Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 December 31

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December 31

reFill tool

Hello, I find myself using reFill a lot. I am starting to seriously notice the time it takes to go to the site and copy in the name of the article every time. Does anyone know of a script or tool that would give me a reFill button (for example under More). Thank you! Happy Squirrel (talk) 01:02, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I use reFill and don't understand your question. For me, there is a link in the "Tools" section on the left of every article. I don't have to go to the site. Dismas|^(talk) 01:16, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

@Dismas: You see it in your p-tb because you added it last year :-) Hope this helps, Happy New Year, Sam Sailor ^Talk! 02:33, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Happysquirrel, Install it as a tools link by following these instructions. Having the tools link is a major time saver‍—‌agreed. PS: I always click on the superscripted (options) link on the main reFill link in the tools section and tweak the checkboxes before hitting the FIX button. I uncheck all existing checkboxes, then check off the one at the bottom and the third one from the bottom, then hit FIX. That way it adds an accessdate, etc. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 02:26, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you! I have installed the script and it is beautiful. :) Happy Squirrel (talk) 02:31, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Meister Eckhart

Reference help requested. It is water under the bridge now but I could not detect a ref name error in this diff. Ping me back.

Thanks, {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 02:20, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

@Checkingfax: With your edit here, problems are solved. Sam Sailor ^Talk! 02:40, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Can someone give permission for publication through an editor?

Is the licensing of this image okay? Can permission for something to be released be this far removed? Or would OTRS need to be notified by the subject? Dismas|^(talk) 03:23, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

@Dismas: They would have to email OTRS or if the photo was found online they would have to post an explicit notice that it is released under CC0. We can't really take their word for it. Too many ways that could go wrong. --Majora (talk) 03:35, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Finally found the template. You can tag it with {{Di-no permission}} and notify the uploader. --Majora (talk) 03:54, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 04:04, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Article with unrelated content

I was recently looking at an article tagged for copy edit (this article being Malian Americans) and saw that the "Major Events" section talks about an unrelated Indian organization. I was wondering what action I should take, or whether somebody else would edit appropriately. DasПиg _talk 03:38, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

@CaptainPiggles: It looks like a bit of recent vandalism [1]. I rolled the article back to the edit before it was all inserted. Sorry, this was the easiest way since the edits could not be undone the normal way. Your copyedits were also reverted in the process. --Majora (talk) 03:43, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, that article is a mess. It certainly needs copy-editing, but the copy-edit tag was removed when spam was removed. The article needs to be tagged as having multiple issues. Robert McClenon (talk) 03:44, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try to look over it to the best of my abilities. DasПиg _talk 03:47, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Gipsies

They not immigrated form India :) they from Egypt just so you or who ever wrote that madness who ever did the information gathering about this she/he did not made any real effort to really research this. I feel sorry for those who comes here for answers because many of Wikipedia stagings are made and post from privet individuals who actually volunteers and these story's are just simply their opinions . Soon I hope this site will be full of ads and close up. Would be better for everybody . — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.147.170.185 (talk) 03:53, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

The Egypt/India confusion is discussed at length in Romani people#Other designations. Rwessel (talk) 06:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

It is a common misconception that Wikipedia is based on people's opinions. If you find any such articles, please let us know, because our rules require that information presented here can be traced back to reliable sources. We hope you will read the references provided to dispel your own misunderstanding about Romani people. Dbfirs 10:09, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Brown Umoinyang

Brown Umoinyang is a Nigerian Missionary, Pastor, Reformer and Entreprenuer — Preceding unsigned comment added by Umoinyangbrown (talk • contribs) 12:26, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

@Umoinyangbrown: Were you looking to create an article? Please have a look at My First Article help and then consider using the Article Wizard to create the page. You may also wish to read about Conflicts of Interest and What is a reliable source? Best of luck! -- samtar ^whisper 12:32, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Removing "unreviewed" tag from directly inserted article

I've received notices on each of my last several (short) articles that they had been reviewed, but then the editors never removed the "unreviewed" sign, nor do they give any criticism of the articles. Is it my job to remove the "unreviewed" sign after hearing from them?Jzsj (talk) 13:40, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Which pages were you thinking were reviewed but the tag left in place? I looked at your most recent 5 page creations and 1 was reviewed and tag removed; the other 4 appear to still be unreviewed. Tiggerjay (talk) 21:40, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm sure I received reviewed notices on some of the others. Are these stored anywhere or just lost after I check out the notice?Jzsj (talk) 22:32, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Minor template question

Look at the bottom of my Talk page. There are two New Year's templates, each in its own section. The addition of the second template interfered with the display of both templates. It's not a big deal, but how do I fix it? Thanks.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:29, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Fixed it - the first message was missing the final "|}" -- John of Reading (talk) 15:41, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! And two happy new year's to you. :-) --Bbb23 (talk) 15:45, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

