Help desk
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September 23

Can someone fix the John_Roberts_(actor reference I added in the article?

I added a reference for him being of Italian descent. It's the famous birthdays website. The reference link doesn't work well. 50.68.118.24 (talk) 00:52, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Done. —MRD2014 (talk) (contribs) 00:56, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Test something for me, please?

If you have Revision Jumper turned on in your gadgets, could you go to this edit and click on "Next to last editor" under the revision on the left? For me, it sends me to a diff of the article on the letter A. †Dismas†|^(talk) 02:02, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Dismas: Yep, it does the same thing for me. My guess is the & is breaking it. User:DerHexer you may want to check up on this. RegistryKey^(RegEdit) 02:15, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

:Dismas. Do you have "Add Page and User dropdown menus to the toolbar" checked in your preferences? It is in the Appearance section and a link to User:MusikAnimal/MoreMenu. If so uncheck it and try again. This sounds similar to the problem at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 135#Cremation or burial?. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 03:20, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's not it. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 03:29, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Updating National Register of Historic Places

I'm totally lost about how to edit a specific subject relating to the National Register of Historic Places in Merrimack County, NH, the location for the Hill Center Church. [[1]]

The photo shown you had was of the Hill Village Union Church that wasn't built until around 1942. A photo of the Hill Center Church may be found on the Hill Historical Society's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/746462245486245/photos/a.746466532152483.1073741828.746462245486245/824581717674297/?type=3&theater

It is located on Murray Hill Road at approximately 43.523828, -71.740725. I grew up about 0.8 miles from this church and every school morning for 12 years I walked down to this church to catch the school bus and every evening I was dropped off there.

Unfortunately, I only have photographs of the interior but the next time I am up that way I can take a picture of the exterior.2601:18D:8102:4C9A:1898:45D5:6AF8:A041 (talk) 02:55, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Converting Google Books references to actual book citations

Is there an "automagic" tool for converting a large number of Google Books citations to cite the actual book itself? I've come across a long article that contains several dozen such references - fixing them manually will take most of the free time I have this weekend. The only such tool I know of -http://reftag.appspot.com/ - does them one at a time and requires manual input. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 09:13, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Dodger67: have you tried Template:Google books? That would save the trouble of having to convert them in the first place. RegistryKey^(RegEdit) 09:57, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

RegistryKey Thanks, that's useful if one is creating new citations, but the problem I'm trying to address is dozens of fully formatted {{Cite web}} used to reference Google Books pages. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:30, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Refill is better than any reference improver that I have found till now on Wikipedia. Google Books citations it can do without a blink. In fact, Refill is better than even Citation bot (the button you find to the right of the "Save" button while editing a page, if you have the citation bot gadget turned on in the preferences). In short, if you wish to correct references en masse within an article at the click of a button, this beast is the best. Lourdes 10:26, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Lourdes, I've been using Reflinks for years, it's far better than Refill. Unfortunately both Refill and Reflinks convert a Google Books bare url into a {{Cite web}}, instead of a {{Cite book}}, thus actually creating the problem I'm trying to solve. It should be fairly simple to create a script that can take the ISBN from a Google books page and feed it into any one of the already established citation creating tools. Once you have the ISBN the rest is simple. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:30, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Citing Google Books is like citing the library catalog entry instead of the book itself! It's only marginally better than citing Amazon.com or another online bookseller. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:36, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Attempts to create an account have exceeded the limit

I have tried to create an account this morning to comment on the material in a Wiki.

It seems likely that I created an account for a similar purpose in 2007.

The result is that two of my attempts at entering a username have been rejected, and the third came up showing too many attempts from my IP.

I've used computers for about 30 years now in my professional work as an academic editor, but I have found more recently that the programs are becoming ever more complex, and so unfriendly.

I would like to help both in my areas of expertise and in fields of interest where I can locate citations for verification purposes.

Jane Cowan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.207.93.92 (talk) 14:14, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Well... First of all, you mentioned "a wiki", but we can help only for one wiki among thousands, Wikipedia.

