Help desk
< February 24	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 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.

February 25

Aja People

There's this one guy who told me that they reverted an edit I made in the article about the Aja people, even though I didn't do or edit anything. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24pateoh (talk • contribs) 02:18, 25 February 2020 (UTC) :[reply]

Special:Diff/940678124 - FlightTime (open channel) 02:24, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@24pateoh: Yes you did edit that article, as you can see from the link that FlightTime has provided. JBW (talk) 16:45, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sidebar changes

Are terrible. Some of us are using Wikipedia in environments where we *can't* sign in due to opsec reasons and forcing the language to the locale without letting us just use a cookie to change it is ill-advised at best. I realize this seems to be a side effect of the new MediaWiki software rolling out today but the vast majority of people read Wikipedia not-logged-in and I would hope this isn't a ploy to force people to log in for tracking purposes. Please reconsider this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.189.164.104 (talk) 03:18, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The people who frequent this Help desk are people who can advise about editing Wikipedia. Few or none of them have anything to do with the provision or maintenance of the software. A better place to discuss this would be at WP:VPT. --ColinFine (talk) 15:06, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably the same issue as #Interface language below, which is resolved now. Peter Coombe (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 15:10, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Interface language

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T246071

Who thought it was a good idea to restrict the user interface language to the language attributed to the local IP address even when you are visiting Wikipedia in another language? This is totally useless and confusing since you have to look twice which language version you are looking at. There is a high chance that people who visit Wikipedia in a different language are able to at least navigate through if not read that language. Besides, the language settings are clearly broken. It says the interface language is just like the content language, which it is clearly not. I am based in Germany and I want to see everything in English when I'm on the English Wikipedia. I can imagine how monolingual expatriates would think about this. This is as bad as the horrendous collapsing of the language table into continent clusters done years ago. These changes are making things more difficult for people who speak multiple languages. --2001:16B8:3133:4800:2C9A:F755:44BF:D0B3 (talk) 09:39, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You know, you used to beat us and put soap into our mouth for not speaking English because this is America and we were dirty Injuns. Now you found a new way of showing us whose country this is. Navajo and Cherokee wikipedia are in English only. Very clever. 174.22.206.104 (talk) 10:49, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

These are English only? [1][2] Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:30, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think 174 is complaining that Navajo and Cherokee Wikipedias have their navigation links in English. But that is not a matter for English Wikipedia or its Help Desk. We here have no control over how other language Wikipedias are managed.

I find 2001's criticism harder to understand. In my experience, what I see in Wikipedia is not affected by my location. Maproom (talk) 11:42, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Given multiple edits on the issue, there's clearly been some location-based changes for IP editors. Nosebagbear (talk) 11:58, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am seeing their navigation links in Finnish. This must be because my local desktop session is somehow using Finnish as a default language. The Navajo and Cherokee Wikipedias have nothing to do with the Finnish language. JIP | Talk 12:40, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Now they have changed to what I assume are the Navajo and Cherokee languages. JIP | Talk 12:43, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Something fishy seems to be going on indeed. Filed phab:T246095. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:17, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

For logged-out users it appears the interface is now using the browser's language setting (in the Accept-Language header), instead of the language set for the site. If you are logged in, then your site preferences will override both. Tracking this issue at phab:T246071. Peter Coombe (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 13:14, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

this is now

Fixed —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:14, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is a bug, but it's sad how many people are using a browser in English when it's not their first language. The state of internationalization and localization in 2020 should be better than this. Nemo 14:13, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This should be resolved now. Peter Coombe (Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 15:09, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Help with Vandalism

If any administrator is nearby, I need your help, this guy is vandalising the main Russia page and is spreading lies to the community. Can you send him a proper warning that if he does this again, can you block him? He consistently disputes with me about this until it turned from an argument to vandalism. I need admin help immediately, please respond.

