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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 December 11

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December 11

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Proud boys

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You say the proud boys are fascist? Where is your proof? I have seen people of all color as members of Proud Boys! No.......they are American Patriots! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:100D:B004:49C6:A918:7041:80CD:F5F2 (talk) 01:24, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia summarizes what independent reliable sources state. You are free to believe as you wish. 331dot (talk) 01:31, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hitler was a German patriot. That's why he sought control. Being a patriot is a prerequisite for fascism owing to its ultranationalist nature. —A little blue Bori v^_^v Takes a strong man to deny... 02:03, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The IP could be referring to the backlash reaction to it, but we'll never know. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) (🎁 Wishlist! 🎁) 02:28, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Colorado County is missing on the Colorado 2012 Election Results

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Colorado County is missing on the Colorado 2012 Election Results — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.93.199.35 (talk) 02:25, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Colorado County is in Texas. But, if you do spot an error in an article, the best step is to bring it up on that article's talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 02:28, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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I want to contribute but only work through the mail. You should put up a link with the appropriate information so others like myself can help by mailing in donations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.123.9.8 (talk) 02:49, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I added a header to this question. If you look at [1]], it will give the mailing address for donations. RudolfRed (talk) 03:35, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi!

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How do I make my own page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:BA50:6740:4067:60DA:A4E7:CF0D (talk) 03:01, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody owns a page /article on Wikipedia. If thats your mission, I am afraid that you are goign to have a hard time here. Victor Schmidt mobil (talk) 06:57, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have already donated but Wiki keeps asking me to donate

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Hi, I recently signed up to donate money on a monthly basis, however every time I use Wikipedia, I get request boxes to donate. Is there not some kind of function that stops people who already donate getting hassled with constant subsequent requests to donate? How do I get Wiki to stop asking me for money when I already am a donor? 110.175.31.91 (talk) 06:30, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don’t work for WMF but as a user as well a volunteer, thank you for supporting this global community resource! There is a way to turn off the asks: if you make an account, you can dismiss the notice and then every time you log in, it will remember you don’t want to see it (available whether or not you had given!) Having an account has a number of conveniences like that. Innisfree987 (talk) 06:42, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The software cannot tell who is at the other end of an IP address. Please create an account. Go to your Preferences, navigate to the Gadgets tab, and check the "Suppress display of fundraiser banners" box. For additional concerns please contact the Wikimedia Foundation at this email address: donate@wikimedia.org. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) (🎁 Wishlist! 🎁) 17:50, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ME TOO ALREADY DONATED, YET THIS MORNING THE INGRATE WIKI SAID THEY HAD ASKED ME EIGHT TIMES, "WIKI ASKED YOU EIGHT TIMES RECENTLY AND PLEASE DON'T CONTINUE TO IGNORE - BIG BUNCH OF GREEDY WIKI I NOW SAY, AND, SORRY I DONATED EARLIER. WIKI, GREEDY WIKI, PLEASE RETURN MY DONATION SO i CAN SEND TO SOMEONE AT LEAST DAMN GRATEFUL!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.73.41.174 (talk) 01:40, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The software cannot tell who is at the other end of an IP address. Please create an account. Go to your Preferences, navigate to the Gadgets tab, and check the "Suppress display of fundraiser banners" box. For additional concerns please contact the Wikimedia Foundation at this email address: donate@wikimedia.org. Also please don't shout. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) (🎁 Wishlist! 🎁) 01:42, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Archive of messages/announcements which appear at top of Watchlist and below tabs/above page header?

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Hi; is there any archive page where I can see the list of announcements that have appeared in dismissable pop-ups at the top of the Watchlist, and on other pages appear below the tabs/above the page header? For example, right now I see one that says,

Join WikiConference North America 2020 live online: Friday Dec 11 – Sunday Dec 13!

I often see one that I'd like to investigate, but not immediately, and by the time I get around to it, it's been replaced by a new message. Or, I fumble-finger accidentally dismiss something I want to look at. Clearly the example above is probably geotargeted to me, so the full list probably will be lengthier than what I've actually seen, but that's okay. Thanks, ‿Ꞅtruthious 𝔹andersnatch ͡ |℡| 06:30, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Struthious Bandersnatch: The summary box at the top of Wikipedia:Watchlist notices explains where the various notices come from. In particular, Wikipedia:Geonotice currently displays all of this year's geo-targeted notices, or you can look in the history of Wikipedia:Geonotice/list.json. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:26, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! --‿Ꞅtruthious 𝔹andersnatch ͡ |℡| 13:06, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox trouble?

