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Template/category to a match-case restriction to link suggestions linking to a page

I'm looking for something I can add to pages like The C Programming Language to prevent them from showing up when doing a suggested link edit especially because in the case of things like The C Programming Language, it prevents the article that actually should be suggested which is C (programming language). Apersoma (talk) 15:20, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

@Apersoma: I don't think that is possible. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:51, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

Apersoma there's a template or category or something that turns it off; I'll see if I can find it again. Mathglot (talk) 05:24, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. Apersoma (talk) 16:54, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Has it not been found yet? Simanelix (talk) 21:38, 6 November 2025 (UTC)

@Apersoma@Mathglot@Simanelix: maybe Mathglot was thinking about Special:CommunityConfiguration/GrowthSuggestedEdits which has an Add links between articles section. It seems we can exclude articles within a certain category or template from getting added to the task, but not exclude suggestions to specific articles generally. Is it a massive problem or can we weather the storm? Commander Keane (talk) 11:10, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Font when editing source text

screenshot

Something went wrong and the font used when editing source has changed for me. It changed in both Firefox and Chrome to something hard to read. I looked at Help:preferences, and it mentions "Options → Content → "Default font" Advanced " but I don't see that anywhere.

How can I set the font for when eding source? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:40, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bubba73 The Wikipedia part is set at the drop-down at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. The browser in use will have further options as described at the Help:Preferences page. Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:58, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, but I don't see a drop-down there. Where is it? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:04, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

Just below where it says Editor Edit area font style: Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:10, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

Do you mean "Editing"? I have three choices for font there: monospace, serif and non-serif, but they don't make any difference when editing source for an artucle. The font is smaller than it should be and some things are underlined when they shouldn't be. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:07, 2 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bubba73: You can try code like this in your CSS:

#wpTextbox1 {font-size:20px;}

PrimeHunter (talk) 10:54, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Did you perhaps accidentally turn on (or off) syntax highlighting? In some skins, it's a pen icon on the toolbar. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:25, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

I accidentally did something, since my screen went wild. It was probably that - I'll see. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:59, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, turning on "improved syntax highlighting" gets it closer to the way it was, but the font in the window for editing source is smaller than I like. Is there a way to change that? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:32, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bubba73: I just gave you a way to change it. If it doesn't give the wanted result then you can remove the code or try another size. It may affect other text boxes. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:36, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, I tried it and exited out to make sure it loaded. I tried font up to 30 bit it only affects the headings when editing the source. It doesn't affect the other text. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:42, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bubba73: Syntax highlighting changes the required code. Try this:

div .mw-editfont-monospace  {font-size:20px;}

PrimeHunter (talk) 02:02, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, I replaced the line you gave me previously with that, but it doesn't make any difference. (I tried replacing 20 by 28 to be sure.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:05, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

The problem is that when editing, I want to see plain black text. It is highlighting things in different colors and underlining things. Also, if I start to put link brackets around something, it changes it to blue before I finish. I don't know what setting is causing that. What is it? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:40, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

It sounds like you are a person who does not like, and does not want, syntax highlighting.

Have you accidentally switched from "source editing" to "visual editing"? On my screen, that change is controlled by clicking a pencil icon. TooManyFingers (talk) 07:49, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

I didn't like the syntax highlighting at first, but now I see the benefits of it. The problem is the small size of the font - which is hard to read with my vision. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:41, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Is it possible that a new font got installed on your machine? Program installations (or updates), as well as system updates, can install a font, and that font can start being used by your browser. TooManyFingers (talk) 17:50, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bubba73: There are different syntax highlighters which may interfere with fonts. See WP:HILITE and try to disable any that are active if you prefer plain black text anyway. Then try this which makes different attempts to increase font size and override other font settings:

#wpTextbox1 {font-size:20px !important;}
div .mw-editfont-monospace  {font-size:20px !important;}

If it still fails then what is your browser and what is your skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:59, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

I added a screenshot of what my editor shows, so maybe someone can tell me what is going on and how to enlarge the font. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:04, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Zoom out OSM map in tunnel infobox

Is it possible to zoom out the OpenStreetMap view in the {{infobox tunnel}} in Seikan Tunnel? It is just showing ocean at the moment. Feel free to make the change I will check out the diff. Thanks. Commander Keane (talk) 07:59, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

I suggest remove it; it adds nothing, even if zoomed out.Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:18, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

I ended up figuring out and using map={{maplink}}. I think the existing map was auto-generated by {{coord}}, but I'm not sure. I see what you mean by an OpenStreetMap (OSM) version adding nothing, I removed the existing PNG (the alignment was suspect anyhow). OSM has the advantage of click and zoom, and it is easy to add the stations within the tunnel, if desired in the future. For reference the syntax would involve:

"type": "ExternalData",  "service": "geopoint",  "ids": "Q848922, Q23498231",  "properties": {    "marker-symbol": "rail,    "marker-size": "small",    "marker-color": "555555"  }

Commander Keane (talk) 12:34, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

What is going on at pending changes reviewer requests?

I took a look at the page Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Pending changes reviewer, and I see multiple requests that are still pending, with the oldest one having been sent around a month ago. However, other requests that are more recent have been accepted/rejected already. Why are they not in order? Is that page mostly inactive? Also, would it be more reliable to go to the recent admins page and request that role from an admin instead of going to this page? Wikieditor662 (talk) 20:10, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

The page is still functioning. I suspect what's happening is that admins are granting rights to the people they clearly see as qualified and punting on the less obviously qualified people. And trying to step outside the standard process and ask directly is more likely to annoy people or lead to accusations of WP:ADMINSHOPPING than it is to succeed IMO. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 20:36, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

Why don't they just straight up reject the less qualified applications instead of ignoring them? Wikieditor662 (talk) 20:46, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

If they're unsure they probably want to leave it for another admin to take a look, which gets repeated until someone makes a decision. Ultraodan (talk) 06:34, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Okay, thanks for your help! Wikieditor662 (talk) 21:33, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Currently just twelve applications, of which the oldest is less than a month old. By en:Wikipedia standards, that's pretty good. (The twelve are easily outnumbered by two-month-old AFC submissions.) -- Hoary (talk) 04:52, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

(The twelve are easily outnumbered by two-month-old AFC submissions.) sorry, I'm not sure how to use that, does that say the number that was answered? Wikieditor662 (talk) 21:32, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

The possible use, Wikieditor662, was to put the number in perspective (that is, as some background information). But an update: Arcticocean has pretty much cleared the backlog (for now). -- Hoary (talk) 23:35, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Wow, after a month, just today an admin cleared it up? Could it be they saw this? Wikieditor662 (talk) 01:16, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

No disclaimers, but a disclaimer template

Longtime listener, first time caller (so to speak).

