Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 October 31

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October 31

Help: Cite errors

• Link: Solomon Gaon

The material added to Rabbi Gaon's Wikipedia information is largely common knowledge and can easily be verified. I, D. David Cohen, a Sephardic Jew, was in attendance with Rabbi Gaon in Zaragoza in 1991 an in Madrid in 1992, There were likely 100 other Sephardic international guests in 1992. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.56.105.69 (talk) 00:41, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

References need to be in published reliable sources, not from your own memory. RudolfRed (talk) 00:52, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia is crowdsourced by over 10 million anonymous editors. Therefore, we require all assertions to be verifiable in published sources. No other form of "common knowledge" is acceptable, because we do not have the resources or procedures to do our own verification. See WP:V. -Arch dude (talk) 17:33, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Misspelled name of a place

Hi, I did a quick search on your page of the place where I was born and I would like to bring to your attention that the name of the place I was born and raised is written wrong. The place is written and can be found as Valea Rumâneștior! Corect is Valea Româneștilor. With O not U If you need more informations please look at the our local council Web page where you can find Valea Româneștilor on the front page in the list. The address is www.primariacampulung.ro Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.115.84.51 (talk) 01:45, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I assume this is about Valea Rumâneștilor, Argeș, an article in Romanian-language Wikipedia. We here in English-language Wikipedia have no control over that. Nevertheless, I'm now convinced you're right, and have made the change myself. Maproom (talk) 08:21, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

... and I've messed it up, because I can't read Romanian, and typed something in the wrong box. I find I can't reverse what I did. My mess may need an admin at Romanian Wikipedia to sort out. :-( Maproom (talk) 08:26, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

The official names of the Romanian settlements are established by Law no. 290/2018. Anon's spelling might make sense, we can add it as an alternative, but the official name is Valea Rumâneștilor.- Andrei (talk) 07:51, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedians who are indefinitely blocked for advertising

The talk pages of editors in the Category:Wikipedians who are indefinitely blocked for advertising have a notice on their talk page that includes the words "potentially penalized by search engines". Those words include a dead external link. I haven't been able to figure out how to fix this.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:49, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I do not see such words. Ruslik_Zero 13:02, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

The notices on those user talk pages appear to be substs of {{Uw-spam4}} which once had this:

potentially being [http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/10/18/wikipedia-pr-spencer-tech-internet-cx_ag_1018techwikipedia.html penalized] by search engines

There appears to be an archive of that url at archive.org here. The external link was removed at this edit.

Because these editors are indeffed, there isn't much reason to repair the dead link.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:34, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Examples:

• User talk:Lorraine10
• User talk:Healthkartwheel
• User talk:Sawantdevendra143
• User talk:Azlyricssearch

And a few IPs that are in the cat "Wikipedians who have temporarily been blocked for advertising":

• User talk:103.75.161.238
• User talk:62.82.75.202
• User talk:62.82.75.202

I don't see the dead external link, though. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:23, 31 October 2020 (UTC) --Guy Macon (talk) 14:23, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

• Comment Looks as if it's been repaired. At User talk:Lorraine10 the word penalized is in blue and leads to a Forbes article here. Eagleash (talk) 15:32, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Sorry for any confusion. I looked at five or six sample pages and they all had the same dead link, so I assumed it was an integral part of some template or other and would apply to all pages in that category. The monk seems to know what I was referring to.--Shantavira|^{feed me} —Preceding undated comment added 15:48, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Language of the references/sources

Hello,

I've seen countless times here in English Wikipedia where, when adding references/sources to sentences or claims, there is a citation field (correct me if this is the wrong term :D) used for informing readers what language the reference/source uses (lang=en / language=id). I understand that it is useful when citing non-English sources since this is an English Wikipedia after all, but is this really necessary or required when citing English sources? I notice that when citing an English source using the "lang=en", it displays nothing in the ref tool-tip (after hovering your mouse to the ref number), unless it is a language other than English. Does deleting them (the lang=en thing) violate any rules?

Thank you. AdaCiccone (talk) 13:45, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Don't delete |language=en or |language=English (or the alias |lang=) just because you think it unnecessary. Very commonly, cs1|2 templates are copied from en.wiki to other-language Wikipedias where knowing that the source is an English source is important. If you want to do something that benefits those editors who copy cs1|2 templates to other-language wikis, convert the language name to the appropriate code so that the cs1|2 template renders the language name in the local language (translation by a human not required). A list of language names know to cs1|2 and their associated codes is at Template:Citation Style documentation/language/doc.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 14:08, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

My article has got a speedy deletion tag

So what happened was is that one section of my article got this copyright tag on it and it was blanked out (I'm quite new to Wikipedia so I don't know what you call it), then a few days later it got a speedy deletion tag because of the same section of the article. Before the speedy deletion tag was placed, I re-wrote the problematic section where it redirected me on WP:CP (recent listings section in the listings of possible copyright problems section). Now I need to paraphrase it again but I can't remove the tag or edit it in source editing.--Limorina (talk) 16:24, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

