Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 February 21

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February 21

Removing a page that contains my personal information

Hello, who can I contact to remove a page that contains my personal information? I have tried editing it out, but it shows up in the history of edits. Is it possible to remove previous edits from showing to the public? Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Philosp (talk • contribs) 13:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Hey Philosp. I believe what you are looking for is Wikipedia:Revision deletion. Since there appears to be privacy concerns, usually the best method is to email oversight-en-wpwikipedia.org, which helps to prevent publicizing the very information you would like removed, by the very act of requesting removal of it "on-wiki". TimothyJosephWood 13:51, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you! Philosp (talk) 13:54, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

WP links

Resolved

 – 21:05, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Links on WP that I've previously clicked on permanently change color. Although useful, I'd like to do a reset. I've used utilities such as CCleaner, but haven't found a way to do this, and can't find any pertinent settings in Firefox. It is presumably not a server-side thing, since it is retained when IP changes. (dynamic IP / Win7 / Firefox) Ideas? 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:55A:7C25:5B38:2DC5 (talk) 18:28, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

I don't generally use Firefox. You're right in that it's not normally server side. This is generally reset by clearing your browser history. A Google search of 'clear history firefox' should bring up instructions to do so. †dismas†|^(talk) 18:50, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

I clear history about once a month or so, but links from long ago remain in their changed state. Although I haven't looked for this elsewhere, I've only noticed this on WP. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:55A:7C25:5B38:2DC5 (talk) 21:07, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Registered users have lots of customization options. Help:Link color shows how they can choose link colors. The Google search Firefox addon visited links may find a general tool (not Wikipedia-specific) you can use without registering but I haven't tried any of them. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

The link color itself is not the issue; its the fact that a record of all links that I've ever clicked on is being retained. I'd like to differentiate links that I've used relatively recently from those that I've used months or even years ago. Thus, would like to "reset" this link-thing. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:55A:7C25:5B38:2DC5 (talk) 22:15, 21 February 2017 (UTC) ... thanks for your source, will check it out. 22:16, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Okay... for some reason the search term "visited links" didn't occur to me. Googling "firefox visited links reset" finds a Firefox help forum thread from 2008, where the issue remains unresolved as far as clearing all visited links (suggested deleting cookies on a per-site basis). Anyway, thanks for trying; I thought there might be a WP 'visited links cookie' or something. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:55A:7C25:5B38:2DC5 (talk) 22:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

I regularly clear my Firefox history, and doing so resets my visited links, including Wikipedia. I use the "Clear Recent History" option (Ctrl+Shift+Del), but I clear all history: I select "everything" in the time range, I open the details box and tag all the selection boxes. By default firefox clears only recent history, not all of it. Hope this helps. Jahoe (talk) 13:50, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Oh, and your browsing history is not stored in cookies, so you may choose to leave them alone and just clear "Browsing & Download History" for the entire time range. Didn't test that though. Jahoe (talk) 14:19, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the Ctrl+Shift+Del tip! 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:E9E4:907C:2027:59D6 (talk) 21:05, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Glad I could help. :) Jahoe (talk) 13:23, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Please lock Editing on List_of_Federal_Art_Project_artists

These are a List of Contracted Minstrals that are Working with The USA Government. I guess I'm evolving a Tort to evolve The Law in Relation to this subject.IWe can't have people randomly adding themselves to this list. It would be exposed and constitute Attempted Fraud. — Preceding unsigned comment added by KINGNickname (talk • contribs) 23:35, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

We don't protect articles unless there is an ongoing problem. There isn't any problem with that article so there is no reason to protect it. - GB fan 23:41, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

You seem to have misunderstood the scope of this page; it lists participants in a program that ended in 1943, not participants in an ongoing program. None of these artists "are working with the USA government" on this project, and given that it's been nearly three-quarters of a century since the program ended, not many of the people whose names belong on this list are even alive anymore, and it's virtually guaranteed that none of them are working with the US government on anything anymore, or that they're getting any compensation from the US government for anything except Social Security or similar pensions. Nyttend (talk) 01:38, 22 February 2017 (UTC)