Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 December 6

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December 6

Recent Contribution Question

I recently made a contribution to Wikipedia involving a biography of a person. For some reason it reads that the article is written like an advertisement. What can I do to fix this? Should I delete some of the references I used? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Max266 (talk • contribs) 00:16, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Max266. That would be Barbie Castro, correct? Content such as From the time she was ten years old, Barbie Castro became interested in everything that had to do with entertainment. She began working as a singer and dance, but then developed an interest in musical theatre. It was very hard for the young entertainer when her father passed away at the age of eighteen. Shortly afterwards, Castro devoted her time to starting a family, and she got married and had two daughters Taylor and Rhys Castro. are pretty much pure marketing speech, and should never appear in a Wikipedia article. Ar article should be neutral and factual. It should not offer opinions or judgements in Wikipedia's voice, although it may report the opinions of named and cited individuals, within reason and allowing for due weight. You also need to avoid copying any significant text from outside sources, unless they are marked as quotes and comply with Wikipedia:Quotations. Such copying can be grounds for deleting the article totally and without warning or discussion. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 00:59, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

The problem is not the sources used, if anything more and better are needed. it is the tone of the prose in the article itself. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 00:59, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello.

Thank you for letting me know what the problem is. Just out of curiosity, how much time do I have to fix this article Barbie Castro? I want to fix it so it doesn't get deleted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Max266 (talk • contribs) 01:32, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

There is no specific deadline, Max266. No editor has yet nominated the article for deletion, nor tagged it for speedy deletion. If nominated for a deletion discussion the discussion normally lasts at least 7 days. If tagged for speedy deletion, an admin reviews the article, perhaps only minutes later. If the admin agrees, the page is deleted with no discussion. You should be notified, but there is no delay. Personally I don't think this is sufficiently promotional to qualify for speedy deletion (or else I would have deleted it or tagged it) but that is a judgement call, and some editors are more aggressive on that subject than I. I have removed some of the most clearly promotional language, but you should go through it more thoroughly as soon as you can. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 03:25, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Clcstudent Bias

How do you stop someone with the right to ban you from editing your changes and threatening to ban you because they don’t agree with the way something is written due to their political bias? — Preceding unsigned comment added by WestSideHudson (talk • contribs) 01:00, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I am sorry, but edits like this (which you repeated after it was reverted) and this are totally unacceptable, and repeating such edits will justifiably lead to a block from editing. Do not repeat them. Do you really need to be told why they are not acceptable? They state highly non-neutral opinions, are attacks on named individuals, and are unsourced. They violate our living persons policy. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 01:07, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@WestSideHudson: DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 01:07, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Why I don’t donate

I don’t see any other place to offer this feedback. So I’m posting it here.

I do not donate to Wikipedia because it is Not a neutral resource as you claim it is.

Rather I find Wikipedia to be, in the words of Deepak Chopra, “militantly atheist.” Which is to say that you are biased by THAT particular point of view. And it is just one point of view among many.

I only use Wikipedia because it’s the first thing that pops up in the search engine. And then only if I absolutely have to.

Make Wikipedia actually neutral and not biased by its ideology of Scientific Utopianism and I reckon you might have more fans. It would be at least +1. Me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2000:8092:CB00:78F1:52A7:AFB0:86FD (talk) 03:58, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Where do we claim it's a neutral resource? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:21, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

We have an NPOV policy! -- Q Chris (talk) 08:32, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm sorry you feel that way. But many editors put in a lot of time to ensure nuetrality, and we have a lot of policies that ensure we treat topics evenly and without bias. We aren't perfect, but we try hard. If you have a specific article you don't like, why not make an account and be bold! Fixing problems when you see them is a key part of Wikipedia, and it's how we make it better everyday. Please remember, all the editors are volunteer and don't get paid. Donations go to keep the servers running and operate the Wikimedia foundation, which is not in charge of content or its creation, they simply run the backend. Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 09:27, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Which states "It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should normally follow." It makes no promises that, say, an article like Deepak Chopra or Age of the Earth will not be militantly atheist in the view of the OP. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:22, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

