Help desk
< September 28	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 30 >

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.

September 29

On this date 1899, John Albert Burr invented one of the first rotary-blade lawn mowers.

 On this date 1899, John Albert Burr invented one of the first rotary-blade lawn mowers.

This Black inventors Patent number is #624,749.

Reference: Created Equal The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators By James Michael Brodie Copyright 1993, by Bill Adler Books, Inc. William Morrow and Co. Inc., New York ISBN 0-688-11536-5 https://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=00624749 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:1213:C142:BC57:6227:EBA2:D7DE (talk) 02:18, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there! Welcome to Wikipedia! Do you have a question on how to use/edit Wikipedia? Heart ^(talk) 02:25, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, IP editor. Based on a quick Google and Google Books search, I believe that John Albert Burr is probably notable and eligible for a Wikipedia biography. He already has one sentence of coverage in the history section of Lawn mower. Please consider registering an optional Wikipedia account and read Your first article. If you decide to try to write this article, I will assist you. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 02:38, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

And I'll be glad to help. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:33, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the Username

Dear Wikipedia, How/where do I change my user name?

User:Darionapoliguitar

Regards, — Preceding unsigned comment added by Darionapoliguitar (talk • contribs) 08:40, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You may change your username by making a request at Special:GlobalRenameRequest or WP:CHUS. 331dot (talk) 08:46, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CHANGE /AMEND /UPDATE MY PHOTO

dear Wikipedia HelpDesk,

my mail to You is overdue . personally , i am an adamant digital neanderthal . i work in Film &TV and i am lucky & grateful to have wonderful people in my life who are looking after my digital presence which we keep to a minimum . please believe you me ,they have tried now for a very looong time to reach out , contact you and get the following issue sorted out.it's about my web-profile on Wikipedia , particularly my photo !

https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Anatole_Taubman

it's inaccurate , outdated and belongs to the past . plus it is per se a very unfortunate picture , since it was taken randomly , at some night event . it has little to do with who i am today and how i look today . it doesn't really represent me.although this might be also my personal sensitivity , my lovely people failed in their quest via you to have this image changed/amended/updated and i am making now an effort to contact you now directly since it is about Me and my personal right.

i have a photo where i own the rights to and can easily get a confirmation from friend & photographer Benedict Frank.

ideally , i would like this photo to be used for All wikipedia sites/ languages because on the German version , there's again a photo which i can live with , especially as an adamant UNICEF Ambassador but would also prefer to use this Benedict Frank photo .

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_Taubman

please kindly help me and let me know how to proceed and how i can get this Benedict Frank photo to you.

thank You dearly ever so much !

heartily truly and with radiant health , Anatole — Preceding unsigned comment added by Toli Taubman (talk • contribs) 13:58, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

I've updated your photo on the English article to the same as the German one while someone else helps you with adding a new photo

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 14:30, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Idea: Alternative to Facebook

Hi Wikipedia, Considering how social media is being manipulated/used for nefarious purpose, I'm thinking YOU could design a platform where people can socialize without the whole thing devolving into an Orwellian nightmare. You could ask for contributions from users, and avoid advertising, which seems to be used for mind control, etc... I don't know what parameters you'd want to put onto it, but you are smarter than me and could design it so that the community is available for people to use it in a spirit of sharing and discussion. It's just an idea. I think people are ready for an alternative to Facebook/Twitter. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AmyKathleenRyan (talk • contribs) 15:56, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

While I'm sure people are ready for an alternative to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, Telegraph, and whatever else is out there of that ilk, such a project would be beyond the scope of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation's mission to provide free educational content to the world. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 16:00, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WT Social? I haven't tried it, so I can't say if it's any good. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:06, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Correcting a page

I am trying to correct a page on WIKIPEDIA, most exactly DANIELA NICOLETA SOFRONIE and my edit is not accepted even if it is the correct version of the info presented there! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.86.71.26 (talk) 17:43, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like you changed the spelling of the last name with no explanation. Start a discussion on the article's talk page if you have reasons for this that are supported by reliable sources. RudolfRed (talk) 18:05, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Gadget/gadget definition

