Help desk
< April 28	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 30 >

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.

April 29

BUG,UBY: Mobile CSS: 'Contents' not visible unless rotated to landscape

The 'Contents' (table of contents toggle-able) is not visible unless rotated to landscape.

Users can navigate to and grab permalinks to article headings on a mobile browser in portrait orientation without having to rotate to landscape.

Open a phone browser in portrait mode
Browse to an article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_contents
Try and navigate using the hyperlinked table of contents information access optimization

Which issue tracker or (mediawiki theme?) repo can solve this challenge?

Wes Turner (talk) 00:10, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wes.turner welcome to help desk! For technical questions in the future, WP:VPT is better place to ask. That said, I think this is not a bug, but intentional since mobile portrait mode has limited space. You can given feedback at mw: Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements. Hope that helps! ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 19:43, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is expected. In mobile, the sections collapse by default and as such THAT functions as the ToC. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:22, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This is suboptimal.

BUG, UBY: Currently, in order to seek to a heading on a mobile device in portrait, a user must either:

- fling multiple times (no good for repetitive stress injury); or

- rotate to landscape mode (no good for repetitive stress injury)

Instead, IMHO, the table of contents should be visible on mobile devices in order for users to skip to and link to headings.

14:15, 30 April 2022 (UTC) Wes Turner (talk) 14:15, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It has worked like this for almost 8 years. It might not be ideal, but figuring out something that works for everyone is always hard and generally this has worked pretty well. You are of course welcome to contribute some design ideas on how to implement that without breaking other things or upsetting other users. This is a open project after all. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:03, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

IP adding the sockpuppet SVG to their own talk page?

An IP that made a strange category addition (and quick removal) on a page on my watchlist has added an extremely large image, bigger than many monitors, of the sockpuppet icon to their talk page. Their edits are otherwise fairly innocuous new-user-type edits (i.e. edits that seem to indicate ignorance of policy/guidelines, weird edits that look test-like) at best and... gentle? disruption at worst, but I wanted to get a second opinion because the "everyone is malicious" part of my brain is on overdrive today: Should this be assumed to be some sort of test and ignored (or perhaps reverted? I dunno what etiquette applies on an IP talk page), sort of in line with the rest of their edits? Or watched carefully, in case it "means something"? 0_o - Purplewowies (talk) 00:32, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you're concerned you can keep an eye on it, but if it's not really disruptive you probably don't need to do anything. On the other hand, use of that particular SVG implies that this anonymous person has some knowledge of Wikipedia behind the scenes, which is mildly suspicious, and if the image is large enough to cause technical issues, you have cause to resize/remove/revert it immediately.

IPV6 addresses seem to get reassigned quickly though, so it probably won't last. I'm not sure if it's possible for normal users to view activity on an entire range. – Anon423 (talk) 11:06, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

delete "Independent Talent Group"

delete "Independent Talent Group" ... 0mtwb9gd5wx (talk) 04:01, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@0mtwb9gd5wx: Since you created the redirect and no one else has edited it, you may tag it with {{Db-author}} and an admin will delete it. RudolfRed (talk) 04:07, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

search box

Any way to create a search/input box that uses the user's input like a template parameter (i.e. inserted into a larger string)? theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 05:08, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Theleekycauldron: Hello and Welcome to the help desk. I don't think I've fully grasped your question, so you might need to clarify it a bit. However, it is generally possible to create search boxes with the InputBox MediaWiki extension. There are three search box types, which slighty differ in functionality. First, search:

This type supports both exact matches and fulltext search, and optionally selecting from a list of namespaces when doing a fulltext search.

search2

This box only supports searching for an exact match by default, but setting the fulltextbutton parameter allows for fulltext too.

fulltext:

This box is a fulltext search. Optionally, checkboxes for the searched namespaces can be showm just like with search.