"I do not donate to Wikipedia because it is Not a neutral resource as you claim it is." Some examples of what you mean would be helpful. Britmax (talk) 11:01, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not claim to be free of bias. Wikipedia summarizes what independent reliable sources state, so any bias in the sources will be reflected in Wikipedia. We provide those sources so readers can evaluate them and decide for themselves what they think. If there is an error in an article and you can cite it to an independent source, please offer your suggestion on the relevant article talk page. I'll also note that whether you donate or not has no bearing on your edits or Wikipedia content, as fundraising is handled by the Wikimedia Foundation, not us editors. 331dot (talk) 11:58, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

• Please consider that Deepak Chopra has a very strong incentive in saying Wikipedia is unreliable, because people reading the Wikipedia page about him will learn that he is a quack and be more reluctant to buy what he sells. On the other hand, Wikipedia editors are volunteers, so what we say about him has zero financial impact either way on us.

If you have yourself observed specific instances of atheistic bias or similar, please point them out. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 12:17, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Problems with Template:Location map+ using the Greater Europe map

See here. I'm sure I carried over the correct coordinates from the respective Wikipedia pages, and yet the red dots seem shifted slightly to the west, the most glaring example being that Tel Aviv's Bloomfield Stadium now appears amidst the Mediterranean. --Theurgist (talk) 04:31, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@Theurgist: I haven't been able to solve this. There's another example at UEFA Euro 2020 bids#Bidding venues, where Jerusalem is positioned on the coast rather than inland. The calculation is done by the formulae at Module:Location map/data/Greater Europe. That module was created with the edit summary "may need some refining", so let's ping the module's creator: @Frietjes:. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:42, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

John of Reading and Theurgist, to calibrate the mapping, I need pairs of pixel coordinates in the image corresponding to lat,lon pairs. I find that the easiest are "border triple points", and it's very helpful to have the points spread over the map so that it's not being calibrated for one small region. I won't be able to seriously work on this until tomorrow. Frietjes (talk) 19:51, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@Frietjes and John of Reading: In fact I made the map like a month ago, but decided to wait for certain championships to finish so I can post an updated version. In the preview, it all seemed fine initially, but at some point the dots shifted (there are other, less obvious but still evident examples). I was hoping the glitch wouldn't show up once the map was actually posted, but it did. Meanwhile, Module:Location map/data/Greater Europe hasn't been modified since its creation in 2017, so the problem might be elsewhere. --Theurgist (talk) 00:09, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

On second thought, it may have been the regular Europe map (File:Europe blank laea location map.svg) that I used initially. Still, the Greater Europe map would be better because it displays Baku and all of Azerbaijan. --Theurgist (talk) 15:41, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

When will my article be published?

Hello, I made an article almost 1 month ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Erik_Stark). How do I know when it will be published? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Squaduser (talk • contribs) 11:46, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Squaduser You have not formally submitted the draft for review. I will add the appropriate information to allow you to do so. Once you submit it, it will likely take several weeks if not a few months, as there are thousands of drafts awaiting review by volunteers, who review them in no particular order. 331dot (talk) 11:54, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Contributions

Sorry, but please can you tell me what the numbers in the contributions page mean (eg. -13, +287), and if you collect a certain number of these points, does this benefit you? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.207.172.100 (talk) 13:52, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

It is not 'points'; it is the number of bytes added or removed with that edit. The number of bytes is roughly the same as the number of characters in the edit, but not exactly. 331dot (talk) 13:56, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

It's the number of bytes that changed in the article. For instance, if you change "Ford" to "Reagan", you'll get +2. It's only a rough indication; you could change "good" to "evil" and still get zero. It doesn't mean anything in terms that benefit a particular person. But you can award yourself virtual awards (like the one on the top right of my user page) by reaching certain levels in the number of edits you make. See Wikipedia:Service awards for more information. ubiquity (talk) 14:01, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Getting page protected quickly

