Help desk
< February 5	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 7 >

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 6

Assuming phonetics of a person's surname

Hi, can personal analysis on YouTube videos be used to determine the pronunciation of a person's name in a wiki article? It has been done here, by some IPs, They keep reverting when I suggested to them to find a text based source. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 06:49, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It may have to do with the context. Your example was for an actor, and it's possible that people editing in other fields have different editorial standards. If your edits resemble the one in your example, they could even possibly be seen as OR. Discuss on the article's Talk page. --Quisqualis (talk) 07:02, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Quisqualis: Thanks for the quick reply. Can you direct me to someone who knows about this stuff? Regards. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 07:06, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Everyone here knows about how to deal with reversion of our edits. WP:BRD lays out the steps: Be bold (you were), Revert (what the other editor(s) did), Discuss (time for that now). To my recent awareness, your particular situation hasn't come up lately, but I'm sure it crops up periodically. Before you begin a discussion, you might point us (here at the Teahouse) to the diff/ "edit preview" pages showing where you were reverted. Sometimes, a reversion does not reflect the imposition of a specific rule, but has caught something improper, and we know it when we see it. So please provide us diffs or tell us which article(s).--Quisqualis (talk) 14:51, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If I'm understanding right - WP:IPA is the place to go. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 19:32, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Lee Vilenski. I got this IPA thing done by an expert in the article talk. - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 08:02, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I wanted to create my profile on wikipedia

Hi there, I want to create my profile on wikipedia. Please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by Krishna Sharma Poudel (talk • contribs) 09:24, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Krishna Sharma Poudel, please don't. We strongly discourage creating an autobiography, and they would typically be deleted. It is very difficult to write about yourself, whilst complying with all of the Wiki's polices. ~~ Alex Noble - talk 10:02, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Krishna Sharma Poudel You will not find a single "profile" on Wikipedia, that is a social media term. Wikipedia has articles. As an encyclopedia, those articles must summarize what independent reliable sources with significant coverage state about people that meet Wikipedia's special definition of a notable person. Wikipedia is not interested in what someone wants to say about themselves.

As noted, autobiographies are strongly discouraged here per our policy on autobiographies. In order for you to be successful in writing about yourself, you would essentially need to forget everything you know about yourself and only write based on the content of independent sources. Most people cannot do that. In addition, a Wikipedia article is not necessarily desirable. There are good reasons to not want one; you cannot lock it to the text that you might prefer, or prevent others from editing it. Any information, good or bad, can be in an article about you as long as it appears in an independent sources and is not defamatory. If you just want to tell the world about yourself, you should use actual social media, like Facebook or the equivalent in your country. 331dot (talk) 10:06, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

unable to edit reference

It's True! It's True! i am trying to edit reference 14 in References, it contains code in source editing mode {{Reflist|2}}. when i try to tap reference 14 of Footnotes in visual editing mode, it shows message : "List of references for group "lower-alpha" This reference list is generated by a template, and for now can only be edited in source mode.'. the source editing code of Footnotes is {{notelist}}.

how to edit reference 14 ? i am using browser : fennec 68.4.1 Leela52452 (talk) 09:25, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The reference is inside a footnote. That footnote is in the section called Spanish Fly - X201 (talk) 09:31, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

North Macedonia persons infobox

Hello. Metodija Velichkovski is a officer in the Army of North Macedonia. The infobox in his article currently states that his allegiance is: Republic of North Macedonia (1991―present). Does this need to be changed to reflect that this country is now called "North Macedonia", and if so, how is this written? --LukeSurl^{t c} 10:53, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@LukeSurl: It seems to be the {{Flag|Republic of North Macedonia}} part in the allegiance parameter to the {{Infobox military person}}, which would be replaced with {{Flag|North Macedonia}}. --CiaPan (talk) 11:36, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

However, our article on North Macedonia says it's “officially the Republic of North Macedonia”. Are you sure it should be changed to the shorter version...? --CiaPan (talk) 11:38, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, to clarify, I was wondering if there needs to be a change to reflect that the country's name changed during this individual's period of military service. --LukeSurl^{t c} 11:50, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: Miroslav Stojanovski is currently stated as having allegiance to Republic of Macedonia (1991–present), which is a different form to Metodija Velichkovski's infobox. --LukeSurl^{t c} 11:54, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Error in Stephen Hawking wikilinks

Hello

I just realized that the french wikilink from the Stephen Hawking article is pointing to Christophe Galfard

However, the wikilink is correct !