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Anyone else running into trouble getting images to populate on infoboxes? I have been trying to add an image to Juliet Hooker and for both the scientist and academic infoboxes, it claims the parameter “image” is unrecognized...which is just wrong, it’s definitely listed on the template. Are the templates broken? Innisfree987 (talk) 06:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Innisfree987: I fixed it by removing the spaces after the parameter name "image" and before the equal sign. I have no idea why this fix worked. -Arch dude (talk) 06:58, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
the hint was in the error message, which said that the parameter "image " was unrecognized, not that the parameter "image" was unrecognized. -Arch dude (talk) 07:00, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Arch dude, you are an actual genius. Would never have gotten there. Thank you! Innisfree987 (talk) 07:02, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Innisfree987: Some of the spaces were non-breaking spaces which were interpreted as part of the parameter name. The problem had been there since page creation but it only gives a preview warning when the parameter is assigned a value. Many others have been confused by accidental non-breaking spaces. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:05, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Wow: really do learn something new every day around here! Thank you PrimeHunter! Innisfree987 (talk) 16:06, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Health speculation

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Occasionally we see cases where a TV show or magazine hires a M.D. to speculate on the medical condition of a living person (typically a celebrity or politician). I was under the impression that our policy was that claims about medical conditions of living people require the person to self-identify as having the medical condition or there has to be a diagnosis by a M.D. who has actually examined the patient.

I can't seem to find that in any policy. Did I misremember? --Guy Macon (talk) 07:09, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The closest that I could find was this AfD: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Health of Donald Trump --Guy Macon (talk) 07:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Guy Macon: Nothing specific but:
Also, if the subject self-identifies as having some condition (and it is relevant for the article) but they have never been examined by the doctor, I'd say it should be mentioned exactly like that: "Painter Paintypaint self-identifies as having ADHD and attributes the wild lines in their work to this condition[1]". — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 07:49, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Guy Macon, for interpretations of Wikipedia policy, you may want to try a noticeboard. Maybe one of these noticeboards would be a good fit: WP:BLPN, WP:RSN.
If you can't find a specific policy discussing this, you could always look at this more generally. Did a reliable source report on it? If so, include it and cite. If not, maybe omit it. Especially for BLP, anything controversial should probably be cited with a reliable source. –Novem Linguae (talk) 15:15, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Your asking for donations

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My thoughts about this are, why not do what all the Game and video sites do , by watching a 30 second advert before the article can be shown. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.85.56.51 (talk) 09:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I could not think of anything more disruptive to a free encyclopedia of human knowledge than by forcing people interested in knowledge to watch an ad in order to access content. The Wikimedia Foundation's finances are stable at the moment, but they are working to establish an endowment to reduce the future need for donations. 331dot (talk) 10:26, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Advertising on Wikipedia is a perennial proposal as well. 331dot (talk) 10:26, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
In my opinion, this is a horrible idea and implementing it would make people stop reading Wikipedia. Just forget about it. JIP | Talk 12:39, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I believe it would also prompt a lot of the most productive editors to stop editing. --ColinFine (talk) 15:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I updated an SVG file on commons, PNG is not updating

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Howdy. I updated the first image in the article List of ongoing armed conflicts, by changing Syria's color on the world map from red to maroon. The file is an SVG (vector graphics) file on Commons.

It is updated and looking fine in the article. But once I click on it in the article, and the preview modal pops up, it loads a PNG, and Syria is back to red. So basically, the automatic PNG file generated for the modal is out of date.

I tried the usual stuff. Browser hard refresh (Ctrl-F5). The "Purge" tab on en-wiki.