I have saved a page from vandalism 6 times in a few minutes. Need it protected quickly. Check history logs. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_university_and_college_schools_of_music&action=history Elijahandskip (talk) 14:26, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Elijahandskip To request page protection, please make a report at WP:RFPP. 331dot (talk) 14:27, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Elijahandskip In addition, when there is only one single user vandalising the page repeatedly, admins will usually not protect it but block the user. Don't forget to warn the vandal (in this particular case I've warned them now) and then report them to WP:AIV if they don't stop with the vandalism after a final warning. --bonadea contributions talk 14:32, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for the quick responses. 1 question I do have is how to warn an "IP" user. Since they do not have a talk page.Elijahandskip (talk) 14:34, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Elijahandskip IP users have talk pages. In this case, User talk:194.80.135.68. 331dot (talk) 14:35, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I got it. When I clicked on the user name in the history, it took me to a "user Contributions" page. I did not see the "Talk" that was directly next to their ip/name. Thanks for the help.Elijahandskip (talk) 14:38, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Raymond Moloney

There is a stub page about this person but I am convinced I have seen one with much more detail. I was hoping to contribute to the page but it's really not there any more! It seems like most of the content on the page was deleted. is this possible? I don't know much about how Wikipedia works but there's not much point in contributing if things can be randomly deleted like this...Ruth Billheimer, Bradford (talk) 14:26, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Ruth Billheimer, Bradford, looking at the page's history, there doesn't seem to have been any content removed since it was created in 2005. Are you sure it was this page?

There is a button to see the page history next to the read and edit buttons in the top right of the page.

Although it didn't seem to be the case here, edits can be reverted. This is done if the edits don't meet Wikipedia policy - most often this is the verifiability policy. ~~ OxonAlex - talk 14:56, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict)​You can click on View history and click on the dates to see the older versions of a page. This article has always been a stub since its creation in 2005. Do feel free to add content to the page, if you cite reliable sources your additions are unlikely to ever be removed. – Thjarkur (talk) 15:00, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Thank you both. Ruth Billheimer, Bradford (talk) 15:21, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I was sent a message that was most likely for someone else

I'm not sure what the correct way to reference the message I received was, but the header was User talk:77.69.211.63

The message itself said: "August 2019 Information icon Hello, I'm Serols. I wanted to let you know that I reverted one of your recent contributions —specifically this edit to Shia in Bahrain— because it did not appear constructive. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. If you have any questions, you can ask for assistance at the Help desk. Thanks. Serols (talk) 13:58, 10 August 2019 (UTC)"

I never edited any wiki pages, especially about Shias. It's not something I have much of an attitude regarding. I do spend time in Bahrain. I don't know if it's possible to share an ip adress with someone else? I'm not loggd in as anything so I figure that was the only possible method to discern who the message was sent to.

I just thought I'd try get in contact to let whomever this concerns know. Im not sure this is the right way to do so but I don't have much time to research into it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.69.211.63 (talk) 16:49, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

IP addresses are often used by multiple people. If you don't want to get messages that aren't meant for you, you should create an account. 331dot (talk) 16:54, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

The message on the IP's user talk page continues by saying: "If this is a shared IP address, and you did not make the edits referred to above, consider creating an account for yourself or logging in with an existing account so that you can avoid further irrelevant notices." To avoid confusion caused by sharing an IP address, the best thing is to create an account for yourself. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:55, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. When somebody does not create and login to an account (like you), there is no way to contact them except by the IP address they were using: in this case 77.69.211.63. Unfortunately, many IP addresses are not fixed: even if you are using the same computer on the same network as last week, your network may have allocated you a different IP address. Conversely, somebody using the same or a different computer (but probably on the same network) in August was allocated the same IP address as you are using now. So that message was indeed not aimed at you, but there is no way to track down the person who made those edits in August. This is one of the reasons for creating an account: you will only get the messages intended for you. --ColinFine (talk) 16:59, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Change in title of a submitted article

I have misspelled the title of the article that I have submitted. I would kindly request if I can be guided with the procedure to correct it.