In all other cases, it is not possible to create a searchbox using plain wikitext, although its possible to create one using javascript and (possibly) the OOUI library. This kind of technique is used by both Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Add WikiProject tags and Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Submitting (although the latter is usally called with URL parameters that autostart the gadget). Victor Schmidt (talk) 14:18, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Victor Schmidt: Thanks! I'd like something more like this, though; if I enter in "theleekycauldron", I want the box to search for insource:"the result was: '''promoted''' by [[User:Theleekycauldron|Theleekycauldron]]" theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 19:56, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Theleekycauldron: I do not believe this is possible using Wikitext, although some sort of gadget/javascript file might be able to. Victor Schmidt mobil (talk) 11:13, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

fair enough- thanks! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 18:14, 2 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Another member keeps deleting my edits

Courtesy link: North Western Road Car Company (1986)

Can you please help me, I have updated a page as I now own the company it’s about, and the same person keeps removing my edits, can this be looked into or I will ask for the page to be removed as it has been posted without permission

Phil King Owner of North Western Road Car Company Ltd

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13873091 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nwrcc (talk • contribs) 11:59, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Nwrcc: If you really are the new owner of the article's subject, you need to disclose your relationship on your user page and should stop editing the page directly (make edit requests on the article's talk page instead). Furthermore, you do not own the page, so unless it meets certain deletion criteria, it will not be deleted. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 12:07, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Nwrcc. A couple of suggestions that might make things a bit easier for you. First, please take a close look at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure because there seem to be some things about Wikipedia that you might not be aware of. You may own your company, but you don't WP:OWN the Wikipedia article about your company and you have no form of final editorial control over the article's content. Given your connection to the company and your vested commercial interest in it, you really shouldn't be directly editing the article at all. If you feel there are things that need to be corrected or otherwise updated, you should follow the guidance given here and seek assistance on the article's talk page. The next thing has to do with your choice of username. You should take a look at Wikipedia:Username policy#Promotional usernames because your username is basically an abreviation for your company, and as such could be seen as an attempt to promote your company. If you want to use "Nwrcc" as part of your username, you should consider personalizing it in some way so that it's not mistaken for being the company's Wikipedia account. As for being reverted by another editor, this is quite a common occurrance on Wikipedia and usually the best thing to do when such a thing happens is to follow Wikipedia:Dispute resolution and try to resolve things through discussion. -- Marchjuly (talk) 12:15, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect that Nwrcc has in fact no connection with the subject of North Western Road Car Company (1986), which is now a division of Arriva, but is connected with an unrelated, recently created, company also named "North Western Road Car Company". If I'm right, he doesn't have a conflict of interest. But his addition of the statement "In January 2022 the company has started trading once again" was misleading (and not properly referenced), and should have been deleted for either of those reasons. Maproom (talk) 14:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. To be clear about this, our article is about a specific subject - the 'North Western Road Car Company' that operated during the 1980s and 1990s - and not about any other organisation sharing the same name. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:15, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Maproom and AndyTheGrump for picking up on that. I think perhaps you're right. Maybe once Nwrcc clarifies this on their user talk page, it will be easier to help them sort things out. -- Marchjuly (talk) 20:46, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

FYI that the OP was blocked. TimTempleton ^(talk) ^(cont) 04:51, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to be a WP:SOFTBLOCK for a username violation and not necessarily because they were violating WP:PAID. They still have talk page access which means that can clarify what connection (if any) they have to the company in question. -- Marchjuly (talk) 11:34, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Where to find an admin

