Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 January 12

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January 12

Citations that include small caps in title

I made these changes to the carnitine article in line with the MOS of chemistry, where names like L-carnitine should have small caps (as in l-carintine). These names occur in references as well. For example, reference 1 (doi:10.1016/j.nut.2004.04.003) has the title Supplementation of l-carnitine in athletes: does it make sense?. How do I include small caps in reference titles without producing these citation errors that I have produced? EdChem (talk) 00:27, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

I've answered this question for you before, haven't I? See Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2019 December 15 § Small caps within citation templates.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:40, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Yes, you have, and thanks for the reminder. I apologise for forgetting :( EdChem (talk) 02:01, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi Wiki World

Hello Wikipedia world,

My name is Deepankar Dey and I am new here in Wikipedia. Can anyone please take me through Wikipedia article editing guideline? Thanks in advance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Deepankar Dey (talk • contribs) 05:32, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Deepankar Dey, The Wikipedia Adventure is an interactive tour on how to edit Wikipedia, which you may enjoy. Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 06:02, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Twinkle

I have twinkle. I also used it to rollback vandalism etc. But, for few days I can't see Rollback, Vandalism, AGF options. Why?  :) S A H A  08:46, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

​Where are your scripts stored? Your common.js appears to be empty. – Thjarkur (talk) 18:10, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

@Þjarkur: what is this? I have no idea.  :) S A H A  11:35, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

​Oh sorry, I forgot Twinkle was a gadget you loaded in your preferences. The rollback buttons only appear when you are looking at the latest edit, if you look at old edits you only get "Restore this version". It appears you have been using Twinkle's rollback since this post so it appears to be loading correctly for you. – Thjarkur (talk) 13:14, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Help me Editing Fijian Wikipedia!

I editing Fijian Wikipedia addressing very huge problem of this language's Wikipedia, Fijian Language has too much words have multiple means, some words I can't understand and surprising outstand means (e.g. manumanu in Fijian also mean virus. Link:https://glosbe.com/en/fj/virus), some words I can't find a applicable match of these words (e.g. Infection in Glosbe Fijian Dictionary have 25 entities, I can't find out which is suitable of the word mean in Fijian. Link:https://glosbe.com/en/fj/Infection), that spend me too much time to creating these articles and fix these wrong words correctly, eventually some words I can't find out which is appropriate in Glosbe, leaving these words and sentences incorrectly.

Glosbe is unreliable, there is few Fijian dictionary in Internet, can someone help me find out an useful, reliable Fijian dictionary website? Weather Top Wizard (talk) 12:30, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

@Weather Top Wizard: hi there. The help desk is for asking about using or editing Wikipedia. Unfortuantely, this isn't the place to ask about Fijian dictionaries. Perhaps you could do a general google search or ask at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. Thanks, Willbb234^Talk (please {{ping}} me in replies) 12:36, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

private drafts

Where on Wikipedia can I create a private draft to test the visual editor, without the draft being visible or editable by outside users?

I have had a very unpleasant first experience trying to edit wikipedia for the past two days, having text written in a draft and marked clearly as placeholder for a work in progress be reported for copyright violation and repeatedly deleted despite being marked as a test of the editor.

MariusPoenar (talk) 13:39, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi MariusPoenar - You can't. All content on wikipedia (be that in draftspace, mainspace or userspace) is editable by all users. You do have a sandbox at User:MariusPoenar/sandbox, however, this can be edited by other users. If there is a copyright violation, this is a legal issue, and will be removed. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 13:43, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

I see you have further comments on your talk page, so I'll comment further there as well. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 13:44, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi Lee Vilenski - I did not know that Wikipedia uses the word Draft to mean something other than its common use both in dictionary and other online services (for example in Gmail saving an email as a Draft saves changes to a folder for later edit, it doesn't make it visible to everyone who uses Gmail). I understand the distinction now.

I had pressed Publish in the Sandbox because the page did not save my changes otherwise, and thought that something called a Draft and marked as containing placeholder text would not be viewable or editable by anyone else.