Seryo93 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)

He vandalizes two pages, the Russia main page and the Demographics of Russia page. Please warn him about this issue and have him cease these actions and stop spreading lies immediately, thank you. (e.g. vandalised past 4th warning). IntercontinentalEmpire (talk) 14:24, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I fail to see how this is vandalism. It's just a content dispute about a difference in population. Nothing to block anyone about. JIP | Talk 14:30, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, IntercontinentalEmpire, but frankly you'd be better off dealing with the litany of comments on you talk page regarding conflict of interest, POV-pushing, edit-warring and disruptive editing, to name but a few. I'm afraid, unless you can provide reliable sources to justify your hiking of the Russian population figures, the issues on your talk are going to be the context in which your attempted changes are going to be seen in. ——SN 54129 14:33, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, it is IntercontinentalEmpire (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), who engages in vandalism of the page (putting 2017 population numbers as 2020, even without bothering to alter citation template), just because he objects the fact that Russian population declined last year (for whatever reasons). One might consult my comment of 08:22, 10 February 2020 (UTC)] at Russia TP - as an example of what IntercontinentalEmpire does. Bests, --Seryo93 (talk) 15:15, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And also POV-push from them, by putting map with undisputed (dark-green) Crimea. Bests --Seryo93 (talk) 15:17, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

...and none of it belongs here. If you two can't follow the dispute resolution process, take it to WP:ANI, where you may both receive a clue. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 21:27, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Terrible UI change without my consent - giant ugly arrows on desktop

I would like to draw your attention to this terrible UI change - on the In the news candidates page, I can see two giant ugly arrows in the bottom right corner of my screen. What is their functionality? The same as the Home and End buttons of my keyboard! I vehemently oppose this terrible downgrade, that has not even asked for my consent!--Adûnâi (talk) 15:51, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Adûnâi, that is template:Skip to top and bottom, which can be added and removed by anyone in the same way as any other template.

If you really don't like it, you can add

#skip-to-top-button, #skip-to-bottom-button {display: none;}

to Special:MyPage/common.css, which will hide it anywhere it is used. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 16:01, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you want it removed, wp:BRD applies as usual. It was added in Special:Diff/917933332. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 16:07, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Also, Wikipedia:You don't own Wikipedia. Editors don't require your prior approval to make changes. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 16:16, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, it has worked.--Adûnâi (talk) 17:32, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

NEW

My page has been deleted. I am trying to create a reference for the new artist ash baker not a personal page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ASH BAKER (talk • contribs) 16:23, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ASH BAKER Your draft was deleted because it was blatantly promotional. Wikipedia is not for telling the world about yourself or advancing your music career. Autobiographical articles are strongly discouraged, see autobiography policy. 331dot (talk) 16:28, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Transcluded page

Hello, Can you please help me understand what it means that I page I created for Lynden Miller is marked as transcluded and why? Do pages get un-transcluded? Many thanks for your help. Minard38 (talk) 16:45, 25 February 2020 (UTC)Minard38[reply]

I'm guessing you're referring to what is displayed on Special:WhatLinksHere/Lynden_Miller? All pages are shown as transcluding themselves on that page. Transclusion is when a page includes some other page, I guess the database just marks all pages as including themselves. – Thjarkur (talk) 16:59, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your prompt and helpful observation. Minard38 (talk) 17:03, 25 February 2020 (UTC)Minard38[reply]

It is not Lynden Miller transcluding Lynden Miller per se, rather, it is Module:Citation/CS1 that makes it appear that Lynden Miller transcludes Lynden Miller. cs1|2 templates are rendered by Module:citation/CS1. That module reads the content of the wikipedia article where the cs1|2 templates are used to discover if the article contains one of the {{use xxx dates}} templates. To do this Module:Citation/CS1 gets a title object for the article and then calls the object's function getContent() (mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#Title objects). When it does that, the article is recorded as a transclusion of itself.

Yeah, I know, tmi.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:08, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Trappist the monk: Not TMI, and welcome! I noticed the "self-transclusion" a while back and never got around to figuring out whether it was a bug or a feature. One more thing off my bucket list.

But it would be marginally good (though not worth wasting anyone's time) if "it" were to somehow exclude this particular case somehow. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 21:40, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

But it would be marginally good ... if "it" were to somehow exclude this particular case somehow. Sorry, don't understand. What is it that you want excluded?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 22:55, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Showing an article in its own list of transclusions. Totally NBD. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 07:05, 26 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Change company logo

To whom it may concern,

I am the Creative and UX Designer for Aura Identity Guard and I would like to update the logo on the "Identity Guard" page. I read that I might have to upload it on the commons page put I do not want to relinquish rights to our company logo. Is there a way to change the old existing logo and update it to the new one?

Thank you,

Jon — Preceding unsigned comment added by AuraIDG (talk • contribs) 17:07, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

AuraIDG, yes, logos under fair use are images that can be used without a free license here. I would recommend making a request at Wikipedia:Files for upload, where users experienced in fair use images and their templates can upload and tag it for you. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 17:30, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Hello, Jon. I'm afraid there are some rather important administrative points to deal with before answering your question.

