Help desk
< November 5	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

November 6

Removing AFD Notice

I know the answer to one part of this question but will ask both parts. They both have to do with removing a notice of Articles for Deletion nomination. What should be done if a notice is removed, first, from an article, second, from an originator talk page? It is my understanding that if an editor removes the notice from an article while discussion is in progress, any other editor may replace the notice and is requested to replace the notice, and a template is available to warn the editor. The second part is whether anything should be done if the originator of the article removes the notice from their user talk page. My assumption is that the answer is do nothing, because the notice has served its purpose and does not need to stay in place. Is that correct? Robert McClenon (talk) 00:22, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Correct on both. The template message says "this notice must not be removed until the discussion is closed" so if it does get removed, revert the edit that removed it. Users are free to delete stuff on their user talk page. RudolfRed (talk) 00:27, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Cannot log into previous account user: CX000

The system states it does not recognize my username or password yet some months ago I was using this perfectly. Can you please advise me what to do? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.167.63.156 (talk) 00:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This may help Help:Reset password. Otherwise you'll have to set up a new account and abandon the old one. TimTempleton ^(talk) ^(cont) 01:33, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 NFL season Article

I Was Trying To Finish the article but you had to restore the redirect. 68.102.42.216 (talk) 03:18, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As the editor who restored the redirect explained, it is too early for a standalone article in the current uncertainty. If you disagree, please begin a discussion at their talk page or perhaps at the WikiProject talk page. Thankyou. Eagleash (talk) 04:27, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The app wasn’t able to retrieve the updated content in time

In the Wikipedia app for iOS, you cannot publish a title Description, refreshing the page, changing devices, and changing accounts does not help — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aaidenmel (talk • contribs) 04:36, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Aaindenme, it would probably be better if you take this to the technical Village Pump. {{yo|PorkchopGMX}} (Push to talk) 13:32, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

galaga world record update

https://www.nbc12.com/2020/02/19/man-breaks-galaga-world-record-his-kitchen/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2607:FEA8:99C0:35C2:7979:31D4:9C4:FD7 (talk) 08:21, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

What is your question about editing Wikipedia? --ColinFine (talk) 13:37, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ColinFine, I think they probably want the Galaga page updated? IP, you can make that edit yourself. —valereee (talk) 14:52, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

how to recover my password?

hello. i made an Wikipedia account a while a go and did couple of edits recently. i saved the password on my FF browser (and thats why i can write this here right now) but i have forgotten my password. a few days ago, when i tried to enter my account, for an unknown reason, the saved password didnt work. so i used forgotten password option. but nothing sent to my email attached to my Wiki account in return. (all websites usually send an email to back up email in this case so the owner could change the password)

i tried to change password option in my account, but it asked me my current password to continue. so i checked the saved passwords on my browser and write it down in password box of Wiki but it didnt work. Wiki says its wrong. probably because i have used the reset password option once!

so right now, i have an account and im in it right now but i dont know its password and cant change it cuz i dont know the current password!!! and the whole problem started because when i asked to reset password, no link sent to my email to define new password. i really dont know why! is there anybody there that can help me with my problem? please tell me what should i do? how can i save my account? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faramarz.Ghassemi (talk • contribs) 08:50, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. You were probably going to this page to change your password, that page requires you to know your old password. If you don’t know your password, you can reset it and get a temporary one sent to your email at this page instead. As for you never getting information on changing your password through email, check your preferences to see if you have an email address provided. If you don’t, then add an email address, but if you don’t have access to that email address you provided, make sure to change it. You must provide an email address in order for you to receive password reset emails from Wikipedia. Also, as far as I know, there is no limit to the amount of times you can request a password reset. I hope this helps you. Thanks, {{yo|PorkchopGMX}} (Push to talk) 13:53, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Faramarz.Ghassemi: you’ve made so few edits, unless there’s some deep underlying reason why you need to keep that username, if you’re stuck, you’d probably be better off just creating a new account. TimTempleton ^(talk) ^(cont) 14:22, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

What is the best way of providing the same instructions on several Wikimedia projects?

Hi all

I'm writing some guidance on working with experts to map what's missing from different Wikimedia projects. It includes useful things for Wikipedia, Wikidata etc but its all part of the same process so its not really possible to split it up into different Wikimedia projects. I was wondering about putting it on Meta and transcluding it to Wikipedia and Wikidata, is that possible?

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 15:19, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@John Cummings: No, thats not possible. The only thing that can be transcluded are user pages (Thanks to the GlobalUserpage Extension) and Files (from Wikimedia Commons). Victor Schmidt (talk) 17:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks @Victor Schmidt:, I published it here Help:Mapping content gaps on Wikimedia. John Cummings (talk) 17:48, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

My article doesn't appear in search

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing regarding the problem that occurred while I was trying to publish an article on your website. I clicked on the "Create an article" button, but it seems to be only a draft. I cannot understand the reason and would like to ask for your help in this case.

