Help desk
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August 20

Effective Way to Find Vandalism

I've recently come across quite a bit of vandalism and it bothered me quite a lot. I decided to fight vandalism, so I went to the recent changes page. I didn't really find much vandalism over there. What's an effective way to find vandalism? Hmanburg (talk) 03:16, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hmanburg, you may be interested in signing up for the Counter-Vandalism Unit Academy. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 03:24, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Tenryuu thanks for the link!

Hmanburg, consider using a filter while looking at recent changes. You can set the filter to only show edits that are "likely unhelpful" among other filter criteria. Any user can make any number of filters, and you can save them if you want to reuse it later. See Help:Recent changes, and Wikipedia:Recent changes patrol. --Puzzledvegetable^{Is it teatime already?} 12:48, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Vandalism is not all that common these days, and there are bots that catch a lot of it, but there is also a recent changes patrol (WP:RCP) that you can work with. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 08:07, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Email confirmation

Help:Email confirmation (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

In December 2019, an editor added {{Technical}} to Help:Email confirmation (diff) without explaining the issue. I don't think it is appropriate to add the tag to how-to and information pages in that way. Could someone remove the tag? Thanks, 153.228.174.29 (talk) 04:36, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Done. – Teratix ₵ 07:26, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki markup/Insert box

Hi there,

I'm trying to help another editor locate the Wiki markup/insert box. I personally can see mine directly above the edit summary function; on the left, there's a drop-down list with "Wiki markup", "Insert", "Symbols", "Latin", "IPA", and so forth. When I click "Wiki markup" a number of characters in code appear.

Is this the same for all users? if so, how can I demonstrate this? Thank you, —MelbourneStar☆^talk 05:54, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not the same for all of us. In my case the drop-down to which you refer is below the edit summary box. It may depend on various preferences including which gadgets have been selected. David Biddulph (talk) 06:07, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@David Biddulph: hmm that’d be right. Do you know how I can explain this to the user? Is this something visible to everyone — but just in a different spot? —MelbourneStar☆^talk 06:16, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@MelbourneStar: If your "another editor" has an account and is signed in, have them make sure that the "CharInsert" box is checked under "Editing" in the Gadgets tab of their preferences. When it's checked, the editor should see the drop-down menu of special characters beneath the edit window. Deor (talk) 18:36, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How to Access Past Wikipedia Article Archives

Moved from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#How to Access Past Wikipedia Article Archives

Hello,

The general question: Where do I find an entire entry/page/topic which seems to not exist anymore? Are these archived and accessible?

Specific: First in 2009 I looked up a page titled to the effect: "science as a religion". Revisited it after quick search a number of times in following years, possibly as late as 5 years later.

Search it now and nothing.

It was an objective article, examining the widespread use of science as a label on de facto religion. I see non reason it would be deleted, and, again, was up for years. Is it deleted because the rulers of Wikipedia, subscribers tp the religion, consider it blasphemous? That is the only reason I can imagine it would be deleted.

Where and why did it go?

Thanks, 64.98.16.29 (talk) 05:42, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There was never such an article. Wikipedia is WP:NOTCENSORED and any deletion reasons would have had to comply with Wikipedia:Deletion policy. Generally, only administrators can view the content of deleted articles, but you can also try looking in the archives of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion.--Jasper Deng (talk) 06:05, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

We have Relationship between religion and science, could that be it? Scientism might also be of interest. There doesn't seem to have ever been "science as a religion" as an article title here, but if the title was slightly different it might have existed. If you can remember or guess the exact title, we can look for it. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 06:34, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There is also archive.org (and others), which may have archived the article you seek. Just search there for something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_the_article_with_spaces_replaced_by_underscores. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 07:55, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Admittedly this is a long shot, because it's so obvious you've likely already considered it or discarded it as irrelevant, but could this be anything to do with Christian Science? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.130.19} 90.197.25.111 (talk) 13:49, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Intentionally derivative work?

If I create an image which is to show massive similarity between two copyright/trademarked individual images, will this still be considered a derivative work and be susceptible to deletion, even when the intention is to draw attention to the similarities?

For example - the logo for Electric Dreams Software and Captain EO? I'm not asking of the validity of doing such a thing, or whether it's notable, or indeed a valid use of my time - only whether the creation of such an image would fall foul of derivative - or any other copyright/Non-free usage.