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17714#sitelinks-wikipedia

How is that possible ? --Effco (talk) 13:19, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Effco: It's the result of removing a single colon in this edit Special:Diff/936095918, which tranformed the meaning of an interwiki link: :fr:Christophe Galfard was an 'almost ordinary' wikilink from the English article to the French article, and it became fr:Christophe Galfard, an 'In other languages' side link to French Wikipedia article. Fixed: Special:Diff/939437413. --CiaPan (talk) 13:31, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. That was a tough one, thanks ! --Effco (talk) 13:35, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@CiaPan: (or anyone) So we don't have duplicated efforts, has this been reported as a CitationBot bug and is anyone working on fixing the other articles with the problem? I'm getting timeouts and trying to narrow down the search, but there are definitely many other articles with the problem. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 23:10, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@AlanM1: 1. Yes, I have reported it (now in archives: User talk:Citation bot/Archive 19#Transforms bad interlanguage links into worse interlanguage links) and AManWithNoPlan commented the issue as 'fixed already' (Special:Diff/939452953).
2. I have no idea how to find similar cases in articles.

--CiaPan (talk) 06:51, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

misleading information

by the problem of saying that something is free but isn't several free criminal check is free and lead me to a credit card point of purchase sale what's goiing on is this spam mail thank you, ms. josephine pierce — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:2200:4B80:F1AA:49E3:275F:2782 (talk) 15:46, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are in the wrong place. This is the help desk for Wikipedia. You probably found one of our six million articles and thought you were contacting the organization that the article is about. Sorry, no. Find the article, find the organization's own web site, and try again. -Arch dude (talk) 16:25, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Change Boreham Wood FC logo

Hi,

I work at Boreham Wood Football Club and have noticed that our logo is outdated on wikipedia, and i was wondering if i could have it changed?

I can send the correct logo through — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bpwiley (talk • contribs) 16:08, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Bpwiley: Please make this request on the talk page of the affected article, in a new section. Please include a link to an image of the logo on the web. Our rules for logos and other copyrighted material that we use under the "fair use" doctrine are very restrictive, and one of them is that the material must already have been "published" (i.e. available to the public on the web or elsewere). Please make sure to disclose your affiliation: (see WP:PAID) as you did here (thanks). Please add {{request edit}} to your request. -Arch dude (talk) 16:21, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Kirk Douglas

In the updated article on KD following his recent death, there is a reference to the film The Bad and the Beautiful in which the actresses Lauren Bacall & Doris Day are mentioned as being in the film as co-stars. In fact, neither is in the film, the actresses are Lana Turner & Gloria Grahame.

There is a "non-editable" descriptor on that part of the article so I ask that you edit it from your side.

leonard.joseph — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:4B00:82E9:6D00:6504:4818:75FE:690E (talk) 19:30, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the correction. I have remvoed the false claim which describes another film.[1] This is the first valid cast correction I have ever seen on this help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:57, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How to add a translation to an existing link to a document in another language.

Specifically I want to add an English translation of the article in this link,

http://digitalamodeller.se/arsbocker/daedalus-1955/helgo-wiberg-nagra-av-martin-wibergs-uppfinningar/

Which is in turn within the main reference at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Wiberg

(The first link under "further reading)

I have the translation text but not a link to it (it does not have a web page of its own). How can this be added as a logical extension to the first link above? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ulindroth (talk • contribs) 19:32, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There is no need to translate references. References should have a parameter for |Lang= which denotes which language it is in. We should be citing the initial source, not the translation. Best Wishes, Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 19:44, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Ulindroth. WP:NONENG says "As with sources in English, if a dispute arises involving a citation to a non-English source, editors may request a quotation of relevant portions of the original source be provided, either in text, in a footnote, or on the article talk page"; but I cannot find anywhere that discusses linking to a translation of the whole source: the citation template do not seem to have a parameter for that. --ColinFine (talk) 23:26, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Error on sidebar of wiki article

There is a problem with the Wikipedia article page about me - the sidebar to be exact which I can't edit. I am a graduate of Barnard College, not Juilliard. Also,my husband Karl E. Meyer died on December 22, 2019. He also has a wiki profile.

https://www.google.com/search?q=shareen+Brysac&oq=shareen+Brysac&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.10361j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Thanks for your help

Shareen Blair Brysac — Preceding unsigned comment added by Karlmeyer (talk • contribs) 20:25, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Are you by any chance referring to a photo or text shown to the right of a Google search? Google's Knowledge Graph uses a wide variety of sources. There may be a text paragraph ending with "Wikipedia" to indicate that particular text was copied from Wikipedia. An image and other text before or after the Wikipedia excerpt may be from sources completely unrelated to Wikipedia. We have no control over how Google presents our information, but Google's Knowledge Graph has a "Feedback" link where anyone can mark a field as wrong. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:42, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, Karlmeyer, our article Shareen Blair Brysac says you graduaated from Barnard, and has done so since it was first created. I'm sorry about your husband; but Wikipedia's article about him, Karl E. Meyer has contained the date of his death since 4th January. As it says above, we have no control over how or when Google updates information from Wikipedia. --ColinFine (talk) 23:37, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

how to change reference and endnote number format from roman numeral to arabic

Hi, I am trying to add new information to the Wikipedia webpage called Fred Cuny (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Cuny) as well as delete old information. I have 78 endnotes to my updates. However, when I drop in the new text into the Wikipedia webpage the reference number format and endnote number format switch from arabic numerals to lower case Roman numerals. What do I need to do to retain the arabic format?

