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adding secondary sources

In exploring the requirements for notable persons and the nature of secondary sources, I am wondering if this qualifies as an example of what is required, or not (sentence structure asides - still working on that!)

Draft:Randolph Charles Kent

In an interview exploring the challenges of futures thinking within the context of humanitarian scenarios, the researcher and futurist Steven Santer identifies in part that the initiative for futures thinking with respect to humanitarianism was born out of Dr. Kent's experiences as a UN Humanitarian Coordinator since 1987.

Thank you Nik9t (talk) 21:01, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello! Interviews featuring the person generally are not evidence of notability. They're primary sources, and they're something that the person helps arrange themselves, so it's not an independent third party taking note of them. You'll want to find articles about the person written by independent sources like newspapers. Otherwise, Randolph Charles Kent might not be a notable figure as Wikipedia defines it. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 21:10, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok, got it - thank you! Nik9t (talk) 21:30, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Hang on, @Thebiguglyalien: @Nik9t described that as an interview with somebody else, which was not what your answer was about. NIk9t, if Santer is wholly unconnected with Kent (not a colleague or associate), then that may well count as secondary. There is also the question of whether the interview was published by a reliable source: if it was published by Kent or his associates, it again would not be independent, and if it was published by Santer or his associates, it would be a self published source. WP:42 has a useful set of criteria for evaluating sources. ColinFine (talk) 22:08, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
I understood it to be referring to this source: https://futurehumanbydesign.com/2019/09/interview-with-dr-randolph-kent/. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 22:14, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh I see. I assumed from @Nik9t's description above that Santer was being interviewed, rather than that he was interviewing Kent. Thank you for the correction, @Thebiguglyalien. ColinFine (talk) 23:20, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok, thank you, how about referencing book reviews for example - would this be considered too "passing," or significant as a secondary reference?
Sir David Nabarro KCMG CBE suggests of Dr. Kent's most recent publication that 'Dr. Randolph C. Kent’s Humanitarian Futures: Challenges and Opportunities masterfully blends deep intellectual rigour with practical insights, drawing on his unparalleled experience to illuminate future humanitarian crises and challenge current conventions and paradigms. In our world of perpetual crises, this is a vital, visionary work for leaders, policymakers and practitioners alike.' Nik9t (talk) 19:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
https://www.routledge.com/Humanitarian-Futures-Challenges-and-Opportunities/Kent/p/book/9781032747996 Nik9t (talk) 19:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Paragraph break gets overriden

I am trying to enter a paragraph break in the last paragraph of the Career section of this Wikipedia page by pressing RETURN twice. However, the system won't accept it. The break should come immediately after footnote cue no. 21. What am I doing wrong?

Abram Molarsky DieHoren (talk) 18:38, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@DieHoren: I think I've added it where you desired it. For some reason the reference at the end of the preceding sentence was breaking something. What exactly was broken, and if there's a better solution, I have no idea. But in cases like this you can simply use the {{pb}} template to add a paragraph break. -bɜ:ʳkənhɪmez | me | talk to me! 18:53, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks so much. Your edit is just what I was trying to do I'll remember the {{pb}} template. DieHoren (talk) 19:06, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
@DieHoren: The problem was blockquotes not on separate lines (see Template:Blockquote#Line breaks) so I made another fix.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 19:24, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks. I'll take a look at that Template. Still finding my way here. DieHoren (talk) 19:37, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Random pages with no sources

Hi - I'm still fairly new here. I've been doing some random tasks, and I wonder what is the best thing to do when I come across pages like this 32nd Kisei and this Kerala State Film Award for Best Dubbing Artist (and for both of these, there are a bunch of similar pages) - with no independent sources. Should I put a tag on them seeking more references, or are these the type of pages that should be proposed for deletion? Many thanks. Blackballnz (talk) 21:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

From Past tournaments at the bottom, and also Category:Kisei (Go), 32nd Kisei appears to be an article about the 2008 annual GO tournament, with many past tournaments subjects of articles, many of those underreferenced or not referenced. As such, I recommend not proposing deletion or starting an AfD. David notMD (talk) 21:40, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Joseph A. Tunzi

How do I remove the promotional disclaimer at the top of the Wikipedia page for Joseph_A._Tunzi Daryl77 (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @Daryl77. In the visual editor, you can simply click on the tag and press backspace to remove it (assuming you're on PC).
But I'm wondering, why don't you try to discuss or fix the problem rather than just hiding it away? I don't see any of your edits in the page history or any discussion on the article's talk page of you fixing the actual problem. If there is still promotional content after you remove it, someone will inevitably add the tag again. Tarlby (t) (c) 20:38, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, Daryl77. The promotional tone that pervades and saturates that article would need to be removed, which would be a massive job. Because you created that article, have made 413 edits to that article and are personally responsible for nearly 80% of the content, it should certainly not be you that removes that tag. Your main goal as a Wikipedia editor for 13 years has been that one article. What, precisely, is your personal connection to Tunzi? Cullen328 (talk) 20:40, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
You don't. Someone else does. I suggest revealing your COI with the article subject, which is REQUIRED before you keep editing. DACartman (talk) 20:04, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
How do you do that? Daryl77 (talk) 20:57, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
@Daryl77 Please see WP:DISCLOSE. CommissarDoggoTalk? 20:59, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Where do I put the Connected Contributor template at on the page and how should it be filled out? Daryl77 (talk) 21:03, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Use the COI template at your user page, specifically Template:User COI to declare the COI. Put the connected contributor template at the top of the article's talk page. DACartman (talk) 21:08, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Have I done it correctly? Daryl77 (talk) 21:18, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
What would be considered relevant affiliations, disclosures, article drafts or diffs showing COI contributions? Daryl77 (talk) 21:08, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Have I done it correctly? Daryl77 (talk) 21:27, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Daryl77, no, you have not done it correctly because you have not explained the precise nature of your conflict of interest. After all these years, it is time for you to be honest about this. Cullen328 (talk) 23:31, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
What do you want to know? I've known of him since around 1995-1996. It was shortly after I'd graduated high school. I became aware of him when I read an article by a guy named Roger Bailey that had appeared in an Elvis Presley fan magazine titled, Elvis International Forum. It was published by a guy out of Thousand Oaks, California named Darwin Lamm. Bailey had a column in the magazine that where he sold books and other merchandise about or featuring Elvis Presley and he'd mentioned that Tunzi had a new book on Elvis Presley's recording sessions titled, Elvis Sessions II: The Recorded Music of Elvis Aron Presley 1953-1977 I'd missed the first volume of his recording sessions book when it came out about two years earlier around 1993. Somewhere I still have a copy of this magazine that I bought at a gas station near where I went to high school. I've assisted Joe and partnered with him on some of his projects. I've never met him face-to-face, as he lives in Chicago and I live in rural Pennsylvania. After reading the article, I didn't want to order the book through Bailey as I didn't really know him at all, so I went to a local book store and they couldn't get the book for me but they did provide me with contact information for Tunzi, who I called and ordered Elvis Sessions II. I've bought all of his books and products since then and went back and bought copies of the ones I'd missed before Elvis Sessions II. I've stayed in contact with him through the years and as I've said, I've helped him on some projects and we've collaborated on a few as well. Daryl77 (talk) 23:53, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

COI disclaimer now on User page of Daryl77. The tags at the top are not claiming promotional in tone, only that the majority of the article is contributed by one person. Going forward, if enough other people edit the article, as some point in time someone other than Daryl77 can remove those tags. David notMD (talk) 21:50, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Article

My articles always get declined, and im working so hard like can anyone help me it will be very appreciate full :P NovaExplorer37 (talk) 01:09, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

If they get declined, you can help fix it by reading the decline reason. As an alternative, read the comments the reviewer left. If they are no comments, ask at the reviewer's talk page. Since you are now Autoconfirmed you are able to create pages directly, but you can still use the Article Wizard if you want. NicePrettyFlower (talk) 01:37, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello @NovaExplorer37, and welcome to the Teahouse. Looking at your user talk page, I see several AFC decline notices, with the reason being they fail Wikipedia's notability criteria. For an article to be considered worthy of a Wikipedia article, articles must meet the criteria on notability per above. As a general reference, the general notability guideline (commonly abbreviated as GNG or WP:GNG) states that "articles generally require significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the topic.". I'd advise seeing Wikipedia:The answer to life, the universe, and everything for more info, or just message me on my talk page or reply to this if you have any questions.
Looking at one of your submissions, Draft:Natrag Na Voz, the two sources provided are a Discogs entry, which is not considered reliable per the WP:RS guideline because it is user generated (See WP:DISCOGS), and a YouTube video, which may or may not be by the publisher or a user. If it is indeed by the publisher of the album, it would not count towards notability because it is not independent of the topic, and if it is by a user it would not count because it is not reliable as it is user generated. Also, please be aware that neither of these sources provide significant coverage of the topic either.
Apologies if this comes off as blunt or hostile, as I am myself a newcomer. If you have any questions regarding these policies, or would like to request assistance on your article(s), please let me know, as I am free to help whenever possible. Thanks, Sparkle and Fade talkedits 01:52, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
well these are the only sources i can find and i mean some wiki articles include discogs sources. NovaExplorer37 (talk) 03:17, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
If they are the only sources you can find, then the article is likely non-notable, per WP:NEXIST. If you see an article that cites Discogs as a source, especially for something exceptional, then find and replace it with an adequate source or remove it altogether per WP:V.
Sparkle and Fade talkedits 03:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Passing by on the way to the forum. Looking at Draft:Sada znam. When you place the cursor on the reference, the tooltip comes up telling the reference is unreliable. When you examine them, Genuis is defined as generally unreliable, Radio Zepa is generally unreliable, Discogs as described above is a user generated site that is never reliable and spotify is a streaming site, which should never be used in any instance. WP:SECONDARY sources are the gold standard. Somebody talking to another person or group about the subject who doesn't know the subject, so it is independent. It also needs to be reliable and in-depth, a suffiently deep source to be worthile. For albums your generally looking for independent reviews, from recognised article sites. WP:MUSICRS tells which music sites are generally considered notable. Google books is a good place to look in as well. If you don't know if the reference is notable, then check at at reliable sources noticeboard, WP:RSN Somebody will tell you. You can do a search there as well. If there is no album reviews, then the album is likely to be non-notable. I would advise you not to create any mainspace articles. They are likely to be sent back to draft or sent to WP:AFD. Hope that helps. scope_creepTalk 12:28, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
In general, references that confirm an album exists, the names of the musicians, the list of tracks, etc., are not sufficient to establish Wikipedia-notability without published reviews as references. So not only is it unlikely that Draft:Natrag Na Voz can succeed, but the existing article about the band's second studio album Dodirni mi kolena should be nominated for deletion. Same for Jabuke i vino, a song from the Natrag Na Voz album. David notMD (talk) 13:08, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
I've posted the two articles to the Afd queue. scope_creepTalk 14:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
oop- never mind the article got released here’s the link —> Natrag Na Voz Article it seems more better and i put alot of sources aka references.
Best Regards NovaExplorer37 (talk) 22:37, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Assistance with Page Deletion/Recreation

Happy New Year All! We recently had our Wikipedia page draft deleted, and would like to rewrite/recreate it and submit for consideration again. We are a little confused about the requirements we need to complete before retrying with this page. Do we have to contact those who deleted the page? Can we just start fresh in the sandbox and resubmit? Kinfolx1114 (talk) 16:34, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Kinfolx1114. It's confusing that you use "we"; an account can only be used by a single person. If more than one person is using this account, please have each person create their own account. You can start a new draft in your sandbox or at Draft:Rahsan Thomas, but it must be written in your own words. You cannot copy content verbatim from other sources, as the message on your talk page explains. Hope that helps. Schazjmd (talk) 16:40, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Greetings, thank you for your response, much appreciated. (I am the only user of this account, btw). Kinfolx1114 (talk) 16:56, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Kinfolx1114, please be aware that Draft:Rahsan Thomas was deleted as an unambiguous copyright violation. Please be aware that Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously and you must be very careful to avoid violating copyright laws. Please read WP:COPYVIO. Cullen328 (talk) 17:32, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Those websites can be used in the draft as references as long as the information in the text is on your own words (not copied or close paraphrasing). David notMD (talk) 18:21, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello @David notMD. Thank you for that note. Is it ok to reference this website? https://kazoo-cobalt-7yx6.squarespace.com/ . (asking because it looks like a personal website?) Kinfolx1114 (talk) 20:27, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, thank you for providing this, @Cullen328. This is very helpful. Kinfolx1114 (talk) 19:59, 5 January 2025 (UTC)
IFfy, as not clear if it is his site (thus, not independent). Suspect because it links to his social media and sells clothing. David notMD (talk) 04:12, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @David notMDHmmm... agreed. The sales/social media part does make it suspect. I'll just not use it, thank you for your feedback! Kinfolx1114 (talk) 23:13, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
The distinction Wikipedia makes is that what are posted at social media are described as 'pages', whereas Wikipedia self-calls what it has as 'articles'. David notMD (talk) 21:48, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
@David notMD Oh, I see. That makes sense, thank you for explaining! Kinfolx1114 (talk) 23:10, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Lua error

Could someone have a look at Jonathan Stroud, please? There are errors in the bibliography section, described with text like "Lua error in Module:Episode_table at line 246: attempt to perform arithmetic on a string value". I think these appeared following this edit, but I can't see how to resolve them. Thanks for your help. Tacyarg (talk) 22:54, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Tacyarg: The problem here was with Module:Episode table itself. Ahecht fixed it. JJPMaster (she/they) 22:57, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks, both. Tacyarg (talk) 00:07, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Opinion?

Hey guys what is your opinion on this draft? Any improvements I can make, feel free to list. Do you think it will be approved? First time making a post.

Draft:Vincent Piket Hartnana13 (talk) 22:25, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello. You have submitted it for review, and the reviewer will leave you feedback if not accepted. It's redundant to ask for a review while waiting for a review. One thing you do need to do is provide the copyright information on the image page, which you need to do on Commons. How did you obtain the image? 331dot (talk) 22:28, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
I am not asking for you guys to review it, sorry for the misunderstanding. I was just asking for your opinions if it would be approved and/or if there are some improvements i can make. As for copyright ill need to look into it. Hartnana13 (talk) 22:56, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Those questions will be answered by the reviewer. If it's going to take time for you to address the copyright of the image, I would just temporarily remove it from the draft; images are not relevant to the draft process, which only considers the text and sources. 331dot (talk) 23:15, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
It looks too much like a CV, not a surprise as the CV is ref #1, used many times. Given that a CV is not an independent reference, remove it as a reference, and remove all content that cannot be verified by independent referenes. David notMD (talk) 01:24, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
It's written in peculiarly turgid prose, Hartnana13. A sample: "Piket was instrumental in promoting educational collaborations. Notably, he officiated the opening of the School of Politics, History, and International Relations at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, underscoring his commitment to fostering academic partnerships". Does "was instrumental in promoting" differ in meaning from "promoted"; and if so, how? Does "officiated" differ in meaning from "gave a short speech at"; and if so, how? What, if anything, does "underscoring his commitment to fostering academic partnerships" add to the sentence? -- Hoary (talk) 01:32, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I cut that, and other stuff, too. But this still needs trimming. David notMD (talk) 01:46, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

What happened to the French Businessman who sued WP?

I was reading Litigation involving the Wikimedia Foundation and I saw that a french businessman filed suit wanting them to hand over the IP of the wikipedia user who defamed him, yet wikipedia denied and they were fined constantly. Did wikipedia pay the fines? DId they ignore it? Is WIkipedia banned in France? Did the businessman get his IP so he can greedily sue anyone who even talks bad about him? What happened? SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 23:45, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Like every wikipedia article it cites sources, you can translate them to read and find out. Though given it's in the 'outcomes not in favour of the WMF' section I think a guess can be hazarded that the WMF was fined as implied. aquarium substratetalk 23:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
I'm in France and I can answer to one of your question. The question is "Is WIkipedia banned in France?"

The answer is no. I'm a contributor to "Wikipedia in French" and a contributor to "Wikipedia in English".
There are not any language version banned in French Republic.

If it was the case. The information would be in news because the ban of Wikipedia by a Western power is an exceptionnal event. Anatole-berthe (talk) 03:01, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

template

Hello, I'm need of some assistance with creating a Wikipedia page about a music artist. Can anyone advise which template to use? RATHOMP (talk) 02:45, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

look at other Wikipedia pages about music artists ... 69.181.17.113 (talk) 04:40, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Hello, IP user, and welcome to the Teahouse. From your question, I suspect that you are focussing on the layout of your proposed article (I'm guessing that that's what you mean by a "template" - we use the word a bit differently here). But while the layout of an article is important, it is MUCH less important than the quality of the sources used. Until you have found adequate sources to establish that the artist meets Wikipedia's criteria for [[WP:notability|}], it's pointless spending any time thinking about the content or the layout. To use a house-building analogy, you may have an idea for what you want your house to look like, and even a plan; but until you've surveyed the site to make sure it's fit to build on, and checked that your plans meet local building regulations, it would be a waste of effort to start building.
More generally, My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft. ColinFine (talk) 10:36, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Is there a specific place you're currently working on the article at? I can't seem to find it on your userpage as a subpage. For advice, I'd recommend looking at other music artist articles (specifically various quality articles from The Beatles [FA] to Sepultura [C-class]) for general outlines on how to write it. For infoboxes, use {{infobox musical artist}} and fill out the template using it's template page at Template:Infobox musical artist. For general advice on writing, see Wikipedia's content policies and guidelines, I'd recommend WP:Nutshell as a starting point.
Thanks, Sparkle and Fade talkedits 08:23, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

how can I rigth a article in wikipedia

how can I rigth Daniel Muanga (talk) 03:49, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Article wizard
69.181.17.113 (talk) 04:39, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
New editors are strongly advised to first gain skills by doing time improving existing articles. References required. David notMD (talk) 05:39, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
See referencing for beginners. When editing, think twice, preview before publishing (maybe even twice) and take responsibility. Cwater1 (talk) 16:48, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Find a Grave = WP:RS ?

Is Find a Grave = WP:RS ?

69.181.17.113 (talk) 04:37, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 1246. Please consult Wikipedia:FINDAGRAVE. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 05:03, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
The answer is "no" because Find a Grave consists of user generated content, and is specifically mentioned in the WP:USERGENERATED section of the reliable sources guideline as a source that should not be used as a reference on Wikipedia. That does not mean that Find a Grave is of no value to Wikipedia editors. You may be able to find nuggets in those listings that will inform your searches about various people. Some but not all Find a Grave listings include references to reliable sources, and those sources may be useful as Wikipedia references. One thing that Find a Grave can teach editors is that many people down through the years share the same name, and we need to be very careful to avoid including biographical details about one Andrew Wilson in an article about another Andrew Wilson. That's just one of countless examples. I have been working on Andrew Stephen Wilson today, so that's why I chose that example.. Cullen328 (talk) 06:22, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello -- I would like to start helping, but I'm having trouble finding what to do!

I see lots of support for ultra basics, but I know what the concept is, and how to edit, and how to make italics and hyperlinks, and that I should use a neutral voice, etc. I am trying to find some guidance on WHAT to contribute. I found the Typo Team (or at least, this typo team), but I haven't found guidance on interacting with it. (Do I delete entries if I resolve them? Yesterday I found many entries to check, but today none of the articles seem to HAVE the potential typo that was listed, or even a fixed version). I have found this Growth page, but can't get the features working. For example, it says to enable the Help panel in the Editing tab, but I don't see such a thing in the Editing tab. I also can't find "Display newcomer homepage" in my user preferences. Similar with Suggested Edits -- how can I "use Special:NewcomerTasksInfo"? Etc., etc. I must be missing some key piece of advice -- where can I figure out how to get things rolling? SKM (talk) 05:08, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello @Skmccormick. As a volunteer project, you're free to do whatever you wanna do best. Want to copyedit a bunch of articles and bring our grammar up to shape? Join the Guild of Copy Editors and go wild. Wanna fight vandalism? Go patrol Special:RecentChanges and stop those dang vandals! Wanna go help out that typo team? Go right ahead. It's your choice. Tarlby (t) (c) 05:26, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
@Skmccormick
Thank you! These links are helpful. I found "display user homepage" under User Profile. So maybe a silly question, but: how do I find this user homepage? I don't really go to Wikipedia generically, I usually jump straight to an article. Tasks and Requests seem like what I'm looking for. SKM (talk) 01:47, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
The link should be right at the top of every page when you're logged in, in the same place/menu as the link to your userpage. -- asilvering (talk) 02:05, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Skmccormick, do you have any particular topics that you'd like to edit about? One way to find a lot of articles that need help is to go through our various maintenance backlogs (Gråbergs Gråa Sång has already linked you to WP:TASKS). Some people are content to plug away at a particular backlog chronologically, but if you prefer to edit on things you're generally interested in, it's helpful to filter these by wikiproject. Alternatively, do you have any particular skills or outside knowledge that might be helpful here? There's always demand for multilingual editors, the copyright folks are always backlogged, etc. -- asilvering (talk) 10:16, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Thank you. I would prefer to get into the groove with smaller contributions before I start throwing any weight around. Sadly, I cannot offer multilingual help; I am American. I'm mostly having trouble navigating the various pages and internal tools like TASKS or RecentChanges (anything labeled "Special:" is still new to me). SKM (talk) 01:50, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
I'm a fan of Category:Wikipedia introduction cleanup as a newbie task - not small, exactly, but hey, no time like the present to learn to WP:BEBOLD. You don't (or shouldn't) need to do any research to fix these articles - most of them are here because they are tagged with "lead too short". Find one of those, read the article, then rewrite the lead so it summarizes it accurately. Then remove the tag. All this requires is good English literacy, and since the lead is what most people read and what is used in the google knowledge box etc, it's a high-impact change that requires very little wiki-knowledge. -- asilvering (talk) 02:16, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Different images for Light/Dark mode

Is there any way to tell Wikipedia to display different images / media for Light vs Dark mode users? Due to transparency, some SVG and PNG images have bad contrast when viewed in Dark mode. CrushedAsian255 (talk) 06:04, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

@CrushedAsian255 This question is likely to have a better audience at WP:VPT. That board has a more technically oriented team than here. 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 09:26, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
@CrushedAsian255, you can use {{dark mode switch}}, it does exactly what you're looking for. See DistroKid and YouTube; both articles use it for the logo in the infobox. TeoTB (talk) 04:29, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Wider vs specific consensus

Can a case-specific consensus triumph a wider topic consensus already established? Not that consensus over wider topic is changed but maybe because that case is viewed from a different perspective. ExclusiveEditor 🔔 Ping Me! 07:33, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

@ExclusiveEditor I doubt it. Were that to be the case we would not have consistency of operation. This question is likely to have a better audience at WP:VPP. That board has a more policy oriented team than here 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 09:28, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Hello, @ExclusiveEditor, and welcome to the Teahouse. While I agree with FiddleFaddle's advice, I would also remark that general questions like yours are very frustrating for people who attempt to answer questions here. If you explain the specific issue you want guidance on, you are much more likely to get a useful answer (and also be less likely to be suspected of wikilawyering).
I am aware of the possible irony in my answer, given your question. ColinFine (talk) 10:43, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Thanks for replying! Being a half-host on Teahouse myself I get you. I was inspired to ask this question by the discussion happening here. The latter part of the discussion specifically focuses on if 'Nobel prize' should be added or not in Jimmy Carter's death blurb on Main page's ITN section. It was initially proposed by the nominator and many supported it (albeit not mentioning specifically the Nobel prize) and it got posted without the mention of the prize. However later there was some more scrambling, this time with more regard to the Nobel prize and so it currently updated to include the prize in the blurb. The opposers are generally arguing that it is editorializing and other things. I may not be very good in summarizing discussions, so I left it in the question. --ExclusiveEditor 🔔 Ping Me! 10:58, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

How to upload a >100 MB file to Wikipedia?

