User talk:Tollens

Question from Ipogian (11:29, 23 June 2024)

Hi Sir, I'm Brian and i had a question concerning writing prompts in the search bar, could you recommend some of the best practices pls --Ipogian (talk) 11:29, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi Brian, I'm not certain I understand what you're asking about, are you referring to Wikipedia's internal search bar? I can only help with Wikipedia-related questions so I will assume that's the case. If so, in most cases you can just put in the topic you are looking for, and often you will be automatically redirected to the correct page even if you didn't put in the specific title. In more complicated cases, there are a wide variety of additional filters that can be used by going to Special:Search and opening up the advanced search dropdown. There are even more tools that can be used (like regexes if you know how to use them, don't worry if you don't) that are documented at mw:Help:CirrusSearch. If I've misunderstood your question please do let me know. Tollens (talk) 06:23, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Ok thanks CalculusPerson (talk) 01:56, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from LeanLovingWriter (21:59, 1 July 2024)

Hello,

Two questions.

1. I saw that 'trusted users' can change my name. If you're a trusted user, I'd like to change my screen name to 'PoetAndPriest' from LeanLovingWriter. This wd match up with my presence on a number of social media sites, and it was what I intended here. Wd this be OK?

2. I want to add a section to a page — specifically a "THIS in Popular Culture' section to an entry that has a had a short film made of his life.

Thank you.

Paul --LeanLovingWriter (talk) 21:59, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

​Hi Paul!

There is a very short request form for a username change that you can fill out at Special:GlobalRenameRequest; I don't personally see any issues with your request so it will almost certainly be accepted fairly quickly (a couple days max).

You can absolutely add information like that to an article, but a new section like that is maybe not the best way to go about it unless there are multiple other things that should go there (without knowing which article specifically, it's hard to say, though; if you are able to tell me which I'll be able to help better). It would also help to know a little bit about the film: depending on the person and the film it could be argued that it isn't relevant enough to warrant a mention in the article (for example, a high-school film project about a popular celebrity would clearly not, while an award-winning documentary about a relatively unknown person clearly would, as the two extremes). Tollens (talk) 05:32, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

This is the page and this is the film.

In its small pond, it has done rather well [scroll down to see the 'official selection' roster], and involved quite a project [trekking to Patmos, many interviews, currently on a kind of tour of various screenings].

Thanks for the other.

Paul LeanLovingWriter (talk) 18:12, 2 July 2024 (UTC)

Looking at the film and article, this would probably be okay. Please be aware that secondary sources are preferred as citations – ideally you would not simply cite the film itself but rather an article about the film if possible. If no such articles exist that's likely an indication that there shouldn't be very much written about the film in that article, though even then a line or two simply mentioning that the film was made would probably still be fine. Based on the wording you've used, it seems like you might be personally connected to this film in some way (if not, apologies, the rest of this can be ignored). If so, you would be considered to have a conflict of interest and subject to a couple of extra rules (please consider at least skimming through the guideline linked there if you believe it might apply to you). Generally editors with conflicts of interest should not edit articles directly, instead they should propose edits to the page for others to review. This can be done through the edit request wizard. Tollens (talk) 08:50, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Swell, really helpful.

Not personally connected, but have seen it, and I'm Orthodox. But I have nothing to do with it, and have never met the people who made it.

I've corrected Wikipedia articles with conflicts of interest [WB Mason, I think was one; it was clearly (or rather not so, in a sense) written by a PR person ... professionally a[n old school] journalist so yes, of course. Hate that stuff. LeanLovingWriter (talk) 13:42, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from BigvGuy (11:03, 4 July 2024)

Hi Tollens, I would love to have some guidance of how to create a new article like I saw Mastodon which is under the new category of DeSoc (Decentralized Social Network) but don't know how to do it? --BigvGuy (talk) 11:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi BigvGuy, it looks to me like both those articles already exist, see Mastodon (social network) and Distributed social network. Are you trying to create a different article than those two? Tollens (talk) 20:48, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Tollens, I think the Distributed Social Network is not the same as Decentralized Social Network, or I should just edit the Distributed Social Network as Decentralised Social Network as what the crypto people would know it better as DeSoc?