This misunderstanding could have been cleared up in a few seconds of communication, but none of the editors who hit me with threats of banning and copyright violations over the past two days bothered to "Assume good faith" or "Don't bite the newbies" at any point. MariusPoenar (talk) 14:34, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

MariusPoenar We want to be nice to all new editors, but copyright violations put Wikipedia in legal jeopardy, and must be addressed immediately. It is not always possible to take the time to warn users first about such matters. You should also be aware that all edits to every page on Wikipedia appear in the Recent Changes feed, which is monitored around the clock by thousands of editors from around the world. If you don't want other people to see something, you shouldn't put it on Wikipedia. If you want to practice using the Visual Editor or just regular editor, you should do so in your Sandbox with just practice edits. You can also make it clear that you are practicing editing in your edit summaries. 331dot (talk) 16:01, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

331dot I did make it clear that I'm practicing editing, it just seems to have been ignored. MariusPoenar (talk) 16:33, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

@MariusPoenar: I sympathize with your confusion: the situatin irritates me, too. We used to call the "publish" button "save", but we changed it (apparently) for legal reasons to "publish", because when you hit that button, the result is stored on our servers and is available, and "publish" is the term that is used in the "terms of use" you agree to every time your hit that button (look at the text below the button.) The truth is that a strict interpretation of copyright law says that you are violating copyright when you save that info on those other web sites, regardless of what you or they call the action you take to cause the material to be written to their servers. We are paranoid about copyright, because some group that is hostile to Wikipedia could try to use it to shut us down. -Arch dude (talk) 19:26, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Arch dude Thank you for the details. MariusPoenar (talk) 16:33, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

After closing an image on a page, the page jumps back to the top instead of what I was just viewing

So I'll be viewing a page and whenever I open then close an image I'll get pushed back to the top of the page. This makes for very frustrating viewing as I'm constantly scrolling back down to where I actually was. I tried doing some research to figure out if there's some setting or browser extension that could be causing this but I can't find anything. Issue occurs on both Chrome and Firefox on my computer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.10.234.212 (talk) 14:26, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

This is a known bug (phab:T229484) but the fix has not yet been applied. You could comment on that ticket (which is half a year old) and encourage the developers to merge the fix. – Thjarkur (talk) 18:16, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Where can I ask a question (and get an answer)

Sorry if this is a bit snarky, but I'm quite frustrated, and, frankly, quite irritated - and this isn't the first time. Several HOURS ago, I looked for, and found, SOME, but VERY limited information on Kenneth Maddy. I've been aware for some time now, that any user is able, in THEORY, to edit any page here - but have been unable, for multiple reasons I may touch on here, to be able to figure out HOW to do so, both tonight AND several times in the past.

In this case, I know little about the man, so would not even begin to think about editing it. However, when I looked at what was there, it clearly was not anywhere close to what I would consider to be the "normal", generally excellent Wikipedia page (thanks SO much to ALL involved). I admit I didn't read the page in it's entirety (since it was obviously not what I was seeking), so SOME of what I was looking for MAY have been buried amongst all the (?hyperbole?) that WAS there. Without going back and looking again (I've already spent more time than it was worth to me, AND am rather perplexed as to whether it's even appropriate HERE), the info there seemed like it was pretty much ENTIRELY a list of awards and praise he had received as a Senator, to the point of seeming almost like an election campaign piece, or perhaps, an extremely flattering obituary. It was VERY MUCH lacking almost ANY "typical" biographical information.

I lhen looked further, for what I was pretty much expecting to find, which was the often-seen comment attached to such articles (without being quite this blunt) that the article was not up to the normal standards of Wikipedia. THAT would have assured me that SOMEONE had at LEAST noticed it, and it was flagged for needed improvement, eventually. There was ONLY one brief, slightly negative comment there, however, saying simply that the article needed more references. While I would highly agree, my snarky take would be that it needed LOTS of references to LOTS of information that was NOT THERE . . .

