Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 May 17

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May 17

Birth date and age template

Hello. Will the birth date and age template automatically update the age. I have seen multiple infoboxes without an updated age. Cherrell410 (talk) 01:28, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Yes, it calculates the age automatically. Infoboxes without an updated age are probably not using a template but instead just put in the age at the time as text. MB 03:00, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Cherrell410:If you think you have seen a problem then please always give an example. The English Wikipedia uses UTC so the age changes at midnight UTC on the birthday, not local time of the subject. Pages are cached so if the page is not edited or purged, it may show the old age for a while. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:17, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

DYK problem

I recently nominated an article about Enkeli-Elisa for WP:DYK at Template:Did you know nominations/Enkeli-Elisa, about a story of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide because she had been bullied at school, which turned out to be a hoax, but the DYK process ran into problems. What do I need to do next to make the DYK process complete? JIP | Talk 01:40, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

It looks like the nomination was created, but just not listed at Template talk:Did you know. I have added it there manually. Wikipedia talk:Did you know is the place for DYK discussions. I would recommend using it in the future if you have more DYK questions. MB 03:10, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Commandant

This new photo of Commandant Patrick Denis is way too big - also ref number 7 is all wrong. Please fix if you have the time. I cannot 115.70.23.77 (talk) 04:30, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

OK, I've done some fixes at Commandant.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 05:47, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

my 1st article just not approved

hi how are you everyone.

    i write a new article about education i am new here and try to learn .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Metropolitan_International_United_College

the above link is my draft article which is not approved i just copy past things from website in start then i remove that things now i didn't find any link that support this article so i want to known should i stop doing thing on Wikipedia. and if i see some other article that have same links newspaper but they are approved so why this things happen . see below example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riphah_International_University — Preceding unsigned comment added by Creativewriting498 (talk • contribs) 05:59, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Hello, Creativewriting498, and welcome to the Teahouse and to Wikipedia. Please don't stop editing Wikipedia - new editors are always welcome. But, as the English saying goes, "don't run before you can walk". Creating a new article is one of the hardest jobs there is, especially for a new editor. I remember when I was a new editor, 17 years ago, how I desperately wanted to find a subject I could write an article about, to "make my mark". Now I know that, not only is creating a new article difficult, but there are far far far more valuable ways to help improve Wikipedia. We have over six million articles: thousands and thousands of them are terrible, and could be improved by any editor who takes the time and trouble.

My recommendation is that you put aside the idea of creating an article for at least a few months, and work on learning how Wikipedia works, by finding articles that interest you and making small improvements. If you can't think of any, have a look at the WP:task center.

When you are ready to have another go at creating an article, please start by reading your first article. Note that you must not copy material from another website or publication, and that Wikipedia is not intereste in what the subject of an article, or their associates, say about them, but only in what people unconnected with the subject have published about them. Happy editing! ColinFine (talk) 09:58, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

thank for give some motivations what the point why this article is approved what reference in this are natural https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riphah_International_University Creativewriting498 (talk) 11:15, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Alan Wakeman saxophonist entry

Hello,

I have tried to edit this entry for a minor change: Mr. Wakeman's domain name has changed recently. The new domain name is: alanwakeman.org

However, when I changed it, the entire profile box with the picture disappeared. I would be grateful for help on this matter.

With many thanks, Angela Jianu — Preceding unsigned comment added by AWAJsax (talk • contribs) 06:30, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

 Done, AWAJsax, I fixed the official website link as clicking the old link made it clear the link was now directing to a different website. The reason the infobox disappeared when you first edited was because you accidently removed the closing markup for the infobox. By closing markup, I'm referring to the brackets at the bottom of section. Cmr08 (talk) 07:05, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@AWAJsax I also updated the official website at Wakeman's Wikidata entry. GoingBatty (talk) 13:32, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

It did not existed. We have a very large numbers of readers from Romania, a country extremely religious

Hello

I am trying to add our website to Wiki but I don't want to spam the website due to my inability to create the page.(LongCovid)

The website is named Click Romania - the link is www.clickromania.co.uk

We are a Romanian/European/British publishing organization online (we don't print anymore)

Thank you in advance, and when I get better, I will help editing articles about the Romanian history and architecture. Sorry for my Oxford comma :)

