Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 May 15

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May 15

Can I recover an edit which has frozen?

I've been editing Huntly Railway Station on a Google Chrome browser, but, when I tried to move a paragraph, the page above that was lost. I then tried to switch from Edit to Edit Source and the page froze. Can I recover anything?Johnragla (talk) 01:52, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

What do you mean by "the page above it"...? Do you mean the toolbar? And the page... froze? Are you still able to see the text you were working on? If so, you should be able to copy and paste the... Wait, that doesn't work in visual editor the way it should in regular, does it?

You can report problems with the visual editor here. 02:06, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

No, I mean all the text above the wording I was trying to move disappeared. Thank you for the suggestion about reporting the problem. I'll try it.Johnragla (talk) 02:09, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

@Johnragla: Try pasting it into notepad or something, maybe it cut the text? Ian.thomson (talk) 02:14, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

The only thing I can cut from that page is the dialogue box saying 'You are switching to source editing'. Maybe it is, but more probably it's frozen.Johnragla (talk) 02:25, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

The article itself seems to me to behave normally. Maybe it's something in your browser that's frozen? Maproom (talk) 08:49, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes, it behaves normally for me in a separate window, but I'd still like to know if there's any way to recover the editing I've done.Johnragla (talk) 08:52, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

If you can, it will be by understanding your browser, Jonragla, not anything that Wikipedia can do. You could try asking at the Computing reference desk (and remember to specify what browser you are using, and explain more clearly the steps you took and what you see). --ColinFine (talk) 09:54, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Wikiproject templates

Hi, I want to make a query: who can put the Wikiprojects templates in the Talk Page of articles? The members of Wikiproject or any editor? Thanks --Ane wiki (talk) 04:39, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

@Ane wiki: Any editor, I think. I sometimes add wikiprojects to a new article's talk page, leaving the "class" and "importance" fields blank so that it will eventually be checked by someone who knows something about the subject. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:54, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

There's a bit more about this at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-04-01/WikiProject report. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:01, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks!--Ane wiki (talk) 16:58, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

"See also" columns issue

Life skills#See also has been defined as being four columns but it appears as two columns ? Any ideas ? --Penbat (talk) 15:51, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

If you look at the source code for {{columns-list}} you'll see that it says "Support for previous parameter 1= aka cols= has been removed after being deprecated for months for compatibility reasons, use more portable parameter colwidth= instead." --David Biddulph (talk) 16:04, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Charlie Rose interview

I am working on expanding the section labeled "Background" in the Wikipedia article about the film Affliction (film). I would like to use this video as a source. It is a video of Charlie Rose interviewing writer/director Paul Schrader and actors Nick Nolte, James Coburn and Willem Dafoe about the film. Since the interview is part of an episode of Rose's namesake show, would I be violating Wikipedia's copyright policies if I used it as a source? Hitcher vs. Candyman (talk) 17:48, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Why would citing it violate copyright? Uploading it would violate copyright, but simply citing it as in "here is where I got this information" does not violate copyright. Here is a template you can use for the citation: Template:Cite episode. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:20, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

What you're probably thinking of, Hitcher vs. Candyman, is that we don't allow links to material that violates somebody's copyright. So some material on Youtube may not be linked to for that reason; but plenty of material on Youtube is posted by the copyright holder, and is perfectly OK to link to. Since the site you want to reference appears to be Charlie Rose's own site, there should be no problem with copyright. However, you need to remember that this is not an independent source, and use it only in the limited way allowed for self-published sources. --ColinFine (talk) 19:58, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

@ONUnicorn and ColinFine: Thank you both for your input. So far, I have not posted anything in the article. I have written everything I intended to post on my sandbox. Feel free to review what I've written on my sandbox and check my sources to see if they're reliable. If I've made any errors, please discuss them with me at my talk page. Thank you very much. Hitcher vs. Candyman (talk) 23:50, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Wrong status of a country

Dear Wiki administrators and editors,

With respect to all volunteers and authors of the information given about the Republic of Armenia, i want to note that Armenia is an independent country, since the 1991, just like its neighbour Georgia. And it does have a status af an independent country and not a sovereign state, as given on the official page of Wikipedia. Please consider this as an important issue about representing a country history and information. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:204:1:850:D8BC:277:89F:AC8D (talk) 22:24, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi. I'm trying to understand your point but I don't. Being an independent country and being a sovereign state are not contradictory or mutually exclusive statuses. The article says it is both. You have not stated why it is not a sovereign state, only implying that there is some problem with it being listed as both. To give you an example, the Faroe Islands are an independent country, but because their government is ruled by the Kingdom or Denmark, they are not a sovereign state. I have this feeling, though I'm by no means sure, that you think this phrase has the opposite meaning than it does. By saying that Armenia is both an independent country and a sovereign state, the article is conveying that, not only is Armenia its own country, but it also has its own government, not ruled by any outside one. Can you clarify what you intend?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:44, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

The OP might want to look at the disambiguation page State to help them understand that they are confusing two of the several separate meanings of the word "state" in English: namely Constituent state (which, for example, the States of the USA are) and Sovereign state (which Armenia, the USA, etc. are). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.183 (talk) 10:31, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Convention about listing TV episode credits

I was thinking of adding the name of a specific episode to the credit of an actress when I noticed that when she had only one episode for the series, the episode was explicitly named, but when she appeared twice, the credit was simply changed to "2 episodes". No episode names were retained. Is this a general pattern to follow? RaymondYee (talk) 22:39, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi RaymondYee, I don't know if it's a general pattern to be followed; but it sure looks a sensible pattern to follow when the artiste may have appeared in more than one episodes. Write back if you need more assistance. Thanks. Lourdes 02:55, 16 May 2017 (UTC)