So THEN I thought that, despite my many past frustrations with trying to figure out how to EDIT an entry (and the same number of times giving up), it shouldn't be NEAR that difficult to simply comment that the article was highly in need of improvement. Silly me. What I DID find, were several - no,actually, multiple pages that appeared to be the right direction to go - UNTIL one clicked on one, or more, of the (often) several links that seemed to be associated with almost every sentence or phrase within Wikipedia. Then I almost always discovered, after following several MORE links for each one I DID click on, that where I THOUGHT I had finally discovered the answer MIGHT be hiding . . . It wasn't. It would be inappropriate to recommend a clean-up THERE, because of one reason or another, accompanied by more links to explain why, in more detail . . .

Honestly, it is said that, with lawyers, the fine print giveth, and the fine print taketh away. I'd like to add to general body of common sayings: "With (?Wikipedians?), the LINK giveth, and MANY, MANY MORE links make you FEEL LIKE your BRAIN has been taken away . . . Honestly, I've tried to avoid being insulting, but I would not be surprised if NONE of you folks would be capable of sending a friend a new ADDRESS, if you moved, without somehow being able to insert a link.

To be fair, links would have helped me in writing this letter. I could have sent many of the multiple "ah-ha's" I THOUGHT I had found, so that SOMEONE might better understand WHY all ultimately led me to dead ends, or "not applicable's". If I recall correctly, at some point, I found a link to what appeared to be a GENERAL help page. THAT page consisted of about 20 or 30 links to more specific help pages, several of which looked promising, but each one I looked at consisted of . . . yeah, that's right . . . many more links.

Now, I have to admit that I realize I've probably wasted my time writing this, for multiple reasons - mostly since I'm in a writing mood now, and am primarily venting my frustration. However, I'm sort of HOPING that SOMEBODY might read this and understand my point of view just a little bit . . . since I could not figure out where to send it otherwise, and do not feel like spending most of my Sunday tomorrow, trying to figure it out. If I had, I might have made an effort trying to make it more coherent. Also, I believe I read something a few links ago that said unless I signed in, forget about any replies, but I wouldn't get them anyway ??? For now, it's TIRED and I'm getting late, and I haven't been able to figure out much of the text that appears below this, so I'll cut and paste them for anyone who MIGHT still be following. Can any of YOU figure out what they are saying? (Maybe if you follow the links?)

By publishing changes, you agree to the Terms of Use, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License and the GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license. (Yeah, sure, I completely agree)

THEN it requests me to select "Publish changes", "Show preview", or "Show changes" . . . Huh? I don't think ANY apply, but I'll play with these a bit after I share more from this page . . .

{{}} {{{}}} | [] [[]] [[Category:]] #REDIRECT [[]]  

<ref></ref> <ref name="" />

. . . and there's more, which I assume has some purpose here, but it's beyond me, so won't copy it all, EXCEPT all the links further down . . . Now, somehow or another, I got all the way through college, AND managed to own a relatively successful business for 30-plus years, but should I have gotten a degree instead in IT, since everybody else in the world understands THESE, EXCEPT for me ? ? They are ALL links. Maybe I should click on each and every one, so I too, can become enlightened . . . Or, braindead.

This page is a member of 5 hidden categories (help) :

Category:Non-talk pages that are automatically signed Category:Pages automatically checked for incorrect links Category:Pages with editnotices Category:Project pages with short description Category:Wikipedia help pages with dated sections — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:5b0:2652:6fd8:3c2d:4476:9f4d:786a (talk) 14:45, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

• @IP, no, not a waste of time at all. For a start I would not be surprised if NONE of you folks would be capable of sending a friend a new ADDRESS, if you moved, without somehow being able to insert a link has now entered my personal Hall of Fame for summarising Wikipedians  :)
  Also, thanks for drawing the crummy state of the Kenneth Maddy article to our attention. If you take another look, I've simplified it somewhat, by the simple expedient of filleting it of all the crap, of which there was much. Ther's now less to say about Kenneth, but what there is, is at least readable. And yes, it does need more references (still). Cheers! ——SN54129 15:22, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