Hi! I'm looking to find an admin that can help me put protection on my schools wikipage, any redirection to the right pages would help!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by ReallyLoveWiki (talk • contribs) 14:49, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ReallyLoveWiki: Hello ReallyLoveWiki! Unfortunately, unless your school's article is being constantly vandalized, it won't be protected. Articles here on Wikipedia are protected because of persistent vandalism. For more info on how protection is done here on Wikipedia, I recommend you read Wikipedia's protection policy. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 15:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Strange that the OP would ask to protect Maine School Administrative District 3 from themselves, but based on their edits there, that seems to be what's wanted. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 15:17, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think what the OP wanted was for the article to be "protected" (locked) to prevent others from undoing their edits. In this case, the OP was just messing around and as such has already been blocked as a result; sometimes, though, a user is making a good-faith request to have an article protected because they feel they "own" the article in some way and don't want others messing with their work. Such editors aren't really "vandals"; they're just misunderstanding some important things about Wikipedia. Some WP:COI users make requests like this because they're either the article's subject or officially represent the article's subject, which make them think only the they or their representives should be allowed edit the article. Some WP:EXPERT users also occassionally make requests like this because they feel others aren't as qualified to edit the article as they are and thus they should have more control over the article content. -- Marchjuly (talk) 21:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ReallyLoveWiki: You can place a request at WP:RFPP RudolfRed (talk) 15:44, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

CodeHS Edit.

Hello, my name is Obama and I recently contributed to the CodeHS wiki page and wanted to know why exactly it was taken down? I found it was rather instructive and helped users further understand the backstory of our loving dog that has introduced us to coding. Would you rather me provide evidence? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.108.138.191 (talk) 18:15, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Obama. The article CodeHS still exists, but your addition to it was removed because you added information that was not cited to a reliable published source. This is a fundamental requirement for Wikipedia: see WP:verifiability. Furthermore, the text you added would appear to be inappropriate for an encyclopaedia. If you want to play games, please do so elsewhere. ColinFine (talk) 18:21, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ToC gone?

For some reason, no page on Wikipedia is displaying a Table of Contents for me anymore. I can't figure out what might have changed to cause this. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 19:08, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@HandThatFeeds: Are you using the newest Vector skin? It's moved to the left, underneath the sidebar. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 19:20, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I am, and apparently the problem is that it just plain does not appear if your window size is too narrow. I'm currently running two windows on my monitor, and at that size it just drops that out of the sidebar entirely. When I expand the window, it appears. Really bad UI, in my opinion. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 20:22, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, this worked out a little different from what they had expected. Some small improvements are coming quickly and they are going to take another look at this entire interaction phab:T306660 —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:21, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks! Glad to know they're aware of this & working on it. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 11:38, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This concerns me too, it was something I noticed in the floating-TOC prototype. Minerva has both collapsible sections and an inline, collapsed TOC (at tablet not phone widths, per section above). Then the mobile app has a different approach again. I hope they can find a good balance for new Vector. Current no-TOC-at-all situation is the least-good option. @HandThatFeeds, @TheDJ ⁓ Pelagic ( messages ) 02:49, 1 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Question

Just curious, but what language are abuse filters/edit filters written in? 98.179.127.59 (talk) 19:48, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In part they are written as regular expressions and in part in their own wikt:pseudolanguage. Ruslik_Zero 20:28, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thank you! 98.179.127.59 (talk) 20:42, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Write article , delete page

Courtesy link: Draft:Relton Booysen

Good day

I have 2 issues.

There is 2 pages, which i would like to make 1. pages are as follow. 1. Relton Booysen 2. ReltonBooyesen22

I would like the second page name to be chnage to Relton Booysen since i have put all the information in already.

Then i would like to find out how do i link my name to articels written or post on other pages.

I am really struggling with this setup. Please help.

Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by ReltonBooysen22 (talk • contribs) 23:39, 29 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@ReltonBooysen22: While you are not forbidden to do so, it is strongly discouraged to write about yourself. As there are no inline citations nor are there sufficient reliable sources, the draft was declined. Please see WP:EASYREFBEGIN to learn how to make inline citations. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 01:14, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Relton Booysen. Verifiability is a core policy of Wikipedia. Anything you know, or I know, or any random person on the Internet knows, may not appear in a Wikipedia article unless it has been published in a reliable source - even if it is information about yourself. ColinFine (talk) 18:44, 30 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]