Thanks. Chaheel Riens (talk) 07:52, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Chaheel Riens: you may get a quicker answer if you ask at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. Seagull123 Φ 12:29, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Chaheel Riens: It is clearly a derivative work. Whether or not you can use it outside of Wikipedia under some "fair use" rationale involving research or analysis is beyond the scope of this help desk. Whether or not you can upload it to the English Wikipedia is an additional question, since our "fair use" rules are even more stringent than those in the law. I do not think you will be able to meet all ten of the requirements: see Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria. Specifically, you cannot upload it unless it has already been published elsewhere. -Arch dude (talk) 14:54, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the replies - I've brought it up over at the copyright desk as suggested. Not sure why you feel it necessary to question usage outside of Wiki, when it's clear that I'm only referring to usage within, but thanks anyway. Chaheel Riens (talk) 15:22, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That wasn't clear to me, Chaheel Riens: I was also wondering whether you were talking about for Wikipedia or not. --ColinFine (talk) 15:35, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Chaheel Riens: While I assumed you meant Wikipedia-only, you did not say that. I covered both cases primarily to make sure you understood the difference between copyright law and Wikipedia policy. However, I also tried to answer comprehensively because (only rarely, alas) people seeking help will look at the help desk archives. -Arch dude (talk) 17:25, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm lost

Trying use the Radio Reference page to acquire the old emergency response, police or any type of recorded communication related to my daughter passing away after a car accident. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gdgoaty1 (talk • contribs) 08:15, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Gdgoaty1 I'm sorry to hear about your loss. This is not a general help desk, but a place to ask questions about using Wikipedia. I might suggest that you contact the relevant authorities involved. 331dot (talk) 08:18, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Gdgoaty1: I'm sorry for your terrible loss. I think you want Broadcastify's archives or the support system there. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:28, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

QAnon

Why is the Qanon page labelled as far right? I cannot find any evidence linking them with the far right and the article has been locked for editing so it cannot be amended. This is spreading false information and needs to be corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cubix1990 (talk • contribs) 10:08, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Cubix1990: The description appears to be sourced. Wikipedia reports on what has been written in reliable sources. The correct place to raise this is at the article talk page, which it seems you have already done. Please do not ask similar questions in multiple locations as this can cause confusion and take up the time of other volunteers. (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 10:49, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The source material is an online news article that again provides no proof of it being a far right organisation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cubix1990 (talk • contribs) 11:03, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's more than one source I think; but again, please discuss at the talk page; that's what it is there for and please sign your posts. Eagleash (talk) 11:14, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

student assignment

i have as an assignment in my university class that students edit a woman innovators page - part of the requirement is that they submit the edits to wikipedia is there a way to confirm edits by my students? thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Profgolden (talk • contribs) 11:50, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't an exact answer to your question, but for more general help to do with student assignments on Wikipedia: if this is through the Wikipedia Education Program, there's help available here, and there's a more in-depth information page about student assignments here. Seagull123 Φ 12:25, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Profgolden: in addition to the above, Wikipedia:Education program/Educators is a short and complete summary. You should absolutely register your course and have your students sign on it on the Dashboard here. If you have particular questions about education assignments on Wikipedia, you might also ask them at Wikipedia:Education noticeboard.

To answer directly your question, edits performed by a given account can be seen via the link Special:Contributions. However, this will not include edits to articles that are deleted. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:12, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Profgolden: each student should create a separate Wikipedia account, since the use of shared accounts is disallowed. Each edit by any Wikipedia editor is logged on the "history" page of the article. A student may therefore tell the instructor the account name and the article, and the instructor may verify that the edits occurred by checking the history page. The instructor and the student can also see any reactions by other editors, such as reversions due to lack of sourcing or copyedits to improve the result. -Arch dude (talk) 14:18, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am confused and I need help

I wanted to put a photo on IAR 99 wikipage but I don't know what I am doing. Please help.

Explication: After I finished writing without an account in the Romanian version the Armament in it's entirety I tried to put a photo from a website that wasn't up anymore that I found through wayback machine, as there's a similar photo uploaded and at first I put the licence on unknown, but after I've finished all the mess I've done I tried to change the licence again, without knowing how, and failed. That photo was and still is on a public domain and it seems to come from a flight manual.

Please help me.

The photo that I want to upload on the IAR 99 romanian version on Armament is in this link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IAR-99_armament.png — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheRealFanin (talk • contribs) 16:55, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

TheRealFanin, The major problem is that you are using a picture from a source that you do not own. Thus it is almost certain that the copyright is owned by another and that it is not freely licensed. Commons has been asked to delete that upload

Even if you create d faithful copy, that copy, because it does not differ materially from the original, is likely also to be a breach of copyright.

