Wikipedia:Help desk

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• If your question is about a Wikipedia article, draft article, or other page on Wikipedia, tell us what it is!
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).

Ask a question

December 12

Have I successfully removed the promotional content from this article?

The owner of emailSanta.com made WP:COI and WP:YESPROMO edits at his own article yesterday. I tried to remove the "fluff" and restore the WP:NPOV. Has the WP:NPOV been restored, or is it still too promotional? Félix An (talk) 01:39, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

You did a good job removing a lot of the fluff, although the article does need a lot of work to improve it overall, but definitely it has been improved. I did warn the other editor of WP:OWN, however I would also encourage you to take some of these items to the article talk page and/or the user page and form a discussion instead of simply placing warnings over your concerns. TiggerJay (talk) 02:15, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I have indefinitely pageblocked Kringle Claus from EmailSanta.com. Cullen328 (talk) 06:47, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Doctor article

How to post an article on a Doctor ? It is not allowing to post on wilepedia Shashankrao28 (talk) 07:20, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Moved from talk. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 07:22, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Shashankrao28, I assume that you mean Wikipedia. Please read WP:NPERSON and Your first article. Doctors are not treated any differently than people of any other profession. Cullen328 (talk) 07:29, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

page deletion

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Hello there,

I am a Wikipedia user under the name Rezzanx. I've been working for a while on a page, titled, Zafer Aracagök. I had edited this page many times but I had not submitted my draft as completed. Yet this morning I found out that my page has been deleted 21:58, 11 December 2024 by a user, Sphilbrick without a prior notice on the basis of "copyright infringement". As far as I know, this user or Wikipedia should have warned me beforehand if there were any mistakes that I should correct before the deletion of my page. Can you please explain and give me back my draft?

All the best,

Rezzan Rezzanx (talk) 10:48, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Rezzanx Warnings are not required, especially for particularly serious issues like copyright violations. Copyright violations potentially put Wikipedia in legal jeopardy, so we must take them seriously. We cannot restore a copyright violation.

I do see that you took a photo of the man you were writing about. What is your connection to him? 331dot (talk) 10:54, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello there,

Thank you for your reply. But I did not submit this page for a review and publicized it and no one had seen it yet. Can I please retrieve it given the promise I will immediately delete the issue that caused a copyright infringement?

Btw, he is a friend from academia we used to work together.

Thank you. Rezzanx (talk) 11:03, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Rezzanx you could ask Sphilbrick if they could restore any parts of the article that were not copyright violations. They did this for another article on their talk page recently, unfortunately they were only able to restore one sentence. TSventon (talk) 11:17, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Rezzanx, the copyright issue is just one of several. Much of your text lacks independent verifiable sources, and the refs you do give include his own work, hardly an independent third-party source, and YouTube. You also have multiple spamlinks to sales sites for his books Jimfbleak - talk to me? 11:35, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. Rezzanx (talk) 15:06, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Separately from the issue of copyright, any words coming from the subject are exactly the wrong place to start an article. Wikipedia has little interest in what the subject of an article says or wants to say about themselves, or what their associates say about them. Wikipedia is almost entirely interested in what people who have no connection with the subject, and who have not been prompted or fed information on behalf of the subject, have chosen to publish about the subject in reliable sources. If enough material is cited from independent sources to establish notability, a limited amount of uncontroversial factual information may be added from non-independent sources. ColinFine (talk) 14:24, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. Rezzanx (talk) 15:00, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

You are correct that I did not provide a warning "beforehand". He thought this was required "as far as I know". I see you have 16 edit so I'm not sure where you came to your knowledge about practices.

It is quite common to provide warnings to new editors when edits aren't consistent with Wikipedia rules but, as has already been pointed out, prior warnings are not required in the case of copyright violations. I presume you saw my edit summary, so you know the reason for deletion was copyright infringement and that edit summary identified the source document.

I see that you have re-created the article. Unfortunately, it appears to still containcopied and pasted passages from the source document, which are a violation unless the source document is properly licensed.

I will let someone else delete the current draft.

