are against a blue background. But, I am not sure. Can someone look at it and let me know what I am doing wrong? By the way, the text that is "in between" the letter "C" and the letter "X" is a link. Namely, this: [[User:Joseph A. Spadaro/sandbox|My Sandbox]]. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:20, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

It looks fine to me, Can see the link. RhinosF1 (talk) 21:39, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
They are different shades of blue. Color must be declared inside a wikilink to override the automatic link color: [[User:Joseph A. Spadaro/sandbox|<span style="color: white;">My Sandbox</span>]]. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Perfect! Thanks! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:20, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

Is there a way to make a User Box appear larger?[edit]

Is there a way to make a User Box appear larger? Is there some computer code that will accomplish that? I have this code: {{User:UBX/Zodiac Aries}}.

It produces this User Box:

AriesThis user is an Aries.

.


I'd like it to be larger. I tried "computer codes" like <big> </big> and similar. But I could not get anything to work. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:42, 23 January 2019 (UTC)


Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input[edit]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by ‎ 24.117.133.203 (talkcontribs) 2019-01-23T20:50:31 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. Your edit to Beatriz Sheridan added an empty reference (the pair of tags <ref></ref> with nothing between them), which is an error. I have removed them. (It would have helped if you had told us which article you were talking about, so I didn't have to go hunting). --ColinFine (talk) 23:59, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

January 24[edit]

New Page[edit]

I am looking to create a page for a small musical artist name chamagic. Could you tell me how to go about this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by TardMcgee (talkcontribs) 02:42, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi TardMcgee, the first thing to do is decide if Chamagic meets Wikipedia notability guidelines (Wikipedia:Notability) and then read the guidelines for biographies of living people (Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons) - to create your article refer to Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:Writing better articles - you can find more guidelines at Help:Contents and the Wikipedia:Manual of Style - cheers - Epinoia (talk) 03:14, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge[edit]

Reference number 202 is a disaster and I do not know why! Sorry - please leave in page number (12) of this magazine and the quote too - but fix up all the red writing please. Thanks 175.32.165.144 (talk) 02:59, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Fixed. You just had "quote:" instead of "quote=". MB 03:18, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
Dear SB, as told to you repeatedly earlier, whenever you mess up a page with your edits, as you did here, it would be good if you can undo your edit and then ask for assistance. Thanks, Lourdes 03:49, 24 January 2019 (UTC)