In early 2020, editor Waxworker added to the article Data corruption an example corrupted video, captioned "A video that has been corrupted. Waxworker included the text "Warning: This video contains bright, flashing images", obviously intended for those prone to seizures due to same.

Today, Test account for testing (yes, that's the correct username) removed the text per "no disclaimers". Digging around, I found the formal WP:Content disclaimer, which states "Wikipedia may contain images and videos which can trigger epileptic seizures and other medical conditions." I certainly understand the rationale. But digging further, I ran across Commons:Template:Seizure warning. That certainly seems reasonable too - but I've no idea whether it's applicable on WP, and am not going to venture to add it to the article. But it seems prudent, at least, to warn those prone to seizures of the risk.

I'm wondering if it would be improper/inappropriate/a violation of the spirit of the disclaimer to simply modify the caption language, e.g. "A video that has been corrupted, displaying bright, flashing images", which is a true and correct description.

I'm happy to go with whatever is the correct path. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 23:07, 7 November 2025 (UTC)

eh, I'm just going to be bold and make the change I suggested. It's no longer a disclaimer, so it should withstand any challenge. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 00:07, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Is this video necessary? Can we not use an example of a corrupted video without bright, flashing images? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:54, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

It's arguably an 'over-presentation' of the phenomenon, there's certainly less intense corruption possible to videos; the problem would be finding/generating one with the appropriate license (I couldn't, though I didn't dig deeply). I'm not strongly inclined on the whole matter. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 22:21, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

When to TNT?

Roméo et Juliette (musical) is almost certainly a notable subject, but at the moment our article is almost entirely sourced to a Tripod fansite. However, I suspect that if I take it to AfD, it will be Keep because the subject is notable. What's my best step here? Suggest WP:TNT at AfD? Just leave it and hope I or someone else have time to rewrite it soon? Something else entirely? Meadowlark (talk) 03:29, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

@Meadowlark, as described in Wikipedia:Deletion is not cleanup and WP:SURMOUNTABLE, problems like poor sourcing should usually be fixed without deletion if the subject is notable. If you can't easily fix the problem yourself, you can add maintenance tags or ask WikiProjects for help. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 10:13, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks @Helpful Raccoon. It seems a little silly that we have TNT, and that we're generally so gung-ho on having everything supported by a good source or removed, when those essays are in direct conflict with the ones you mention! Ah well, that's the Wikipedia way, isn't it :) Meadowlark (talk) 00:17, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Meadowlark, it is not at all silly when you realize that three essays are being discussed and there is no expectation that essays will not contradict each other. Every essay, after all, has a notice at the top saying It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Essays are the personal opinions of one or more editors. They are not official or mandatory in any way. In my experience, WP:TNT is an essay that many editors do not like and disagree with. I happen to be among those who feel that way. Especially in a case like this, where a diligent French speaking editor could dramatically improve the article with a little bit of effort. As Helpful Raccoon noted, improving the article yourself is the best option and adding maintenance tags is the second best option. Attempting to delete an article about a notable topic is the worst option. Cullen328 (talk) 07:40, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Also, Meadowlark, your description of the sourcing is misleading. The first reference is to a 2002 article in L'actualité, a respected French-Canadian magazine that has been around for over 115 years. Cullen328 (talk) 07:53, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

A Google News and Google Books search using the string "Gérard Presgurvic Romeo et Juliet" yields quite a few promising sources in English. Cullen328 (talk) 08:02, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

@Cullen328, I must have missed that one - a good start at least! Thank you for the search tip, that's going to be very useful. I guess I have a new project if no one else gets the sudden urge to overhaul a random French-language musical's article in the meantime! Meadowlark (talk) 13:08, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

~2025-32289-14

User:~2025-32289-14 is a misleading username

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/~2025-32289-14

Piñanana (talk) 09:16, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

That is a temporary account, used to mask an unregistered user's IP address. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v ^{threads critiques} 09:19, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

"They were enabled on English Wikipedia on 4 November 2025."

Piñanana (talk) 09:22, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

If you're trying to say it's a registered account trying to look like a temporary account, no it's not. Ultraodan (talk) 10:51, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

temporary account enabled on English Wikipedia on 4 November 2025

Piñanana (talk) 11:52, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, we know that temporary accounts have arrived on this Wikipedia in the last few days. What is your question? ClaudineChionh (she/her · talk · email · global) 11:55, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Non-free images

This is a casual question, hoping some very knowledgeable editors can weigh in. An individual who recently passed away has an article on Wikipedia. Because their fame was enjoyed mostly prior to the internet, there doesn't seem to be a free image. I have searched Google and OpenVerse and the Wikimedia Commons, I think in order to use a photo to show Soo Catwoman we would need to "borrow" a non-free image with a fair use rationale, is that the case? Or does the article need to go without a photo until some friend or promoter can provide us with a release of a photo of her from among their work? I am hoping that, as with music albums, we can upload some sort of image restricted in size that can just show what her look was, for example a cropped, 300px wide version of this magazine cover. I am not a lawyer. Sswonk (talk) 16:37, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Does WP:NFCC answer your question? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:50, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, thanks. My interpretation is that I can upload a lower resolution image and use it on the article. However, I tend to interpret wiki rules liberally. That is why I have asked here, because I want to avoid having it challenged. I am going to upload an image, see what happens. Sswonk (talk) 16:57, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

If it's too large, a bot will down-size it. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:52, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Pointing out a possible copyvio

Hi, I had the intention of pointing out a possible copyvio, but the instructions on how to do so are so terribly complicated that it's not very encouraging to follow them, especially in a case that's more of a question than a clear copyvio. Maybe you can therefore just move this question to wherever the appropriate place for such questions may be:

The article Hatto Ständer appears to be based on the German language article. The German article however, as it turns out, is a 100% copyvio from the sheet music editor's website. I have no idea how this affects the English language article, but I thought I should point it out somewhere. Thanks, --~2025-32364-12 (talk) 17:06, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-32364-12: that would be a problem, do you have the web address for the original text? TSventon (talk) 22:06, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Sorry

i was 100 percent not aware that I was doing something unintentional I'm very new to the scene how can I stop any wrong doing of mine Julioloco (talk) 17:22, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Julioloco. I can't see where you've done anything wrong.