I've uploaded plenty of files to Commons before, but I've only uploaded a few (non-free) files to WP. I would like to upload a short film that will become public domain in the US at the start of 2025 (won't be PD in its country of origin for a few years, so no uploading it to commons), but the file is over 100 MB, the maximum file size listed on the upload page. I don't want to compress it any more than it already is, so how to I get around this? I've seen several films large than 100 MB on WP already (1, 2), so it must be possible.

Any help with this is greatly appreciated. Thanks. — Toast for Teddy (talk) 07:48, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

@Toast for Teddy This question is likely to have a better audience at WP:VPT. That board has a more technically oriented team than here 🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦 09:26, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
@Toast for Teddy That first file you linked was uploaded with the aid of a userscript discussed at Commons:User talk:Rillke/bigChunkedUpload.js. I don't pretend to understand the details, but you may ;-) Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:27, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Even if you're uploading "locally", Commons:Upload tools is likely helpful. All the projects use the same MediaWiki software, all that needs adjustment is the destination for the upload. --Slowking Man (talk) 20:54, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Editing a sandbox, references number is doubling

Hi there! I was editing my sandbox and for some reasons all the different references I am adding are doubling the number of them and the previous ones are not disappeared. I was following your suggestions to add COI edit to my text, eliminating the internal sources and the bold words. Can you help me or it is just a matter of viewing and once I publish the sand box they will all disappear? Andrea Biographer (talk) 09:10, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Andrea Biographer: it seems that with this edit you've duplicated the contents by pasting an earlier edit into the page, thus embedding a copy of the entire page within the page (if that makes sense). You should undo your most recent edits up to and including that one. Or if you'd like me to do it, let me know. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 09:16, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Hi @DoubleGrazing, thanks for your prompt answer! I think you made sense, could you check and fix this for me? I don't want to commit any further mistakes in the editing process or in the COI different templates, thanks in advance! Andrea Andrea Biographer (talk) 09:31, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
User:Theroadislong has already sorted this out. Also, your draft is now located at Draft:Gridspertise. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:30, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

how to give feedback

i had a question on why an article was written and sent it to info@ wikipedia. they told me that I needed to engage in the "talk" feature and ask the editors, since wikipedia is only a platform. I did that and not only was the answer not given I was ridiculed, because I am not actually sure why. I am not interested in editing wikipedia, I am only interested in engaging with the editors, to understand inconsistencies. How exactly would I do that, if I should not be using the talk feature. thanks Mommer264 (talk) 12:34, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello. Discussion about an article usually takes place on its talk page. Discussion with an editor directly can occur on their user talk page.
Note that your only other edit was about the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict, which is a topic area with special rules that I will notify you of on your user talk page. One of those is that you must be an experienced user in order to make edits to any type of page about it. Your account must be 30 days old with 500 edits. 331dot (talk) 12:53, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Also answering your query: :You asked a question that is now at Talk:State of Palestine/Archive 21. Talk pages of articles are not for 'open' questions. Instead, the proper method is to propose a specific change of text, as in replace A with B, and include a reference to support your proposal. Given that State of Palestine is a very controversial article, editors who participate there - at both article and talk - can be short on tact. David notMD (talk) 12:54, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
I am not interested in editing wikipedia If you're not interested in contributing to the project, then you probably ought to go elsewhere. The purpose of Wikipedia is to produce an encyclopedia; notably, talk pages are for constructively discussing the project and its content, not general Internet forums for discussion. There are many many discussion forums elsewhere on the Internet, and Wikipedia can even help direct you to some of them. If you do wish to contribute to the encyclopedia, take a look at WP:Welcome. Thank you and I hope you have a good day. --Slowking Man (talk) 21:03, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

VisualEditor

I've just changed my Preferences > Editing

Turned on "Enable the visual editor" (which, I think, it's on by default in Wikipedia in Italian language)

But i can not find out how to edit with VisualEditor.

I've looked at Help:VisualEditor and it says (Help:VisualEditor#Opening VisualEditor to click on the "Edit" tab (in the picture I can see a "drop down" menu to choose the editor).

But I've not this choice. My tab is named "Edit source". Centrodiurnomilano (talk) 14:47, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

I've found out, reading Help:VisualEditor#First step: enabling VE (which seems a bit outdated, by the way).
After I've changed my Preferences > Editing > "Enable the visual editor" = ON
and the press "save" button at the bottom.
Only then, a "drop down menu" show up in the same section: "Editing mode", which is setted by default "Remember the last editor". I've changed it to "Show both editor tabs".
It's not easy to find out. Centrodiurnomilano (talk) 15:04, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
By the way, I've looked at the settings on Wikipedia in Italian language and "Enable the visual editor" it's enough there (there is no "Editing mode" option at all) Centrodiurnomilano (talk) 15:08, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Italian Wikipedia and English Wikipedia run on the same system, MediaWiki, but are two different Wikipedias. So if this is a question about itwiki, then you should go to a help board on itwiki. If this a question about enwiki, you should be able to switch between the source editor and visual editor by pressing the pencil button next to the preview button in the source editor. Cowboygilbert - (talk) ♥ 16:07, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
But, @Centrodiurnomilano, do note that you can only use the VisualEditor is some namespaces but not all. You can in mainspace, userspace, draftspace but not in wikispace which is the space with the Wikipedia: prefix. Cowboygilbert - (talk) ♥ 16:09, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Thank you, @Cowboygilbert . I've tried in main space and the in user space. Centrodiurnomilano (talk) 16:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Were you able to fix it using the instructions that I put, you should be able to switch between the source editor and visual editor by pressing the pencil button next to the preview button in the source editor.? Cowboygilbert - (talk) ♥ 16:30, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

"No Such Number tone" / "crybaby tone" (type of intercept error)

Hello everyone. This is one of my first times writing a brand-new article, and I'm not sure if this is a notable enough topic for its own page or a subsection in the intercept message.

This technically isn't a message, but before the intercept message was used, a different type of tone could also be returned instead of connecting to an operator. This is known under many different names, such as the "no such number tone" or even the "crybaby tone." This tone would be returned if a caller attempts to dial a number that can't possibly exist according to the numbering plan. The call would not be allowed to go through because some of these numbers could be reserved for private use. The tone itself is continuous, sweeping from 200-400Hz back to 200Hz again over the course of one second.

The issue is that it's almost exclusively used in North America, if not, completely exclusively. It was introduced by the Bell System in 1941, but I've also heard of it in use by the 3CX Asterisk system. However, my intent is to preserve information about this tone, as next to no information seems to exist about it. An excerpt from the Bell Labs Record describes it here. It also seems to be exclusive to crossbar systems.

[2] Bell Labs record

[3] Article about this record

[4] Sample of this sound

What do you think of this? ZetaformGames (talk) 19:01, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi @ZetaformGames, welcome to the teahouse and welcome to Wikipedia! I think that this could be a good idea as a subsection in the article for Intercept message or some other related article. I don't think that there is enough for a full article with the sources you've posted but could definitely be an interesting paragraph! Justiyaya 07:12, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Alright, thank you! And thanks for the welcome. I made this account a while ago, but haven't felt confident enough in my editing skills until now to contribute. ZetaformGames (talk) 17:46, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Maryam Mirzakhani

Can someone fix the error in the Maryam Mirzakhani article?

Mirzakhani solved this counting problem by relating it to the problem of computing volumes in moduli space—a space whose points correspond to different complex structures on a surface genus Failed to parse (SVG (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "http://localhost:6011/en.wikipedia.org/v1/":): {\displaystyle g} . In her thesis, Mirzakhani found a volume formula for the moduli space of bordered Riemann surfaces of genus g {\displaystyle g} with n {\displaystyle n} geodesic boundary components. From this formula followed the counting for simple closed geodesics mentioned above, as well as a number of other results. This led her to obtain a new proof for the formula discovered by Edward Witten and Maxim Kontsevich on the intersection numbers of tautological classes on moduli space.

Thanks. 76.14.122.5 (talk) 19:28, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi IP 76.14.122.5. Generally, the best place to discuss something like this is on the talk page for the article in question, which in this case would be Talk:Maryam Mirzakhani; however, if you truly believe there's an error in the article, you can be WP:BOLD and fix it yourself if you think you can. Please understand though that "fix it" in this context means to correct the article in accordance with relevant Wikipedia policies and guidelines, and the policies/guidelines most likely applicable in this case are going to be Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:No original research. Ideally, you're going to need to find WP:SECONDARY reliable sources (as defined by Wikipedia) to cite in support of the change you want to make; even if you know such changes to be true, you're still going to need to cite reliable sources in support to allow others to verify the changes. If you just make a change without providing any citations to a reliable source in support, there's a good chance the change will be undone by another user. Given that this seems to be related to mathematics, you might argue that "proving" the information to be incorrect based on Mirakhani's academic thesis is more than sufficient in and of itself, but Wikipedia generally requires something more and a thesis is going to be, for the most part, considered a WP:PRIMARY source and could have other issues as explained in WP:SCHOLARSHIP. You could also try asking about this at Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics since that's where you're going to have a better chance of finding someone sufficiently versed in mathematics who might be able to help sort this out. -- Marchjuly (talk) 19:52, 31 December 2024 (UTC);post edited. -- 22:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Please disregard my reply IP 76.14.122.5. I misunderstood what you were asking about. ColinFine's suggestion below seems to be the best course of action here. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Hello, IP user. What you are reporting is a problem in the software, the network, or the user interface, and not in the content of the article. Generally, technical problems of this sort are better handled at WP:VPT than here. However, I'm not seeing that problem, either on the browser on my laptop, or on the Android app. Is it repeatable, or might it have been a temporary glitch?
Actually, now I look at it, the URL above appears to be a local proxy, so it may be that whoever manages your local network has not configured the proxy in a way that Wikipedia requires. Again, WP:VPT is a better place to ask about this.
@Marchjuly. The problem that the IP is reporting is obviously a technical one, so your answer is entirely off the point. ColinFine (talk) 20:21, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Thanks for catching my mistake and pointing the OP in the right direction ColinFine. I've stricken my reply so as to not confuse the OP or anyone else. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Stuck on Puerto Rico outages notability.

Hi, new to Wikipedia here and probably gonna create a draft on the Puerto Rico power outage crisis but wanted to ask: I’m stuck in the notability of this topic, so, is the Puerto Rico power outage crisis notable enough for Wikipedia? By power outage crisis I mean the beginning of the Puerto Rican outages from Hurricane Maria to now since it has lasted multiple years with sustained media coverage when an outage does occur. Cheers! 66.50.50.222 (talk) 20:29, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Rather than a new article, you could expand on the outages already documented in Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and in LUMA Energy. Schazjmd (talk) 20:44, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
A search within Wikipedia on "Puerto Rico power outage" yields a list of several articles, including Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and in LUMA Energy David notMD (talk) 21:15, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Noted. Will expand those articles then instead. Thanks! 66.50.50.222 (talk) 21:40, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
My first impression would be that an article is likely warranted. PR is an island of ~3 million people, in the same neighborhood as Los Angeles. If Los Angeles were having sustained multi-year-long Issues with electrical service, there would be an article about it. Non-English language sources are perfectly acceptable for citing in articles, as long as a little care is observed.
Note, to the anonymous editor: if you create an account you get your own shiny neato userspace to use mostly at your leisure, where for instance you can work on draft articles with no hurry. I have one underway in mine in fact. And thank you again for being interested in contributing to Wikipedia!
(Regarding LA: some may have had come to mind the California energy crisis, but, neat fact, LA actually escaped impact from that because of having its own municipal utility with its own generation capacity!) --Slowking Man (talk) 01:38, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Note to User:Slowking Man: The userspace is the wrong place to draft an article. Either use your Sandbox or else follow instructions at WP:YFA to create a draft. David notMD (talk) 03:33, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Is "userspace" not the colloquial term for "your user page and any and all subpages of it"? The "official" user sandbox link is Special:MyPage/sandbox, which takes you to the /sandbox subpage of your user page. --Slowking Man (talk) 05:29, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, the IP editor (66.xx) here, just created my account, and I mainly refrained from creating an article due to being worried about a potential conflict-of-interest (I live in Puerto Rico myself). I might work on a draft later today and collect sources (as @BusterD suggested), thank you all btw for helping me clear up this question I’ve had for some time now! Atheions (talk) 04:11, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
On the other hand, User:Slowking Man is correct that an article might be created on this newsworthy subject and that one shouldn't necessarily rely strictly on English-language sources. Looking at the existing material, it certainly seems a sequence of outages could be established from some of the reliable sources already applied to pagespace. I agree with User:David notMD that WP:YFA is a place to consider how to start a new page. I would start collecting sources, online and in print. BusterD (talk) 03:58, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Apologies if jumping the gun or creating a draft too early, but I have created one. Won’t be able to do much progress today but will def collect sources to use. Atheions (talk) 07:32, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Am I allowed to post something about a game I am making on Wikipedia?

Am i allowed to post somthing about a game i am making? On Wikipedia Aaronfart14 (talk) 22:09, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Allowed? Yes. Good idea? No. Likely to remain on Wikipedia? No. Writing an article is difficult, particularly for new editors. And since this is about your game, you have a conflict of interest in writing about it. See H:YFA and WP:COI. Simply posting information about your game rather than writing an article would be promotion. See WP:PROMOTION Meters (talk) 22:20, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Aaronfart14, the relevant content guideline is WP:Wikipedia is not for things made up one day. Cullen328 (talk) 02:36, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
If your game goes public, and if it becomes so popular that people are publishing about it, then there is a chance that someone other than you will create an article about it. David notMD (talk) 03:37, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Writing about Childhood and Early Life

I am writing an article about Andrea Sheridan Ordin, who is already included in two existing wikipedia articles entitled, "List of first women lawyers and judges in California" and "United States District Court for the Central District of California." I am interviewing her personally and have reputable sources about her career notability, but I'm not sure how to write her "early life" section, since there are not many sources describing her childhood aside from her firsthand account. How to I write about her early life without secondary sources? Aharten97 (talk) 22:17, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

@Aharten97: It's not possible without reliable secondary published sources. For the policies, see WP:V. Personal notes from an interview are neither published nor reliable, and self-published statements are rarely reliable. If it's noteworthy it will have been published somewhere. If not then it isn't. -- zzuuzz (talk) 22:45, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
https://ethics.lacity.gov/news/murray-and-ordin-re-elected-as-ethics-commission-leaders/ provides some info for an Early life and education section. David notMD (talk) 04:24, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

What to write on your talk page?

Above question HELSINKI!233 (talk) 22:32, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi and welcome, @HELSINKI!233. Your talk page is where other editors can leave messages for you or begin conversations with you. You can learn more at the guidelines for user pages. Schazjmd (talk) 22:37, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
It is not for chat, or your thoughts/opinions about stuff. Also, with a few exceptions, you are allowed to delete content from your Talk page, although some people prefer to archive older content instead. David notMD (talk) 04:19, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Citations about movies

I'm trying to improve The Lincoln Lawyer (film)

1) Is IMDB considered a good citation for the cast list, producer name, etc?

2) How do I add a citation to an existing infobox? (Visual or Source editor)

Many thanks

Ben (talk) 22:36, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi and welcome, @Littenberg. Imdb is not considered a reliable source because much of its information is user-generated. You can learn how to add citations at Easier Referencing for Beginners. Schazjmd (talk) 22:39, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
If you click on Edit at the top menu it allows you to edit the entire article, including the Infobox. David notMD (talk) 04:15, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

How do I create a Wikipedia article

How do I create an article on Wikipedia? Красный Октябрь (talk) 23:12, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Здравствуйте, @Красный Октябрь, and welcome to the Teahouse. My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft. ColinFine (talk) 23:33, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Can you help me learn how to make one? I want to make an article on the Kazan bombing that happened about a 1.5 week ago. Красный Октябрь (talk) 23:50, 31 December 2024 (UTC)
Красный Октябрь, please be aware that the Russo-Ukrainian War is a designated contentious topic. You cannot write new content about that war until your account is Extended confirmed, which means the account is over a month old (it is) and has made over 500 constractive edits (you have a long way to go). Cullen328 (talk) 02:56, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Then can someone else make an article about it? Красный Октябрь (talk) 04:08, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Teahouse Hosts are here to advise, but not to be authors or co-authors. David notMD (talk) 04:13, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Who do I ask about it? Красный Октябрь (talk) 08:59, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Красный Октябрь, if you persist in discussing a designated contentious topic such as the Russo-Ukrainian War before you are extended confirmed, you may be blocked. So, please edit other topic areas until then. Cullen328 (talk) 09:16, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
You could ask on Talk:Russo-Ukrainian War. Normally such talk pages are protected, but that one doesn't seem to be at this time. What might happen is that someone adds a paragraph about the incident to the existing article rather than create a new article.
I'll add that editors who aren't extended-confirmed generally aren't permitted to use the talk pages of such articles either, and I have always disagreed with this, mainly because constructive edit requests end up in WP:RFED, making extra work for administrators. ~Anachronist (talk) 16:34, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Why are padlocks not automatically added when an article is protected?

Sorry if this is the wrong place. Heyaaaaalol (talk) 02:38, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

@Heyaaaaalol Because an administrator needs to add a protection notice (the padlocks) to a page in order to show the padlock on pages. Sometimes the padlocks do not get placed on a page, especially if it's a user page, unless if the protection notice is placed by an administrator. NicePrettyFlower (talk) 03:35, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Heyaaaaalol, I have done some page protection myself. Usually when I apply protection, I wish to see the "padlock" icon applied. Sometimes when I use the protection script, I forget to click the toggle which leaves the padlock icon. In that case, there's a bot which usually fixes that mistake automatically. If you see a protected page without an icon, you might tell someone. Do our answers help? BusterD (talk) 03:44, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Heyaaaaalol. To actually answer your question: because nobody has implemented that function in the software. I don't know whether there is a technical reason for that, or whether it's just that nobody's got round to it. Questions about the software and user interface are better asked at the Village pump: either WP:VPT or WP:VPR ColinFine (talk) 13:34, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Heyaaaaalol: Protecting a page is a log action in the MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia and thousands of other wikis. It does not make an edit to the page. Logs are separate from edits. Displaying a padlock with a link is a Wikipedia practice. We do it by editing the page and adding special code which places a padlock in the corner instead of the normal text area. Other wikis may use no or other symbols for protected pages, place them in other places, and make no or other links on them. A MediaWiki feature to automatically display a symbol on protected pages was recently added at phab:T12347 but it's disabled by default. I haven't examined how flexible it is but I guess it would be non-trivial for us to convert to using it when we already have a well-functioning system. There is so far only a single Wikimedia wiki which has set wgEnableProtectionIndicators to true in https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/highlight.php?file=InitialiseSettings.php. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:08, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Multiple non-free album covers on one page

For the album Breakfast with Girls, there's an associated EP located at the section Brunch. The EP has an infobox but is currently without cover artwork, so I'm wondering if it's appropriate for the article to have another non-free image when one is already in use for the album's artwork. If not within free use, Brunch's artwork (seen here) is mostly text on a black background, so would I be allowed to crop out the non-text part and use that as a public domain text logo image in an infobox? Popturtle (talk) 04:50, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi Popturtle, I do think that another cover would be within fair use. There's also been instances of this in the past like In Rainbows#In Rainbows Disk 2. Happy editing! Justiyaya 06:59, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

afd

I really like a certain article, but it's afd, if it is deleted, is there a way to still view it 🐢 (talk) 05:24, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

History checker SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 05:26, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
If the article is still "public" currently, you can save a copy for yourself: Download as PDF (maybe see also Help:Export). Otherwise go to: CAT:RESTORE. --Slowking Man (talk) 06:14, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
This appears to be about X11 color names, which has been in existance since 2003 and has been edited more than 700 times since then. While it is unlikely that it will be deleted, as noted, you can save a copy to your computer. David notMD (talk) 13:55, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hypothetically, could it be possible to write a netural autobiography?

Hypothetically, would it be possible for someone on Wikipedia to write a neutral autobiography of themselves? Showing the good and bad and making no favor to either side, providing proof and checking all of the boxes. How would that go and would it be accepted? What if say a Wikipedia administrator that is not really well known becomes for example the president of the US? Can they have oversight over their own article? Are they removed from their position? Can they no longer edit anything involving US politics due to their inherent bias? And finally has there been any real examples of this over the past 20+ years? SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 05:25, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, SimpleSubCubicGraph. Hypothetically, what you describe is possible but the president of the US example is implausible because credible candidates for that office would already be the subject of a Wikipedia article. More plausible would be a longtime editor elected to a state or provincial legislature. I see no reason why that person could not submit an autobiography through Articles for Creation with full disclosure, have the article accepted and continue as an editor or even as an administrator. They should certainly recuse from the current legislative affairs of their state or province but otherwise I would not see a broader problem. As for whether anything like that has ever happened, I do not know. Maybe another editor does. Cullen328 (talk) 06:49, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@SimpleSubCubicGraph welcome to the Teahouse! Interesting questions. I would say that while it is hypothetically possible, guidelines still strongly discourage creations of autobiographies and I haven't seen an instance of it being successful outside of early Wikipedia. This would have to go through articles for creation and the editor should declare their conflict of interest. Subjects do not have oversight of their own article.
I would argue that if someone is elected president of the US they would have a financial relationship with the federal government and should stay away from editing those topics. I think they would have potentially less of a conflict of interest with state governments and historical united states politics. I don't think one would be removed as an administrator because they are elected to a public office here. I don't know of any Wikipedian that has been elected. CongressEdits is probably the closest to an example of this. Justiyaya 06:46, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Succeeding at autobiography is more likely to occur in an area such as WP:NACADEMIC. A senior professor at a university would have as models articles about other professors at their university. David notMD (talk) 14:02, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
The only time I recall a good autobiography being written was when the CEO of a small business wrote one, submitted it for review, and it was accepted after some minor revisions. So it is possible.
By now I've gained enough experience on Wikipedia that I could probably write a neutral biography about myself, but because I am not notable, there's no point. ~Anachronist (talk) 16:26, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
a) It would probably go over reasonably well, presuming they followed the Correct way to do that kind of thing: don't create your own bio article (meaning here the literal "creating a new page in Main namespace") and don't edit it directly but put up stuff on the Talk page for others to evaluate, revise, and put into the article if they decide.
b) No, no one "owns" articles and gets special "powers" over them. Since all Wikipedia content is "free as in freedom" you and anyone else can copy it put it up elsewhere and do whatever with the copies, as long as you credit the original creators.
c) Why would they get adminship removed if they haven't misused it?
d) They probably ought to stay away from US politics content yes, being rather WP:INVOLVED. Also realistically the POTUS is not going to have ample free time to devote to Wikipedia contributing, or to be inclined to devote what little precious free time they get to, doing more work.
e) Have a look at WP:List of Wikipedians with articles. --Slowking Man (talk) 17:26, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Wiki page written by subject or friend of subject?