I also urge you to read wp:coi given your relationship with the subject. S Philbrick(Talk) 14:11, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Can you please note that I am in the phase of modifying the article and making changes along the recommended lines? Rezzanx (talk) 15:03, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I highly recommend you look carefully over WP:YFA before you proceed further. You might be waisting a lot of your time and others. TiggerJay (talk) 15:24, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@Rezzanx In case it is not clear from the above discussion please note that you may not start a draft with a copyright violation even if you intend to trim it down later to remove the violation. The reason is that, since Wikipedia is a Wiki, the original whole material will still reside in its page history. If you want to take that approach, you must start with offline editing software exclusively saved on your own device. Anything saved on-wiki must be paraphrased in your own words, or include only a limited amount of direct quotation. Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:20, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@Rezzanx, you have been given bucketloads of advice on COI, copyright, referencing and neutral tone, all of which you have largely ignored. If a third version appears that is anything like s non-compliant as the first two, I will block you from editing. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 10:30, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I understand now that you have blocked me from making any further changes to my article. I do not really understand your threatening tone when I have been doing my best to comply with the rules and regulations of Wikipedia (of which I might have been a bit slow to learn or understand). I kindly asked for help and I don’t think I have deserved such rebukes and blockage. Rezzanx (talk) 11:08, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@Rezzanx you are not blocked. You have been given advice, which you have not followed. If you don't understand the advice, ask here. Just reposting basically the same stuff will get you nowhere, and if you see my pointing that out as a threat, sobeit Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:26, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I have been nice and kind to you.

But thank you for being Trump.

Save your aggression and rudeness for ignorant and belligerent Americans like you. Rezzanx (talk) 15:29, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Your comment is violating the rule of WP:NPA. Please remain civil when discussing with other fellow editors. Have a good day. ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 15:34, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Can someone please help me with a table?

I have some skills with tables, but this one List of bailiffs and dames grand cross of the Order of St John is a bit beyond me at the moment. I would like to add someone to 1980. Can someone please help?

18 December 1980
Olivera Rowena, Lady Traherne OBE (article coming)
Dame Grand Cross
b. 3 September 1910
d. 22 October 1986

Citation: "The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem" (PDF). London Gazette. London, UK. 1980-12-18. p. 17522.

Thank you! BJCHK (talk) 12:12, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@BJCHK: If you already have 7250 edits and some table skills then I suspect you just need help with rowspan which is often the tricky part (together with colspan which isn't used in this table). Maybe it's time to start learning it. You can copy the 1956 row and adapt it. There will now be two consecutive "Dame Grand Cross" cells. Merge them by inserting rowspan="2"| right before Dame Grand Cross in the 1956 row, and remove the whole ||Dame Grand Cross in the new 1980 row. Check in preview before saving. The cell structure can break if it's not done right. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:11, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

 Done. As PrimeHunter said above, you can always copy format from existing rows and modified them for your own entry. Editing table in visual mode will be way easier as well. Tutwakhamoe (talk) 13:58, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Tense in relation to online-only video games and unofficial fan revivals

I noticed that Need for Speed: World was past tense in the period between the shutdown and the release of SBRW, when it was changed back to present tense.

There is an upcoming fan revival for The Crew, should I change the tense when it comes out? DB554 (talk) 16:58, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Not "when it comes out", @DB554. Rather "When there has been enough independent reliable commentary to allow the article to be validly updated with new information". As part of that update, it may well be appropriate to change the tense. ColinFine (talk) 17:14, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

WP:VG/TENSE is the guideline on this issue. I have no idea if a fan revival would be a suitable reason to think that the game was still accessible. I'd ask on the nuance at WT:VG. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 11:09, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Image requests

Is there a template email or something like it that can be used when requesting that someone release an image under an accetable license? For instance, if I wanted some images of voice actors recording Forest 404 and I contacted the BBC, what exactly should I be asking or where should I be directing them? TipsyElephant (talk) 23:05, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello, @TipsyElephant. Please see WP:PERMISSION. ColinFine (talk) 23:58, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:A picture of you. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:54, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

December 13

Page on Table 2 Fallacy

Hi, I drafted a page on the Table 2 Fallacy. How do I publish this? It seems to be stuck as a draft.

