Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 August 11

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August 11

Copyright/attribution clarification

Hi, a very nice user rewrote Workshops Rail Museum back in February because the article was completely unsourced. It’s currently sitting in their sandbox at User:Blammy1/sandbox, however they’re now inactive and attempts to contact them through pinging and email to ask them if they could add the content into the article haven’t worked.

So, I was just asking, are there any copyright/attribution issues if I, as another editor, were to copy the info over into the article from their sandbox? Or could I write something in the edit summary like: “Copied content from User:Blammy1/sandbox”? Thanks, and please ping me. Fork99 (talk) 01:14, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Fork99: Yes, you can do that. See WP:CWW. The suggested edit summary is "Copied content from User:Blammy1/sandbox; see that page's history for attribution" RudolfRed (talk) 02:28, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Fork99: If you intend to completely replace the old article with the contents of User:Blammy1/sandbox, then request a page move instead. This will preserve the edit history.(I see that you have already handled this in a better way). As to permission: a user's sandbox has the same copyright status as anything else in Wikipedia. We Customarily defer to that user but that's just a convention, not a matter of copyright law. You still must follow the "copying within Wikipedia" rules. -Arch dude (talk) 15:26, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Quality of Nationality Index

Why is the title of this article written without italics, while the title in the infobox is written in italics? JackkBrown (talk) 13:31, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: because the editor chose to set the "italic title" parameter to "no". See Template:Infobox book. -Arch dude (talk) 16:33, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Arch dude: how do I remove the italics from the title in the infobox? JackkBrown (talk) 19:41, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: I have no idea. Try asking at Template talk:Infobox book. Reading the source for Template:Infobox book, it's possible that you can add "| titlestyle = font-size:125%; padding-bottom:0.2em" to the template invocation, but there does not appear to be any documentation. -Arch dude (talk) 22:52, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

There is no such parameter. The infobox has no option to omit italics but you can use {{noitalic}} to override the italics with | name = {{noitalic|Quality of Nationality Index}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:00, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Arch dude: @PrimeHunter: thanks a lot; I solved this by using two templates, one for the page title and one for the title in the infobox. JackkBrown (talk) 01:44, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

Endorsing prod

Can I added a second endorsement to a prod or is it just the one endorsement? TipsyElephant (talk) 16:11, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

If someone already seconded a prod it's probably unnecessary to add another one. If an AfD is created due to an objection, you can obviously comment on that. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 16:33, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Locked out of my account

Hello, I got locked out of my Wikipedia account a long time ago and was never able to get back in because I didn‘t have an email associated with it. The user name is Anston06. I would like to be able to get back into it so I don’t have to make edits as a guest anymore 97.125.186.81 (talk) 18:27, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Hi IP from Iowa, you were never "locked out of" your account. User:Anston06 was temporarily blocked for 31 hours on 10 April 2021. You should be able to use that account. provided you know the password. If you do not know the password and did not have an e-mail associated with your account, I am afraid there is nothing we can do. As that account only has 23 edits remaining out of the 31 you made, the the simplest thing is simply to create a new account. Best wishes - Arjayay (talk) 18:38, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

If you create a new account, you should identify it as a successor to your old account("Hello, I am User5678, I was previously User1234 but lost access"). 331dot (talk) 19:25, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Can you make recommendations about a page without a specific edit?

I am reading an article that creates more confusion that clarity. I also think I know why. But I'm not knowledgeable enough to suggest a change. What do you do in that case?

The example is with this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia

The first paragraph reads as though Pythia was a real person. Though it doesn't provide a historical date, which is strange for an article about a person. As you continue to read, the third paragraph starts with "The Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th century BC..." So maybe this isn't a real person, but a title? "Pythia" and "the Pythia" seem to cause a lot of trouble here.

Again, I can't suggest a specific edit because I honestly have no idea which is correct. I just know that it is confusing as it currently is. Brittkim (talk) 19:45, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Brittkim: If you have suggestions for an article, you can start a discussion on the talk page, in this case Talk:Pythia. You don't have to propose a specific edit. RudolfRed (talk) 19:52, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Brittkim I think the article is written like that because there were actually a series of people who were the high priestess, so it is more the name of a role than the name of an individual. Wikipedia article titles tend not to use "The" (see WP:THE). The Pythia is better known (to me) as the Oracle at Delphi (i.e. the individual who provided the prophesies). Nevertheless, if you can suggest how to make the article better, please do so. Mike Turnbull (talk) 20:11, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I attempted to make a suggestion, but it mysteriously was filed under the "socrates" header. I don't seem to be able to edit or delete. This is quite the learning experience. Thanks! Brittkim (talk) 21:17, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Brittkim, possibly you forgot to put something in the Subject line when adding a new topic, so it was simply appended to the previous topic. Another editor has fixed it for you. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 21:30, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Brittkim: "Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi" seems to me reasonable and correct. Yes, these high priestesses were real people. It's like saying "Dauphin was the name of the eldest son of the reigning king of France". Maproom (talk) 22:17, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

@Maproom and Brittkim: But in most publications, etc, when refering to the word itself, the word is in italics, so "Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi", or "Dauphin was the name of the eldest son of the reigning king of France". But this will not work well here because we use bold for the first occurrence of the article title. Therefore, I suggest "Pythia was the title of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi". -Arch dude (talk) 23:01, 11 August 2023 (UTC)