Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 May 31

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May 31

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I edited some information about my dad. When I clicked "publish" they cited ERROR, ref tag . How do I edit a passage without this ref error coming up?

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@RF Jeppesen: Ignoring the WP:COI issue for now, you created ref tags that have nothing in them, hence the error. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 00:57, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]


What ban imposed on me?

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All my posts are locked . I was shocked. Been using 2012, I never vandalize single article. I was posting in talk page only. Ram nareshji (talk) 01:45, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Ram nareshji: You've been copying and pasting questions from other websites onto the reference desks, copying and pasting text from unreliable sources onto talk pages. That goes against WP:COPYVIO, a site policy with legal implications. It doesn't matter if you're sticking to just the talk page, you're still causing trouble.
Take this tutorial to learn how to actually edit. Ian.thomson (talk) 02:07, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Ram nareshji, taking a look at your talk page, wasn't there a similar issue to this discussed years ago? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:49, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Germ theory

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The Germ Theory article has something weird at 2.3. I don't know how to report it, but I've never seen it before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.58.216.130 (talk) 01:57, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for letting us know. Someone improperly added a note commenting on the section, though the entire section was primary source based original research so I've removed that section. Ian.thomson (talk) 02:03, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The main page talk page is not a talk page?

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I'm wondering why one of the bullet points at Talk:Main Page says that it is not a talk page? Why is it not? Is it something special to the Main Page? RudolfRed (talk) 02:58, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you are correct, "this is not a talk page" are indeed words that you read when you read Talk:Main Page, and this is a problem that needs to be fixed. Unless someone reading this fixes it first, I will go through the steps to get it fixed. Good catch!
Now for the boring technical stuff, which you can ignore if it isn't interesting to you.
A Wikipedia page can include another Wikipedia page. The is called "transclusion".
In this case, if you try to edit Talk:Main Page you won't be able to find or edit the words "this is not a talk page" even though they are clearly part of the page. That's because the page contains this:
 = Main Page error reports =
 {{Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors}}
The above is what you will see if you click the edit link of the "Main Page error reports" section of Talk:Main Page
The above transcludes the page Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors which does contain the words "this is not a talk page" and indeed, is not itself a talk page. The advice "Do not use {{edit fully-protected}}, which will not give you a faster response; it is unnecessary as this page is not protected and in fact causes problems if used here, as this is not a talk page." is appropriate for that page, which is the page you get to if you click on the WP:ERRORS link instead of the edit link.
So that's why the page is wrong, but it still needs to be fixed.
(BTW, You can expect at least one reply to this comment from someone who believes that we shouldn't fix obvious errors if doing so is inconvenient or caused by existing stupidity in the way Wikipedia puts pages together for you to read. Nothing good comes from arguing with people who hold that position. They are the same people who think the old MS-DOS error message "Keyboard not found, Press F1 to Resume" was just fine.[1]) --Guy Macon (talk) 05:54, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I have used {{talk other}} to omit the text on Talk:Main Page.[2] PrimeHunter (talk) 08:02, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don’t think it’s an obvious error, especially given that Talk:Main Page is likely to attract visitors unfamiliar with Wikipedia.
Perhaps the root of the problem is that we transclude an entire non-talk page (not template) into a talk page, rather than just linking to it. That sort of thing just confuses everyone, especially when you have to introduce things like {{talk other}}. (Now we start the argument about whether it’s worth fixing. I’m not familiar with these pages, so I can’t really comment about that.) Brianjd (talk) 09:41, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the explanations and the fix. RudolfRed (talk) 17:26, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
And again, thanks for your sharp eye, catching an obvious error that nobody else noticed.
Given that I can be a bit pedantic about fixing minor errors, here is a free joke:
Q: How to you comfort a pedant?
A: There, their, they're...
--Guy Macon (talk) 18:30, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a clean method for exporting articles as .docx?