Thanks, Tom Tomayates (talk) 16:01, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

I added the information to your draft to allow you to submit it; however, if you submitted it, it would be declined quickly, as you only have a single source. Wikipedia articles summarize multiple independent reliable sources. 331dot (talk) 16:11, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

If you look on the draft page itself, Draft:Table 2 Fallacy you will see the option to submit, but I would advise against it because it will likely be rejected. At the moment, your article does not establish that it is a notable subject through the use of multiple, independent, secondary sources. If you haven't done so yet, I recommend you first review WP:YFA. TiggerJay (talk) 16:12, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

And indeed, the single source is not independent. Once several people wholly unconnected with the originators of the term have published substantial materials about it, will a Wikipedia article about it be possible. Until then, it will fail Wikipedia's test for notability, and any time spent on trying will be time wasted. ColinFine (talk) 22:19, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

How to create a .css file?

I'll like to use some CSS on the portal pages, but I can't change the Page content model of Wikipedia:Portal/styles.css from “wikitext” to CSS. I need some help.Guilherme Burn (talk) 16:59, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Guilherme Burn, done. Mathglot (talk) 17:46, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@Guilherme Burn: For use in TemplateStyles you need an interface administrator to change it to Sanitized CSS and not just CSS. You can use {{Edit interface-protected}} on the talk page, or see if an interface admin drops by here, or create a CSS page in a subpage in the template namespace and then move it to where you want it. (talk) 18:49, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Changed again; to sanitized CSS. I don't see a need to be an interface admin. @PrimeHunter. Mathglot (talk) 19:27, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Oh. In userspace it requires an interface admin but apparently not in project space. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:30, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Elan (programming language)

During 2024, Richard Pawson FBCS and his team have been developing and publicising a new language for teaching computer programming in British schools. It is called Elan and bears no relation to the Wikipedia page ELAN (programming language) and its now defunct (I believe) language. If it is agreed to create a Wikipedia page about this new language Elan, how should I best address the potential clash of page name? Note that this Elan is normally spelled in mixed case. Bernardboase (talk) 18:28, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Bernardboase, there is a long list of items at the disambiguation page for Elan, and the new article would likely need parenthetical disambiguation in its title. Whatever the title ends up being, it would have to be unique. Mathglot (talk) 19:23, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

You needn't worry much, Bernardboase. Where helpful (or necessary), distinctions can be fine: see for example the pair Tommy Godwin (cyclist, born 1912) and Tommy Godwin (cyclist, born 1920). And it's common for such "disambiguations" to be reconsidered and improved. Thus if I wanted to create the draft for an article on this Elan of Pawson et al, and if this Elan can be said to have been created this year, I might title my creation Draft:Elan (programming language, 2024–), aware that this might not be the best title for it but confident that it could be improved by those people who are more familiar than I am with the intricacies of titling . -- Hoary (talk) 22:03, 13 December 2024 (UTC) PS: But I fully agree with ColinFine below: notability (as defined by and for Wikipedia) is a far more important issue than the niceties of titling. -- Hoary (talk) 22:47, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Hi, @Bernardboase. You say "If it is agreed to create a Wikipedia page about this new language". I advise not to worry about the title, or any other aspect at all of the proposed article, until you have answered that question.

I suspect that it is TOOSOON for a language developed in 2024, but I may be wrong. The question is, can you find several sources, published by reputable publishers or organs, where people wholly unconnected with Pawson and his team have written at some length about Elan? Unless the answer is "yes", you will not be able to establish that the language (yet) meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability, and no article is currently possible. See WP:42 for a discussion of suitable sources. ColinFine (talk) 22:29, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you all. So far the published articles that I have seen have been written by Pawson himself, so the criterion for notability is probably not yet met. I will keep tabs on progress before returning to this issue. Bernardboase (talk) 13:13, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

December 14

Question for administrator

Can i get a copy of the page i did, it was for university and i need it for my assignment. thanks --Andreuni993 (talk) 00:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

