Help desk
< December 2	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 4 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

December 3

Want to use countries national flags

Hello I'm jitendra kumawat and I create an e-Learning android app and I want to use all the countries flags in my app so I just want to know the images are copyrighted or not? can I use images without any problem? and I'm going to monetize that app with admob

None of the national flags at e.g. Gallery of sovereign state flags are copyrighted to my knowledge. This means you can use them however you please and do not need to observe any terms. You can see the exact license by clicking on each image. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 04:09, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

What are the Ways to Get Admin access for my wiki page

Our Official wikipedia page created by unknown person. I just want to get the edit and admin access for our official page. Whats the procedure to get admin acesss for wikipedia page — Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.233.9.1 (talk) 06:12, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's a lot wrong with this statement...

We don't do ""official pages".
Administration is not page-level. It is all or nothing.
Likewise, administrators are not assigned to specific pages. They, like every other volunteer editor, may edit or take administrative actions on whatever pages they see fit to.
We have zero tolerance for employees or business owners editing about their companies without disclosing it. In fact, it's in the Terms of Use for Wikimedia sites, Wikipedia included.

—A little blue Bori v^_^v ^{Takes a strong man to deny...} 06:21, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would add that if you have a conflict of interest, you should not directly edit the article about your person/organization. You may, however, make a formal edit request on the article talk page, detailing changes you feel are needed, preferably sourced to independent [{WP:RS|reliable sources]]. 331dot (talk) 09:20, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, IP user. You seem to have the common misconception that Wikipedia's article about you is in any way ("official" or otherwise) yours. It is not: it does not belong to you, it is not for your benefit, and it should be almost entirely based on what people who have no connection with you have chosen to publish about you. Your involvement should be limited to making edit requests, as other replies have explained. --ColinFine (talk) 11:47, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Any uninvolved editor, including you, may edit (almost) any Wikipedia article. No specific access is needed. If, however, you are associated with the subject of an article as you are here, then you should not edit the article directly: you have less editing rights for that article than the rest of us. Instead, make suggestions on the article's talk page as outlined in WP:COI. -Arch dude (talk) 17:33, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To sum things up, (1) there is no such thing as an "official Wikipedia page", (2) there is no such thing as "admin access", and (3) you do not have any sort of authority over the article just because your organisation is its subject. JIP | Talk 20:24, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Donations

Why do I keep being pestered for a donation when I have already contributed (twice)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.66.113.14 (talk) 08:28, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You are using an IP address. The notification system has no way to know that the person sitting at the computer at any given moment has made a donation. If you create an account, you can turn off such notifications for yourself. If you don't wish to create an account, then don't, and simply ignore the messages. No one wants you to donate beyond your means. 331dot (talk) 09:17, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See replies at Wikipedia:Help_desk#Contributions. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:19, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Using sortname for disambiguated name

I'm working on a sortable list of people using sortname. (The goal is to have their normal name in text (i.e. firstname lastname), but have it sorted alphabetically by their family name) I want to include a person whose name is disambiguated (i.e. firstname lastname (job) ). How do I get this person in my list without their job or the blue background for disambiguation? --Dutchy45 (talk) 10:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Dutchy45 you sort it by adding the disambiguation i.e. what you have in brackets in the article name, as a dab parameter in the sortname template. For example, for the article David Weir (athlete) it would be {{sortname|David|Weir|dab=athlete}}, which sorts the same as David Weir, and links to the article David Weir (athlete). Joseph2302 (talk) 10:20, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Joseph2302 --Dutchy45 (talk) 14:54, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicate film

Hey all, I think the page Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss (movie) can be removed, since there's also the actual film page Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. Greetings. Aquatic Ambiance (talk) 13:08, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Aquatic Ambiance: One is a redirect to the other, which is common, and does not require deleting anything. RudolfRed (talk) 16:18, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Why make a redirect when there's only one name? That's like making a redirect of Kurt Cobain (musician) even though he's the only Kurt Cobain on Wikipedia. Aquatic Ambiance (talk) 10:03, 6 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Could the donation requests be made clearer?

Every time Wikipedia asks for donations, the Help Desk fills up with messages saying "Wikipedia keeps nagging me for donations when I have already donated! Why won't it realise I have already donated? Your site sucks!" when the reason is that Wikipedia has no way of connecting a user's IP to the physical person's bank account and thus has no way of knowing if the person already donated or not. Could this somehow be made clear in the donation request itself so people would understand it? JIP | Talk 13:57, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

