Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 October 15

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October 15

English Grammar

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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Using a plural pronoun to refer to a singular person, is this to be politically correct or to anger people who use English as it is meant to be written? KevBuju (talk) 22:22, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

There's not a man I meet but doth salute me

As if I were their well-acquainted friend

William Shakespeare: A Comedy of Errors

I would have everybody marry if they could do it properly.

Jane Austin: Mansfield Park

So likewise shall my heauenly Father doe also vnto you, if yee from your hearts forgiue not euery one his brother their trespasses.'

Matt. 18:35, King James Bible, 1611.

AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:26, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

So if I refer to "your" question instead of "thy" question, it will make thee angry? I think thou needest move with the times. Maproom (talk) 22:45, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

...or at least, keep up with Geoffrey Chaucer: And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, / They wol come up... The singular 'they' has been about for a very long time indeed. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:58, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

KevBuju, I use my cafetière as Bodum meant it to be used, I wear my shoes as Adidas meant them to be worn. Who or what is the entity that meant English to be written in such-and-such a way? -- Hoary (talk) 04:46, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

This appears to be a rant about English, rather than a question about using Wikipedia.

In any case, this is discussed at length in our article singular they. ColinFine (talk) 09:19, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Mina Kolb - Actress.

Looking for any information on actress, Mina Kolb. There is nothing on Wikipedia about her. Can someone who knows her or knows of her please add info. Is she still alive? If not, when did she pass? I find no information online anywhere about her passing? Oshinsd (talk) 00:00, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not obligated to have an article for every somewhat famous person. Even if there is a Wikipedia article about her, it can only get its information from reliable published sources rather than people who personally knows this person. You should direct your search efforts elsewhere. Tutwakhamoe (talk) 02:46, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

When archive.org recovers from vandalism, perhaps you, Oshinsd, will be able to find something about her in a book, magazine or something that's available there. -- Hoary (talk) 04:36, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

@Oshinsd: Try asking at WP:Reference_desk/Humanities (this page is for questions about editing or using Wikipedia). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:45, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Where to report vandalism

Vandal user: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/192.92.207.50

Not sure where to report said user to prevent them from causing more damange Alexllte (talk) 04:37, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

WP:ANV. To request protection for a page see WP:RFPP. Alexeyevitch^(talk) 04:41, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

done on ANV and RFPP, thank you for these references Alexllte (talk) 05:21, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Alexllte, yes, WP:ANV is the right place. But thank you for bringing it up here, and don't bother doing so there, as I've already blocked the IP. -- Hoary (talk) 04:56, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Source mode

Hi! I recently attempted to create an article, but accidentally overwrote a disambiguation page, which was understandably and fairly removed. Now, as I try to contribute by creating the article in the correct space, I see that all my sources have disappeared with a message saying, "The reference is defined in a template or other generated block, and for now can only be previewed in source mode." Is there a way to "reactivate" all the sources, or will I have to manually reinsert them?

Thank you in advance. Sincerely Testernnmann (talk) 08:25, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Testernnmann, try switching from visual editing to wikitext editing (this is also sometimes called "source mode"). There is a toggle in the upper right of the editing interface.

Someone once asked me on a talkpage why I had removed several of their sources, when in fact I had just placed them into a {{multiref2}}. I guess this explains what they were talking about. Folly Mox (talk) 08:42, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the quick response! Just to clarify, does this mean the references will become visible again once I publish the page, or do I need to take specific action in "source mode" to make them appear? Testernnmann (talk) 08:46, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Oh, I see, you're currently in the visual editor and haven't published the edits yet. I was looking through your contributions to see if I could tell what was going on.

I think your references should become visible when you publish your edits. Apologies for my doubts below about the sourcing. Folly Mox (talk) 08:53, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

I gotta say though, if the sources here are the same ones you're planning to use, your time might be better spent finding new ones. A lot of these are not independent of the subject, press releases, something titled "Find a broker"? Folly Mox (talk) 08:46, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Recovering a (potentially) deleted page

I'm doing a research project on the Oxford University Poetry Society and have heard from previous members that there once existed a Wikipedia page for the society -- could I please receive help checking whether it ever existed? If so, how could I go about getting it restored or at least reading its contents? 192.76.8.83 (talk) 10:29, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

It was deleted via Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Oxford University Poetry Society. 331dot (talk) 10:32, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

331dot has pointed you to the Deletion discussion. It is possible to ask for a deleted article to be restored for you to work on (see WP:REFUND) but unless you can address the issues mentioned, this would be a waste of everybody's time.