For the record, Special:Contributions/Winkelvi shows the poster of the message has added the missing "|}" to many others but not you, maybe because it was no longer the most recent edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:27, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Edit conflicts

Not very often, but enough to be very annoying I get into an Edit conflict. So after many years of editing I decided to try and figure out what to do, ouch. Can anyone explain in one or two paragraphs how to resolve an edit conflict? Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (talk) 16:28, 31 December 2015 (UTC)please ping me

Yes, use the Show changes button before saving, this will show any changes made during your edit. Mlpearc (open channel) 16:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Personally, I always copy my content from the bottom of the edit conflict window and paste it into a new edit window. It's simple for a discussion post. For an article edit where I made changes in multiple places, it can be annoying. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:41, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict):: ... and if there is a conflict, just copy your new text from the bottom of the page, then leave that page and re-edit the article, just pasting your copied text before saving. That's exactly what I had to do here! Dbfirs 16:43, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

There are also some "tricks" at Wikipedia:Avoiding edit-conflicts, but some of these can annoy other editors - Arjayay (talk) 16:50, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I personally find the Edit Conflict window itself to be extremely user-unfriendly. It seems to be suggesting that one try to merge one's edit with the new text, or that one push the edit through. As a result, some editors do push their edit through, which erases the previous edit. Erasing the previous edit is disruptive, but that isn't their fault, because the edit conflict window can easily lead an inexperienced editor to do exactly that. My own approach is to copy my edit, and then back out of editing back to the modified page, and re-insert the edit. However, the Edit Conflict window tries to prevent that by asking whether I really want to back out of the page (which I do). There is, as also mentioned in the referenced essay, the occasional problem of a "ghost edit conflict", where timing has caused the software to think that the editor is in a conflict with himself. I think that the developers might do well to spend some time trying to improve the handling of edit conflicts, a common problem, rather than trying to solve problems that don't exist, such as implementing Visual Editor and Flow. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:22, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

If one has a long comment to make to a heavily edited talk page, it is a good idea to compose the paragraph in a word processor or Notepad. In that case, when one is finished, one can make a single edit, which is unlikely to result in an edit conflict (except for the ghost edit conflict problem with oneself). Robert McClenon (talk) 17:49, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

• Offtopic regarding wp:FLOW: @Robert McClenon I agree with everything else you said, but am an avid supporter of FLOW-like software availabiliy on wikipedia. If I had access to flow I would not have to worry about how to indent my current messge, but let the software figure it out for me. Ottawahitech (talk) 19:45, 31 December 2015 (UTC){{small|please ping me}

Just another approach is edit in a way that reduces the chances of edit conflicts. Among them is keeping your editing time (the time between clicking edit and save) to a minimum. For articles also you might want to consider editing sections instead of the whole page. Multiple incremental edits to a article also reduces the change. When you're involved in more lengthy talk page discussions, sometimes I'll take to composing a long reply offline and then pasting in the edit box. Tiggerjay (talk) 21:35, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

G U N S

where are those statistics from?

1 in 3 Canadians own a gun.

not true! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.30.119.179 (talk) 18:09, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I have 600 freinds and family. no way do 200 own a gun!>? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.30.119.179 (talk) 18:10, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps the statistic was that one gun is owned in Canada for every three Canadians (which sounds about right to me). Which article are you asking about? Gun doesn't mention Canada. Dbfirs 18:31, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Our article Number of guns per capita by country gives Canada 30.8 guns per 100 people - which is exactly what The Washington Post, which is cited as the reference, states. This is also the figure reported here. I suspect people "out in the wilds" may have several guns - to deal with bears etc - offsetting the city dwellers who do not own a gun. - Arjayay (talk) 18:53, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I am not a hunter, but it is my understanding that most people who hunt own more than one gun, because different types of game are hunted with different types of guns in modern times. Therefore 30.8 guns per 100 people doesn't mean 308 out of 1000 people own guns, but that out of 1000 people there are 308 guns, possibly with multiple guns in the same gun locker when they are not in use. It is easier to misuse statistics than to use statistics wisely. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:55, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

So, if Wikipedia has an article saying "1 in 3 Canadians own a gun", it is wrong, and should be corrected. 70.30.119.179, is there such an article? Which one? Maproom (talk) 21:38, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Error in resources, even tho link is accurate

