Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 November 9

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November 9

account problem (how to make that more concise?!)

Hello, Wikipedia folks,

I am a many-times-a-day Wikipedia user, and rarely a (very) small-time donor...

Sometime – I'm not sure, but probably within the past two years – I was blocked, only because my IP was in some range related to someone else who was blocked. As I recall, I was told (there was some conversation about this; ah yes, I remember now, I appealed, and the appeal was denied) that the block would be lifted after 6 months.

Presumably you will see that at this moment I am logged in as "kenthuhuong again", the creating of which account had something to do with that block – I don't remember the details of how that came about. Also, I have not used that account (or any other account!) since that time, long ago, however long it was. (Now there happens to be an error in an article, an error I would like to react to, perhaps edit.)

Oh, yes – when I was blocked, it was with the username "kenthuhuong".

At this time, I cannot log in with “kenthuhuong” – but the result is ambiguous, since it only says “Incorrect username or password entered. Please try again.” However, presumably the problem is with the username, since using “Forgot your password?” (Reset password) does not result in email getting sent to my email address (which I had typed, but just deleted! reading again the instructions “Do not provide...  :-)

On the other hand, if I try to create a new account with the old username “kenthuhuong” the system responds

   The username “Kenthuhuong” is too similar to the following username:  KenThuHuong.  Please choose another username.

In other words, at some level, in some way, the original account or some trace of it still exists...

I have been reading quite a number of pages about usernames... including “Start fresh”... but at this moment, I am unable to find anything about renaming an account – “kenthuhuong again” to “kenthuhuong” – which I assume I would be unable to do anyway, given the message I report just above.

This seems to be the classic “you can’t get there from here”?

All I want to do is to end up with one and only one account, with username “kenthuhuong”! Is that possible? how?

‘nuff already – hope you can help me!...?

No, one more thing, please? If the problem as stated above can be solved – or even if I just end up with "kenthuhuong again" – I might then want to rename whatever account I do end up with. How can that be done?

Thanks, and best,

– Ken (aka kenthuhuong) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kenthuhuong again (talk • contribs) 01:49, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@Kenthuhuong again: Capitalization matters in usernames, except for the first character which is automatically capitalized. There is indeed no User:Kenthuhuong but there is a User:KenThuHuong. Their edits are at Special:Contributions/KenThuHuong. Is it you, can you get that account working, and are you OK with the capitals in that username? If the anwers are yes, yes, no then log in as KenThuHuong and see Wikipedia:Changing username. You cannot get kenthuhuong or any other name with lowercase first leter. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:51, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter:OK, thanks, PrimeHunter / Jens Kruse Andersen! Yes, "KenThuHuong" works just fine now... but finally, is there any way to get rid of "kenthuhuong again"? Yes, officially speaking here, I would like to do that, like that to be done!--KenThuHuong (talk) 06:59, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@KenThuHuong: Accounts cannot be deleted. They can be renamed but you can just stop using the account. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:55, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter:OK, Jens, thanks again. And yes, I'll just stop using "kenthuhuong again"... wanted to rename it, but I see that I myself can't do that? ...never mind! Oops... only now I recall that wanting to do that rename, I'm logged in as that!  :-( ...no more!  :-)

Need help

Hi ,

Just wondering how I can contribute as I only attended one workshop session online and not sure where to go and what is the nextstep.

Thank you Kind Regards Reena — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reena.narain (talk • contribs) 06:34, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@Reena.narain: Hi there! You could try Help:Introduction and The Wikipedia Adventure to continue learning how to edit, and Wikipedia:Task Center to find ways to contribute. Happy editing! (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.) GoingBatty (talk) 15:14, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Vandalism help request from Hassanbeem

I have noticed some vandalism at [[Deutsche Internationale Schule Pretoria]]. That is, two users, "Firebobby" and "Emerson Crose," both of whom only edit that particular page, are adding inflammatory and negative information, without relevant citations about the school. I edited the "Racism & Controversy" section to have less hearsay and be more objective on 3 August 2021, but "Firebobby" subsequently deleted my changes and added more inflammatory content.

