Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 December 17

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 17

Bad Grammar Template/Category

Is there a template for articles with bad grammar? There's nothing at Template:Bad_Grammar, and I don't feel like searching dozens, or potentially hundreds, of possible names. The article that I want to put the template on is Transport in the Maldives.2601:2C1:C280:3EE0:B1BC:7F3E:8486:CCA4 (talk) 02:23, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Please see Template:Copy edit. Feel free to add the template, but an even better solution is to correct the grammar yourself. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 03:02, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

List of Indian warriors

You had a wonderful list of native American warriors ... why did you remove the site? That was a terrible thing to do!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:301:7709:CE90:38CB:FC3F:C02A:F1C0 (talk) 02:38, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello IP editor. It was not removed. It is still available at List of Indian warriors. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 02:56, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Uhm ... that is a list of warriors from India.

The closest I could find is: List of Native American leaders of the Indian Wars —2606:A000:4C0C:E200:ACD6:943D:BA3A:3FD4 (talk) 03:08, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Time limit for provision of sources

Hi. I would like to know if time limits apply to "citation needed" notices. Taking biographies as an obvious example, is there a shorter time limit for a BLP than for a historical person? Until a time limit expires, is the article or passage exempt from deletion or amendment? Thank you. Waj (talk) 07:23, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello, Wajidshahzeed. There is no formal time limit, but it is certainly true that we are much stricter and more diligent about biographies of living people than other types of articles. We are also especially strict about copyright violations and legal threats. The existence of an unreferenced BLP is a serious policy violation and it can be deleted on that basis alone. If the person is indisputably dead, then the article can be tagged and editors can have a reasonable chance to find sources. The time that it takes to delete an unreferenced BLP depends on the specific circumstances, but it will usually be pretty quick. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 07:36, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Hi, Cullen. I understand. That is a very useful answer which I can take forward. Thank you. Waj (talk) 09:20, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

End of CDC as a reliable source

CDC will no longer base its recommendations on evidence based medicine, but rather on the will of the community. [1],[2] Seems to me that we shouldn't use CDC as a reliable source any longer. Τζερόνυμο (talk) 09:18, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello Τζερόνυμο. Your reading of the sources is incorrect. CDC has been suggested to not use a few words, like "science-based", and instead use terms like "based on science". Nothing to do here. Thanks, Lourdes 09:58, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the respond!Τζερόνυμο (talk) 10:10, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

My most edited articles

Hello. I'd be interested to know whether there is another way of listing the articles I have made the most edits to besides the standard Edit Count tool. Specifically, I want to find a way of listing a larger number of articles than can be found with this tool. FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 10:24, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

• ​ https://tools.wmflabs.org/supercount/index.php (with the caveat to not use the infinity option; takes too much time; options to list 200-400 articles work fine; you can try larger numbers too) Lourdes 03:03, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

"Compare selected revisions" button

If I click on almost any link in almost any web page, while holding down the control key, I get to see the target of the link in a new tab of my browser. The exception is the "Compare selected revisions" button on a Wikipedia article history page, which puts the target of the link in the page I'm looking at. This happens with several browsers, and in several languages of Wikipedia; all the ones that I've checked. I'm using Windows 10. I don't remember it being this way in the past. I haven't changed any of my "Preferences" recently.

Is this a bug? Where should I report it? Maproom (talk) 17:30, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

The difference is presumably that in one case you are talking about links, but the other case is a button, not a link. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:12, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

I only remember it being this way. As David says, it's a button and not a link. The button leads to different urls depending on the selection of radio buttons below. I don't know whether this can be combined with the open-in-new-tab browser feature for links. Right-clicking the button doesn't give the options seen on links. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:30, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Opening a new tab by right-clicking/middle-clicking/CTRL-click is a function of the browser. Buttons are implemented in Javascript, and don't normally give that control to the browser - they might, but manipulating context menus from Javascript is difficult, and in particular it's hard to generalise across different browaers. I haven't looked at the button code, but I'm not surprised that it behaves in this way. --ColinFine (talk) 19:02, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

I think this script can turn the "Compare selected revisions" button into a normal link, and thereby it can solve this problem. I guess you can load this script by adding the following code to your common.js:

mw.loader.load("//he.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:סקריפטים/35.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript");

Guycn2 · ☎ 22:34, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, Guycn2! It works! Maproom (talk) 11:26, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

NP :) Guycn2 · ☎ 20:45, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Green triangular button

