Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 February 13

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February 13

Is there a place on Wikipedia to talk about things not Wikimedia related?

Is there one? New3400 (talk) 00:30, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

New3400, Generally, no. Wikipedia is not a forum. It is used to discuss improvements to WIkipedia. There is an "offtopic" channel on the wikipedia WP:DISCORD, but nothing on Wikipedia. CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 01:52, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

There are Wikipedia:Reference desks, which are often used to discuss topics tangentially related to Wikipedia. Ruslik_Zero 15:52, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Creating a new article

How do I create an article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by HCI570 User (talk • contribs) 00:36, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Dude, just answered that above. Just saying. New3400 (talk) 00:37, 13 February 2020 (UTC) Archived.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:51, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

HCI570 Be advised that successfully creating a new article is the hardest task on Wikipedia. It takes much time and practice. You will greatly increase your chances of success if you first spend time editing existing articles in areas that interest you, in order to get a feel for how Wikipedia works and what is expected of article content. You should also use the new user tutorial to learn more about Wikipedia.

However, if you still want to attempt to create an article, you should read Your First Article and then use Articles for Creation to create and submit a draft. 331dot (talk) 00:40, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

@HCI570: You can create a new article on any topic that is notable by our definition: see WP:N. Any attempt to create a page on a non-notable topic will fail. Therefore, start by finding reliable sources (WP:RS) that show notability. There are many way to mess this up, so look at Wikipedia:Common sourcing mistakes (notability). Do not proceed until you have found at least two sources that establish notability. When you find them, proceed to Help:Your first article. Good luck! -Arch dude (talk) 02:07, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale

In the "Family" section - on the word Darnton Lupton - please link in directly to Darnton Lupton's section of the Lupton family page. I cannot do this - thanks 203.132.68.1 (talk) 01:56, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

It's done like this:

[[Lupton family#Darnton Lupton|Darnton Lupton]]

which renders as:

Darnton Lupton.

See H:LINK and WP:LINK for more about linking. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 02:11, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

I cannot do this (see above) on my device - please fix if u can. Thanks 203.132.68.1 (talk) 04:07, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Done. -- Hoary (talk) 04:16, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Reverting edits of a sockpuppet of blocked editor

Hi, I think the reason that sockpuppets of blocked editors keep creating accounts is that their edits are not usually reverted. Is there a script to rollback or undo all edits by a sockpuppet? Or are there editors who are willing to revert sockpuppets edits?. I have reverted some of edits made by a sockpuppet.--SharʿabSalam▼ (talk) 14:08, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Any editor can revert any edit by a user who is evading a block or ban. Any articles created by such editors can be tagged for deletion under the G5 criterion. If they are not reverted, it's likely because they have not been detected. A mass rollback tool is available to administrators, and is often used for this purpose. Yunshui ^雲_水 14:12, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Yunshui, the mass rollback tool is only available to admins? Do you mean this tool?-SharʿabSalam▼ (talk) 14:23, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

I think any user with Rollback can use Writ Keeper's script. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 14:26, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Wow! great! thanks Yunshui and ONUnicorn.--SharʿabSalam▼ (talk) 14:30, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

SharabSalam, For reference, admins additionally have the Wikipedia:Nuke tool, which allows them to delete all pages created by a user. However, there aren't many circumstances in which it would be useful in this case, as WP:G5 doesn't apply if others had significantly edited the page. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 22:17, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Image for user page

How the heck do I actually put an image in my personal user page? This is really flummoxing me.-Watercolorheart (talk) 14:30, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

I have moved your message to its appropriate place among today's messages, rather than at the top of the page. --David Biddulph (talk) 17:08, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Watercolorheart, at, for example [1], click "Use this file", copy the "thumbnail" code and paste it on your userpage. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:36, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try it. I feel like I need a really advanced degree to use Wikipedia now, LOL. I'm so behind the times.-Watercolorheart (talk) 09:23, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Found full res image and shrank it,Watercolorheart.--Quisqualis (talk) 21:59, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, it's looking better now.-Watercolorheart (talk) 10:17, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