What is your question, exactly? Your do not seem to describe the problem clearly (what exactly happened when "two of your attempts were rejected"?). Maybe try again... Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:54, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Jane, if you still have the email account you would probably have used in 2007, you may be able to recover your original account, if you provided your email address back then. See Help:Logging in § What if I forget the username? for some suggestions. It sounds like you were trying to guess your old username and password, but ran up against an anti-brute-force security protection (i.e. something to prevent attackers simply trying a large number of passwords). I don't know what security settings Wikimedia Foundation use for that, but it's likely to be a fairly short lockout, assuming that it is your Wikipedia / Wikimedia account that you are trying to recover. If you don't have your old email address, or the suggested recovery methods don't work, you'll just need to create a new account (which would be quite legitimate under our multiple accounts policy, as long as the old account was not blocked for abuse). Please do come back to us with more questions, if need be. Murph9000 (talk) 03:02, 24 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Change in name - accepts edit but doesn't reflect the change

Resolved

Hi, in this entry Hôtel Meurice when trying to change the name to Le Meurice as it is its correct name (see official site: https://www.dorchestercollection.com/en/paris/le-meurice/), Wikipedia keeps reverting back to Hôtel Meurice. Is there any way we can change this? Thanks 109.111.204.242 (talk) 14:30, 23 September 2016 (UTC)SearchLabs[reply]

In order to change an article title, the page must be moved (WP:MOVE). Only autoconfirmed editors can do that, so you will need to make a move request. See WP:RM. clpo13_(talk) 15:11, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No need to go through that, I moved the page myself, since a quick search (in French) proves the request to be entirely reasonable. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:32, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Question from Gemnscout

In my initial edit, I have added links to books (but not content); associations; but not content; and redirected to another profile in Wikipedia. How does this violate copy right if I am not directly repurposing the content? By the way, this is harder than it seems. thank you.

User:Gemnscout/sandbox

Gemnscout (talk) 14:50, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Gemnscout, I'm slightly confused by your question. I can't see any immediately obvious sign that your editing has been flagged as a copyright violation. Can you please explain why you think you are suspected of a copyright violation? N.B. Wikipedia does not have "profiles" about anything, it has neutral encyclopaedia articles written about subjects which have verifiable notablity, and is not a directory or means of promotion. Murph9000 (talk) 15:32, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright infringement?

Hello, our non-profit (over 100 years old) is trying to set up a wikipedia page. We took content from our website and other documents, which identified the site for speedy deletion. Is there a way to grant permission to use this verbiage or should we just change the language? Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by JCJ5 (talk • contribs) 15:28, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello JCJ5 and welcome to Wikipedia (WP).

You did not make any other edits under that username, so it would help if you could provide more details (a link to the pages you tried to edit?). However, there can be two reasons for the speedy deletion in the case you describe:

One possible reason is that you reused your (copyrighted) material. If that is the case, you can indeed donate it to Wikipedia and use it; see WP:DCM. The two main points are (1) we cannot accept your claim without a special procedure, because On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog, so we need to verify your identity; and (2) if you do donate this material, pay attention that anyone, not only Wikipedia/Wikimedia, can reuse it without your permission under some fairly lax conditions (of course, that is a feature, not a bug, for most contributors here).
The other possible reason is that your non-profit is not "notable" in the WP meaning of the term. A 100-years old non profit is not notable by the mere length of its existence, however you likely were the subject of newspapers articles or the like. Do read WP:N for the details.

So, the first one is easily solved, the second not so much. Do come back if you have further questions. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:42, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

JCJ5: in direct answer to your question "is there a way to grant permission to use this verbiage?" – there is, but it involves some tedious bureaucracy, which is unlikely to be worth the effort involved, as the language is very likely to need changing anyway. Wikipedia articles should be neutral in tone and not promotional. Maproom (talk) 17:28, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, JCJ5. Some of your language makes me think that you have a (very common) misunderstanding of what Wikipedia is. "Setting up a page" is something appropriate to social media, or a directory of some kind. What we do in Wikipedia is to write articles. It is not your business to write an article about your organisation (you are permitted to, but very much discouraged) because if we are to have an article about it the article should be neutrally written and based almost entirely on materials published about the organisation by people who have no connection with it. (That is why material from your website, even if you overcome the copyright issues, is unlikely to be appropriate to a Wikipedia article). Please read Your first article and Conflict of interest. --ColinFine (talk) 10:47, 24 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

