Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 February 12

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February 12

how can i edit wikipedia?

hello! can you teach me how to edit a article on wikipedia! thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by TBS1727 (talk • contribs) 01:05, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@TBS1727: Welcome and thanks for wanting to contribute. Check out the learning game at WP:ADVENTURE and also the tutorial at WP:TUTORIAL. If you run into specific questions, come on back to the help desk, RudolfRed (talk) 01:09, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Missing City information for the Kansas City MSA - Spring Hill, KS

Our population is now 10k or above. Smaller cities have been cited and as a Spring Hill / Johnson County resident. I think it would be beneficial to have Spring Hill listed as one of the cities. Considering the growth rate at which we are incurring I believe it lends some relevance to the immediate and overall population of the KCMSA. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.57.105.123 (talk) 03:02, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

 Comment: This is a matter for the article's talk page, not here. If you have any questions with editing, feel free to reply to this comment. Aasim 07:01, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Why can’t I edit this page?

I followed the instructions on how to edit the page at this url which is on a political hot button topic, Trump Derangement Syndrome, but a box popped up at the bottom of the page with the error message "This page is protected to prevent vandalism." The page address is [[1]]

I tried to read through the help pages resulting from the wiki search phrase "not allowed", but I don't know which, if any, of the restrictions detailed would apply to the page in question, and, of more interest to me, why this would be the case. is it because it is about our political situation, and any input could be interpreted as slanderous and open Wikipedia to a lawsuit?

To give context to my query, this article describes how Republicans use TDS in a derogatory way, as if Democrats are all elitist, pearl-clutching hysterics. The edit I wanted to do was the addition of how progressives use the same term, TDS, but they are using it to describle how many democrats have become so tramatized by Trump's presidency that they are experiencing Stockholm Syndrome. In this state, which is akin to a trance, the person becomes one of "the sheeple" that blindly follow the candidate who has the greater power.

When Republican say TDS they are deriding Democrats that are to the left of them, whereas progressives use it to describe Democrats who are to the right of them. I want to make this point because the last four years have upturned our previous reality. "Alternate facts" have created an alternate reality where we are being subjected to gaslighting and our grasp on what is happening to us is constantly under threat, — Preceding unsigned comment added by BabyBella1000! (talk • contribs)

Per the little padlock that appears in the upper-right corner of that page, you would need to be a extended confirmed user in order to edit that page. Basiclaly, you need to be around here awhile and have more edits to your name. Cheers! DonIago (talk) 06:13, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello, BabyBella1000!. What Doniago hasn't told you is that, though you cannot edit that article at present, there is a way for you to request an edit: you can post on the talk page Talk:Trump derangement syndrome. See Edit requests for how best to do this. In this case I would advise reading through that Talk page, including its archives, first, to see if the issue you want to raise has already been discussed. Note also that any information you wish to introduce to the article must be based on reliable published sources; original research is not allowed in any Wikipedia article. --ColinFine (talk) 11:07, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

• @BabyBella1000!: The above replies are complete (and correct!) regarding how you should proceed. Just to answer the question of why the page is so protected, it is not due to legal considerations (or at least mostly not).

Some people are, shall we say, more interested in seeing Wikipedia reflect their point of view than following the guidelines for collaborative editing. You can easily imagine that having the content of pages determined by who can edit their preferred version the fastest does not lead to a stable and reliable encyclopedia, nor to a nice editing environment. When such people are few and not well-determined (typical example: schoolboys replacing pages with obscenities) they can be dealt with on an individual and after-the-fact basis. However hot-button issues attract large crowds of well-determined such editors (for non-American examples, see Western Sahara, Sea of Japan naming dispute, etc.).

