Help desk
< January 16	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 18 >

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.

January 17[edit]

Fastest banjo player[edit]

On a google search it brings up Todd Taylor as the fastest banjo player. I can confirm this is false and I can provide proof in the link Provided

https://countryrebel.com/blogs/videos/worlds-fastest-banjo-player-will-leave-your-head-spinning/

I would like this false information changed please — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:6848:3300:E924:DB:6BA4:E96A (talk) 00:01, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You have already updated the information in the article so there is nothing more Wikipedia can do on its side. We can't control what Google shows. – Thjarkur (talk) 00:11, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

broken site[edit]

https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/behold-the-winners-of-the-worlds-largest-photo-contest-wiki-loves-monuments-fda57994b7f1

this site crashes browsers, get them to fix it or use another website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.164.147.224 (talk) 00:34, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That is not a Wikimedia property. You will need to report the problem directly to that website. RudolfRed (talk) 00:45, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Name is Misspelled[edit]

Jackson Galaxy's birth name is currently listed as Richard Kirschner and it lists websites with this information as references. However, this is INCORRECT. His birth name is Richard Kurschner. How can I edit this to be correct when the references currently cited on the site have the incorrect information? Every time I make this edit, it is reverted back to the incorrect information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CCPR1234 (talk • contribs) 01:15, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CCPR1234 What is your source for the information? You should bring this up on the article talk page so the other editors can discuss it. 331dot (talk) 01:56, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@CCPR1234: You can't. Wikipedia cannot know the Truth, we can only know that something is verifiable. See Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth. You will need to get some reliable source to publish the correct name, and even then, we could only list it together with the incorrect sources and note that "sources differ". -Arch dude (talk) 01:59, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Engineering Awards Category - Query[edit]

Hello,

Would anyone kindly be able to direct me to where I might add the following page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_Prize_for_EngineeringItalic text) to the Catagory 'Engineering Awards' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Engineering_awardsItalic text) please?

Many thanks in advance for your help — Preceding unsigned comment added by 51672dan221 (talk • contribs) 11:46, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@51672dan221: to add an article to the category you can click on "Edit source" for that article and add [[Category:Engineering_awards]] to the bottom of the article. However "Category:Engineering awards" should not be added to the "Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering" article as the article is already included in Category:Awards of the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is a subcategory of Category:Engineering awards. TSventon (talk) 12:07, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

COI edits brick wall[edit]

Hello,

I am trying to update the Earth Journalism Network page with which I have a COI. I know that this is strongly frowned upon, but the page is very out of date and in need of editing to elevate it back to Wikipedia's standards. As of now, it has been suggested that I attempt to discuss with other editors engaged in the subject-area in order to move forward. I posted in both WikiProject Journalism and WikiProject Organizations but I haven't been getting any responses. Any advice on the next steps? Perhaps I just need to wait longer for some responses. Thank you in advance. Theintern007 (talk) 14:36, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You made a request for changes in the right place, Talk:Earth_Journalism_Network, on December 3rd. A reply was given there on December 5th, including the advice "the COI editor [that's you] is asked to continue the conversation about these changes here [on that talk page], with local editors on the talk page." You never followed up on that advice, hence the lack of responses. Maproom (talk) 16:16, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Off-wiki harassment[edit]

Hi. I'd like to ask if there's any way to report an off-wiki harassment? —Hiwilms (talk) 16:04, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Contact [email protected], generally. See also meta:Legal#Wikimedia_Foundation_Email_Contacts for more emails to contact if the issue is deeper than just harassment, such as threats and whatnot. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 16:07, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! I appreciate the quick reply (in just 3 minutes!). No threats were done but it is more of a cyberlibel/cyberbullying. After doing some edits on a draft article (Draft:PNR 8000 class), one of the usual editors of that draft posted something on his social media, tagging several editors and of his friends. He commented that it is a draft and I should not edit anything. In the first place, it was me who moved it from the main namespace as a new page reviewer. I'd like to get some advice on the next steps that I'll be taking. —Hiwilms (talk) 16:16, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree that the ES left here by another editor is not in the spirit of collaboration that Wikipedia hopes to encourage. (I assume this is the edit you refer to). The other party involved is a relatively new editor with less than 150 edits so perhaps there is some leeway. Any editor can edit a draft; WP:OWN can apply there as anywhere. I've sometimes had content added by others to drafts I've got 'on the go'. Friendly communication via the (draft) talk page is probably the best way to deal with it. If off-wiki problems persist, particularly if they worsen, then follow the links provided above. Cheers. PS. maybe we should ping the other party? Eagleash (talk) 16:48, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. If we're discussing Cyber Onion we should ping them. Maproom (talk) 18:01, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all your help. The paralegal of Wikimedia has suggested sending my screenshots to the Trust & Safety team. —Hiwilms (talk) 23:26, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Here's another ES I forgot to add. Concerned editor here is Dash7101. —Hiwilms (talk) 14:47, 18 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How do I check my AfD logs?[edit]

