Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 January 17

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January 17

Use of tense for reviews and books?

I've tried scouring MOS:TENSE and similar pages for guidance, but they don't really address the situation I'm facing. For context I'm editing Orochimaru (Naruto), and the problem I have is with the Reception section. Are reviews and books supposed to refer to their authors' opinions in the past or in the present (the latter specifically when they haven't produced anything more recent to express a change of opinion)? My schema basically looks like this:

• Use past tense if the reviewer/author has died or changed their opinion, or if the publication it is found in becomes defunct.
• Use present tense if the reviewer/author is still alive and has not changed their opinion, and the publication is still active.

Thoughts? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 02:28, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Past tense. Unless you're a mind reader, you generally won't know a reviewer's current opinion. And who wants to rewrite an article if they do change their mind (and publicize it)? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:34, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! For some reason both sounded odd to me at the time, but that's been cleared up now. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 18:22, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Adding an option to the rocket infobox, and can't place in the proper place in the sample infobox.

I added "destroyed before launch" as an option to the rocket infobox, but when I try to add it to the documentation, it winds up in the sixth stage section of the sample infobox, instead of where I think I placed it. Skrelk (talk) 03:50, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Skrelk: The order of the parameters passed to {{Parameter names example}} in the documentation has no effect on their display. The problem is in the {{Infobox rocket}} template itself. You have added the new parameter using "label116" and "data116", and 116 is a higher number than any of the other parameters. This tells the underlying {{Infobox}} code that the new parameter should be listed after all the others. You'll have to re-number the existing parameters, carefully, to insert the new parameter where you want it. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:32, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll fix that. Skrelk (talk) 20:58, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

IP tagged as a sock appears to still be editing 2 months later, in same subject areas

I'm uncertain whether the tagging as a sock was in error, or if I misconstrue Wikipedia's rules. On 15 November, the IP was tagged as a sock of user:Charito2000. They have made 34 edits since that date, in the same subject area as before 15 November, and their Talk page history has never had any notices about socking, either. How can their actual status be determined, and how did this ambiguous situation come about? I will now attempt to revert all their edits.--Quisqualis (talk) 04:02, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Need a bot to change hundreds of hyperlinks

Hello. I have recently renamed numerous pages, as their title was ambiguous. Since there is no need to check manually, a bot can be used to do all those changes.
The top priority are those pages: the hyperlinks to "Interdict" should be changed to Interdict (Catholic canon law), e.g. like this, as soon as possible. The only problem I can see is that some pages are in this list because Interdict was used in Template:Papacy which I changed a bit less than one day ago so that now it uses Interdict (Catholic canon law), therefore the generated list I posted may not have been updated yet.
I would be grateful of any help! @Primefac:, did you not have a bot to do those kind of tasks? Veverve (talk) 04:09, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Veverve: Because Interdict redirects to Interdict (disambiguation), all of your links will fall into the pool of links needing disambiguation. By the time you could get a bot running on this, the large and aggressive group of disambiguators will have corrected your links using their semi-automated tools. They will (probably) also catch any incorrect uses of the hyperlink. -Arch dude (talk) 04:35, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Veverve: Redirecting Interdict to Interdict (disambiguation) is against Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages#Page naming. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:13, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: indeed, I forgot about this, thanks for pointing this out! Will copy and pasting the content of the disambiguation page into the current Interdict work, or is there a more optimal method I do not know about? Veverve (talk) 13:35, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Veverve: Non-admins can request a move with {{db-move}} like {{db-move|1=Interdict (disambiguation)|2=[[MOS:DABPAGENAME]]}}, but it may be controversial per WP:PRIMARYTOPIC and Talk:Interdict (Catholic canon law)#Requested move. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:57, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: are you sure the code is correct? Will it not ask for the deletion of the Interdict page? Veverve (talk) 18:27, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Veverve: Yes, it asks for the deletion of Interdict, and moving Interdict (disambiguation) to the title. The current page only has redirects in the page history. Such redirects are routinely deleted during moves. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:32, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: should it not be the contrary? I think "Interdict" should be the main DAB, with Interdict (disambiguation) as a redirect to "Interdict". Veverve (talk) 18:35, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Veverve: That's exactly what will happen if Interdict (disambiguation) is moved to Interdict. The existing redirect will be deleted before or during the move. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:40, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Since there is a previous consensus to have the Catholic law as the primary target, I have moved it back. I suggest an RM to get things rolled around. Primefac (talk) 18:51, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Total? erasure of talk material