Hello, I saw a page on Wikipedia that looks like it was, based on the way it's presented, mostly written by the person who is the subject of the page, or a close friend. What is the standard flag or way to raise this on the page's talk page? Thank you for your help. FireBatV (talk) 08:05, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @FireBatV! Welcome to the Teahouse. The standard way is to tag the article with the Template:COI on the main article page. Alternatively, you can use Twinkle to tag it as well. TNM101 (chat) 12:17, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you for the help! I've added the {{Template:COI}} to the page in question (Rhett Ayers Butler) and as per the instructions on the template page I am have also added{{Connected contributor}} to the talk page, so editors can take it from there. Thank you again for the help and the friendly welcome, my issue has been resolved. FireBatV (talk) 21:13, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
No problem! Feel free to reach out if you need any more help TNM101 (chat) 06:46, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Editing the Wikipedia page of "The crown"

i want to edit the Wikipedia page of "the crown" on netflix why i wont add the seventh season of "the crown" if you cant tell the staff at netflix please add aditional information like the royal wedding of prince william and kate Middleton and the queen involvement in the 2012 summer olympics in london england alongside James bond!!! 89.128.137.159 (talk) 14:08, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello IP Editor: there was no 7th season of The Crown, so your additions were inappropriate and were removed. Please don't add fake information to Wikipedia. qcne (talk) 14:18, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
False information is vandalism, which if continued can lead to your IP address being blocked and any account your subsequently register being blocked. David notMD (talk) 15:20, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Look for verified information about future seasons. This isn't forums and speculations. Cwater1 (talk) 20:34, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

The show button doesn't work on phone

Hi. Some articles have this dialouge box on top of them. But when we touch the show button on phone (Chrome for Android for me), nothing happens. I don't know about desktop. Aminabzz (talk) 15:38, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

What is an example of such an article? What happens when you use the Wikipedia app? Does it work then? ~Anachronist (talk) 16:21, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Aminabzz, and welcome to the Teahouse.
I agree. If I look at Amathus, I get that box (from template {{expand language}}) at the top, but on a browser on my Android phone, when I pick "Show" it replaces the word "Show" with "Hide", but doesn't expand the box, so I can't see additional information.
However, the box has a "Learn more" button, and if I pick that it shows me a little more, but not the full information that I see on my browser on a computer.
This looks like a bug in the user interface: WP:VPT is a better place to ask/report such things than here, and I suggest you post there. Thank you for pointing it out. ColinFine (talk) 18:04, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
I note that I cannot find any of these problems when I use the Wikipedia app. ~Anachronist (talk) 15:59, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

How to find the full form of abbreviations on phone?

Hi. On Wikipedia, some abbreviation words have dotline underlines. When we hover the mouse cursor on them on PC we can see the full form. For example, TBA reveals to be "to be announced".

But on mobile phones (Chrome for Android for me) there is no mouse so that we hover the cursor on them! So how can we find the full form of abbreviations on these dotline-underlined words in cellphones? Holding the word doesn't work.

Look at this for seeing the dotlines. Aminabzz (talk) 15:40, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

That's one of the limitations of using a smartphone as a browser. There is no notion of "hover". I have seen hovering implemented in some Samsung phones, in which holding your finger near to the screen without touching it is sensed as a hover, but this worked only in certain apps and wasn't a universal experience across all apps on the phone. Unless someone has a better answer, I'd say that features reliant on hovering are generally not accessible on smartphones. ~Anachronist (talk) 16:16, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Samsung devices with S Pen support actually support "hover" by well, hovering the S Pen close to the display. The display has an "active digitizer" that can sense the Pen with NFC. Shows a little cursor and pops up stuff and you can hit the Pen's button to do things, very neat actually. ...Buuuut still doesn't work for the abbr stuff in browsers because it's handled differently in the system software (as it's not "really a mouse", it's handled by different code) and so doesn't "pass through" a mouse hover event down to the browser software. Shucks. --Slowking Man (talk) 17:07, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh yeah this is a known problem for years. Abbr and friends use the standard HTML tags for such things, and browsers don't gaf apparently about making them "work" when there's no pointing device (mouse), and the attitude appears to be ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. WP could implement some sort of JavaScript "workaround" that pops up a thing, but, that requires deploying something "globally" site-wide and that is a Big Deal so it needs Official approval: ask around at WP:VPT whether there's any effort in this direction. (FYI templates can't have JavaScript, it needs to be JS to "dynamically" add new page elements and display them)
In the meantime the "workaround" is to hit edit and look at the wikitext. Or you could also view the page HTML source and use the browser's "find" to go to the abbreviation which will show its definition. Also also there might be some userscript someone has made to make it pop up, which you can "install" to use while logged-in. (You could also always plug in a mouse/trackpad/etc or connect a wireless one ) --Slowking Man (talk) 17:07, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Aminabzz, Anachronist, and Slowking Man: I couldn't find any such script, so I made it. JJPMaster (she/they) 05:08, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Is this something that needs to be deployed in the Wikipedia software, or is it something that a user can add to vector.js? ~Anachronist (talk) 15:52, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
@Anachronist: The latter. JJPMaster (she/they) 17:46, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
@Aminabzz: Well, JJP has a solution for you, but it requires that you be logged into Wikipedia to take advantage of it. Me, I use the Wikipedia app for reading Wikipedia on my phone, and I never encountered a "hover" situation in that app. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:58, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

GA Spotcheck

Apparently I might've misunderstood what is needed for a source spotcheck in a good article review. Could someone please explain what is needed? History6042😊 (Contact me) 15:53, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Appears that at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations, date 1/1/25, there has been a question raised about GA nomination reviews conducted by History60432. David notMD (talk) 17:07, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Yes, that is why I am asking. History6042😊 (Contact me) 17:09, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@History6042, note 2 on the Wikipedia:Good article criteria page explains source checking. If you're concerned that your interpretation isn't in line with the community's, you might find it helpful to discuss with other editors involved with the good article process at Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations. Schazjmd (talk) 17:33, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
So it means Verifiable with no original research:
it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;
reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);
it contains no original research; and
it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism? History6042😊 (Contact me) 19:25, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
The note says "Ideally, a reviewer will have access to all of the source material, and sufficient expertise to verify that the article reflects the content of the sources; this ideal is not often attained. At a minimum, check that the sources used are reliable (for example, blogs are not usually reliable sources) and that those you can access support the content of the article (for example, inline citations lead to sources that agree with what the article says) and are not plagiarized (for example, close paraphrasing of source material should only be used where appropriate, with in-text attribution if necessary)." Schazjmd (talk) 20:40, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Okay I think i did that but do I just need to like write it down? History6042😊 (Contact me) 21:06, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Saying in your review what you checked is helpful. Perhaps read through this discussion on spot checks. You might also find it useful to read through some GA reviews by experienced reviewers, see what they're doing in their written reviews that you can learn from. Schazjmd (talk) 21:47, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you. History6042😊 (Contact me) 00:39, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Creating an article heavily lacking sources :/

I've been working on trying create an article (Draft:Millennium Force's effects) but I've run into some issues; including after initial submission. The only sources I can find are mainly from various YouTube videos (not tied to the subject) and very few separate links; so it's no wonder why it wasn't accepted.

So I know what I've written down is true, but I don't have the secondary sources to prove it and that makes my info Original Research. What can I do? I was told I could try another Wiki (ex: Amusement Park Wiki) but is there anything I can do to keep it on Wikipedia? Thanks! Therguy10 (talk) 16:49, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

@Therguy10 Welcome to theTeahouse. I'm afraid not. Reliable sources are fundamental to Wikipedia articles. See WP:42. Shantavira|feed me 18:01, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Therguy10. I agree with Shantavira. Please see also No amount of editing can overcome a lack of notability ColinFine (talk) 18:07, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Shantavira @ColinFine Thank you both! I do believe that the article has potential in the future, but I also understand it isn't notable enough as of now. With the article being a history of a subject, there is older information that I fear may not be written about. My hope is that the new changes made this year were important enough to spark some kind of interest for a source; I'll have to wait and see. Therguy10 (talk) 18:13, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
well i guess technically the changes were made last year...lol Therguy10 (talk) 18:14, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
If you can find reliable sources, why not improve the Ride experience section of Millennium Force? Schazjmd (talk) 18:27, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
That was a strong consideration of mine. I certainly won't be able to fit everything inside of the main article but it might not hurt to add a little more than what I already have there. Once again my biggest issue would be collecting sources; this seems more doable. Thanks! Therguy10 (talk) 18:34, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Therguy10 Draft:Millennium Force's effects is not really notable and an entertainment topic, so please post it at fandom. Ned1a Wanna talk? 02:54, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

How do i delete a Wikepedia page?

a school has a wikepedia page, (carlisle public schools) i have moved the page to inside the town page (carlisle masssachusetts) so how do i delete the old school page? it is useless (i moveed the page because it contains about only 1 paragraph, so why not make it a section) so yeah, if someone knows how to delete a page, please delete Carlisle Public Schools

how to find page - go to the education part of carlisle, massachusetts, press carlisle public schools, and you will be there. Theawezomefriend12 (talk) 19:39, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Carlisle Public Schools is an article. If you believe it should be deleted, the process is to nominate it for deletion via the WP:AFD process. What you added to Carlisle, Massachusetts was rightfully deleted because you did not include any references. See Maynard, Massachusetts for an example of a referenced education section. I was going to point you to Acton or Sudbury, but those have unreferenced content. There is also Concord-Carlisle High School, but that has its own problems. David notMD (talk) 20:02, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Okay, Thanks! Theawezomefriend12 (talk) 20:30, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Theawezomefriend12: I'm going to offer some slightly different advice. For a small article in this situation: First copy the relevant text to the target article (the article about the town). If there are no references then be sure to add one or some. See WP:CWW for the correct process, if you are moving any text. Once that has been successfully done, turn the former article (the school district) into a redirect to the town as you did previously. There is no need to actually delete anything: redirects are useful for people trying to find things, such as information about Carlisle Public Schools, and can be safely left behind. -- zzuuzz (talk) 21:12, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for the advice, i will remove the deletion (i dont know if thats possible i am new) and make the page redierect to Carlisle, Massachusetts. Theawezomefriend12 (talk) 21:30, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
@Theawezomefriend12: I've helped a bit with the deletion part. The best way to learn is to just do things, so I'll leave you to continue the process (and will probably pop back in a bit). I'll just mention that it appears that the only reason your previous attempt was reverted was because you didn't include any references for the content you were adding/moving to the town article. Sufficient references probably exist in the district article so they can just be copied. If not, I'm sure they won't be difficult to find. -- zzuuzz (talk) 21:38, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
oh ok, i am propably going to be moving the main description and the new gallery part i added, i probably will not be added refrences and external links. Theawezomefriend12 (talk) 21:45, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi! PARIS

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Happy new year 2025. Please how to move to the main space the Draft:Hi! PARIS. This research center in AI is now one of the most important in France : https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/intelligence-artificielle/une-dotation-de-70-millions-pour-la-formation-de-lelite-de-lia-en-france-2096150 and https://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-hec-et-l-institut-polytechnique-remportent-l-appel-a-projets-cluster-ia-93818.html. Many thanks in advance for your help. Have a great day. 2A01:CB00:B48:9900:1C67:231F:4C2F:9933 (talk) 21:57, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

On the AoPS Wiki go to special:move. I don't know bout wikipedia tho 73.31.42.97 (talk) 22:22, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Sorry its Special:MovePage 73.31.42.97 (talk) 22:23, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Bonsoir, IP user.
73. is right that the technique for moving pages is to use the Move function (though most people do it from their user-interface, rather than going to Special:MovePage.
However, not logged in users do not have access to that function.
I was going to advise you to submit it for review. However, I see that the draft was created in mainspace user BobVillars (since blocked for sockpuppetry) was then moved to Draft space by @Rosguill, was submitted for review by an ipV6 user in the same range as you, then moved to main space again by McSyl, also blocked as a sockpuppet of BobVillars, and moved back to draft space again by @Janhrach.
Neither you nor anybody else has since made any substantial edits to the draft.
I am finding it very difficult to assume good faith. I will ask you directly: are you BobVillars/McSyl? If so, you are evading your block, which is not permitted. ColinFine (talk) 22:59, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi Colin. Thanks for your answer. I don’t know what you are talking about. I am using 5G access so my Ip range is used by million of users. But if it is too complicated no worries, please cancel my request. This AI cluster is one of the most important in France and one of the biggest in Europe. So soon or later it will be back to mainspace. Have a great day. 2A01:CB06:B064:82B5:2C9D:5034:3AC5:1BD4 (talk) 06:21, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

AoPS page

Why isn't there a page for Art of Problem Solving? 73.31.42.97 (talk) 22:15, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi IP 73.31.42.97. There could be a couple reasons why: (1) nobody thought enough about the book/series to try and create one; or (2) somebody did try to create one, but the subject wasn't deemed to meet Wikipedia:Notability (books) and was either deleted altogether or added to Richard Rusczyk. Art of Problem Solving current WP:REDIRECTs to the "Rusczyk" article and its page history shows that there once was a stand-alone article about the book/series, but it was "redirected" per Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Art of Problem Solving (2nd nomination). If you feel something has changed since then, you might want to first explain why to the administrator who closed the Articles for Deletion discussion. That administrator's name is Liz. Perhaps by asking at User talk:Liz, Liz can tell you what is needed for the article to be recreated or restored. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:30, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Where is Wikipedia year in review for iOS?

I am looking for Wikipedia year in review in iOS where is it? 172.59.25.192 (talk) 22:18, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

Welcome to the Teahouse, IP user. This isn't something I'm familiar with, but a Google search yields this link which I hope gives you what you seek: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Engagement_Experiments/PES_1.3.1:_Wikipedia_insights. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 01:56, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

How to find vandalism on Wikipedia?

The closest thing I have found to vandalism is on the page for the number 3, where someone changed references to “3” with “2.” I’m wondering how to find vandalism, so I can revert it. Most of my edits are fixing grammar. Thank you. Heyaaaaalol (talk) 00:18, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

@Heyaaaaalol Welcome to the Teahouse. If you'd care to read WP:VANDALISM, and especially the section linked from this shortcut: (WP:SPOTVAN), you should have all the answers you need. Monitoring 'Recent Changes' is the best way to spot ongoing vandalism, and you can choose to select only certain types of edits which highlight the most likely problematic edits for you to assess and respond to, and ignore all the honest ones. Thank you for your interest in helping out in this field. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 01:50, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Go to the “recent changes” link and there are filter options you can select. What you’ll want to do is choose “likely bad faith”, “very likely bad faith”, and “latest revision”. Then save that filter as your default. Grimaceshakeohio (talk) 04:35, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

"Series of small edits"

I find it difficult to follow and review edits for valid constructive contributions when an editor makes a "series of small edits" (example: 1, 2, 3) where several of the edits could, IMHO, easily and conceivably be made in a single edit with a single edit summary encompassing all of what is edited. Is there policy or guidelines about this practice that could help me in a talk page discussion I am currently engaged in? Iljhgtn (talk) 00:23, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Well, there's WP:Cautious, which touches on not making too large edits. There is probably better material than this, but I can't find it.
The point has been discussed on the Help/Teahouse desks before, and various editors have said that more smaller edits are better than one all-encompassing one, because if only one or two of several small edits are objected to, they can be reverted individually, but if they're part of a larger edit the whole thing has to be reverted and then it becomes difficult to sort out which details are accepted and which disputed.
I myself, when reading an article for its content, sometimes make small edits as I go along on noticing typos, misspellings, incorrect grammar, etc. If I were to be deliberately setting out to copyedit the article (I used to be a professional editor) I would likely make them in larger batches, perhaps one per Section or Subsection (basically, as often as [edit] is present in the text), because that makes for a smaller and easier chunk (with all its confusing reference codings) to navigate in the edit box.
In general, I don't think an editor making good-faith edits need think primarily of the convenience of some hypothetical would-be reverter, and I wouldn't criticise anyone for making successive small edits. Were the edits to smell of some deliberate obfustication as a cover for vandalism, or edit-count inflation, it would be another matter. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.84.253 (talk) 02:11, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Small or a series isn't the issue really. It is that several of the edits could fall under a single edit summary, and therefore could be made as one. I am curious about this comment though, "Were the edits to smell of some deliberate obfustication as a cover for vandalism, or edit-count inflation, it would be another matter", because that is kind of what I think is the heart of the matter. How can you differentiate between the two if we are not allowed to scrutinize editing behavior which is a mix perhaps of both lots of small, with some more impactful edits laced in there? Iljhgtn (talk) 14:33, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
The key being the "lots of small" could just as easily be one edit under one edit summary, and then more larger or more substantive edits separately under another. If the "lots of small edits" are all broken into separate edits, for me at least, it makes it harder to check on someone's editing in the first place to determine IF there is in fact a case of real vandalism, deliberate edit-count inflation, or some other intended obfuscation. Iljhgtn (talk) 14:35, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
You can differentiate because if it is a cover for vandalism, you can point out the vandalism. Edit-count inflation these days is mostly people trying to game their way to extended confirmed status - the edits you point out here are from an editor who already has that status. There's no policy against editing this way - this editor isn't doing anything wrong.
If you want to examine a set of contiguous edits at once, you can get a multi-edit diff by using the radio buttons on the history page of the article in question. MrOllie (talk) 14:40, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Understood, and no accusation of vandalism has been levied, but if several edits could be made under a single edit summary, is there any policy that they should be? That is really the essence of my question. Iljhgtn (talk) 14:43, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
There is not. Schazjmd (talk) 14:46, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok. Thank you for answering my question then. Iljhgtn (talk) 14:56, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
How isn't that benign? Is there an issue with the individual edits? My editing tends to match my own writing (on non-Wikipedia, Word, etc.): dump a bunch of text, and make then increasingly granular refining edits. -- Very Polite Person (talk) 00:37, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Political Party Relations

Just like how we have Category:Sign language family tree templates, should we have that for political parties kind of like below but for whole countries? These would be based on the infobox political party preceded by/succeeded by/merger of/merged into. If so would these be their own article or would they be in the many "List of political parties in ___"? I am curious and want to know if these are wanted/needed.

SPD
Spartacus League
KPD
SED
PDSWASG
Die Linke
BSW

History6042😊 (Contact me) 00:39, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi History6042, that's an interesting idea, you might want to pitch this at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics. Justiyaya 03:23, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Okay, I'll do that, thanks. History6042😊 (Contact me) 03:27, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Freedom of Panorama Inquiries

This is regarding the article Liliget Feast House. The site where the restaurant once stood was torn down 2008, and I wanted to inquire regarding the best way to navigate Fair Use and Freedom of Panorama rules on Wikipedia in order to get photographs of the site on the page. This is probably best asked on Commons, but I'm not familiar with where I might be able to ask on there either. Ornithoptera (talk) 02:19, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi Ornithoptera. I think you can take a picture of the where the restaurant once stood and upload it here, which should be fine under Freedom of panorama#Canada which also allows incidental inclusion of copyrighted, non-architectural work (also commons:COM:FOP Canada). You would still be able to release a photograph that you took of publicly viewable buildings under a free license.
If you are asking about whether an inclusion of a non free file is allowed, I'm not sure but I think that it meets all the criteria seeing that the building was demolished and if a suitable free photo cannot be located. Justiyaya 05:48, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi Justiyaya, thank you so much for your time! Truthfully I'm uncertain about using a photograph of where the restaurant once stood because it would be irrelevant to the content of the article (or at least for the intended use within the infobox). I am more asking about if I am able to use a non free file, yes, is there a venue where I can have a conversation with individuals who are more familiar with the matter? I'm not entirely sure if there is a relevant noticeboard/talk page/etc where I can bring this matter up with, if you or one of the editors here know one do let me know! Ornithoptera (talk) 05:52, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ornithoptera I think it would be a good use of an non-free file. Wikipedia:Media copyright questions would be a relevant noticeboard for asking these types of questions. Commons won't be the place to go because they don't deal with non-free stuff. Hope this helps and happy editing! :D Justiyaya 06:06, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Wonderful! Thank you so much for the assistance Justiyaya, didn't know there was a place like that! I'll go and send them a message hopefully within the week, I hope you have a wonderful day! Ornithoptera (talk) 07:03, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Why am I blocked from doing stuff on Russian Wikipedia?

According to my global account information I've been indefinitely blocked from doing anything other than viewing the Russian Wikipedia because I'm "using multiple accounts or having others promote me (so what I say is seen more correct)", but I'm not? I don't know anyone else with a Wikipedia account and as far as I know I only have one. It's just on the Russian Wikipedia, none of the others. I haven't really done anything on the Russian Wikipedia anyways. I've only edited my own user page. Why did this happen and how do I fix it?

More information: The exact stated reason was обход блокировки (bypass blocking) and it linked here. It also gave me a link to here. Красный Октябрь (talk) 04:25, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Красный Октябрь, welcome to the teahouse. English and Russian Wikipedia are moderated differently, so a block there should not affect editing here nor could the community here fix anything there. From what I've been able to see with google translate and all, it appears that you've been checkuser blocked by @Q-bit array without email or talk page access. The administrator appears to monitor cross wiki notifications so hopefully they would respond here. They also appear to monitor meta:User talk:Q-bit array. Usually appeals without talk page access go through WP:UTRS but I can't seem to find a similar system in ru-wiki. Justiyaya 05:34, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Красный Октябрь, the English Wikipedia and the Russian Wikipedia are entirely separate projects. Each has its own policies and guidelines, and its own separate teams of administrators. Here at the Teahouse, we can do our best to help you with problems you may have on the English Wikipedia. But we have no knowledge, power nor influence over the Russian Wikipedia, which is an autonomous project. Cullen328 (talk) 08:38, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Do you know where I can go on the Russian Wikipedia to get it fixed? Красный Октябрь (talk) 14:22, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello again, @Красный Октябрь I think the relevant section is ru:ВП:РАЗБЛОК. ColinFine (talk) 15:24, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
I went through the whole section you linked and it gives me instructions to request an unblock but I can't because I can't access my talk page or edit my user page. I can't find other ways to contact the person who blocked me as well. Красный Октябрь (talk) 16:30, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
If there is no off-wiki means of contacting Russian Wikipedia administrators, I think you will need to contact a steward(https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards) who may at least be able to advise you better than we can. 331dot (talk) 16:42, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you! Красный Октябрь (talk) 17:12, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
I messaged one of the stewards here. Thank you for helping me find where to ask! Красный Октябрь (talk) 17:44, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Responding to the "why did this happen" aspect, the most likely explanation is that your IP at the time you edited your userpage is similar to or within a range used by someone evading blocks on ru.wiki around the same time. Either that, or a more random human error on the blocking admin's part. signed, Rosguill talk 16:50, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Notice of geological updates

Hi, in the past few months, I was working on pages regarding the periods, ages and other units of the geological timescale, and noticed a recent update in the ICC Chronostratigraphic Chart (2024/12), compared to the previous version (2023/09), that affects the time boundaries of a lot of ages. I didn't know which talk page or portal I could specifically notify of this change, so I came here to speak about it.

Now, I don't want to linger on a change like this here, since that feels like advertising which I KNOW Wikipedia is not about (see WP:SOAPBOX). But I know a change like this is going to require a lot of edits to catch up with, and I for sure can't do it alone. So does anyone know a good project/portal page I can discuss this more on? — Alex26337 (talk) 05:05, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi Alex26337, thank you for your question. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geology would be the best venue to discuss this. I don't think this is soapbox like if you are advertising on-Wiki collaboration. The policy refers to more so advertising on Wiki things off-wiki. Discussions with other community members that share the same interest is what these Wikiprojects are for :D Justiyaya 05:58, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Request to Update Image

I noticed that the current image used at Dadvan Yousuf is from 2021, but there are more recent images from 2024 available on Wikimedia Commons.

I kindly request an extended-confirmed user to review and consider updating the image to "Dadvan Yousuf with Kurdistan Flag.jpg", Image is from recent - i dont recommend the images with the bitcoin flag.

