Help desk
< February 17	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 19 >

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.

February 18

Legit Company?

I received an email out of the blue from IDigitalAKKI Media Pvt Ltd saying they could get my Wikipedia page up and keep it from repeatedly getting taken down.

My fans keep putting it up but then it keeps getting deleted. I’m an actress. I’m curious if this is the company that keeps removing it or if they are some legit company that works with Wikipedia somehow.

Oh yeah and they want to charge me obviously.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:8001:A100:4A00:A5F1:3352:CEFC:3C56 (talk) 04:52, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I would say its a scam. You have not specified the article name, so there is no way to check the specifics of the case by looking at the deleted revisions, however, there is no way to prevent Wikipedia articles from being deleted, particularely if they are noncompliant with Wikipedia's policies. Please see Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Scam warning. Victor Schmidt (talk) 07:22, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[Edit Conflict] If they claim they can prevent a Wikipedia article about you (never "your Wikipedia page") from being deleted, they're lying, and since they want money for doing it, they are scamming you. All Wikipedia editors are volunteers unpaid by Wikipedia, and contributors paid by potential subjects are, while not totally forbidden, regarded with suspicion and held to stringent standards.

The only way that a Wikipedia article about you will persist is if it demonstrates that you meet the criteria detailed at Wikipedia:Notability (music) which also applies to actors and other entertainers. (Which you might – I have no idea who you are.) I suggest you read that Project page objectively, perhaps by wondering how it might apply to some other actor without an article at present.

You should also be aware that Wikipedia forbids Promotion of any kind, and that any article about you is Wikipedia's not yours: you would have no say in its content, and be discouraged from editing it (though you could make requests for disinterested editors to do so), as would any relative, friend, manager or employee associated with you. If anything detrimental to you has been, or is in future, published in newspapers, etc., it could well be added to the article and kept over your objections – see Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing.

I hope your career goes well, and if it does it's likely that independant Reliable sources will write enough about you (if they haven't already) that an article will be viable, and someone entirely unconnected to you personally will decide to create it. Good luck! {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.198.55.125 (talk) 07:38, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Save your money. It is about 99.9% likely that this company is a scam eager to take your money and give nothing in return. Any assurances that an article will be kept are blatant lies. Wikipedia simply does not operate that way. Ask these people if they comply with the mandatory, non-negotiable Paid editing disclose, and ask them to provide evidence in the form of usernames and articles edited. They will refuse to answer and cut off communication because they know that they are editing Wikipedia contrary to policy. Cullen328 (talk) 07:50, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just going to point out that what IP 51.198.55.125 posted seems fine except for the part stating if it demonstrates that you meet the criteria detailed at Wikipedia:Notability (music) which also applies to actors and other entertainers. Wikipedia has various notability sub-guidelines and "Notability (music)" is one of them, but it doesn't apply to actors. The relevant sub-guideline would be Wikipedia:Notability (people)#Entertainers. -- Marchjuly (talk) 04:20, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You're quite correct – I misread something and goofed. Sorry! I must say I'm surprised that we haven't something more substantial specific to actors, and the closing "(Previously #3)" seems like a leftover from an earlier edit. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.198.55.125 (talk) 05:01, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Please send a copy of the email, including headers, to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org. Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:32, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting that the company doesn't seem to mention their Wikipedia work on their web site. GoingBatty (talk) 03:23, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Conversely, if an article about you does meet the guidelines, a deletion request (which results in a deletion review) should end with consensus to keep the article. One person or company cannot unilaterally get an article deleted if it meets the Wikipedia requirements (including notability of the subject, and proper referencing). David10244 (talk) 07:27, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Old articles

I found an article the Kangillinguit School the arrival was made in 2010 but has almost no content and does not seems to meet Wikipedia’s notability gild lines. I have two questions. I proposed a deletion for the resinous above, but it has been around for 10 years so? What should I do?--LuxembourgLover (talk) 05:36, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@LuxembourgLover I see nothing wrong with prodding, see WP:UNCHALLENGED. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:59, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

How to track changes to a category?

