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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 May 25

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May 25

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What's the name of the thing?

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What's the tool that lets you see which Wikipedia articles contain a certain URL? Like if I find a website that is not reliable, and I want to find every article currently using that website as a rouce. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 01:29, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@TenPoundHammer Special:LinkSearch? 192.76.8.78 (talk) 01:32, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's it, thank you Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 01:35, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Place things in global context

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I thought there was a project guideline stipulating something that should be obvious, that statements ought to have geographic context if applicable: references to small towns ought to mention the country ("John Doe is a politician from Birdsville"), references to seasons ought to mention the hemisphere ("in the spring of 2009"), and so on. Does such a page exist? 49.198.51.54 (talk) 08:20, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  • There is a general guideline for the lead (MOS:INTRO) that the subject should be placed in a context familiar to a normal reader. For example, it is better to describe the location of a town with reference to an area or larger place than with coordinates.
There is also MOS:SEASON about the specific case of seasons (Avoid the use of seasons to refer to a particular time of year [...] as such uses are ambiguous). TigraanClick here for my talk page ("private" contact) 09:22, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Contact in regards of an Article

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I contact you on behalf of Isaacs and Isaacs Law Firm regarding a Target URL in the "References" section posted on a article. The firm changed the Domain Name of the website and I would like to know if it is possible to change the Target URL in the "References" section of this article? Because the Target URL it is not available anymore and makes that reference in the article irrelevant.

Here is the article link:

Link to a Wikipedia mirror

https://en.wikipedia.su/wiki/Complaint

You will find it as " "1. Legal Complaint - Very Simple Definitions - Lawyer Terms". isaacsandisaacs.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018." and here the Target URL and website domain name that need to be changed.

Here is the new Target URL: https://wewin.com/glossary/complaint/ And the Domain name is wewin.com not isaacsandisaacs.com anymore.

Kindly wait for your reply. Thank you very much! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:2F0A:B007:3400:31A5:1119:E6E2:DF86 (talk) 08:30, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This comment is best directed at the article talk page, Talk:Complaint(not sure why the url you provide has .su in it). You will need to declare as a paid editor, see WP:PAID. This is easier to do if you have an account, but you must do it even if you do not. 331dot (talk) 09:01, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • (edit conflict) First of all, note that you linked to en.wikipedia.su, which is apparently a mirror of Wikipedia (in violation of the licensing requirements). The .su subdomain does not inspire confidence to me. The correct link is: Complaint, which goes to en.wikipedia.org, which did show the same problem.
I fixed the link (thanks for the info). Usually, I would encourage you to fix it yourself (Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit), but in that case, you did well not to. Arguably it is spammy to cite a commercial website for such a definition, so other editors may choose to remove it entirely; as an employee or close associate of the law firm, you have a conflict of interest in having the link stay, and you should not add such links directly. It is very possible that someone else will remove the link at some point.
In any future such cases, you could make an edit request - go to the talk page of the article in question (here that would be Talk:Complaint), create a new section, copy-paste the "magic code" (template) {{request edit}} at the top of the section and type in your suggested edits in a "change X to Y" format below. The template will cause your query to appear in a review queue, where an independent editor will eventually come around and implement it (or not).
Do also check out the link that 331dot provided (WP:PAID) - assuming you are editing Wikipedia as part of your work, you should disclose that relationship in a formalized manner, as a terms of use requirement. ("Editing Wikipedia as part of your work" can be a bit fuzzy if you are not in a marketing / PR role, the rule of thumb is whether your boss would be happy to see you do such edits during your work time. Read the actual link.) TigraanClick here for my talk page ("private" contact) 09:17, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The real question here is "why are we citing a firm of personal injury solicitors for a definition which could be found in any legal dictionary?". There are a huge number of high quality reference works we could cite for this information. The original addition here seems to have been link spamming anyway, the text was added by Darryl Isaacs [1] Who I'm sure has absolutely no COI at all with a law firm that uses his name, then 2 days later an IP shows up to add a link to the Isaacs and Isaacs website [2]. This should be deleted as a completely unsuitable reference added by a spammer, not fixed to point at their new "we win lawsuits" website. 192.76.8.78 (talk) 10:38, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Tigraan Pinging Tigraan since they implemented the edit request above. Would you object to deletion of the reference on the basis that 1) we should not be citing commercial websites when the information is available in all manner of reference works 2) The lead of an article does not require citations 3) The link was added by an obvious COI editor for the purposes of self promotion? 192.76.8.78 (talk) 10:51, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The spam link could be replaced with this [3] strangely my IP address is blocked from editing that page so I can't make the change. Theroadislong (talk) 10:56, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
No objection at all to the change of ref; I made the edit because it was a clear improvement, but as my post hints to I do think a more neutral ref should be preferred.
Theroadislong, I made the change you suggested, but I rather doubt your IP is blocked. I would wager that you tried to edit on the wikipedia.su mirror, created by a crawling bot, and you are therefore seeing the page that the crawling bot itself encountered when clicking the "edit" link. I collapsed the OP’s incorrect link to prevent others from doing the same mistake. TigraanClick here for my talk page ("private" contact) 11:43, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Ah yes of course, my silly mistake, thanks for the change. Theroadislong (talk) 11:52, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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Where can I find the reason why a particular site - borgenproject.org - has been banned? If possible I would like to cite an article on that site as a source - if the reason for its ban is not absolutely against it of course. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 12:31, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Dodger67 There are two spam blacklists to check, MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist which covers just the english wikipedia, and meta:Spam-blacklist which covers all WMF sites. Both of these have a log page which records additions to the lists along with the reasons, and request pages. In this case the link is globally blacklisted, and a search of the archives on meta turns up this discussion from 2007 [4] Which indicates that it was being spammed cross wiki and might have been copying information from wikipedia? 192.76.8.78 (talk) 12:51, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! So if they habitually republish other sources I might be able to find a different original source of the article I'm interested in. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 13:04, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Dodger67 I'm not sure, I'm just going off what they said on meta: it appears to be copying from en:wiki rather than intentional use of the site to improve the articles which is a bit difficult to understand. The main reason for the blacklisting seems to be a 2007 era spam campaign, and no-one seems to have ever put together a good request to have it removed. If you just want to use one or two links you can use the local whitelist (MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist) to override the global blacklisting on specific articles/sub domains etc. 192.76.8.78 (talk) 13:18, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How to mark a editor for block