Thanks.. Ayohama (talk) 07:44, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi Ayohama, welcome to the teahouse! Although the image File:Dadvan Yousuf with Kurdistan Flag.jpg is more recent, I don't think it provides the same quality and clarity as the image currently in the article. I don't think this change should be made. Justiyaya 07:53, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Hey, thanks for the solid feedback! fully understood Ayohama (talk) 07:54, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ayohama: I'd hold off in trying to use File:Dadvan Yousuf with Kurdistan Flag.jpg or any of the other images of Yousuf uploaded to Commons by Lonely34 until the claims of "own work" can be verified by c:COM:VRT. All the images that were uploaded by Lonely34 can be found being used online on sites like X, Facebook, Instagram, etc, from May 2024 onward prior to their being uploaded to Commons, some even with watermarks. This doesn't necessarily mean they weren't taken by Lonely34, but the general licensing of those sites is too restrictive for Commons per c:COM:L and in such cases copyright holder consent needs to be verified. If the licensing of any or all of those images ends up being verified, you can add them to the body of the Wikipedia article about Yousuf if you want but probably should propose changing the infobox image on the article's talk page to see what others think. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:30, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Ayohama, even if the issues that Marchjuly describes can be ironed out, I would oppose the use of the image that you are proposing for the infobox. That is a mountaineering summit style photo, and this person is not a notable mountaineer even if he paid a lot of money to climb the standard tourist route on Mount Everest with the help of Sherpa guides. He is a cryptocurrency investor not a serious mountaineer and it is not appropriate to portray business people with golf clubs or tennis rackets in their hands. Or flags on mountain tops. This is not 1952 and rich people climbing Everest is not a notable accomplishment these days. Cullen328 (talk) 08:56, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
One of the references used to verify the claim about him climbing Everest says (in English translation) I had never climbed a mountain before, Everest was my first. This is not indicative of a serious mountaineer but rather a rich person willing and able to pay actual Sherpa mountaineers to help him get to the top for publicity purposes. Cullen328 (talk) 09:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Although it doesnt seem to be that easy for me to climb everest as it seems for you. I think its still very dangerous and a notable achievement Ayohama (talk) 09:21, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Agree with you Ayohama (talk) 09:20, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for the hint, i thought the Metadata is correct Ayohama (talk) 09:27, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ayohama: The uploader or someone else has emailed Commons VRT regarding these files and is currently being processed by VRT. Assuming things check out, the c:Template:Permission received added to each file's page will be changed to c:Template:PermissionTicket by the VRT member reviewing the email. Once this happens, the files will be fine from a copyright standpoint; so, in principle, they're OK to be used. From an encyclopedic standpoint, though, things might still need to be sorted out on the article's talk page, particularly if others feel (like expressed above) that they shouldn't be used in the main infobox. One representative image in the body of the article should, however, be OK. -- Marchjuly (talk) 10:07, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Was thinking after our conversations, the infobox is not the right place there. MAYBE at Personal life, where context is about Everest is fine. Max Ayohama (talk) 10:10, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
According to List of Mount Everest summiters by frequency, more than 6,000 people have summited Everest (as of 2022), so agree that if any placement at all, then at Personal life. David notMD (talk) 11:14, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
And the record for a non-Sherpa (actually an Englishman) is 18 (exceeded by 9 individual Sherpas). {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.84.253 (talk) 05:40, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Lonely34 claims of "own work" are now verified by c:COM:VRT. If you want, you can go ahead and place the File:Dadvan Yousuf with Kurdistan Flag.jpg under "Personal Life". I guess the article itself is interesting to work on in the future- the tone is sometimes too promotional and the text layout weird- Reads like a chronology rather then a WP Article. Ayohama (talk) 13:39, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Help with improving references and notability for Eugene Vollmer draft

Hello! I submitted a draft for Eugene Vollmer but it was declined because the references didn't show significant coverage. Could anyone assist me in finding reliable sources or improving my draft to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines? I appreciate any guidance! Sammy Tremlinn (talk) 08:45, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Sammy Tremlinn, your draft fails to make the case that Vollmer is a truly notable athlete, although it seems that he was once highly ranked in an amateur track and field event in a country of less than a million residents. At first glance, that does not seem to be a plausible claim of notability to me. But I could be wrong. In the end, it is all about whether or not multiple indisputably reliable sources independent of Vollmer have devoted significant coverage to him. Your current sources are not independent of Vollmer and therefore do not meet that threshold. Cullen328 (talk) 09:25, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you for the feedback, Cullen328. I understand the importance of independent and significant coverage for establishing notability. I will work on finding additional sources that meet these criteria and provide substantial information about Eugene Vollmer's achievements. If you have any suggestions for where I might look or types of sources to prioritize, I’d greatly appreciate it! Sammy Tremlinn (talk) 10:01, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
List of newspapers in Fiji might be a starting point: many of those entities are likely to be Reliable sources. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.84.253 (talk) 05:48, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

New page

Hello, I was thinking of making a new page about the New Zealand retail company PB Technologies, but I think I'll be going in too far over my head if I start it myself, so I was wondering where I could propose the Idea so that I could join forces with a more experienced Wikipedian to make the page a reality. Sup3rG33k08 (talk) 08:51, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello. You can go to Requested articles, but it is backlogged to the point of uselessness, any request you make there will likely not be acted on for some time, if ever. You are wise to be cautious in attempting to create a new article, but if you want to see one created, it likely won't happen unless you do it yourself. You can use the Article Wizard to create and submit a draft for review by more experienced editors. You would first need to gather independent reliable sources to summarize in an article, and review the definition of a notable business to see if this business meets it(most do not).
If you are associated with this business, that needs to be disclosed, see WP:COI and WP:PAID. 331dot (talk) 10:05, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Articles about companies need to comply with WP:NCORP and call for attention to being neutral point of view, not in any way promotional. Teahouse Hosts are here to advise, not to be coauthors. David notMD (talk) 12:09, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Adding unnumbered tracks to an upcoming album

Hello,

This artist has been teasing some track titles (and snippets) from their upcoming album, So Close To What. Some titles are speculated, some were directly teased and are confirmed. How would I go about adding those tracks, assuming I don't know their numbers? The album has a Spotify countdown page, so the two pre-released singles have already been added in track list format. Lashyurn (talk) 10:39, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Lashyurn, I read that this album "scheduled to be released on February 21, 2025". I suggest that you simply wait until February 21, 2025. -- Hoary (talk) 12:24, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh, that's fine. I was just following what I saw was done with SZA's LANA 10 days prior to its release. Thank you! :) Lashyurn (talk) 12:32, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi Lashyurn, in that article, there were reliable sources that reported on the teasers for the singles. If that is the case for this album, I think a mention in the Promotion section could be nice. Things that are not being reported on by reliable, independent sources or are pure speculation are usually not included here, especially if they are self published or original research. Feel free to drop sources here for us to take a look :D Justiyaya 12:45, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
These are my sources (and titles):
"Dear god" - Played at listening party and posted snippets on TikTok
"Revolving door" - Played at listening party and posted snippets on TikTok
"Moments" - Title posted on her management's Instagram as a collaboration with Spotify on December 13, 2024
"Greenlight" - Played at listening party and title shown in album trailer
"Star child" - Title shown at the beginning of the "It's ok I'm ok" music video
Would these sources be considered reliable? I have links/pictures/videos to each of those Lashyurn (talk) 13:03, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Unfortunately none of those are secondary sources, @Lashyurn. What we're looking for is mainstream music journalists who are reporting on the album. qcne (talk) 17:35, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh, I thought I could take them from the artist themselves. Thank you! I'll wait until release. Lashyurn (talk) 18:00, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
No, sources from the person that the article is about are considered primary sources. Cowboygilbert - (talk) ♥ 22:02, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
I suggest to wait till release too Ayohama (talk) 13:33, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

English Version of the German Article Judith Kakon

Hello there, I just want to create the same article in english, I already created this article in german, all I want is to have a translated version. Could you please help me? My request was already denied twice. This is the german article: Judith Kakon. Avaa Malula (talk) 14:25, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

@Avaa Malula It appears as if German Wikipedia has the same concerns as English Wikipedia; that the article does not sufficiently prove its subject's notability. Please read WP:YFA and WP:42. CommissarDoggoTalk? 14:30, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Draft:Judith Kakon has no references. The content that is now under a description of her approach to art (my wording) comes across as either your or her description. All of this should be deleted unless it can be referenced to published descriptions of her and her work. David notMD (talk) 14:50, 2 January 2025 (UTC)
Hey @Avaa Malula
It’s great that you’re interested in contributing to the English Wikipedia by translating an article. However, there are a few things to consider to ensure the article meets the standards required on the English Wikipedia:
1. Improving the Original Article: The German article you created currently has notices indicating issues with missing citations and important information about the subject’s works. These issues suggest that the article may not yet meet Wikipedia's notability and verifiability standards. Before translating the article, it’s a good idea to improve it by:
- Adding reliable and independent sources that demonstrate Judith Kakon's notability.
- Including details about her important works or achievements.
2. Meeting English Wikipedia Standards: The English Wikipedia has specific requirements for biographies. It’s important to:
- Demonstrate notability according to the General Notability Guideline (WP:GNG).
- Provide inline citations from reliable sources to back up claims.
- Write in a neutral tone without promotional language.
3. Translation Guidelines: When translating articles, you must include a note on the article’s talk page to credit the original German version. See the Wikipedia:Translation guidelines for details on how to do this properly.
4. Steps to Resubmit: Once you’ve improved the content and addressed the above points:
- Draft the translated article in your sandbox.
- Add sources that meet English Wikipedia’s standards.
- Submit it for review through the Articles for Creation (AfC) process.
If you need help improving the article or drafting it in English, feel free to ask here. Ayohama (talk) 07:53, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Last aired date in the future

This article revison SAS: Rogue Heroes revison of 02:04, 2 January 2025 has a last aired date for series 2 which is in the future. What is probably meant is that the last episode is scheduled for broadcast on that date, but as it was worded it is factually incorrect. I've seen this on other such articles in the past. Has there been any discussions about wether this is acceptible or not? If so, can you direct me to any official decisions? Dubidub (talk) 14:49, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

See WP:FUTURE - Specifically, see the section NOTCRYSTALBALL, which states that Wikipedia is not a crystal ball. Articles should not speculate on future events unless they are verifiable and sourced. The correct phrasing should reflect that the episode is "scheduled to air" on that date to maintain accuracy and neutrality. Ayohama (talk) 07:45, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

How do I clean up formatting of tables?

On the Columbia University article, the Rankings section has quite poor formatting; the ranking tables are being displayed fully below the Library and Barnard images on the right side. How would I go about cleaning up table formatting in wikitext to remove the large blank gap? Doawk7 (talk) 21:13, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

I solved it by removing those images:) DMacks (talk) 07:38, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

How to ask ArbCom to lower protection status on Armenia-Azerbaijan

I was going to submit an ArbCom request to lower protection of Armenia-Azerbaijan due to the conflict cooling and amends being made, however I changed my mind and decided to ask here first. How would I get the Arbitration Committee or whoever imposed the sanction on Ar-Az to hear on the matter? SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 00:21, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Referencing an article on Wikipedia

I am reviewing an article and came across a source that cited another article from Wikipedia. This is the first time I have seen this. This isn’t acceptable is it? BigChrisKenney (talk) 00:35, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @BigChrisKenney. You are correct. Sources that lead to Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project are unreliable. See WP:CIRCULAR. Tarlby (t) (c) 01:33, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you @Tarlby for the speedy reply and the direction to the exact policy! BigChrisKenney (talk) 01:43, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
You can jsut delete the ref to a Wikipedia article, but a better practice would be to look within that Wikipedia article to find a ref (refs) that support the content, and then copy those refs to the article you have concerns about. If you do this, in your Edit summary consider stating that you copied content from - naming the source article. Wikipedia does allow copying content and refs from Wikipedia articles with attribution. David notMD (talk) 14:17, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Writer or Screenwriter?

Quick question: creating a stub-starter on Donald Ross: [5] who was a television screenwriter, celebrity game show panelist (with his wife Patti Deutsch) and producer. Since there are other Donald Ross articles, would you accompanying his name with (writer) or (screenwriter) for the published article? He has no distinguishing middle name / initial. Deutsch's article refers to him as "comedy screenwriter and playwright", but Ross never wrote any plays. TIA. Maineartists (talk) 02:16, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Maineartists, "Donald Ross (writer)" seems OK to me. -- Hoary (talk) 03:50, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
(writer) seems OK to me too Ayohama (talk) 07:23, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Great. Thanks all. Maineartists (talk) 13:47, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

What is the opinion on wikipedia writing services?

How would I detect if an article has been secretly written and paid for? There are services that you can reach just by searching on google and I would like to know if there are any ways to detect them or do something about them. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 04:32, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello! If there is an editor who might be paid and performing edits, raise the issue at WP:ANI or WP:COIN noticeboards. If there are any private details you have found about the editor or services, please send an email to paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org . TNM101 (chat) 05:24, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi, SSCG, did you have any specific articles in mind? I would say that there are heuristics I know of, but there's nothing definitive overall. Heustics I've identified for undisclosed paid/COI include (please do not use any of these to make definitive accusations; these observations are potential starting points, not endpoints):
  • The article has an image of an otherwise obscure person which is usually marked as "own work". This image is posed, not candid, indicating that either the subject themself uploaded it or they've given it to somebody else to use as effectively a PR photo on Wikipedia. Some subjects presumably will enthusiastically freely license their image even when they have no part in an article because they're just jazzed to have their own article, but what can be really suspect is when the uploader of the image is the same editor who created and/or has heavily edited the article itself.
  • The article was already very long, well-formatted, and essentially complete right out of the gate. For new editors, sometimes articles after going through the draft process can come out looking alright, but these edits skip the draft process altogether yet still seem like they've been written out ahead of time off-site. Whereas I take an incremental approach to my writing, experienced editors very often will pre-write everything out in their sandbox and then transfer their work into the article space once they're happy with it, but in my experience, this is highly uncommon for newer editors who organically create articles about subjects they're interested in.
  • The article was created or heavily modified by a WP:SPA, which seemingly has not interacted elsewhere on Wikipedia.
  • The editor tries to wikilink this article absolutely everywhere they possibly can once it's created, presumably for a mix of SEO and for drawing as many eyes to that subject as possible on-wiki.
  • The article is mostly primary references, and a lot of it is WP:PUFFERY. For companies, a dead giveaway for something like this is when there's an entire section on some stupid PR BS the company did which is only cited to press releases from that company about what a great thing(TM) they did. Basically, consider WP:DUE.
  • The article goes into excruciating depth about a subject (sometimes this is just fans being fans, but for example, there was one some years ago about a Lithuanian(?) alt-rock band whose primary editor I thought to be just an overly enthusiastic fan but who I discovered was secretly the band's manager or something to that effect).
  • The 'External links' section contains an inordinate amount of links to social media (this one to me generally indicates that it's autobiographical, whereas I assume you specifically want contracted third parties).
  • The editor has a username-violating policy which indicates they're part of the subject organization.
  • The subject likely doesn't meet the WP:GNG but has been WP:REFBOMBed to give the appearance that it does.
  • The subject is a very niche a) product/service/work, b) company/organization, or c) person. Depending on the nature of the organization (e.g. a club), this may not be "paid" as much as it is WP:COI.
  • The subject is not written about in a neutral way. If there is negative coverage of the subject in reliable sources, it is strangely absent.
If you strongly suspect that an editor is engaging in undisclosed paid editing, the boards TNM101 suggests are great resources. I would caution too however that if your suspicion isn't that strong, you can start by just asking them at their talk page. Sometimes they're earnestly trying to improve the encyclopedia about something they're very familiar with because they're a part of it, but they've failed out of ignorance of forgetfulness to disclose that on their user page. TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 06:03, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@TheTechnician27@TNM101 I wasn't talking about COIs or paid editing, I already know and have remembered both WP pages. I was just wondering if Wikipedia could take action against those services aka take them to court. SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 06:59, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
That doesn't seem to be within our scope, and I am pretty sure that the Wikimedia Foundation doesn't take legal action against anyone since it's a non-profit. TNM101 (chat) 07:12, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
I can't think of a single viable avenue by which Wikipedia could take successful legal action against undisclosed paid editors. If you tried to bring a civil suit, you'd be trying to prove what's called a tort. The WMF would have to prove that 1) the editor had a legal duty to act in a certain way (they didn't; nothing legally says you have to identify an employer when you contribute to a website); 2) that the defendent breached this duty (i.e. if you could somehow prove 1 (not possible), then you would still need to prove in court that your suspicions are more probable than not); and 3) that the WMF suffered injury or loss as a result of this undisclosed paid editing (short of some absolutely enormous conspiracy that blows up and damages the WMF's reputation, this is functionally impossible, because the reality is that any loss is negligible at best). TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 07:18, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Deep thanks to User:TheTechnician27 for putting all these undeclared paid flags in one place. If this is not already the subject of an essay, it should be. I do see that Wikipedia:Identifying PR is an existing essay flagging behavior that draws content from press releases. David notMD (talk) 11:45, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much for all the responses, is there anyway I can see of all the times when paid editors or undisclosed COIs were caught in the act? SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 04:33, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

Improving a page through including my own research

The 'icing the kicker' page can benefit from the following recent addition in regards to the effectiveness of this practice:

"Most recently and extensively, Professor Nadav Goldschmied and Tyler Ratkovich from the University of San Diego and Mike Raphaeli from Nanning Vocational and Technical University (China) found that in 25 NFL seasons (1999-2024) the success for "pressure kicks" (two minutes or less to the end of the game when -3, −2, −1, tied or in overtime) when iced was 74.1% as opposed to 79.8% otherwise which represented a significant decline in performance.

Goldschmied, N., Ratkovich, T*., & Raphaeli, M. (2024) NFL field goal kicking under pressure: An expanded replication of icing the kicker strategy. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.

Thanks,

Nadav Goldschmied


Ngoldschmied11 (talk) 05:42, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

The place to suggest this, Ngoldschmied11, is Talk:Icing the kicker. (Better, I think: "A study found that in 25 NFL seasons..." Interested readers will identify the authors from the reference.) -- Hoary (talk) 05:48, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Fine by me! so do I add the modification or is it done by another editor since it is my work?
Thanks,
Nadav Ngoldschmied11 (talk) 06:15, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ngoldschmied11 pretty sure this falls under WP:No original research SimpleSubCubicGraph (talk) 07:00, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
SimpleSubCubicGraph Not quite. If the observations on kicking success/failure were unpublished, that would be original research. If published in a reliable source, such as a science journal article, OK to use. However, Wikipedia advises researchers who are also Wikipedia editors to not cite their own work. David notMD (talk) 12:05, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Ngoldschmied11: in case it's not clear from the other responses: you are discouraged from citing your own work, as that is regarded as a conflict of interest, but you are welcome to suggest an edit which cites your own work, so that another editor decides what to do with your suggestion. If you use the edit request wizard that will guide you. Please make your suggestion as precise as possible (eg "Inset XXX at the end of the paragraph beginning YYY") ColinFine (talk) 13:10, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Shortened forms list

Hello. Is there any place I could get the shortened forms of all Wikipedia guidelines and a brief definition (e.g. WP:GNG, WP:NPV)? I usually find it difficult to use the shortened forms when commenting and I just go for the full name. Jõséhola 07:13, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @Josedimaria. See WP:WP. Tarlby (t) (c) 07:20, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Hey, how about Wikipedia:Shortcut index or Wikipedia:List of policies and guidelines and might be an idea to work out something for Wikipedia:Glossary of shortcuts Ayohama (talk) 07:21, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Creating a new page

I want to make a new Wikipedia page but the name already exists so what should I do Chetan4u1 (talk) 10:05, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Can you tell us the name of the article so we can better understand the situation? Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 10:10, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Chetan4u1 Welcome to the Teahouse. You don't need to worry about that at this stage. You can create a draft article by following the process at WP:AfC. If and when it is accepted into the encyclopedia (most draft articles are not), the reviewer will attend to the naming, which might require a disambiguation page, but if you haven't written a Wikipedia article before you'll have plenty of other hoops to jump through before this becomes an issue. Shantavira|feed me 10:15, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Chetan4u1 Your attempt to create an article about Isabel Myers who is an actress has been deleted and a redirect created to Isabel Briggs Myers, a different person. To start over, use WP:YFA to create a draft named Isabel Myers (actress). That said, common advice here is to gain experience improving existing articles before attempting to create an article. David notMD (talk) 12:18, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks Brother but if I make a draft then how can I change the name of the page if it already exists. Chetan4u1 (talk) 12:33, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Chetan4u1 If you're working on a draft on an individual who shares their name with someone who already has an existing article, you're supposed to differentiate/distinguish your draft from the existing article. You cannot 'delete' or 'change the name' of an article that has been reviewed and exists. In your case, name your draft Isabel Myers (actress), since the subject of the existing article, Isabel Briggs Myers, is a writer. Dissoxciate (talk) 13:19, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Dissoxciate, I disagree with you. When creating a draft, you may disambiguate the title, but you don't need to, and you certainly aren't "supposed to". New editors probably don't know our disambiguation rules anyway, so I would not encourage them to try.
For your second point, you can move an existing article to a new title, and that sometimes needs to happen when a new article is created about something with the same name. But I agree that if Chean4u1 is asking how to change the name of an existing article in order to hijack it, they shouldn't. ColinFine (talk) 13:58, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Chetan4u1, and welcome to the Teahouse.
The answer to your specific question is that you change the name of an article or other page by moving it; but I suggest you forget about this for the moment because 1) as a new user you don't have access to that tool yet, and 2) at your present stage it is irrelevant to what you want to do.
My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft.
When you are ready to create the draft, you can completely ignore the titles of any existing articles. You will be creating Draft:Isabel Myers (which doesn't exist at present, which is why it is in red). After you have developed an acceptable draft for an article (which is much harder than it looks to new editors, and will almost certainly give you frustration and disappointment if you don't take David's and my advice above), you will submit it for review, and if the reviewer accepts it, they will sort out all the issues about naming it. OK? ColinFine (talk) 13:20, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks I will try my best. Chetan4u1 (talk) 14:17, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

adding a clarification in response to a user request

Hello, in doing what described in subject, should one delete the request for clarification, or leave it there? 1808Eolo3 (talk) 10:14, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

@1808Eolo3 Welcome to the Teahouse. If you mean resolving a [how?] template (with adequate referencing) then you may remove the template. Shantavira|feed me 10:36, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

What is sandbox and how should I use it?

How can I use sandbox Juamisi25 (talk) 10:54, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

@Juamisi25 Welcome to the Teahouse! All should be explained at this help page: basically your personal sandbox is a place for you to experiment with editing without messing anything up in the main encyclopedia. Mike Turnbull (talk) 10:58, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Short and simple: follow this link — you can do whatever with it as long as it's productive Wikipedia Stuff, use it to practice edits, put together rough drafts etcetera --Slowking Man (talk) 01:15, 4 January 2025 (UTC)

So while editing Guangdong Public Security Department, I added an interlanguage link in the infobox, and for whatever reason in the infobox right after the interlanguage link are two brackets(]]). I entered the interlanguage link properly from both experience and directions, may I ask what I did wrong and how to solve this issue? Thehistorianisaac (talk) 11:18, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi Thehistorianisaac. I think this might have something to do with the syntax of Template:Infobox law enforcement agency. If you look at the syntax for the |Secondary governing body= parameter, it appears things are set up to convert whatever is added for that parameter into a Wikilink. If you remove the {{ill}} template for that parameter, it will format it as a WP:REDLINK. You could try asking about this on the template's talk page or at WP:VPT; however, I don't think you can remove the brackets without removing them from the infobox template's syntax, and doing that would affect other articles where the template is being transcluded. You might be just have to hide the parameter for the time being until a fix can be found or just go with the red link. -- Marchjuly (talk) 12:09, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok thank you Thehistorianisaac (talk) 12:14, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Thehistorianisaac:. The documentation for the parameter at Template:Infobox law enforcement agency says "Do not link. The template will link." I looked at the implementation and it doesn't appear possible to add an interlanguage link there. If the link is important then you can add it to the opening paragraph instead. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:19, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
thanks Thehistorianisaac (talk) 12:20, 3 January 2025 (UTC)
@Thehistorianisaac: If you really want to include the interlanguage link, you might replace the linked "provincial government" in the second sentence of the article with the ILL you were using in the infobox. Deor (talk) 23:47, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Can I, a relatively new user, make talk pages on contentious topics?