(moved from talk) '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 01:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andreuni993 If you are on desktop, on the "Tools" bar there should be a "Download as PDF" option. I'm not sure which exact article you are referring to, but keep in mind that Wikipedia might not be an acceptable source for university assignments. Tutwakhamoe (talk) 04:21, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

I have looked up your contributions and can't find any page that you did. Or maybe you are talking about User:Andreuni993/sandbox that has been deleted because it violated the rules? ✠ SunDawn ✠ (contact) 04:45, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Andreuni993, I have trouble believing that a course at any university would invite its students to submit, or to submit work based on, fawning profiles such as this. -- Hoary (talk) 05:44, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think I was meant to upload it I think I did it on accident when I tried to create a link to the sandbox sorry for any trouble that this may have caused Andreuni993 (talk) 16:09, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Moved from talk -- John of Reading (talk) 16:48, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andreuni993: If you enable email at Special:Preferences then I can mail you a copy of the deleted page. It's not suited for Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

How do I link category language links?

I created a category document Category:South Korean LGBTQ artists and I want to link it to the Korean Wikipedia document '분류:대한민국의 성소수자 미술가', but the link is not working. If possible, please help me connect it. Melonsida (talk) 08:55, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

That links works for me. You need to click on the blue "ko" text, not the red hangul text. Maproom (talk) 09:13, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

The language link connection with 'ko' is not working. I heard that it is possible to create a link with wikidata. If possible, please connect it. Melonsida (talk) 09:16, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Melonsida, I have created the link via Wikidata. TSventon (talk) 11:20, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much! Melonsida (talk) 11:23, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Melonsida there is a tutorial at d:Help:Linking Wikipedia pages. I followed the steps and the Wikidata item was created automatically. I then looked at the Wikidata item for Category:Indian LGBTQ artists and added similar statements to the new Wikidata item. TSventon (talk) 11:43, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

How do I delete a wikidata document?

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Category:South_Korean_LGBTQ_artists

I accidentally created this document without knowing it, and I don't know how to delete the wikidata document. Please delete it. Melonsida (talk) 11:29, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

I have tagged it with {{Delete}}, hopefully that works. TSventon (talk) 13:41, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

raising funds

Is Wikipedia a charity in Australia? or a deductable gift recipient in Australia. I am in a number of state based Australian charity oganisation, we do not have a platform like Wikipedia to gain funding. As a full time volunteer with little to no extra funds to pass to another charity I think it is rude to force anyone to donate to a cause. How many users are doing it tough no money and Wikipedia belittles people. 2001:8003:329B:400:15F5:62CB:542:F0F8 (talk) 12:03, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello. I don't know the answer to your first question, but for all information about donating, please go to donate:FAQ. None of the volunteers who monitor this page have any involvement whatever with the fundraising activities of the Wikimedia Foundation.

I'm guessing that you are reacting to the requests for donations that often appear at the top of Wikipedia pages (which are not "forcing" anybody to donate). One of the side benefits of creating an account is that you can set a preference to suppress these messages. ColinFine (talk) 14:22, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Bullet and other formatting codes to use in messages?

Is there a code to make bullets when typing a message with subsidiary points to be made for clarity? (Perhaps part of a set of othas er related formatting codes?}

Incidentally, as FYI, I just deleted an earlier message I'd posted entitled "Cursor jumping" because I think it's something that would be better taken up with the Village Pump's Technical Issues people. So if any of you on the Help Desk staff saw that message and wondered it was deleted, now you know. Augnablik (talk) 12:59, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

You can use "*" (starting a line) to create a bulleted list item, or "#" to create a numbered list item. See WP:Wikitext#Lists. ColinFine (talk) 14:25, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Colin to the rescue once again! Thank you. Augnablik (talk) 15:09, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Also see Help:Cheatsheet for a summary of wilitext formatting codes, and Help:Wikitext for a more complete description. CodeTalker (talk) 17:31, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

Oh, yes, I overlooked the Cheatsheet that my mentor once suggested. Not sure I knew of Wikitext. Thank you, @CodeTalker. Augnablik (talk) 09:29, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

December 15

How long should I wait before submitting another unblock request?