But even if you do make mistakes, I suggest you don't worry too much about it. As long as you are editing in good faith (not vandalizing), and you're willing to learn when people revert your edits or warn you of things, nobody will hold it against you.

It might help to have a look at WP:BRD. ColinFine (talk) 19:10, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Julioloco the wikilinks you added looked fine, but I was able to shorten one of them. TSventon (talk) 19:16, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Navboxes don't load

On the List of earthquakes in 2025 article, the templates "Template:Earthquakes in 2025" and "Template:Earthquakes by year" at the bottom don't load. Instead there's just text saying "#invoke:navbox". In addition, there's a random citation saying "#invoke:String". As one of the most prominent editors of this article, I am looking to fix this but I haven't found the exact cause of the issue. It could either be the length of the page, the high number of citations or both. Quake1234 (talk) 18:04, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

@Quake1234: It happens because the page is in the hidden Category:Pages where post-expand include size is exceeded. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:17, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

How do I get the template to load normally? Also, I forgot to mention that the templates load just fine on other earthquake lists, such as the one for 2024. Quake1234 (talk) 18:43, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

@Quake1234: the short answer is that you need to make the page smaller, there is an explanation at WP:PEIS. If you click edit on the article, then preview the page will then display "Parser profiling data" and if you click on that you can see how large the articles are (Post-expand include size). The maximum size is 2,097,152 bytes. TSventon (talk) 19:01, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Main Page revision deletions

According to the deletion log for the Main Page, multiple revisions have been deleted with WP:DENY cited as the rationale. However, I am confused by this, as it has been fully protected since 2007, so that nobody but administrators can edit it. Why would drive-by vandalism and other attempts to gain attention be occuring by experienced admins on the main page? Somepinkdude (talk) 22:13, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

I haven't examined those situations but there have been compromised administrator accounts and the Main Page is a tempting target. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:27, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

Edits made by compromised accounts are regularly revdel'd to prevent false attribution, and yes, several admins have been compromised in the past, including Jimbo Wales himself. Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 23:30, 9 November 2025 (UTC)

As an admin I can confirm that the revdelled edits are by admins who were compromised. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 22:28, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Cite web date

Heya - i got an error with cite web that I couldn't figure out. I managed to fix it by changing to an ISO date, but I'm not sure why the original didn't work here? Diff is here -- RandomTime 00:05, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

See MOS:DATE. 09 November 2025 isn't a legal date format but 9 November works. StarryGrandma (talk) 00:17, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Aha, got it - honestly didn't even think of that, thanks -- RandomTime 00:19, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Postel's Law should apply (we could always have a bot clean up later). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:43, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Diacritics in DEFAULTSORT

Hello, I'd like to know if there is any unambiguous guideline regarding the use of diacritics in {{DEFAULTSORT}}. According to WP:SORTKEY, "In English Wikipedia, sort order merges (ignores) case and diacritics". I interpret this to mean that the use of diacritics doesn't matter, so if a name includes them, it would be preferable to retain them in the DEFAULTSORT as well. However, User:Qaswa disagreed on my talk page, and User:Ecourter removed them on another page, in this edit. I just want to know so I can follow the correct approach! Regards, Yacàwotçã (talk) 01:53, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Yacàwotçã, I'd interpret In English Wikipedia, sort order merges (ignores) case and diacritics to mean that the use of diacritics doesn't matter, so as an example for the article Jindřich Štreit the choice between {{DEFAULTSORT|Štreit, Jindřich}} or {{DEFAULTSORT|Streit, Jindrich}} would have no effect. This is, of course, what you said to Qaswa. But imaginably WP:SORTKEY is misleading or even inaccurate. What I can say is that years ago, when I preserved diacritics for use in defaultsort, I sometimes noticed that other editors would then remove the diacritics; whereas in recent years, when I haven't preserved them for defaultsort, I haven't noticed other editors restoring them. -- Hoary (talk) 01:22, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I can provide the CheckWiki error description for DEFAULTSORT with special characters:

Don't use special letters in the DEFAULTSORT. In most cases, diacritics should generally be stripped, e.g.:

à, ä, ã, æ, ă → a

ö → o, ü → u, ß → ss

in svwiki and fiwiki, ÅÄÖåäö are allowed

in cswiki, čďěňřšťžČĎŇŘŠŤŽ are allowed

in dawiki and nowiki, ÆØÅæøå are allowed

See Categorization#Sort keys and Namesort, for more details.

A majority of these errors are automatically fixed in WP:CLEANER and other tools. If a character can't be replaced (for example: 10¢ a Dance), WPCleaner doesn't auto-fix. For what it's worth, I'm only focusing on the high-priority errors for CheckWiki; the main problem in the edit linked were ref tags without a match. Ecourter (talk) 01:45, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

In short: Any diacritics in DEFAULTSORT are incorrect in the English Wikipedia, and that's been the case for years. Qaswa (talk) 14:50, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Ecourter, is "æ" a diacritic? Why isn't it supposed to be replaced with "ae"? And most importantly who wrote this and why does WP:SORTKEY appear to ignore it? Yacàwotçã (talk) 15:30, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

"æ" is a ligature. In the template "R from ligature" you can find some answers. Qaswa (talk) 17:06, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

See [1] and WP:CWERRORS Ecourter (talk) 19:17, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Wait, what ? Why are we removing diacritics when the category listing uses unicode based diacritic and case folding when sorting ? I can kinda see why we did this in the PAST, when all wikis used latin1 and later canonical unicode sorting, but we have had language specific unicode sorting on category listings for about 10 years now, so…. which problem is this rule solving ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:58, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@TheDJ exactly, it seems to me like something rather archaic, inherited from a time when diacritics could still cause problems. In fact, the guideline doesn't mention it, only a questionable script documentation does, and I've seen other somewhat sloppy scripts making similar mistakes. Even AWB, to which I have access, sometimes makes mistakes, that's why it's supposed to be a human controlling it. Yacàwotçã (talk) 03:18, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

How do you edit a page closed to editing that is hate speech, totally biased and founded on lies?