1) Do you guys have the same problem I do? 2) Any suggested fixes? Please ping me when replying. Thanks for your time. –Novem Linguae (talk) 15:09, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Big Kahuna Luau

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Hello there,

This is my first time submitting a page to Wikipidia. I am still working on the page, but it was deleted. Can you help me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Big Kahuna Luau (talk • contribs) 15:22, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Big Kahuna Luau, sure, happy to help. Looks like User:Big Kahuna Luau was deleted under CSD (criteria for speedy deletion) U5, which is "Blatant misuse of Wikipedia as a web host". More info on U5. Log entry.
Basically, you shouldn't use your user profile to advertise your company. It may be possible to make an exception if you are drafting an article that you hope to later submit, but you would want to make it very clear that it's a draft. –Novem Linguae (talk) 15:39, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Shouldn't the user also be indefinitely blocked because of the advertisement in the user name? JIP | Talk 15:47, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I'll go a little further than Novem Linguae, Big Kahuna Luau: you don't have a "user profile". There are no profiles on Wikipedia, not one. There are articles which are neutrally written summaries of what independent people have published about a subject: Wikiepdia is not interested in what anybody says or wants to say about themselves, their company, their band, their school, their non-profit etc. Separately, as an editor, you can have a user page which may be used to share information about you as a Wikipedia editor - your interests, what articles you are working on or have worked on, etc. A limited amount of personal information unrelated to Wikipedia is tolerated on user pages, but not anything promotional. --ColinFine (talk) 15:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]


American soldiers killed in WWII

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Hello;

Weeks ago I became dismayed when the number of American deaths from Covid 19 surpassed the number of Americans killed in the 4 year American Civil War, 212,000 according to my trusted source Wikipedia. I wondered if the death toll from the virus would equal the biggest killer of Americans, WWII at 292,000.

Imagine my surprise when I checked yesterday to find the wikipedia number changed to 491,000.

Why was the number changed by who?

Thank you. John Lyons — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2607:FEA8:13DF:6E00:E864:86BC:D6F7:D83A (talk) 15:48, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, John. You don't say which article you are talking about, but you can look at its history, and see which editor made each edit to it. --ColinFine (talk) 15:54, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)Hello John, you can see when and by whom the number was changed by clicking the 'view history' tab at the top of the article. It is not clear whether the article you are concerned with is the Covid one or a WWII item. The covid one will be liable to regular updates. Please provide a link to pages you wish to discuss. Having said that, content issues are probably better raised at the appropriate article talk page. Eagleash (talk) 16:01, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
There are more replies at Wikipedia:Teahouse#Americans Killed in WWII. Please only post in one place. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:20, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Adding WikiProjects to articles

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Howdy. Is it customary/acceptable for an article creator to add WikiProject tags to new article talk pages? Or do the members of the WikiProjects prefer to do this themselves? Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 16:17, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It is acceptable. Assessment should be left to others, unless it is a list or a non-article page. Mjroots (talk) 18:12, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Update image

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Could someone with an account update the tiny photo at File:USP.Lompoc.jpg? I think we could use this, from here, under the same {{PD-USGov-DOJ}}? Thanks. 100.6.134.99 (talk) 16:50, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I will go ahead and upload the larger photo as the photo is listed as public domain. ‡ Єl Cid of Valencia talk 16:53, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CP24

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I and millions of other people in Canada that are normal readers, I would like to suggest to add extra seconds to your daily news scripts editing features!!!! Please I and many people in Canada would like to know the world's news too, however, news flashes so fast that we cannot comprehend your inputs. Please increase the seconds that news should be translated to population that are not comprehending your (waste of time news) in seconds. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2607:FEA8:DC0:B58:6068:D3F5:6135:E22F (talk) 18:44, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not a news website. Try Wikinews. Victor Schmidt (talk) 18:51, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
What daily news script are you referring to? This is the helpdesk for Wikipedia. It's not clear that you are asking about a Wikipedia function. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 18:55, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The OP is probably referring to the Toronto-based news channel CP24 and, like a number of other querents who seemingly don't grasp the nature of an online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, thinks that our article "CP24" about the subject, and consequently our Help desks, are somehow part of that subject's organisation. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 20:31, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
For the next little while, it's better not to know the news. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:21, 11 December 2020 (UTC) [reply]

Appropriate

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Can You please make some articles appropriate please? as I don’t like bad words — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.132.241 (talk) 19:49, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi IP user, Wikipedia is not censored and so in some articles if appropriate, swear words may be used. It is not Wikipedia policy to censor this. Joseph2302 (talk) 20:15, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Also, your most recent edit seems to be to change Sussex to Susswarmth, which makes no sense, since Sussex is an English county (that has the word sex in it because Sussex = South Saxons). Randomly removing words that contain "offensive words" is not appropriate. Joseph2302 (talk) 20:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The good Wikipedians of Scunthorpe will probably sleep uneasily in their beds tonight. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.56.237 (talk) 20:34, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
H*lly sh!#, how could ever Mass manage to find its way into Wikipedia??? --CiaPan (talk) 21:07, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Appeal