Your solution is to get permission to use the picture and to submit a request, perhaps to Wikipedia, perhaps to Commons. Fiddle Faddle 17:07, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@TheRealFanin: Personal opinion: an image sourced from a flight manual (for a commercial product of a company) may not be likely to be "public-domain" (which has a specific legal meaning in copyright law, and is commonly mis-understood by people who think it means something like "publicly-available on a website").

However, this is the help desk for the English Wikipedia only. Since the issue seems to be about an image uploaded to Commons for use on the Romanian Wikipedia, both of which are separate projects with their own help desks, you should probably discuss the issue at those. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:43, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

info regarding afd

how will i know that i've nominated a page for deletion correctly ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iitianeditor (talk • contribs) 17:06, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Iitianeditor: You shouldn’t be nominating articles for deletion after having an account for two days. Nonetheless, I corrected a misspelling in your nomination and linked to the article. (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) TimTempleton ^(talk) ^(cont) 17:31, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Charles Nordby

Charles Nordby was born on August 8th 1924 in San Francisco California to Lincoln and Doris Nordby. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jack Nordby (talk • contribs) 18:24, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Jack Nordby We do not appear to have an article about Charles Nordby. I'm not sure why you felt the need to post that information about him to the help desk. Do you have a question about using or editing Wikipedia? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 18:38, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)@Jack Nordby: Wikipedia does not appear to have an article about Charles Nordby; please provide a link to an article where you might be experiencing problems and also be more specific about what help you need. (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 18:42, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Italic entries in categories

How do you add/remove italic entries in categories?--Hse643 (talk) 18:55, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Hse643: Not 100% sure what you asking about, but an entry in italics would most probably be a redirect. Redirects are typically found in only one basic category. To add or remove you would go to the article (or redirect) and add or remove the category from it. If you are taken to the target page (I.e. the page to which the redirect points) you should find a link very near to the top of the page something like 'redirected from etc.' As I understand it, redirects should not be wholly uncategorised. Eagleash (talk) 19:26, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I'm talking about redirects. So instead of editing the page it redirects to, I edit the redirect link?--Hse643 (talk) 19:37, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Hse643: You edit the redirect page. I.e. the page which has a heading which may be a common misspelling or an alternative name. An example would be Walter Hinshelwood, which redirects to Wally Hinshelwood. Eagleash (talk) 19:48, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

donations

Hi, I keep getting Wikipedia requests for a donation on my iPad, no problem, but I don't do finance on that, I use my PC instead. So I have made donations on a PC but still keep getting requests on the iPad. Do I have to use an iPad. I have more than one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Therustyone (talk • contribs) 19:20, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Therustyone: You may set a preference to not get further donation requests. As far as I know, this affects all logins from all devices, so you cannot just suppress it from just your iPads. You may wish to suppress it everywhere and then set a separate annual reminder in your off-Wiki calendar. -Arch dude (talk) 20:32, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Therustyone: I'm guessing you are not logged-in to Wikipedia on your iPad? That would be the solution. If you're concerned about leaving your iPad logged in to your main account, this is a legitimate reason to create an alternate account for use in public. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:57, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

AlanM1, you hit the nail on the head, my smaller iPad is not logged in, no reason to log it in previously, out of the approx 7 devices I use on the internet. So Wikipedia doesn't know whose it is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Therustyone (talk • contribs) 07:02, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Donations

I guess I’m one of the 2% that has given a couple times because I appreciate your services and I give randomly due to lack of funds as in I will give more when it hits me at the time. I also give without being coerced into it. My question is do you just bombard the people who have given ? Thanks, John — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:601:8300:C620:82B:EFBD:2750:EF4C (talk) 19:28, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Good news: We do not put cookies on your computer, so we cannot track you by your IP address. Bad news: we therefore have no way to know if you have given, UNLESS you create and account and log in. If you do log in, you can tell us to quit asking you for a donation. Please do not donate unless you have the money and the desire. -Arch dude (talk) 20:23, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

