Help desk
< February 19	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 21 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

February 20

Reverting of Edits - Help

Hi,

I am editing content and provide edit summary details. I am experiencing random users (bots?) that are automatically cancelling and reverting out the deleted content. eg. JayCubby, Aggarwala2727. How do I stop this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am a newbie to this.

Many Thanks NedScopMCC (talk) 00:55, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please use the article talk page to discuss your edits; also see your user talk page for important information requiring a response. 331dot (talk) 00:59, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@NedScopMCC: Please read the message on your talk page. Don't engage in an edit war. Use the article talk page to get consensus on your edits. 01:00, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article talk page has been updated to reference the changes and the justification NedScopMCC (talk) 01:07, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Where to find info on IP-Masking changes?

If I understand correctly, there are some changes coming to Wikipedia that will hide or obfuscate IP addresses of non-logged-in users. Where can I find more info on that? I tried a couple of shortcuts such as WP:IPMASKING but I couldn't guess the right one. RudolfRed (talk) 02:01, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

RudolfRed, m:IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation. Mathglot (talk) 06:14, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RudolfRed Apparently the latest update is from April:[1]. I think this thing has been postponed several times as problems have been pointed out and acknowledged. Don't take my word for it, but I think it started: WMF: Lawyers says we have too, so we're gonna. Community:BUT!!!! WMF:Oh yeah... We'll get back to you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Btw, we should make that shortcut. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:15, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:43, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång The latest update is from September 2023 and says that the deployment to testwiki will be January 2024. Apparently, rollout to pilot wikis could be as soon as next month. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:56, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

However the project page says it was updated in November 2023 and has a timeline with

Deployment to testwiki – March 2024
Deployment to first pilot wikis – no sooner than April 2024/May 2024. TSventon (talk) 15:13, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, everyone, for the information! RudolfRed (talk) 16:45, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 6 attack

I read the Jan 6 attack here and it is completely inaccurate. I hope you see all of the new information that has come out. I can not continue to donate to Wikipedia if it does not conform with the new findings uncovered. 2601:644:4983:1A00:8950:3DA0:174D:C7ED (talk) 09:23, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Pick your best WP:RS and suggest changes based on what they say at Talk:January 6 United States Capitol attack. If your suggestions are inline with WP policies and guidelines, they might get acted upon. But "new information that has come out" isn't good enough. Be specific, and link the books you have found the new info in. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:48, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you have anything specific to add to the page, consider an edit request. If you rather have general sources to add, resort to the article's Talk page.

Please understand that Wikipedia is comprised of millions of editors from all around the world, and content added to articles, especially of contentious topics, will be discussed and consensed. (Wikipedia § Governance) Wikipedia furthermore tries its best to maintain impartiality and promote various viewpoints regarding documented situations.

All in all, your contributions to Wikipedia are always appreciated, whether in donation or edition of information.
— Urro^{[talk][edits]} ⋮ 12:50, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You might perhaps be happier editing Conservapedia. Clarityfiend (talk) 13:24, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.conservapedia.com/United_States_presidential_election,_2020#Electoral_College_certification says:

"During the January 6, 2021 Joint Session of Congress to certify the Electoral College ballots, while tens of thousands peaceful protesters rallied in support of President Trump outside the capitol, chartered vans of Antifa were escorted by state police in black, unmarked SUVs into the midst of the crowd. Capitol Police then removed barriers and waved the crowd in to the Capitol steps. Antifa rioters proceeded to break windows on the U.S. Capitol building and storm the premises."

If you want nonsense like that then Wikipedia is certainly not for you. We are a serious encyclopedia based on reliable sources, not garbage propaganda. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:59, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see no clear grounds for the inference that OP's new material is both false and of a specific slant. —Tamfang (talk) 04:25, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

January 6 United States Capitol attack is "completely inaccurate" doesn't raise any flags? Clarityfiend (talk) 09:53, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, how new are these findings? Possibly no one has thought of updating Wikipedia. —Tamfang (talk) 04:22, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

These are right wing conspiracy theories that have no basis whatsoever in fact, but are things they need to believe are true to justify Trump losing. 331dot (talk) 10:13, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons links

Why are the Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons links no longer part of the English Wikipedia page?

