Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 February 18

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February 18

Alternative to edit notice that everyone can see?

The article List of city nicknames in the United States has an edit notice to advice users to not add new nicknames to the page. But, the page is currently semi-proteced, so non-autoconfirmed users can't edit it and thus will never see the edit notice. Not a huge problem, but those editors will have no idea that they shouldn't be placing edit requests to add new nicknames. Is there an alternative to an edit notice that can be placed on an article that is visable to everyone? I'm curious about in general, not just this specific case. RudolfRed (talk) 01:37, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

You can still view source, and this will allow you to see the editnotice; see what happens when you try to edit my sandbox, for example. IPs in this case, as in any similar case, have the chance to see the editnotice if they click "view source" and reach the talk page via the button that creates a preformed request. Of course, you could always add an editnotice to the talk page giving the same advice; whether or not this is a good idea I won't say, but that would resolve the practical issue of people being unaware of the advice when proposing additions. Nyttend (talk) 03:49, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Table help

This request comes after a visit to Help:Tables that didn't really help; I think I don't understand something well enough to be useful.

List of towns in Virginia was basically just a bulleted list until just now, when I replaced it with a table. However, the table's left-aligned on the page, and the contents of each cell are left-aligned. Could you help me center-align the county names in their cells and center-align the table on the page? Nyttend (talk) 03:51, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

This is achieved by applying style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align:center" to the whole table. The margin-left and margin-right control the placement of the table, while text-align does what's on the label. Cheers -- The Voidwalker ^Whispers 04:34, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 05:02, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

John Dalgleish Donaldson

Please help me format ref number 6 correctly. Thankyou101.182.96.231 (talk) 06:37, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

 Done Eagleash (talk) 08:37, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

uploading image

I want to upload an image that I found on google to a new page that I am creating. I do not own the image, but found one that I thought helped me to describe what I was explaining. Can I use this image? If not what can I do? — Preceding unsigned comment added by JIvory96 (talk • contribs) 14:13, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

In all likelihood, no. Please see Wikipedia:Uploading images#Determine copyright status – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 15:28, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

unwanted emails

i am currently receiving a great quanity of unwanted ponograpic and un solitated emails most of which come from america can anyone tell me how to stop them they are going straight to box ang not into my junk mail ------ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.70.10.22 (talk) 15:06, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

This isn't a Wikipedia issue. I'd suggest Googling along the lines of "email spam filter". It's possible that The Reference Desk may be able to help, but not guaranteed. Chaheel Riens (talk) 15:41, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Tell your email program or webmail service at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:55, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

script or bot to remove spaces?

Is there a script or bot that can remove spaces between punctuation and references? I've just noticed that in List of fictional spacecraft - with the exception of the lede - every reference has a space between it and the preceding punctuation. If it was just a couple I'd do it myself, but there's over 140 of them. I suppose a search & replace in TextPad would do it, but mass replace could mess up other things as well as fixing things. Chaheel Riens (talk) 15:34, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Chaheel Riens: no script/bot was necessary. I just used Find/Replace in the text editor to correct them all. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 16:37, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Cheers. I've used Search & replace a few times myself, but it's occasionally mucked up non-ascii characters that may be in the text, hence I wondered if there was an alternative. Chaheel Riens (talk) 16:46, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Well, maybe if you copy to a text editor and bring it back, there can be issues like that. But I used the built-in Find/Replace under "Advanced" in our wikitext editor, and I've never had an issue with removing spaces before references. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 16:55, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

I don't see this option anywhere - is it something that needs to be enabled? I'm looking at a page to be edited right now, and there's nothing like what you're suggesting. Chaheel Riens (talk) 18:02, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Under the Advanced heading, it's all the way over on the right. The icon looks like a piece of paper with a magnifying glass and pencil. †dismas†|^(talk) 20:13, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Also, it only appears if you check "Enable enhanced editing toolbar" on the Editing tab of Preferences. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 20:16, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Chaheel Riens: There is a nice little script available here too which will do that. Triptothecottage (talk) 08:19, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Guideline about (not) showing total number of pages in a work

Our citation templates don't support showing the total number of pages in a book or other work. Do we have a guideline that says to not show the total number of pages? I thought we had such a guideline but I can't find it. I am seeing this pop up sporadically in bibliographies. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 16:24, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Hey Stevie is the man! I'm going to play ignorant here since I cite books frequently inline; but never thought of this before. I understand showing the exact pages on which the quote (reference i.e. pg 36 - 38) is taken to support inline content; but what would the benefit of disclosing the total number of pages for a book for that an inline citation? I can understand this for use in a bibliography section (say for a list of an author's works) since it is giving specific information regard the detail of the book and its publication form, similar to Amazon. Is there something I am missing for the benefit to reveal the entire page numbers of a book for inline citations? Thanks. Maineartists (talk) 16:41, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

I don't see any benefit, but that's not what I'm asking about. I am asking if there is a guideline for not showing the total number of pages in a work, whether in a cite or bibliography. It's the existence of a guideline that I'm inquiring about. I don't wish to debate the merits of such here. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 16:49, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Sorry. Thus the self-labeling: ignorant. My apologies. Best of luck. Maineartists (talk) 17:12, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

I don't know a guideline directly saying not to do it but the examples at WP:BIBLIOGRAPHY don't do it (except a special case to describe something within a book), and Wikipedia:Citing sources#Books doesn't list it. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:15, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

