Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 April 12

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April 12

delete my account please

{{dbuser}} Kiah6060 (talk) 00:15, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I am sorry, Kiah6060, but once created accounts are never deleted. However you have the right to vanish. DES ^(talk) 00:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Begin a new page

Am I able to edit, continue to edit or begin a new wikipedia page and complete it in its entirety before it is published? How do I do that? Currently I have one page I have begun edits to but upon saving it instantly publishes. I'd rather tweak the page to perfection before it's posted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brunomoore (talk • contribs) 02:10, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

You can start your own sandbox. At the top of the page, there should be a link that says "Sandbox" between "Talk" and "Preferences." You can also click "show preview" instead of "save page" if you are not ready to save the page but want to see how it looks. However, if you do not save the page before closing it, all of your work will be lost. Ian.thomson (talk) 03:18, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Any subpage of your user page would do, your sandbox is only a special case. Alternatively check out WP:Drafts, but in that case other folks are entitled to help (=edit) the draft until it's finished. –Be..anyone (talk) 03:38, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

MADAM/SIR G'AFTERNOON

MADAM/SIR G'AFTERNOON — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.50.52.87 (talk) 08:39, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Good afternoon anonymous user. Did you have a question about editing Wikipedia, as that is the purpose of this help desk? Joseph2302 (talk) 11:00, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

'Compare selected revisions' query

Resolved

Is there a way of comparing the SIZE of two revisions within the history of an article? Comparing their sizes with each other, not the current one? Many thanks! _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 11:49, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

No. You have to manually subtract the sizes shown in the page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:30, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

You again! OK,, thanks very much (again) PrimeHunter _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 12:33, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) To state the obvious, the total number of bytes is not a measure of the size of the change. the entire article could be totally re-written, but the number of bytes may only change by a few. - Arjayay (talk) 12:38, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I probably haven't expressed myself clearly, in any case. What I want is, having substantially expanded an article, is it possible to calculate the % -increase? I.e., between the before and after versions? Thank you both for your help _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 12:53, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

"Increase" could be words or characters, and include or exclude tables, pictures etc. I don't know many reasons where this is important, unless you are proposing a WP:DYK on an expanded article, which requires a fivefold increase. As a footnote at WP:DYK states:- "For step-by-step instructions on how to calculate whether an expansion is fivefold and whether it is within the past seven days, see User:Rjanag/Calculating fivefold expansion by hand".
If it is not DYK and you want the word count, not the character count, go to the article, click "Page size" (bottom line in Tools on LH side) and note the "Prose size (text only)" figure, then go to the page history, open the version before you started editing it, and click "Page size" again, and note the "Prose size (text only)" figure again. As for the math(s) I'm afraid you have to work that out yourself. - Arjayay (talk) 13:47, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Cheers Arjayay, have a good one _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 14:35, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Someone keeps adding racial and non factual terms to a page

HI. A page I monitor for my employer who is a public figure keeps having racial, religious and other foul terms added as fast as I can remove them. How can I make this stop? They are not new sources, just foul terms being dropped in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Davepeck (talk • contribs) 14:32, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I assume that Davepeck is referring to Dan Schulman. Dismas|^(talk) 14:49, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

And I've put in a request for page protection. Dismas|^(talk) 14:51, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

@Davepeck: The page was just protected by another admin. The info you were removing did, indeed, need to be removed, so I've removed it again. On another note, please take a look at WP:COI; in cases like yours, it's often better to request help on the talk page of the article, rather than edit the article yourself. Obviously not needed when you're removing vandalism or insults, but in general, if you're requesting changes requiring more editorial consideration, for example. --Floquenbeam (talk) 15:27, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

"List of cities with the most high-rise buildings"

Dear editor, On the most recent edition of the above "entree" Tehran is excluded while in the last version it ranked the 11th. It seems it has happened all by a mistake. It seems has to be reviewed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.59.243.183 (talk • contribs)

If it was a mistake, you may reinstate it. Ruslik_Zero 20:19, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

my corrections on a page pertaining to me keep reverting, i keep reporting, please help

hello, i have corrected the "Black Diamond Heavies" (Black Diamond Heavies) wikipedia page twice and it has been reverted twice and now threatened me to be unable to make further changes. i am the founding and final member of the band, Black Diamond Heavies. the information on this page is largely historically inaccurate. could someone please contact me about this? i have read and tried everything i have found so far on correcting a page. thankyou JohnWesleyMyers (talk) 15:15, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

You need to declare your WP:Conflict of interest as a member of the band, then find WP:Reliable sources to back up the changes that you wish to make. It would then be preferable (though not mandatory) to post those changes to the talk page of the article so that an independent editor can make the corrections. Dbfirs 20:18, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

What exactly happened here?