I am not referring to Mastodon but I want to create a new article about Warpcast? BigvGuy (talk) 17:07, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Apologies for the very delayed response: I've just looked into this more thoroughly and I agree that what you're talking about doesn't seem to be the same thing at all. If you're looking to write a new article, I would highly recommend first reading Help:Your first article, which has some very useful advice and very brief outlines of the most important rules you should be aware of. You can use the Article Wizard to create the page where you can work on your article when you're ready. Please be especially aware of the rules surrounding what we call notability here on Wikipedia: before starting to write an an article on either topic make sure you are able to find multiple reliable sources discussing the topic directly and in detail (and in the case of Warpcast, those sources cannot be connected to the subject, so for example their website does not count toward establishing notability). Tollens (talk) 05:59, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

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Technical news

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Miscellaneous

• The Community Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024. Read more

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Question from NoRT44 (14:23, 13 July 2024)

How do I find approved photos to add onto pages? And how am I able to add a photo when editing from an iPhone? --NoRT44 (talk) 14:23, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi NoRT44! You can find a lot of images that you can add very easily at Wikimedia Commons, where other contributors have uploaded millions of images already that might be useful and are all allowed to be used on Wikipedia. There are some instructions about how to add them to a page available here.

If you want to upload a completely new image, this is a bit more complicated, mainly because most images on the internet aren't allowed to be displayed on Wikipedia due to copyright reasons. There is a guide about how to figure out whether a given image is suitable for uploading and how to upload it if so available here (many of the links on that page will also help if you do need to upload a new image). Tollens (talk) 06:10, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Woahglaceon (07:41, 14 July 2024)

Hi, assigned mentor! Where do I start with editing and improving pages on Wikipedia? --Woahglaceon (talk) 07:41, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello Woahglaceon! You might find Help:Introduction a useful starting point, it has some helpful information and some links to other pages that may be of interest, like the Task Center. You could also look at the list of WikiProjects, which are groups of editors with common interests that collaborate on any given topic area. Tollens (talk) 06:16, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from DPF429 (00:21, 16 July 2024)

How do I add sources to songs --DPF429 (talk) 00:21, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi DPF429! There is an information page about how to add sources available at WP:REFVISUAL that might help. If that page doesn't help, could you explain exactly what you are trying to do so I can help more effectively? Tollens (talk) 06:21, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-29

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

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MediaWiki message delivery 01:29, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Shark725 (21:21, 16 July 2024)

Hi... I have a question about the COI policy. I've declared my COI per guidelines. I'm not sure if this means that content I add will undergo extra scrutiny for neutral tone, or if it means that it will just be deleted. I've already had one link removed due to "COI policy." --Shark725 (talk) 21:21, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Shark725 – there will be extra scrutiny not only for neutral tone but likely for several other policies and guidelines as well, it won't all just be removed. In the case of the removed link, that was because infoboxes should only list relatives who already have a Wikipedia article about them, which does not appear to be the case for Cindy Duke. It appears your other addition to the same page was not undone and looks fine to me.

It is recommended (though not required) that editors with conflicts of interest not edit affected articles directly except in cases of obvious improvements like typo corrections: you should instead consider making edit requests on the talk page of an article you want changed. You can do this using the edit request wizard (you can get there without using a link by putting WP:ERW into the search bar) or, if you prefer, manually using the {{edit COI}} template. Tollens (talk) 04:19, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from BUKURU RASHIDI (00:39, 20 July 2024)

love --BUKURU RASHIDI (talk) 00:39, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from BUKURU RASHIDI (00:44, 20 July 2024)

bukuru --BUKURU RASHIDI (talk) 00:44, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello BUKURU RASHIDI! This doesn't seem to be a question, do you need help with using or editing Wikipedia? Tollens (talk) 05:38, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from SCC1990 (08:12, 21 July 2024)