I remember there being a way to check your submitted AfD proposals and see how many succeeded and failed. Can someone point me in the right direction? CatcherStorm ^talk 16:52, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@CatcherStorm: There's an AFD statistics tool listed at Wikipedia:Tools#User edit counts and analysis. -- John of Reading (talk) 17:14, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Behavior of {{CURRENTDAY}} and {{CURRENTDAY2}}[edit]

Which one outputs day of year, and which one outputs day of month? As it's january, it's not actually possible to test this for myself. --MoonyTheDwarf (Braden N.) (talk) 19:12, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Moonythedwarf: Note these are not templates; they are magic words. They're both day of month, with the "CURRENTDAY2" being 0-padded, per Help:Magic words#Date and time. Looks like you need {{#time:format|date}} (see mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##time) to get day of year, e.g., "{{#time:z|2019-02-07}}" → "37" for the zero-based day-of-year. —[AlanM1(talk)]— 19:36, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

AlanM1, I am aware of their Magic Word status. Thanks for explaining. --MoonyTheDwarf (Braden N.) (talk) 19:42, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Michael Flynn is identified as a member of the Democratic Party on The Wikipedia site.[edit]

Michael Flynn is not democrat. Wikipedia shows his party affiliation is Democratic. This is obviously not true. This is a common practice. I would like to know who is responsible for this. I already know why. Thanks for your help. -- Tim Aslin — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timothy Aslin (talk • contribs) 19:50, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Timothy Aslin: you can find the edit (and editor) that put this in the article by looking at the article's history. Click the history tab at the top right on the desktop view. If the affiliation is not cited to a reference, you may simply remove it. If you find that a partcular editor is repeatedly doing this, come back here for the next steps. -Arch dude (talk) 20:01, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This information is sourced in the section Michael Flynn#Political views. This is the cited source, where Flynn mentions being a registered Democrat. You can discuss further improvements on the article's talk page. – Thjarkur (talk) 20:07, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and put that ref directly into the infobox on the "Democratic" there. If you can find a ref that states that he is no longer a democrat, then make a new edit request and provide that source. -Arch dude (talk) 20:36, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that answers my question. Michael Flynn is responsible for being a registered democrat. Why do you think he wants to be identified that way? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timothy Aslin (talk • contribs) 01:04, 18 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Timothy Aslin: while it's fun to speculate, this isn't the place. This help desk is for questions about using or editing Wikipedia. Wikipedia has other places for factual questions, but we explicitly have no place for speculation like this. (Sometimes it regret this, but mostly not, as it would divert us from our purpose.) See WP:FORUM and WP:NOT. I'm fairly sure you might be able to find a place on the web :-) -Arch dude (talk) 01:21, 18 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Reporting obvious socks[edit]

Do I have to go through SPI for every suspected sockpuppet, even those that are extremely obvious? For instance, let's say User:Example is blocked for promotional editing. Then, User:Example2 is created and starts editing in the exact same manner as Example. Do I still need to bring this to SPI? Can I report them to, say, AIV? Thanks in advance, echo off (on public PC) (/t) (/c) 19:52, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@BatchFileUser: on Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism, it says "Reports of sockpuppetry should be made at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations unless the connection between the accounts is obvious and disruption is recent and ongoing." Sounds like you can go right to AIV. TimTempleton ^(talk) ^(cont) 20:28, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Timtempleton: Oh, sorry, I don't know how I didn't see that. Thanks! @echo off 21:16, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Boston Municipal Police with Boston Police[edit]

The Boston Municipal Police were Civil Service employees! That is the reason we were able to transfer to the Boston Police. The Muni’s were ABOLISHED and under civil service law we went to the top of every police hire list. Any civil service police department had to offer the Muni a job before offering the job to anyone else. By the way mayor menino hated the Muni’s because when he was running for mayor we backed Jim Brett, obviously in hindsight a very bad move on our part. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.17.29.197 (talk) 22:35, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome and thanks. If you have a suggestion for a change to any article, please put the suggestion on the article's talk page, along with a reference to a reliable source: see WP:RS (a link to a newspaper page is an example). -Arch dude (talk) 22:49, 17 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]