Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 May 27

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May 27

What's the name of this instrument

I just found this instrument and I would like to know what is it's name. The metal part is 32 x 5 cm and the markings are centimeters. It's made of aluminium. Thanks. Fructibus (talk) 02:23, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Pppery 02:26, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Looks like a gas manometer to me. Aspro (talk) 02:59, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Inter-wiki link phantom?

Can anybody tell where the expression (Malay) between the two templates in France_in_the_Middle_Ages#External_links comes from?--Erdic (talk) 02:48, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

The article trancludes Template:Ms in between the two navboxes, probably indicating that it was meant to be a third navbox. However, Template:ms redirects to Template:Ms icon which shows the text (in Malay). Pppery 03:09, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

@Pppery: Thank you! Now, wouldn't it be better to somehow include that in a way so that it doesn't "stick out" between the boxes?--Erdic (talk) 03:44, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

It was meant to be a navbox as Pppery guessed. I found [1] in the page history and reverted it. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:50, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Thank you very much!--Erdic (talk) 18:43, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Help with template, url was changed

Please help updating Template:WTA. The new website has new ids and uses additional parameters at the end, e.g. title/maria-marfutina. Can you do the changes here first? In tennis articles, the editor should add only the id number without the name of the tennis player. --User:Tomcat7 (talk) 10:53, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

@Tomcat7 and Trappist the monk: I have edited {{WTA}} [2] to pull the player ID from Wikidata if they have updated it there, as they have in nearly all cases I examined. It relies on the Wikidata item for the article so I edited the live template instead of the sandbox where it's difficult to test. I haven't documented the change but currently it doesn't allow an updated Wikidata value to be overridden. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:04, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Edit Count

When I try to get an edit count for myself (See:https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools-ec/?user=BronHiggs&project=en.wikipedia.org), it tells me that my first edit was on Dec 31, 2099, 12:00 AM, when I think it was in 2016. It also tells me that I have zero edits, when I think that I have made around 5,000 edits, and that 100% of my edits have no summary (which is clearly absurd since the system says I haven't made any edits and according to it, I won't start editing for another 82 years), when I think that about 95% of my edits should have a summary. Yesterday, the edit count function was not working at all and returning error messages. There have been problems with this in the past. Any ideas? BronHiggs (talk) 10:57, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Well Bron, stuff happens sometimes. I've had moments where even Wikipedia as a whole has gone down. No gain losing sleep over it :) Try again. The old lady's ok. Lourdes 11:25, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

@BronHiggs: This is normal that xtools isn't working, you should probably wait an hour or day also. KGirlTrucker81 ^{huh? what I've been doing} 11:36, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Bible ref

When I use the bibleref template without ref tags there is a double space after the template - is there anyway to stop this from happening so there isn't a blank space between the link to the bible verse and punctuation? Seraphim System ^(talk) 15:27, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

I guess you refer to [3]. {{bibleref}} makes no spaces or other characters between the link and the following punctuation or other source character. There is however an external link icon in all skins except Cologne Blue. I see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/skins/Vector/images/external-link-ltr-icon.png both in the diff and here: "... in Revelation 2:13. John the Apostle ...". I guess the icon doesn't render for you and leaves some empty space. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:48, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

MyHeritage

Is it ok to use this project as a source? Does Wikipedia have access to this project and how do I get in there (without paying for it out of own pocket).--Meister und Margarita (talk) 18:57, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

I assume you are asking about this site. What sort of information would you use it for? Is the content user-generated? If so, then it would not count as a WP:Reliable source. ... (later) ... I see that we have an article: MyHeritage. Dbfirs 19:21, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, that I forgot to include the link. As this source is used in more then 19.000 articles of enWP, I guess it is widely accepted (most probably because the user generated content is checked by the staff). I need access for completing some biographies in Stolperstein lists such as [4].--Meister und Margarita (talk) 10:44, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

I would be surprised if the staff have time to check any of the family trees. It is quite common for mistakes to be made in amateur ancestry research. Dbfirs 07:04, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

• You can usually try asking the WikiProject Resource Exchange if you have a very specific use in mind. (Of course, try to determine whether you really want it before putting someone on it - see the caveats above.) Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:57, 29 May 2017 (UTC)