Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 October 31

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October 31

Recently Active Users

Hello people. I am not sure how to fix this but if you look at the recently active users log, the link for myself leads to a blocked sock of someone impersonating me. Of course, this is not a huge issue but it seems strange. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 02:48, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

You might raise that with the tool author, Enterprisey. Or, if you tell us the sock puppet's username, maybe someone will notice something obvious. I don't currently see your name in the list. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 05:52, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

I see the tool currently links "Cote d'Azur" to User:Cote d so I guess it has problems with percent-encoding of special characters and links "HickoryOughtShirt?4" to User:HickoryOughtShirt. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:47, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Yes, you're right. I'll bring it up with the tool author. Thank you both! HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 15:10, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Signature

A user keeps asking me to fix my signature, but I do not know how. Can anyone tell me?--NeoBatfreak (talk) 04:26, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

To change your signature, go to your preferences at the top right of the page, scroll down past the user profile and internationalisation sections, and you will find a field where you can modify your signature. To fix your signature so it links correctly to your user and user talk pages as required, copy this code: --[[User:NeoBatfreak|NeoBatfreak]] ([[User talk:NeoBatfreak|talk]]) into the signature field, check the box which says "treat as wiki markup", and save your preferences at the bottom of the page. For more information, see Help:Signature. – Teratix ₵ 04:38, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

An easier way to get a valid signature is to leave the Signature field blank at Special:Preferences and have no checkmark at "Treat the above as wiki markup". This is the default. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:23, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Your signature was correct in your question, so you don't need to change anything. You had obviously cured the earlier problem. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:11, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

How to create a report of the use of a particular template in a specific time period with editing user

Is it possible to create/get a report of the use of the a particular template, Template:Geobox/type/river, in new articles (or the first addition of the template to an article) for a specific time period (say since January 1 , 2018) and the user names of the editors who created/edited those new articles with the template/to ad the template? I note the Geobox river template has a tracking category, Category:Geobox usage tracking for river type. Thanks. --papageno (talk) 05:22, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Would Wikipedia:WikiBlame help with this? --Jayron32 16:26, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Qui1che I wrote a query that will tell you the number of times a Geobox template has been transcluded on an article. https://quarry.wmflabs.org/query/30789 It appears that there are no articles that use {{Geobox/type/river}}. As you can see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Geobox/type/river there are pages that transclude that template, but they're not articles in mainspace.

Vexations (talk) 19:37, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks @Jayron32 and Vexations for your replies. Given that Geobox river is used on some 15,000+ articles, and I have created several hundred myself (eg Malotte Creek), perhaps we need to try a different approach. Every time the template is included on a article, the tracking category Category:Geobox usage tracking for river type automatically gets added to the article. Is there a way to know when that category has been added to an article for a given time period, and to get a report of those changes? Regards. --papageno (talk) 05:08, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Problem with logging in.

I took valuable time to edit your article on Walter Bosshard, Swiss photographer, then logged into my account only to find you keep rejecting my password. This is very frustrating, since I refuse to change my password--have too many already, and went through several tests to prove I'm not a robot when I tried to create a new account. What to do? Thanks, PC. 2602:306:CF09:D460:115C:72D5:A14:1311 (talk) 4:15 am, Today (UTC+0)

Hi Paul, sorry you are having problems. If you provided an e-mail address when you created your account, then you can recover your password. See Help:Reset password for details. It's possible that a different keyboard layout, or a changed space or capital letter is preventing your password from being accepted, so do try different combinations, and maybe a different keyboard. I've removed your e-mail address from public view since you don't it collected by spambots. Ask again if you are still having problems. I note that the article Walter Bosshard has not been edited for two years, so I assume you were using a word processor or a text editor. That is probably not a good idea. It is better to make your edits in small steps in the live article, and provide edit summaries. Dbfirs 08:32, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Another possible reason for password rejection is entering a wrong username. If your account has email enabled (we cannot tell without knowing the username) and you get a temporary password at Special:PasswordReset then you can set your preferred password at Special:Preferences after logging in. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Data vizualization

Dear All, I'd appreciate your attention for this question on data visualization.
Thank you in advance!
Have a nice Reformation Day/All Saints' Day/day
Yours, Ciciban (talk) 08:52, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Heading Question

Hello I was wondering how do you add a new category or headings in Wikipedia? Thank You Cheryl Crown Boone Castlegate22 (talk) 18:53, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Categories are created as described at WP:Categorization#Creating category pages.

Headings are created as described at WP:Manual of Style#Section headings.

--David Biddulph (talk) 19:37, 31 October 2018 (UTC)