Nomad Shukla (talk) 16:50, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Nomad Shukla The title can be changed by moving the article to the correct title. You can request this at Requested Moves. 331dot (talk) 16:56, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I have moved your draft from your sandbox page to Draft:Videsh Seva Medal. --David Biddulph (talk) 16:58, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Change title page

Hi, I would need to change the title of this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Admiral_Trophy

It is a tennis tournament that was named after the former sponsor and is now called "Marbella Tennis Open". You can confirm it on the official website: www.marbellachallenger.com

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Montynegro50 (talk • contribs) 16:51, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Montynegro50,  Done. - I've had a look at the sources, which seem to support the name having been changed, so I've moved the page. ~~ OxonAlex - talk 16:55, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Question About Guideline About UK Nationality

A question has just arisen about a politician who lives in (and was born in) the northern part of Great Britain. What guideline specifies whether we should refer to her as Scottish or as British, because both are correct? The same question can also be asked about residents of the southern part of the island, in and around London, or of a western peninsula of the island. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:26, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

We generally call them British. I'm not sure there is a policy on this though. It's quite a touchy subject (myself, I prefer to be called English). Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 17:30, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

That may depend on what the politician calls herself, depending on whether she supports staying in or leaving the United Kingdom. There isn't a policy but there is an essay at Wikipedia:Nationality of people from the United Kingdom. That essay suggests "British politician from Scotland" in such cases. StarryGrandma (talk) 18:07, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon: Some advice is given in the essay Wikipedia:Nationality of people from the United Kingdom. There are a lot of UK-nationality warriors about, and usage depends mainly on establishing consensus for individual articles. Deor (talk) 18:07, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, User:Deor. Maybe that essay should be raised to the status of a guideline? In any case, the politician in question has the ambition to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and I think that she is therefore a British politician from Scotland. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:12, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Simple English Wikipedia and user scripts

I currently use a lot of user scripts when working on the English Wikipedia. Will these same user scripts work on the Simple English Wikipedia? Also, would I get a faster response at the Teahouse or the help desk? IMPORTANT: When you answer my question, please ping me in your response. Interstellarity (talk) 13:09, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

​Most userscripts will work, but not all. I think Twinkle only works on enwiki, it depends on whether they use local templates (like Twinkle does for warning) or whether they depend on namespaces not being localized. You can load individual scripts from enwiki (or your entire common.js file) by adding mw.loader.load( "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Interstellarity/common.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript" ); in simple:User:Interstellarity/common.js. You can also use the same format to load scripts in meta:User:Interstellarity/global.js which will load the scripts for all Wikimedia sites. The response time is similar for both the Teahouse and Help desk, the simple questions get quick answers. – Thjarkur (talk) 14:55, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Þjarkur, I think Twinkle works on the Simple English Wikipedia. However, I can't use Twinkle yet because I am not yet autoconfirmed there. However, when I try to use user scripts there, none of them work. Why is that? Interstellarity (talk) 15:05, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

​Oh, it's apparently not possible to load your entire common.js since importScript uses local paths. But this should work for individual scripts: mw.loader.load( "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:AutoEd/complete.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript" );. From your common.js, these won't work elsewhere: Adminhighlighter, DiscussionCloser, StubSorter, teahouse scripts, rater, and MoveToDraft. Proabaly a few others that won't work. – Thjarkur (talk) 15:10, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Þjarkur, I would like to start contributing to the Simple English Wikipedia. What are some of the limitations it has compared to the English Wikipedia? Interstellarity (talk) 15:17, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

​Technical wise there aren't any limitations, but some processes may differ a bit so the userscripts aren't tailored to it. – Thjarkur (talk) 19:23, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@Interstellarity: Remember, each Wikipedia has its own rules and guidelines. If you need help with the Simple Engligh Wikipedia, you should ask there. I think this is the help desk equivalent: [1] RudolfRed (talk) 20:51, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia store

Does Wikipedia sell merchandise that benefits Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.234.49 (talk) 18:28, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, according to the FAQ. To see the merch go to https://store.wikimedia.org/. theinstantmatrix (talk) 18:49, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Click 'Wikipedia store' in the 'toolbar' top left of any Wikipedia page. Eagleash (talk) 03:48, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

