Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 December 27

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December 27

GrtE on Google Play

GrtE on Google Play @ 2A02:CB80:4100:4250:E473:A212:4C25:BC6A (talk) 02:04, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Do you have a question about editing Wikipedia? RudolfRed (talk) 03:40, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Special research resources available for editors with over 500 edits

Hello dear Wikipedians,

I'm trying to find the resources for research and referencing available only for editors with over 500 edits. I saw this once, but can't find it now.

Anyone can clarify this for me?

Thanks in advance! CarlosFelix1 (talk) 02:21, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

CarlosFelix1 you are probably talking about WP:The Wikipedia Library. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 02:22, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes precisely! Thank you so much for your reply. Happy 2024! CarlosFelix1 (talk) 04:32, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Logging in to Wikipedia

Is there a way to stay permanently logged in to Wikipedia. Have already made a donation and have no trouble loggin in. Just wondered if can make my login last for a year. Thank you so much for your guidance!! Hanniebear (talk) 03:15, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Hanniebear staying logged in is controlled by cookies. Your browser might be deleting or blocking them. Make sure you are using the same browser on the same computer every time as well. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 03:39, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

THank you so much for your help with this! 97.112.14.25 (talk) 03:44, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

And make sure to select "Keep me logged in (for up to one year)" on the login screen. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:52, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

For me logging in with same browser every time works well. For a certain period until the cookies expire you won't need to login again in this particular device and browser. Also, you need to select "keep me signed in" or "remember me" while logging in the first time. If you are changing the devices or browsers or using "incognito" mode next time you access Wikipedia, you may still need to login again. Otherwise, your browser cookies will keep you logged in to your Wikipedia account. Yashrajkarthike (talk) 09:27, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

• Hanniebear Making a donation has no impact on your logging in or any other activities here- donations are collected by the Wikimedia Foundation, us editors have nothing to do with it. 331dot (talk) 09:32, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

PAYMENT

I wanted to make a donation, but your form did not allow me to enter my card information! (12/26/2023 ~ 9:30 p.m. PST 208.74.106.13 (talk) 05:31, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

The Help Desk can't help with donation problems. Try https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give. Should you have any problems donating, or other questions, please email donate@wikimedia.org . — Preceding unsigned comment added by RudolfRed (talk • contribs) 07:16, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Reducing the size of a citation superscript

I am writing an article section with several paragraphs which is based on a single, reliable source (there is only one). If I cite the source for the section at the end of the final paragraph, it looks like only this one paragraph has a source. Is there any way to place the citation superscript (e.g. [3] ) in the section's title without it showing at the same size as the title? Or is there a better alternative? If I use a general reference at the end of the article I'll get picked up for lack of inline citations. Masato.harada (talk) 11:04, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Masato.harada: Hello! You can also use the same reference in multiple places: first place<ref name="cit">the reference</ref> ... second place<ref name="cit"/> ... third place<ref name="cit"/> Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 11:07, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm aware of that.technique, but it would mean having every paragraph in the section ending with the same number superscript, which is inelegant. Masato.harada (talk) 11:29, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Masato.harada, section titles should not contain citations per MOS:NOSECTIONLINKS. Folly Mox (talk) 11:54, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

If your single source has page numbers, you could use shortened footnotes to cite separate page spans for each paragraph of your prose, which will result in different citation numbers for each paragraph, as this seems to be a concern of yours. Folly Mox (talk) 12:00, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

If you don't want to use shortened footnotes, then the template {{rp}} will allow page number ranges to be shown. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:48, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Question about SPI

If I know an account or an IP address formerly used for block evasion, but it has already been blocked for it, should it be reported to SPI? I have a specific example in mind, where a SPI case was opened for one IP, but another IP (of the same person) was blocked for block evasion without bringing it to SPI. The sockpupettry/block evasion was evident in that case. Janhrach (talk) 14:49, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

WP:SPI is more for investigating sockpuppetry, rather than catching block evasion. If it's blatent, ANI might be suitable. Feel free to revert blatant block evasion, per WP:DUCK and WP:EVASION. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 14:55, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. Janhrach (talk) 15:06, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Question about rendering templates

I have some modified wikitext, where some templates and sections have been removed, and some templates have been added, of some Wikipedia Articles which I would like to convert into html. This would be hosted on an external website (specifically, I am trying to implement a Wikirace website). However, using the API for parsing wikitext to html does not convert templates into their final html. I've tried to use expand templates and to use substitution or pre-save transform but these have not worked. What would be the best way to do this?