Regards A.M — Preceding unsigned comment added by ClickRomaniaUK (talk • contribs) 06:39, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi ClickRomaniaUK. Since you seem quite new to Wikipedia, you might be misunderstanding some important things about Wikipedia. Please take a look at Wikipedia:The answer to life, the universe, and everything and Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not for some general information about the kind of content deemed appropriate to write about on Wikipedia. You also appear to have been adding content about your organization to some Wikipedia articles. For this reason, I suggest that you take a close look at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure. Finally, there is a problem with your choice of user name since names which are seen to represent a company, organization, group, wesbite, etc. are not allowed for the reasons given here. -- Marchjuly (talk) 07:40, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Adding a parameter to a template

{{Infobox windmill}} currently does not support alt text for images. This is something I'd like to rectify. I've tried editing the template documentation without success but it hasn't worked. Assistance in this matter is welcome. Mjroots (talk) 07:57, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Mjroots as that template is protected, you'd need to ask at Template talk:Infobox windmill. You can add {{Edit template-protected}} to the top of the request you make there, so it'll be picked up more quickly. I agree that alt text should be used in all infoboxes including this one. Joseph2302 (talk) 11:27, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Joseph2302:, if the template was unprotected, could you make the change? I can temporarily unprotect it if that is the case. Mjroots (talk) 11:38, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Help desk/Archives/2022 May 17
This windmill has alt text

@Mjroots and Joseph2302: Looking at the code, the template has supported an alt text parameter named "alt" since 2014. If you're happy with that parameter name, it's just a matter of adding it to the documentation. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:45, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@John of Reading and Joseph2302: If this edit has worked, there should now be alt text at the image of Pitstone Windmill. Mjroots (talk) 11:50, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Mjroots: Editing the template documentation cannot change the function of the template. But this version of Pitstone Windmill sets the "alt" parameter, matching the name of the one in the template code, and it does have alt text. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:57, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@John of Reading:, so the current version of the article has working alt text? I'm not getting anything when I hover the mouse over the image (that is what is supposed to happen, isn't it?). Mjroots (talk) 12:19, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Mjroots: Yes, the current version has alt text. The effect of that depends on your browser and your Wikipedia gadgets. I have popups enabled, and hovering over the image shows me load of information, including the alt text. Or, I can ask my browser to show me the HTML source of the page and search within it for the expected alt text. -- John of Reading (talk) 12:29, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Mjroots: No, that isn't what's meant to happen. Browsers used to display alt text as a tooltip, but newer ones seem not to. That's not surprising as that's not what alt text is for. If you want some explanatory text with an image, it should be included as a caption. If you want to see if an image has alt text, some browsers will let you right-click any part of a web page to Inspect it. Bazza (talk) 15:20, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Citations

Hello and Greetings,

I have a question on citations, I am trying to make references as to where i can not make sfn's and book citations together with web citations or links on headings for wiki articles. Can you help me try to resolve this?

Best Regards, Surix321 (talk) 12:45, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Surix321, can you clarify what you mean? Sungodtemple (talk) 13:05, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Of course, So basically. I am trying to make a references heading on a Wikipedia page with a few sub headings. One for sfns in a subheading separately in reflist for example and for other citations in a separate sub heading. Lastly the final subheading with cite books which I already know how to do.I’m trying to separate sfns and link citations. Surix321 (talk) 13:16, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Technical request: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Drew Russell

Resolved

any ideas what ran amok here? I thought it was the brackets in tq, but switching to itals didn't fix it,nor did manually replacing page name with the article title. Should I CSD the AfD and renom? Thanks for any tech insight. Star Mississippi 13:21, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@Star Mississippi: Looking at the page, it seems like the {{tq}} templates, which were wrongly formatted, messed up with the substituted afd template, which led it to missing the "pg" argument. Hopefully, it's been fixed now. Isabelle ^🏳‍🌈 13:39, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Indeed, thanks so much @Isabelle Belato. I either need more coffee or to not use tq within twinkle. Probably the former. Star Mississippi 13:57, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Tree chart trouble

To whoever reads this, I have been having trouble with the creation of tree charts in my sandbox as a select few of them have refused to process, such as this one: file:///home/chronos/u-3821fcbfa6971ad4feffb304246101848acb7580/MyFiles/Downloads/Screenshot%202022-05-17%209.45.05%20AM.png, and I would like it to be resolved if possible. Is it because there is a limited amount of space I can add to my sandbox or is it an error in the code? I have been searching for quite some time and I haven't found I solution to a problem as specific as mine. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (talk) 10:05, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