My wikipedia page disappeared

Hi, I'm Vernon robinson former elected official. There was a wikipedia page about me that various editors from right center and left fought over. I thought the wars were over until yesterday my daughter informed me my page is gone. This is not a good time. My book is coming out on Jan7 and is already available in pre-order on Amazon. Help. vrobinson679 at gmail 45.49.50.26 (talk) 21:25, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm afraid we cannot restore the article for this purpose. I'm assuming you intended to use the article to advertise your book, which is against policy. MoonyTheDwarf (Braden N.) (talk) 21:26, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

It was deleted after a proper deletion discussion. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Vernon Robinson. Drmies (talk) 21:27, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hello Mr. Robinson, the reason the page was deleted is here. Also, Wikipedia isn't meant to be another way to advertise yourself. Based on your comment about a book coming out, you seem to think this is the case. The encyclopedia is here for knowledge, it isn't here to be used as a personal website.HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 21:28, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Edit button not available

I am trying to edit a certain page, but it happens to be the only page that the edit tab does not show up for me. Is this page somehow restricted in who can edit it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by TierraPeerman (talk • contribs) 21:30, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@TierraPeerman: Probably under some level of protection, yes. That said, there's no way for anyone to confirm with any certainty whether that is the case without knowing the page involved. AddWittyNameHere 21:40, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

GENRE missing from table of American films

Hello, DAC8190 here, about 6 months ago I commented to someone about the fact that the GENRE column had been removed from the List_of_American_films_of_2019. Shortly after that post (not sure how to find it again?!) it was restored.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2019 Looking at the 2020 list I see it is missing. How do I get in contact with the editors of that 2020 list and again point out that GENRE is important? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2020 Thanks! DAC8190 — Preceding unsigned comment added by DAC8190 (talk • contribs) 22:12, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

@DAC8190: Best next step is to start a discussion on that article's talk page, or be WP:BOLD and add it yourself. RudolfRed (talk) 22:44, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Funding

How could something as worldwide known about run out of money for funding . the amount of money you guys could have raised from advertising could have bought a lot of homeless persons homes .there not a big enough spectrum to describe how stupid the smartest page in the world has been.... Why? ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.202.176.235 (talk) 22:30, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

See WP:PEREN#Advertising for why we don't use advertising. --ColinFine (talk) 22:49, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

2 questions

I am planning to make a few articles about some schools in my area. A: they have a website each by the school board. Is it notable? And B: how do I save my draft? I use a mobile browser. — Preceding unsigned comment added by New3400 (talk • contribs) 22:46, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Hello, New3400. Since notability depends on what published source unconnected with the subject say about it, it makes no difference whether or not they have their own websites: very little information in the article should come from those websites. What have newspapers, books from reputable publishers said about the schools? It's also worth having a look at WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES. --ColinFine (talk) 22:53, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Sorry, New3400, missed your other question. You save anything on Wikipedia by the "Publish" button. If it is a draft, it will not be published in the main space, and indexed so that it is readily found; but it will be published in the sense that everything in Wikipedia may be viewed by anybody - that is why "save" was changed to "publish" a while ago. --ColinFine (talk) 22:56, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

Well, um. Nothing in books, and in a newspaper, it said a dude died from the middle school, I have knowledge of it. Is it okay to make it or no? It's not that well known. New3400 (talk) 23:02, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

If you can find enough information about the school in reliably published sources, independent of the school, to establish notability, then by all means, create a draft using the article wizard, New3400 (I really don't advise trying to create an article directly in main space). If you can't find enough information, then you will be wasting your time trying. The fact that somebody died probably isn't enough to make it notable, though it could be. --ColinFine (talk) 00:00, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

Would the website from the school board count? It is neutral.New3400 (talk) 02:17, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

The specific guidelines are here: Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies)#Schools -- which essentially states that schools are treated the same as other types of organizations as far as notability is concerned. The school board website would be okay as a source of information, but (most likely) not sufficient to provide notability. It is certainly okay to try submitting an article -- but don't take it personally if your submission is declined . 107.15.157.44 (talk) 06:47, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

The school website operated by the school board would not establish notability, as it is the group that operates the school telling about the school. Most elementary and other lower level schools below high school don't merit articles; even Sandy Hook Elementary School does not merit an article(it redirects to the article about the school district). 331dot (talk) 10:49, 7 December 2019 (UTC)