One unpreferable way would be to make a user subpage, edit it with the wikitext I have, and web-scrape the resulting html. While this is not the intended use of user pages, would this method be ok if I subsequently deleted them once the html had been obtained? Many thanks, Jamezofchez (talk) 15:01, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Jamezofchez: A strict interpretation of our rules would say "no, don't do that" because your user space is supposed to be used to help build Wikipedia. However, if you intend to do this in a non-automated way for a relatively few pages, I think you can justify it because it is helping you use Wikipedia. The "right" way to do this is to download a copy of the entire Wikipedia database and implement your own clone on your own server, which is completely acceptable by our rules. Since your proposed approach will consume far less total Wikimedia resources, I think the rule of reason applies here. Others may have other opinions. -Arch dude (talk) 15:14, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I would like to clarify that I intend to do this automatically, but the amount of articles I do this method on should be relatively small. I will also add a declaration of intent to my user page here: User:Jamezofchez/WikiGame Jamezofchez (talk) 15:51, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Jamezofchez: Preview the wikitext without saving and use your browser's view source function on the preview to copy the html (Ctrl+a and then Ctrl+c in Windows). If you cannot do this then what is your browser? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:22, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

I'm planning to use the MediaWiki API similar to this Special:ApiSandbox#action=parse&format=json&page=United States&prop=text&useskin=vector-2022&formatversion=2 to get the HTML. I believe that the content will have to be saved before the API can retrieve it. Jamezofchez (talk) 16:06, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Jamezofchez: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse does not require that you save the wikitext to Wikipedia beforehand - you can do something like https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&format=json&text=%23REDIRECT%20%5B%5BSomewhere%5D%5D%0A%0AThis%20is%20an%20example.%0A%7B%7Bnumber%7C42%7D%7D%0A%5B%5BCategory%3AExample%5D%5D&prop=text%7Cdisplaytitle|wikitext&disableeditsection=1&disabletoc=1&useskin=vector-2022&contentmodel=wikitext&formatversion=2, passing the Wikitext in the URL or POST body (though for longer wikitext I'd absolutely recomend using POST with Content-Type:multipart/form-data instead, to avoid going over URL size limits). I do have to warn you to take things slow though - Passing large quantities to the parse API in a short amount of time is a surefire way to get IP-blocked. See also mw:API:Etiquette. Victor Schmidt (talk) 22:15, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

I tried using the API like that (POST + Content-Type), but when I did so I got the html for the MediaWiki API help page in response, code 200. I'm guessing I did something wrong, but it never gave an indication of what.

Is your request identical to this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ApiSandbox#action=parse&format=json&text=%23REDIRECT%20%5B%5BSomewhere%5D%5D%0A%0AThis%20is%20an%20example.%0A%7B%7Bnumber%7C42%7D%7D%0A%5B%5BCategory%3AExample%5D%5D&prop=text&disableeditsection=1&disabletoc=1&useskin=vector-2022&contentmodel=wikitext&formatversion=2

In the response I get, no templates get resolved in the following html. There's also just a bunch of errors.

At some point down the line, I was able to get suitable html content when working on another page, but all templates resolved as links, and did not render as content.

Trying it without the content-type I get an empty div.

I tried the other wikimedia API for parsing wikitext but I couldn't properly connect to it.

When you parse in wikitext through the API, are templates properly rendering link this?

https://imgur.com/a/zwutTK3

That's from writing to a user subpage and retrieving the html. I haven't been able to achieve a result like that otherwise.

Many thanks for the response Jamezofchez (talk) 22:33, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Login attempts

I woke up this morning to a grand total of 30 attempted logins to my account. I would like to know if anyone else has had a large number of login attempts recently? It might be a mere coincidence, but I have been semi-active for a while and recently opposed an RFA, so I am wondering if there is some kind of malicious connection between the login attempts and this oppose, and if anything can be done about this. Willbb234 15:19, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

I have this semi-regularly on my account. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:22, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Willbb234: Nothing really can be done about it – as long as you have a good password there isn't anything to worry about. Tollens (talk) 15:24, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Well, you could sign up for WP:2FA Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 15:26, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

It never happened to me but others have said it sometimes happens. I would just ensure a strong password, and disable the notifications at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo if they get annoying. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:27, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Quargnento

On this page I can't insert the en dash in the paragraph "Twin towns...", this is the first time it has happened to me; when I write the dash, the page turns it into the current one. JackkBrown (talk) 18:19, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: Hello! I've found methods to insert en dash: MOS:DASH. Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 18:25, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Deltaspace42: no, I know how to insert it, it's a very very basic Wikipedia rule. The page seems not to accept this type of dash, I have tried several times to add it. JackkBrown (talk) 18:31, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: I've inserted it now, does it look fine in your browser? Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 18:33, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Deltaspace42: yes, thanks. JackkBrown (talk) 18:35, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Question about source code

If I use <!-- --> to hide this line of Wikipedia syntax {{talk header|noarchive=yes|search=no|arpol=no|wp=no|disclaimer=no|bottom=yes|force=true}} {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis |archiveprefix=User talk:StarryNightSky11/Archives/ |format=Y/F |age=24 |archivebox=yes |box-advert=yes }}