Are there times where I could make an edit request on a contentious topic (such as the Arab-Israeli conflict) even if I don't have the required edits to edit the article? I think I was told the answer to this question in an earlier incident, but I would like to ask this question again just to double-check and be absolutely sure. LordOfWalruses (talk) 04:24, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello! You can definitely make edit requests on the talk pages of articles on contentious topics. That is what is expected to be done by non-extended confirmed editors, since they cannot directly edit the page. TNM101 (chat) 05:19, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Although talk page posts other than edit requests cannot be made in the WP:ARBECR area. CMD (talk) 05:27, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Albert 'Kid' Lloyd

I wrote an article on "Albert 'Kid' Lloyd" some time back... and I just checked, but I can't see that it ever got published to Wikipedia... can anyone help with this? TamaRock (talk) 01:32, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

You wrote a draft on your user page, User:TamaRock. (It doesn't belong there. Please move it to User:TamaRock/sandbox, pronto.) -- Hoary (talk) 01:36, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Step 1:
Click on the red link: Albert 'Kid' Lloyd.
Step 2:
Paste in your information from your talk page.
Step 3: Publish. You might have to go through the AFC process. Sushidude21! (talk) 05:34, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
From the user page, Sushidude21, not the talk page. (And not to article space. And there was no need for copying and pasting. Just moving.) TamaRock, I have moved it to User:TamaRock/sandbox. Happy editing! (More editing is needed.) -- Hoary (talk) 05:54, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Help with applying new science breakthrough across multiple articles.

It has recently been discovered that the clouds of Jupiter are made of ammonium hydrosulfide mixed with smog, not ammonia ice, as has been previously believed and that the same applies to Saturn. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-citizen-science-reveals-jupiter-clouds.amp

How should I go about searching for information that needs to be changed in articles such as atmosphere of JupiterSushidude21! (talk) 05:06, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Please be very conservative with where and how you include it. It's hot-off-the-press WP:PRIMARY source that needs corroboration and discussion in WP:SECONDARY sources before it can rise to the level of the prevailing view it contradicts. Consider "new evidence indicates instead..." rather than replacing what seems to be long-standing scientific consensus, especially in a WP:FA. DMacks (talk) 05:33, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Okay, I'll just wait a bit and do what you said, plus maybe let more experienced editors work out what to do. Thanks Sushidude21! (talk) 05:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
@Sushidude21! You can try asking for input at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Astronomy. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:54, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

How do I move an article if the title i need to move it to is a redirect page

So basically I need to move this article to what is currently a redirect to that article but I am unable to do so because "the article already exsists". How do I move it then? Thehistorianisaac (talk) 09:05, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Ask at WP:RM/TR. CMD (talk) 09:06, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Notability of electoral divisions

Somewhere there is a notability policy regarding electoral divisions (specifically how low does it go). Can anyone tell me where it is? TYVM. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 12:44, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Afaik, We do not have something specific, but Wikipedia:Notability (people)/Subnational politicians might give some information about it (e.g.: how far "down" does the lawgiving ability go?) Lectonar (talk) 13:38, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Ah, it is coming back to me now. What I was thinking of was census enumeration divisions. So a complete red herring, sorry. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 15:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Census tracts, abadi, and other areas not commonly recognized as a place (such as the area in an irrigation district) are not presumed to be notable. - WP:NPLACE -- D'n'B-📞 -- 12:12, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Requesting a peer review

Hi, I’ve attempted to request a peer review on the Sam Reid (actor) talk page, and assumed I could link to the WikiProject Biography articles in my post but that doesn't link. Could someone please help me to request a peer review for the page? Thank you/sorry! ~~ Elinoria (talk) 04:03, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @Elinoria! I have fixed the link, however I don't believe that's the correct way to request a peer review. Have you followed all the instructions at WP:PRG? TNM101 (chat) 12:19, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I tried a few thing, including trying to add a new category but then couldn't do that - could you please help with it? Sorry, I thought it was more straightforward … Elinoria (talk) 12:26, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I have added the template to the talk page. All you have to do now is click one of the topics which the article falls under, which will lead you to a new page. Over there, write the reason for your request of the peer review and save the page. TNM101 (chat) 13:32, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you so much. I added it under the “arts” category because Sam Reid is an actor. The category seems pretty broad, was that the correct thing to do? Sorry to ask so many questions and again, thank you. Elinoria (talk) 13:56, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I think that's probably the best category you could put it under. TNM101 (chat) 14:43, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Edit Quality "Perfect"?

On the Android app, after selecting Explore in the menu and clicking Edits in the toolbar, I see a page named "Edits" that shows that my "edit quality" is "perfect". What does this mean? Quark7 (talk) 01:07, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Quark7: So according to, mw:Wikimedia Apps/Android FAQ#Contribution history, You can view your own contribution history by going to the main screen and tapping the "Edits" button at the bottom. This will show you the total number of edits you've made so far, your current edit quality (based on how many of your edits were reverted), among other statistics. To see more details about each of your previous contributions, tap on the statistics card. This will show a full-screen list of each of your edits.. I guess it means that you have an edit count that has little to no reverts. Thanks, Cowboygilbert - (talk) ♥ 01:59, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
OK, thanks for your help. How can I find out how many of my edits were reverted? Quark7 (talk) 20:16, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
@Quark7 You can get a pretty good idea using Special:Contributions and searching in article space for edits that were directly reverted, which in your case is this link. That says that none of yours have been, unlike in my case where there are a pagefull. Of course, such a search won't show your contributions which were removed by later edits that were not tagged as reverts. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:37, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Problem with disruptive editing and what should I do

Hello, I am terribly sorry if I write this in wrong place, but I really don't know what place. I alreday reprte dthis to noticeboard, but while I am awaiting answers I want to know how to act towrads this person who constantly reverts my editions. Whole situation is this:

I was editing page of Kösem Sultan and I noticed this user: 109.228.104.136 changed phrase in infobox "spouse: Ahmed I" into "consort of: Ahmed I", claiming 'they were never married'. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=K%C3%B6sem_Sultan&oldid=1263148667

Because of this, I added information they were married and sourced this with book (reference of 21 of current edition). This person so far left my paragraph intact but they keep revert to their preffered version of infobox. I asked them on Talk page about providing source. When I pointed that their source does not dispute, they deleted my talk. They did this twice and even claimed I 'vandalized' Kosem's page.

As inexperienced user I was few times into edit warring, as I did not know how exactly rules are there.I try to be careful now to not make disruptions and while there is instruction to undo undsourced informations, I am not sure if I am allowed to undo their - unsourced - edition, as I already did this few times. I would not label changing 'spouse' for 'consort of' as vandalism per say, but I want to protect my edition and I wish this person provided source so we could each consensus. You can see our - now deleted by them - discussion here: 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:109.228.104.136&diff=prev&oldid=1267744138#Kosem_Sultan_was_wife_of_Ahmed_I. 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:109.228.104.136&diff=prev&oldid=1267749540#Kosem_was_wife_of_Ahmed (I do not know if I linked this correctly, but both shound be find in history of talk page of user with today date)

I hope it can be seen I was willing to discuss things and I even proposed to merge ours versions, if only this person provide scholar source - which they didn't, as Tik Tok video they linked contardicts statement from my book (see details in discussions). I also want to add that blocked user called Cecac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:K%C3%B6sem_Sultan#Marriage used exactly the same argument, as historian in Tik Tok provided by 109.228.104.136. I do not know if 109.228.104.136 and Cecac are the same person, but I think it should be checked. Finally, I do not know how much video made on Tik Tok should be considered as reliable source, so I am not sure how to act in this situation.

Again I apologize if I leave this message in wrong board - there were multiple issues so I decided to list them all. Please notify me if I am allowed edit Kosem's page and brought back informations, as I really want avoid going back-and-forth and do not want to be blocked myself.

I understand that arguing about 'consort of' and 'spouse' seems like semantics, but this person also reverts other informations, like place of Kosem's birth in infobox despite text of article saying otherwise, and I don't know if I am allowed to intervene, as I really don't want to be accused again of another edit warring. Sobek2000 (talk) 20:00, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Sobek2000 Welcome to the Teahouse. In relation to your comments at Talk:Kösem_Sultan#Marriage, you may not realise that you are commenting in reply to an edit of last March by someone who is now blocked and therefore can't engage with you, except by evading their block. Your more recent disagreement with the IP editor may continue and there are various methods of WP:Dispute resolution open to you, as explained at that link. Incidentally, Talk Page guidelines say that, while it is acceptable to delete discussions on one's own talk page (as the IP did), it is not acceptable to delete someone else's contribution to an article talk page, so that's where you should focus all the discussion. The general advice about an edit war is: don't! Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Sobek2000: I had a look at the article in question and reviewed a few reliable sources and it does seem you are correct that reliable sources identify her as the wife of the sultan rather than the consort. As such I've restored "wife of" and included two citations in the infobox to support this statement. Hopefully that will discourage reverts. The advice to avoid edit warring is good advice - generally if you have a dispute on a page with insufficient eyes to generate a consensus the best thing to do is to raise the issue at an appropriate noticeboard and that will help bring additional editors to the page to help build a clear consensus. In this case, for instance, an appropriate venue might be something like Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women's History or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ottoman Empire. Thanks. Simonm223 (talk) 15:52, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you! Sobek2000 (talk) 16:04, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Article classes

Is there a helpful page somewhere outlining what makes a wikipedia article a stub, start class, C class up to GA, featured article etc? I'd like to learn more about these ratings. I use Visual Editor. Thanks. Balance person (talk) 17:46, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Balance person Welcome to Teahouse, see Wikipedia:Content assessment. Happy editing! More important than updating ratings is making the relevant improvements to the articles themselves ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 17:50, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks. I was just curious. I am very happily editing! Balance person (talk) 17:54, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Cultural impact? Influences? Legacy?

I'm planning to add subsections to Yu-Gi-Oh! about it's influences. I'm trying to follow conventions and looking around for examples but they use different name:

Which one should I use? Ivan530 (talk) 09:08, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Ivan530 I'm not aware of any general rule. Just use whatever you consider to be the most appropriate. Shantavira|feed me 10:04, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Don't forget to use secondary sources about the subject. This is the most important.
@Ivan530 I'm not aware of any general rule about naming of such section.

Some ressources about how to use secondary sources :

1.Wikipedia:No original research
2.Wikipedia:Secondary does not mean independent
3.Wikipedia:Independent sources Anatole-berthe (talk) 11:46, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ivan530 Welcome to Teahouse! Articles generally do not need to be consistent with each other. Some WikiProjects might propose specialized layout guidelines for example I found WP:VGLAYOUT via the more generic MOS:LAYOUT. Sometimes different sources lead for necessity of one section naming over another, though I tend to go for short section titles if possible, e.g ## Legacy ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 17:56, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Editing question

Am I allowed to edit my talk page for edits? I have been a wikipedia member for so long but dont have 500 edits so I am wondering if I did like a word of the day on my profile if that is okay like can I edit my own profile. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by DMPenguin (talkcontribs) 16:16, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hey @DMPenguin, you can edit your own talk page and user page, including adding things like a "word of the day." However, be mindful not to abuse this by simply padding your edit count, as the focus should be on meaningful contributions to articles. Keep going, you will make it to 500 edits with the proper way. Ayohama (talk) 16:29, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks DMPenguinTheJewishPenguin (talk) 16:39, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
@DMPenguin: Welcome to Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 1246. I advise you to reach an edit count of 500 edits the productive way; trying to pad your edit count with unproductive edits can be seen as gaming the system, and if an admin finds you doing that, they can revoke your extended confirmed rights even if you go past 500 edits. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 16:48, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Of so I did it 42 times do I just delete it? And not do it again(Of course) DMPenguinTheJewishPenguin (talk) 17:04, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @DMPenguin. We are all learning creatures, and we sometimes learn by making mistakes. If you have made 42 edits to try and game the system, but have now realised that that is not a good move, there is no need to delete it or cover it up - as long as your actions show that you have learnt, nobody is going to hold it against you. Though you probably do want to delete what you've added. I suggest that, when you delete it, you put something in the edit summary saying why, to make it clear that you have learnt. ColinFine (talk) 17:22, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Got it thanks. DMPenguinTheJewishPenguin (talk) 17:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
On a separate note, people can be confused if your signature "DMPenguinTheJewishPenguin" does not match your User name "DMPenguin". David notMD (talk) 18:18, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Needing help with contest

I want to join the guild of copyeditors' backlog of Jan 2025 but the signup instructions are too confusing ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 19:05, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello and welcome, IsaqueCar! To sign up, go to this backlog page and click the blue “Create your article list” button in the Signing up section and save the page. That will sign you up for the drive. The Totals section below the signup explains how to use your article list. Be sure to read the guide to basic copyediting first, and happy (copy)editing! Perfect4th (talk) 19:55, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

How to add a category to a page/talk page

Hi,

I’d like to add a category to an article’s talk pages and cannot see the HTML in the source code. According to my searches as to how to do it, I should see the category source code to add a category to, but I don’t see it. Thanks for your time Elinoria (talk) 19:09, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

In the source editor which I presume you are using, you add a category by adding a link to the category at the bottom of the page. An example would be [[Category:Example]] Thx56 (talk) 19:53, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you for your help! That’s exactly what I expected, but when I try to edit the entire page, I don’t see any source code for the category. If I try pasting the category at the very bottom of the page, nothing appears in the preview.
Do you have any suggestions?
Elinoria (talk) 20:07, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Elinoria. I'm not entirely sure what you mean.
The Wikicode [[Category:category-name]] may actually go anywhere on a page: it's just convention to put it at the bottom. And you won't see anything when the page is rendered except in the list of categories at the bottom.
If you are talking about your user page, and you mean that when you edit source you can't see any "[[Category]]" statements at the bottom, that's because the categories are inserted by the templates that you have added to the page, and since it doesn't show you the expanded code of the templates, you don't see the "Category" statements.
Does that answer your question? ColinFine (talk) 20:53, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
If not then please link the page and name the category. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:02, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Managed it eventually! Elinoria (talk) 21:07, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
It worked - I was confused by it not showing up on the preview. When I published, it appeared. Thank you. Elinoria (talk) 21:06, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Wikitext

I am trying to make a userbox and let users put It in their user page. But it will go to wikitext instead of plain text. How to make wikitext go to plain text? and I can't change it to visual because I am editing a Wikipedia page. Ned1a Wanna talk? 02:24, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

@Nedia020415 I'm not really sure what you mean, but WP:UBXCREATE has instructions for creating new userboxes. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talkcontribs) 03:19, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
If I understood correct: To display wikitext as plain text in a userbox, use the tags around the code. For example: <nowiki>{{YourUserboxCode}} Ayohama (talk) 07:11, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you Ned1a Wanna talk? 22:47, 6 January 2025 (UTC)
@Nedia020415 Template:Tl is nice and generates something like {{Example}} for example or use Template:Mra for the code/outpout:
Markup Renders as
{{Example}}
This is an example of a template. For help with templates, see Help:Template.

~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 18:02, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

ooh! Thank you I will put that. ;) Ned1a Wanna talk? 22:49, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Notability

Is he notable Chetan Maddineni ? 175.101.60.14 (talk) 16:22, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, Chetan Maddineni appears to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines based on his roles in notable films and coverage in independent sources. Ayohama (talk) 16:26, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
What about sources doesn’t meet WP:ICTFSOURCES 175.101.60.14 (talk) 16:33, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for asking, IP. I looked in all of the sources that are currently referenced. Here they are, with my comments:

None of these six sources counts toward evidence of notability. For all I know, other sources, not referenced here, show that Chetan Maddineni is notable. I haven't looked (and perhaps am hobbled by my ignorance of Telugu and Hindi). Which independent sources are you describing above, Ayohama? -- Hoary (talk) 00:24, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Are primary sources okay for a (minor) controversy section?

Currently working on the article Sacred Reich (a section at my sandbox), and I'm considering adding a (specifically minor) two-to-three-sentences-long controversy paragraph pertaining to the name of the band, sitting under the "Name" heading after the name's origin. Currently, the only relevant sources are these two interviews with lead guitarist Wiley Arnett and with the band respectively. The former has a story about how they were nearly stopped by police from doing a gig, being mistaken for a neo-nazi rally because of the name, and the latter having a sentence about the band receiving a letter from someone after the release of Surf Nicaragua, who "had the wrong idea about us and didn’t like the One Nation lyrics." (Note: One Nation is a song about anti-racism and bigotry.) However, since these are both primary sources, I still hold concerns on whether or not this should be included in the final article. If anyone can provide another opinion, it'd be highly appreciated.

Sparkle and Fade talkedits 04:38, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello —Sparkle and Fade. I know nothing about the band, but I suggest you write that during an interview Wiley Arnett stated the band got its name because of – whatever reason was given. Perhaps a better source for the name origin could be found later on, and then the article can be edited. Karenthewriter (talk) 05:50, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Sparkle & Fade: primary sources can be used to verify facts (straightforward and non-contentious ones). If the question is "where did this band get its name?", then arguably there is no better source to answer that, than the people who actually named it, ie. the band members. Even if you find a secondary source, say a magazine telling us where the name comes from, the information almost certainly ultimately traces back to the band members anyway. But as Karenthewriter suggests, rather than simply stating it as an absolute fact like "the name comes from" you should refer to that primary source and phrase it as "according to Arnett, the name comes from" (or words to that effect). -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 07:56, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Youtube

If a reliable source posts a video on Youtube, is the video a good source to rely on? WikiPhil012 (talk) 23:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

YouTube as a source is generally usable if the outlet themselves posts the video to their verified channel. As an example, a video by CNN uploaded to CNN's own channel is fine. That same video uploaded to "NewsLieTracker"'s channel isn't. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v threads critiques 00:02, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you, but in name of the website do i put the publisher, or YouTube? WikiPhil012 (talk) 00:08, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
You'd put the publisher, and put YouTube in the via parameter. Ca talk to me! 02:17, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi WikiPhil012. You should probably take a look at WP:YOUTUBE and WP:COPYLINK before adding any links to YouTube videos to any Wikipedia, even as part of a citation. If the source itself is considered to be a reliable source (as defined by Wikipedia), you can still cite it without providing a link to YouTube; just make sure you provide as much information as you can about the original source in the citation as explained in WP:CITEHOW. -- Marchjuly (talk) 02:23, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
You can put YouTube videos on Wikipedia. 2001:44C8:455C:91:C1B3:EC6C:4318:1D05 (talk) 02:53, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
That last comment is true in some cases, but false in most. See WP:YOUTUBE, as already cited. ColinFine (talk) 11:59, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

How does editor classification work?

how is an editor considered either new, intermediate, advanced or mentor, and what are the requirements for such roles? ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 17:18, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @IsaqueCar. I'm not aware of any such classifications used in a formal sense. "Mentor" is a role that an editor may take on. Where have you seen these used? ColinFine (talk) 17:24, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
special articles that include info about editing "(type of edit) is suitable for intermediate editors"
"copy-editing is suitable for begginer editors" ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 17:28, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh, right. I don't think those are formal, defined, terms. They're being used loosely, to give an indication of the level of experience required. ColinFine (talk) 19:03, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Not aware either, Wikipedia:User access page doesn't specifically mention "new," "intermediate," "advanced," or "mentor" classifications. However, it outlines various user groups based on permissions, such as unregistered users, autoconfirmed users, extended confirmed users, and administrators, which represent different levels of experience and access. Ayohama (talk) 17:27, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I forgot what page i saw it on ill search for it ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 17:32, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Experience levels are recommended for various functions (For example being a Teahouse Host, at least 30 days and 500 edits). David notMD (talk) 18:24, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Task Center uses this style. I'd describe it as based on self-assessment. In reality it's going to relate to experience and knowledge of policies, guidelines, and other relevant practices. I'd think almost all editors with fewer than 100 edits are going to be noobies, but there could be exceptions for some tasks, such as people who have used a similar wiki platform before, or people with professional writing experience. There are people with many thousands of edits and years of experience who couldn't do stuff within an 'intermediate' category, but also many people who could do things within a few weeks of learning. As mentioned above, Wikipedia:User access levels are formal classifications. Everything else is woolly and hand-wavy. -- zzuuzz (talk) 19:16, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
The Newcomer Homepage describes tasks similarly, although with ‘Easy’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Hard’: for when you are beginning to edit, for when you have completed some easy edits, and for when you have learned Wikipedia best practices, respectively. But there are no requirements for new/intermediate/advanced as said above and that too is based on self-assessment. Happy editing, Perfect4th (talk) 19:48, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
We also have something at Category:User Wikitext, which admittedly is also informal and self-assigned, and actually is only seen in context to Wiki syntax. Lectonar (talk) 12:11, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

susanhollowayscott.com reliable?

I'm currently working on upgrading an article to Good Article status, but there's still one citation left that's needed. Unfortunately, the only source I can seem to find is susanhollowayscott.com, which is a blog. I know that some blogs are allowed, so is this one trustworthy, or is it unreliable? Help! Ali Beary (talk2me!) (stalk me?!) 18:10, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Ali Beary. WP:BLOG says when produced by an established subject-matter expert, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications. According to our article on Susan Holloway Scott, she is a writer of historical fiction, and her blog seems to be mostly on historical subjects, as you might expect. She has no doubt done her research, but unless she has a track record as a reliably published writer about history, it doesn't sound promising. ColinFine (talk) 18:22, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Your refs 1,2 and 3 are to her website, and therefor not independent and not contributing to confirming notability. David notMD (talk) 20:05, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
The article content states what she has written, but does not have content or refs for what has been written about her. This is Start class at best (the current rating) and needs significant work before being upgraded to C-class, let alone nominated for GA. David notMD (talk) 20:07, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
OP nominated Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, not Susan Holloway Scott. Tarlby (t) (c) 20:14, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Yes, query pertains to raising Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton to GA, and want to know if effort can use Scott's blog as a reference. In that case, I agree with ColinFine that while Scott publishes historical fiction, she does not quality as an academic historian with bona fides. David notMD (talk) 20:16, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Jean-François Ballester

2 weeks ago someone added something in French to the article Jean-François Ballester. According to Google translate it's about the place and grave, where he was buried. As they put malformed "ref"-tags around it, it's not clear to me, what they intended to do. So: should the sentence be deleted, or could it be used somehow? Maresa63 Talk 23:30, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

The reference was for his mother and sister being coaches, so I moved it back up to that line. I removed the addition in French (location of his grave), as there was no source to support it. LizardJr8 (talk) 23:39, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

A Page about Indian Educational linguist - Rama Kant Agnihotri

I am in doubt if the person is nitable and whether he should have a wikipedia page.

Full name - Rama Kant Agnihotri

Profession - Professor (Retd.), faculty at Uni. of delhi.