@Limorina: for more general help on this issue, you may wish to read Wikipedia:What to do if your article gets tagged for speedy deletion and Wikipedia:Why was the page I created deleted? For this issue of copyright: this is something that Wikipedia takes very seriously, so it is important to be careful when working with copyrighted material. You may wish to read Wikipedia:FAQ/Copyright, Wikipedia:Text Copyright Violations 101, and Wikipedia:Copyright violations. For more help for new editors on Wikipedia, you might want to read Help:Getting started, and Help:Introduction. Also, in the future when writing new articles, you may wish to make a draft first: have a look at Help:Your first article and Wikipedia:Article wizard, which may be of interest to you. Seagull123 Φ 16:51, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

@Limorina:You took the correct action when you contested the speedy deletion. For good measure, I also contested it after investigation. The admin who checks the speedy deletions will read our notes and will remove the speedy note from the article. -Arch dude (talk) 17:20, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Donation

I want to send money to donate.

But I can only send a check.

Please tell me how to make it payable

And where to mail it.

Thank you Nicky — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.90.98.174 (talk) 16:29, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your offer. Donations by check are processed at our lockbox, located at the address below. Please make checks payable to "Wikimedia Foundation, Inc." and include a letter with your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and donation amount. Please do not send cash through the mail. Note that we currently cannot accept checks from France, Italy, or Spain.

Please mail your checks to: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 98204, Washington, DC 20090-8204, USA.

--Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:47, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hello, and thank you for helping out the Wikimedia Foundation. Details of how to pay by your preferred method can be found here. Thanks again. Eagleash (talk) 16:49, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

MediaWiki supported CSS

I tried using the CSS backdrop-filter: blur(3px); on my user page but found out that the style attribute value is replaced with /* insecure input */. Is there a list somewhere of supported CSS properties and functions? Can I ask for new properties and functions to be whitelisted? Thanks, Veritas94 (talk) 18:09, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't think it's documented anywhere, but see the source. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 18:17, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Making statements which are backed up only by text extracted from a resource which is not freely available

I'm tweaking page ISO 4217. The text of this ISO standard is not freely available, but the data tables are available on the Web site of the ISO 4217 Maintenance Agency. Wikipedia section ISO 4217#Minor units of currency describes a particular field of these tables, called "Minor unit". It currently includes an extract from the text of the standard, though there is no way (obvious to me) of proving that it really is an extract from the text of the standard. Is that OK?

I'd like to improve the explanation provided in this section and to move the extract from the standard to somewhere lower down the page, where it can be read by readers who are sufficiently motivated to do so, while not getting in the way of the average reader. Is there some convention for doing this?

Finally, the extract from the standard mentions, and explains, four values of the "Minor unit" field, but does not mention two other values which are used in the data tables. Am I allowed to explain what those other values mean, without having proof that this is what they mean? Specifically, the extract mentions the values "0", "1", "2" and "3". The data tables also contain the values "4" and "N.A.". Am I allowed to extrapolate the meaning of "4" from the documented meanings of "1" through "3"? And am I allowed to write that "N.A." stands for "Not Applicable"?

Thanks Misha Wolf (talk) 19:23, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I think the best way to explain this, is that information behind a paywall, is just as valid as those freely available (but probably should be tagged as such.) Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 19:26, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

I see. Is there a standard form of words editors use to indicate that a cited resource is only accessible if purchased? And what about the questions in my second and third paragraphs? Thanks Misha Wolf (talk) 19:39, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Misha Wolf, you may be able to use {{subscription required}} or {{closed access}} to denote that it is not freely available. It usually follows (in the ref tags) right after the citation. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:03, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

@Misha Wolf: Most older physical books are only available "if purchased" or if you have access to a library. Similarly, ISO standards must be purchased unless you have access to an organization that has purchased them, so no real difference. I know of no standard wording similar to "paywall", but "paywall" is only relevant if you supply a URL. Go ahead and use "paywall" if you supply a URL, and use nothing if you do not. Technically, you should not extrapolate to "4" based on the excerpt (N.A. is surely reasonable though). Instead, ask at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange to see if someone with access to the ISO standard can look it up for you. -Arch dude (talk) 20:00, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, all. I'll follow your (plural) helpful advice. In particular, I've logged a request for (an extract from) the latest version of ISO 4217 at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request/Archive_99#ISO 4217:2015. Misha Wolf (talk) 22:47, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

How to exclude the Lua subpages from search of RD archives?

I occassionally like to search through the Reference Desk archives using the search box at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives. I would like to not include the Lua archive pages such as Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Lua/Science/January_2013. Is there a way to exclude all the Lua subpages from the search? RudolfRed (talk) 20:39, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Include -incategory:Module in the search string.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 20:52, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks! RudolfRed (talk) 21:15, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

Actually, this doesn't work. Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Lua/Miscellaneous/January_2013 and other Lua subpages in the archive are not in any categories, from what I see. RudolfRed (talk) 02:53, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

I've had categories on my brain so perhaps that explains my answer... or the age is in and the wit is out ...

If the lua sub page names have the form Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Lua/... then doesn't -prefix:Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Lua/ at the right end of the search string do the job?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 03:11, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Yes, that does work. Thanks for the tip! RudolfRed (talk) 17:04, 1 November 2020 (UTC)