In order for there to be an article, you would need to find at least three sources that meet all three of the criteria in golden rule: reliably published, wholly independent of the society, and containing significant coverage of the society. This would be unusual for a university society. ColinFine (talk) 13:28, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Refunding a specific deletion

Please see User talk:Maile66#Batman and Robin (disambiguation). Not sure how to "refund" a deleted page directly to a user page. Please advise. — Maile (talk) 12:23, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

See WP:REFUND. ColinFine (talk) 13:29, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

I don't think that answers Maile's question. I also don't know if there's a way to refund directly, but I went ahead and did it by refunding in place and then moving. Incidentally, I'm not sure that the dab page should have been deleted, and I've commented at the userspace draft's talk page. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 13:37, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Wiki bots

If i need the user:DatBot on the si:wikipediia.org, how to get that? no idea about wikipedia bots but need a bot to get backlogs on the sinhala wekipedia project. any experts who can help? VihirLak007 (talk) 12:39, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

I have no idea about the portability of bots to another Wikipedia. I suggest asking first at User talk:DatBot, or perhaps at WP:VPT. ColinFine (talk) 13:30, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks ill check VihirLak007 (talk) 13:47, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

@VihirLak007: At the top of the page you linked to is a notice saying "This user account is a bot operated by DatGuy (talk). " click on thE "talk" link and leave a messqge there. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:38, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Tysm ill check VihirLak007 (talk) 13:48, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Category:Articles on pre-1900 earthquakes

Why doesn't Category:Articles on pre-1900 earthquakes include all such articles? Batrachoseps (talk) 14:23, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Please see the notice at the top of the category, which says

"This is a tracking category.

It is used to build and maintain a list or lists of pages—primarily for the sake of the lists themselves and their use in article and category maintenance. It is not part of the encyclopedia's categorization scheme.

.

I don't fully understand its purpose, but it's clear that it is not necessarily supposed to contain all articles that meet the description. ColinFine (talk) 14:38, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

It needs to explain its purpose. For example, does the category mean that something in the article needs to be fixed? Batrachoseps (talk) 14:39, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

@Batrachoseps My interpretation is that Wikidata characterises AD 17 Lydia earthquake as an earthquake but the article doesn't (yet) have the template {{Infobox earthquake}}. So in that sense, if you were to "fix" the article by adding that template the article link would disappear from the category. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:06, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

@Batrachoseps: It's listed as a tracking category which indicates it's supposed to be added automatically, usually by a template. The category creator posted at Talk:List of historical earthquakes#Proposal to redefine as "before 1900" (not 1901) in 2018. At the time it could be added by {{Infobox earthquake}}. However, the creator removed it from the infobox code in 2019.[1] It should probably be deleted now. The creator only has one edit since 2020 and that was in 2022. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:04, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

What to do when discovering a paid editor

Hi - I was doing some recent changes anti-vandal stuff the other day, and found Commend International (which looked like this when I first found it), and it was pretty clearly intended to be a promotional article, and it had only been moved into mainspace earlier that day (10th Oct). I cleaned up the article a bit, and gave the main contributor a COI notice on their user page, and they've just got back to me today saying that they worked for the company and received a fee to create the article. They were slow to reply, but have been upfront about it and seem to want to do the right thing. I'm not sure what the correct thing to do is here - I don't know enough about deletion/COI/paid editing to know if this warrants going to WP:AFD, or if is something to go to WP:AN about, or anything like that. Any advice (or action) from someone knowledgeable in this area would be appreciated. BugGhost🦗👻 15:18, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

If you think it is at all possible to salvage an acceptable article, you could just return it to draft space and ask the user to use the draft submission process, and not create it themselves. 331dot (talk) 15:24, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice - I don't think the article is awful, and it is somewhat sourced, so I'll draftify and talk to the editor like you suggest. Thanks BugGhost🦗👻 15:45, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Receiving Emails From wikipublishsolution.com - Is this a scam?

Does anyone know whether this is a scam? Received emails from this organization claiming they received an inquiry from another party seeking to create and edit a Wikipedia page under our brand name. 2605:A601:A30A:FF00:68BA:80E9:EBE8:AEB9 (talk) 16:11, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, most likely. See WP:SCAM. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 16:13, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Ignoring everything else on their hilarious website, one of their testimonials is quite literally from "John Doe". Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 16:21, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, their website is amusing. I especially enjoyed Our highly intellectual writers guarantee impeccable content quality while the website as a whole reads as if it was written by someone who speaks other languages much better than English, along with some incompetent AI assistant. Cullen328 (talk) 16:29, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

In addition, the page has set off a warning from my Bitdefender antivirus (screenshot). So it looks like a definite one to avoid.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 16:40, 15 October 2024 (UTC)