Help desk
< March 30	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	April 1 >

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.

March 31

is edit warring cumulative?

When an edit war triggers admin action, is track record (different article, same editor) taken into account or not?--KlausFoehl (talk) 09:09, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Every editor's contribution history is preserved. Admins may choose to examine it. Maproom (talk) 10:34, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@KlausFoehl: If they have been served a {{subst:uw-3rr}} twice inside a 24-hour period by two different people for reverting, say, four times in two days on one page and six times in five days on a different page, it might be worth filing a report with diffs at WP:AN3. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:59, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

To further answer what the OP may have been asking, many admins, in blocking the edit-warriors, will take into account whether they have been in previous edit wars, and how persistent those were, and whether the edit-warriors have been previously blocked. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:15, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

disambiguating a shared name

The article on John Baer (John Baer) begins with this disclaimer: “This article is about the Pennsylvania journalist. For the former Congressman, see John Miller Baer.” How do I add a second disclaimer: “For the psychologist and creative researcher, see John Metz Baer”? [1] Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by NJMAMD (talk • contribs) 09:35, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That note uses {{about}}, so you can read in that template's documentation how to add the extra fields. I have taken the liberty of changing the url in your qustion to a wikilink. --David Biddulph (talk) 09:57, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You should add this new entry to the name list Baer as well, where all other Baers are listed to assist in searching for specific persons with this surname. GermanJoe (talk) 10:27, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The search intitle:john intitle:baer also found John Willis Baer. We now have four John Baer and it's time for a disambiguation page. None of them look like a primary topic so I will turn John Baer into a disambiguation page and sort out Special:WhatLinksHere/John Baer. It currently includes several articles mentioning a fifth person, the actor http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0046359/. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:10, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I see that PrimeHunter has created a disambiguation page. Thank you. For the information of other editors, by the way, creating a disambiguation page is easier to do than to explain how to do. (I recently created one, and was asked for an explanation of how to do it. It is easier to do, if you know how, than to explain.) Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:13, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Surname list Baer updated as well (just copied the entries from the new DAB-page). GermanJoe (talk) 16:49, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have completed the link cleanup. Special:WhatLinksHere/John Baer (actor) shows many red links to John Baer (actor) if somebody wants to make an article. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:50, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dashes and hyphens

Please could somebody with more patience than myself explain to Bree's Block (talk · contribs) that despite what they claim in this thread, they are altering dashes to hyphens, such as with this edit. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:31, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I commented. It could be a Mac problem, have provided a link to a fix if it is. - X201 (talk) 11:14, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you --Redrose64 (talk) 12:20, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Image Deletion

The Images on Vappala_Balachandran have been deleted despite providing a license.Might there be any way to get them back? The Images were sourced from http://www.arvindiyer.com and the home page of the site clearly states the license type.Kindly Help.Thank You.Rama2015 (talk) 12:17, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Rama2015: The images concerned were all hosted on Commons: c:File:Vappala Balachandran.jpg, c:File:Vappala Balachandran -Receiving the President’s Police Medal..jpg and c:File:Vappala Balachandran with Rajiv Gandhi.jpg. The first two were deleted following discussion at c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Vappala Balachandran.jpg and c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Vappala Balachandran -Receiving the President’s Police Medal..jpg. The third was deleted as a "Recreation of content deleted per community consensus: c:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Vappala Balachandran -Receiving the President’s Police Medal..jpg". The person who nominated them for deletion was Yann (talk · contribs), and the deleting admins were INeverCry (talk · contribs) and Taivo (talk · contribs) - were these people aware of the notice at http://www.arvindiyer.com ? The page c:Commons:Undeletion requests may help. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:36, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank You so much.Yes,I do believe the notice on the website was there at that point in time.How do I get this sorted.Can you help me please?Rama2015 (talk) 14:27, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You would get this sorted out at Commons, not at Wikipedia. Somewhere in Commons, you have to argue persuasively that what was described as "Old picture, not own work, bogus license" and thus better deleted instead is your own work and has a genuine license. -- Hoary (talk) 15:05, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

