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

Custom CSS script for a full width screen text

A couple of years back when Wikipedia adapted its current skin choices, I copy and pasted a custom CSS skin that allowed the wikipedia articles to take the entire width of the screen with text, and for the menu and sidebars to be put at the bottom of the page.

I never had any problems with this, until today when the Alert and Notices bar from the menu pop up in the middle of the article.

Does anyone know a CSS to let articles take over the full width of the screen that avoids this problem? --Gary123 (talk) 00:48, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is a similar report at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Misplaced alert buttons so the problem may not be your custom skin. I see you have User:Gary123/vector.css which only runs when Vector is selected at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. If it also happens for MonoBook then it isn't caused by your skin. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:05, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

census demographics template

Is there any consensus or guidance on when not to use {{USCensusDemographics}} and replace it with a manual summary? I ask because I stumbled on a "town" small enough that the template was causing distracting rounding errors (like 2.001 families) and the stats are such that it's possible to write a better summary in less space. I would have done it already if it wasn't from a template, but don't know if there's a discussion somewhere that it has to stay machine readable or something. 141.126.35.239 (talk) 05:49, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is no rule that says that you must use this specific template. You can do what you think is better for this specific article. Ruslik_Zero 12:32, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Done I think the template output looks ridiculous on Tavistock, New Jersey (population 5) so I rewrote it without. 141.126.35.239 (talk) 15:41, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Assumption that someone belongs to an ethnic subgroup

We have the following hypotheses:

ES is an ethnic subgroup of the ethnic group E.
The region R is known to be the region where the ethnic subgroup ES is majoritary.
Based on reliable sources, it is known that the living person P belongs to the ethnic group E.

According to WP:BLP wiki policies, it is correct to assume that the living person P belongs to the subgroup ES, despite the fact that there is no reliable source which explicitly affirms this? 123Steller (talk) 05:52, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No. You need a reliable source. --David Biddulph (talk) 06:36, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Furthermore, you cannot base anything on their name, or on their parents caste{s), ethnicities or religion. The person should self-identify as being of a particular caste, ethnicity or religion, and some people such as Amitabh Bachchan have specifically refuted the caste system, and denies being a member of any caste. - Arjayay (talk) 08:46, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Need help to publish an article

Dear wikipedia team, My article got declined "https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Draft:Dr_N_H_Sahasrabuddhe_an_expert_in_Vaastu"

I wrote this article to highlight the contribution of famous vaastu shasta expert Mr. Narendra Sahasrabuddhe (Vastu shastra is a traditional Hindu system of architecture which literally translates to "science of architecture." These are texts found on the Indian subcontinent that describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, space arrangement and spatial geometry)

He has written more than 15+ books in Vaastu Shastra and he has been helping lot of people from the point of Vaastu shastra.

It is really important that his contribution to the society should be highlighted so that is why I wrote the article about him but it got rejected.

I am really new to wikipedia but it will be really a big help if you will assist me to publish this article.

Thanks, Abhay Vyas — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abhay04vyas (talk • contribs) 05:54, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Abhay04vyas: an article on Sahasrabuddhe may be acceptable if it demonstrates that he is notable by citing reliable independent published sources with significant discussion of him. Your draft has 62 citations, but none of the ones I have checked satisfy those criteria, because they are not independent of the subject. If there are any acceptable citations in that long list, you could make it easier for a reviewer to find them, by removing the non-independent ones. Maproom (talk) 09:53, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Abhay04vyas:, another issue for your attention is that your draft article is written in a promotional tone, much like an advertisement. Here are examples of your text, unreferenced to independent sources, that are not appropriate for an encyclopedia: * successfully guiding * his immense contribution * a real valuable gem * helping thousands of people * His strong philosophy * It is great to see * his famous books *. Every Wikipedia encyclopedia article should use neutral wording and tone and not appear to be praising its subject, as yours does. Please see neutral point of view and don't promote to learn more about these very important requirements for Wikipedia articles. DonFB (talk) 10:57, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Restore deleted version of the article

the article Doyen Group (aka Doyen Sports) was AFDed with a claim of non-notable. But sightly different written version was recreated in 2017. And i asked and pinged the original nominator and those involved in the deletion discussion in WP:Footy talk page with no reply. So, may i ask to restore the page history as no one object the notability of the article now (as well as the current version was a half translation of French wiki, and some content look like from the old version of Doyen Group, it should restore the deleted page history to preserve it). Matthew_hk t c 06:22, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