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Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:53, 7 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm checking out the WikiProject WP:SPOKEN as narration is something I am good at. When I prep a copy for reading, I generally take a .docx file of it so that I can make small changes to it for easier reading. I see that most pages have 2 options under "Print/export" in the sidebar: "Download as .pdf" and "Printable version". While it's just an extra step for me to convert a .pdf into .docx, I was wondering if there was a script or something similar out there that would allow me to bypass doing that. I looked at Help:WordToWiki only to find it's more about the process in reverse. Thanks in advance. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 06:03, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Suthanu,samyukthana,pragati,pragya,printha&sumithra(daughter) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2409:4060:31A:FC4B:27F:D1E:31E1:E990 (talk) 09:54, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I see you've posted the same thing at Talk:Draupadi. You're going to need to write an English sentence, stating your question or request coherently, if you want people to help you. Please only do so in one place at a time (that article talk page is probably the better place to do so). Thanks. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 10:04, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Feature proposal to Module:Interlinear

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Hi, I left a short proposal to add a feature to Module:Interlinear at its talk page, Module talk:Interlinear. Seems like this talk page is not monitored by many but I was not sure where to ping to, so I'm leaving a message here. Could someone help me by delivering the message to people who might be interested in taking a look at it? Thanks. --Benzenekim (talk) 10:30, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Benzenekim: I would suggest that you ask User:Uanfala, who created the module and has been its most frequent editor. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:36, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@David Biddulph: Thanks for the suggestion! --Benzenekim (talk) 10:39, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Justine Harun-Mahdavi deleting the page

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Dear Wikipedia-Community, this is the page of Justine Harun-Mahdavi, autor of the book "Not without my husband". This is an autobiography and a historic book. It has been written in German and was translated in Farsi and has been published in different print media in Germany, in the USA and in Iran. She is now listed as a famous german/iranian autor. The main figure of the book are my mother Justine Harun-Mahdavi and my father Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Massoud Harun-Mahdavi, who has been a former iranian politician between 1969 and 1979 and now one of the most experienced iranian exile-politicians. So I cannot follow Jeff G.´s request for deleting this page and the uploaded pictures in any way. I hope you will avoid the deletion. If there is a need for confirming the information on the pages of "Not without my husband" and "Justine Harun-Mahdavi" and the recently by me edited page of "Massoud Harun-Mahdavi" then I would appreciate to receive some practical information how to upload pictures and documents. Unfortunaley I am not able to get through all the stuff you call "REGULATIONS" because as a dentist I´m in a full time job and I do not have the time to check all the regulations of Wikipedia. But I beleive that these informations are necessary and more than interesting for many people using Wikipedia. I recommend that your community should build up also a section to prove the positive sight and not only the negative sights of edited pages.

Best regards, --Sasan Harun-Mahdavi (talk) 12:02, 31 May 2020 (UTC) Sasan[reply]

How to Make Our Organization Page Live

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Hello Team Wikipedia,

Can you please help us to live our organization's Wikipedia page live?

Draft URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Anand_International_College_of_Engineering

Let us know your feedback to make it live.

Anandicejpr (talk) 14:16, 31 May 2020 (UTC)Anandicejpr[reply]

Wrong information

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Wrong information "Hausa Koko" is Nigeria from the Hausa tribe ( Hausas are the one of the three majority tribe in Nigeria), it is not Ghanaian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:145:8003:6E30:6447:17BF:D421:6BBA (talk) 14:45, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, please raise the issue at the appropriate article talk page and support your statement. If you wish, you are free to make the change yourself but you must supply a reliable source. Please link to pages where you are encountering difficulty and (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.) Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 14:58, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Article not reviewed after my latest edits since February 24

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Hello,

The page Carmen Lebbos has multiple issues and the edits and issues history is clear for anyone who visits the page. However I followed up about this matter and got help from pro editors and followed their instructions, and added my edits on Talk page for Carmen Lebbos, another review was made and asked for additional fixes, I did those fixes and submitted as you can see on (this link) since February 24, and since then no review was made, is there something wrong in my request that it has not been reviewed? Please help, Carmen Lebbos is a very well known actress here since the 80s and I'm trying to fix the issues in her article.

--Saleemdeek (talk) 18:23, 31 May 2020 (UTC)saleemdeek[reply]

@Saleemdeek: You had made a request at Talk:Carmen Lebbos on 15 February, then it was declined on 17 February. On 24 February you confused the issue by editing your earlier request and changing the date on it, but (as I said and as you can see on the page) that request had already been declined. The response on 17 Feb to your request said: "Please feel free to submit a new edit request below when these changes are implemented", but you didn't do that. If you want to make a new request you need to use the template {{request edit}} and include the relevant detail. --David Biddulph (talk) 20:03, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Adding images

