Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 April 14

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April 14

Spaces in name

How can I put spaces in my wiki profile name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Facethegreat (talk • contribs) 01:41, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Hi Facethegreat. I don't think that would be possible at this point unless you were to make a request to have your username changed as explained in Wikipedia:Changing username. You can try and make such a request, but there's no guarantees it would be granted. Another possibility would be for you to customize your signature to your new choice for a username as explained here; perhaps, that might be something that would work better for you. Finally, just for reference, a Wikipedia user name isn't really a "profile name" per se and Wikipedia user pages aren't really "profile pages" as you might find on some personal websites or social media sites. So, you might want to take a look at Wikipedia:User pages#What may I have in my user pages? for some ideas as to what types of content are considered acceptable for user pages and at Wikipedia:User pages#What may I not have in my user pages? for some ideas as to what types of content aren't considered acceptable for use pages. As of now, you've yet to create a user page, but just keep such things in mind if someday you decide to do so. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:26, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Why does Wikipedia have mixed up rules?

One rule says something, the other rule says the opposite. Shouldn't there only be one rule?

Example:

"Do not revert unnecessary edits (i.e., edits that neither improve nor harm the article" Wikipedia:Revert only when necessary

"Revert an edit if it is not an improvement" Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss cycle

Ak-eater06 (talk) 03:07, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Because, Ak-eater06, different writers have different ideas. What you're quoting are mere essays. (This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not [...] one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.) -- Hoary (talk) 04:47, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

User:Hoary thank you for that. I didn't look closely. Ak-eater06 (talk) 05:22, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Question about citations and the Internet Archive

For the Marcel Aymé article I've been working on, I've added a number of citations that lead to works that are searchable and checkout-able on the Internet Archive. For the citations themselves I tried to put in links that lead to the exact page of the reference book on the IA, and this seemed to work initially, but now after saving my edit(s) if I click on the link in the citation I added, it just links to the book itself, usually just the front cover (this is whether I'm logged in or not at IA). I used the automatic citation feature for these; would it be better to do it, I guess, manually? (Does any of this make any sense?) Would someone be so kind as to look over some of my citation edits (I believe they're just about all to IA) and see if I've done them correctly? Hérisson Ford (talk) 06:57, 14 April 2022 (UTC)Hérisson Ford

Try copying the URL at the specific page you would like to cite. For example, see this link to page 32 of French novelists, 1930-1960. Hack (talk) 07:07, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

It may be better to write that citation template this way:

{{Cite dictionary |last=Brodin |first=Dorothy |entry=Marcel Aymé |entry-url=https://archive.org/details/frenchnovelists172bros/page/32/mode/2up |editor-last=Brosman |editor-first=Catharine Savage |dictionary=Dictionary of Literary Biography |volume=72: French novelists, 1930-1960 |date=1988 |location=Detroit, MI |publisher=Gale Research |pages=32–41 |via=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8103-4550-8}}

Brodin, Dorothy (1988). "Marcel Aymé". In Brosman, Catharine Savage (ed.). Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 72: French novelists, 1930–1960. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. pp. 32–41. ISBN 978-0-8103-4550-8 – via Internet Archive.

Because why? Because Brosman is the editor (see the title page); because French novelists, 1930-1960 is not the work's title but is part of the volume name; because 'Detroit, Mich. :' is not the publisher's name; because pages in a range are separated with an ndash character not a hyphen.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 11:52, 14 April 2022 (UTC)