I recently responded to a request-for-speedy-deletion announcement. I wrote on the talk page of the artist Kim Tschang-yeul‎ that there was reason to believe that the article was not a case of plagiarism. I cited the long history of the article (going back five or ten years, I believe -- it has all been expunged). One person responded, indicating that s/he thought it still looked like plagiarism. I wrote back that I would contact the site (Boon Galleries) that had similar text and ask them if they had in fact copied the Wikipedia site. I believe this all took place yester-day. Today, I see that there is no record in my own list of what I have written of what I wrote yester-day (I don't know if my work years ago has also be deleted). The site for the artist has none of the discussion on the talk page. It has new, cursory content, no picture (the picture previously on the article page was not on the Boon site), and only at the bottom of the history page "quick stub after deletion from copyvio thank Tag: 2017 wikitext editor." I got no notice that the original article had been deleted. Whether there was a response to my second entry on the talk page, I don't know because that page is now empty (Yeah, yeah, there is probably some way of finding it somewhere, but the average editor might not know that and certainly doesn't know how). Why was this deletion done so fast, before a reasonable time to see if Boon in fact had copied the Wikipedia site (the other editor responded to me that the WayBack engine could not find a date for the Boon page) and without informing the person actively trying to check this out (i.e., me)? Kdammers (talk) 04:28, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Kdammers, according to the page log, admin Jimfbleak deleted it under speedy deletion criterion G12 for unambiguous copyright infringement of https://www.boongallery.com/artist/237791/tschang-yeul-kim. Older revisions (or entire page histories) have to be deleted if they are found to infringe copyright. I do not know the history behind the article, so I'll defer to other editors who know more. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 04:34, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Kdammers, it could equally have been deleted as G11 as basically a largely unsourced fan page full of opinions and light on verified facts. However, AleatoryPonderings has kindly created a new, compliant version, so all is well Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:28, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Jimfbleak: I examined the deleted page history. It seems clear that https://www.boongallery.com/artist/237791/tschang-yeul-kim copied from Wikipedia somewhere between [1] and [2] (admin-only links). The Wikipedia article had many gradual edits to get there. I think the page history should be undeleted. Kdammers created it in 2006. It didn't become a fan page until 2017. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:18, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, fair enough, history restored, and I've watchlisted it now to try to stop it becoming a mess again Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:46, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Jimfbleak, thank you for restoring the Kim Tschang-yeul‎. Is it possible to restore the talk page that used to be behind it, Talk:Kim Tschang-yeul? --DavidCary (talk) 19:46, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

DavidCary, yes, restored now. Apologies for not doing so at the time Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:40, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Repeated Case of Vandalism

 Courtesy link: Asiya Andrabi

There is a page on Wikipedia of a female political activist, Asiya Andrabi. She is a political prisoner and has been struggling for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir, a right granted to them by the United Nations. But repeatedly, people from India edit her page and add misinformation and propaganda to it. I edit it back along with legitimate citations and references. Yet, it is changed again and again. She is a woman and associating lies with her can harm her. — Preceding unsigned comment added by IbnOmar1 (talk • contribs) 07:27, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Hi @IbnOmar1: thanks for your contributions so far! The changes you made to the article made the article read more like an essay than an encyclopaedia article. I suggest you read the messages and links in the welcome message I left on your talk page, and then discuss the changes you want made at the article's talk page. You may want to seek input from relevant WikiProjects, such as the ones listed at the top of Talk:Asiya Andrabi, or Talk:Kashmir. Seagull123 Φ 13:55, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

How can I include my name in Wikipedia

How can I include my name in Wikipedia...???

