Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 December 5

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December 5

Cant finish CAPTCHA

no matter how many times I do the CAPTCHA I can't submit an edit Ohiorizzgyat (talk) 01:46, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

How to edit Ohiorizzgyat (talk) 01:49, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Hello, Ohiorizzgyat. Please read Help:Editing. Cullen328 (talk) 02:11, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

A common mistake when answering a CAPTCHA challenge is to type your answer into the box and then click the little "Refresh" symbol immediately to the right of it. This is wrong!

When you have entered your CAPTCHA answer, scroll down to the "Publish" (equivalent to 'save') button and click that.

The "Refresh" button is used to request a different CAPTCHA target word if you couldn't read the first one. You can click it all day and it will keep giving you new target words without Publishing/Saving your edit.

If this is not what your problem is, come back here and explain in more detail exactly what you are doing and what results you see. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 51.194.245.32 (talk) 16:04, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Posting pictures of book first edition covers.

Hello wikipedia I personally am not that profitant at editing , spelling or Grammer. I dont want to change your articels per say. I am a fine artist. Sincerely,

Linda k Eckhoff 2601:285:4180:70C0:F956:9F:E346:776E (talk) 02:46, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Are you suggesting the upload of an actual (not imagined or proposed) book cover that you have created, for which you possess the copyright, and of a book about which Wikipedia has an article? If so, create a user ID, log in under that user ID, and upload the image to Wikimedia Commons, being sure to answer all the questions conscientiously and accurately. If you're proposing (or asking) something else, what is it? -- Hoary (talk) 03:11, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Or, upload the files as non-free files to only be used in the infobox of the articles about the books using Wikipedia:File Upload Wizard. GoingBatty (talk) 04:24, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Two (small) doubts

Two questions: is it correct to insert the template circa also the date of birth and death? Tristano Martinelli; how do I correctly format the part in brackets in the first line of the Mezzetino page (where it says "pron.")? Mezzetino. JackkBrown (talk) 08:27, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown:

1. For two approximate dates, it's simply {{circa|1556|1630}} giving c. 1556 – c. 1630. But in this case, where only one date is approximate, use {{nowrap|{{circa|1556}} –}} 1630 giving c. 1556 – 1630, which I have already done in the article. See MOS:DATERANGE and {{circa}} for full details.
2. ({{respell|met|zeh|TEE|no}}) giving (met-zeh-TEE-no), also updated in the article. No "pron." is required. See MOS:LEADPRON and {{Respell}}. Bazza (talk) 10:37, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Zanni

"Zanni" is a characterisation, not an actual character (it's a role), like "Innamorati" and "Vecchio". What I wonder is why it's written in capitals and not in italics; honestly, I don't understand why (there is no one on the discussion page, I don't ask there). JackkBrown (talk) 10:17, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: The character type is named after a hypothetical person called Zanni, an actual Italian name, so it kept the upper case of a personal name like a Mary Sue character. If English source usually use upper case then we shouldn't change it. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:46, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: perfect! I just needed an explanation. So I was right to remove the italics and lowercase initial letter from "Zanni" in many other articles. JackkBrown (talk) 11:55, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

@JackkBrown: You can't tell if "there is no one on the discussion page" if you don't start a discussion. GoingBatty (talk) 18:50, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Donating

I used to be able to donate using my Amazon account so that I did not need to publicize my card info. I would like to do that again. Please make that option available on your donation page.```` 50.37.159.189 (talk) 14:46, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

We editors have nothing to do with collecting donations or what methods donations may be made through- please communicate your concerns to donate@wikimedia.org. 331dot (talk) 14:48, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Hi, I don't think this is the place for that request. Changing the donation page is not something regular editors or even administrators can do. I don't know where this belongs but definitely not here. Best regards, TypoEater (talk) 14:51, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Donations

I already donate £25 to your organisation every month so I do not wish to donate any more and I would ask you to stop disrupting my use of Wilki with your requests for donations - if you can - thanks 2A00:23C4:141B:1601:D00F:9C00:41D6:5198 (talk) 18:50, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Welcome and thank you for your question about donations! To hide the fundraising banners, you can create an account and uncheck Preferences → Banners → Fundraising. The Wikimedia Foundation does not track the identity of IP addresses, so it doesn't know your age, income level or whether you donated in the past.
None of the Wikipedia volunteer editors here who add and improve content in articles receive any financial benefit. We all simply contribute our time because we care about building a great encyclopedia for you and innumerable others around the world to use.
If you cannot afford it, no one wants you to donate. Wikipedia is not at risk of shutting down, and the Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the Wikipedia platform and is asking for these donations, is richer than ever.
You are welcome to communicate directly with the donor-relations team by emailing donate@wikimedia.org. Thank you! 57.140.16.39 (talk) 18:53, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

userpage on another Wikipedia in a language I don't speak

I recently received an email welcoming me to "the Egyptian Wikipedia". I see that there's also a welcome message on "my" corresponding user talk page ( https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DavidCary ). I find this odd, because (a) I haven't ever edited the Egyptian Wikipedia (see https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/DavidCary ), and I don't recall ever even visiting the Egyptian Wikipedia, and (b) (alas) I currently cannot understand Egyptian Arabic or any other dialect of Arabic, so it's unlikely that I will read any articles on that Wikipedia, much less edit them.

While I wish the editors of the Egyptian Wikipedia well, and I find my heart warmed by their welcome, I feel that perhaps there's a misunderstanding. Is there anything I should/could do to correct that misunderstanding? (Is there a better place to discuss such cross-language Wikipedia events?) --DavidCary (talk) 23:48, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

@DavidCary: In 2013 you made an edit [1] to Template:Not a typo/doc. The template was imported with page history to arzwiki 3 December 2023.[2] This caused your arz account to automatically be created the same minute with a log falsely listing you as the performer.[3] User:HitomiAkane saw the new account and posted a welcome message. So in summary, you were welcomed in a language you don't know at a wiki you had never visited because you made an edit to the English Wikipedia ten years ago. Special:SiteMatrix lists around 1000 wikis where your global account works and a local account might be created at any time without your knowledge. We get many posts about unexpected welcome messages at foreign wikis. I have a proposal at meta:Welcoming policy: "A wiki is only allowed to post welcome messages to users if their account was originally created at the wiki, or the user has at least one non-imported edit there." It hasn't received any attention. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:13, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

@DavidCary,@PrimeHunter, Egyptian Wikipedia visitors get confused and think it is Arabic Wikipedia, and they edit and sometimes change the texts from the Egyptian language to Arabic. Therefore, we try to alert new visitors to this point in the welcome message so that we maintain the page log. The welcome message also states in the English section that it is just a courtesy if the user does not want to participate. Finally, accept my apologies if this causes any confusion. HitomiAkane (talk) 02:35, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

@HitomiAkane: I'm considering a proposal that user creation logs like [4] should reveal if the account was created due to interwiki import for a user who has never visited the wiki. Would you omit welcome messages if it was easy to see that the user is actually not a visitor? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:23, 6 December 2023 (UTC)