I believe both of the aforementioned editors are not sticking to the principles and ethos of Wikipedia, but are using the platform to try to harm the school's reputation (for whatever reason known possibly only to them and the school.) I have no personal connection to the school, but bullying, misinformation and "fake news" irritate me.

Would an editor please assist me in looking at it and fixing it if necessary? Thank you, Hassanbeem (talk) 07:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

I've no view about "inflammatory", or the editors' motivation, or the truth of the allegations. But I've deleted several unreferenced paragraphs. Maproom (talk) 09:23, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

How can I move a page back to its previous state?

Someone has moved a page and renamed it, how can I undo this and return it to its previous state.

I tried simply undoing it through file history but received this warning "The edit appears to have already been undone. You may have attempted to undo a page move, protection action or import action; these cannot be undone this way. Any autoconfirmed user can move the page back to its previous location, and any administrator can modify or remove protection."

Can someone help with this?

I also can't see a Move button to move it myself again Am.sloan (talk) 11:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Am.sloan (talk • contribs) 11:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

As your account is not autoconfirmed, you can't move an article. In any case you ought not to revert a move unless it was clearly in error, as that could be regarded as move-warring. You can use Template:Requested move on the article's talk page to explain the move you wish to make. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:37, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Choice of language doesn't work

Hello!

I chose my preferred language as English, but any and every time I access the Wikipedia, perhaps because my location is Brazil, probably because of my IP number, it always shows me in Portuguese. How can I Gert it to English as a prime choice?

Thank you VERY MUCH!

Ecelso Zanato — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ecelso Zanato (talk • contribs) 12:17, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Hello Zanato. English Wikipedia (which has different content, not merely a different language, to pt-wiki) can be accessed at en.wikipedia.org - however, google translate and similar extensions may attempt to change the english text to portugese. Those will need to be handled by you on your browser as we can't control them Nosebagbear (talk) 12:30, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Notability based on an essay

Is there a history of consensus on whether it's appropriate to keep or delete an article that pass WP:NMEDIA, but does not pass WP:N? As far as I can tell it's the only SNG listed as an essay, and generally I don't place much weight on essays. TipsyElephant (talk) 14:17, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Hello, TipsyElephant. The nutshell of that essay says "There is significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject" and that is pretty close to the WP:GNG. Can you clarify the problem that you see? Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 18:50, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@Cullen328: I'm not sure if it's considered canvassing, but I opened an AfD for an article and I don't think there are sources out there that demonstrate WP:GNG, however, the primary argument to keep is WP:NTV/WP:RPRGM. I'm genuinely curious whether an argument to keep based solely on the SNG is valid, and if it is I'd be fine with speedy closing it. I know you could just check my edit history or AfD stats so maybe I've already overstepped, but is it okay to direct you to the AfD? TipsyElephant (talk) 21:02, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@Cullen328: so obviously the consensus was keep, but is there a history of consensus concerning notability based on the essay? Invoking WP:RPRGM doesn't appear to always guarantee a keep such as in the case of this AfD that I participated in, but perhaps the SNG was not applicable in that circumstance? TipsyElephant (talk) 19:38, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

TipsyElephant, I still do not see any significant divergence between the essay and the General notability guideline, so I do not perceive a problem here. If you can point to a case where an article clearly failed GNG, but was kept because of this essay, then that would be a concern. As for placing weight on essays, it depends on which one. Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss cycle is neither a policy or a guideline but it enjoys very wide support. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 22:08, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

I’ll note that while this editor says here “generally I don't place much weight on essays,” in their failed AfD Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The Tech Guy they in fact cited the essay WP:INHERIT as justification for the AfD. It’s as if they just wanted the article deleted by grabbing at any written WP:SOMETHING to support their desire even if situational ethics is obvious. The nom needs to understand that, like written rules in real life, most if not all rules are subject to wide interpretations, exceptions and adherences usually based on common sense. It’s time to move on. Oakshade (talk) 21:16, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

Making a Wikipedia page for a living person

I want to make a Wikipedia page for a person who is still alive, he is a singer, songwriter, and once was an artist from Nashville for the past 60 years, very well known by the old timers but they are slowly dieing off and he will be gone soon too. The world should know his story. And all the songs he's written and people he's worked with Lucybug Dil (talk) 19:35, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Well, the thing you need most is sources. They don't have to be online, they just have to exist.WP:YFA is a good resource for getting started. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:19, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

high school football national championship

When it reads "not listed in older sources" on the teams in the late 60s to the late 70s,do you have those lists? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:2D80:978A:0:84A4:FCA6:6867:8BF1 (talk) 19:48, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