First, if you are employed by AuraIDG, you must declare your status as a paid editor before you do anything in regard to that article.

Secondly, user names which suggest that they are editing on behalf of an organisation are not permitted: you should change your username (or, as easily, abandon that one, and create a new one). The account should be personal to you, not shared with anybody else. You can use yor real name, as I do, or a pseudonym; and a name like "Jon from Aura IDG" would be acceptable.

Now, to get to your question: normally, images must be free for reuse and uploaded to Commons; but there are some exceptions, and logos are a major exception. However, because of your COI, it would be best if you placed an edit request on the talk page Talk:Identity Guard, asking for somebody to upload and use the new logo (include a URL for it). --ColinFine (talk) 17:35, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Please help create a redirect

Hello! I have created an article about Valentine de Laborde and wanted to create a redirect from Valentine Delessert ( as she is also known under this name) to it. I tried to create it as an article but obviously it was a mistake as now I have an article - Valentine Delessert. Can someone please help me with it. It was my first time creating redirect and reading manual didn't work for me). Thank you in advance. --Less Unless (talk) 18:26, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have fixed the redirect for you. You almost had it, but for whatever reason (I'd assume it was due to visual editor) there were nowiki tags on it. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:32, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! --Less Unless (talk) 18:36, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Creating wikipedia page

I would like to create Wikipedia page for my husband Peter Cohen a 18 year veteran at Amazon, investor of Mechanical Turk, AWS etc. we lost him to ALS last year at 53. He holds 20 cloud foundational patents. Etc.

Can I get a service to help me create his profile. Some of the services want me to pay them $7k to put this together.

We have create Peter Cohen Foundation a non profit 501(c)3 organization to help bring Technology innovations to Cure ALS.

Your help in this matter would really help me and us to create awareness on ALS as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:1D00:C84F:2CD9:E43B:BBBC:A08E (talk) 18:51, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am sorry for your loss. Wikipedia does not itself offer paid editing or article writing services. Many businesses or individuals claim to offer this service, but don't hand over any money until you see the end result. Despite what they claim, they can make no guarantees(such as writing an article that will not be deleted). They also must declare that you are paying them per the paid editing policy. In order to merit an article on Wikipedia, there must be many independent reliable sources that have significant coverage of your husband showing how he meets the Wikipedia definition of a notable person. I do not say this to minimize your husband's accomplishments or role in people's lives, which must be substantial. But Wikipedia is not a place to merely memorialize someone who has passed. There are forums in which that can be done.

Wanting to "create awareness" of ALS is a laudable goal, but Wikipedia is not the proper platform to do that. Social media platforms would be a better fit for that goal. 331dot (talk) 18:59, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Help in creating company profile for Wikipedia

Hello everyone!

It`s my first time creating a Wikipedia page. I tried creating one for a company, but Wikipedia deleted it, alleging that it was advertising. How can I contact contributor to help me, or view some guidelines so it doesn`t happen again? I also wanted to know, if contributors provide the service to create the page for me, and if so, how can I contact them?

Thanks in advance! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 179.27.81.138 (talk) 20:10, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are no edits from your IP other than the above, so I can't look at your draft to tell you what the issue was. You can contact the administrator that deleted it- if you have an account and user talk page, there is likely a notice there, or you can look at the deletion log to see who deleted it. (again, if you would tell the name of the draft, I could tell you who deleted it myself)

Note that out of six million plus pages, there is not a single "profile" on Wikipedia. Wikipedia has articles. This is a subtle but important distinction. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that has articles about subjects shown with significant coverage in independent reliable sources to meet Wikipedia's special definition of notability; in this case, the definition of a notable company.

If you work for this company, you must review and comply with the conflict of interest and paid editing policies. The latter is a Terms of Use requirement and mandatory if you work for the company. 331dot (talk) 20:16, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiBirthday

