Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 March 22

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March 22

Biographies , artists etc.

Hello! So I guess I violated a policy about outside links. It was to the artists being talked about website and I'm not a constant editor so I didn't know you couldn't link since you have a hyperlink tool to use.

So a member of a Band which had hit records etc. and a recording artist and session musician is listed on the bands Wikipedia page and on other pages about the songs he recorded on. He doesn't have a Wikipedia page but as a reference I linked to his website since his name goes to a website not associated with him. I got messages saying you can't link to an outside webpage. So since a majority of the other musicians have links I thought it was OK.

I didn't really appreciate you (The editors) making me feel like I was committing a great sin for wanting people to have an additional resource if they wanted one. You could have just said oh you can only link him to a wikipedia page in his name.

Some of your rules are not that understandable. I looked them up after. Thought you were talking about spam etc. etc. not just linking to an artist website. You might just say that. Even though an artist is mentioned or the subject of the page you can't link to their artist website it must be a Wikipedia page and on the Wikipedia page for the artist then you can link to their website.

You made the process of trying to engage more with the site unpleasant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnnysings (talk • contribs) 00:20, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Johnnysings, I'm sorry that you felt as if you were feeling villainized. If you wanted to add a link to the official website, you could consider adding it to the "External links" section at the bottom of the article (or adding the section if it doesn't exist). External links should be used sparingly and should rarely be added directly to the body. If the link can be used as a source, just add it as an inline citation. You can check out WP:REFB for a guide to citing sources. If you are ever confused about a policy, you can always ask, we'd be happy to assist you in any way possible. Thanks, EDG 543 ^{(message me)} 01:35, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your answer. I appreciate your reply and how you approached the subject. I will keep that in mind about the links and inline citations etc., If I have something in the future. I guess that these days linking to things and having everyone link every website and social media account (I don't really do social media) just more informational but still artists websites etc. so it didn't even occur to me that linking wouldn't be OK, heck my phone and other devices are linking me to things automatically that I don't want to be linked too. So thank you again for the information and your kind reply. Best wishes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnnysings (talk • contribs) 04:08, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

How do I preemptively archive a url?

I've tried looking at the wiki page on how to archive a web citation but it doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone point me to a resource on this?--Phil of rel (talk) 01:40, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@Phil of rel:Well, Its relatively simple. The process is described in Help:Archiving_a_source. It depends a bit on the archive organisation that you choose. Victor Schmidt (talk) 05:38, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Oh yes, I just realised I wasn't reading the full page. Thank you for your assistance.--Phil of rel (talk) 13:01, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Essay/guideline on a blocked user writing a practice article

There's an essay or guideline somewhere about a user who has been blocked for disruptive editing having the chance to select an article and significantly expand it within their userspace, and then for an admin to review their work and consider an unblock. I'd like to refer to something in it but I can't find it at the moment. DanCherek (talk) 13:26, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

No, any user would have to request the unblock before working on the encyclopaedia. Especially if they have an indef block for disruptive editing, working in a sandbox won't help. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 13:30, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@Lee Vilenski: Thanks, I found the thing that I was thinking about: {{2nd chance}}, which isn't formalized as a separate essay but I have seen admins paste it into replies to unblocks. DanCherek (talk) 13:50, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

A website that translate the wikipedia pages to persian

FYI

Copied from the talk page. Eagleash (talk) 14:32, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Hi,

Do you know this page that translate the wikipedia pages to persian language? here is a page of tis website:  https://abadgar-q.com/

Do you have any information about this page? Thanks... Shabnamkalir (talk) 21:55, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

Make a bot ignore a link

Hello! I was editing 1.1.1.1 and noticed the links for the DNS over HTTPS urls were marked as dead. They returned HTTP 400 errors, as they should because I wasn't making a DNS request. Is there a way to make bots like IABot ignore the link so it isn't marked as dead? Thank you, Cheesetron246 talk 15:56, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

{{cbignore}} * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 16:01, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Adding references to Wikipedia

Hi there, how do I add references and cites to other websites on relevant articles on Wikipedia? Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zhatty (talk • contribs) 17:34, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Hi, Zhatty! The basic structure of a proper reference is to surround the link with ref tags like this: <ref>example.com</ref>. Remember not to just paste the link without the ref tags, or it won't end up in list of references at the bottom of the article. See Referencing for beginners for more specifics. Thanks, EDG 543 ^{(message me)} 18:31, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Diff and hist links in a different location on my watchlist

See this screenshot - the "diff" and "hist" buttons just moved from their usual spot next to the bullet, on my watchlist and other recent changes pages like Special:RecentChanges. When I log out and view Special:RecentChanges, it looks fine, so I think it's something to do with my account but I have no idea what. I don't have any fancy scripts that change CSS and I tried clearing my cache but it didn't help. DanCherek (talk) 17:54, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@DanCherek: I'm not familiar with the recent changes page, but this sounds like it might be better addressed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 19:33, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@DanCherek: Disable "Group changes by page in recent changes and watchlist" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rc. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:47, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Awesome, thank you! DanCherek (talk) 19:54, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Robert McDermott

At the end of the article about him is a link to an essay he wrote about William James and Rudolf Steiner which is invalid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.197.192.157 (talk) 18:20, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

 Courtesy link: Robert A. McDermott  Fixed TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 19:28, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

How to cite individual places using GEOnet Names Server?

I've become aware that, confusingly, GEOnet Names Server is not the same thing as GeoNames. I want to switch my citing practices to GEOnet since it's more reliable. The problem is, though, I can't find a specific url for any individual places on GEOnet. Whereas GeoNames has separate pages for each place, if I search on GEOnet and then click on any of the results, it doesn't link to a new page. The url is always just this: https://geonames.nga.mil/namesgaz/gnsquicksearch.asp

I want to make my citations easily checkable by having a specific url and not making people search through the entire database. Is this possible to do on GEOnet? If not, then what should I do about citing coordinates for places?

Thanks,

3 kids in a trenchcoat (talk) 23:13, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

@3 kids in a trenchcoat: try asking the GEOnet technical support folks. There may be a way to format a URL that will act as a query. If they will not or cannot help you, you will need to create a citation that tells your reader how to do the query "manually". e.g., <ref>Search for "Foo City" at {{cite web|url=...}}</ref> -Arch dude (talk) 03:17, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Alright, I will try this. Thanks 3 kids in a trenchcoat (talk) 04:42, 23 March 2021 (UTC)