@GOMUL13: You have reached a template limit. Also, URL's starting with file:// point to files residing on your local computer and only work for you. Victor Schmidt mobil (talk) 15:24, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! Sorry about the file.png, I wasn't sure about that and I'm sorry for any confusion! GOMUL13 (talk) 18:42, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Captcha over and over again

Hello, please help! I have been trying to update an article, I edit a paragraph, cite it thoroughly, click “publish changes”, describe the changes, and then get stuck in a captcha loop where it asks me to do the captcha, I do it, and it just gives me a new one…over and over again until I give up. Can you help me understand what is going on and how to move forward with my edits, which I have retyped about 5 or 6 times now? Thank you for your help! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 3goatfarm (talk • contribs) 15:54, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Hello, 3goatfarm. I'm not 100% certain, but I think that you are getting the Captcha because 1) your account is not yet WP:autoconfirmed and 2) you are trying to add external links (or perhaps save something that already has external links) that Wikipedia thinks might be spam. The immediate answer is to remove the suspect external links - though as I say, they may already be there in the material you are editing. If so, you can still remove them, if you are able to identify them. If you are not introducing external links yourself, then I suggest editing individual sections and see if that helps.

In three days and two more edits, you will be autoconfirmed, and I think it won't trouble you thereafter.

However - I see that you edited an archived post on WP:Help desk/Archives/2012 December 27 - please don't do this, ever! The person you were responding to will probably never see your question anyway. If you want to reopen an archived post, please make a new post on the appropriate page (here, WP:Help desk) and link to the archived post you are referencing (as WP:Help desk/Archives/2012 December 27#CAPTCHA/Updating James H Fetzer). ColinFine (talk) 16:49, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Hello, 3goatfarm! You might be making the same error I did when I first encountered Wikipedia's CAPTCHA system. After you have entered the requested text, you then have to scroll down to the "Publish" button and click it. Do not click the "Refresh" button next to the CAPTCHA box! That requests a different CAPTCHA target because you couldn't read the previous one. Hope this helps! {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.88.97 (talk) 23:35, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Cite book issues

Hi. Are there any workarounds to the {{cite book}} template not being able to use the |title-link and |url parameters at the same time? Thanks. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:12, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

No. When you use both |url= and |title-link= you are asking the template to link one parameter, |title=, to two different targets. Because cs1|2 can't do that, it defaults to linking |title= with |url= and emits the error message:

{{cite book |title=Title |url=//example.com |title-link=Title}}

Title. {{cite book}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)

If you can link to a chapter or section then you can do this:

{{cite book |chapter=Chapter |title=Title |chapter-url=//example.com |title-link=Title}}

"Chapter". Title.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:21, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

I think the chapter solution is workable. Thanks! ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:35, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Is there a list of articles with templates like "more references needed" at the top?

Do the various tags which say things like "this article is terrible, there are multiple things wrong with it, it's written wrong and it's biased and one of the sources is bad" cause the articles needing attention to accumulate on a list somewhere?  Card Zero  (talk) 22:34, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Yes, they generally automatically add the article to certain hidden categories. For example {{More citations needed}} says This template adds the article to Category:Articles needing additional references from May 2022, and Category:All articles needing additional references, both hidden categories. ColinFine (talk) 22:54, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Oh wow. OK. I just did a quick survey by pressing "random article" until I'd accumulated a data set of 10, and the average age of these tags seems to be six years, and I think something should be done. So I'm going to attack that list and fix them all single-handedly, maybe.  Card Zero  (talk) 23:04, 17 May 2022 (UTC)

Then I suggest you open a new user account: User:Sisyphus or perhaps User:Wikiphus. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:26, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

If I do one every waking hour, it should only take me 72 years, and then I can move on to Category:articles that may contain original research. I guess the trend here in practical reality is that they only get removed from articles which some editor notices, and cares about at least a little, and every unloved article will eventually be decorated with some tag or other which will stay there forever.  Card Zero  (talk) 08:15, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Go for it! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:17, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Duty calls! --Orange Mike | Talk 12:31, 18 May 2022 (UTC)