Help desk
< May 23	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 25 >

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.

May 24

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (the Oxford DNB)

Does Wikipedia have The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (the Oxford DNB) for editors to use online? I see that the Oxford Press has it for $29 per month, but I am asking here before paying for it.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 00:37, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see the Oxford DNB listed on the Oxford University Press page of The Wikipedia Library Card Platform. You might want to use the talk page link there to check with the editor who is in charge of OUP accounts. He or she could tell you more about it. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:29, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The century-old original DNB is available in its entirety at Wikisource. The new ODNB is clearly a better resource in most respects. However, You can quote extensively from the old one since it's in the public domain, and in some cases it's useful to have the name of the author of the original article instead of the name of the author of the updated article. Also, you can link to the old DNB from the Wikipedia article to let the reader go look for themselves without needing a subscription. It's at s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. If you cite it in an article here, please use the {{DNB}} template. -Arch dude (talk) 01:56, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
If you are looking for something from the newer, paywalled, DNB, try WP:REX. That's what they're there for. --Jayron 32 02:15, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

My created articles

I have over 353,000 articles, and I find anyone over 350,000 cannot use the tool to find the list of articles I have created. Is there any other way, or am I out of luck?--Dthomsen8 (talk) 00:41, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to the ~~Teahouse~~ Help desk, Dthomsen8. Surely you mean that you have made over 353,000 edits to the encyclopedia, not that you have created that many articles. Are you now unable to use the "Contributions" function? Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 02:32, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It's about the "Articles created" link at the bottom of Special:Contributions/Dthomsen8. I don't know an alternative. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:40, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cullen328: Seems you visit teahouse very often. Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 03:20, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Abelmoschus, I have been one of the most active Teahouse hosts for several years. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 03:25, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cullen328: Help desk here, why you welcome them to teahouse? XD Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 04:05, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Because the Teahouse is supposed to be a friendly place, Abelmoschus Esculentus. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:19, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cullen328: Mmm I mean here is Help Desk. "Welcome to the Teahouse" should be in teahouse instead of here? I think "Welcome to the Help Desk" should be more appropriate. Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 04:23, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You are right, Abelmoschus Esculentus. I forgot which place I was at. My apologies. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:30, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cullen328: No worries. I also forgot where I am sometimes. Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 04:32, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Dthomsen8, you can use a workaround by shortlisting only new page creations from the article space in your contributions list. The following is one such workaround for you: https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?limit=5000&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Dthomsen8&namespace=0&tagfilter=&newOnly=1&start=&end=

Hope this helps, ~~I_0urclc5~~ 08:52, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

F1 Triple Battle for the Turbografx16 World Championship Playthrough Speedruns Levels 1 through 4 Speedruns Videos.

Can you do F1 Triple Battle for the Turbografx16 PC Engine of Videos of this game in World Championship Mode Levels 1 2 3 & 4 in F1 Triple Battle in World Championship Mode Please Wiki Videos? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baron5291 (talk • contribs) 03:17, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Baron5291. The Help desk is only for questions about editing Wikipedia. For general questions, ask at the Reference desks. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 03:28, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Where to report vandalism

Hey Folks, it just took 27 years to read through how to report vandalism and I still don't get it. And that's a long time for something that should have been 2.3 nanoseconds (what would the math on that be?). Just to give you a sense of my awesome skill set, I can barely fix a typo. And I Can Capitalize Things. I checked the vandal report page and it just didn't parse. Should I just let it be? It's pretty minor and dumb. Am I missing a checkbox?

Thanks -rudyard (talk) 04:36, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Rudestar. If you see minor, one-off vandalism, simply revert it. If the editor has vandalized more than once, warn them. If the vandalism is persistent and ongoing, make a report at Administrator intervention against vandalism. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:55, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Revert ==> click article history tab, find the edit that caused the vandalism by clicking on the "diif" links, then hit the "undo" at the top of the right-hand side of the two-column diff. If the sysstem cannot figure out the revert it will tell you. In that case, just edit the article in the usual fashion with a comment of "RVV". Warn ==> edit the offending user's talk page by adding the appropriate {{warn}} template. -Arch dude (talk) 05:21, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Rudestar: See WP:WARN for more warning templates. Abelmoschus Esculentus (talk to me) 05:39, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Gentle-people. Sadly, you are assuming I have an IQ over 12, and that is a really horrible mistake on your part. To do that ^^^ would take me about 6 hours. And there is no question it would be done wrongly. Since I haven't warned the vandal (as that is Wikipedia Editing 900) I don't think I should post on the intervention page. What I'm looking for is the "Bored Editors Who Actually Know What they're Doing" page. Also, just to find this conversation and to add this text actually took me 15 minutes (I wish I was kidding). Do you know how far out Sun has traveled (relative to say, Alpha Centauri) in that time?? When I clicked the little bell thing I could see that there were responses but it didn't bring me to them. And then evidently when someone replies it changes the date of where you'd find your question(?). FWP. -rudyard (talk) 05:14, 11 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