On February 16, 2024, I accessed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_van_der_Burgh and it had links to his Wikidata page and Wikimedia Commons folder. Now when I open it, those links no longer appear. Why? Its Revision history show no changes since February 2, 2024; so, that can't be why. Are they hidden for some reason?Mabrndt (talk) 16:44, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mabrndt You may not have noticed the change to the default skin WP:VECTOR22. This places the links to Wikidata at the right-hand "tool" menu of articles (which may be hidden if you prefer). The link to Commons is still within a small box at the foot of the article, at least on my browser. Note also the interlanguage links, now top right. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:50, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. In no way did I consider them "Tools".Mabrndt (talk) Mabrndt (talk) 17:55, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Madison Grant

The wikipedia page on Madision Grant claims he was zoologist and anthropologist. Yet, the man had no such degree. In awarding him with such professional titles wikipedia does academia a wrong. Please correct this page, it misrepresents the true history. 69.1.251.73 (talk) 18:57, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mistakes would be unsurprising given that the article has Template:More citations needed on it. Feel free to remove any unreferenced information yourself. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 20:00, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"zoologist" and "anthropologist" are occupations, not degrees. (I think you mean Madison Grant.) Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:33, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How do I edit my "reflist" setup so that the citations are ordered by frequency of appearance?

Apologies if I am wording this incorrectly! This is for this article:

I'm not sure if this is even possible, or if I've been reading the wrong instructional pages. Can one of you modify that reflist to sort the references single column by number of citations, most to least, so that I can see how it is done? If possible to do... -- Very Polite Person (talk) 19:10, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Very Polite Person, I don't recall ever seeing that as an option or any article which has done that. (To be clear, as current exists, you'd like the Locke source first then Saltz followed by Dilawar and so on?) As far as I know, {{Reflist}} (and the underlying <references> tag) only support ordering the refs in the reference list by order they're first encountered in the body of the article. Is there any particular reason you want to use a non-standard ordering? Or let me/us know if I've misunderstood your question. Skynxnex (talk) 19:44, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, I had no idea and am brushing up on years of IP editing and using wikimedia and similar in private (corp/org) environments. It just seemed to make sense that there would be a "sort by frequency" kind of option, rather than it just being "lands in whatever order"... darn. -- Very Polite Person (talk) 20:26, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

They are not in "whatever order"; they are numbered, and are listed, in the order in which they appear in the article. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:45, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to control the order of the citations (most commonly in alphabetical order), then see WP:CITE, in particular WP:CITESHORT. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 21:00, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting My Account

Hi there,

I'm trying to delete my account on Wikipedia but don't seem to find the way to do so... Can you please help me in completely deleting my account???

Appreciate your sooner reply and help!!! FeRrJar (talk) 19:24, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Accounts cannot be deleted, you can just stop editing. Theroadislong (talk) 19:35, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A courtesy vanishing may be possible, see WP:VANISH. 331dot (talk) 23:36, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Change Photo on my Wiki Page

Hi, I'm trying to figure out how to change/remove an image of myself on my Wiki page and change it to a new one? Can you help me please?