How do you edit a page closed to editing that is hate speech, totally biased and founded on lies? ~2025-32460-19 (talk) 04:04, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Typically on the talk page of an article, you can make an edit request. However it's best to be precise in what you believe needs to be changed, and provide a reliable source supporting the change. – {{u|hekatlys}} ^WOOF 04:08, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, anonymous user. Hekatlys is right in general, but note that if the article falls within any of the areas listed as Contentious topics, then anonymous editors (and new accounts) are not permitted even to post requests on the article's talk page. ColinFine (talk) 13:46, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

That is not at all true. Even the extended-confirmed restriction (which only applies to a handful of contentious topics) says that Non-extended-confirmed editors may use the "Talk:" namespace only to make edit requests related to articles within the topic area, provided they are not disruptive. jlwoodwa (talk) 02:15, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

It would be easier for us to help you if instead of asking a general question, you actually got to the meat and potatoes of what you are actually talking about.

Wikipedia doesn't claim to be free of bias, as all sources of information have biases. Sources are presented to readers so they csn evaluate and judge them for themselves when determining what they think about what they read. You may read an article and disagree with everything presented. If the sources in an article are not being accurately summarized, please detail the errors on the article talk page. If the sources are being accurately summarized, but are in error, you will need to take that up with the sources directly and get them to issue corrections, or provide more current sources with what you deem more accurate information.

If sources in an article are so biased that they make things up out of whole cloth with no basis, that is a matter for the reliable sources noticeboard.

Some contentious topics(not all) have restrictions on editing by users with non-temporary or new accounts, meaning you cannnot contribute to them unless you register a username and it is 30 days old with 500 edits. 331dot (talk) 13:58, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

I'd also suggest that you read WP:TRUTH. 331dot (talk) 13:59, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

My money is that the article they're complaining about is under a 500/30 restriction (specifically, that of the PIA area). —Jéské Couriano v^_^v ^{threads critiques} 03:47, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

that or some indian caste stuff that people tend to get heated over mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 18:27, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

How do I deal with temporary accounts?

Hi! I am back after a brief (4 year) semi-retirement. While I was gone the way I see IP vandals changed. I like the changes (more privacy is good) but I can't do a few things I used to do, like doing my own informal sockpuppet investigations before making a report.

Here are a couple of temporary accounts that show what I am talking about:[2][3]

This is obviously the Dave Plummer Troll who has been vandalizing the Dave Plummer page for years. (I have no connection with Plummer other than having read his book on Autism). Previously, I would look at the IP Addresses, see that they came from the same geographical area and the same handful of ISPs that serve that area, and tweak my vandalism reports with that knowledge. Now I can't tell.

(To any admin reading this: please consider removing some or all of the edits from these two temporary accounts from the page history after this discussion ends. One of the things the Dave Plummer Troll likes to do is to go on Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube and post links to his deleted Wikipedia posts. "I know you suffer from severe mental illness and attack everyone that has no tolerance for your obnoxious replies and existence" is a personal attack and "writing down history about david as a criminal that defrauded money out of people isn't an attack. it's facts... he is a criminal, he ran scams defrauding innocent people" is a BLP violation.)

Would it be appropriate to request WP:TAIV? I don't do a lot of sockpuppet work but I do some. I am assuming from "There are currently 261 users with temporary account IP viewer rights" that simply being a trusted user isn't enough and that the answer to that is no.

I can live without being able to do my own informal sockpuppet investigations before making a report, but there were a bunch of cases where I determined that I didn't have enough evidence and didn't make the report. Now I will have to make the report in cases where previously I wouldn't. Like I said, the minor inconvenience is well worth it to increase user privacy, but I am wondering if maybe I am missing something and there is a better way. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:08, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

If you don't want TAIPV, there is the option of asking an editor who has that permission to do a check before going through with an SPI. I believe the requirements to getting it, from what I have seen at PERM and the wording at WP:TAIVGRANT, is to be both fairly trusted and have a demonstrated need for it. Your sockpuppet work would likely fit the latter. 45dogs (they/them) (talk page) 04:48, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

TAIV, while it has a clear set of restrictions and associated guidance, isn't hard to acquire, from my experience. I applied and was granted access. This was my request (and it's honest and unembellished): [4]

Obviously a good faith accounting of ones interest in the access goes a long way. I think the small number of users is more a reflection of how few editors delve into combatting socks and vandals on any level. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 04:58, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

The small number could also just be due to how new it is. The oldest request for the permission is this one on August 2nd. TAs themselves only started appearing on November 4th. 45dogs (they/them) (talk page) 05:04, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Per the advice above, I will apply for it. I see nothing that says it is only for people who need it all of the time and not for people who need it occasionally. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:34, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Add business name

How to add my business ~2025-32571-49 (talk) 15:03, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @~2025-32571-49. Wikipedia is not a business directory, and only organisations that meet our strict criteria for inclusion may have an article on Wikipedia. qcne (talk) 15:17, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Also, there are several reasons why you might not want an article about your business on Wikipedia. Please see WP:BOSS. ColinFine (talk) 18:17, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

My edit

I messed up List of Pretty Little Liars characters page I ment to move Toby to main charaters ~2025-32611-60 (talk) 18:18, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Your edit has already been reverted. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:20, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Garry McDonald

I noticed Wikipedia doesn't show this person has passed away in November 2023. ~2025-32634-56 (talk) 22:50, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Hey, @~2025-32634-56. If you have a reliable source showing that Garry McDonald has passed away, you are free to edit the article, it is not protected. If you don't want to edit the article, you can create a new topic on the talk page, again showing your source, and someone can help you out. win8x (talk) 22:52, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Since Garry McDonald is well known in Australia, I can only assume that there would be extensive coverage if he had died. Several other people with that name havd died in recent years, but not the famous Australian as far as I can tell from searching with Google. Cullen328 (talk) 23:55, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Potential as an AFC reviewer

Hey, I wanted to try and help with the Article for Creation submission process, and I'm familiar with how to propose for AFC reviewer rights. However, despite my experience, I don't think I feel competent enough to regularly review drafts, yet I still feel like I'd like to at least try reviewing some proposals. Part of me feels like I might make a mistake, but do you guys think I should try the reviewing process? — Alex26337 ^(talk) 23:29, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

Asilvering You have experience with AfC, maybe you'd be able to help Alex? Polygnotus (talk) 23:48, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

@Alex26337, my advice would be that you get more experience at WP:AFD before applying to be a reviewer. We need to see some evidence of notability guidelines, which doesn't have to come via AFD, but that's both the best training for it and the easiest way to demonstrate it. And AFD is always sorely in need of competent, careful participants. -- asilvering (talk) 23:58, 10 November 2025 (UTC)