I was disappointed that I had been blocked from editing emailSanta.com, as you can see on my talk page. I appealed the block, but an admin only suggested a harsher punishment. How long should I wait before returning to that topic again? I don't want to upset any more admins and want to be able to edit Wikipedia freely like I used to be able to. I hope it doesn't stay with me for my entire life. Could I request a lighter block (e.g. 1-2 years) instead of an immediate unblock or a permanent block, like the one I have currently? Félix An (talk) 04:04, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

You probably should not return to the topic. While the admin used a very firm tone, the advice is good. You don't need to edit emailSanta.com or any other page that relates to Santa Claus, and it seems to become a problem when you do. Right now you're only page blocked, which isn't a huge deal. Just explore other parts of Wikipedia, there are countless interesting areas to contribute. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 04:35, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

OK, I guess it's time to throw in the towel then. At least other editors have cleaned up the WP:COI and WP:YESPROMO (and I believe they will continue doing so throughout WP), so it's not necessary for me to edit it anymore (and I probably should focus more on my university work anyways; maybe this block is a signal for me to not distract myself every Christmas with WP 😂). Thank you for your response, and merry Christmas! Félix An (talk) 04:40, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

You're only blocked from that one singular article. There are almost 7 million articles on here, why don't you just... edit some of those instead?Though I'd avoid anything Santa Claus related because it seems like you're already on thin ice. RachelTensions (talk) 05:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Using AI artwork in articles

Hello. Is there currently any policy about using AI artwork in articles or does it just depend on how people feel about it at the time? And no, I don't have any examples. it's just a general question because it comes up when people upload AI generated slop to Commons for Wikipedia articles. Adamant1 (talk) 15:48, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Adamant1 I'm pretty sure this would fall under original research as AI does not always provide accurate depictions of whatever it's rendering. WP:OI also says It is not acceptable for an editor to use photo manipulation to distort the facts or position illustrated by an image. Manipulated images should be prominently noted as such. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 16:00, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

AI prompts given summaries of articles sounds horrible and gives me thoughts of the entire wiki getting overrun by computer-generated imagery with the potential to significantly miss its mark, and I rightfully hope the specific type of AI content you're referring to gets deleted from Commons as out-of-scope. Now, AI-generated imagery does have some relevance - such as at Department of Government Efficiency where the people we put in charge of running it created AI art to represent it. That's a different case from what I think you're referring to. Most articles would be significantly better off with no AI content, except where the specific AI content is a subject of discussion, as in the previously described case. See also WP:LLM, the policy on chatbots being used for adding text content to articles. Departure– (talk) 16:06, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

@Departure–: I should have been clearer but I'm specifically talking about articles that don't have anything to do with AI or AI artwork to begin with. --Adamant1 (talk) 16:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Then we are on the same page. AI content getting added to pages where it isn't at all relevant is the illustration equivalent of original research and I hope all such images get removed from Commons. Departure– (talk) 16:11, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Help with New Page Patrol Review and Paid Editing Tag Removal for "It's Coming"

Hello,

I'm seeking assistance with the New Page Patrol review process and the removal of a paid editing tag for the article "It's Coming (film)". I initially requested a review on December 3rd, after moving the article from Draft space to mainspace. On December 12th, I followed up on my review request and also asked for the removal of the paid editing tag that had been added to the article. I provided a detailed explanation of my contributions and assured editors that I am not receiving any compensation for my work.

Despite these efforts, I have not received any substantive response to my requests. I also sought input on the Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous), but the situation remains unresolved.

The article is thoroughly sourced and complies with Wikipedia's guidelines for verifiability and neutrality. I've also added a Reception section with a Rotten Tomatoes score and critical consensus to further demonstrate the film's notability.

Could someone please advise me on how to proceed with getting this article reviewed and the paid editing tag removed? Is there anything else I can do to move the process along?

Thank you for your help! Stan1900 (talk) 16:50, 15 December 2024 (UTC)