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  Courtesy link: Draft:Hermandad (non-profit)

Yes the appeal is about Draft Hermandad. --Robert Adamski (talk) 20:32, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Robert Adamski: Could you please elaborate as to what your question is? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) (🎁 Wishlist! 🎁) 20:50, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Robert Adamski, begging that a draft article be placed in mainspace of Wikipedia is not going to make that happen. A note from user:Calliopejen1on the page says, "It's not clear from the references provided that this organization is notable. Please provide the titles of the articles used in the references. Also, the contents of this article should be limited to what is found in the references you use. It appears that there is a lot of content here that is not from those references. I would recommend cutting down this article to approximately 1/3 or less of its current size. This is way too much detail for an encyclopedia."
It is now incumbent upon you to make the requested changes to the draft, which you haven't yet done. If you don't know how to do something, you should read up on it, using the links provided on the message at the top of your draft. If you need additional help, make specific help requests here at the Teahouse.--Quisqualis (talk) 05:52, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Donation

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I’ve already made a donation but you keep asking for more? I can’t give anymore. I’m sorry. 65.175.137.108 (talk) 22:12, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you create an account, you can disable the fundraising banners. RudolfRed (talk) 22:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
As you are using an IP, Wikipedia has no way to know that the person sitting at your computer at any given moment has donated. As noted, you can create an account to suppress the requests. 331dot (talk) 22:20, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The software cannot tell who is at the other end of an IP address. Please create an account. Go to your Preferences, navigate to the Gadgets tab, and check the "Suppress display of fundraiser banners" box. For additional concerns please contact the Wikimedia Foundation at this email address: donate@wikimedia.org. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) (🎁 Wishlist! 🎁) 23:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Let us suppose you saw an advert for a charity appeal in a newspaper and as a result sent off a cheque to the charity that day. Would you feel offended if the charity repeated the appeal in the same newspaper the next week? I don't think you would. The requests for money from Wikimedia are not directed at you but at people who have not made a donation. Spinney Hill (talk) 10:33, 12 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Extra Charge TO BE REMOVED .

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I made two GoFund me contributions for $200 each. I DO NOT want the extra fee of $25 on both of these contributions. They must be removed immediately Jeanne McAndrew — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.1.191.229 (talk) 22:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Does this pertain to Wikipedia in some way? This is not a general help desk. 331dot (talk) 22:21, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Jeanne. Firstly, thank you for your generous contributions to the Wikimedia Foundation, none of which goes to any of the volunteers here, I might add. Whilst 331dot is right to say that we can't really help you here on this help desk, I am stepping in to offer you some good advice.
I recently had exactly the same experience with GoFundMe who, by default, add on a so-called 'Tip' of 15% to every donation they process. I was contributing to a 'church on the street group' who were feeding unemployed and starving families in Northern England. I was upset to see the pastor who was running it break down in tears on BBC TV News as he described the dire situation, and felt moved to give something. And just like you, I was utterly incandescent with rage when I found this extra fee had been added on, and I hadn't noticed, so I took to Social Media to call them all rogues and thieves! But, having then calmed down a bit, I explored the GoFundMe website a little further and found (https support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/204150420-Refund-Requesting-a-Refund), from where a big green link allowed me to claim back that 15% 'tip'. To be fair to them, my request was acknowledged within the hour, and five hours later the money was back in my PayPal account. Ten minutes after that, I donated that same amount back to the original project. Do please follow that link to get back that obscene amount of money they took. I know they have overheads in processing payments, but that percentage is ridiculous.
One last thing: I see the official Wikimedia Foundation donations pages here and here make no mention of GoFundMe, and that they do accept direct payments. But I also found (charity.gofundme.com/wikimediafoundationi) which is an official looking donation page on GoFundMe. I think I will enquireI have now emailed the Wikimedia Foundation ( at donate@wikimedia.org) to ask whether it really is legitimate, and why it is not mentioned on that donations page. I will leave a copy of this reply on your IP user page, and let you know what WMF say, too. Many thanks, once again. Note that I have hadd to drop off the :// elements of the urls as I cannot include live hyperlinks to GoFundMe's pages because these are automatically blocked by our spam filters) I hope this helps. Regards from the UK Nick Moyes (talk) 23:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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