They will be restored if this is necessary for copyright reasons i.e. if the present text is a derivative form old one. Ruslik_Zero 12:34, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It look likes French version had element from old version, and new version was half translated from the French version. Matthew_hk t c 03:24, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Lew Wolff

Hi

I work for Lew Wolff and he has asked me to edit his bio. I've gone in 3 times now and made the edits, but then we he or I look again later, they revert back to what was there originally. Is there a reason my changes are not being saved?

thanks

Shana — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shanaalex (talk • contribs) 17:05, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

As you have been warned, you have a severe conflict of interest and should not be editing this article, especially since your edits do not show the mandatory neutral point of view. You have also failed to make the mandatory disclosure of your status as a paid editor on your userpage and elsewhere. --17:27, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Shanaalex, I'm sure you can understand the protocol of Wikipedia's guidelines and regulations regarding subject's (or those associated with a subject) editing their own articles (or articles about them). If everyone could edit the content on their own articles, they would simply write anything they wanted to that would best benefit themselves. Not to say that you, working for Lew Wolff, would do that; but it is a strict rule that must be adhered to by those who edit on WP. That being said, if you are associated with the subject in any way (work for him), you must disclose this connection to the other editors at WP on the article's Talk Page. This will give them a better understanding of who you are and why you are wishing to edit and contribute content. You are not strictly forbidden, per say, to edit; but it is strongly discouraged, simply from a neutral point of view standpoint. The best alternative to this situation is to bring requests with strong reliable sources to back up your content to the article's Talk Page so that consensus can be reached by other editor's who can then work with you instead of against you in contributing to the article. Best of luck. Maineartists (talk) 17:48, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Software update

Is Wikipedia under going some software update? I'm in the UK and for several hours haven’t be able to edit. Having other problems with Wikicommons too. Done the usual checks and it doesn’t appear to be anything at my end. Even had to enter ~~~~ at the end of of this because the menu doesn't work over the text entry box. Aspro (talk) 17:22, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The software is updated most Thursdays (see mw:MediaWiki 1.29/Roadmap). There can be many problems with editing. You didn't say what goes wrong apart from a menu not working. IE users with the MonoBook skin are reporting they are unable to click some things at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Misplaced alert buttons. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:03, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

–Yes, alert buttons seem messed up – until I click on them, when they then seem to sort themselves out. In other words, the alert text over laps until I click on them. On my watch page, can not, no longer, click on anything. Just no response. Still,... its better than trying to suss out what hoops Miscosfot want you to jump through :-) Await with interst. P.S. Can't read Vilage Pump becase the link you gave no longer works. Lots of things don't seem to work any more. Hense my frustration. — Yes, alert buttons seem messed up – until I click on them, when they then seem to sort themselves out. In other words, the alert text over laps until I click on them. On my watch page, can not, no longer, click on anything. Just no response. Still,... its better than trying to suss out what hoops Miscosoft want you to jump through :-) Await with interest. P.S. Can't read Village Pump because the link you gave no longer works. Lots of things don't seem to work any more. Hence my frustration. Had to hack my way into the help desk to post this. Aspro (talk) 19:45, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hang on... somethings seems to have been sorted out. WP appears to be working again. So what happened? WP is big and complex. Was this down to an update that went wrong? Gosh, if only Microsoft could respond this quick I might (and I said might) abandon Linux. Got no alerts at all now and I can do with out them anyway (Ho Ho). So all's well that ends well. --Aspro (talk) 20:06, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You could have logged out to click the link. The end of the section is now Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Fixed. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 31 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the suggestion. Next time, I'll access both logged-in and not logged -in at the same time. (which is easier perhaps than login in-and-out all the time).--Aspro (talk) 14:43, 1 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]