By "were these people aware of the notice at http://www.arvindiyer.com", what I mean is, did the file description pages have that link, and was that link indicated as being evidence of permission, so that Yann, INeverCry and Taivo could verify that the license was acceptable? But as I say, this is a Commons matter, so c:Commons:Undeletion requests should give guidance on what to do now. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:09, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Rama2015 (talk) 16:19, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

free computer to any charity

15:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)15:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)15:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)~O need to locate a charity that would accepe donation of a working compact computer plus a samsung and screen it works like a new one ryanbuddy27 @g mail help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.171.214.223 (talk)

You are on Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The helpdesk is for questions regarding how to use Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a search engine. I think you will have better results using a search engine such as Google.--A Wild Abigail Appears! _{Capture me.} _Moves. 15:47, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Update logo

How do I update the logo on our company's Wiki page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.211.201.82 (talk) 16:23, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You can request that it be uploaded at WP:Files for upload.--ukexpat (talk) 19:00, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Bot questions

Here are a few things that I've been wondering:

If someone logged into a bot account, would the be able to make edits as that bot?
Where is the bot code stored?
If someone wrote bot code and put it wherever this code goes, could it, in theory, turn my account into a bot?

Eman235/talk 19:32, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Technically yes, but they'd be breaking the bot policy.
On your computer, its just a computer program.
Think so, but it would probably be blocked by you not having the user privilege. Try to by-pass it and you'd be blocked very quickly and the sys admins would be out for blood.

Hope that helps. - X201 (talk) 20:13, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not only admins would be out for blood. ;-) –Be..anyone (talk) 20:43, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

So, what a bot is is a computer program that logs into Wikipedia and edits. Thanks! Eman235/talk 21:40, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Bot_policy is an interesting read if you've not seen it yet. Bot accounts are marked with a bot flag to circumvent some mediawiki restrictions. CaptRik (talk) 21:42, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From sandbox to create an article

Hi, when in my sandbox, I click submit your draft for review I get this:

Press the Save page button at the ⇓ bottom ⇓ of the edit box to request a new review. A box explaining details about this submission will appear at the bottom of the page. An automated robot will update the page later and remove the draft article box.

When I return to edit and press save at the bottom of the page nothing seems to happen... what am I missing?

Thanks

Annew43 Annew43 (talk) 19:33, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you're talking about User:Annew43/sandbox? I don't know what's going on, so I just submitted it for you. Do you see the box just above the typing area, entitled "Subject/heading"? Normally one should enter text into it (it's what you did to get "From sandbox to create an article" when asking for help here), and some of us have activated an option so that it won't immediately save if you've not entered anything. But you're new enough that I'm guessing you've not seen this option, and it's off unless you change it around. We also have an abuse filter, which will prevent people from making edits that it deems improper (sometimes it finds false positives; don't think you're in trouble if it stops you from doing something helpful), but your filter log is empty, so that's not the problem either. I can't think what else would prevent it from saving. Nyttend (talk) 19:59, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Annew43: I'm not sure what you mean by "When I return to edit". You were supposed to press the Save page button when you saw the message, and not return to anywhere first. The page has been submitted by Nyttend and declined. If you make changes and resubmit then you also have to press the Save page button when you see the message. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:13, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

creating a desktop icon for Wiki. How? I'm on Windows 7

just what I said — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.68.190.78 (talk) 19:51, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are you trying to make a desktop icon that opens up Wikipedia? If so, right click on your desktop, select "New", then "Shortcut". Set the location to http://wiki.riteme.site/. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 20:01, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Someone

has been dicking around with Lincoln Memorial - the last 4 or 5 edits are suspect (except, of course, mine) causing a red warning to appear in the info box regarding the map co-ordinates. This is beyond me to fix, but this is also a heavily trafficked article and needs to be fixed. You up for it? Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 20:51, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Problem solved. The recipe is to edit a version before the vandalism to kill that, and then reconstruct good edits after the vandalism based on the edit history manually. Or give up at some last known good state if it's too confusing. –Be..anyone (talk) 21:07, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]