Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 January 16

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January 16

Non-English call signs for airlines

So for non-English speaking countries like PRC and Latin America region airlines have a non-English call sign to use for ATC comms, is it necessary to add those call signs to {{Infobox Airline}}? B-MIKE -(Talk) 02:07, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello, B-MIKE. The place to discuss this is Template talk:Infobox airline. (It's even possible that it's been discussed before, so have a look through the archive of that talk page). You could also drop a note on WT:WikiProject Aviation pointing to the discussion. ColinFine (talk) 15:16, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Cliff Thorburn

What is the difference between notes and references. Why Notes and notelist between {{}} don't appear for new article wizard? Both look same. Rambo XTerminator (talk) 07:49, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello, Rambo XTerminator. That particular article uses some unusual section headers. The section called "Notes" would usually be called "References", and the section called "References" would usually be called "Further reading". I suspect that the New article wizard uses the more common format. I do not know for sure, because I format all the articles that I write manually. Cullen328 (talk) 07:59, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

@Rambo XTerminator That's a featured article, which has gone through a lot of detailed discussion to reach its current state. The entries in the section called "Notes" are to explain some of the text but are not conventional citations. Most articles wouldn't have them but WP:EXPLNOTESECT is the guidance if they are used. The "References" section contains a set of general books that have been used as sources (some articles place this in a "Sources" section) followed by the standard citations brought together with the {{reflist}} template. I wouldn't expect editors using the new article wizard to be drafting such a complex article, which explains why all these features are not in the wizard. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:01, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Using MediaWiki buttons

I'm aware of {{Clickable button 2}} and similar templates, but based on mw:OOUI/Widgets/Inputs there should be a lot more variety of button styles available under "mw-ui-..." classes. Is there a listing of all available "mw-ui-..." classes that I can use in a page? CactiStaccingCrane 15:03, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Confusion in creating new categories - don't know how to get started

Hello there.

I'd be grateful for any help with creating a new category. I've tried reading the instructions carefully but I simply could not follow them - apologies.

I'd like to create a new category: "People educated at Scaitliffe School". This would be a sub-category of the already-existing "Category:People educated by school in Surrey"

Is there a complete Idiot's guide or video for this anywhere? The page on categorisation is not written for my lower skill level and I find it impossible to follow (no complaint intended!).

Thanks Oiona (talk) 17:24, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi, Oiona! Have you seen our Help pages Help:Categories and Help:Category? The task of creating a new category is not described very well, but I suppose you can find the main hint in the Help:Category#Category page definition section.

A simplest way to do so I learned is as follows (assuming you use a desktop view, not the mobile one, and you edit at the wikicode level, not in the visual editor):

1. Go to a page you want to categorize, for example James Reed (businessman).
2. Navigate to the bottom-most section of the page, James Reed (businessman)#External links, because the categories' links are placed at the end of the page.
3. Open the section for editing and navigate to its end.
4. Add a link to a new category [[Category:People educated at Scaitliffe School]].
5. Add an edit summary, say Adding a category, and save the page. Yes, save the page linked to a non-existing category.
   You may also want to remove the section indication from the summary (that is, the /* External links */ part) because your edit affects the article as a whole, not just that section.
6. Now click the red link People educated at Scaitliffe School among categories links at the bottom of the article, which leads to your new category page, and you'll find yourself editing the new category page.
7. Add some short description of the category meaning (if necessary), and link it to the appropriate super-category by adding [[Category:People educated by school in Surrey]] at its bottom.
8. Then save.
9. Done!

CiaPan (talk) 17:47, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

This entire process can be done much more simply using WP:HOTCAT. It's a great tool. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:22, 16 January 2023 (UTC)

I cannot thank you enough! I didn't mean to criticise the existing instructions, but I really could not follow them - whereas yours were perfect! Maybe it's best if categories are not too easy to create! Oiona (talk) 16:30, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

As a side note, they should all be renamed Alumni of school x. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:13, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Clarityfiend, I think that People educated at x School is used because of MOS:ENGVAR. TSventon (talk) 10:24, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Are you sure? I don't see what ENGVAR has to do with it. The majority of entries in Category:Alumni by secondary school use "alumni", though a strong minority do use "people educated". Clarityfiend (talk) 20:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Quite a lot to do with it: Scaitcliffe School is in Surrey, the category for which is Category:People educated by school in Surrey, a subcategory of Category:People educated by school in England, itself a subcategory of Category:People educated by school in the United Kingdom.

Incidentally, @Oiona, the school's article is at Scaitcliffe, with two "c"s confirmed by its references. Bazza (talk) 21:01, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Nominated for speedy renaming here. TSventon (talk) 23:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Oh my! Thanks very much - will have a look and see if I wreaked any other havoc. Oiona (talk) 07:54, 18 January 2023 (UTC)

Oiona, Fortunately the instructions at WP:CFDS are fairly straightforward and include a criterion for requests for changes by the author of a category. TSventon (talk) 09:42, 18 January 2023 (UTC)