Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2014 October 4

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October 4

Editing

After Signing Up For A Wikipedia Account Earlier This Year, I Was Browsing The Settings To Familiarise Myself With The Links And Ended Up With 4 Sandbox Edits Under The 'My Contributions' Settings ' The First Of Which Is Dated The Day I Registered - March 8 2014. For Some Reason I Thought I May Have Deleted Something On Wiki In Error But I Know This Is Not The Case As I Have No Thesis Or Notes Edited By Me On Wiki. However I Have Been Trying To Delete These Edits Without Success. Can You Tell Me How To Go About Deleting These? Many Thanks Susan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.183.140.3 (talk) 00:58, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

You can't really "undo" an edit, in the sense that you can't make the "view history" page show nothing, however you can "undo" them by clicking the "undo" button off to the side of the edits off to the side of the "view hostory" tab, but all that will do is make a new edit showing that you undid them. If they are your sandbox edits and you don't want them there, you can just click "edit" off to the side and clear the undesired text inside them.Cnd474747 (talk) 01:12, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

There is normally no reason to delete sandbox edits. If it was Wikipedia:Sandbox then the text has been replaced many times since then and "undo" would not work because there is no longer any text to remove from the current version of the page. You were not logged in when you posted this so I don't know which edits it is about. Why do you want them deleted? They can be removed from the page history in certain cases like if you revealed private information. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:23, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

backtracking nuisance requests

I frequently get a notification by e-mail stating that somebody has requested a password reset. However, instead of my username it says: "Username:?" It looks as though someone is trying to gain access but somehow there is a connection between my e-mail address and some account that doesn't have a printable username. Is there any way to go from an e-mail address to all accts that use that e-mail address? I know that whoever it is that initiates these requests can't get into my acct, but this nonsense has been going on for two or three years. The IP addraess that starts this process is always some mobile site, often in Europe, occasionally in Canada...

Also, I tried to use the chat feature. You need some information on how to use it. I couldn't find any way to type in a question. I'm using Firefox. Is there a problem?

Thanks.P0M (talk) 06:07, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Patrick0Moran, try WP:VPT for both of these.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:31, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you.P0M (talk) 03:07, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Help getting started making infobox templates for Cyber Threat Actor and other STIX entity types

I would like to make an infobox template for cyber "threat actor" and some of the other entity types in the STIX data model from US DHS. It would enable better content on many pages in the Category:Cyberattacks. I'm looking for help getting started. I have specific questions below, and would very much appreciate collaborating with an experienced editor.

Specific questions about making a new template:

• A template for threat actor would fields in common with other templates, such as Template:Infobox person Is the best practice to just copy all those fields, or is there something like template inheritance? I see that the Template:Infobox criminal starts with a reference to "person": {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = .... Does that mean that it is inheriting from "person"?
• The STIX data model provides fixed enumerations like cyber threat actor type. Can we implement that in an infobox?

I started a User:Jrf/Template:Infobox_cyber_threat_actor (broken) prototype of cyber threat actor and put in a request here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_templates; and I also tried asking in IRC.

Besides answers to my two specific questions, if anyone is interested in helping me do this, I'd be grateful for wikimentoring (is there such a thing?)

jrf (talk) 10:12, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Jrf, since I don't understand your questions and I believe the people who do post at WP:VPT, that might be the place to ask.

As for your last question, Wikipedia:Adopt-a-user. I have neither the time or the ability to be a mentor.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:34, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

I want to remove my picture

I want to remove my picture located here: [1] Boorsma1990 (talk) 10:50, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Do you see a "Nominate for deletion" link under "Tools" to the left? If so, click that and write "Author request" as the reason. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:12, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Locked article

Why is the burzynski page locked? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.44.184.150 (talk) 15:28, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

I assume you mean Burzynski Clinic. This (or the page it was moved from) was indefinitely semiprotected on 2011-12-24, with the reason: "Persistent vandalism: Ongoing controversy in the media, numerous attempts to insert WP:TRUTH." (See the log here). You can request an edit on the talk page, but you will need to specify exactly what change you want made, and give reasons and reliable sources to back your change up. See WP:SPP. --ColinFine (talk) 16:35, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Group AfDs

If you've got several articles related to a general topic and want to nom them all for AfD, should each article be nom'd separately or are they supposed to be grouped together? If the latter, how is that done? Thanks. SW3 5DL (talk) 18:21, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

@SW3 5DL: A difficult problem. When several articles are nominated in a group at AfD, respondents are likely to object if the articles aren't obviously parallel cases, with exactly the same deficiencies, quality of sourcing, etc. (It's very confusing, for the closer and everyone else, if responses start reading "keep this one and this one, delete that one, ...".) This would be easier to answer if you indicated what articles you have in mind; but in general, as long as there aren't too many articles involved, it's better to nominate them separately unless you're absolutely certain that the only possible responses could be "delete them all" or "keep them all". Deor (talk) 19:08, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

I went back and double checked and they don't have identical information, and good point about the "keep this one/delete that one." You're right, it would be best to list separately. Thanks for that. SW3 5DL (talk) 19:14, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

During the Alabama game you have them rank 1 when Florida state is number one!!!! Get it right

Dummies — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.72.32 (talk) 20:29, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

You too can edit any page on the project. Go to the article and click on the edit button on the top of the page to change the information. Thanks for your effort! - Taketa (talk) 20:33, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Now, now, Mr. 107.77.72.32. There is no need to be rude. Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 22:10, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

We have millions of articles including thousands mentioning Alabama and Florida state. There is a reason the edit window says "Please give the exact title or URL of any page you want help with." I have done some searching and can still not work out what this is about. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:05, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Page Tracker

Is there anyway Wikipedia can add a page tracker to their pages so it could be shown how many times a page has been visited if they haven't added one already? --Datyger (talk) 20:47, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Datyger, see [2], and change the date and name of the article to fit your needs. All the best, Taketa (talk) 20:54, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

If you go to the history page of any article, near the top is a list of links of which the last one is "Page View Statistics". That link will take you to the page-view chart for that article. Deor (talk) 23:06, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Sortability lost in table

Resolved

When I added links to some of the tables at List of Major League Baseball hitters with six hits in one game, the sortability disappeared.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 21:50, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

You added some stray brackets in the wikitable code. Now that I've removed them, does it work the way you want? Deor (talk) 23:13, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

It was a replace all command that went awry. There was one more to fix. Thanks for figuring this out.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 02:38, 5 October 2014 (UTC)