Hi do you know if it is possible to change my username, and if so how? --SCC1990 (talk) 08:12, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi SCC1990! There is a very short form you can fill out at Special:GlobalRenameRequest, and your request will be processed fairly quickly (anywhere from immediately to a couple days). Tollens (talk) 08:14, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Tollens thanks for your quick reply - that is really helpful. SCC1990 (talk) 08:24, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Absolutely, happy to help! Tollens (talk) 08:25, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-30

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• Have you tried monitoring and addressing vandalism in Wikipedia using your phone? A Diff blog post on Patrolling features in the Mobile App highlights some of the new capabilities of the feature, including swiping through a feed of recent changes and a personal library of user talk messages for use when patrolling from your phone.
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MediaWiki message delivery 00:02, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Ginalyncharles (13:54, 23 July 2024)

Hello! I am trying to make, what I think, are minor edits to our school page. The correct motto, correct District name, correct CTE areas.

Also need to know if we have to keep information which is no longer relevant?

Thank you,

Gina --Ginalyncharles (talk) 13:54, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Gina!

You say "we" and "our": are you employed by the school in any way? If so, there are some mandatory disclosure requirements that I'd be happy to walk you through.

It looks like a couple of the minor edits were undone because the links you provided appear to be broken: are you able to provide a working URL?

In terms of information that you say is no longer relevant: ideally content should be updated, not removed. Since dates are provided throughout, there's no reason to remove anything as far as I can see, though some portions might need to be updated if they are inaccurate. For example, In 2000, the school opened its current library: I don't know if this is still true, but the solution if not would be to change it to "a new library" from "its current library" and talk more about the replacement if one exists, not delete it altogether (Just as an example. It might still be entirely correct, I have no idea). Similar would go for The case has not yet gone to trial – this should be updated, not removed. Tollens (talk) 06:35, 24 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello, I am an employee at the school. Please let me know how to proceed. Thank you. Ginalyncharles (talk) 16:31, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

In that case, please add {{paid|user=Ginalyncharles|employer=InsertName}} to your userpage – this is so that others can easily see your affiliation with the topic. It is also strongly encouraged that editors with conflicts of interest like yourself not edit affected pages directly, but instead submit edit requests to be reviewed by others. This can be done easily using the edit request wizard. Tollens (talk) 06:16, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello, How do I edit my user page? I would like to be the one to submit the school page updates and new information. Will I be able to do this after I update my user page? Thank you Ginalyncharles (talk) 14:37, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

If you click your username or this link it will take you there (and should automatically open the editor). There should be a pencil icon next to the "Publish page..." button, if you select it and click "Source editing" you can place the code above onto the page (changing InsertName to the name of your employer), then click "Publish page...". I am not certain what you mean about being the one to submit the updates: you can of course submit requests after you've updated your user page, but it is still very strongly encouraged that you not edit the school's page directly even after you update your user page. Making a request is very similar to editing the page directly – you still need to tell others exactly what needs to be updated and exactly what it should be replaced with (and typically requests are accepted as-is unless there are issues), the only difference is that someone else will take a look at your change before it is implemented into the article. Tollens (talk) 19:49, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Morrow Ncho on TerraPass (23:37, 23 July 2024)

Hello how are you doing my people I am new here can someone tell me how to do it to work set I will be earning money by answering questions like my partners? --Morrow Ncho (talk) 23:37, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello Morrow Ncho! I am not sure I understand your question. It seems like you are asking about how to answer questions like the one you've just asked, and be paid for doing so (if not, my apologies, could you please clarify?). If so, you are mistaken about how Wikipedia works: there are no paid employees, and there is no selection process for people wanting to contribute. Anybody is allowed to contribute to Wikipedia, and everybody who does is a volunteer and does not earn any money for contributing. Tollens (talk) 06:38, 24 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from CalculusPerson (03:02, 25 July 2024)

Hi, can you teach me how to make money off of wikipedia. I want to start a side hustle. --CalculusPerson (talk) 03:02, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