Bill Barretta Billbarretta19 (talk) 21:53, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please note that Bill Barretta is Wikipedia's article about you, it is NOT your "wiki page". Theroadislong (talk) 21:57, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's another picture already at Wikimedia Commons, which could easily be substituted. Otherwise, someone will have to upload a picture of you there which is not (too) restricted by copyright. The easiest way is to find someone who has, or is willing to create, a Wikimedia Commons account, and ask them to take a picture of you and upload it there. Otherwise, copyright law makes things more tedious. Maproom (talk) 22:47, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No, please be reassured that every article in Wikipedia is a page, and that the genitive case (as seen in my, your, etc) is used to express any relationship between a noun phrase (me, etc) and a nominal (page, etc). This is most obvious with "birth", "death", "toothache" and the like: I can idiomatically preface any of these with my without any (ridiculous) suggestion that I somehow possess it. Thus "my photo" may mean the photo I possess, the photo I took, the photo taken of me, the photo I'm assigned to investigate, and more; similarly, "my article/page" may mean the one I possess (though this wouldn't be possible in Wikipedia), the one about me, the one I've been working on, and more. So yes, your Wiki page: if you don't like the photo that's currently on Bill Barretta, just ask somebody else to (i) take a better one, (ii) sign up for Wikimedia Commons, and (iii) upload the better photo to Wikimedia Commons. Please don't edit Bill Barretta yourself; instead, post requests or suggestions (such as that the current photo be replaced by such-and-such a freshly uploaded photo) for that page on Talk:Bill Barretta. Thank you for your trouble. -- Hoary (talk) 23:26, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You're not wrong but most casual/irregular visitors in my experience will treat a "page" differently than they would treat an article, and that difference often leads to difficulty for the user, difficulty thst could be somewhat avoided if they had the right mindset early on. Just the way I see it, your mileage may vary. 331dot (talk) 23:42, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

331dot, if I'm not wrong, I hope that it can't also be said of me that I'm "not even wrong". If I were a casual/irregular visitor to this website and were told that the page about me was NOT [so capitalized!] my wiki page, I'd infer that my interlocutor either was somehow deranged or was treating me as an idiot. More generally, somebody coming here to politely ask a reasonable question shouldn't first have to go through some bizarre kind of linguistic purification ritual. I wish Billbarretta19 the best in using Talk:Bill Barretta to prompt disinterested editors to make improvements to his wiki page. -- Hoary (talk) 00:58, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Everyone's different but I personally appreciate being informed about things like terminology so that I know I'm on the same page as the people I'm talking with.

I also wish Mr. Baretta the best and am a bit surprised that it has not been suggested that he simply upload a selfie which would avoid any copyright difficulties and save him the time of hunting someone down to take a picture of him and having them upload it. 331dot (talk) 01:49, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We're all different? I'm not. How about first an attempt to answer the question or comply with the request, followed by something like "Incidentally, we'd normally call this an article rather than a page"? As for selfies, they can of course be done well, but a large percentage are horrible; and I for one have more success handing my camera to a stranger than I do taking a selfie. (Though a problem is that for the under-25s in my part of the world, even all-automatic models of camera tend to be historical curios belonging with typewriters, slide rules, acetylene lamps, mangles, and so forth.) -- Hoary (talk) 02:31, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Billbarretta19: Please see Wikipedia:A picture of you. Also, it's unfortunate but your account will have to be blocked until you confirm your identity (after all, you would not want some other person impersonating you). Details of how to do so will be left on your talk page. It's nothing personal. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:50, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How to publish a page I created in my sandbox

Hello, I just created a Wikipedia page/article in my sandbox and published the changes. However, I don't see the information when I do a search within Wikipedia. Wallaby5312 (talk) 22:40, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That is because the page is still in your sandbox and has not been moved to "mainspace" and become an article. The "publish" button does not publish the article in that obvious sense, it just publishes it in the legal sense of releasing some of your copyright in what you have created. (Yes, that's stupid, but Wikipedia's lawyers insist we do it like that.) However, your sandbox contents fall well short of the Wikipedia requirements for a mainspace article. Maproom (talk) 22:55, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What very little you write in User:Wallaby5312/sandbox about this person, Wallaby5312, suggests that it's far too soon to attempt to create an article about them. -- Hoary (talk) 23:31, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you click "Search in" and "All" on the search results page then your sandbox does appear. Searches are only in mainspace by default. That's where our encyclopedia articles are. It's called "(Article)" in the "Search in" box. The content of User:Wallaby5312/sandbox is not suited for that. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:57, 21 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Wallaby5312: Your page is now at Draft:Santana Sexmachine. Please continue to work on it there, if you think you can demonstrate that the subject meets the criteria at WP:N. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:45, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]