I just did edits on Francisco Ferreras' wikipedia page. After saving the edits, it shows an error for the resources link, even tho I have input the right link information. Please advise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Ferreras — Preceding unsigned comment added by ElenaMertins (talk • contribs) 18:27, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I have repaired the problems - firstly you created a new reference and gave it a "Ref name" of "A" - which caused an error as there was already a ref called "A", secondly, you put opening and closing reference tags without any text between, which gave another error. Both problems were explained if you had clicked the blue text at the end of each red error message.
I have also removed your reference citing the Italian Wikipedia - you cannot use Wikipedia (in any language) as a reference - as Wikipedia is not a reliable source - Arjayay (talk) 18:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Title Salt question

Can a title that has been salted (blacklisted) be unsalted in draft space without immediately unsalting it in article space? Several years ago, a promotional article was repeatedly submitted and deleted about an Indian businessman, and was then salted. Now an editor is making a good-faith effort to develop a good article about the businessman, in his sandbox. He still needs to work on it, but is working on it in good faith. I have tried to move it from his sandbox into draft space, but am blocked. Is it possible to partially unsalt it so that it can be moved into draft space? Alternatively, can it be moved from the user sandbox to user space, or is there a hard-and-fast rule that a bad title is a bad title? Robert McClenon (talk) 18:51, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Salting usually means "creation protection", which only applies to the given page, not to other namespaces. There is a "title blacklist" that is namespace agnostic but it's not generally used for "salting" articles.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 19:09, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

According to the log. Draft:Sandeep Maheshwari was salted independently in draft space. —teb728 t c 19:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

In that case, I will be requesting the deleting admin for the draft, User:Spinningspark, to unsalt it from draft space. The current editor is making a good-faith effort to create an article, and isn't using promotional language or copyrighted language. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:44, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Done. SpinningSpark 22:23, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:32, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

My Wikipedia page is not appearing on any search engine sites

Hi,

My Wikipedia page (Davidacarmichael) is not appearing when a search on any engine is carried out. It used to appear and has stopped all of a sudden. I have tried to check in preferences to see if I can amend anything, however I have been unable to do so.

Please can you inform me of how to fix this problem as soon as possible.

Kind regards David Carmichael David Carmichael (talk) 20:29, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Greetings. Userspace does not show up in search engines, by default.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 20:33, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Also, @Davidcarmichael:, please don't write an userpage that is so promotional. We are not an advertisement service, please!Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 20:34, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I have marked the page for deletion under WP:U5. Wikipedia is not a webhost or LinkedIn where you can post your resume like that. We are an encyclopedia. If you believe you meet our general criteria for inclusion you can use the article wizard and submit a draft for review. If you plan on taking this route please also read our guide on your first article. --Majora (talk) 20:37, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Fixing ping: @Davidacarmichael: --Majora (talk) 20:42, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Search engine indexing in userspace can be enabled with {{INDEX}} but frankly, user pages like yours is the reason it was disabled by default. Note that User:Davidacarmichael is a user page and has never been a Wikipedia article. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:44, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Jo-Jo Eumerus: "Userspace does not show up in search engines, by default." It shouldn't, but it sometimes does. See this archived question on this Help Desk. Maproom (talk) 21:48, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Click on coordinates not working

For the last couple of hours, when I click on coordinates, e.g. 27°59′16″N 86°56′40″E, nothing happens. I've tried it on three browsers and two computers. Is there a problem with this feature? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:08, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

The page wasn't loading for me either. Then it came up with a 404 error. May be something wrong with WMF Labs. I don't see anything about it at WP:VPT yet. Dismas|^(talk) 22:20, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

When I hover over the link, a WikiMiniAtlas button pops up under the link. When I click the button, a map pops up. —teb728 t c 22:22, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

[double EC] It's a site problem, not a problem with your machines. Wait long enough, and you'll get an error message; earlier I got a bad gateway message, and just now I'm getting Four hundred and four! as my error message. Nyttend (talk) 22:23, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Resolved

Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:27, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Image stacking

See Washington Cemetery (Washington Court House, Ohio) — the left-side image should be appearing near the top of the "Establishment" section, but the lower infobox (of which the code appears before the article's introduction) is driving it into the references. I can never remember properly to fix image-stacking problems; could someone resolve this? Both infoboxes should appear on the right side, with the first at the top of the article and the second immediately below it, so merely moving down the second infobox code would potentially affect its location on wide monitors and therefore isn't the best choice. I tried {{clear left}} both before and after the image, but preview showed me that clear-then-image had no effect at all, while image-then-clear caused the image to retain its current place and moved all the text down below it, which is even worse than the current situation. Nyttend (talk) 22:23, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

PS, see [2]; moving the left-side image into the top infobox and that infobox's image into the second infobox is another option, of course, but it makes the infoboxes go far below the bottom of the text. Having one image in the text both shortens the height of the two infoboxes and extends the height of the text. Nyttend (talk) 22:28, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Fixed with {{stack}}.[3] PrimeHunter (talk) 22:32, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 02:01, 1 January 2016 (UTC)