Articles for Creation

How can I det in the disscusion abaut this article : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/House_of_Roper-Curzon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexander Hadjinedelchev (talk • contribs) 16:18, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict) @Alexander Hadjinedelchev: Hello, if you want to join the discussion, click on the link in your post and then on 'edit source' next to the bold blue sub-heading. Then add your comment to the bottom of the discussion use a bullet point (*) and begin your post with Cmt (for comment) Del (for delete) or Keep. Use the bold text (3 straight apostrophes) like so '''Del''' in the source. If this is not what you mean, please clarify.(Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) (including in deletion discussions). Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 16:36, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

AfD query

How can I vote for this article : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/House_of_Roper-Curzon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alexander Hadjinedelchev (talk • contribs) 18:39, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

An AfD doesn't involve voting per se, but you can register your opinion by editing the AfD page (just as you edited this one) to place your comment at the bottom of page. See WP:DISCUSSAFD. Deor (talk) 18:51, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

See also the response given above. Eagleash (talk) 20:41, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

• Note: Duplicated threads merged. Eagleash (talk) 20:44, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

2020 Mountain West Conference football schedule

Can you fix the error on the reference i made please. 68.103.78.155 (talk) 18:10, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Corrected in this edit. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:23, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Can't revert vandalism because of blacklist

I tried to revert the most recent edit to River, but couldn't save the corrected version; the error message was lengthy and referred to the blacklist, but it wasn't clear which the blacklisted url was. It has presumably been added to the blacklist since the article was previously saved. Could someone please sort out the problem? --David Biddulph (talk) 18:56, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

David Biddulph, another editor managed the revert. I think it's just some weird random bug; I had the same issue with United States, tried several times to revert and then to restore an earlier version, but it wouldn't allow it because of (supposedly) blacklisted URLs. A different editor came in behind me and had no problem reverting and never saw that error message. Strange times... Schazjmd (talk) 19:03, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Cat-a-lot

Hi, I dont really know how to use this tool I am trying to add a category to a lot of articles and remove the over-categorization at the same time but i am not able to do that. Here is an example of what I am trying to do, I want to add Category:Districts of Taiz Governorate to this article, while also removing Category:Districts of Yemen and Category:Taiz Governorate from the article. I think this tool is able to do that in one click but I am not sure how. Thanks in advance.--SharʿabSalam▼ (talk) 18:57, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Revising Page

I am trying to revise https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Experts-Exchange&action=history

I revised it on 2/10 and submitted my revisions. Everything looked revised, but when I looked today the page went back to it's original information.

Can you help?

Bkay123 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:30, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

@Bkay123: the version you submitted reads like an advertisement or something the company's PR team would write. Wikipedia is not the place for public relations. Your version also did not cite any independent sources. Are you by any chance an employee of the company or being paid to edit Wikipedia on their behalf? If so, please make the mandatory disclosure. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 19:54, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict)@Bkay123: A large removal of content with a terse comment by an unregistered user will frequently be reverted after a cursory review. When this occurs, you should start a discussion with the reverting editor on the article's talk page: see WP:BRD. As a separate issue, your edits make it appear that you may be associated with the article's topic. If so, please read and comply with WP:PAID (this is not optional) or WP:COI, as appropriate. This possible association might have helped trigger the reversion. In a case like this, it is probably best for you to explicitly state that you are NOT associated with the topic if that is the case. -Arch dude (talk) 19:59, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

How to remove table of contents from userpage?

I'm not sure how or why it happened, but my userpage (User:Silver_seren/Userpage) has been plagued with an unsightly table of contents of my subheader sections and the table covered a whole half the page unless you hit the hide button. I'd like to just remove the table of contents altogether. I don't need it there. I know that there's likely some sort of template or some use of "noinclude" HTML to get it gone, but I don't know what to use or where to place it in my page's code to get rid of the thing. Can anyone assist, please? Silverseren^C 20:55, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

__NOTOC__ is how to surpress a contents. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 20:57, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, Lee! Silverseren^C 21:04, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

FYI - I created a redirect for NOTOC a few years back after struggling to find the info myself. TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 00:42, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Almy reverting relevant info to my community.