To avoid that, pages can be subject to the page protection policy. There are several levels of protection, the most common being "semi-protected" (= can only be edited by accounts with >=10 edits and >=4 days of age) to ward off new users coming for vandalism (typical use case: a famous TV personality says to go and edit a given Wikipedia page to put crap in it). Here, it is "extended confirmed" which means >=500 edits and >=30 days, a rather high bar that would need some effort to overcome if you are here to push a particular point of view on a particular article. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:28, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Bullock family

Please repair reference number 17. I cannot do this myself. Thanks in advance. 110.145.38.110 (talk) 06:29, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

 Done MB 06:35, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Please place a full stop at the end of the "Bullocks at Faulkbourne" section as I cannot do this Thanks110.145.38.110 (talk) 06:44, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

 Done Maproom (talk) 07:26, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I can't donate to you because you are asking pan and I don't have it.

I want to donate to your cause but I can't because I don't have pan . So can you tell me is there any other way for it. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shubhamdash0 (talk • contribs) 08:23, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello, SHubhamdash0. Thank you for wanting to support this project. I don't know wht "pan" is, but https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give details the methods available for donating. --ColinFine (talk) 11:10, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@ColinFine: Fixing a ping, misdirected due to a typo in the user's name: Shubhamdash0. --CiaPan (talk) 11:18, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

And FYI, PAN is primary account number, another name for a credit card number. Joseph2302 (talk) 21:43, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Word Count

Where can I find out how often a certain word appears on a particular wikipedia page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.42.246.41 (talk) 12:21, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Copy the text. Go to this page (Lextutor Text-Based Concordances). Paste your text into the large box (replacing the text that's already there). Click "submit". -- Hoary (talk) 12:41, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Many browsers can show it for any page with Ctrl+F, and also find the occurrences. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:15, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Draft article is now empty since PC crash

I created a draft article "Les Mathurins" using the New Article Wizard. I spent ages on it last night and this morning adding references etc. It was looking pretty good and near to complete. I clicked Preview several times while editing it, so it must have been saved on Wikipedia's servers OK. Then my PC crashed a couple of hours ago. I have just tried to reload the draft page to continue with it, but now the page has the message "Wikipedia does not have a page with this exact title." and all of my carefully crafted content has gone - the edit window is completely empty! :(((

Can someone explain how to get this back - I just can't face typing all of this in again and searching out all of the references again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Croeville (talk • contribs) 15:06, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but it won't have been saved on the Wikipedia servers unless you clicked "Publish changes", rather than "Preview". That button used to have the more helpful name "Save", as that's what it does. It was changed to "Publish", even though when applied to a draft it doesn't actually publish it, for legal reasons.

By the way, Mathurins exists as a redirect to the article Trinitarian Order.   Maproom (talk) 16:27, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

... and of course that was the reason why I didn't click Publish. Ok, I'll take deep breath and have one more go, and click Publish at regular intervals while editing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Croeville (talk • contribs) 16:51, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Yes, a lot of people have been misled by that. Also some in the other direction, clicking "Publish" and wondering why it doesn't move their draft to article space. The decision to assign a misleading label to the button was made by the Wikimedia Foundation, without consulting us editors who actually do the work. Thank you for your willingness to persist. Maproom (talk) 22:26, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@Croeville: Sadly, the term "publish" has a specific technical meaning in the context of copyright law. It means "make available to the public". Everything you add to any place at all in Wikipedia is visible to the public. This includes your saved work in progress: the only difference is that your work in progress is a little harder to find. Note that the term "publish" appears in the text that you agree to (displayed immediately above the buttons) when you click the "publish" button. This entire situation is immensely frustrating. -Arch dude (talk) 18:40, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Help with creating my Page

Hu, I am confused as to why my page I just created/contributed to has not been officially published? I don't know what other steps to do... I am in a tight bind and would love some help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Katepounders (talk • contribs) 17:24, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@Katepounders: you did not submit your draft article for review. To do so, place this syntax at the top of your draft: {{subst:submit}}. However: 1)There is a long backlog for reviews. 2) You may have a deadline, but we don't (Wikipedia:There is no deadline). 3) if you submit this article, it will be declined due to lack of demonstrated notability: see WP:NBAND, or more humorously but more brutally, Wikipedia:No one cares about your garage band. -Arch dude (talk) 17:57, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

There was a "Resubmit" button on your draft but you deleted it; I have reinstated it so that you can resubmit when you have addressed the problems. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:34, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

• Note: The OP has created content in draftspace, in a sandbox and at their userpage; I have left a welcome message at talk, together with a note about duplicated items. Eagleash (talk) 20:07, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Editing and item on Motorcycles.