I notice that the gadget/gadget definition appears on almost every project, however one thing puzzles me. Why is this namespace used on every project but no pages have this namespace? See ru:Special:Random/gadget, fr:Special:Random/gadget, and es:Special:Random/gadget. Note that Gadget:Invention, Travel, & Adventure on the English Wikipedia is NOT an actual gadget, it is a redirect as this title should not be used for an article. Gioguch (talk) 17:54, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Gioguch: This namespace was originally configured to contain the gadgets for the project, so they can be edited by anyone, as Pages in The MediaWiki:-Namespace cannot be edited by anyone that isn't an interface admin. It isn't heavely used, howewer, In theory you could create a gadget there. Victor Schmidt (talk) 18:36, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a relevant old discussion, it appears to have been part of a plan of reorganizing gadgets and making them more modular, but that plan was never finished. – Thjarkur (talk) 22:13, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Question from ALLBN

Hello, I am trying to publish the page: https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&oldid=970501180

Someone was helping me with this page and moved it and now I can not find it to publish it. Thank you for your time. ALLBN (talk) 19:03, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, ALLBN. You were working two months ago in the Wikipedia:Sandbox, which is a communal page for testing editing, and gets cleared regularly. I have copied the content of the version you pointed at to your user sandbox User:ALLBN/sandbox. Nobody is likely to interfere with it there, unless you put unacceptable content such as personal attacks or copyright violations there. --ColinFine (talk) 20:28, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Conflict Disclosure: Academic Journal Project

I am the founding editor of a scholarly journal covered under the Wikipedia Academic Journals Project. I want to make some purely factual corrections to the article and to add a bit of factual detail (including correcting an inconsistency between the current editor's name in the sidebar of the article and in its stubby text). I founded the journal in 1979 and passed on the editorship in 1995, but I remain on its editorial board. I believe my edits would have value, are purely factual (e.g., adding the names of the first two editors of the journal and the dates of their succession), and would not in any way undermine trust in the integrity of Wikipedia. I hope I can publish edits to the article with disclosure as a connected contributor, but I do not understand how or where I am supposed to make the disclosure. Please advise. THANKS. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grdfoge (talk • contribs) 20:34, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

You would request the changes on the talk page of the article, citing published, reliable sources for the changes, for them to be done by an editor without your COI. In the same post (please remember to sign) you would state the nature of your COI. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:15, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Grdfoge: WP:EDITREQ has more information about making edit requests on the article's talk page. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:26, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Russian bots

Have you noticed russian bots editing middle eastern content? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:16A2:613A:6859:C9EF:5952:A393:5A4C (talk) 21:56, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, have you? RudolfRed (talk) 22:24, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback on color coding

Color coded table
Category	Chinese	Count
Temple	寺廟	25
Government	衙署	12
Fort	關塞	12
Residence	宅第	11
City wall	城郭	8
Industrial	產業	5
Tomb	墓葬	5
Lighthouse	燈塔	4
Train station	車站	3
School	書院	3
Plaque	碑碣	2
Paifang	牌坊	1
Church	教堂	1
Bridge	橋樑	1
Ancestral shrine	祠堂	1
Other	其他	12

I've recently created List of national monuments of Taiwan, and I'm thinking of color coding the categories, shown collapsed on the right, that I think will bring more contrast. Would this be helpful, or is this unnecessary? Is there some accessibility guideline that I'm not aware of? Any feedback on these colors, or the list article in general, is welcome. ◢ Ganbaruby!  (Say hi!) 22:41, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ganbaruby, have you consulted MOS:COLOUR? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 22:55, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Tenryuu: Yup, though most of that seems to be about the contrast between color and text, instead of between different colors. None of the cells are links, colors aren’t essential, and they all should be WCAG AAA. ◢ Ganbaruby!  (Say hi!) 23:13, 29 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Ganbaruby: The School looks a little iffy to me, though it is AA. Can I suggest School (#CFA0A0), which is AAA? This is assuming the #202122 I get for the foreground color – I don't know exactly where that comes from or whether other skins, etc. might be darker by default; I wouldn't guess they'd be much lighter. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 00:23, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@AlanM1: You're right, that's a mistake on my part. I've reflected it on the table, and checked the other colors again. Thanks! ◢ Ganbaruby!  (Say hi!) 02:38, 30 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]