@Alex26337, another option if you're not really fond of AfD (like me) is to hang out at the WP:AFCHD for a while. I recently got reviewer rights because I've spent most of my time here first hanging out at the helpdesk and then, once I was confident, beginning to answer questions and help informally assess drafts. The helpdesk gets all sorts of queries, from very easy to very complicated, and watching experienced reviewers respond is extremely useful. It also means you get to look at a wide variety of drafts, from the obvious COIs to the AI tells to the clearly didn't read any instructions to the just needs a tweak here and there. Although I am still very new to actual reviewing, if you'd like I'd be happy to chat to you about drafts and discuss what you would do with certain drafts. Meadowlark (talk) 00:25, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Using Google Earth historic satellite imagery as a reference

I am having difficulty finding any documentation for the closure of a runway. The FAA doesn't archive Chart Supplements or Airport Diagrams and no news sources exist talking about the closure. I have found that the runway was closed sometime between 2015 and 2017 based on Google Earth satellite images, but that's as much as I can narrow it down. Without those images the most it can be narrowed down is between 2014 and 2020. Is it okay to use Google Earth as a reference in this manner? I have used Google Maps as a reference before, but never Google Earth. Would I just use cite web for this if it is acceptable? ❯❯❯ Mccunicano☕️ 00:02, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@Mccunicano Hello! Which runway on which airport are we talking about? Polygnotus (talk) 00:14, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Using_maps_as_sources Polygnotus (talk) 00:17, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@Polygnotus: That's quite the lengthy RFC there. I am going to do a big update on the article Macon Downtown Airport. Runway 10-28 is still in use but the cross runway was closed in either late 2016 or early 2017. Since a regrading project happened on 10-28 last year, the former runway only exists as an unmarked taxiway to a hangar used by the Georgia Forestry Commission and has otherwise either been abandoned or obliterated. ❯❯❯ Mccunicano☕️ 02:08, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

You could probably pave most of the runway with that RfC if you printed it. Polygnotus (talk) 17:43, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Should article titles start with "the"?

I just wanted to get clarification on this, would it be appropriate to start titles of articles like The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok with "the"? KraljLavova97 (talk) 09:10, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@KraljLavova97 See WP:THE. Bazza 7 (talk) 09:19, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Arts

@K . K Rasika udara chandrasekara@ @Lou 00@ @I $ NY ~2025-32791-77 (talk) 12:34, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @~2025-32791-77. Do you have a question..? qcne (talk) 12:36, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Correction

Hello, I am professor Emanuel Levy. I need help in revising your entry of my life ad career. I've been getting hostile letters (during the Gaza War) due to the mentioning that I was born in Israel. In trying ti eliminate that information, we (with my assistant) accidentally deleted my photo and date of birth. Please restore. M<any thanks. ~2025-32664-20 (talk) 14:50, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello! I fixed the infobox for you. The image, File:Emanuel Levty.jpg, will soon be renamed (Levty => Levy). Polygnotus (talk) 15:14, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't know how hostile these letters are, but it may be a good idea to report them to your local police. Polygnotus (talk) 15:21, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

User Ziv thinks the photo used may be a copyright violation. Please see WP:PHOTO. Thanks, Polygnotus (talk) 15:29, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello @Polygnotus: Yes is copied from Rotten Tomatoes. Mister Levy? Do you have a image that we can upload to Commons? Regards, זיו「Ziv」 • For love letters and other notes 15:44, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikiquote Not updated

Wikiquote is not updated to today,Tuesday Nov 11th? ~2025-32846-29 (talk) 17:36, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi! I would recommend asking over at the wikiquote village pump, perhaps with some examples. Polygnotus (talk) 17:42, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes, ALWAYS give an example of an issue. Maybe we could have answered it already but I have no idea what you actually refer to. wikiquote:Main Page says "Tuesday, November 11, 2025" for me, but your post might be about numerous other things. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:03, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Déjà vu. —Cryptic 18:18, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I had written this and got an edit conflict: Maybe you are the same poster as in Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 74#Wikiquote not updating? but that doesn't help. I still have no clue what it's about. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:23, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Google Drive urls in references

Do we have a policy or guideline on linking to documents hosted on Google Drive (drive.google.com) in article references? It worries me from a basic information security point of view, and there may be other issues - but I imagine this has already been discussed and resolved one way or the other. I just can't find where. NebY (talk) 18:37, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

How is it different than linking to google books, google search, a linkedin profile, an X profile etc ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:50, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Very different, IMHO. A Google Books URL is a document that Google has digitised, categorised, and is publicly searchable. A Google Drive is just some random persons' personal filestore. Could be anything.

I would suggest that most Google Drive URLs would fail the published requirement for sources, so should be removed. qcne (talk) 19:39, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Well, we don't know what sort of thing we're getting when we click such a link - it could be a plain pdf, a document or spreadsheet with embedded macros, or an image, or I think an executable, yet we're saying to readers that they can click on it to verify our content. There's no indication of who controls the Google account, which is in one sense who is publishing the file (an RS publisher, the editor, who?). Can they change it leaving the url working? I don't know Google Drive urls well enough to say. I'm guessing the document or whatever isn't archivable by archive.org or suchlike, but I might be wrong. There may well be other issues; that's why I was rather hoping to find prior discussion.

If it helps, here's a current example. NebY (talk) 19:05, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Not sure if there's previous discussions, but I would personally treat it as unreliable and completely remove it. – {{u|hekatlys}} ^WOOF 19:01, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

There are several previous discussions in the WP:RSPS archive. See this list. Personally, I would ban all such uses. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:15, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

.... However, we have over 5,700 of them Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:18, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

One at a time, I suppose. I may have a deeper look at this later when I have time, but I cannot see any logical reason to keep them in-use on Wikipedia. – {{u|hekatlys}} ^WOOF 18:25, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

In the example above the Google Drive pdf is mirrored from/at lucyletbyinnocence.com and indeed available at archive.org. When removing Google Drive URLs, but please put in some work to resolve them rather than just guessing and blindly removing. Maybe someone downloaded the file to their personal Google Drive, used the resource and linked to their copy rather than the official one. Help them, and Wikipedia's readers, out by fixing it. Banning all use may be problematic if someone links to reliable source that happens to be on a Google Drive when they could have linked to a reliable version. Again, it can be fixed with effort. Commander Keane (talk) 05:28, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I hate to trying to fix my problem with Twinkle

Created User:Vitorperrut555/Welcome temp, and instead with welcome, shows {{subst:}}.