New article

This isn't the place to start a new article. I would recommend looking at Wikipedia's notability guidelines, Wikipedia:Notability (people), before attempting to create the article though. Deli nk (talk) 12:43, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Recent Changes

Hi,

Fairly recently I started heavily using the recent changes list, both for some general basic vandal hunting but also just normal edit-making. All good.

However today I can't access lower pages (that is, any after however many posts I've selected on the initial list (250, 500 etc). There are clearly plenty of posts within the time-gap I've selected. The older 250/newer 250 bit has always been at the bottom of the page for me, but I can't see it there or anywhere else.

I have a strong feeling I'm being an idiot, but after 20 minutes of failure on my own I thought I'd ask for some help .

My filter set is: "May have problems", "unregistered", "newcomers", "human", "latest revision", "page edits", "page creation", "logged actions".

Nosebagbear (talk) 12:49, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Nosebagbear You'll have found it is easy to increase your RecentChanges list as far as 500 edits, but this page tells us you cannot go back further than 500 edits or 90 days, whichever is more restrictive. To see older edits (within the 90-day limit) you'd have to apply more filters or select fewer namespaces: Noyster (talk), 12:28, 25 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Virata Kingdom

Virat kingdom is situated in choudwar, Odisha( Tradition holds that it was the capital for Virat, the brother-in-law of Kichaka. Additionally, the five Pandava brothers, with their consort Draupadi, took shelter in Choudwar during their secret exile.) please clear my doubt. Uttareswar temple is the witness (From the year 2003, Archeological Survey Of India (ASI) has started digging the site which is believed to be Virat's Palace and found lots of utensils, Boudhic elements. It is around 54 acres of land in which 10 acres is fenced by ASI and is declared as a Heritage site. The site after digging, in the year 2007, a foundation of an ancient Shiva Temple of 13th century. It is now a tourist place surrounded by a developing garden.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.113.181.23 (talk) 15:43, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, this isn't the place to create a new page. Have a look at Wikipedia:Your first article - this takes you through the process Nosebagbear (talk) 16:01, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Grammar

Hi,

Should I write "the lower house of the French Parliament" or "the lower house of French Parliament" when writing in a British English style?

Thanks

WhatsUpWorld (talk) 16:38, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The first one is correct, with the definite article in English. Dbfirs 16:50, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. WhatsUpWorld (talk) 18:44, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Traditions and celebrations

Traditions and Celebrations Culture, Language, Family Faith and Spirituality

History and Geography

I have an Assistant about this Inuit — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.15.5.36 (talk) 18:22, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, did you have a question about editing Wikipedia?: Noyster (talk), 20:22, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Error!

Is it just me, or is Wikipedia experiencing "technical difficulties": "Cannot access the database: Cannot access the database: No working replica DB server: Unknown error (10.64.16.84:3318)" —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 19:54, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not just you. General Ization ^Talk 20:00, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It is know, and being fixed.--S Philbrick (Talk) 20:27, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Old account, can't re-use it?

I had an old account, User:Chelston, Special:Contributions/Chelston but lost the password and can't re-use it as I didn't have email, no way of merging the older account into this one?

I last used it in 2004 so it's a really old account.

No issues with this, is there? --Chelston-temp-1 (talk) 22:57, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Chelston-temp-1: Accounts cannot be merged. Passwords never expire so you can still try to guess it. If you don't remember it then the account cannot be retrieved. If you really want the username then you can try Wikipedia:Changing username/Usurpations but it may be declined when there are old edits. If a request is granted then the 2004 edits [1] would be assigned to a new name of the old account and not to you. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]