I have attempted to Edit on the page for Associated Motorcycles a Grammar/factual error. I have edited the page but then I signed out my editings were NOT saved. Seems very little point editing in the first place. What is going on, how does one Edit that is useful and saved? A O — Preceding unsigned comment added by Al Oz (talk • contribs) 18:53, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

You didn't save the edit (using the "Publish changes" button). --David Biddulph (talk) 18:57, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

writing about myself

Hello- My name is Jon Michaels and I am a professional Singer Songwriter. I have had several recordings by major artist and my name is listed on several discographies in Wikipedia. I do not have a page describing my career and my successes. I would like to start a page on Jon Michaels Music. If you are writing about yourself, what are the parameters and is that allowed? How do I get started? It look daunting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chpls (talk • contribs) 20:24, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@Chpls: If writing about yourself on Wikipedia looks daunting, that's because it is. I strongly recommend you do not write about yourself on Wikipedia.  Please read Wikipedia:Autobiography to get an idea of the problems with autobiographies and some of the applicable policies. Also, read Wikipedia:An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing to understand why you may regret the existence of such an article. If, having read those, you are still determined to attempt to write an article about yourself, read Wikipedia:Notability (music) and see if you meet the criteria for a musician to have an article about them. If so, then read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest to understand the disclosure requirements you must comply with as someone with a conflict of interest. Then, read Your first article for advice on how to write a Wikipedia article. Lastly, once you have read and understood all of those pages, if you feel you are notable and still want to attempt to write about yourself on Wikipedia, gather some sources that have published information about you but that are unaffiliated with you or your band or publicist and head over to the Wikipedia:Article_wizard. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:40, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia page

Why does FlightTime Phone keep deleting Kathryn Ann Taylor’s Wikipedia page? She is a notable person. Why does FlightTime Phone not want her linked to her husband’s page? Tom Steyer is running for president of the United States of America. This is really shady that FlightTime Phone can keep deleting his wife’s page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MDM88 (talk • contribs) 20:41, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@MDM88: First, Kathryn Ann Taylor was not deleted, it was moved to Draft:Kathryn Ann Taylor. This is routinely done when a page is created that does not meet the basic definition of an article. It needs to cite some sources that discuss Ms. Taylor and provide information about her. It needs to show that she is notable. That's why it was moved to draft, so that you could continue to work on it and get it to an acceptable level of quality before moving it back into the encyclopedia. No one is trying to supress information; just enforce a minimal standard for article quality. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:56, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Referencing the talk page.

Is there any circumstance when an article should have a link to the talk page of the article? I know that there are templates that have v t e, but I'm specifically talking about articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Naraht (talk • contribs) 23:44, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

@Naraht: Not that I can think of. Do you have a particular situation in mind? —[AlanM1(talk)]— 02:00, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

@AlanM1: Yes, but I think I can convince the other editor in question. Not sure how I can search for them. Simply using insource: finds them inside comments.Naraht (talk) 04:56, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Many templates at Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup display a link to the talk page for discussing the issue. "talk page" occurs 73 times on the page. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:34, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

How do I create an article?

How do I create an article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by HCI570 User (talk • contribs) 23:49, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

You should search for the guide on Wikipedia! That will help. New3400 (talk) 00:31, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

@New3400: I think they were asking for a pointer to the guide, which another user has kindly provided on their talk page. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 02:02, 13 February 2020 (UTC)