I trying to fix via Wikipedia:Twinkle/Preferences, and don't working. VitorFriboquen :] (Talk) 18:49, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

You might have more luck asking at Wikipedia talk:Twinkle. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:34, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

copyright question

hey. if full text of a book is available on Wikisource, it means that copyright rules (e.g. limit on quotes from it, etc.) doesn't need to be followed; because its full text's on Wikisource, right? Vastmajority20025 (talk) 19:39, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Vastmajority20025, I wouldn't rely on it - there are copyright violating images on Commons, and copyright violating text here even though we have one of the largest communities and probably the best chance at catching and removing it. There's a lot of information at WP:PD that will help you assess the book in question, or you could give the title, authors/editors and publishing date here and we might be able to help. Meadowlark (talk) 00:49, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

thank you @Meadowlark Vastmajority20025 (talk) 04:17, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: The copyright status of each document on Wikisource is supposed to be documented there, usually on the talk page of that document. If it is not there, then ask on Wikisource and get it documented. Once you you know it's OK over there, you can use it, including extensive quotes, here on Wikipedia, but you must still attribute it. Failure to attribute is WP:plagiarism, which is forbidden here. -Arch dude (talk) 20:49, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Cash donations

I would like to support Wikipedia with a cash donation but I am very Leary of a scam and don’t want my credit card compromised. How can I be assured this site is legitimate ? Thank you. Leo C. ~2025-32941-78 (talk) 20:11, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @~2025-32941-78. Please see https://donate.wikimedia.org/ which is the legitimate place to donate to Wikipedia. Otherwise, please follow your usual internet safety precautions. qcne (talk) 20:23, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-32941-78 I would also suggest you familiarize yourself with Wikipedia finances. Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:38, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Probably wouldn't hurt to read this regarding the rather mild fact that the foundation needs no donations. The article isn't updated any longer, but the table and graph are. I stopped giving years ago. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 06:53, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Ha - I hadn't looked at the link user Shantavira provided, which shows the same data, though it hasn't been updated with 2023/2024 data. However, the narrative at the link I provided is worth reading too. cheers. anastrophe, an editor he is. 06:56, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Conflict between official and secondary sources

In what situations can information from official sources be questioned based on secondary sources? And can a claim from a secondary source be questioned if it is presented as a laconic statement without any explanation or source? Especially when we also have secondary sources that directly quote official ones. The fact is that Resident Evil has approximately 11 major games, of which the developers officially consider only nine numbered games to be the main series. This contradicts the widespread fan community belief that all 11 are the main series. Of course, this is cited without any nuance by a number of reputable secondary sources (some of which still cite the official press release stating there are nine games), so several users insist we must take this into account, even questioning the official numbering of some games, even though official sources outright ignore it. Their argument is mainly based on the fact that secondary sources supposedly have the same or even greater power than primary official ones, so if they, for whatever reason, categorize games differently than the creators themselves, then it has the same power as they. I have a strong feeling that this is already bordering on a conflict of interest and playing with the rules, but I am concerned that relatively many people share this and I do not want to draw too harsh conclusions about bad faith. Solaire the knight (talk) 21:10, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

@Solaire the knight I haven't investigated this particular issue but there is general advice in the essay WP:WSAW. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:08, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I suggested, as a compromise, describing the nuances separately, but other users believe that the opinion of a secondary source is by default equal to or even higher than the opinion of a primary source, even if we are talking about an official source and the opinion of a journalist. Solaire the knight (talk) 18:20, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

@Solaire the knight, this seems to be a content dispute and all of the relevant advice and links I was going to provide have been already been patiently mentioned on the talk page. I was going to suggest Wikipedia:Third opinion, but it seems it is you versus versus many others. If you are feeling frustration I would recommend walking away for a year and coming back, maybe fresh sources will be uncovered by then, or a more diverse group of editors will exist. Ultimately, when books are written about the subject we will use those.

I am not sure why you are discounting the opinion of journalists. As an example: a primary source, official as you say, would be Donald Trump's social media feed. A secondary source would be the Washington Post. Yes secondary sources are of higher value than official ones. Official sources will push agendas, like trying to sell more games and maintain reputation. Commander Keane (talk) 04:50, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Because none of these journalists were involved with the development of these games or the brands associated with them at all. Their opinions strangely echo common fan sentiment, and none of the links provide any explanation or source for their take. Moreover, some of them also have no problem quoting press releases from official sources, showing that they have no position at all. As I've said many times, I'm not against describing this as a separate nuance. Which it is. But a group of users persistently tries to give the same weight to an unofficial, fan-made assertion, supported without explanation by a number of sources, as to the official categorization of the creators. I understand what you're getting at, but I doubt we can compare a developer who says, "There are only nine main games in my series," and journalists who question this based on fan opinion, with a politician who says, for example, "UFOs exist," and journalists who refute it. Also, if I remember correctly, the "one against many" rule warns against ignoring potential instances of common misconceptions or attempts to substitute numbers for consensus. Solaire the knight (talk) 07:53, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Or, a more familiar example. If it becomes common among fans to say that Commander Keen is a metaphor for Pizzagate, and a number of sources support this without explanation, while the developers ignore it and don't even comment, would you address this as fact? Or would you describe it as a nuanced statement, like "a number of sources claim the game is a metaphor for Pizzagate, but the developers have never commented on it"? It's a virtually identical situation here. Fans consider two specific games to be part of the main series, and journalists repeat this as a blanket statement without explanation. Meanwhile, Capcom simply ignores it. Why can't we describe it separately with due detail instead of giving it the weight of fact? Solaire the knight (talk) 08:00, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Retargeting multiple redirects

Is there a tool that makes it easier to retarget multiple redirects, rather than manually editing them one by one? Suppose there are over 100 redirects to article A and I want to retarget 75 of them to article B. I have used WP:MASSXFD but would prefer to boldly retarget redirects that are straightforward rather than mass nominate and take up the community's time. —Myceteae‍🍄‍🟫 (talk) 01:13, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

You could potentially use one of our mass-editing tools, like WP:AWB. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:19, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

New Page Patrol discussion

Hey, so I'm not a new page patroller, but I still wanted to notify the actual patrollers in the case I see that an unreviewed article qualifies (or doesn't qualify) under its criteria. Do you know where I can talk about this (I considered the reviewer's discussion page, but it seems that's reserved for NPPs only)? — Alex26337 ^(talk) 02:43, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Alex26337, it's fine to use the discussion page. But I'm not entirely sure I understand what your goal is: if an article needs to be marked as reviewed, someone will get to it eventually (the backlog is enormous); if it needs something else, you're welcome to tag it, draftify it, nominate it for deletion, etc. even without being a reviewer. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 00:24, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

@Extraordinary Writ: I guess what I'm saying is that I know that people won't always be there to review needed articles, and I just wanted to try and put in "patrol-like" efforts into preparing articles for a formal review, and then notify the actual patrollers of what I did, as an indirect effort to reduce the backlog, and to also make their jobs feel, or be, a little bit smoother. — Alex26337 ^(talk) 02:34, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Citation insert in visual editor not working?