In other words: Wikipedia has no way of knowing if you have already donated. If you don't wish to donate a second time, then just don't. JIP | Talk 20:42, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia does place cookies in your browser though you can clear them or block some of their origins (like the one for geotracking) if you use an ad blocker. I don't think they are used for tracking donors. I made a small donation some years ago and I did get a few followup solicitations (snail mail) though I wouldn't call that a bombardment. But, as Arch dude says, don't donate unless you can easily afford to. The WMF currently has plenty of funds and while it can always find ways to spend new income, in reality it did fine when it was smaller, and it has reached the point where its financial appetite begins to interfere with the Wikipedia project's mission instead of supporting it. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 20:50, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Cite errors/Cite error included ref-How to remove an incorrect reference page and correct a name

Courtesy link: Tiffany Alston

Can some tell me the steps to correct a name on WIKI? Also, how do you remove an incorrect reference page that links two different people with similar names? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Helpmefixthis (talk • contribs) 20:54, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Helpmefixthis: Please can you be a little more precise about what you wish to do and provide a link or links to pages where you need help. (Please remember to sign your posts on talk pages by typing four keyboard tildes like this: ~~~~. Or, you can use the [ reply ] button, which automatically signs posts.) Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 20:57, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Helpmefixthis, this sounds like a conversation you may want to have with other editors on the article's talk page. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:58, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed the date; value used was not recognised as valid. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 20:59, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Admin got involved with a very minor issue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Woody#I_have_problem_with_your_recent_action Hello i am here to seek additional assistance to possibly go to that page to help resolve a issue. I know IP has right to edit, but the IP was messing up the page by disobeying guidelines. Now a admin got involved to take action to the wrong people and heavily protected the page!. HELP thank you. Kent Bargo (talk) 23:46, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Kent Bargo, the correct venue for administrative queries is at WP:AN. You might get a more relevant response there. Ed talk! 23:48, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I seeking assistance without going ANI, Feel this simple issue that we normally fix became havoc over miscommunication. Kent Bargo (talk) 23:51, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Kent Bargo: Further miscommunication here will not improve the situation, whatever it is (I can't immediately see a problem, but I'm not an admin, and not necessarily qualified). If you have a problem with Woody's actions, and you are unable to resolve it to your satisfaction, and want to further escalate, as Woody suggested, the place to go is WP:AN or WP:ANI. You might be more clear about what it is you want the outcome to be. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 01:08, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Coordination between Japanese and English pages

We have some great source documents in Japanese that will be used to create Japanese edits. But a couple questions: Q. How can we know WHEN the JPN W editors will review the edits and approve them (or let them be)?

Once the JPN page is reviewed and good to go, we would like to use the same info to edit the ENG page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_forwarding Q. How can we get the JPN W editors and ENG W editors to talk so that our ENG edits don't get taken down. (Our source docs are all in Japanese, so we have no way to refer to them in ENG. The fear is that ENG W editors will take down the edits since they can't see what the source docs say. So we feel coordination between JPN W editors and ENG W editors may bridge that gap.)

Also, our source docs are NOT on the internet. Q Is there going to be a problem in using them?

Zooraccoon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zooraccoon (talk • contribs) 23:47, 20 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Zooraccoon. The JA and EN Wikipedias are entirely separate projects, with different people, and potentially different policies and rules. We cannot tell you here anything at all about getting your edits on ja-wiki approved. We also will not know until you try it whether other editors will accept your edits on en-wiki, or revert them: Getting them approved on ja-wiki has no bearing at all on en-wiki: the standards of sourcing may be very different (or they may be the same: I don't know). Sources for en-wiki do not have to be online, and do not have to be in English, though English sources are preferred if they are available. But the sources do have to be reliably published. Note that in general, edits to an existing article in en-wiki are not subject to any kind of approval process; but any editor can revert them according to BRD. --ColinFine (talk) 00:05, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Zooraccoon, there's nothing wrong with using offline sources, as long as they're reliable and independent. The JPN and ENG Wikipedias have different standards, so something that is permissible on the JPN Wikipedia may not be on here. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 00:05, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Zooraccoon: your sources do not need to be online, and they do not need to be in English. However, they do need to have been published in a way that makes them available to to general public in a library somewhere, and they must be secondary sources, not primary sources. Thus, if you have access to the private letters of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, you cannot use them as your sources. The principle here is that some Wikipedian can in theory get access to the source based only on the citation you provide. See WP:V. When you get as far as creating the English article, I recommend that you explain and document the location of the sources in a section on the article's talk page thet references WP:V and how the sources qualify. -Arch dude (talk) 00:16, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Zooraccoon: Who is "we"? Each Wikipedia account must be used by only a single individual, not a group. -Arch dude (talk) 00:24, 21 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]