Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 January 23

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January 23

New look - random articles

What happened to the random article button that was on the Main Page. While I generally turn to Wikipedia for answers to questions or to learn about a specific topic, sometimes I just clicked on the random article button to see what I might stumble upon. I don't see it on the new main page. I hope I am just overlooking it. 2601:18C:C901:8090:BDEA:3C3A:836D:735C (talk) 00:37, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi there! See the #Random article section above. To provide feedback on the new look, you may do so at Wikipedia talk:Vector 2022 GoingBatty (talk) 01:11, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

May I add a page for my self or someone else?

Hello

May I add a page for my self or someone else?

Name, Career, etc?

Thank you

Dora Dtarver13 (talk) 01:52, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Dtarver13: Only if the person is notable by our definition: see WP:N. Notability is a high bar and most people are not notable. Do not proceed until you are sure your subject is notable. This is the only absolute requirement. After that we get into details: see WP:COI, WP:PAID, and WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY. IF you are still with us after all that, proceed to WP:YFA. -Arch dude (talk) 02:14, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Regarding editing of pages

I have seen that you guys have blocked editing of pages of mohammad and his wife aisha ,so no one can edit it But when I visited page of lord ganesha it is open for everyone so, like everyone who might even not know him can edit page and add nonsense about him I request you to lock the page of all the gods of all religion — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:204:A020:65B1:0:0:1010:80A4 (talk) 04:51, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Mohammad can be edited by registered users with at least 30 days tenure and at least 500 edits. This locking generally reflects the level of vandalism of the page. Lord Ganesha (I presume) has had less vandalism. (And please don't try to vandalize just to get it locked).Naraht (talk) 06:39, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

...and due to that, the protection settings are not consistent (nor do they need to be). For instance Vishnu is semi-protected (can be edited by users with at least 4 days and 10 edits), but the articles about most other Hindu deities are not.

It would be hard to achieve consistency across religions anyway. Do we protect Apollo, a major god from a (mostly) extinct religion? If yes, do we protect all of the (numerous) minor river deities from the same religion? Are we going to protect pasta, held sacred by pastafarism; or are we going to try and decide which religions are serious and which are not? Tigraan^{Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)} 10:42, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

We apply protection of various levels to Wikipedia articles about religious figures based entirely on the frequency and severity of the disruption of those articles. For reasons mostly related to off-Wikipedia complaining, disruption often happens. Good faith concerns will usually be responded to in good faith. Whitewashing and axe grinding may receive a less friendly response. Cullen328 (talk) 07:49, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

We protect articles that are being frequently disrupted, regardless of the subject. Some such articles are about religious figures. Articles that are not being disrupted a lot do not need protection. Protection is to assure efficient use of editors' time and effort and has nothing to do with the content of the article. We make no distinction based on article subject. Protection is article-by-article, not by class of article, so treatment of one religious figure as no bearing on treatment of a different religious figure. -Arch dude (talk) 14:04, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Saving after sorting table.

Let's say that an article has a sorttable table. I want to edit the article so that the table is default sorted by a specific field. If it were a table without refs or links, I could copy the table into excel, sort it, use one of the tools that generates the wikitable from excel and paste into the article. But there *has* to be a better way. Naraht (talk) 06:43, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

I once used regex to add <nowiki>...</nowiki> around the wikitext of each cell, copied the table to Excel in the source order, did an operation in Excel (it was transposing but some forms of sorting should work), and copied the table back. It was a hassle to get the details right but I don't know a better solution. PrimeHunter (talk) 07:32, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Naraht Presumably the table already has a default sort column. Do you want to change that? Would this change be controversial, meaning, do you think you should discuss the change on the Talk page first? Just checking. David10244 (talk) 11:50, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

David10244 this would be part of redoing a table to match column and row order to match other entries in the Wikiproject. Changing Column order is pretty easy with the Visual editor, rearranging all of the entries to match a different sort criteria is more difficult. If that can be handled by simplying adding an entry to the top of a sortable table, that would be great.Naraht (talk) 14:26, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

@Naraht OK, that makes sense. David10244 (talk) 05:13, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Promotional article

Hi, I have been working on a terribly promotional article on the German WP, and I found that it was an direct translation from the corresponding article on the English WP. There is a cautious hint on a possible conflict of interest on the talk page of the article, but there is no tag or anything in the article itself to mark it as lacking in neutrality. None of the single purpose users who wrote this article have disclosed paid contribution.

Sentences like "Petric’s prolific contributions include decades of influential recordings", "Petric’s staunchly individualistic interpretations are remarkable for their haunting quality" or "Petric’s approach creates a unique sound that has subtle colouristic and expressive devices..." are, IMO, intolerable in an encyclopedia. In addition, major parts of the article are based only on the claims of his own website or his own publications.

Now I don't want to go about making major changes in a Wikipedia I am not at home in, so I thought I'd rather point this article out to you to handle it as you deem appropriate. Thanks, --87.150.10.172 (talk) 11:57, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Without commenting on any promotional content, I noticed that the most recent batch of edits included quite a number of misplaced external links, so I have reverted those edits and warned the editor. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:26, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

From a quick look, the article certainly looks problematic, for multiple reasons: not just in the unencyclopedic language used (some of which has been reverted, thought not all), but in the sourcing. And much of it seems to be the work of single-purpose accounts, making a CoI seem likely. I'll place templates noting this in the article, and look into it further. AndyTheGrump (talk) 12:34, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! --87.150.10.172 (talk) 16:02, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

How to report a school IP with recent uptick in vandalism?