Thanks for your help.

Thompson madison wi (talk) 20:32, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you mean about it switching from Arabic to Roman numerals. All of the references in every version I see are Arabic. That said, I have modified your reference format so that it matches the rest of the article. You say you have 78 endnotes to your updates, but I only see 2 in the edits you've made, so perhaps you still have more in an offline document you were working from? ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 20:53, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I still have the problem. Previously, I pasted in my new material and the arabic numerals became roman numerals when it was entered into Wikipedia. So, I deleted my paste. This time I left the pasted content in, and the same problem recurred, i.e., the numerals are now roman numerals. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thompson madison wi (talk • contribs) 21:07, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I see what you mean, but I don't know exactly what's causing the error. However, I'm going to assume you have a word document (or something similar) and are trying to copy and paste it into Wikipedia. That is always going to mess up some formatting somewhere unless the source document is plain-text. Unfortunately, I'll be leaving in the next 10 minutes or I'd go through and fix the reference formatting on what you just pasted in. Perhaps someone else will come along and do it, but in the mean time if you'd like to learn how to fix it yourself, I recommend you read through referencing for beginners, or take a look at the changes I made earlier to see how I encoded the references. The easiest way to fix them though, is to edit the source code (instead of using Visual Editor, which is what you were using) and wrap the text of the references in ref tags, like this: <ref>Reference details go here.</ref>~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 21:55, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Cite multiple reference lists and lots of errors

Hello - I'm trying to clean up this biography page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bronner. It seems like there are three different replicated reference lists. The first is full of errors (except for the first reference that I edited and somehow fixed), the second lot of references just shows the reference numbers ([1], [2], [3] etc) but no actual reference text, and the third lot of references is actually the correct information. How do I get rid of the first two lots of errored and empty references? I just want to keep the third lot of correct and error free references. Thank you so much for any help in advance! 2001:5B0:292D:67E8:A80E:8626:2622:1C02 (talk) 20:48, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going through article to see what it was like before, and after. What a mess. Should be fixable somehow.--Quisqualis (talk) 20:51, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Fortunately, not a complex problem. The editor systematically broke the ref syntax for every citation. I'm halfway through, if you want to check.--Quisqualis (talk) 22:10, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Very simple. The article had list-defined references, but was simply missing the "|refs=" parameter within the reflist. No need to change the citation style, just this simple edit. --David Biddulph (talk) 22:20, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I see that you've gone on changing the citation style. For future reference, if you don't know how list-defined references work, see Template:Reflist#List-defined references. It's not the style which I would use when writing an article, but the convention is that we don't, unless there is a good reason, change the citation style in an existing article. --David Biddulph (talk) 22:32, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I believe I had a fairly good reason. Did you see the article prior to my edits?--Quisqualis (talk) 22:52, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I did. Did you see the article after my simple edit? --David Biddulph (talk) 22:56, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

An editor inadvertently created my userpage

I used a code to delete my unused userpage in the past weeks, yet cannot find the diff in my contributions. Would anyone be able to give me that template? I will keep it on hand for reference.--Quisqualis (talk) 22:50, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Quisqualis: You can place {{Db-u1}} on your userpage and an admin will delete it. RudolfRed (talk) 22:55, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

User page User:Quisqualis deleted per user request. Thanks for the heads-up. JIP | Talk 23:17, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Protect talk page of permanently banned user?

User:TTN recently nominated an article created by User:JarlaxleArtemis for deletion. Now, JarlaxleArtemis has been permanently banned from the entire WikiMedia for over thirteen years and his talk page only consists of a ban message. TTN's deletion nomination added a message to it, which I reverted. TTN suggested that JarlaxleArtemis's talk page should be protected to avoid this happening again. Should this be done? JIP | Talk 23:08, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

After receiving positive feedback about this, I have protected User talk:JarlaxleArtemis from all editing for all non-admin users forever. JIP | Talk 02:17, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Posting a new photo to a wikipedia page

How do I add a new photo to a wikipedia page? I have added the photo to Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository but I would now like to display it on a specific wikipedia page. The image is a recent photo of the person who is named on the Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Dean_Wint MoDWik (talk) 23:43, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You need something like this: [[File:Maurice Dean Wint at the 2017 CFC Alumni at TIFF Reception (36827346660) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Maurice Dean Wint.]]. Replace the file name "Maurice Dean Wint at the 2017 CFC Alumni at TIFF Reception (36827346660) (cropped).jpg" with the name of your image on Commons. JIP | Talk 23:52, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you go to the Commons item you will find a preformatted link via 'use this file on a Wiki'. Eagleash (talk) 09:46, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 February 6