Regards, Socio181101 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Socio181101 (talk • contribs) 15:40, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Socio181101 New users cannot directly create articles until they are autoconfirmed(the account is four days old with 10 edits or more). Drafts are not searchable by search engines. I have added the appropriate information to allow you to submit your draft for review, but if you were to do so now, I think it would be rejected, as it is little more than a resume. Wikipedia articles must do more than merely tell about a person; they must summarize what independent reliable sources say about that person, showing how they meet the special Wikipedia definition of a notable person. Please read Your First Article for more information; successfully writing a new article is the absolute hardest task to perform here.

If you are associated with this person, please review conflict of interest and paid editing. 331dot (talk) 15:44, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Socio181101 Read also Biographies of living persons. Among the things in that policy, references must be by inline citations. Other problems I notice in your draft include: Do not include inline external links (like to Denton), and do not predict what he will do (unless you have a crystal ball). BTW I notice that the Teahouse version of your question says, "this article is a very important part of the task I have to finish": emphasizing what 331dot said, you must comply with conflict of interest and paid editing. —teb728 t c 07:06, 7 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Transparent images

Hello experts!

In this section --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Television_and_Streaming#Lx <-- is a PNG image with a transparent background. The problem is, most of the graphic in question is white. Therefore what appears on my screen is effectively blank with the NBC peacock and a rhomboid of orange.

Is there a way in the Image: syntax of requesting a black background? Or any top-and-tail templates that would set the CSS background-color to something other than the usual Wikipedia white for this image use alone?

Or, as I suspect, do I need to ask the uploader to remake the image with a black background to make it visible to me on that page? ◦ Trey Maturin 19:39, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is a WP:NFC image, so altering the image is not an option. You can only try to color the background in some way. I try this:

<Borderless image link>Logo for NBC Lx

. This does not appear to work with the thumb-Parameter. Note that I have used a pretty dark background color here, you may want to look for a ligher variant. Also, this variant is effectively altering the image, so You may need to look for something else.Victor Schmidt (talk) 20:27, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Identifying broken links in articles

I'm trying to clean up references to broken links to Library of Congress country studies (there seem to be quite a few). For example, Rice production in the Philippines has a dead link to http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ph0090) in the reference "Philippines: A Country Study:Rice and the Green Revolution". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. June 1991. Retrieved March 21, 2009.. I'd like to find all links of the form "lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy"... on Wikipedia. If I use google to search, it only finds bare URLs and not where there is a linked URL of that form. What is the best way to do this? Thanks, Calliopejen1 (talk) 20:00, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You can use Special:LinkSearch, or, if you want only mainspace, the toolforge tool linked to there. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:09, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Wow, an even bigger mess than I realized. Calliopejen1 (talk) 20:41, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Building tables with modules

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Header !! Header !! Header |- |bgcolor=yellow| red on yellow |bgcolor=lightgreen| grey on green |bgcolor=yellow| red on yellow |- |bgcolor=lightgreen| grey on green |bgcolor=yellow| red on yellow |bgcolor=lightgreen| grey on green |}

Header	Header	Header
red on yellow	grey on green	red on yellow
grey on green	red on yellow	grey on green

This example table has two types of cells. The text and the coding for font color and background color have to be inserted as many times as each type appears. Is there a handy way, with modules or with anything else, to define a type once and to invoke it every time when needed? --Theurgist (talk) 20:56, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Theurgist. I know very little about how to use modules. But can't you just define a template for each type of cell? --ColinFine (talk) 23:16, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@ColinFine: I guess I can, but is it OK to create multiple templates for use in one table in one article only? --Theurgist (talk) 23:26, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Theurgist, why not use {{font color}}? Of course, the background colour might not stretch across the entire cell. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:18, 7 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but that's not what I'm looking for. The template requires only slightly less coding than the span tags, and in fact too many templates may slow down loading the page. And I'd like the entire cells to be coloured. --Theurgist (talk) 22:38, 7 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Anita O'Day page

I have written the complete biography of Anita O'Day which is on Amazon. Also, it would be nice to have a pretty picture of her when she was young and good looking. Dorothy Poole — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8801:E01:C800:A569:E3E4:9FB1:E163 (talk) 21:26, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, what's your question about using Wikipedia? If you want to help improve the Anita O'Day article, you are more than welcome to - have a look at the introduction to help you learn how to edit Wikipedia. Seagull123 Φ 22:07, 6 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 November 6

Contents