Help desk
< July 27	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 29 >

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.

July 28

Spam Policy Clairification?

Hello,

I apologize for sort of posting this twice, as I did put something about this on the page's talk page, but I would like some personal clairification and I do have a concern regarding the Missing and murdered Indigenous women page and the Wikipedia:Spam policy. Is it spam to post links to nonprofit sites that are relevant to the topic that you think potential readers may find benefit from? I just figured it was in the same category as posting about various country's suicide hotlines on the suicide page. Albeit, there are many disjointed resources in this case due to the nature of the situation at the moment and I'm not sure exactly what to do about that or if there is a better way of writing about them to avoid this conflict in the future. Also, am I wrong in thinking it could it be considered spam to allow a link from a senator's webpage which could be considered backhanded political support? Is there anything I am misunderstanding about the guidelines? On the flip side, I also do not want the page to be subject to administrator abuse hiding behind policy given the page's content or exhaustion kicking in and whomever not really thinking about it. Potentially they could benefit from more information too.

Bottom line, outside opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.

How come my wikipedia page is not showing up on google

I have a Wikipedia page, but it never shows up when I search for it on Google. It's weird Gabrielle Selz DGHamlin (talk) 02:13, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi DGHamlin. We appear to have articles about two different members of that family: Peter Selz and Gabrielle Selz. You mentioned a concern with Gabrielle's article, but your only edit was instead to Peter's article. Could you double-check which one is a concern? DMacks (talk) 04:11, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article Gabrielle Selz was created in March, more than 90 days ago, so it should now be accessible to Google's crawler. I can't explain why it doesn't show up on a search. (It was created by Th30Selz, whom I suspect of being her son, with an undeclared conflict of interest; but he's done a competent job.) Maproom (talk) 07:39, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I found Gabrielle Selz in a Google search, see this screenshot. However, Wikipedia doesn't have any control over how search engines index the site.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:51, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@DGHamlin: Do you mean that you are Gabrielle Selz? If so then see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest if you want to make edits about yourself or your family. Gabrielle Selz is the fifth result on the first page of a Google search for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:57, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Second result on DuckDuckGo for me (acknowledged this is not the original question), with blurb drawn from the article. It does show up in a google search as well, although I had to scroll through about three screens of AI generated boxes before I got to the actual search results, which is why I switched to DuckDuckGo in the first place. I wonder if the original concern is more along the lines of "the Wikipedia article never shows up in Google's page after page of AI generated boxes". Folly Mox (talk) 13:14, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

With Duckduckgo, a search for "Gabrielle Selz" gives her own web site first, the Wikipedia article second. With Chrome and Google search, her Wikipedia article is (for me) listed 97th, after yards of drivel. I shall be using Duckduck go in future. Thank you, Folly Mox. Maproom (talk) 19:17, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For sure! I've found that for certain cases (like site: and inurl: keywords, or multiple string literals in non-Latin characters) google will provide better results than DuckDuckGo, but most of the time the results are similar, delta the nonsense google piles on the top. Folly Mox (talk) 20:19, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Error message

automated filter error occured. please guide. Aditi's Voice (talk) 02:43, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Aditi's Voice, are you talking about your attempts at creating Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Shegaon (Buldhana)? If not, please be more specific.

If you are, the message is correct: you were trying to add an email address, but email addresses usually don't belong in articles. Additionally, it looks like you were trying to copy the official site, so the article would have had to be deleted as a copyright violation anyway. Rummskartoffel 09:09, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Gypsy rose