Wrote many books, including, Routledge published: an essential Hindi grammar. Ruderaksh11 (talk) 22:40, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

@Ruderaksh11, do you mean Draft:Ramakant Agnihotri? Schazjmd (talk) 22:42, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Well, Ruderaksh11, it's merely a draft. Let's see how the draft develops. I have to say, though, that it's seriously defective. Consider this somniferous sample: "Rama Kant Agnihotri’s work has been pivotal in leveraging India’s rich linguistic diversity as a tool for social justice and educational equity." I think this means "Rama Kant Agnihotri’s work has made India’s linguistic diversity a tool for social justice and educational equity"; but I'd have to look at the source to be sure. However, the only source provided is by Rama Kant Agnihotri himself, so it can't be used to verify a claim for an achievement by him. -- Hoary (talk) 00:31, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Aside from the draft, you should not have article-like content on your Use page and should stop any work on Draft:Rama Kant Agnihotri (2). As for the unsubmitted draft Draft:Ramakant Agnihotri, needs work before being submittedfor review. David notMD (talk) 04:49, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Sources and Notability

Just because sources exist for a subject does not necessarily mean that it is notable enough to have a Wikipedia article, correct? RedactedHumanoid (talk) 22:10, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

@RedactedHumanoid Correct. WP:GNG sources are wanted, not, for example, subject's social media. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 22:18, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello RedactedHumanoid. There can not be an Wikipedia article unless the subject is considered notable. Sources exist about me, including mentions in a few local newspaper articles, but that doesn't make me Wikipedia-article-notable. If you haven’t already done so reading Help:Your first article may be of help to you. Karenthewriter (talk) 03:49, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Alright, thanks. I was just wondering cause I very recently obtained NPR rights, and wanted to know if just because an article with sources meant that it was notable, since I forgot. RedactedHumanoid (talk) 06:02, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

about create new page

it require article to create new page you might help me to understand Jeandamour.rw (talk) 13:57, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Jeandamour.rw, and welcome to the Teahouse.
Trying to write an article before you have spent time learning how Wikipedia works is likely to lead to disappointment and frustration, and probably a lot of wasted effort.
My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft..
Looking at Draft:Sheka umubwiriza (which is where your attempted article currently is), it appears that you have done the obvious thing of starting by writing what you about a subject. Unfortunately this is writing the article BACKWARDS - because Wikipedia does not have any interest at all in what you know about Umubwiriza (or what I know, or what any random person on the Internet knows). Wikipedia is almost only interested in what has been published about him in reliable sources by people completely unconnected with him. Unless you start by finding such sources, you are very likely wasting your time. ColinFine (talk) 14:53, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
If English is not your first language, I recommend editing in a Wikipedia version that is in another language. You can see List of Wikipedias for a list. Ca talk to me! 14:55, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Is Muck Rack a Self-published source?

Hey, Hope you are doing great, I'm here to ask about Muck Rack. Is it a Self-Published source? Taabii (talk) 13:56, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

I am not sure but their journalist profolios/profile are automatically generated and may contain errors. I wouldn't consider it a reliable source for a comprehensive list of any journalist's article. But I'd consider it fine to put it in an 'external links' section, especially if the profile is a verified one. Ca talk to me! 14:53, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Ca Thank you for your reply. Taabii (talk) 16:22, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/data/images/1315374-Thomas_Robert_Bugeaud.jpg

Can I just check this is out of protection, it was painted in the 1840s, does it being a digital image have different / changed protection? LeChatiliers Pupper (talk) 09:48, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

@LeChatiliers Pupper Faithful 2D representations/photos of paintings that old would be in the public domain, as that article explains. When you upload the image to Commons, make sure you include your immediate source, i.e. the weblink you gave here. More complex copyright questions should be directed to the Commons helpdesk at c:Commons:Village_pump/Copyright. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:19, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Cheers LeChatiliers Pupper (talk) 16:54, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Glitch?

I'm currently working on Draft:Cooper Pants Factory fire, and while updating the "Aftermath" section I noticed that one of the links in the lead bugged out, producing "post-open">Fujita Scalepost-close">" in regular text instead of Fujita Scale. Does anybody else see this? It's been happening for months, and I can't for the life of me figure out what's happening. EF5 16:17, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

It was in the wikitext, no idea why. I've removed it. Schazjmd (talk) 16:35, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Hm, that’s… odd. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ll ask around at the VP. EF5 16:37, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Sometimes you use the visual editor, and I've seen VE add odd stuff to wikitext occasionally. Schazjmd (talk) 17:25, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Redirect note

When I go to Aliasing_(factorial_experiments) from my Chrome browser, a note appears at the top, (Redirected from Draft:Aliasing (factorial experiments)). This note does not appear in the editor, and also does not appear if I go to the article from within Wikipedia. Why does it appear, and how can it be eliminated (or should it)? Johsebb (talk) 15:36, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

This note means that you were sent to the article from a redirect page. This is not a problem and likely just means that the page that is saved in your browser is the redirect page and not the actual page. (What probably happened here is that the first time you visited the article, it was a draft, which was then moved to the final article, leaving a redirect.) Again, this is not anything you need to worry about - it is completely normal to be redirected sometimes. TypoEater (talk) 16:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks very much. Looks like I need to clear my browser. Johsebb (talk) 20:40, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

unblocking request

Can someone help me with request please? Elliyoun (talk) 16:39, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

@Elliyoun Welcome to the Teahouse. In a word: "No".
You have been partially blocked on one article page only for continued disruption across a three-year period. Your appeal was reviewed today by an administrator and declined. Feel free to edit constructively anywhere else on Wikipedia's other 6.9 million articles, but do not try to assert your own view of how things should be; always base everything upon what Reliable Sources actually say. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 17:27, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Elliyoun There was no need to email me off-wiki. There was nothing private that needed discussing, so I am replying to you here instead. I took a look at your edits made when you were logged in and as an IP. Your edits were repeatedly reinserted after their removal, and were unsubstantiated. There was no attempt to discuss things on the article talk page and one administrator even recently observed that repeated attempts to make these edits had been happening over a 9 year period. Actions that are repeated over and over again without any attempt to justify them and gain concensus on the relevant talk page are disruptive — hence your single page block. You are free to edit elsewhere and are asked to leave your personal views behind when you do so. Please don't email other editors off-wiki without good reason. We edit openly and publicly here, and emails should be used very sparingly, and only when a degree of privacy is absolutely necessary. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:46, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
I think my message was direct and clear: No explanation was given about reversing the changes and instead, someone repeatedly was just deleting them. I'm not sure where you got 9 years history of my change because I've started using Wikipedia since 2022 only. I'm sorry if you are unhappy with the message which I sent, but anyway the same message and concern indicated here. Elliyoun (talk) 20:41, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Elliyoun See WP:COMMUNICATE and consider joining the discussion at Talk:Elyon#What's_"Elliyoun"_all_about?. Btw, do you see why this edit [6] wasn't helpful? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 20:56, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks, I responded your query there. Elliyoun (talk) 21:05, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

I need a biography written on Wikipedia

As a naturopath and holistic healthcare practitioner, I'd like an experienced Wiki writer to feature an article on my expertise. If any of you can help then please reach out soon. Dr. Mojibul Haque (talk) 11:04, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

@Dr. Mojibul Haque Posting a request here at the Teahouse is more-or-less an invitation to scammers to "reach out" and take your money, as the link I've added explains. If you are (or become) a wikinotable person, then a volunteer will likely notice and write about you. There are reasons why you may regret having such an article. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Dr. Mojibul Haque. To put your request in other words "I want to use Wikipedia to promote my business". Promotion of any kind is forbidden on Wikipedia.
If several people who have no connection with you, and have not been commissioned or fed information on you behalf, choose to write at some length about you in reliable sources, then you would probably meet Wikipedia's criteria for notability, and an article could be written about you. Such an article would not belong to you, would not be controlled by you, would not necessarily say what you want it to say, and would be able to be edited by almost anybody in the world except you and your associates. If it happened that there was reliably published material that was negative about you, that would probably be discussed in the article. See an article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing
If you have not been written about in that way, then no amount of work, and no amount of money, is going to be able to put an article about you in Wikipedia: see WP:AMOUNT.
Please focus on other means to promote your business. And don't, whatever you do, pay somebody to write a Wikipedia article about you: see WP:SCAM. ColinFine (talk) 13:38, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Your submission of a draft about yourself at User:Dr. Mojibul Haque/sandbox has been declined. For a living person, all content must be verified by valid references (see WP:42). References need to be to publications about you, not sci journal articles for which you were a co-author. Those are useless. David notMD (talk) 16:26, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Dr. Mojibul Haque: I feel I should point out that alternative medicines (and those who practice with same) are in a contentious topic, with part of the issue in the topic area being promotion such as you're attempting to do. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v threads critiques 16:42, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
See that Naturopathy is designated on its Talk page as a contentious topic. David notMD (talk) 23:37, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Where to start a conversation about naming of natural disasters?

Hi,

It occurs to me that as climate change increases the number of natural disasters, and those disasters lead to more destruction, there will be more and more confusion around names. Therefore I feel it would be helpful to start a discussion that might lead to a policy / guidance on how to name them.

This is currently happening with the Palisades Fire (2025) and Palisades Fire (2021). See the 2025 fire talk page for more (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1268426822&title=Talk:Palisades%20Fire%20(2025))

Where do I start that sort of discussion? I know it takes time to create policy, and it may or may not lead to any. But it seems useful to start that conversation now.

Thank you!

delecto Delectopierre (talk) 18:55, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

@Delectopierre: Perhaps Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Weather is a good place to start?-- Ponyobons mots 18:59, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Delectopierre I'm not sure if this is relevant to the particular fires you refer to, but I would just add to the above by stating that we do not invent names for things here. Wikipedia follows what other reliable sources say about things and how they call them. Should multiple high-quality sources use alternative names, we do have the ability to create WP:REDIRECT pages so that anyone typing one, lesser-used name, will be sent to the right page using the most accepted name. This is not fixed in stone. Thus you can search for Kiev and Kyiv and arrive at the same page. That particular change took a lot of discussion before a consensus was reached. With ongoing events such as the most recent Palisades fire, it may be that hindsight and WP:RS will allow the best form of discussion of page nomenclature in each case. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 19:59, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Nick Moyes thanks. I'm not talking about naming things. This is occurring because fires -- at least in CA -- are named by dispatchers as a way to make it easier for the firefighters to communicate over the radio. e.g. the fire at 123 main st becomes the 'Main St. Fire' and nothing is preventing the same thing from happening the following week/month/year. This creates a situation where there can be multiple fires known as the Main St fire.
This is in contrast to hurricanes, for example, as the national weather service retires a name once a storm with that name becomes significant; at least as I understand it.
As such, it seems to me that it would be helpful to come up with some guidance on how articles are named for natural disasters that share a name in the real world. Delectopierre (talk) 00:35, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Delectopierre: Don't overthink this. The existing policies cover this just fine. If–and when–sources change the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC, we follow accordingly. Future fires in this area will be unlikely to be named "Palisades Fire" even though it isn't formally codified, just like the Thomas Fire isn't a name you're going to hear again out of all likelihood.--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:37, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Please do not patronize me by suggesting I am overthinking this, and please don't WP:BLUDGEON me by responding to every comment I've made to someone else regarding this. Delectopierre (talk) 00:45, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I'm afraid you are overthinking it, which is common when you encounter Wikipedia's policies and procedures anew. It's not bludgeoning when I'm saying nothing about you and am answering the questions you pose pretty directly.--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:51, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I just asked you not to use that phrase and you repeated it. This has gone from patronizing to willful disrespect. Cut it out. Delectopierre (talk) 00:54, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I've been treating you with great patience but you refuse to trust me. I have about 200 times the amount of edits and 3 times your tenure here and I'm sharing the thorough understanding of policies and guidelines I've accumulated. Call it what you want, but WP:PRIMARYTOPIC becomes beautifully simple once you read it. If you need more specifics, different wikiprojects may have their own guidelines about how that general policy applies, but they're all ultimately basically just that. I've been through your situation numerous times. Don't cast the WP:ASPERSION of "willful disrespect".--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Delectopierre: To add to what Nick says, it is frowned upon to post about an ongoing decision making discussion elsewhere (unless it is to raise serious misconduct concerns) as it could be considered WP:CANVASSING, particularly when the incipient consensus is leaning against your position.--Jasper Deng (talk) 21:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Delectopierre, in this case, the relevant guideline is WP:DISAMBIGUATION and the applicable subsection is WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. It is all clear and well-established. Cullen328 (talk) 22:16, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
I don't see anything in WP:DISAMBIGUATION that discusses how WP would treat, eg, two planets named Mercury. Delectopierre (talk) 00:36, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Which one is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC? In that hypothetical situation there probably wouldn't be a primary topic. But this is not analogous to that situation. This is more like Typhoon Tip being by far the most notable storm named Tip, even though the name was never formally retired.--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:39, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Jasper Deng can you point me to any policy that says its frowned upon to discuss future improvements based on a current conversation? Delectopierre (talk) 00:27, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Delectopierre: I already did. You can't do it with the appearance of trying to sway a discussion you're involved in.--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:37, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
You did not. You said it's frowned upon and referenced a policy. And in your words "it is frowned upon to point to a policy shortcut without explaining how it applies to the exact situation at hand."
I came to teahouse because I am relatively new and want to improve this encyclopedia. You coming here and inserting yourself in this discussion is not a friendly thing to do to a newcomer such as me. Delectopierre (talk) 00:43, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Unlike them, I explained clearly how that policy applies here instead of just pointing to it. You linked the ongoing discussion. How do you expect others to react to that? I'm explaining things in a civil manner. Wikipedia is complicated and there are many rules to learn. Please read others' responses too as I agree with them as well.--Jasper Deng (talk) 00:45, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

MiszaBot configuration

On the MiszaBot config for automatically archiving talk pages or other pages, what does the "counter" part do? What if that field is left blank? I just adjusted the parameters for the MiszaBot on this page for instance if anyone wants a real example to answer me in relation to. Iljhgtn (talk) 18:28, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

@Iljhgtn It is the current number of the last used archive. It can be left empty so that it operates using default numbering. You can read further documentation at User:MiszaBot/config. Hope this helps. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 20:04, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Why would someone not leave it blank then? Leaving it blank looks to me like it would nearly always be the best option. Iljhgtn (talk) 20:10, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Iljhgtn in this case, it could be removed entirely so no one is tempted to fill in answer, but as the documentation mentions, sometimes the format isn't a number, but prefixed with text, e.g "Archive #1" instead of "1". ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 21:11, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks Shushugah. Iljhgtn (talk) 21:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Iljhgtn: counter is used for numbered archives. It tells the bot which number to use in the next archiving. You start by manually setting counter = 1 unless there are already archives. When the bot has filled up an archive to the allowed size, it automatically increments counter. I don't know what happens if you omit a counter value while asking for numbered archives with Archive %(counter)d. Maybe the bot will refuse to archive. Or maybe it will set counter to 1 and start archiving like if it had already been set to 1. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok so whenever you are creating a new one from scratch and there is no archive, "counter" should be populated with "1"? Iljhgtn (talk) 00:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Iljhgtn: Yes, if you want numbered archives and not yearly or monthly archives. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:29, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Userbox

Well I made a userbox with an image. But when I use the full image like normal just takes the screen up. and when I use thumbnail image it has this border around it. How will I fix it? Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 00:30, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

@Nedia020415  Fixed, by specifying a size for the image. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talkcontribs) 02:35, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you @CanonNi! ;) Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:37, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

How to get suggestions on Talk page be seen by editors?

Hi community,

I'm on Wikipedia on behalf of Tencent, hence I would not make any direct edits to any branded pages. I have left some suggestions onto the Tencent Cloud page and would appreciate if any editors who may be interested in the Tech space would help us review our suggestions there.


TencentCommsYeran (talk) 03:28, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

@TencentCommsYeran: The best way to do this is with the {{COI edit request}} template. See also: the edit request wizard. JJPMaster (she/they) 03:47, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@TencentCommsYeran: please also see Wikipedia:Edit requests § General considerations: you are far more likely to get a response to an edit request if you provide detailed and specific suggestions. We also discourage promotional content that reads like a press release. — ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · contribs · email · global) 06:44, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Expanding a contents index for categories

I have posted a suggestion to expand a contents index for categories to cover non-default name spaces. Anybody interested in discussing or implementing the idea please see Template talk:Automatic category TOC § Special subsections for namespaces. --CiaPan (talk) 06:54, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Writing quoted material from ancient books in the Library of Ireland to credit source and also the host family it was written about.

All of the information has been rewritten from the source of the Annals of the Four Masters! An Ancient Book from the Library of Ireland! And a Lineage has been added! if someone else used this first it is still not copyrighted as it is source material taken from the same place for a different purpose but still withing the same context! CRBradley8051 (talk) 02:45, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Please leave everything you write in your sandbox or draft space, because it's clear you aren't yet ready to create articles that have a chance of acceptance. Submit for review if you like - that will give you a better idea of the problems. Deb (talk) 08:52, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @CRBradley8051, and welcome to the Teahouse. Please read your first article carefully. What you have put in Draft:House of O Brolcháin does not in the least resemble a Wikipedia article, which should be a summary of what reliable independent sources have published about a notable subject, and little else. ColinFine (talk) 11:59, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Accurate Article writing

Good morning team, please as a Research student, i want to know the accurate ways i can contribute to wiki projects especially in terms of Article writing. i want to know the 'do's and don'ts of article writing, and secondly, aside national newspaper reference which other sources are accepted? TessiDon (talk) 09:17, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

@TessiDon Welcome!
WP:TUTORIAL is a good start on WP-editing in general. Do's and don't on creating articles: WP:BACKWARD and WP:YFA. If you intend to write about living people, see also WP:BLP. It is recommended to get a hang of WP-editing before trying to write new articles, if these are not good enough they will be deleted. University press books are often good sources. WP:RS discuss what is reliable in general, and at WP:RSP you can find a list of sources that has been repeatedly discussed, and the current view on them. Hope this helps some. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:07, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Since starting your account you have been very busy doing copyedits. For some, your work was reverted. I suggest you revisit those to understand why an editor took this action. It could be as simple as a disagreement on writing style. As to creating and then submitting drafts for new articles (see WP:YFA), I second the advice on learning by improving existing articles before essaying to create an article. What you created and submitted from your Sandbox was far too short and unreferenced to be a valid submittal, and thus jsut wasted a reviewer's time. David notMD (talk) 12:44, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

To whom it may concern,

I have tried to use the add a citation tool on the Do They Know It's Christmas? page with the following link: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2025/01/10/do-they-know-its-payday/ but it doesn't work. I am unclear why the link isn't being picked up or identified as such.

Any ideas how to fix or resolve this issue?

Greenpark79 (talk) 12:10, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Tested with reftoolbar but no, no autofill. All I can say is "that sometimes happen". When it does, I fill in the blanks manually. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:54, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Help with draft article

Hello!

I am a new wikipedia user, I was hoping to create an article for a song:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Bird_On_The_Buffalo

I have used several independent sources, but seem not to qualify for article creation at this time, due to not meeting notability criteria.

If I could have a couple pointers in the right direction, that would be great. Thank you! Forester56 (talk) 00:54, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

While Angus Stone is considered article-worthy, as are his six albums, and a small number of songs on those albums, perhaps Bird on the Buffalo does not have enough published about it to justify an article. Most of your refs acknowledge the song and video exist, but do not provide at-length reviews of the song or how it was received. David notMD (talk) 12:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

deleting Draft:Church of Our Lady of Zvonik page

Hello, I have been having trouble with Draft:Church of Our Lady of Zvonik. I created the arical, but it was sent to draft for being incomplete... after further edits, I converted it back into an arical, however there is still a redirect... can that be deleted? and if so how? thank you! ✠ Emperor of Byzantium ✠ (talk) 13:56, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

The Emperor of Byzantium, the article Church of Our Lady of the Belfry includes the verbless sentence "The remains of The Church Our Lady of Zvonik, located over a cavity of the west wall above the Porta Aurea of Diocletian's Palace." Church of Our Lady of Zvonik is now a redirect to that article. Are you claiming that these are in fact two different churches? Maproom (talk) 15:13, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Maproom, Thank you for your quick reply, No its the same article, however it has its own talk page Draft talk:Church of Our Lady of Zvonik, and appears on Xtools as a draft... I know I made a mistake in the recoding of it, but not sure where I screwed up? ✠ Emperor of Byzantium ✠ (talk) 15:21, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I see that neither talk page contains any discussion. I thnk there's no harm in a redirect having a talk page, though it's not usual. I don't know about Xtools, maybe someone else can help? Maproom (talk) 15:30, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Adding Filmography

I am looking to add a filmography to a page. I am using the template "filmography simple" and have added the first listing. When adding subsequent line items, they are in their required fields, yet do not show/populate on the page. How can we make the additional credits visible? Thanks. Luv888 (talk) 04:21, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Luv888. Would I be right in guessing that 1) you're talking about Draft:Best Psychology in Film, and 2) that you've actually solved the problem? I'm afraid my mind-reading skill isn't working very well today. ColinFine (talk) 12:09, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Yes. Task completed. Luv888 (talk) 16:02, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Asking about wiki Inuit

Hello, I’m reviving the Inuit Wikipedia, but sadly I don’t know Inuit and the rest of the ones I know doesn’t even know the existence of the language. What I do then? Protoeus (talk) 01:07, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Inuit wikipedia is here Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 01:51, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Still, can you revise my work to fix possible grammar mistakes? Protoeus (talk) 02:01, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
What work? Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:03, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
My new articles on Inuit Wikipedia. Protoeus (talk) 02:04, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Tell me specificly, Which articles? Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:08, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
All articles i create there, (Example: the Jal 123 article) Protoeus (talk) 02:13, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Don't. Just follows rosguill's comment Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:17, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
  • If you do not speak a language, you should not be writing articles for that Wikipedia project. Someone did that on Scots Wikipedia and severely set back the project, [7] creating a ton of additional work for people. Left unchecked, you can actually end up corrupting databases of the Inuit language that assume that the Wikipedia project is in well-written Inuit. signed, Rosguill talk 02:14, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Please don't write articles in languages that you aren't fluent in. That's a recipe for disaster. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:49, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Protoeus, I note you've already created one article on Inuit Wikipedia. Creating articles in Inuit Wikipedia without knowing how to speak Inuktituk is not a bannable offense, because I don't think that's ever been considered before, but I think it's a reasonable argument for deleting the article. DS (talk) 03:30, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

What is the WikiCup

What is the WikiCup, that’s my only question. Yuanmongolempiredynasty (talk) 12:06, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiCup Lectonar (talk) 12:12, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Hey @Yuanmongolempiredynasty, The WikiCup is an annual writing competition on Wikipedia, where participants earn points by contributing to articles across various categories. The goal is to encourage high-quality contributions and promote engagement. Ayohama (talk) 13:30, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
So basically you just edit to get points? Yuanmongolempiredynasty (talk) 20:33, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
@Yuanmongolempiredynasty it's friendly competition, and for some people a fun way to motivate themselves. We're both WP:SERIOUS and WP:FUN. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 21:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok Yuanmongolempiredynasty (talk) 21:22, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Wait, then what are the judges for? Yuanmongolempiredynasty (talk) 20:31, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

x page

what happen to x page on wikipedia? White44Tree (talk) 20:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

It redirects to Twitter, if you're wondering why it's named Twitter instead of it's current name, X, see Talk:Twitter/FAQ. Thx56 (talk) 20:42, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Picture Formatting

I was editing the Huapalcalco page to try and fix something where the picture would "bump" the table of contents. I fixed this, but now I'm wondering, is it permissible for a picture to be above the infobox, and if not, where do I put it? User: Thx56 | Talk to me! 21:08, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

I should mention that I've put it below the infobox, but that puts it into the background section User: Thx56 | Talk to me! 21:09, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Page citations

The article for Tony Sewell has the maintenance message about needing additional citations. Some parts said "citation needed", and I added reliable sources to those parts, and now I'm wondering: should I remove the message, or are there still more citations needed in order to remove it? Thank you! Wikieditor662 (talk) 07:31, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi, @Wikieditor662! If you think you've solved the problem that the maintenance tag was calling attention to, then please feel free to be bold and remove the tag! The worst thing that will happen is somebody adds the tag back. If you're ever unsure, however, you can always ask for the opinion of the person who placed the tag - which in this case was @Cordless Larry:. At that point, either they'll agree that the article doesn't need a tag, or they can point to other, maybe more subtle issues, that they feel need addressing. Either way, the article is improved and everybody is happy. Thank you for doing your part to add information to Wikipedia! GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 11:30, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for your efforts, Wikieditor662. However, I feel it would be premature to remove the template because there's still material in the article that isn't supported by references, even if it's not indicated by in-text "citation needed" tags (the template at the top of the page is an alternative to those). The "Teaching" and "Educational improvement" sections are where the remaining sourcing issues appear to be. Cordless Larry (talk) Cordless Larry (talk) 12:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Cordless LarryHow do I know in general then, when it should be removed?
@GreenLipstickLesbian Well if I sent a message to them I doubt they'd reply, especially if the sign was put up a while ago.
Thank you both for your help either way.
Wikieditor662 (talk) 21:51, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
When should it be removed? When all of the material in the article is supported by reliable sources. Cordless Larry (talk) 22:05, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Requesting or creating a list article

I'd like to request or create the article List of animals in memes, with links to existing articles for animals that have been in memes. I'm not sure if I will have enough time and sources to create a full article on my own, and this would be my first. I considered submitting a requested article, but I'm not sure if I need to include sources or proofs of notability. Additionally, I considered submitting to requested lists specifically, but the page is inactive and I assume it's not supposed to be used.