Sylva Portoian-Shuhaiber, MD,MSc,MFPHM,FRCP.CH (UK) (Pediatrician & Poet) Winner of The Carnegie Poetry Prize, Spring 2009 Twenty Historical Poetry Books in three languages globally. and 10 medical articles in international journals including The Lancet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:1851:8003:4D45:E08F:6B48:B7CA:8647 (talk) 09:20, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. An Article Wizard is available to walk you through creating an article, but you will need to create an account to use it. if you don't wish to do so, you can submit a proposal for an article at Articles for Creation. Seagull123 Φ 13:58, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Also note that Wikipedia strongly discourages people writing articles about themselves, read WP:AUTO for more about this. Seagull123 Φ 13:59, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

The only absolute requirement for a Wikipedia article is that its subject is notable by our definition. see WP:N. In an oversimplified nutshell, there must be two or more substantial articles about the subject published in wide-circulation periodicals. We do not count what you have published, only what reporters have published. This is a very hard criterion to meet for academics and scientists. Please do not put any further effort into a Wikipedia article until you are certain that you meet the criterion. We end up deleting more than 200 articles every day, mostly due to lack of notability. -Arch dude (talk) 17:27, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Help getting whole post

I am trying to get to the bottom of one of your posts. It won’t let me get to the bottom of the screen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.25.128.183 (talk) 09:56, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Which page is it about and how far do you get? Which device are you using? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:59, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

New wikipedia entry

Greetings. How do people create new pages/entries in Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Farhanbokhari (talk • contribs) 11:22, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Farhanbokhari: sucessfully creating a new article is one of the hardest tasks one can undertake on Wikipedia, is requires much effort and practice. That being said, there are guides with stepss available here, here or here. Victor Schmidt (talk) 12:48, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Farhanbokhari: Start by picking a notable subject that does not yet have an article. The only absolute requirement for a Wikipedia article is that its subject is notable by our definition. see WP:N. In an oversimplified nutshell, there must be two or more substantial articles about the subject published in wide-circulation periodicals. Please do not put any further effort into a Wikipedia article until you are certain that the subject meets the criterion. We end up deleting more than 200 articles every day, mostly due to lack of notability. We can and will help you with any other problems with an article, but we cannot help you overcome a lack of notability. See WP:AMOUNT. -Arch dude (talk) 17:34, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Account name change

I want to change my name to Akshat2103 from Sarika9140. Sarika9140 (talk) 13:20, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Sarika9140, Hi, you can request that your account be renamed in several ways. If you have a confirmed email adres you can use Special:GlobalRenameRequest, otherwise you can use Wikipedia:Changing username/Simple. However before requesting a rename it would be wise to read Wikipedia:Changing username if you haven't done so already Asartea ^{Talk | Contribs} 13:36, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Citation error

Category:CS1: long volume value error has occurred. The problem arose with ref 18 of Several complex variables. Probably because I wrote No.2 . Is there another way to write it? thanks!--SilverMatsu (talk) 13:43, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@SilverMatsu: The category does not imply an error but just something to check. It looks OK to me. Template:Citation#Edition, series, volume has the example |volume=IV / #10 which would also produce the category. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:12, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for teaching me. I'm relieved.--SilverMatsu (talk) 14:20, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

where do i view my lists?

i have lists on your app... where do i find them on a browser? thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rallen444 (talk • contribs) 14:53, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Rallen444: mw:Wikimedia Apps/Android FAQ#Reading lists and offline reading says: "Your reading lists will also be available if you log in to the iOS version of the app. However, at the moment your reading lists are not accessible from the desktop or mobile web version of the Wikipedia website." mw:Wikimedia Apps/iOS FAQ#Can I access my reading lists on the web? says: "Currently you need to use a browser extension which is free and available on the Firefox, Safari and Chrome web stores." But the link to the extension only talks about adding to the list and says: "your saved articles may only be viewed within the app". I haven't tried it. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:35, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

How to be sure no one else is drafting the same subject

Hello,

I am drafting User:Chidgk1/Climate change in Brazil, which is not yet ready.