While reading your online description of gypsy rose Blanchard I noticed the website states she is a MBP survivor, her mother was never diagnosed with MBP so you’re spreading false information 2603:6011:AF02:D1D0:787A:2B18:7A0B:A164 (talk) 13:42, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The lack of a medical diagnosis doesn't necessarily negate claims made by other reliable sources, especially so in this case where nothing relevant came to light until the mother was already dead. That said, if you feel strongly about improving the wording of the article, you could open a discussion about your concerns at Talk:Gypsy-Rose Blanchard. Folly Mox (talk) 13:57, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Who is the reliable source? And wouldn’t what you just said completely disregard anything about the case. It’s all based off medical records…Maybe y’all should do some research instead of spreading false information. 2603:6011:AF02:D1D0:787A:2B18:7A0B:A164 (talk) 14:05, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you had read the whole article, including the "references" section at the bottom, you'd find multiple reliable sources that support the statement, including: [1][2][3], etc. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 14:12, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Those are not reliable sources lol 2603:6011:AF02:D1D0:787A:2B18:7A0B:A164 (talk) 14:30, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And an anonymous IP is a reliable source? Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:01, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As in me? You can look through medical records anyone can, she was never diagnosed with MBP which is a FACT and easily accessible online to find 98.123.108.254 (talk) 19:18, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also I’m not the one publishing things on Wikipedia as true 98.123.108.254 (talk) 19:21, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like something you might want to bring up at Talk:Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, where you can discuss with editors who have worked on the article and are familiar with the topic. Folly Mox (talk) 20:14, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Determination as to what is a reliable source is made by consensus of Wikipedia editors. You can see at WP:RSP that the consensus is that both ABC News and CBS News are considered reliable sources. But if you have other reliable sources that contradict these sources, you should open a discussion on the article talk page. CodeTalker (talk) 01:55, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If a celebrity with their article happens to have a Wikipedia account, should the content added by themselves that are without sources in their own article be reverted?

For example if a celeb has their Wikipedia account (with lots of evidence to prove it is their own and that celeb admits it), and they added their birth date to their own article but WITHOUT sources, should their edit(s) be reverted as well?

sorry for my poor english grammar :( Coddlebean (talk) 14:25, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All content must be referenced, regradless of who the editor is, per the policy at Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. Shantavira|^{feed me} 15:59, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Coddlebean: The celebrity can publish this information on a non-Wikipedia web site that they clearly control. Wikipedia can then reference that web site. But even so, Wikipedis should say something like "Ms. Jones asserts that she was born on January 1, 1970", because celebrities have been known to be less than truthful about age. -Arch dude (talk) 16:09, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If by (with lots of evidence to prove it is their own and that celeb admits it) you mean the celebrity is aware of a Wikipedia article about them and are annoyed at the lack of information on their own article, I think they can solve this problem themselves pretty easily. In specific, the celebrity might find it helpful to look at WP:ABOUTSELF. If I was a celebrity who wanted to have my birthdate added to a Wikipedia article, I'd probably post a video to a Twitter account known to be managed by me, holding up my birth certificate or other ID with my birthday on it, and affirming "Hello, I am Celebrity, this is my Twitter account, and this is my birthday." Seems excessive but there are some articles where editors are pedantic – or carefully precise, depending on how you look at it – so I'd be looking to satisfy WP:ABOUTSELF as completely as possible, both in letter and in spirit. 122141510 (talk) 17:30, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How do I handle suspicions of a biased editor or an editor who might have a conflict of interest?

I have regularly interacted with an editor in a contentious topic area who appears to either have a bias or conflict of interest. When I raise this question, the editor consistently attacks me for violating WP:AGF. In addition, they continue to claim – or at least imply – they are the 'truly' NPOV editor, and must guard the topics against POV editing. This editor has a very large number of edits and seems to be held in regard by many, but they do not appear to investigate this person's overall edit history in the topic area, which are self-evidently contradictory and only ever cut one way. I previously tried WP:ANI and it did not succeed. (i.e. was that the correct venue, or are there other venues to investigate this? ANI did not seem to oblige them to comment on the contradictory nature of their edit contributions.) 122141510 (talk) 17:24, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WP:NPOVN or WP:COIN (depending if the problems is really their Point Of View or their Conflict Of Interest? Polygnotus (talk) 17:57, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would add that if you have any off-wiki evidence, social media profiles, that sort of thing, you should email it to the volunteer response team at paid-en-wpwikipedia.org. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 18:01, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Just Step Sideways: I doubt that very much, it is probably about User_talk:ScottishFinnishRadish#ECR_Talk_page_reversion. Someone called Sean.hoyland gave great advice, which I will quote here: There is nobody stopping you from becoming extendedconfirmed and contributing to the PIA topic area.. Polygnotus (talk) 18:03, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is not regarding that case whatsoever. I made very expressly clear in an ensuing arbitration request I have no suspicion against that administrator and I actually consider myself, at best, incidental to said ensuing arbitration request. It is a different case where I suspect a NPOV issue, but another editor has raised the spectre of a conflict of interest which I can't imagine would be easy to prove – or even have great reason to suspect – but I figured I'd ask while I was here. 122141510 (talk) 18:05, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@122141510: Ok, my mistake, it was a bad guess. Polygnotus (talk) 18:06, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your time. 122141510 (talk) 18:08, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