I use Firefox now on Windows 10. I used to have a green triangular button that would show changes between versions in a highlighted, bolded, easier to use format. That stopped working back when I was still on Windows 7. Is that capability still available in Windows 10 on Firefox, and, if so, how do I restore it? Thanks.μηδείς (talk) 21:38, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Medeis: That feature is normally enabled with "wikEdDiff" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. It works for me in Firefox on Windows 10 but some users have problems running JavaScript in their acccounts. Try to blank User:Medeis/common.js and User:Medeis/vector.js, and only use the gadget version. I deleted User:PrimeHunter/wikEdDiff 0.9.17.js anyway as we agreed at User talk:Medeis#wikEdDiff. If it still fails then what is your skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:36, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Disruptive edits at MTA Regional Bus Operations bus fleet

Can someone please protect MTA Regional Bus Operations bus fleet from being edited from users that aren’t logged in, there have been various disruptive edits from anonymous users who aren’t logged in. SportsFan007 (talk) 21:53, 17 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

(edit conflict)@SportsFan007: You can request page protection at WP:RFPP where a request is probably more likely to be seen than here. Eagleash (talk) 21:57, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank you so much!!! SportsFan007 (talk) 22:00, 17 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

Philip Wentworth

Ref 8 - the publisher is wrong. Please fix if able. 203.132.68.1 (talk) 22:02, 17 December 2017 (UTC) Thanks

 Fixed Though I have to ask...if you know it is wrong, why did you add it? Eagleash (talk) 22:08, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

How to add a horizontal line to an info box?

Please look at User:Guycn2/Sandbox. I would like to add a grey horizontal line above the last line ("UN decl. sign - Support"), same as the 3 horizontal lines that I've already created. If anyone could help me doing it, I would appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance, Guycn2 · ☎ 22:21, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Guycn2: Try using |- SportsFan007 (talk) 22:23, 17 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

@SportsFan007: Thanks for replying... but I'm not sure how to use it in this case... Guycn2 · ☎ 22:27, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Guycn2: I tried to add the line you requested, but I couldn’t figure it out, sorry. SportsFan007 (talk) 22:39, 17 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

@SportsFan007: OK, thanks for trying. Guycn2 · ☎ 22:41, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Guycn2: I suspect that the three lines you refer to are 'embedded' in the template code and that there is not a provision therein for a fourth line. See Template:Infobox for full details of parameters etc. Eagleash (talk) 22:45, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Eagleash: I created those three lines manually, I don't think they are created by the template code. I used parameters "abovestyle", "imagestyle" and "headerstyle" with CSS properties "border-top" and "border-bottom" to create them, but I couldn't manage to create another line.

Now I see that Trappist the monk has managed to fix it. Thank you all for your help! Guycn2 · ☎ 22:55, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

How to put part of an article title in italics

In the article Sun Li (Water Margin), 'Water Margin' should be in italics, as it is the title of a novel. I've read the MOS on how to italicize the whole title or the portion up to the parentheses, but I don't how to apply italics to only the part that is in parentheses. Could someone please point me to the proper page? Leschnei (talk) 22:59, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

@Leschnei: ''Water Margin'' = Water Margin SportsFan007 (talk) 23:06, 17 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Sun Li (''Water Margin'')}}

—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:12, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

I thought that the usual 2 apostrophes for italics couldn't be used in article titles - apparently I was mistaken! Thanks Leschnei (talk) 00:31, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

That works. Or just add {{italic dab}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:37, 17 December 2017 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, the page on italic dab didn't explain how to word this exactly - would I put {{tl|italic dab|Sun Li (Water Margin)}}?

No; you just put it on the page you want it and it italicizes the stuff in parentheses in the title. So, if you had a page named Cat (album), the template, when placed on the page, would italicize album. Hope that helps. RileyBugz^会話_投稿記録 00:42, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Oh I see, thanks! Leschnei (talk) 00:59, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

@Leschnei: The Water Margin part of the Sun Li title is now italicized!!! SportsFan007 (talk) 00:52, 18 December 2017 (UTC)SportsFan007

I looked at your edit. That makes it very clear - thanks. Leschnei (talk) 00:59, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Category / bot(?) question

I've spent most of the last few days diffusing Category:American military personnel of the Korean War (and some entries from World War II and the Vietnam War for those people who also served in the other conflicts) to the four branch subcategories, all the way up through the E's. I checked in partway through with the War project to see if this was a good idea and got one affirmative. Now I've noticed that Big Brother (Category:American military personnel of World War II) is explicitly non-diffusing, which raises a couple of questions. Should it be diffusing? If not, how hard would it be for someone to code a bot to add the first category back in? Clarityfiend (talk) 23:46, 17 December 2017 (UTC)