Given that Climate change in Brazil is currently a redirect, if anyone else starts drafting the same subject would they be notified that I am already working on it? And can I find out if anyone else is already working on the subject? Chidgk1 (talk) 15:59, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Chidgk1 The only thing you can do is monitor the redirect to see if someone else writes an article there. You could also monitor possible draft titles, though that is harder to do since it could theoretically be created under any title. No one else would know that you are working on the topic unless they monitor possible titles as well. Anyone is free to create any article at any time- it's just the way it is. 331dot (talk) 16:06, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks that was useful info as I had not realised before that we could monitor pages which do not yet exist. So I have put Effects of global warming on Brazil on my watchlist. Chidgk1 (talk) 16:11, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Chidgk1: My admin account can see Effects of global warming on Brazil has 1 watcher but that was expected. Admins cannot see who are watching. If you want to increase the chance that potential article creators discover your draft then you could add something like this at the end of the redirect page:

Note: A user is working on a draft at Draft:Climate change in Brazil.

Also say it in the edit summary. You probably know how to search in namespaces but just in case, it's mentioned at Help:Searching#Namespaces. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:20, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

New section not appearing after closed discussion

I need help with this talk page. I started a new section after a closed discussion, but it’s not showing. Please help. Template talk:Coup d'état —-Beneficii (talk) 10:11, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Beneficii: Fixed with this edit. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:48, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Hi!, question about military service

Hello and happy birthday Wikipedia!, I'd like to know how to add the service in both World Wars to the infoboxes of Jack Thayer and Edward Arthur Dorking, the former has a "person infobox" and I don't know how to add his service and the latter, I'd make the infobox for him if helped. Thank you a lot, and may you be blessed. CoryGlee (talk) 19:33, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@CoryGlee: You can use a module parameter to include another template (e.g. {{Infobox military person}}) inside {{Infobox person}}. The included template should make use of the embed and embed_title parameters to fit its appearance to embedding context, as described in its documentation. --CiaPan (talk) 19:52, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@CoryGlee: here is a detailed example Wikipedia:WikiProject Infoboxes/embed ~ Shushugah (talk) 19:56, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Sometimes you can also add another template separately if the person's military career is just a part of the whole biography, like e.g. J. R. R. Tolkien#First World War. --CiaPan (talk) 19:57, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

CiaPan, Shushugah, thanks for your so kind responses!, I did it in Jack Thayer could you check it if it's correctly done? And I brave myself for the second person? I'd gladly thank you a check. Bless you forever. CoryGlee (talk) 20:06, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Yup! Excellent job on Jack Thayer! ~ Shushugah (talk) 20:09, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Agreed. Well done, CoryGlee! :) --CiaPan (talk) 20:30, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

CoryGlee, This work Special:Diff/1001008165 on Edward Arthur Dorking is superb, too! --CiaPan (talk) 21:33, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

CiaPan Thank you so much!, for a special needs student it means lots! CoryGlee (talk) 22:23, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Account closure - HammadManzoor

Hi, I am sending this email to you to request to close/remove my Wikipedia profile/account. Reason being that I have been no longer using it for years.

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hammadmanzoor (talk • contribs) 20:10, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Hello HammadManzoor, I am a normal Wikipedia user. I also requested the same and I was told by a Wikipedia executive that Wikipedia account can't be deleted. Sarika9140 (talk) 20:19, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

@Hammadmanzoor: Wikipedia can't delete accounts because the licences it uses require contributions to be attributed to an account. You could try and ask for a courtesy vanishing, though those are given at a steward's discretion. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:24, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Please review my article

The link is as follows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Mother_Bird_(sculpture) Sarika9140 (talk) 20:16, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Sarika9140, as the submit template states, it can take a while for a reviewer to get to your article in the backlog. Please be patient and work on something else in the meantime. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:21, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Aren't u a reviewer? Sarika9140 (talk) 20:23, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

I am not. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:25, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Nor am I. But I know enough to tell you that a draft citing only one source, a source which is based on statements made by the subject's creator, will certainly not be accepted. Maproom (talk) 20:42, 17 January 2021 (UTC)