Would it be more appropriate to request an article, or start a draft myself and ask for help reviewing or completing it? Nick McCurdy (talk) 07:13, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Nick McCurdy, what you would want to look at is the list notability guidelines. Has "animals in memes", as a group, been discussed substantially by reliable sources? (It's possible it has been; I really don't know.) If so, a list of them might be notable, but if not, such an article would be a nonstarter. So, as always, first thing to do is look for sourcing. Seraphimblade Talk to me 14:18, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Nick McCurdy, to clarify, a reliable source noting "this meme included a chimpanzee" and another reliable source commenting "that meme over there included an elephant" is not enough. What you would need are references to several reliable sources saying something like, "Memes frequently use animals, like this chimp meme and that elephant meme and that porpoise meme and that parrot meme and this octopus meme and that salmon spawing while being eaten by bears meme. Here's the reasons why . . . " That is the type of coverage that transforms an indiscriminate list into an encyclopedic list. It is all about the quality and depth of coverage of the reliable sources that you cite. Cullen328 (talk) 09:17, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Translation and references issue

Draft:Christine Meyer

This artist was marked as missing in the Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Missing articles by occupation/Women in rock music and so I decided to translate the Norwegian article. I was, however, not allowed to do so, so I've saved my suggestion at the link mentioned first in this post.

Secondly: The references I've added are not recognised as such. I'd be grateful for any pointers as to why. Thank you! :) Birdesigns (talk) 13:48, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

For References, if using double curly brackets, use "reflist", not "references". I fixed it David notMD (talk) 14:04, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks! Birdesigns (talk) 16:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Birdesigns, and welcome to the Teahouse.
When you say you're "not allowed to do so", I'm guessing that you tried to use the content translation tool? This is only available for editors who have at least 500 edits (which you have not, even though your account is nearly ten years old). This is because so many newer editors do not understand English Wikipedia's requirements on sourcing and notability, and that many other Wikipedia's have less stringent requirements.
In the case of your draft, you have three references for one single claim in the article, and no references for anything else. This is not adequate sourcing for an article in English Wikipedia, which should be a summary of what people wholly unconnected with the subject have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable places. (As far as I can make out, few if any of the sources in the original no:Christine Meyer meet the criteria of WP:42).
Unless the original is well-sourced to approaching the standard required of new articles in English Wikipedia, I believe that the best approach to translating is to treat it like a new article with perhaps some input from the original, rather than relying on translating the content . ColinFine (talk) 16:13, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you, Colin. The sources I include are mainstream (albeit local/regional) newspapers, and the offical website (management) for the artist. There is not much else to reference than the explanation of who she is and her most known performance. Birdesigns (talk) 17:01, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @Birdesigns. Regional newspapers are often reliable, but the source needs to be independent and have significant coverage of her too. The sources I looked at only had a line or two about her (generally in that one role). And anything from her official website is not independent, and cannot contribute towards establishing notability.
If you cannot find sources to establish that she meets either WP:NMUSIC or WP:GNG, then she does not meet English Wikipedia's criteria for notability, and no article is possible. ColinFine (talk) 17:16, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok, I'm fine with that, but admittedly a bit annoyed since she was on the "red list" and all I did was trying to make her blue. Should there not be a curation of that list before we are encouraged to red-to-blue fix it? Or is deciding that someone isn't notable a part of the fixing process? If so, how does one go about to let others know that the best is to not publish the article? Simply edit the source of the list and delete from there? Birdesigns (talk) 17:22, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

@Birdesigns: I can understand you frustraton, but please remember that the top of that page has a panel including the words:

Please note ... that the red links on this list may well not be suitable as the basis for an article. All new articles must satisfy Wikipedia's notability criteria with reliable independent sources.

(emphasis in original). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:05, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, Andy – appreciate the pointer. :) So, do I simply ignore those on the list which I reckon aren't meeting the requirements, and let others decide whether or not to delete them? Is there somewhere I can write a small note on my thoughts on the person's notability? Birdesigns (talk) 17:04, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
A number of other shows are mentioned, but without citations/sources/proofs. Adding sources to them might make the article satisfy notability and hence inclusion. Riteze (talk) 12:57, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

DOB

Just recently I entered into a discussion with another editor regarding a DOB edit for a BLP: Talk:Roisin Conaty. It raised several questions regarding contentious content and RS when it comes to DOB and BLPs. Since leaving my last reply, I have been perusing similar BLP pages on WP and having stopped at 50 found that 48 did not have any cited sources; let alone ones that were backed by RS which would satisfy the editor in question's reasoning. I could list them all here, but toward what end? It is extremely rare to find multiple "widely published" RS that state DMY for BLPs. It has already been backed by RS that this BLP was born in 1979; how "contentious" could it be to include "March 26"? I am at a loss here, considering there are countless articles at WP that allow DOB without "widely published" RS. Maineartists (talk) 03:25, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

"Allow" is an interesting word. If you see a detail in an article that doesn't have a proper source, feel free to remove it. DS (talk) 04:18, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
"If you see a detail in an article that doesn't have a proper source, feel free to remove it." That is rather a unrestrained invitation to an open season for removal of practically any sentence found at WP lacking a "proper source" at the end of it. Not only is that incredibly unproductive, but highly nonsensical. I am specifically referring to DOB of a BLP and it being labeled "contentious content" when search engines render the same DOB (MDY) innumerable times over, and certain WP policy apply: "the subject does not object to the details being made public." It's one thing to argue WP policy, but quite another to defend WP:COMMONSENSE. Maineartists (talk) 13:56, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I haven't looked at the discussion you mention but I think that you should be weighing WP:BLPPRIVACY against WP:ABOUTSELF. If, for example, someone says on their own verified social media "It's my birthday today", or their website includes their DOB, I would be happy to use that, despite such media in general being primary and unreliable. Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:44, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Mike Turnbull The BLP herself has confirmed she was born in 1979: [8] "I'm 41" (2020 Interview) and [9] "Conaty was born in Camden 40 years ago" (2019 Interview). How much more of a public statement directly from the BLP can one get? Maineartists (talk) 17:00, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
These are perfectly fine sources. I thought that your issue was the exact date, not just the year. Note that there is a template {{Birth based on age as of date}} that can be used to cover a level of uncertainty. Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:04, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I was - in a way. I was arguing the policy: "the subject does not object to the details being made public." One would think if the BLP in question saw the innumerable search engine hits that state MDY that at some point - it would stand to reason - they would make a statement of correction: "This is not my birth date." In keeping with Martha Stewart who pointed out on television certain details on WP that were incorrect; or BLPs who have taken to the Talk Page to correct errors at their articles. If the BLP is open to disclosing being born in 1979, why one earth would they object to March 26? considering it is widely stated over the internet and associated with 1979? It makes absolutely no sense. I understand WP requires RS; but this one is a little over the top. Why would March 26 be contentious but 1979 not? Simply because the BLP didn't add the MD in an interview? As I wrote, there are very little RS articles that state: "Such-and-such was born on DMY" in an interview / profile piece. Copy editors find this to be trivial filler / fluff. Exactly how many celebrity websites (as the original editor suggested as a RS) state: "I was born on DMY"? Just thinking out loud here. Regardless, thanks for the template {{Birth based on age as of date}}. Maineartists (talk) 17:27, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
May not be relevant in this case but DMY dates are more of a privacy issue than just the year as many bank accounts etc. use that as part of their security checks, as do many website logons. Also, don't forget that search engines often take WP, especially Wikidata as gospel, so our figure can get copied all over the place. Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:52, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Well, now you've just created a "chicken and the egg" scenario when it comes to search engines taking from WP. Considering more people today believe sources that WP have deemed "deprecated" than WP itself. I simply do not buy into the concept that WP manufactured March 26 from which all other search engine hits have copied from across the WWW; since there were sources that claimed the DOB long before the 2011 WP article creation. I understand The Sun is considered a deprecated source, but this article interview: [10] with the BLP which links to this article [11] states March 26, 1979. If someone wants to "steal bank accounts etc", I'm quite sure "The Sun" (1.2 million subscribers) would be a great place to start; not WP. Maineartists (talk) 19:59, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
I said May not be relevant in this case and was tying to make a wider point about why the precise DMY as DOB is something we need to be careful of when contributing. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:21, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
I understand. But I'd rather discuss the actual individual case at hand rather than umbrella WP policy. Like the original editor, it is sometimes the case that umbrella WP policies (wider points) get argued more than discussion of the actual individual case at hand. That's all. Thanks again for your help. I still strongly believe this BLP is safe with MDY inclusion. Maineartists (talk) 15:22, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Force browser Ctrl+F

Perhaps a silly question, but while editing recently (VisEditor), I kept trying to use Firefox Ctrl+F, only for Wikipedia to force its own page search function on me; it was rather annoying. Is there any way to disable this feature or the keyboard shortcut that calls it? Thanks in advance! JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 05:51, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

JuxtaposedJacob, just let the Mediawiki software do its own thing, without trying to force that software to imitate Firefox or anything else. It powers the #7 website in the world with tens of billions of monthly pageviews. It may seem antiquated to code monkeys who are addicted to the very newest thing, but it works just fine for what it is intended to do, and does so every day. Firefox itself is over 20 years old. Cullen328 (talk) 09:29, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
@JuxtaposedJacob: Welcome to Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions/Archive 1246. If you click outside of the VisualEditor editing area (such as the sidebars), you should be able to use the browser's native find feature. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 15:35, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
You are so beautiful and amazing. Thank you @Tenryuu. JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 15:37, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

R-Salt

This was mentioned in connection to the recent New Orleans attack, but there does not seem to be Wikipedia article for it. If someone in the chemistry world wants to write an article about it, please do. Keith Henson (talk) 20:11, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

1,3,5-trinitroso-1,3,5-triazine (R-Salt) is an insensitive energetic that has previously been used as an improvised explosive. Keith Henson (talk) 20:11, 7 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Hkhenson, and welcome to the Teahouse. While you're certainly allowed to post such a request, I want to tell you that the chances of anybody acting on that request are very low. Wikipedia is a volunteer project, and prople work on what they choose. While it's possible that somebody will see your request and act on it, it's not very likely.
There is a recognised place for requesting articles, WP:RA; but in all honesty, the take-up there is very low as well. Something that might work better is to ask at a relevant WikiProject - perhaps WT:WikiProject Chemistry: that will at least be seen by people who have an interest in Wikipedia's coverage of chemistry.
Generally, if you want to see an article created, the most effective way is to do the research (find the sources to establish Notability) and do it yourself. Doing that will have the side benefit that if you can't find suitable sources, you'll know that the article cannot be written. ColinFine (talk) 21:01, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
The intersection of WT:CHEM and WP:TH is non-null:) Feel free to add cited info to R-salt, which I just turned blue. DMacks (talk) 02:06, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you! Keith Henson (talk) 16:11, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Good job! It's sometimes said around here that Teahouse-people don't start articles on request, but that isn't always true. Sometimes we feel like doing it. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:14, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Indeed. @Gråbergs Gråa Sång will remember this question leading me creating this one about Armored mud balls a couple of years ago. It's far less likely that anyone would ever want to create one about a businessman, cryptocurrency fad or 'some here-today-gone-tomorrow' minor celebrity. Nick Moyes (talk) 21:23, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Sometimes we really want WP to have that article. Earl Bailly was inspired by a question at Commons, but still. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 21:44, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
That’s incredible! I love the name Delectopierre (talk) 18:58, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
I'm often on the fence for these...promoting involvement by newer editors to create articles on topics of their interest (increased involvement is good, and demonstrated willingness to engage in collaboration) vs doing it myself (especially if it could benefit from specialized literature resources or where some people might not feel comfortable writing publicly about certain topics even if "anonymous"). DMacks (talk) 00:25, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Overreliance?

So I've basically almost finished writing an article on this historical 19th-century Haitian party (User:TheBrowniess/sandbox/Liberal Party (Haiti)). Does the citation distribution seem too concentrated, or is it acceptable? It's a pretty niche topic admittedly. 🍫 TheBrowniess (talk) (contribs) 🍫 02:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello @TheBrowniess. Based solely on the concentration of citations, it looks fine to me. In fact, some sentences are lacking citations. You can also remove the citations in the lead if you wish (WP:LEADCITE). Tarlby (t) (c) 03:21, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
I think I fixed it. (hopefully) 🍫 TheBrowniess (talk) (contribs) 🍫 06:50, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
@TheBrowniess Looks like a very interesting article (now in mainspace). I don't know if you usually do so for your new articles but you should think of doing a main page DYK. Maybe I'm being picky but I found it odd that the very last sentence in the article has no citation. Does the immediately previous citation cover that also? Mike Turnbull (talk) 11:57, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Regarding DYK, I’ve never nominated one of my articles because I don’t think they contain anything interesting or fun facts. However, while researching the Liberal Party article, I did recall that it, along with the National Party, were the first political parties formed in Haiti. Unfortunately, none of the major sources corroborate that, so I’m not sure where exactly I got that information from. A potential DYK hook I did come up with though is: Did you know... that Haiti’s Liberal Party was founded in 1870 by two leaders who believed the "most competent" elite should govern the nation?
Anyhow, I trimmed the article down a little and fixed the no citation issue in the process.
Note: While writing the article, I was somewhat thrown off when all the sources covered the tug of war between the Liberal Party and the National Party during the 1870s through the 1890s, yet made next to no mention of either party in the 20th century. This seemed to contradict the "List of Heads of State of Haiti" wikipedia article which suggests that the last National president was Tancrède Auguste in 1913, while the last Liberal president was Élie Lescot in 1946 - well into the 20th century. So, i'm not exactly sure where the article got their party affiliations from. 🍫 TheBrowniess (talk) (contribs) 🍫 16:43, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Not sure if I should PROD this article or not

This article saw primary activity in 2014, and has since had very rare edits mainly by removed users. There also appears to be a primary conflict of interest with this article, as it is primarily described with a positive tone. Chettimedu HyperNover (talk) 00:18, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Prod (proposed deletion) should be used for articles that fail to meet notability guidelines. An article about a populated place is presumed notable (see WP:GEOLAND). The article needs sources and rewriting, but a prod isn't appropriate. Schazjmd (talk) 00:24, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
should I add some boxes to the top of it to state this? as i myself do not know much about this topic and it is not my field, rather i found it from the "random article" wikipedia button HyperNover (talk) 00:34, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
The article is already tagged for needing sources. Schazjmd (talk) 00:37, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Just going to add that "being written in a positive tone" is something that most likely wouldn't be considered a reason worthly of deletion per WP:BEFORE. Articles often start out OK but get skewed in a particular direction over time by people. One possiblility here could be to look at older versions of the article before the questionable editing began and restore the article back to a more sutiable version. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:29, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Minecraft TTS.

File:Minecraft.ogg 에스파윈터 (talk) 08:29, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

@에스파윈터 do you have a question about editing Wikipedia? '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talkcontribs) 09:06, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @에스파윈터. That sound file was attached to the article Minecraft in January 2012, when it was recorded, and was removed at some time later, presumably because the article had been changed so much that it no longer reflected the article. Recorded versions of articles are made by volunteeers who choose to spend their time that way - there is nothing automatic about creating, updating, or removing them. If you want to get involved in this, see WP:SPOKEN. ColinFine (talk) 11:52, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello,@에스파윈터. This audio file is not a editing wikipedia question, And your username is in a different language which is not meeting wikipedia's username policy Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:29, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

I read a lot but I still don't understand how images work here?

For example, what if there's only one image of something OR if the person who made like a song cover art cannot be contacted or is unknown? CrimsonScarletBurgundyy (talk) 19:34, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello and welcome. It might help us to better answer you if you describe exactly what it is you are trying to do. 331dot (talk) 19:43, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Basically: copyright is complicated. For historic images and cover art, we use small, reduced-resolution versions, and a fair-use rationale. DS (talk) 20:33, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
CrimsonScarletBurgundyy, there is no need to contact the creator of cover art when a low resolution version is being used as non-free content. It is necessary to fully comply with WP:NFCI, and cover art is covered by #1 of that policy language. Cullen328 (talk) 20:48, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello @CrimsonScarletBurgundyy. You can still upload the image in Wikipedia:File upload wizard and click the button with text that says "Upload a nonfree image". You can contact the song cover art creator, or you can use the Wikipedia:File upload wizard. And, if you want to upload an image but to use it in the different wiki, And is public domain and without copyright. Please use UploadWizard Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 03:06, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

How to add search bar summary?

How do I add the little summary that appears in the search bar under an article's title? For example, when you type the letter W into the search bar, the article for the letter W has a little summary under it that says "23rd letter of the Latin alphabet". How do I add something like this to an article? Thanks! Ptarmica (talk) 04:31, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

That's a short description- you would want to see pages like WP:SHORTDESC and WP:SDH for tips. Sarsenet (talk) 05:48, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

promotional template

can white44tree please add promotional template to Deko article on wikipedia? White44Tree (talk) 00:28, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

Well i added the promotional template. Ned1a Wanna talk? 00:33, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Does the content appear promotional? -- D'n'B-📞 -- 00:40, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Oh yea... removed it sorry Ned1a Wanna talk? 00:42, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
Vacuity (see the article, and its earlier AfD) isn't the same as promotionalism. -- Hoary (talk) 01:35, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
what about Bryce Gheisar page add promotional template? White44Tree (talk) 01:07, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
Does anything about the contents of that article appear promotional to you? -- D'n'B-📞 -- 18:48, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
yes and same with tp link and appvalley White44Tree (talk) 23:59, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
What seems promotional about them? Is there any particularly promotional language or framing? -- D'n'B-📞 -- 02:11, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
well than can add stub template to deko article? White44Tree (talk) 01:58, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Sure go ahead. And Be Bold! But be careful while adding templates. Ned1a Wanna talk? Stalk my edits 02:05, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
These templates generally indicate that something needs to be done with the article that they were placed on. The {{promotional}} template for instance will add the article to the Category:Articles with a promotional tone, a category with over 20,000 articles in it for the benefit of a volunteer who may through trying to remove promotional content. Like a big in-tray that's never going to get completely emptied. Adding to that in-tray willy nilly without being able to justify why you're doing so, seems inconsiderate of that volunteers time. -- D'n'B-📞 -- 09:27, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Removing from template.

Hello! Cleopatra IV was incorrectly labelled as Pharaoh for many years, I had edited few weeks ago that she was only queen consort. However, there is this template that includes all Pharaohs and she is listed there here - I tried to remove her, but it is autogenerated and when I am trying there is too much 'mess' there to find one name. Can someone please be kind and remove her? Also, she should be removed from another autogenerated template that includes hellenistic monarchs, as she wasn't one. Sobek2000 (talk) 17:00, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

@Sobek2000: Which template? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:44, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
"Pharaohs" and "Hellenistic rulers". I do nor know what rose to say. I removed both from her page, but she is still listed on template. Go to any other Pharaoh's page and then on template below the page were all pharaohs are - she is still there. Sobek2000 (talk) 20:19, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Usage of an academic's CV/university-hosted website as a source

Hello.

I am wondering if the usage of a CV, as hosted on a university website, is an appropriate source for details on a biography of a living academic. Upon a quick perusal of various academics with Wikipedia pages, for example Michael Aizenman and Abel Klein, you find that details of their career are either stated without reference (in the case of Aizenman, e.g., it is stated that he worked with Elliott H. Lieb, although there is no reference that attests to this fact), or are detailed on the university-hosted website of the person in question, which is a webpage that is typically populated by the academic in question (as is the case for Klein). So there is some ambiguity to me about the reputable sources rules.

My specific question: is a university-hosted website/CV an appropriately reputable source for the very narrow purpose of biographies of academics? If the academic in question has a CV available for download on an official and reputable university's website, is it reputable? Certainly, there is a clear argument as to why this might be considered a primary source (hence non-reputable), but, on the other hand, by merit of this academic being employed by the university (or what have you), it is implicit that this CV has been vetted by official university processes, and is therefore reputable, in some sense.

Context for the question: This question comes from a more broad interest of mine that was sparked by a recent call to arms in the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Notices article Princ-wiki-a Mathematica: Wikipedia Editing and Mathematics by David Eppstein, Joel Brewster Lewis, Russ Woodroofe, and XOR'easter, where the authors state that "Wikipedia should (but doesn’t) have articles on all fellows of major academic societies such as the AMS and SIAM".[1] My PhD advisor just so happens to be a fellow of the AMS who is Wikipedia page-less, and so I thought it would be interesting to make a page for them, as I know them familiarly enough where it is a straightforward exercise. (This page is currently under review, Draft:Jeffrey Schenker.)

The broader goal is to fill this gap of AMS fellows who are lacking Wikipedia pages, i.e., a collection of mathematicians (my discipline) fulfills the notability requirements of Wikipedia (by merit of their status as fellows of one of the world's major mathematical societies). Hopefully, I could standardize the process somewhat, finding a standard way to find reliable sources for these fellows' careers/education/other misc biographical facts that are relevant. But, I don't want to attempt this and just get rejected in the review process every time. That would be a bummer. So, I want to know what sources are good enough for this specific project I have in mind.