I am curious about this. Today (date of February 25 in the USA) is my WikiBirthday. On one of my "user pages" (here: User:Joseph A. Spadaro/Sandbox/Page-Intro-10), I have the User Box for Wikipedia birth dates. The User Box is here: [3]. Therefore, is there any reason that I am not listed on this page here ([4]) of WikiBirthdays? Any ideas? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:11, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Right after I typed the above question, my name now does appear at this page: [5]. So, what's going on and what just happened? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:20, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Joseph A. Spadaro: The software needed a kick to get the template's logic through to the category page; for performance reasons, the software doesn't recalculate the effect of every template every time someone looks at a page. I made a null edit to your sandbox page and then a purge of the category page, and it is now showing up. But it is likely to remain there tomorrow unless someone goes through those steps again. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:24, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@John of Reading: OK. Great. Thanks. But, just so I am clear ... doesn't that specific page (Wikipedia Birthdays) change every single day? Regardless of whether or not anyone goes through all the steps you just discussed? I imagine that, day-by-day, that page changes to reflect the new day's birthdays. No? So, tomorrow (February 26), it will list a whole bunch of new people with the February 26 birthday ... and "erase" the people with the old birthday of February 25. No? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:32, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@John of Reading: Also ... where is this "null edit" that you made to my Sandbox page? I can't seem to find anything in the history tabs? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:37, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Joseph A. Spadaro: The software doesn't know which of Wikipedia's 50 million pages (roughly) need to be re-processed at the end of today; it won't get round to updating the category. I picked a random name in Category:Current Wikipedia birthdays and found Shakibul Alam Risvy, whose userboxes page says {{User Wikipedian For|year=2014|month=2|day=21}} - four days ago.

A null edit, by definition, makes no change to the page and doesn't show up in the history. It just gets the software to re-think the templates that are already there. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:49, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Problems opening wikipedia dump file bz2 or its xml

Hi, I just downloaded enwiki-20200201-pages-articles-multistream.xml.bz2 .

I tried to open it with wikidumpparser. It crashed on the first line, saying "System.Xml.XmlException: 'Unexpected end of file has occurred. The following elements are not closed: mediawiki. Line 45, position 1.'" I extracted the xml file. Too big for notepad++. I tried using firstobject xml editor, which I have used to open xml files larger than a few Gigabites before. Firstobject xml editor just closed without any error message when I tried to open the xml.

I would prefer to open it in .net, but any language will do. I just want a program to be able to look up many articles, and I thought a local file would be better than many calls to the online wikipedia. Perhaps I was wrong. Do you have any suggestions? Is there something wrong with the dump? Is it a newer format? Do you have any suggestions on how to access it at all or alternatively for accessing the online wikipedia often in the best way? Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 20:15, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have used a few .net libraries some years ago, but as I read the documentation, nowadays I need permission, and probably special permission if I want to make many calls. So I thought the dump might be an alternative, not to disturb anyone too much. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 20:50, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Star Lord - 星爵. There may or may not be people reading this page who know about downloading WP. You might get a better response at WP:VPT. --ColinFine (talk) 22:08, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of content

I am asking why my content which are facts was undone on the Sons of Confederate Veterans page. I feel that every one that i post on here which are facts are always undone. Please let me know please. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kellyrl1861 (talk • contribs) 20:20, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Please, always sign your posts with four tildes - ~~~~ - otherwise we will not know who are you and therefore will not be able to answer your question. Ruslik_Zero 20:30, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Editor states they are a member of the organisation and thus knows about it. Also the usual confusion about what a Wikipedia article is. Doug Weller talk 20:35, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Kellyrl1861 Wikipedia articles summarize what independent reliable sources state about subjects, not what the subject says about itself(like what an organization describes its purpose or mission as). 331dot (talk) 22:14, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

List of mayors of Leeds

Ref. number 1 on this page is in red. Please fix. thanks 203.132.68.1 (talk) 22:44, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The word "help" in the error message is in blue to show that it is a wikilink, in this case to Help:CS1 errors#bad isbn. --David Biddulph (talk) 22:54, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Done, there were two numbers in the isbn field of the ref. MB 22:56, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

incorrect photo information on page - Tremper Mound and Works

Hello Wikipedia - on the page entitled TREMPER MOUND AND WORKS - there is a photo near the middle of the page of a stone object,in the minimalist form of a bird. This object is presented as a mound relic from Tremper Mound - which is a Hopewell Culture construction, the bird shown is from two thousand years earlier, from the late archaic era, from the Glacial Kame cultural complex. Tremper Mound is famous for the discovery of 100.s of platform effigy pipes, which are in the Ohio Historical Society Collection. Any photos accompanying the Tremper mound page should include a platform effigy pipe. Thank-you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:3840:3840:31D5:EE54:9CC:52F9 (talk) 23:06, 25 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for reporting this. I have copied your request to Talk:Tremper Mound and Works, in the hope that someone there will deal with it. Maproom (talk) 08:55, 26 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]