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Hi Folks!! What is the process for marking an editor with csd or whatover, if they for example, are a spammer? I saw something about it a while ago, but never really used it.scope_creepTalk 14:35, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Scope creep For obvious spammers/Vandals report them at WP:AIV. For username policy violations (e.g shared accounts, profane usernames, promotional usernames) Report them at WP:UAA. For sockpuppets or abuse of multiple accounts use WP:SPI, unless the edits are obvious vandalism/spam, in which case WP:AIV will produce a faster response. For any other issues use WP:ANI. 192.76.8.78 (talk) 14:41, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That is what I've been doing so far. Thanks. scope_creepTalk 14:43, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Scope creep I'm a little unclear what you mean by "the process for marking an editor with csd". We don't delete the editors, we delete the pages they create. You might mark their userpage for speedy deletion if it is spam or whatever (see all of the G criteria and all of the U criteria at WP:CSD), and in rare cases we may delete their talk page, but we don't delete them. We may block them or ban them or globally ban them - but it seems you are already familiar with those processes. So I'm not sure what you are asking. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 15:13, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@ONUnicorn: I read something in passing in 2012 (about) when ACTRIAL finished, about if you came across a bad draft by a spammer you could mark the editor page with a "tag" and a admin would come an address it. I never bothered with it at the time, and never saw it again. scope_creepTalk 15:28, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Scope creep The "general" speedy deletion criteria apply to draft pages, if you come across a draft that is so promotional it is unsalvagable you can tag it for speedy deletion under criteria WP:G11. 192.76.8.78 (talk) 15:31, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ongoing section of 'In the news'

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How do I figure out if the war in Afghanistan has been in the Ongoing section of 'In the news'? Best, Tyrone Madera (talk) 16:54, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Tyrone Madera: I tried several incomplete methods to search for something and found [5] with 2021 Taliban offensive. I don't know whether the main article has been there. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:46, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Login

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For some reason I've been logged out of Wikipedia, I can't remember my password, and password reset is not working. Any idea how I can resolve this? MFlet1 (talk) 16:57, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you have been logged out, can't remember your password, and you do not have an email connected to your account, you cannot retrieve your account. See Help:Logging in#What if I forget the password? The Tips of Apmh 17:07, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@MFlet1: You appear to be logged in, though. Take this time to go to prefences and set an email address for your account so if you do forget your password you can get a reset via email. If you forget your password and no email is set up, you won't be able to access your account. RudolfRed (talk) 17:09, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@RudolfRed: See Special:Diff/1089788811. The Tips of Apmh 17:12, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Have you checked that the password reset emails aren't ending up in your spam email folder? 192.76.8.78 (talk) 17:25, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
There's also the help pages Help:Logging in and Help:Reset password. Do either of them contain anything that helps? 192.76.8.78 (talk) 18:18, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
User:MFlet1 has not set an email address. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:20, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I thought I had set one - I guess that explains why I'm not getting a reset email. Thanks - MFlet1 (talk) 20:22, 25 May 2022 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.224.120 (talk) [reply]

northshore insurance

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what insurances dose northshore — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.8.44.64 (talk) 17:20, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is not a general question asking forum, sorry. 331dot (talk) 17:52, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What's going on with Category:Quasars?

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Something is odd at Category:Quasars - "B" and "J" are full of items that don't start with B or J, and the initial list (before 0-9) is also a bit out of alphabetical order, plus there's a random asterisk just hanging out. Is there a way to fix all this? 199.208.172.35 (talk) 21:59, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The reason is for example the code [[Category:Quasars|B0307+169]] in the wikitext of 3C 79. This causes the page to be sorted like "B0307+169" in the quasar category. If this is the wrong sort order, it can be fixed by editing each of the articles in the category. —Kusma (talk) 22:12, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
3C 79 is listed under B because it contains the Category entry [[Category:Quasars|B0307+169]], which is because the article was previously called QSO B0307+169, and the category wasn't updated when the article was Moved. Similarly, Blandford–Znajek process says it should be listed under *, as it contains the line [[Category:Quasars|*]]. I don't know why. ColinFine (talk) 22:14, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Huh. Is there a reason to specify custom titles like these, instead of simply adding [[Category:Quasars]] to the article, with no other qualification? 199.208.172.35 (talk) 22:25, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
There is an explanation of how * and space are used to sort categories at Wikipedia:Categorization#Sort keys, space is for the lead article and * for other general articles. TSventon (talk) 22:29, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Ah ha. Thanks. Things seem to be sorted now. New toys for me! 199.208.172.35 (talk) 22:33, 25 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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