Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 February 4

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February 4

How to remove suggested edit summary in the visual editor

I frequently use the edit summary "removed unnecessary comma." However, today, I accidently hit backspace and entered "removed unnecessary comm" instead. Now, every time I edit a page with the visual editor in the future, that spelling is going to show up above the correct one in the list of suggestions. Is there any way to remove it from the list so I can easily use my desired edit summary again? LitanyOfBoredom (talk) 05:49, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

That information is stored in your Wikipedia cookies, so just edit or delete those. (How to do that depends on your browser.) It's good practice to delete all your cookies from time to time. You'll simply need to log in to your favourite websites again. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:15, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

@LitanyOfBoredom: It's not a Wikipedia cookie but a standard autocomplete feature for form data in your browser. I don't know whether any browser has an interface option to remove individual suggestions from a site without removing all of them. You can try asking at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. Give your browser with version number and your operating system. The data is stored in a file on your device so maybe it can be edited manually. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:49, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: not necessarily. there is an edit summary autocomplete for the 2017 editor. ltbdl (talk) 11:04, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Login

Ive lost my password and my email address i used to create my account in 2006 has long been changed. What can i do ? 58.179.71.41 (talk) 10:42, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

See H:RP, but without a current email address this doesn't look hopeful.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 10:47, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

There's nothing you can do; your account is lost. 20 upper (talk) 14:27, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

20 upper is right, but hasn't given you helpful information. You'll need to create a new account, but you may edit the User pages of both the new account and the old one to explain that they're used by the same person, with the old one being inaccessible. ColinFine (talk) 15:47, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Edit Protect a wikipedia page

How do I protect a important person's page from getting edited by anyone? Bisharakhuri1 (talk) 16:47, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

You don't. Articles are not protected merely to keep people from editing them. They are only protected for specific reasons, like preventing extensive vandalism or ending disruption. If an article is being extensively vandalized, protection may be requested at WP:RFPP.

I'm wondering if you represent this important person? 331dot (talk) 16:52, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

That article really needs some good editing. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:04, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Please note that Wikipedia has little interest in what the subject of an article says or wants to say about themselves, or what their associates say about them. Wikipedia is almost entirely interested in what people who have no connection with the subject, and who have not been prompted or fed information on behalf of the subject, have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable sources. If enough material is cited from independent sources to establish notability, a limited amount of uncontroversial factual information may be added from non-independent sources. ColinFine (talk) 19:35, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Citing a news article

Hello, Wikipedians! I would like to know how/if there is a way to cite a news article in a Wikipedia article. 8UB3RG1N3 (talk) 17:54, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Ah- sorry! I figured it out, please disregard the previous message~ 8UB3RG1N3 (talk) 17:58, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

@8UB3RG1N3 Yes, see WP:TUTORIAL. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:59, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Assistance needed explaining COI policies

If someone could help explain things here, I would greatly appreciate it. 🌺 Cremastra (talk) 19:49, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

@Cremastra: Others are already responding there, but you should not tell people "Under our conflict-of-interest policies, you shouldn't be editing articles about yourself." That is not what our policy says. Note that it includes "However, our policy on matters relating to living people allows very obvious errors to be fixed quickly, including by the subject." Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:27, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Ben Gurion Canal Project

Ben Gurion Canal Project

This page was deleted on Christmas Day. Can I please ask why the page is down and if it will be re instated? Lordhurst (talk) 22:09, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

@Lordhurst: The discussion which led to its deletion can be found at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ben Gurion Canal Project. Pages deleted via a discussion at Articles for Deletion may not be recreated in a similar form to their version prior to deletion, so simply reinstating the page is not possible, but based on the discussion it appears you may be able to contact the deleting administrator if you'd like to work on merging some of its content to List of interoceanic canals. Tollens (talk) 22:16, 4 February 2024 (UTC)