female vs women

There have been some discussions in the past about female vs women (e.g. female lawyer vs women lawyer) as categories.

For example in 2006 and 2007 and 2013. Is there a rule about this written down somewhere? I tried WP:NAMING but couldn't find it. Thanks, Polygnotus (talk) 17:55, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Polygnotus, there isn't a rule. In a 2024 discussion the closer recommended "If there are individual categories that should be renamed, they should be nominated individually." TSventon (talk) 21:08, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@TSventon: Thank you, interesting. I was hoping there was some simple black and white rule but life is never that binary. Polygnotus (talk) 21:11, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus:, what were you hoping to do? WP:CATGENDER explains when we have female/women categories. If you have more detailed questions you could try Wikipedia talk:Categorization. TSventon (talk) 21:25, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@TSventon: Well, as a stupid foreigner, Category:Female lawyers and Category:Female artists sounds better to me than Category:Women lawyers and Category:Women artists for example. So I was curious what system Wikipedia uses to determine what to use and why my brain considers Category:Women lawyers to be incorrect (unless they exclusively have female clients). Our glorious Elbonian works very differently. Polygnotus (talk) 21:51, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tule-hog (talk) 17:13, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus, you may find some helpful information in this WP essay: Wikipedia:Writing about women, or could ask at the talk page of one of these projects: Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red, Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Essays/Writing women into the encyclopedia or WP:GGTF the Gender gap task force. Netherzone (talk) 16:54, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Archiving

I am working updating/correcting a page. Is there a way to archive what is already there so that version isn't lost?

Thanks, S HillCollegeWikiEditor (talk) 20:03, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@HillCollegeWikiEditor: Old versions are automatically stored and available in the page history. See Help:Page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:07, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! HillCollegeWikiEditor (talk) 20:20, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Page deletion

hi I've been navigating through the Wikipedia and it's nearly impossible to find a page that may have been deleted it's a page on my theory of the expanding space time fabric beyond the background radiation I did it last year and somehow I can't find it anywhere I'd like to keep it and I'd like to post it because there is no information about a vacuum energy inside a super void past the background radiation to explain or counter the dark matter and dark energy theories so this is one of my first efforts and I'd really like to see this posted because of the it's possibly one of few explanations outside of dark energy and dark matter out there so please let me know where this article is and undeleted or not I'd like to see the text thank you PASCALVX1 (talk) 20:21, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PASCALVX1: I can email you a copy of the page if you would like, but as it looks like it's just your theory and not supported by any reliable sources, it's not appropriate content for Wikipedia and you should not post it (or other original research) here in the future. Elli (talk | contribs) 20:26, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A version of your user page was deleted in November 2023. It is important to bear in mind that a user page is not a blog or a web host, and should contain only basic information about yourself.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 20:49, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Dark mode issues

In dark mode, at {{Stabbing Westward}}, the actual link for Stabbing Westward is an extremely dark grey that is difficult to see on a black background. Also, when editing, anything that is NOT a link is grey text on a white background. It was not this way before. Does anyone know how to fix this? --Jax 0677 (talk) 22:03, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

--Jax 0677 (talk) 22:08, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I use Wikipedia:Dark_mode_(gadget) and it looks differently for me. What do you use? Polygnotus (talk) 22:59, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reply - It looks like your solution might have worked. --Jax 0677 (talk) 23:15, 28 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]