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Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:15, 8 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I added some new images to the article Hyborian War with appropriate fair use rationales, in preparation for its second FAC nomination. I'm not an expert on images on Wikipedia, but I did reduce the file sizes to ~30kb and relatively small length x height pixel sizes before uploading (based on previous experience). Apparently not small enough as a bot still came along and said the images were too large. That's fine, as normally another bot comes along within 24 hours and reduces the image sizes to whatever the acceptable parameters are. And indeed, the tags like this one and like this one say that's going to happen. But it's been over a week now and it hasn't happened—although it always has before. Is there a way for me to request the bot to resize the images? Or do I need to try again to resize the images outside of Wikipedia and upload them again? Thanks. Airborne84 (talk) 18:23, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page in disorder

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 – Stray <ref> tags used as examples disappeared content when closing tags introduced. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:09, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I just edited the talk page Talk:Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, with the effect that some sections, plus the paragraph I added, does not display. Here's the diff [3]. ??? Sechinsic (talk) 19:29, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Sechinsic: The most likely reason is that you introduced some closing </ref> tags, which interacted with the stray <ref> up in the section Question about in-line referencing. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 19:43, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Seems to work. Fantastic! Many thanks from Sechinsic (talk) 19:54, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Some misdirection?

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Not sure quite how to explain this, but here goes anyway!

I went to select 'Spooked (Pretty Maids album)' but each time I do, it redirects me back to 'Pretty Maids'!

Other Pretty Maids albums take me to the appropriate page, it only seems to be 'Spooked' that does it!

Can you help please?

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fat Chewbacca (talkcontribs) 20:36, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Fat Chewbacca: in 2010, the album was determined by consensus to not be independently notable enough to have its own article, so that article name is now a redirect to Pretty Maids. -Arch dude (talk) 20:48, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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I would like to bring the articles Astronomy and Universe to featured status. Do you think they are ready to be featured articles? If not, how can I improve them so they are ready to be featured articles? Interstellarity (talk) 21:13, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Interstellarity, This seems like an odd place to ask this question. That said, I am not involved in the process, so do not know whether there is a better place to have such a discussion. S Philbrick(Talk) 22:39, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Sphilbrick: Do you think Wikipedia talk:Featured articles would be a better place to ask? Interstellarity (talk) 22:41, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Interstellarity, Probably, but again, I have never been involved. That said, I'm working on a review of one of the sentences in the Astronomy article, which I think needs some work. S Philbrick(Talk) 22:45, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Interstellarity. I'm just passing through, with a question of my own, but happened to see this. You'll want to visit the page on Featured Article Candidates for information on this. At that page, you'll also find the link to the Featured Article criteria page, which is what you should measure the articles against to determine if they are ready to be nominated. If not, further down on the criteria page are essays from experienced Wikipedians on how to improve the articles. I recommend reading through a few Featured Articles to get an idea of what is expected. You can also find a mentor for Featured Articles here, if you'd like. Hope that helps. Airborne84 (talk) 00:42, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Airborne84: Thanks. I'll look into it. Interstellarity (talk) 00:52, 1 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Haymarket affair - no picture of newer statue

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I do not know how to add it but there is no pictures of the Mary Brogger monument in the article although there are several stock photos available online. I think it would be helpful to have the monument shown. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:602:0:1C59:F933:639B:96D6:AAE8 (talk) 21:31, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are a lot of photos, but they need to be freely licensed. If you can point one out, someone can help add it. S Philbrick(Talk) 21:57, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)This appears to be part of the monument in question. That picture is on Commons, and is already used in Monuments relating to the Haymarket affair. Unfortunately, "stock photos" are rarely licensed in a way that may be used in Wikipedia. For example, I can't find a copyright statement on Mary Brøgger's site, so the pictures here must be assumed to be copyright. If somebody wishes to take a picture of the monument themselves, they can then upload the picture and license it as they do so. (I notice that both Haymarket affair and Monuments relating to the Haymarket affair say that this is not yet built, so they should probably be updated.) --ColinFine (talk) 22:02, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
ColinFine, I was initially struck by the "not yet built" comment, but upon rereading, I think that refers to "international commemoration wall, sidewalk plaques, a cultural pylon, a seating area, and banners". S Philbrick(Talk) 22:37, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria shriver

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You have Arnold divorced in 2017 and Maria divorced in 2011 from each other — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:569:BC04:B000:65C0:FFFC:7ABE:DFD8 (talk) 22:07, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is best mentioned on the respective articles' talk pages. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:10, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Arnold Schwarzenegger#Divorce says: "Schwarzenegger and Shriver finalized their divorce in 2017, six years after separating". Maria Shriver should probably be more clear about the difference. There are also sources saying they weren't actually divorced. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:28, 31 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]