JIP, I'm not sure if there is a talk page on here that is involved with discussion about the donation banner, but taking a look at Wikipedia:Contact us/Donors perhaps you could try sending a message to the email provided? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 15:01, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JIP and Tenryuu:, I wonder if a simple 'don't ask me again' stored in a cookie would do the job. --CiaPan (talk) 15:49, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have heard that that would go against Wikipedia's privacy policies. JIP | Talk 15:51, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CiaPan (ec) There is no way to know if the person sitting at the computer at any moment using Wikipedia with an IP has seen the donation requests before. What you suggest would not work as one person would be speaking for everyone using a particular IP. 331dot (talk) 15:54, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong, 331dot. I do not talk about storing an IP user's decision at a Wikipedia side, but rather storing a decision on the user's side, on their device. That could also cause a problem you mention, but not among all users of the same IP address but just among users of the same user account on the same device (e.g. members of the same family or readers at the same desk in the same library). --CiaPan (talk) 16:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The cookie would be device-user-specific, not IP-specific, so that wouldn't be a problem. Of course there is still no actual guarantee the same device-user is the same physical person, but then that's a problem that is inherently unsolvable in software. But I have read that it is Wikipedia policy not to store cookies on a user's device unless the user is explicitly logged in. JIP | Talk 17:08, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@JIP: Comments or suggestions about the donation process can be sent to donate (at) wikimedia.org. RudolfRed (talk) 16:20, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Inline template: independent source?

I'd like an inline cleanup template that says something to the effect that a source is not independent. Independence is one of the criteria for reliability and notability. The source is a Seventh Day Adventist published book concerning a BLP who is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist. The source is still reliable per WP:PRIMARY for basic facts {{Unreliable source?}} would be somewhat misleading. What would be the best way to tag the source inline as not independent? Thanks! -- GreenC 14:17, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Try Template:Third-party inline. Cheers ‡ Єl Cid of Valencia ^talk 14:34, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

User:El cid, el campeador, thank you that's what I need. -- GreenC 18:35, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Question about Edit Warring

I have been "warned" for an edit war, but what I'm confused about is that for it to be an edit war, the other person also has to be participating right? They come across as arrogant when they say like "You're been warned about this", but wouldn't they also be contributing to the edit war and should be warned for the same thing? I think I'm misunderstanding how that works Zacatero (talk) 16:08, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Zacatero: It depends on the facts and circumstances, but yes WP:BOOMERANG is a thing. See WP:EW for more info on edit wars. RudolfRed (talk) 16:22, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Zacatero: Admin here - I've not looked into your edit history so am not going to make an assessment as to whether or not you have been edit warring. Whether you have or haven't, your best course of action now is to open a discussion on the talk page of the article in question. If you have reliable sources to back up what you are saying, then link to them. Let others decide the merits of your argument. Stick to the issue at hand, rather than the editor who hold an opposing view to you. Mjroots (talk) 17:28, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Mjroots: That's a fair point. I will do that. Thank you! Zacatero (talk) 19:29, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Invalid URL Here Come the Hawks

Original vocal recording of "Here Come The Hawks" on the Chicago Blackhawks website. Original instrumental recording of "Here Come The Hawks" on the Chicago Blackhawks website. Invalid URL both links need replacing — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.194.214.180 (talk) 18:37, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Please let us know what article has the bad link and what the correct link is. RudolfRed (talk) 19:04, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox sportsperson - how to add children?

Hullo! I'm trying to add the family (wives, children) of Ian Fairbairn to his infobox sportsperson. I've managed the wives, but cannot do the children (as either total number (2) or their names). The parameter child is in there but it seems to be used for something else (some sort of recursive extra infobox?). I've looked at the infobox sportsperson template (Template:Infobox_sportsperson) and that does not include children. Any suggestions on how to make this change? --MerielGJones (talk) 19:14, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This template does not have parameters for children. You should use some other template. Ruslik_Zero 20:37, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you!--MerielGJones (talk) 21:00, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@MerielGJones: ... or skip it altogether. I think we've been trying to shy away from mentioning non-notable spouses and children, at least in infoboxes. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:53, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks for the advice. MerielGJones (talk) 01:03, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

To give or not to give URLs to DOI-indexed sources?

Some time ago I noticed a link in reference marked with {{dead link}} as [permanent dead link]. Soon I noticed another one and was surprised to find out both URLs point at the same domain. So I made a search for the domain name and started (slowly, as a typical WikiSloth) to search with Google for linked works and replace dead links with newly found (example: Special:Diff/990048740). However, I soon found out the links I add are the same to which DOI links resolve.
So here is the question:

Does it make sense to put the URL in the {{cite sth| url=... }} parameter if exactly same link can be reached from the link provided by the doi=... parameter?
Or may be it's better to let the DOI link to point at the general description page of a publication, and provide an explicit URL to a downloadable PDF file?

--CiaPan (talk) 21:11, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@CiaPan: It doesn't seem necessary for the url parm to point to the same resource that the doi resolves to. I usually provide a URL parm only if it's an alternative source. It could be argued, though, that putting the link in the url parm links the title for consistency with other linked titles in the ref list, as well as provides backup for the doi resolving system, FWIW. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:51, 5 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Hi, how do I welcome new users on Wikipedia? I've seen multiple people do this and I'd like to know how.

Ex-Borg Seven of Nine (talk) 22:22, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Ex-Borg Seven of Nine: Check this out: Wikipedia:Welcoming_committee, it explains how and when to welcome new users. RudolfRed (talk) 01:20, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]