You haven't told us what article this is about, and you haven't signed your post, so it's difficult for us to figure out what you're asking about. But my guess is that "older sources" refers to the older of the sources cited in the relevant article. Maproom (talk) 21:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

How to deal with incomplete AfD as an uninvolved user

I have observed a page Anil Deshmukh that was PROD'd, but the PROD was removed in favor of an AfD. Since, the page was tagged with an AfD nomination; however, the user who tagged the page with the AfD nomination did not create an entry at AfD. There is currently an entry made by a user contesting the deletion, but the page at AfD did not exist until then. Furthermore, the page isn't listed on AfD under a specific date, which makes it very hard to find the discussion other than from the page. Should the AfD be a procedural keep for being incomplete? Should the AfD be (re)listed on AfD to allow for discussion? Should the AfD tag be removed from the page? I saw some editors with adding and removing the tag and I didn't want to interact there without knowing the proper procedure. snood1205^{(Say Hi! (talk))} 20:33, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

If I see a messed-up AfD like that, sometimes what I'll do is file a pro forma nomination myself (i.e. just nominate it with Twinkle and override the existing AfD notice). jp×g 22:42, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Makes sense, thanks! I'll do that. snood1205^{(Say Hi! (talk))} 22:51, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

How can I know how many page views species articles on English Wikipedia recieve per month?

Hi all I'm working on a partnership with a large natural history organisation and I would like provide them with some metrics to give them an idea of the scale of readership of Wikipedia. If anyone is able to help me by giving me a metric of how many page views English Wikipedia articles on species receive per month I would really really appreciate it. I've tried using categories to get page views but I can't work out how to only get species articles, assume that there are a few infoboxes which could be used to identify species articles.

Many thanks

. John Cummings (talk) 20:39, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@John Cummings: our sister site, Wikidata, is a structured database of objects. If an object points to both a Wikipedia article and a Wikispecies article, then it's probably what you want. You can construct a Wikidata query that will return a list of all these objects and the Wikipedia article for each of them. If you are a trusting soul you might get a pretty good list with a query for all objects that have Wikipedia articles and also have the "taxon" attribute. My guess it that your client may be interested in other language Wikipedias, Wikispecies, and maybe even in Wikidata itself in addition to the English Wikipedia. It will be easier to generalize your results by creating new queries if you start from Wikidata. -Arch dude (talk) 21:02, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi Arch dude thanks very much for your reply, I know roughly how to make a query to find all species articles but it times out and I've no idea how to transfer that into getting a pageviews stats for those pages. For clarity I'm not being paid by them, I work for Wikimedia Sverige. John Cummings (talk) 21:06, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@John Cummings: Sorry, no. I thought from your question that you already had a way to get the page views given a list of pages. I have no idea how to do this. If I were to start from scratch on my own I would build a Python program to run on my computer to make one HTML request per page on the list. There is almost certainly a better way to do this using a script or 'bot running on the server. Perhaps ask at VPT? -Arch dude (talk) 21:18, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Thanks very much Arch dude I've asked there, my assumption is there's some way of getting a list of pages that use Template:Taxobox Template:Speciesbox etc (not sure how to get a list of those boxes) and then somehow make that into a pagepile and then remember which tools can run pageview queries from that. I think that there is simply no way to do this with categories, its just too messy. My assumption is it will be at least a few % of all Wikipedia traffic so will be 100 of millions of views per month. John Cummings (talk) 21:29, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

@John Cummings: How big of a list are we talking about? I have a couple ways for determining pageview counts for large numbers of articles, but obviously 100 is going to be different from 100,000. I would be willing to assist in writing some software to measure this if it's the latter. jp×g 22:43, 9 November 2021 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the offer JPxG, I need to work on identifying the articles first, my assumption is 100,000s, but probably not 1 million. Thanks again John Cummings (talk) 18:42, 10 November 2021 (UTC)