Hi! I'm new to adding missing citations, so maybe this is user error. But I tried using the automatic citation generator in visual editing, and it initially created the citation just fine, but when I added it, it turned it into an entirely different citation already used on the page. I tried manually creating a citation in visual editing, but same thing. I was able to insert it in source editing, but it was a pain, and I'd rather use visual editing for citations. Really steve (talk) 03:31, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi Really steve. The feature works. If you save and link an edit then we can maybe guess what went wrong for you. You can revert your edit if you don't want to leave an article in a bad state. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:23, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi PrimeHunter, I tried out the citation generator again today and it worked. No idea what was happening a couple days ago when I first tried it. Gremlins in my computer I suppose. Hopefully it doesn't happen again! Really steve (talk) 17:36, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

List_of_people_with_the_most_children

Hi,

At the above page I added an entry for "George Lake". Then I added a source (Jeffery). Then I added a reference to the source in the "George Lake" entry. The page shows as it should (as far as I can tell), but an error appears at the top of the page: "Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page)." I've checked the source multiple times. I've checked the help page. And I've re-done the edit. I don't see what's wrong. MarshallLake (talk) 07:24, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

List of people with the most children (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

@MarshallLake: There was a stray <ref></ref> pair at the top of the page. That's easy to do by mistake, since there's a button the toolbar that inserts these tags. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:55, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

@John of Reading: Thanks. Your help is much appreciated. MarshallLake (talk) 08:29, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

@MarshallLake: See Help:Diff for how to see the changes in an edit. For your edit it is [5] which makes it easy to see the problem. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:28, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

You use VisualEditor. Some things are easier to fix in the source editor. You can switch to it on a pencil icon at the top right of VisualEditor. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:33, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

That's a big help. Thanks. MarshallLake (talk) 18:18, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Styling with Template:Maplink

I have added an interactive map to the infobox in Cork and Muskerry Light Railway using the maplink template, which is rendering two GeoJSON files from Commons. I tried to add styling information to the template to make each file render in a different colour, but they are both appearing in the default colour (black). The files themselves have no styling information. I am completely new to using this so any advice would be appriciated. Madfly2 (talk) 11:49, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi Madfly2. I see Davemck removed your attempt of ane additional stroke colour from the template. About stroke-color, {{maplink}} says Color code for the color used to draw the feature (for features from OSM). Your data is not from OSM so I guess that doesn't work. Before Davemck's edit I tried type1, data1, stroke-color1 which also didn't work.

As a workaround, you can colour the stroke properties in the .map files on Commons and use the |raw= parameter in the infobox. I set up a |raw= example at: User:Commander Keane/Maplink test (it uses two modified .map files: 1 & 2. Example .map colouring diff: here).

I wonder if there is a better way, perhaps to apply a property to a GeoJSON file from a mapframe? I couldn't see that in mw:Help:Extension:Kartographer. Commander Keane (talk) 04:19, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you Commander Keane for your help and the example. I will do as you suggest and put the styling information in the files themselves. It does seem a bit silly to have to upload the file a second time if I want to render it two different ways in different articles, but it seems there is no other option. Madfly2 (talk) 18:57, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Symphonies

Moved to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Entertainment § Ray Stanton King

Polygnotus (talk) 14:11, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

New IPs

Recently I have seen contentious comments coming from a range of IPs I've never seen before. Where do "~2025-nnnnn-nn" come from? Why now? One person identified himself as a library user. More familiar are IPs with a 2600 prefix (IPv6) and four numbers delimited with full stops (IPv4). Thank you. -SusanLesch (talk) 15:26, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi @SusanLesch. Have you read Wikipedia:Temporary accounts? This was a recent change to the English Wikipedia. Edits from logged-out users no longer show their IP address. qcne (talk) 15:29, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, Qcne! That page explains this perfectly. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:50, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Уточнение

не заняли больницу а взяли под свою опеку : впрочем в немецком оригинале оно так и есть ~2025-33054-18 (talk) 17:05, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Google translates this from the Russian, as:

Clarification: They didn't occupy the hospital, but rather took it under their wing: However, that's how it is in the original German.

but we don't know which article is referred to; nor even whether it is on the English or Russian Wikipedia. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:09, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Привет, это английская Википедия. Возможно, вам будет интереснее здесь https://ru.wikipedia.org mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 18:41, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Using non-derivative images

Is it permitted to upload images with non-derivative licenses (such as CC BY-ND) locally to enwiki, and thereafter place them on any article without having to downscale the quality or provide fair use rationales? It would be quite helpful, I think, as it would open a lot more images for me to use. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:54, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Non-derivative licenses are not free content licenses, according to definitions such as DFSG or the Free Software Foundation's standards, and cannot be used in contexts that require these freedoms, such as Wikipedia. You will have to find a fair use rationale, or forbear the use of those images. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:09, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Can such images at least be used without having to downscale the quality? ―Howard • 🌽³³ 21:14, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

@Howardcorn33: By following the links Wikipedia:About => Wikipedia:Free encyclopedia => "Free knowledge" I came across Open knowledge. Or follow the "free" from the Main page's tagline to read Free content.

Wikipedia aims for free content, with a very limited amount of fair use, see Wikipedia:Non-free content. Admittedly, free content is an interesting concept.

CC BY-NC can't be reused without restriction. We would only not want to not downscale the quality if we were creating a repository of non-free content. You said it would allow you to use more images, but not all re-users could then use that material. It is hard work, but free images can be made/discovered/requested and uploaded to Commons. Commander Keane (talk) 02:03, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I think you misunderstand: I am speaking of non-derivative (ND), not non-commercial (NC). And for that matter, all people can re-use ND-licensed images with the caveat that the content of the image isn't altered. As far as I am aware, as long as we provide credit and not alter the image, ND images are permitted by their copyright holder to be used at full quality anywhere for any purpose. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 11:28, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Seeing that the English Wikipedia already accepts hosting images with heavier copyright restrictions (such as all rights reserved), I don't see why it should outright forbid ND images which wouldn't technically need to be downscaled or have a FUR. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 11:31, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Howardcorn33, yeah I misread ND for NC; neither is free. So ND images are forbidden, with the exception of fair use. I am being facetious, but if you want to set up a Wikipedia fork that uses ND content you are welcome to, that would a different project (fortunately the text in Wikipedia isn't ND so you could edit on that fork - a benefit of freedom). Your initial comment "it would open a lot more images for me to use" is telling, does that mean you wouldn't bother finding or creating free content if given the option?