Is there a way to track changes to a category's membership? I'd like to see a list of pages that have been recently added to or removed from certain categories. Thanks, The Quirky Kitty (talk) 10:14, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Quirky Kitty I'm not certain, so don't go by me, but I don't think that's possible. When you view a category page, you view all articles that are members of that category at that moment. As categories are placed on(or removed from) the articles themselves, there is no central category history(like an article edit history). The only way to know if articles are removed from a category would be to monitor the articles themselves for removals; there isn't a way to monitor additions other than viewing the category page for additions. 331dot (talk) 10:20, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The Quirky Kitty It can be done to a limited extent via your watchlist. See Help:Watchlist#Limitations for instructions and limitations. In particular, your Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-watchlist will have "Hide categorisation of pages" ticked (i.e. disabled) by default and you need to untick this. Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:58, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome! Thanks. The Quirky Kitty (talk) 12:01, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Quirky Kitty Michael D. Turnbull A problem I see with that is, for it to work reliably, you'd need to put on your watchlist every page in the category you're interested in PLUS every page that MIGHT some day be added to that category. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:58, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@AzseicsoK That's not how I read Help:Watchlist#Limitations and would be pretty useless if it were the case. However, I've not personally used the feature. I'll do the experiment and report back.... Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:52, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The Quirky Kitty I've done the experiment by adding an article to a category that I had added to my watchlist (and unticked the relevant preference, as above). This action triggered the category page onto the watchlist, even when the article itself was not on my watchlist. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:14, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Turnbull I stand corrected! Thanks for the bit of enlightenment. Uporządnicki (talk) 18:19, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@The Quirky Kitty: The feature can track additions and removals up to 30 days back but if you have a large wathclist then you may be unable to see most of it. I use an alternative account to track categories. I have used Category:Living people to test the feature because the category has frequenct changes. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:33, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I have it working and can see membership changes in my watchlist. The Quirky Kitty (talk) 08:43, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

help me i dont know how to edit it says i need help

x Markoozdero (talk) 14:39, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's difficult to help you unless you tell us what it is you need help with. 331dot (talk) 15:17, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You can stop claiming on your userpage that you are a Wikipedia Education Program leader. And an admin, but someone else removed that. WP:TUTORIAL may be of help to you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:16, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, stop doing stuff like [1][2], too. If you keep doing edits like that, an admin will block you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:19, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I was too late, already blocked! Doug Weller talk 21:31, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure you'll get to block someone else ;-) Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:15, 19 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Claiming my name

Hi there,

I'm trying to create a page with for my band but it's taken by a very old album. Please advise. Also, Can I change my username as I didn't realize when creating profile that it would be the name of my page. How can I change this? Thanks Satellitesky (talk) 17:20, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Since you have no edits(other than here) you should just abandon this account and create a new one. As for creating a draft, you will need to submit it via Articles for creation, if accepted, the reviewer will place it at the proper title(likely with a disambiguation word). Please first read conflict of interest. 331dot (talk) 17:26, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Satellitesky Apart from the above, see also WP:NBAND and Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:37, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Satellitesky. I assume that you are talking about Satellite Sky, an album by Mark Heard. If your band is actually notable, and you write a neutral, properly referenced draft, then disambiguation will take place. Most likely, the article would be called "Satellite Sky (band)". Alternatively, the other article might be moved to "Satellite Sky (album)". Cullen328 (talk) 18:53, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Satellitesky. You say I didn't realize when creating profile that it would be the name of my page. I'm afraid that this shows that you have misunderstood what Wikipedia is and how it works. Every account may have a user page, with the account name preceded by "User:" - mine is User:ColinFine. The user page is not part of the encyclopaedia, and will not be indexed by search engines. It is, however, the closest thing to a "profile" that there is on Wikipedia, because it is a place where you can share information about yourself as a Wikipedia editor. A small amount of information about yourself outside Wikipedia is acceptable, but (like everywhere else on Wikipedia) promotion is absolutely forbidden.

The main part of Wikipedia, the part that search engines will find, does not contain profiles, not one. It contains encyclopaedia articles, which are neutrally written summaries of what independent commentators have published about a subject. They contain very little that is what the subject says about themselves, or what their associates say about them. ColinFine (talk) 22:17, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Satellitesky: I would like to emphasize the importance of WP:NBAND. Do not spend any time on this until you are certain the band meets our definition of "notable". Make sure that Wikipedia:No one cares about your garage band does not apply to you. If you are not notable, then there is no way an article will remain on Wikipedia: see WP:AMOUNT. If after reading all this you are fairly sure the band meets our definition for notability, then we can help. -Arch dude (talk) 23:12, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Where are Miscellaneous questions?

Miscellanous questions 99.237.87.0 (talk) 19:15, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Do you want Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous? Shantavira|^{feed me} 19:57, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

What is the Wikipedia help desk?

What is the Wikipedia help desk? 99.237.87.0 (talk) 19:16, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Have you read what it says at the top of this page: "The Wikipedia help desk is a place where you can ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia. For other types of questions, use the search box or the reference desk"? - David Biddulph (talk) 19:18, 18 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See the top of the page here to learn more about the help desk. -- StarryNightSky11 ☎ 02:09, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]