Help desk
< May 9	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 11 >

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.

May 10

Help:Cite errors/Cite error ref no input

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.211.166.130 (talk) 00:01, May 10, 2017 (UTC)

This empty post seems to relate to Zeppelin NT and the error has been fixed. Eagleash (talk) 00:37, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The error is triggered when empty ref tags are inserted (<ref></ref>). —MRD2014 📞 contribs 02:36, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How do I effectively research a topic?

I am attempting to overhaul Buffalo, New York into something akin to Hamilton, Ontario or Minneapolis, but it's a daunting and overwhelming task because I don't know where to start (specifically in regards to the history section). Somehow I was able to completely reconstruct Utica, New York, which became a good article, but I can't find a way to replicate that success here.

I have a few articles and books to look at. If you were editing this article, where would you start? Buffaboy ^talk 01:14, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Buffaboy. Let's ask someone who has significant experience in such overhauls. (For clarity sake, I presume your query is: where/how should one start researching; which sources should one access first; what should be the general sequence of addressing the sections within the article?). Thanks. Lourdes 00:43, 11 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(Pinging again. Lourdes 00:44, 11 May 2017 (UTC))[reply]

Will do, Lourdes. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Buffaboy ^talk 01:00, 11 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

All articles matching a certain pattern

Not sure whether to send this to the AWB requests page, or WP:BOTR, or somewhere else, so I figured I'd just ask for directions first.

I'd like to get a list of articles about musical bands with heavy metal umlauts in the title. The process should be simple — I'm imagining all articles within Category:Popular music and its subcategories (aside from ones with bio categories, e.g. "[year] births", "[year] deaths", and "living people", since individuals should be excluded) that have ä, ë, ö, or ü in the titles. Is this something that can easily be done from a database dump, or do I really need to request AWB or bot help? Nyttend (talk) 01:31, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Nyttend Wikidata might help here. Here's a query that shows all instances of bands or rock bands that have a label with an ä, ë, ï, ö or ü in their name that have an article in the English Wikipedia.

SELECT DISTINCT ?item ?itemLabel ?sitelink WHERE {
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" }
  {?item wdt:P31 wd:Q215380} UNION  {?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5741069}
  ?item rdfs:label ?itemLabel. 
  ?sitelink schema:about ?item .
  ?sitelink schema:isPartOf <https://en.wikipedia.org/> .
  FILTER(CONTAINS(LCASE(?itemLabel), "ä"@en)
         || CONTAINS(LCASE(?itemLabel), "ë"@en)
         || CONTAINS(LCASE(?itemLabel), "ï"@en)
         || CONTAINS(LCASE(?itemLabel), "ö"@en)
         || CONTAINS(LCASE(?itemLabel), "ü"@en)
        )
} 
LIMIT 350

Paste the above at https://query.wikidata.org/ and press Run. Mduvekot (talk) 22:21, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External link search

I remember there's a tool to check all outgoing links to a particular domain from Wikipedia pages but I can't recall the tool's URL. Like if someone wanted to find links to Daily Mail used on articles the tool proved very helpful. Where's that tool? Thanks in advance, --Skr15081997 (talk) 09:57, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about a specific tool but this is an "insource" search which shows every use of dailymail.com - You may need to modify the parameters, currently set for Main, Wikipedia and Portal - Arjayay (talk) 10:06, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Special:LinkSearch. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:09, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting - the "insource" search, linked above, gives 353 results, but a Special:LinkSearch for Dailymail.com just 32 - Arjayay (talk) 10:25, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

*.dailymail.com gives 292 results. Without the asterisk you miss www.dailymail.com. The insource search includes results like "The DailyMail.com Seriously Popular Award" at People's Choice Awards#Digital with no link. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:34, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the explanation - is there any documentation for Special:LinkSearch that explains the parameters, wildcards etc? - Arjayay (talk) 12:08, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Like many special pages there is a "Help" link at the top right. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:59, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Edit not being allowed to remain

Hello. I recently edited a line from Tablet of Shamash. I simply wish to correct a discription of what is being held forward. This item is depicted in other tablets from the era, such as the Burney Relief/Queen of the Night.

This item is described as rod and ring in one page, but described as a reed of rope/cord for another.

I simply wanted to have Wikipedia page content to match. One page says that its rope, the other says its ring & rod. Both are close...its the Shen ring which is also described on Wikipedia.

The shen ring has even older roots and is a Rune known as Thurizas. Cameron107.77.237.213 (talk) 12:14, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Such matters should be discussed on the talk page of the article concerned. This page is aimed at help for using Wikipedia itself. Britmax (talk) 12:30, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Cameron. Coming here to ask about editing is just fine. It happens all the time. Now, let's get you pointed in the right direction. I'm not quite sure if you are completely new to WP or using various IP addresses for other reasons; so I will assume that (along with this question) the edit is out of novice beginnings here: [1]. Your edit was reverted and summarized as "unsourced"; which means you must provide a reliable source WP:RS to back your claim. Otherwise, it will be challenged and removed. If you can find a source, feel free to reinstate the content along with the inline citation. However, as has been advised above, you can bring your discussion (as you have here) to the article's Talk Page and gain consensus from other editors to include the change. Simply by stating what you have here will be a good start. Good luck! Maineartists (talk) 14:28, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

General comment - Wikipedia has an article Shen ring. If anyone introduces that term into an article, it would be good to make it a Wikilink as I just did, so that readers can easily find what it means. Maproom (talk) 21:07, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

[Since there's no discussion as yet on the article Talk page] The Tablet of Shamash article itself currently gives no reference for its description of the item(s) in question being a measuring rod and cord (rather than a Shen ring): however, in the article Measuring rod this same tablet is also pictured and described as showing a measuring rod and cord, with two references, and with two other comparative examples pictured and described (one immediately following, one earlier (the Gudea of Lagash photo).

As the (exclusively Egyptian) Shen ring seemingly originates as a loop of rope with a flat (though short) attachment, I can see why the OP Cameron suspects there is a connection, and he might even be correct, but without a published reliable source saying so, it remains speculative Original Research on his part. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.183 (talk) 14:22, 11 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 May 10

Contents