deletion of article

I was sorry to see that my bio has been deleted by wikipedia. All of the contents came from valid sources such as www.TheHistoryofRecording.com. Also all of the people who wanted the bio deleted were people who professionally write articles and bios for your reference and charge for the work. I suggest you look into the process and who is taking advantage of it a little more carefully.. You can find my references on my website. www.GaryVandy.com Thanks and good luck — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mixer6920 (talk • contribs) 17:08, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This refers to Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Gary_Vandy. Your claim "all of the people who wanted the bio deleted were people who professionally write articles ... and charge for the work" violates Wikipedia's rule Assume good faith. It is also highly implausible and unsupported by any evidence. Maproom (talk) 17:38, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

After a quick check via searches, I'd agree that Vandy is likely not notable enough for an article. And, outside of my day job, nobody pays me to edit anything. †Dismas†|^(talk) 18:31, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Buddy Ace

HELLO ALL,

MY NAME IS KARHONDA CEASAR, I AM THE DAUGHTER OF THE LATE BUDDY ACE. I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A CORRECTION; MY FATHER DIED 12:05AM ON DECEMBER 25TH AND NOT THE 26TH. PLEASE MAKE THE PROPER CORRECTIONS. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMCERNS PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL AT (Redacted)

THANKS YOU KINDLY,

KARHONDA CEASAR — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:2C3:8200:930:A5C7:A99B:128D:8DF4 (talk) 21:13, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you want them to be permanently removed from the page history, please email oversight-l

lists.wikimedia.org. Additionally, please sign your post by typing four tildes (~~~~) or clicking the signature button above the edit box which looks like this:

. Do not sign in articles.. This is probably an issue of timezones. In UTC, which is the timezone that things go by on Wikipedia, it was probably the 25th. Ppp ery 21:20, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The article says the 26th because that's what both the cited sources say. If you have a more reliable source that can be cited (your personal knowledge doesn't count) then please post that on the talk page for the article. Thanks, †Dismas†|^(talk) 21:28, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hello 2601:2C3:8200:930:A5C7:A99B:128D:8DF4, I have changed the wrong date based on an unreliable source with a source from January 1995 which confirms what you say. Thanks. Lourdes 01:40, 24 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Square brackets around a wikilink

Have a situation where an editorial explanation inside a quote, which needs square brackets, also needs to be wikilinked. The software can't handle the three consecutive square brackets, resulting in [[[Wikipedia:Help desk]]]. What to do, what to do? ―Mandruss ☎ 21:31, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You can put a space between the outermost bracket and the inner two like such. [ Wp:HD ] Would curly brackets around it be a better option? It would look like this {WP:HD}? uhhlive (talk) 21:41, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Use <nowiki> around the outer brackets (If I understand right what you want to do), resulting in [Wikipedia:Help Desk]. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:44, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Or use the ASCII code for brackets so it looks like this [WP:Help Desk] uhhlive (talk) 21:45, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) You can also use a zero-width non-breaking space, like [[‍this]]. Ppp ery 21:46, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Or, put brackets inside a piped link: [Wikipedia:Help Desk]. --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:47, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thought of that one, rejected it. For a reason I can't really articulate at the moment. ―Mandruss ☎ 21:49, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That's a shame, I kind of think it looks best with the brackets part of the blue link. Of course I have zero knowledge about what you're specifically trying to do... --Floquenbeam (talk) 21:52, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, go to Shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and search for "TBI". ―Mandruss ☎ 22:00, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Basically, the brackets aren't part of the target title, so they shouldn't be included in the link. In my most humblest of tentative opinions. ―Mandruss ☎ 22:06, 23 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please be aware that MOS:QUOTE advises: As much as possible, avoid linking from within quotes, which may clutter the quotation, violate the principle of leaving quotations unchanged, and mislead or confuse the reader. (FYI, this rule is currently under discssion)--S Philbrick (Talk) 16:33, 25 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]