I've ID'd a school IP with a long-term history of vandalism - it's about 99% vandalism edits over many years. I'm not asking for it to be blocked for a long time, but with an uptick in vandalism today, I thought a 24-hour or 36-hour block might dissuade vandals. Where would I report/ask for this? Wes sideman (talk) 17:19, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Wes sideman Hi there! See Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 17:38, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

thanks @GoingBatty: that's a useful link. Do you know if there's a way to do that report through Twinkle? Wes sideman (talk) 17:49, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Wes sideman Yes - from User talk:98.164.58.252, choose "ARV" from the Twinkle menu. See Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc#ARV for more info. GoingBatty (talk) 18:01, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Inserting note reference mark-up

Hi. I have a block of 22 images, each requiring a lot of text. I would like to put a -Note- reference beneath each image. So that a viewer can mouse-over the -Note- which will reveal the hidden text. It is not necessary that the -Note- information (22 x texts) is repeated elsewhere in the article. Can you tell me the Mark-up code, &/or direct me to the edit help section, for the best method of achieving my objective. Thanks for your help. Steve. Stephen2nd (talk) 18:01, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Stephen2nd Hi there! Are you referring to the Third Reich NSDAP cabinet 1925 article? If so, it appears that the deletion discussion would be a higher priority. GoingBatty (talk) 18:05, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

According to the 2nd template; "Feel free to improve the article". This is the higher priority to me. In the past 5 days I have made 10 such improvement edits of apx 5000 bytes. My intention is to clarify the article in reference to the deletion discussion. When I have completed my final draft, I will deal with (delete-keep) references to the final draft, (not in reference to the original draft), in the deletion discussion, and "This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany", discussion, "This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics", discussion, in the articles Talk page, and my User Talk Page.

With one exception in the 1 editing of my catagories list, I have received no constructive help or suggestions from anyone on Wikipedia. Now including its "Help Desk". Stephen2nd (talk) 18:40, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Stephen2nd Don't assume everyone can "mouse-over". Hiding content is not recommended. See MOS:DONTHIDE. Bazza (talk) 18:34, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

There are 4 sections of this article. 1. Opening text describing the theme of the article in direct reference to 22 numbers. 2. A block of the 22 numbers, containing the published references by 22 authors who published the 22 numbers, with names allotted to each number. 3. A block of the 22 names (linked to their individual articles), with images. / 4. The 22 section headings containing, my clip notes from the 22 articles of these names.

Of these 4 sections, section 4 is already accessible in section 3, and therefore redundant. If I leave section 4 in the article, the clip notes may be expanded to the length of 22 articles!

It is my intention to put these clip notes into section 2, for quick, basic references on 22 known individuals, using section 2 for access to fuller details.

Section 4, will be used for two (relevant to section 1) section headings. Reichskanzler' and Bundesrat. Stephen2nd (talk) 19:14, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@Stephen2nd Bazza is right. My 10" tablet doesn't have a mouse. David10244 (talk) 11:53, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

@Stephen2nd: Per accessibility reasons given by Bazza 7, it's best to not rely on hidden text to convey information. If it's a major grouping like that I think an argument could be made to put a notes list at the end of the section containing the (gallery?) of images, but you're going to want to throw that idea out on the article's talk page first. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 19:01, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

updated a page, but unable to provide footnote

solar power in Michigan - distributed generation - footnote #59:

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/01/consumers-energy-okd-to-raise-electric-rates-must-double-rooftop-solar.html 2806:10AE:7:C8E2:7504:B5BD:A184:CE9F (talk) 18:35, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi there! The reference you added to Solar power in Michigan was very close. In the {{cite web}} template, the URL should be put in the |url= parameter, which I have fixed for you. For more information, see the instructions at Template:Cite web. Thanks, and happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 03:56, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Notable

Hello, this is article not notable: Draft:Arsen Sukhovsky, isn't good sources. I want to delete it, I hope you help me, thank you. СтасС (talk) 20:15, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@СтасС: As it seems like you're the primary editor, you could request a G7 deletion by putting {{db-g7}} at the top of the page. Otherwise you can leave it alone and it will be deleted after six months of inactivity. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:19, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you, English Wikipedia administrator.--СтасС (talk) 20:17, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

You're welcome, but I'm not an administrator. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:33, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Saving draft paper

Is "publish page" the only way to save a page in draft form? DodgeCityStephens (talk) 20:30, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

@DodgeCityStephens: Yes. It's worded that way to reinforce the notion that almost all of Wikipedia (which includes draftspace) is visible to the public. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:37, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Though Drafts are not indexed by web crawlers, and the only way to find one would be to search Wikipedia for "Draft:X" or through the drafter's various pages, so others will likely only find and look at them if the drafter invites them to. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.212.198 (talk) 08:27, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

No, there is an easy way to find drafts. Put the possible title/phrase in the search box and make sure that "search in" includes drafts. The easy way is to set "search in" to "all", which will find every mention across Wikipedia, including sandboxes, user pages, user sub-pages and other places that some people start articles. - Arjayay (talk) 10:39, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Help with my account

Sorry, I do not know if this is the right place, but perhaps it is a start. I cannot log into my account. I know I have one. I cannot recall the password, unfortunately. I am (Redacted) Thank you. 50.68.169.210 (talk) 22:23, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

If you remember the email address that your account is linked to, you can click on this link to receive an email with a temporary password. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:32, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

Am unable to log in also. Wiki site did not sens a page to change password. R 131.191.90.107 (talk) 19:01, 26 January 2023 (UTC)