Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 October 11

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October 11

Conflict of Interest

Hello! I am aware that if I choose to write about a topic I am affiliated with, I have to declare a conflict of interest. However, I have no idea how to do that or where it should be posted. Could I have some help? Thanks! -Erin (PhoenixCaelestis) (talk) 00:10, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

@PhoenixCaelestis, WP:COI has info about conflicts of interest, and the "how to disclose" section addresses your question. FactOrOpinion (talk) 00:28, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! -Erin (PhoenixCaelestis) (talk) 00:46, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Is there a consensus on how to format possessive links?

Is it preferred to format possessive links like The [[King]]'s or The [[King's]]?

I've read through the MOS, the full linking page, and several help pages. None of them seem to mention the format, and I've definitely seen both used on major pages.

Stormdew (talk) 00:36, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Definitely use The [[King]]'s – not for style reasons, but for technical reasons. The first one links to the article titled King, and the second to King's. As it happens, King's is a redirect to the disambiguation page Kings, but in general it won't exist; e.g., Wikipedian and Wikipedian's. jlwoodwa (talk) 02:26, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

I meant to pipe that example—oops. :/ Stormdew (talk) 21:49, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Another possibility is The [[King|King's]], linking to "King" but link-coloring "King's". But I'd almost always prefer The [[King]]'s. Maproom (talk) 06:41, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

@Stormdew There is discussion of this at Help:Link. One consideration (mentioned on that page) is that [[Batman]]'s renders as Batman's, where the apostrophe s isn't in blue. Piping is needed if you want Batman's and you do have to beware that without the pipe the target page may not be what you want, as in the King example. Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:21, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you @Michael D. Turnbull (and everyone else.)

Stormdew (talk) 21:51, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Middleton family

Please check ref number 137 - it is in red. 115.70.23.77 (talk) 01:46, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Fixed. The access date was wrong (20024 instead of 2024). FactOrOpinion (talk) 01:57, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

IP, why are you unable to correct these obvious glaring errors on your own? This five digit year error has been explained to you repeatedly. It is OK to ask for help once or twice, but this is far beyond that. Stop wasting the previous time of volunteers like FactOrOpinion. You are now trolling. Cullen328 (talk) 08:55, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

See "Steve Price (broadcaster)", above. Actually, don't just see it; instead, read it, think about it, and perhaps even comment here on the matter. -- Hoary (talk) 09:04, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Do we have a competence issue here? Mjroots (talk) 17:19, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Mjroots, skills, or anyway predilections, include the shovelling in of great volumes of trivia. The body text of this article delivers such nuggets as:

• David Middleton "attended the wedding" of "his second cousin, once removed"
• Peter Middleton "met his granddaughter's fiancé", who (later, of course) "attended his funeral"
• Olive Middleton "attended society balls" at the home of a "daughter of her second cousin"
• The service at the funeral" of J.W. Middleton "was read by the [...] vicar of St Chad's Church where his son Arthur Middleton had been a regular attender and had his own funeral service in 1907"

For mysterious persons of considerable public interest (such as Shakespeare or Pynchon), yes. But here this looks to me like mere barrel-scraping for something to say. -- Hoary (talk) 23:41, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

@Mjroots: You should definitely search up Lupton family, Martineau family, and Middleton family in the help desk archives and see how long this has been going on. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 01:33, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

It's been going on for about as long as I've been editing (at least 2016). * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 01:34, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

At least 2015 (example). -- Hoary (talk) 04:24, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

She mostly used her account then She still occasionally uses it. Editing logged out by editors who have accounts is discouraged, but there is no evasion involved, because some of us know that she is the same user and makes the same mistakes. Robert McClenon (talk) 05:54, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

Unable To Download Wikipedia Pages As PDF

This is the error message:

   "name": "HTTPError",
   "message": "500",
   "status": 500,
   "detail": "Internal Server Error"

Please Help.  Excisive (talk) 05:30, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T376438

I got one too. Looks like this has been happening (inconsistently) for about a week. ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · contribs · email) 07:03, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Where to discuss category loop