@CalculusPerson: No. Wikipedia is designed as a volunteer project: many (probably most) frequent contributors, including myself, consider paid editing to be a net harm to Wikipedia. If you want to edit Wikipedia for pay, you are welcome to do the research yourself to find out how. The two places I will point you towards are WP:PAID, which outlines the mandatory disclosures that must be made if you do get paid for your contributions, and WP:COI, which provides additional guidance and describes additional restrictions on editing in cases where you have a connection to the topic (which is the case any time you are paid for a contribution to Wikipedia). Tollens (talk) 05:25, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Farsamjamshidi (19:41, 26 July 2024)

Hello, I want to create Wikipedia, but I don't know where to upload my certificate --Farsamjamshidi (talk) 19:41, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Farsamjamshidi! I see that your user page has been deleted, and that you've been given some information about why on your user talk page. While I cannot see the content of the deleted page, please be aware that Wikipedia is not for hosting resumes/CVs, promoting yourself or your company, etc. There are some fairly strict rules about when people qualify for a Wikipedia article to be written about them (outlined at WP:Notability), and even then it is strongly discouraged to write about yourself. If you do meet Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, somebody else will eventually write about you unprompted. Tollens (talk) 06:22, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Rami wicki (20:41, 27 July 2024)

How do I encourage others to edit the page that I've put together? --Rami wicki (talk) 20:41, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi Rami wicki! Most of the time, you really don't – aside from tagging the talk page as being related to the Wikiprojects it falls under (which has already been done) and placing appropriate categories on the page (which you've done also), there's not a whole lot to do. People will come across the page organically, but this could take some time. Keep in mind that the article will never be done: there's no hurry. If you think there are specific big issues with the page, but you can't fix them, you could add cleanup tags pointing out those issues (though there are loads of articles tagged like this and so adding it probably won't drastically increase the number of editors working on it). Tollens (talk) 05:23, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Walakira Ronald165 on Talk:Stephanie McKay (03:55, 29 July 2024)

Can i get 1000 subscribers a day on my YouTube channel walakiraronald 165 in one week --Walakira Ronald165 (talk) 03:56, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Hello Walakira Ronald165; I'm only here to help with questions about using or editing Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is also not a place for advertising or promotion. Perhaps you can get 1000 subscribers a day, but I can't give you advice about how and Wikipedia will not be an effective place to point people to your channel from. Tollens (talk) 05:29, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-31

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Feature news

• Editors using the Visual Editor in languages that use non-Latin characters for numbers, such as Hindi, Manipuri and Eastern Arabic, may notice some changes in the formatting of reference numbers. This is a side effect of preparing a new sub-referencing feature, and will also allow fixing some general numbering issues in Visual Editor. If you notice any related problems on your wiki, please share details at the project talkpage.

Bugs status

• Some logged-in editors were briefly unable to edit or load pages last week. These errors were mainly due to the addition of new linter rules which led to caching problems. Fixes have been applied and investigations are continuing.
• Editors can use the IP Information tool to get information about IP addresses. This tool is available as a Beta Feature in your preferences. The tool was not available for a few days last week, but is now working again. Thank you to Shizhao for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and 28 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.

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• There are new features and improvements to Phabricator from the Release Engineering and Collaboration Services teams, and some volunteers, including: the search systems, the new task creation system, the login systems, the translation setup which has resulted in support for more languages (thanks to Pppery), and fixes for many edge-case errors. You can read details about these and other improvements in this summary.
• There is an update on the Charts project. The team has decided which visualization library to use, which chart types to start focusing on, and where to store chart definitions.
• One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in Czech (voy:cs:) [5]

Learn more

• There is a new Wikimedia Foundation data center in São Paulo, Brazil which helps to reduce load times.
• There is new user research on problems with the process of uploading images.
• Commons Impact Metrics are now available via data dumps and API.
• The latest quarterly Technical Community Newsletter is now available.

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:08, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Victory Chinedum (21:30, 31 July 2024)

How do I publish a new article? --Victory Chinedum (talk) 21:30, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Question from Stephentelian (11:10, 4 August 2024)

Hello, I really want to contribute to a page and in an attempt to do so I may have come up rash to another contributer on a topic, would you please help me understand how I can contribute to Kenya Finance Bill Protests in the correct manner so that my edits don't get reverted. --Stephentelian (talk) 11:10, 4 August 2024 (UTC)