Almy is retracting updates that are very important to the community/ families. If you feel it is 'not constructive', you are making assumptions.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.29.230.70 (talk)

You are posting unsourced information about a living person. This is against policy. 331dot (talk) 22:45, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

And that's a very strong policy. It's one of the few policies where every editor is supposed to revert on sight instead of having the option to discuss first. If you have references to support your changes, please add them. In general, when one of your edits is reverted, you should discuss the edit with the reverting editor on the article's talk page to reach a consensus. See WP:BRD -Arch dude (talk) 01:21, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Different article - same name

I just wrote an article on actress Cathy Baker from the television show Hee Haw. I don't know how to re-direct from: Catherine Baker (disambiguation) so that Cathy Baker now links to mine. This Cathy Baker here: Catherine Marie "Cathy" Thompson-Baker only has one line for her entire article. The article for actress Cathy Baker has much more for career and life. I'd like to have it direct to her; with a re-direct (disambiguation) to the other. How do I do that? Thanks! Maineartists (talk) 23:27, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

@Maineartists: Don't redirect it. Add a link to the new article to that person's entry on the disambiguation page. RudolfRed (talk) 00:00, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

@RudolfRed: Sorry. I thought I knew what you were talking about, but I guess not. The "Cathy Baker" who is on WP now is really not Cathy Baker, but Catherine Thompson-Baker. The actress that I am attempting to add to WP is known professionally by Cathy Baker and has more substantial content the one-line article on Thompson-Baker (actually, I do not believe this "Cathy Baker" even fulfills the requirements for notability at WP). How do I make it so when a WP reader types in "Cathy Baker", it brings up the actress first, and then gives the re-direct link (disambiguation) at the top of the article? Thanks again. Maineartists (talk) 00:19, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Also, the subject isn't even "Baker", but Cathy Thompson: Olympic Athletes: Cathy Thompson as the article states in its only source. Maineartists (talk) 00:39, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Is it possible to "move" the old page to "Cathy Thompson-Baker"? Which would be the most sensible in this situation for all. Maineartists (talk) 00:45, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

It's difficuilt to judge, due to the dearth of sourcing, what the hockey player's commonname might be but it's not a terrible solution to move her to Thompson-Baker or perhaps to C. Baker (hockey) / (field hockey). FWIW per WP:NOLY she does have notability. Eagleash (talk) 00:51, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Well, @Eagleash:, you know you're one of my absolute favorite editors here at WP, so whatever you suggest, I'll follow. Question: if I opt to move the page, the old title still becomes a redirect, yes? Will that correct itself once I bring the other article to the main space? Maineartists (talk) 00:59, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict)@Maineartists: My vote: move the hockey player to Cathy Baker (hockey), making sure to correct the incoming links. Add your new article as Cathy Baker (actress). Move Cathy Baker (disambiguation) to overwrite Cathy baker. This last step can be deferred as it may require an admin. There are many editors that think that the DAB page should be at the main title unless there is a very clear "winner" of the notability contest, and even a few like me that think that the DAB should always be at the main title even if there is a clear "winner". One reason is that the last several times I did something like this, at least one of the incoming links to the ambiguous name was misdirected and needed to be corrected. -Arch dude (talk) 01:10, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

My reasoning is that we have automated ways to find improper links to a DAB page, but not to a "most notable" page. If someone links George Harrison to George Harrison, we will never find it except by accident. -Arch dude (talk) 01:15, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

Almost there! So I've changed the first article to: "Cathy Baker (Hockey Player)" and published the other article as "Cathy Baker (Actress)". Now how do I make is so that a search on WP for "Cathy Baker" brings the reader to: Catherine Baker (disambiguation) instead of the Hockey Player? Thanks. Last question, I promise. Maineartists (talk) 02:12, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

I figured it out. Thank you ALL for your incredible help! Cheers! Maineartists (talk) 02:38, 14 February 2020 (UTC)