Will CluebotIII still archive conversations? StarryNightSky11 ☎ 🎄 18:31, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@StarryNightSky11: There shouldn't be any need to comment out the template. {{talk header}} is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect page archiving, so it can be left out completely, and the ClueBot III template doesn't produce any visible output if archivebox is set to no or omitted. An example of what you're looking for would be {{User:ClueBot III/ArchiveThis |archiveprefix=User talk:StarryNightSky11/Archives/ |format=Y/F |age=24 }} Tollens (talk) 18:37, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Contradicting information

I've recently been researching Peru's EEZ for an article I'm creating. I've been trying to find the total area it covers; however, I'm now confused after I found contradicting information around Wikipedia. On article likes geography of Peru and exclusive economic zone, they state that it covers an area of 906,454 km² (349,984 sq mi). But they do not cite any sources for verification, so I decided to try to research on my own to confirm, however, found that these claims cannot be confirmed. In fact, I instead found a reliable source stating that the total area is actually 857,000 km². So, what source should I trust? SonOfYoutubers (talk) 19:32, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@SonOfYoutubers: Hello! You should trust the one that is reliable (obviously), feel free to replace the contradicting information on Wikipedia with the one which the reliable sources contains and don't forget to cite new info with this source. Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 19:35, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Underline links

I was wondering how to make a dotted underline wikilink on Wikipedia. I've seen it done before, but I can't remember where. Thanks in advance! Cessaune [talk] 20:18, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: I don't see anything about that at WP:CHEAT or Help:Link. If you could find an example, that would be great. There is a preference option under Appearances to underline links, if that's what you are looking for. RudolfRed (talk) 20:29, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: Dots indicate a tooltip, e.g. made with {{Tooltip}}. Don't try to make dots without a tooltip. It will confuse readers who expect it's a tooltip. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:37, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Not dots, dashes. And I have no idea where I saw it. Cessaune [talk] 20:40, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Are you trying to do this for everyone or just yourself? If it's just for you you can go and edit the CSS (accessible through Preferences → Appearance → Skin) of whichever skin you're using. I can't say I've done it before, but I imagine you'd add something like

a {
    text-decoration-style: dashed;
}

to your CSS. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:55, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

I'm trying to do it for everyone. Cessaune [talk] 21:20, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Could be a template, but what's the purpose of underlining a link? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 21:39, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune:(edit conflict) try something like

[[Foo|<span style="text-decoration: underline dashed">Foobar</span>]]

Which renders as Foobar Victor Schmidt (talk) 21:45, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@Cessaune: Where and why do you want to do it? It doesn't sound like something we should do in an article. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:31, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

In short, on the Donald Trump page we once tested out section links. The looked like this^§. It was shot down. Now the idea's being reproposed. I definitely think that this looks better. Cessaune [talk] 04:34, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

I personally wouldn't recommend it for the reason PrimeHunter stated above. I fail to see why section links need to be differentiated, especially when other articles do it without any additional decoration. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:03, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Well, it's just a proposal. Cessaune [talk] 05:05, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Also, thank you guys for your help. Cessaune [talk] 15:36, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Is there a preference for broken links display?

Related to the earlier question, Help:Link#Changing_link_appearance says By changing the "Underline links" or "Format broken links like this" value on the Appearance tab of user preferences.. When I look at my preferences setting I do see the Underline links setting but I don't see the "Format broken links" setting. Does that option still exist? Is it only available in some skins? I am using that legacy Vector skin. RudolfRed (talk) 20:34, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

The preference was removed in 2012. I have removed the mention.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 23:54, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation and for fixing the help page. RudolfRed (talk) 00:04, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Babel templates for language proficiency

Hello there!

Please anyone can inform me where can I find templates to insert in my user page that specify the languages I spreak and the level of proficiency? I've tried to insert directly but coudn't find the correct names.

Thanks! CarlosFelix1 (talk) 20:50, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@CarlosFelix1: Hello! Here is from my user page: {{#babel:ru|en-3|tok-2|py-3|haskell-3|Lua-3|java-2}} Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 20:52, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

{{#babel:}} - it is container for userboxes related to languages. Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 20:56, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much, got it! Do you know if there is a Babel portal or community where I can find explanations about the various levels of proficiency (1 to 5)? CarlosFelix1 (talk) 21:09, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

@CarlosFelix1: Try Wikipedia:Babel. GoingBatty (talk) 22:12, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, that's what I needed. Have a good one! CarlosFelix1 (talk) 00:33, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Donate

PLEASE get this donate BS offline. I am sick and tired of seeing it. I donated $10 and am sick of looking at the donation crap. I've clicked the already donated button a hundred times! Turn this shit off or I'll never donate another fricken penny! 50.53.22.136 (talk) 23:31, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

Hello! I am just going to copy RudolfRed's answer: You can create an account and then hide the banners if you wish. Should you have any problems donating, or other questions, please email donate@wikimedia.org Deltaspace⁴² (talk • contribs) 23:34, 27 December 2023 (UTC)

As you use an IP, there is no way to know that the person on your device at any given moment has seen a donation request or donated. As noted, you can create an account and then hide the fundraising banners in the account preferences. 331dot (talk) 23:48, 27 December 2023 (UTC)