Resolved

Why didn't the template substitute properly? I made the edit using Twinkle, so there should have been no issue at all, and I've never seen this happen before. --A guy saved by Jesus (talk) 15:55, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi A guy saved by Jesus
The problem was this diff 3 edits before, where the closing > of a hidden text bracket was over-written. So, not having received a close command, the software considers everything after it to be hidden text. - Arjayay (talk) 16:12, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

As a general comment - many (most?) problems of disappearing text, repeated references and other strange formatting are down to an unclosed instruction, e.g. this one, (missing the final > from hidden text) or a reference missing all or part of the closing </ref> which often duplicates the reference list in small size underneath.
I don't know of a tool to check that every command that has been opened, has been closed, but a work around is a search for how many < there are, compared to > {although this will not work on scientific/maths pages that use either symbol} and how many <ref> there are, compared to </ref> - Arjayay (talk) 16:27, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

@Arjayay: be aware that there exist also <ref>-s with a name only: <ref name="somename"/> and with no </ref>-s. --CiaPan (talk) 16:38, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I am well aware, but those aren't picked up when comparing the uses of <ref> against </ref> - Arjayay (talk) 16:41, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

What about <ref name="somename">-s then? They should pair with </ref>-s. Are they counted? --CiaPan (talk) 16:49, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I'm confused - if you look for <ref> or </ref> why would you find <ref name="somename"> ? - -Arjayay (talk)

A ref tag, with or without a name attribute should be matched with a closing /ref tag, unless it is self-closed (such as <ref name=XYZ />). In practice i generally search for "<ref" without the closing ">", and then search for a matching "</ref". DES ^(talk) 18:31, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Editsource

Resolved

Hi, the editsource option has gone for me on article pages leaving only the edit option which I mainly dont use. Please advise how I can get the editsource option back. thanks, i've been striking the afd comments of a sockpuppet I dont know if that has something to do with it Atlantic306 (talk) 17:17, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Recent change, for info go read Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 52#Single edit tab. Change setting at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. —  crh ₂₃  (Talk) 17:24, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

The WMF have been fiddling again: Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Do you want one Edit tab, or two? It's your choice. Did they not tell you what they were planning to do? I didn't see any notice of the planned change, but I wouldn't touch the "Visual Editor" with a barge pole anyway. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:25, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

thanks i'll do that Atlantic306 (talk) 17:28, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: David, count me among those editors who did not like visual editor when it was first rolled out. To oversimplify, it wasn’t ready for prime time when I first work with it. Many issues, but the killer for me is the fact that every article ought to have references but the early version couldn’t handle references. However, they’ve made enormous strides, and I use it every day. I still find things where I need the edit source so I want both buttons but I use visual editor on a regular basis. It is now wonderful for adding references. Add a bare URL and it will, almost always, produce a correctly formatted reference. Not only that, but it is very good at cleaning up existing articles. Find an article with a bare URL as a reference click on VE click on the reference number, and a box will pop up with an option to convert it. Doesn’t work on hundred percent of the time, but over 80% of the time it will create a nice reference. I hope you’ll try it, I’m addicted to it.--S Philbrick(Talk) 14:20, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

Question about pending changes

Resolved

I would like to edit a page with pending changes and accept changes made by other IP users and new users on articles that require pending changes. How do I get autoconfirmed? Thanks. Brian Everlasting (talk) 17:20, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Brian Everlasting You are already autoconfirmed, that happens automatically when your account is 4 days old and has 10 edits. In order to accept pending changes, you would need to apply for the pending changes reviewer permission. The section on how to apply, and whether you're likely to be accepted is here, although I recommend reading the rest of that page to better understand pending changes. Joseph2302 (talk) 17:27, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Ok thanks. Brian Everlasting (talk) 17:28, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Problems with using "Edit" option on my sandbox

Resolved

Hello my name is Elysegrogersfan

recently my "edit source" option was temporarily unavailable in my sandbox of my wikipedia draft i'm working on. somehow it's been magically restored. i don't know why it was removed and then restored.

now my easy wizard "edit" button is now missing. how can i restore both the "edit" and keep the 'edit source' option in my sandbox/

thanks.

woops. i see the guy above me had the same problem. sorry. ignore this message.

Edit source?

Most of the time I've been using Edit Source but sometimes I've used the screen editor. However, starting a few minutes ago, when I would try what would normally Edit Source, it brings up the screen editor. Some things can only be done by editing the source. What happened? Is there an option that I accidentally changed? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:40, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

No. There should have been a 'drop-down' at the first edit you made after a recent change, but judging by the number of queries this hasn't been seen by some people. You can reset the edit source tab by clicking 'preferences' and then 'editing' where you should find a drop down to set your preferred editing mode. Eagleash (talk) 20:45, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

@Bubba73: Have a read of Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Do you want one Edit tab, or two? It's your choice, change your preference at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. —  crh ₂₃  (Talk) 20:51, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

I haven't read that but something seemed to change within the last hour. I went to preferences and selected "show both editing tabs" and it is OK. Thanks. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:55, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Resolved

The 'Howie Schwab' wikipedia is a blatant farce

Hi, someone should really clean up the wiki for Howie Schwab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howie_Schwab. Just by reading it, any layperson can tell that the bio is completely made up. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.64.58 (talk) 20:53, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up, it looks like there's some vandalism going on. If you see it, you can correct the edits, then advise the edit making the vandal edits of the correction. I rolled the obvious vandal edits back and report the editor as a blatant sock of a blocked user who was making the same edits. RickinBaltimore (talk) 20:58, 12 April 2016 (UTC)