The template documentation at Template:Cite book#In-source locations says: "do not use [the pages parameter] to indicate the total number of pages in the source." – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 17:34, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. WP:BIBLIOGRAPHY is the first place I had looked. :) I haven't made much of a point of removing this information before, but I guess my curiosity finally rose to the point of seeing if there was a hard guideline. I'm not sure why I was under the impression there was one -- maybe just some instances of seeing other editors removing it as "trivial" or information not key to identifying the work. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 17:38, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Accepting that this is the wrong venue for a detailed discussion, I wonder if any other editors think that this should be revisited? Not all versions/editions of a book are necessarily formatted the same:- page size, text size, line spacing, margins etc. can vary, so the information may appear on different pages in different editions - a total number of pages can easily be checked, and gives a good idea whether the cited information is earlier, or later, in the edition the reader has. - Arjayay (talk) 17:54, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Arjayay: I think I would want to first check to see if previous discussions covered this subject. I would hate to have a discussion of pros/cons if that has already happened and produced a clear and reasonable consensus. On the other hand, the lack of guideline for including total number of pages or not including it may speak for itself. I'm open-minded. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 18:57, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Arjayay: is this not what ISBNs/OCLCs (and the edition parameter) are for? – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 19:16, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Archiving

Hi, I'm sorry for what I think is a really dumb question--I've tried my best to follow the straightforward directions on how to archive my talk page, but the archive box on my main talk page is not recognizing an archive. I've taken three different stabs at creating an archive subpage (listed below) but I take it they must all be incorrectly named: if someone could tell me what the name should properly be, I'd be very grateful.

User_talk:Innisfree987/Archive_1

Innisfree987_talk:innisfree987/Archive_1

Innisfree987_talk:Innisfree987/Archive_1

Thanks so much... Innisfree987 (talk) 16:47, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Innisfree987: The first one is pretty much the standard. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 16:52, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Innisfree987: Yes, User talk:Innisfree987/Archive 1 is fine. It was created after the latest edit to User talk:Innisfree987 so that page had to be purged to register the archive. The two other attempts were mainspace pages so I have deleted them. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:01, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Ah, that makes sense--thank you both! Innisfree987 (talk) 17:04, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Help:Cite errors/Cite error included ref

For Solidago ohioensis, change height to 100 cm, per Flora of North America. Couldn't figure out how to enter citation.

I have removed the multiple extra ref tags. Enter your citation <ref>{{cite X (book, web etc.)|ref content}}</ref>. See WP:REFB for a basic guide to adding refs. and WP:CIT for templates to use. Eagleash (talk) 18:32, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

How do I edit the article summary provided in the search box on wikipedia.org?

(Purely as example), if I type "mustard seed" into the search box, I see in the auto-generated list "Mustard seed" in bold and then not in bold, "small round seeds of various mustard plants". How would I edit the brief description? --Hobbes Goodyear (talk) 20:14, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Hobbes Goodyear: They are on Wikidata and can be edited there, e.g. d:Q1937700 . – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 20:23, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Perfect, thanks very much. --Hobbes Goodyear (talk) 22:19, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Senator Pat Toomey wikipedia page

Hello,

I've tried editing Senator Pat Toomey's wiki page to remove subjective and inaccurate information. However, the page automatically restores the edits.

The lines in question are as followed:

Toomey has received intense criticism for his failure to meet with constituents in Philadelphia, despite it being the largest concentration of constituents in his state. (http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/index.ssf/2017/01/tuesdays_with_toomey_a_standin.html)

This is opinion based upon a news story that highlights a group of activists. To categorize this group of activists as if they are the entirety of Senator Toomey's constituency in Philadelphia is inaccurate. Also the use of "intense criticism" is subjective in nature.

He has not held a townhall anywhere in his home state since 2013. (http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/More-than-3-million-minutes-without-a-Toomey-Philly-town-hall.html)

No where in the cited article does it state that Senator Toomey has not held a town hall since 2013. In actuality, town halls were hosted by Senator Toomey in 2015:

Sepadem1 (talk) 20:40, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

@Sepadem1: This discussion belongs on Talk:Pat Toomey -- that is where the article's content is discussed. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 20:51, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

And if you look on the page history for Pat Toomey, Sepadem1, you will see that there is nothing automatic about the process. Your change was reverted twice by Justeditingtoday and the third time by IronGargoyle. Irrespective of the merits of your positions (about which I am completely ignorant, and make no comment), once Justeditingtoday had reverted you, your proper action was to discuss the matter on the talk page, according to the WP:Bold, revert, discuss principle which is the fundamental way that Wikipedia editing works. --ColinFine (talk) 23:52, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

References

Restoring the history of a deleted page

I am trying to request the restoration of the history of List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom by date of death at WP:UNDELETE. Note that the AFD for a similar redirect closed as redirect, while keeping the edit history. I concede that the editor that created these articles was indeed banned and contributed to by a sock or some other, but this did not prevent the retention of the history of the date of birth page, so I see no reason why the original history of the date of death article cannot be restored. The request was declined a couple of days ago here, and the user who declined the request has completely blanked me out since I responded with a few follow-up questions. Could someone with admin privileges please assess the deleted history, to judge whether or not it is indeed suitable for restoration? Thank-you.--Nevé–selbert 22:51, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

I am not an admin, Neve-selbert, and don't know whether or not this is possible. But I will note that technically the two cases are utterly different. If a page is turned into a redirect, that is done by editing its content: its entire history is still there and any version can be viewed. Deleting a page removes its history. I believe that admins can view the history as well as the latest version; but it may be tehcnically impossible to restore the history when undeleting (I don't know). --ColinFine (talk) 23:57, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

• It is usually possible to restore the edit history of a deleted page. The question is whether it should be done. I could understand a reluctance to restore some history with banned-user-content inside.

Neve-selbert, seeing your request is only about reading the former page history, you don't need it restored to mainspace (which seems to be the reason for the decline). Maybe you should ask for the content to be userfied. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 20:33, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, Tigraan. I have just left a message at User talk:Graeme Bartlett#Userfication.--Nevé–selbert 20:41, 20 February 2017 (UTC)