• "A bit snarky"? If you want to ask a question and get an answer, posting a giant wall o' rant with SCREAMING words and insults directed at the rest of us volunteer editors, who have absolutely nothing to do with you not wanting to avail yourself of the many different help and learning tools available before trying to edit, is usually not going to get it done. I'll pass. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 15:47, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Just several hours and you get frustrated? Already?! Calm down, there's WP:NORUSH. --CiaPan (talk) 15:57, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

It's not clear to me what you wanted to do. Did you want to put up another "this article has flaws" box, and you couldn't find the appropriate template? —Tamfang (talk) 02:43, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Code

Further to my thread above, see

<table>{{#if:{{{param1|}}}|<tr> <th>Parameter 1</th> <td>{{{param1}}}</td>

Which of the params is the resultant, visible one? E.g. if parameter 1 = name, whch of those shold say name? Thanks in advance to anyone who knows what the bally hell i'm taking about! ——SN54129 15:37, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

<td>{{{param1}}}</td>

The first use of that parameter, in {{#if:{{{param1|}}}|, is only evaluated. As the (incomplete) snippet above is written, if |param1= is present and has a value, then the return is <tr><th>Parameter 1</th><td>{{{param1}}}</td> and whatever follows that until the next pipe or closing }}.

You can mimic what I said:

if 'param1' is present and has a value, return italicized 'param1' → {{#if:param1|''param1''|param1}} → param1

if 'param1' is not present or does not have a value, return plain-text 'param1' → {{#if:|''param1''|param1}} → param1

—Trappist the monk (talk) 16:01, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

By the way, wot exactly does tr, th and td mean (if you don't mind me asking).

Completely unrelatedly, you may see that every thread since my loop question above is no longer directly editable. *groans from the back* What have I done now!  ;) ——SN54129 16:46, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Re: your loop question: you opened several templates with the {{ but you did not not close them so MediaWiki thinks that everything after the opening {{ belongs in the template that never closed. Don't do that.

html table markup:

<tr>...</tr> – table row tag

<th>...</th> – table header tag

<td>...</td> – table data tag

That you asked this question, make me wonder what it is that you are attempting to do ...

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:04, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for sorting that unclosed tag business Trappist the monk; I guessed it was something like that, but for the life of me I couldn't see it.

Per the above, it's an infobox. Or at least, it would be if I knew wot I was doing. All the best! And thanks again for your help. ——SN54129 17:14, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Perhaps you should consider using {{infobox}} which has the purpose of creating infoboxen ...

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:17, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Ah! That would be it then Ted  :) thanks for the informations! ——SN54129 18:37, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

List of most popular articles on Wikipedia

Is there a page for List of most popular articles on Wikipedia ... or ... List of most read articles on Wikipedia ... ? I was not able to find anything. If there is, there should be some "redirects" with those article names, no? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:48, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

@Joseph A. Spadaro: You might find something at Wikipedia:Statistics#Page_views? ——SN54129 16:55, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Top 25 Report exists. It's more for popular right now than overall. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:33, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

I found this, also: Wikipedia:Multiyear ranking of most viewed pages. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:54, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:45, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Resolved

Missing blue "links" for "Edit"

On the above page, many of the section headings do not have the blue "Edit" link (usually located to the right of the section header title) ... why is that? Some do (prior to January 12); some do not (after January 12). Very strange. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:50, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

@Joseph A. Spadaro: Yeah, that was me. ——SN54129 16:55, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Ah, OK. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:54, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Resolved

About Mehrdad Asemani

All information about my name and last name is wrong My real name is Mehrdad Asemani Please edit my profile . Some unknown people write Farsi and giving wrong information about my name and last name . Mehrdad Asemani This is the link of my profile — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8802:3500:282:39D4:1926:4F1F:6BD0 (talk) 17:28, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

There does not seem to be an article about you on the English Wikipedia(we do not have "profiles", we have articles.). If you are referring to the Farsi Wikipedia, you will have to address any issues with an article about you there; each language version is a separate project. 331dot (talk) 17:32, 12 January 2020 (UTC)