Thanks! 2211nasa (talk) 05:00, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ "Princ-wiki-a Mathematica: Wikipedia Editing and Mathematics". ams.org. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
Hi @2211nasa. The notability requirements for a professor to have an article are at Wikipedia:Notability (academics), and a professor or researcher needs to meet only one of those requirements. For an elected fellow of the AMS the required reliably published independent source can be the website or publication of the association. Facts abouat the professor can come from primary sources such as a faculty webpage or CV. StarryGrandma (talk) 05:55, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
The usability of a cv as a source for basic and noncontroversial factual claims has nothing to do with academic notability, actually. We can use statements of the subject of any biography for such claims. See WP:BLPSELFPUB. Where academic notability comes in is in the notability of the entire article, rather than the sourcing for its individual claims. Under our academic notability SNG, basic and noncontroversial factual claims that pass the SNG (such as being a fellow of a major academic society, #C3) may have non-independent sources, either through BLPSELFPUB or reliably (but not independently and not secondarily) published by the society itself. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:48, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
WP:BLPSELFPUB is a helpful guideline for routine facts in a Wikipedia biography. For myself, when editing an academic biography I happily source their positions and basic career moves to the CV. For something that would be a pass of NPROF or other notability guidelines, I try to find an external source (such as a page of an academic society for a major award or fellowship, university page for a named professorship, etc). Russ Woodroofe (talk) 10:35, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you for the reply! I really loved your (and the other responder, David Eppstein's) article in the Notices. 2211nasa (talk) 16:15, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Creative Commons attribution with multiple authors

As is a requirement for most creative commons licenses, you must attribute the author of the work. In the legal code of CC BY-SA 4.0, it says:

"If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:

  1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
    1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);"

Many Creative Commons works have been built on pre-existing Creative Commons works. Let us take File:War in Sudan (2023).svg as an example. This file was uploaded by ElijahPepe originally and was subsequently edited by multiple different people. The file page itself says the image itself was "Adapted from Sudanese Internal Conflict.svg" and "...digitally altered from its original version. The original can be viewed here: Sudan adm location map.svg". Both of the images that War in Sudan (2023).svg were based on also have Creative Commons licenses and require their authors to be attributed.

There is a large chain of a different authors as the work was not by one person. Who would I be attributing? I could not find any answer to this question online. The Creative Commons FAQ is not particularly clear either. It says:

"Additionally, when you are using a work that is an adaptation of one or more pre-existing works, you may need to give credit to the creator(s) of the pre-existing work(s), in addition to giving credit to the creator of the adaptation."

It just says you "may" need to give credit to creators of pre-existing work which is not helpful. It is difficult to attribute everyone in cases like this as there is a large number of different authors. This is not just a problem for images. What about using the content of an entire Wikipedia article? Br Miller (talk) 04:36, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

@Br Miller Your final question is answered at WP:REUSE. Basically, it is fine to acknowledge the Wikipedia article by name / URL. You don't have to acknowledge the individual authors, which would be in the article's history but, of course, would be difficult to disentangle. For images, I think that the principle is the same. You would acknowledge by linking to the Commons filename you actually used, with its author. The file might be a derivative work but that's handled by the attributions that will be on the file page. You could take up complicated cases at the specialist Help Desk at c:Commons:Village pump/Copyright Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:30, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

is this type of edit supposed to happen

Just a couple of quick questions. I used the link button to create a link to a page, but my text was lower case so it created a link that looked like this [[Page|page]]. An editor came in and edited the text to this: [[[page]]. Here's the diff.

Is this type of "correction" supposed to happen, or is it best just to leave it alone? And should I be taking care to avoid including text like [[Page|page]]? Boynamedsue (talk) 23:49, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

Generally avoid unnecessary piping. You can lowercase the first letter of a wikilink and it will resolve fine, so it's just cleaner to wikilink the lowercased word than to wikilink the uppercased word and then pipe the lowercase. Schazjmd (talk) 23:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Ok, and if people find unnecessary piping, should they change it?Boynamedsue (talk) 00:50, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@Boynamedsue: It is quite common practice. In this specific case, an automated tool (WPCleaner) was used, and other tools such as AWB will also do the same clean-up by default.--Gronk Oz (talk) 01:18, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
I see, thanks. Why do people do it if it is a cosmetic change? Does creating a new edit not use more server space than leaving it alone?Boynamedsue (talk) 09:40, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
I agree that changing [[Page|page]] to [[[page]] is unnecessary because, as you point out, it's a cosmetic change, but editors do it and as far as I can tell it's generally accepted. I've probably even done it myself at times (although hopefully in conjunction with non-cosmetic edits). Schazjmd (talk) 14:37, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Yes, I don't see any problem if you are making an edit anyway, but it seems a strange thing to do as a standalone edit. The user that made the edit does a lot of them, like hundreds, which is why I asked.--Boynamedsue (talk) 16:54, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@Boynamedsue: If you used a link button then I suspect you wrote the capital letter manually or clicked on a capitalized title. If the link text and target article only differ by capitalization of the first letter then you shouldn't have to do anything for the target. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:39, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Yes, that was what happened, it was basically because I wasn't sure what the exact title of the relevant page I was linking to was, and I selected the main page when it appeared.Boynamedsue (talk) 16:54, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

adding secondary sources

Hi. In exploring the requirements for notable persons, namely Draft:Randolph Charles Kent, and the nature of secondary sources, would referencing a book review such as the following be considered validating, or too "passing"

Sir David Nabarro KCMG CBE suggests of Dr. Kent's most recent publication that 'Dr. Randolph C. Kent’s Humanitarian Futures: Challenges and Opportunities masterfully blends deep intellectual rigour with practical insights, drawing on his unparalleled experience to illuminate future humanitarian crises and challenge current conventions and paradigms. In our world of perpetual crises, this is a vital, visionary work for leaders, policymakers and practitioners alike.'
https://www.routledge.com/Humanitarian-Futures-Challenges-and-Opportunities/Kent/p/book/9781032747996

Thanks for your thoughts. Nik9t (talk) 19:25, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Also, in reading through the comments in the above query on Usage of an academics CV from User:2211nasa, I would have surmised that a reference such as "Dr Randolph Kent is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute..." on the RUSI site https://www.rusi.org/people/kent
would be a qualifying description (though rejected.) It does seems a subtle matter to be able to qualify someone as notable, no matter how influential they may have been (even ranking within such an institution as the UN, etc.) Nik9t (talk) 20:18, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
I personally would consider the first reference passing, as it is not the main focus of the article itself. I would double check WP:AUTHOR when considering references. Don't give up! Sophisticatedevening (talk) 20:39, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Should you fix grammar in talk page posts by other people?

Wikipedia editors are always encouraged to fix grammatical errors that may be present in articles. After all, the point of editing Wikipedia is to make it better. However, does this also apply to talk pages as well? As in, if you see a grammatical error in something that someone has said in a talk page post, can you fix it? For example, if you see a missing comma, is it a good idea to add one in? Anonymous Libertarian (talk) 21:57, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Good question, @Anonymous Libertarian. No, it doesn't apply to talk pages, and in most cases, you should not edit another person's comment. You can learn more about talk page guidelines and exceptions at WP:TPO. Schazjmd (talk) 22:01, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for the information!
I probably should have read the Wikipedia guidelines about talk pages first before posting here, but it is what it is. Anonymous Libertarian (talk) 22:03, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Wrappable table header

I'm trying to put a collapsible and sortable table ("Deaths in Hackleburg, Alabama") in the "Formation and track through Hackleburg" section on 2011 Hackleburg–Phil Campbell tornado, but I can't figure out how to make the background of the header caption non-transparent. Any help? :) EF5 19:27, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi EF5. Why do you want it non-transparent? I just see a white page background like normal text on a page but maybe it overlaps something for you. If so, what is your skin and browser, and do you use dark mode? You would have to set a background color for the text to avoid transparency but we don't do that without good reason. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:50, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
the table caption background being transparent (white on white) makes the table much less easier to find within the rows of regular text and is overall unappealing. I’m using light mode. Basically, the caption should be the same color as the column-header backgrounds. EF5 20:55, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Per MOS:NOHIDE, article content should not be default-hidden, with the sole exception of parts of tables/lists if the content is not integral to the overall table/list. ("Article content", as distinct from things like navigational aids for ex. navboxes.) And table labels (rhymes all the time) should have scope tags to ID them for accessibility to things like screen reader software.
Also, I think it's best to leave the default site color scheme absent a compelling reason to deviate, again for maximizing accessibility (consider visually impaired people) as well as workability with night mode: see Help:Tables § Color in tables and here. For when it's really desirable, you use inline CSS. Demonstrating, with aid of Mediawiki's syntax highlighting:
Wikitext source
{| {{Table|sort|show|class=floatright}}
|+ style="background-color: grey; color: pink;" | Awesomeness{{br}}Levels
|-
! scope="col" | Stuff
! scope="col" | Awesomeness{{br}}Rating
|-
| [[HTML5]]
| {{cell color|46|0|100|align=center|bold=y}}
|-
| [[CSS3]]
| {{cell color|67|0|100|align=center|bold=y}}
|-
| [[Kitty cat]]s
| {{cell color|84|0|100|align=center|bold=y}}
|}
Awesomeness
Levels
Stuff Awesomeness
Rating
HTML5 46
CSS3 67
Kitty cats 84
Also showing some of the handy-dandy table templates like {{table}} and {{cell color}}. Hope that helps, if you have more questions ask away. --Slowking Man (talk) 22:34, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@EF5: Table captions are displayed outside the table and almost never set a background color. The table at 2011 Hackleburg–Phil Campbell tornado#Formation and track through Hackleburg is collapsed by default with only the caption visible. I guess this is why you want the caption to stand out with a background color. The collapsed table is against MOS:DONTHIDE but many articles ignore that guideline. I'm not sure what to recommend for the caption when the guideline is broken. If a collapsed table has no caption then the header row is displayed with its existing background and the issue is avoided, but Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables recommends to have a caption. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:48, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
Yea, I think I’ll just IAR there as if they weren’t collapsed, there would be literally no room for any other media, which is something the reader wouldn’t want. I don’t think the tornado fatality lists with this format have ever been made before, so I’m treading in uncharted waters. I think it looks good right now, but I’ll mess around with it more tomorrow. :) EF5 22:52, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Can I close my own RfC?

I opened a RfC at Talk: Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 in large part to divert attention from another discussion which I felt was no longer productive. Would I be considered WP:INVOLVED? I haven't given much of an opinion on my RfC, and I've added a few neutral comments. For what it's worth, if I were to close it, I'd close it as accident leading to a crash. guninvalid (talk) 21:35, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Generally this is a bad idea and can provoke further arguments. ACTIVE COMMUNITY SANCTIONS apply. And expected standards of behaviour includes avoiding COI such as this. SO if you close it, you may be sanctioned. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:07, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
If you feel the discussion needs a formal closure, it would be best to request it at the noticeboard for that purpose so that an uninvolved editor can do the close. Seraphimblade Talk to me 07:54, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Are we reading the same RfC? I see the majority of editors saying we should use crash. Dreameditsbrooklyn (talk) 23:58, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

How can I move a page to its redirect?

Hi, I'm trying to revert an undiscussed move of a page, but I can't do this as the old page name already exists as a redirect page. What should I do in this situation? Boynamedsue (talk) 21:06, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

You want WP:RM. Thataway, third door on your left. --Slowking Man (talk) 22:44, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@Boynamedsue: Which page? Please always be specific in questions. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:50, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@PrimeHunter: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanisael_(Swedish_and_Norwegian_Romani)&action=history this one.Boynamedsue (talk) 23:03, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
@Boynamedsue: You can revert the most recent move by moving over a redirect with no page history except a redirect to the current title. But there are other recent moves. Which title do you want to restore? PrimeHunter (talk) 23:44, 12 January 2025 (UTC)
It was the original title before the moves: Norwegian and Swedish Travellers. But I've put it on the move requests per what Slowking Man suggested...Boynamedsue (talk) 23:58, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Why are the icons so weird

I was looking through Wikipedia and special articles and noticed the icons are in frutiger aero style, why so? I mean, you could just ask wikipedians to volunter to redesign the icons or hire a graphic designer ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 22:20, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't know why, IsaqueCar. I for one only ask fellow volunteers for help when I'm stuck, or when I'm acutely aware of my ignorance. (Thus I've recently asked for help with numismatics, of which I'm ignorant, and, indirectly, with the Czech language, which I can't read.) Hiring professionals of course costs money. Is the alleged weirdness likely to impair understanding of encyclopedic content? -- Hoary (talk) 01:23, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Hello, @IsaqueCar. Until I searched and found Frutiger (typeface) I hadn't the slightest idea what you were talking about. I still have no idea which icons you mean.
If you are talking about part of the user interface, then be aware that most Wikipedia editors (who are generally the people that hang out at this page) don't have any involvement in this, and it's better to bring this up at WP:VPT. If you're talking about something within an article or series of articles, then the talk page of those articles, or of a relevant WP:WikiProject, is the best place to bring the matter up. ColinFine (talk) 15:53, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
@ColinFine: I looked for Frutiger Aero, which was more enlightening.
@IsaqueCar: Why not so? Design is a subjective thing: as long as the icons are visible and clear in meaning, then there's not really a problem, is there? Bazza 7 (talk) 15:57, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
it just feels weird to have such old looking icons on a modern website ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 17:21, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
I mean, it is very subjective. I exclusively use Monobook because I like the older look of it. Every design can have wildly differing opinions depending on who you ask. Thx56 (talk) 20:44, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Icons like in those info boxes "this article contains information..."
Some icons of wikiprojects will show you what i mean ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 16:06, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
Also special articles normaly have lots of notices so it's also a good example ❦⌬ IsaqueCar ⌬❦ (talk) 17:20, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
This article points out that Wikipedia, even with its new look, is trying to make subtle interface changes at most. I personally agree with this approach. Additionally, I feel that older-looking websites have more of an air of reliability. JuxtaposedJacob (talk) | :) | he/him | 05:49, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
@IsaqueCar I think this should be alerted to wp:gl. They may help redesign. And because of the design, I prefer to use the mobile web even on a desktop. Xiphoid Vigour
¤Duel¤
05:40, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Using LLMs for finding sources

Ok, I don't understand this, What is the problem in using chatbots for finding sources(reliable). Is there any rules regarding this? My submission got declined partly due to this.----Warriorglance (talk) 05:56, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

The problem is that chatbots will never say "I don't know". If they don't have an answer, they'll make something up.
If a chatbot pointed you to a real source, and you used it, then that's not why your submission was declined. DS (talk) 06:07, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
The cites in Draft:Desom, Kerala (which is what I assume we're talking about here) have the URLs appended with utm_source=chatgpt.com, which doesn't necessarily invalidate the source, but suggests that the draft may have been LLM-generated.
That string currently appears in 358 articles. Boo:( DMacks (talk) 07:18, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
@Warriorglance: if (?) these are genuinely bona fide sources, then do yourself the favour of at least unappending the utm source parameter from the citations. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 10:41, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Warriorglance DS pretty much covereged it, but, essentially, chatbots and LLMs (Such as ChatGPT) are really good at finding patterns. If you show a new one a collection of red triangles and blue circles, then ask it to guess what colours circles are, it'll tell you that "circles are green". Doesn't that sound silly to you? Circles dont have colors! Well, it's how machine learning works - they don't think, they find patterns. And they're really good at it! If I gave one a thousand scans of human brains, and asked it to look for anything that seemed weird, it could probably tell me if any of the brains had a tumour. But it doesn't know what a tumour is, or how to treat one, or why we even care about tumours in the first place! The same in true in the case you're asking. If you ask a LLM to give you a list of reliable sources, it will give you sources that superficially resemble reliable sources. For example, it might "know" that websites which talk about astronomy using long words are more likely to be reliable than websites which don't talk about astronomy using long words. So it gives you websites which talk about astronomy, regardless as to whether or not those websites are reliables sources or not. Alternatively, it may know that print sources are often very reliable. LLMs can't read print sources, however, so it makes up a fake one because that's what large language models are designed to do - talk to you. You actually probably could have an AI search sources for you, and pull out sources with the most relevant keywords. However, again, that's not what current large language models are designed to do. Could that change someday? Absolutely! But for now, you're going to get much better results by doing the research yourself, say, at a library or by using Google Scholar.
In this particular case, I see you're trying to write an article about a metereor shower. I've had a look around for you: this meteor shower is already mentioned in a mainspace article, at Ursa Major#Meteor showers. There, it is supported by one source- an article published in 2012 in Sky & Telescope. Perhaps before you try writing an article from scratch (which is one of the most difficult tasks possible - I edited Wikipedia for six years as an IP before creating this account and making an article), you expand the section there? You can always split your work into a new article at a later date, if you think it's worthy of a stand along page. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 11:25, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks a lot...👍👍You certainly made editing more easier ----Warriorglance (talk) 13:42, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
You may certainly use a chatbot to find a source. But you should not cite that source in a Wikipedia article without checking that the source exists, and that it says what the chatbot claimed it says. Maproom (talk) 15:17, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Warriorglance, at this point, chatbots and other AI/LLM tools are incapable of determining whether or not a given source is reliable for use as a Wikipedia reference. So, a request to a chatbot is just roughly equivalent to a Google search. In either case, you will get a list of possibilities, and it is up to the human editor to separate the wheat from the chaff to identify the highest quality reliable sources that convey information useful to include in an encyclopedia article. The ability to identify truly reliable sources is the most important skill of a Wikipedia editor, and expecting "artificial stupidity" to do that job is a big mistake, at least in 2025. Cullen328 (talk) 18:24, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
@Warriorglance A better search engine than Google for this at the moment may be Microsoft Bing. They have incorporated the latest LLM technology into their product but avoided the pitfalls of hallucinations by still only showing, and sometimes summarising, results linked to actual web sources. There is no guarantee that these sources are reliable, of course. Note that there is a special version of Google search which has been customised to focus on Wikipedia-reliable sources. You can access it here Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:13, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
Warriorglance, LLMs are basically trained on an accumulation of (stolen) material which can include outdated info and they also tend to make stuff up. If you are still going to use these programs to find sources (even though Google is an option), exercise caution and verify their existence by searching them via a search engine. — 💽 LunaEclipse 💽 🌹 ⚧ (CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST) 18:55, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

New bio page for a scientist

Hi Everyone, I am trying to add a new bio page about a current scientist that is doing exciting work (Professor Greg Neely, University of Sydney), but it has been knocked back by editors. Their feedback was that it "didn't show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject in published, reliable, secondary sources that are independent of the subject". I'm a little surprised about this, since his work has been published in prestigious scientific journals and is regularly featured in reputable international media outlets (eg. BBC, CNN, The Guardian, etc). Does anyone have any advice/suggestions on what can be done to improve the draft and satisfy the editors? I'd appreciate your advice. Thanks. Turps222 (talk) 00:34, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Turps222, and welcome to the Teahouse. Wikipedia doesn't have bio pages about people; instead we have encyclopedia articles about people who are already well known. You have written a page emphasizing wonderfulness and need to see if it can be converted into a neutral article. The notability requirements for articles about professors and researchers are given in Wikipedia:Notability (academics). Neely only needs to meet one of the requirements, and the type of sourcing is discussed there. StarryGrandma (talk) 00:58, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Turps222: I've just answered your query at the AfC help desk. Please don't ask the same in several places, it is not an efficient use of community resources. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 07:01, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Draft:Greg Neely has been declined four times, and is still not good enough to qualify as an article. Plus, you were asked on your Talk page if you have a conflict of interest (WP:COI), which you need must declare on yor User page if true. Being asked about a COI is standard practice when new account show up wanting to create an article about a person or business. StarryGrandma directed you to the qualifications needed for academics. If none apply, no polishing the apple of the draft will succeed. David notMD (talk) 11:54, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
A minor award and mentions of his research in media (some of which the ref content does not even mention him by name) contribute little toward establishing Wikipedia-notability. David notMD (talk) 12:14, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Improve Draft:David_Hynam

Hey all, I created this article and is now a draft, any advise to improve it? Appreciate the help in term formatting, structure and any other angle that might help to make it useful and meet the criteria of a live page. Thanks all! Draft:David Hynam KP070707 (talk) 09:44, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

KP070707 Hello and welcome. I removed your piping of the url into your link to the draft, the url is not needed. You submitted your draft for a review- a reviewer will, if they don't accept it, leave you feedback as to what improvements are needed. Please allow this process to play out- it's redundant to submit for a review and then ask for a review. 331dot (talk) 09:55, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Thanks @331dot!. KP070707 (talk) 11:18, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @KP070707, just re-affirming my feedback from the #wikipedia-en-help IRC channel: you have quite a few sources that don't mention Hynam at all, I would streamline the draft to remove anything that doesn't directly reference him and remove as many sources based solely on interviews as you can. Stuff about the LV annual report and the Friends Life Group merger can also be removed. qcne (talk) 10:52, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi acne, Thanks for the inputs, I'll edit those. Noted on the reviewing process. KP070707 (talk) 11:12, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
I have made some edits as your suggestions. If you have time, can you take a look to see if there are more info or sources that needed to be adjusted? Also, I wonder if we can withdraw from the "submission for review" if we feel the aricle is ready to push live? Thanks! KP070707 (talk) 11:47, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
You can continue to work on it while waiting for a review. I recommend to not convert it to an article, as it still has weaknesses. David notMD (talk) 12:33, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

my article

I wrote Communism in Brazil, moved from its draft page. However there is this bug on the talk page which says "This non-existent page doesn't require a content assessment", What is that supposed to mean?? And why it appears like that?? ☢️SCR@TCH!NGH3@D (talk) 06:53, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi! Welcome to the Teahouse. The article hadn't been rated yet, which is why this error showed up. I have made a temporary fix for the time being. Happy editing, Heart (talk) 07:01, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Thank you sir, also another thing is how long does it take to rate these articles? ☢️SCR@TCH!NGH3@D (talk) 07:16, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Hi @Scratchinghead: the rating can be done by anyone at any time. It would have been done by the accepting AfC reviewer, had you waited for that. It may be done by the NPP (new page patrol) reviewer, once they get around to it. Otherwise someone from the tagged WikiProjects may come and rate it at some point.
Or perhaps you meant to ask how long does it take for new articles to be reviewed by NPP? It's difficult to say, there is a huge backlog (13K+ unreviewed articles), but there is also a backlog drive currently going on. Could be a matter of days, or could be months. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 08:33, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
"It would have been done by the accepting AfC reviewer, had you waited for that. " well, I have an article Burkina Faso-France relations which was reviewed through AfC but hasn't received a rating.
Other than that, thank you Sir, for the information ☢️SCR@TCH!NGH3@D (talk) 08:41, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
Sometimes AfC reviewers will accept an article and not give it a content assessment rating. Some people feel it is more important than others. Generally it is only helpful for editors, since the majority of readers will never look at a single talk page. Reconrabbit 16:53, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

Are PRODs able to be denied with seemingly no rationale?

I recently proposed the article The Attacks of 26/11 for deletion, however the edit was reverted soon after. I thought per WP:PROD, there needs to be a reason as to why you would revert the deletion either in the edit summary or the talk page. However, the editor in question only listed "denied" in the edit summary. Am I missing something? TansoShoshen (talk) 16:17, 13 January 2025 (UTC)

@TansoShoshen Out of curiosity, why did you PROD it? I did admittedly run through the article very quickly, but I can't see any obvious reasons for it to be deleted. CommissarDoggoTalk? 16:24, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
A couple things, the initial creator of that article has since been blocked indefinitely for sockpuppetry. In addition, someone who is closely related to the subject of said article has made other pages which are obviously self-promotion (see: Rommel Rodrigues, Gurukul (film), Kasab: The Face of 26/11). TansoShoshen (talk) 16:35, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
@TansoShoshen The creator being a sockpuppet would warrant a page being deleted if there haven't been any other major contributers/contributions, but the page is now a couple years over a decade old.
Per WP:OTHERSTUFF I don't think this particular page warrants deletion because other pages from a contributor have been overly promotional. At most it needs to be cleaned up, which I'll happily shoulder. CommissarDoggoTalk? 17:01, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
According to that policy, an explanation is encouraged but not required. Perception312 (talk) 16:26, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
@TansoShoshen: It's generally bad practice, but it is allowed. JJPMaster (she/they) 16:27, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
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