I noticed a category loop. Specifically, Category:Primatology ⊂ Category:Biological anthropology ⊂ Category:Human biology ⊂ Category:Humans ⊂ Category:Hominina ⊂ Category:Hominini ⊂ Category:Homininae ⊂ Category:Hominidae ⊂ Category:Apes ⊂ Category:Primate taxonomy ⊂ Category:Primate taxa ⊂ Category:Primates ⊂ Category:Primatology ⊂ Category:Biological anthropology ⊂…, which has length twelve. (There are also overlapping loops, such as one using Category:Biological anthropology ⊂ Category:Anthropology ⊂ Category:Humans instead of Category:Biological anthropology ⊂ Category:Human biology ⊂ Category:Humans.) Because I recall that category loops are discouraged, I figured that I would bring it up in an appropriate talk page in order to create a discussion about how to fix it. (I personally favor changing Category:Primate taxonomy ⊂ Category:Primate taxa to Category:Primate taxonomy ⊃ Category:Primate taxa, but I can see other users preferring alternatives.) My first idea was Portal talk:Biology, but I got a message saying that I shouldn't post there because pages in the Portal talk namespace are not watched by many people. Where would be an appropriate place to discuss how to fix this category loop? Care to differ or discuss with me? The N^th User 07:31, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

The_Nth_User, perhaps Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Categories. -- Hoary (talk) 09:07, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

See also User:SDZeroBot/Category cycles, though it wasn't updated in a while. You can ask the bot's operator for a refresh. —⁠andrybak (talk) 09:37, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Multiple references to the same source, differing in the inclusion of quotes

I sometimes have, within the same article, multiple references to the same source, differing in the inclusion of quotes. Is there a way to do this without repeating the complete reference? I recall a recent notification about a new referencing tool, designed to support multiple references to the same source, with variations. I can't remember what differences it's designed to support - it may be just differing page numbers. Is that tool ready for use? Is there some other way to do what I need? Thanks! Misha Wolf (talk) 11:26, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Probably the easiest way to do this would be with {{sfn}}. The "Possible issues " section in the docs cover a way to add quotes. Alpha3031 (t • c) 13:08, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Misha Wolf (talk) 21:57, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

What is the best way to handle a major restructuring of an article?

I'm planning to restructure an article. This will involve multiple editing steps, during which the article will be a mess. What is the best way to do this? Should I copy the article to Draft space, do the restructuring, then select the text of the Draft, copy it, and paste it into the live article, replacing the existing text? A disadvantage of that approach is that the individual editing steps would not be visible in the article's history. Is there a better way? Thanks! Misha Wolf (talk) 11:32, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

You can use {{In use}} for big editing sessions and {{Under construction}} in between sessions, but don't worry too much about article history if you're the only one making the edits. Having a few big edits in the article history has advantages as well as disadvantages, Misha Wolf, so break up the edits in a way that makes sense to you, whether that's several smaller edits or fewer bigger ones. Alpha3031 (t • c) 13:05, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Misha Wolf (talk) 21:55, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

linking to a specific part of another article

How do I write a link to a specific part of another article (an item in a list of historic places)? Thanks Pbergerd (talk) 14:04, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Pbergerd. Does WP:ANCHOR answer your question? Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:34, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

it's a start. thanks Pbergerd (talk) 16:22, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

archive.org

archive.org is now inaccessible, taken offline following DDOS attack. Their estimated timeline currently "days, not weeks", but time will tell. I assume that this is not connected to the existential threat to AI from ongoing copyright litigation from the publishing and music industries.

Which other organisations are preferred for new or replacement citation archiving? - Davidships (talk) 20:03, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

You could try archive.today if you're just archiving web pages. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:03, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, archive.today is good and usually fairly fast. Cremastra (talk) 16:08, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

There is also ghostarchive.org as an alternative. – robertsky (talk) 02:48, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks all, that's helpful. - Davidships (talk) 15:38, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Facebook

Haked my Facebook account.. Ad fake email address .. but have a my Facebook account phone number! Plz help me? because this account have a my important documents and chats and photos. 103.111.14.1 (talk) 21:37, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

IP editor. This is the Help Desk for Wikipedia and we can't assist with Facebook, so you will have to contact them. Mike Turnbull (talk) 21:43, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Sidebar edit help

This sidebar with collapsible list si:සැකිල්ල:Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar is too wide. can anyone help with it to make it a bit slimmer like in the template:Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar. VihirLak007 (talk) 21:51, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

VihirLak007, why not ask at si:විකිපීඩියා:උදවු කවුළුව? -- Hoary (talk) 22:13, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

@VihirLak007: It's the normal width for sidebars in the wiki but you can make it like {{Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar}} with | style = width:22em. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:32, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much! VihirLak007 (talk) 22:37, 11 October 2024 (UTC)