About fair use content, are you saying there are cases where articles use fair use images that happen to be CC BY-ND and you want to maintain the resolution to push Wikipedia towards a high quality image repository for non-free re-users? That seems like an edge case and doesn't align with Wikipedia's freedom goals. Out of curiosity, do you have examples of those edge cases? I do understand your perspective, and I know I sound harsh. Commander Keane (talk) 12:07, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't intend on pushing Wikipedia towards being an image repository for non-free reusers. It is first and foremost an encyclopedia. I would just like for higher quality images to be usable on Wikipedia, as well as usable on more articles without having to add a free use rationale each time, which I believe would be beneficial for the purpose of illustrating, and thereby improving, the encyclopedia, without infringing on copyrights. As it is, the fair use rationale system is even more restrictive for images. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 12:22, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

If there is a specific non-free image that needs to be kept at a higher resolution for some reason (becomes unreadable/uninterpetable when resized, like File:Award BIOS first screen.png) then {{Non-free no reduce}} exists. -- Reconrabbit 15:43, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Fingerprint sensor

I need fingerprint sensor lock my device ~2025-33081-09 (talk) 17:59, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

This is the Help desk for Wikipedia and we can't assist you with other issues. Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:03, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello! This page is for people who need help editing wikipedia. You might have better luck with a search engine like google or duckduckgo. If you still want help from a wikipedian, then the reference desk could prove helpful! mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 18:47, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

WP:BIDIR - 27,000 problems for one template

Template:National Register of Historic Places has 81 links (mostly to lists by state) and is on about 27,000 mainspace pages (more or less all NRHP locations include it) (https://templatetransclusioncheck.toolforge.org/index.php?lang=en&name=Template%3ANational_Register_of_Historic_Places&complete=1) , this is by *far* the most broken template of this type in terms of non-Bidirectionality. I considered trying to use WP:AWB to fix this, but 27,000 is a bit much for that. In some states they have NHRP in County Blah-Blah for some or all states, in some cases there are replacements, but for example in my home state of Maryland, only Template:NRHP in Queen Anne's County, Maryland exists of the 24 county equivalents, I think they should all (except for the ones linked of course) be scrubbed. Ideas on where to go with this, either a Wikiproject with ideas or whether it makes sense as a bot request.Naraht (talk) 00:20, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Naraht: Discussion belongs at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places. There are already discussions in the arhcives, e.g. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Archive 66#NRHP navigation box. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:50, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Edit was undone

Edit was undone but I have supporting evidence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ahypnia#c-Kline-20251113015000-November_2025 How to remedy? Thanks. Ahypnia (talk) 01:52, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Your source [6] does not state that "ted northe Lane in Vancouver, British Columbia was named after him, in lower case letters". It says he spelled his name that way, but that isn't the same thing. As for the broader question of how the article should spell it, I suggest you start a discussion on the article talk page. Given that many of the sources cited seem to follow the convention, you may have good grounds, though I'd add that some of the sourcing looks rather questionable per WP:RS policy. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:09, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Was there a change to timestamps?

I had either a userscript or a gadget or a preference that when I clicked a timestamp in a sig, it would open up the diff for me. Now, hovering over it I see the link for the diff in the corner of my browser, but in clicking, it gets hijacked and fills my url bar with a long anchor link, and does not open the diff link I see when hovering. For example., on todays feature article talk page, it adds #c-Galebazz-2021-08-07T18:25:00.000Z-Splitting_into_two_articles to my url, even though I see in the corner of firefox that I am hovering on the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Diff/1017469394/1037626755

Just wondering what happened during my wikibreak, and if I can go back to my old ways. I also have tons of userscripts, so if its conflicting userscripts, I'll sort it out, but I figured y'all would know if there was a MediaWiki change. Happy Editing -- IAmChaos 06:44, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@IAmChaos: The diff feature is User:Evad37/TimestampDiffs which is loaded in User:IAmChaos/common.js. It conflicts with a newer default feature which cannot be disabled as far as I can tell. If I hold down Ctrl while clicking the time stamp then the diff opens in a new tab (this is a general Firefox feature for all links). Does that work for you and is it good enough? You can change to the new tab with the mouse or Ctrl+Page Down. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:03, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Is there a mac version of control click? Both Command and Control link to the comment, and when doing option and clicking open in new tab, it opens the link to comment in new tab. Shift click opens in new window. If not that's fine, I wanted to check. Sad that the new feature can't be disabled. Happy Editing -- IAmChaos 17:03, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Update: I'm reading now: see mw:Project:Tech News/2024#Tech News: 2024-05 and phab:T302011. Happy Editing -- IAmChaos 17:08, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@IAmChaos: A mouse middle-click may open a new tab but if your method opens the link to comment then a middle-click may do the same. I'm on Windows 11. Ctrl-click is the general method to open a link in a new tab. It's not a way to select one potential link target over another. Both middle-click and Ctrl-click give the diff for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:46, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I think I'll just lose the script. Diffs would be much nicer for me than super long urls, but I'll make do with what mediawiki gives us. Thanks for the help! Happy Editing -- IAmChaos 21:21, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Making changes

Hi

I have been tasked with making changes on our CEO's wiki page as it has been flagged for a few things. How do I go about actioning the changes and then getting the restrictions removed? Please use laymans terms because I have never done this before. Thanks ~2025-32895-00 (talk) 11:54, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Start by reading WP:BOSS. You have a clear conflict of interest, and almost certainly need to declare it per WP:PAID, and shouldn't be editing your CEO's page directly. AndyTheGrump (talk) 11:59, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Short answer is you don't

Long answer is, you have a conflict of interest. This means that it is very unlikely you are able to write objectively about the subject (whether intentionally or not). If you can find reliable(note that wikipedias idea of reliable may not be the same as what you believe to be reliable) , secondary sources, then you can make a edit request on the articles talk page mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 19:12, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Subsections of History that are date ranges

See Nokia#History for an example. Is it ideal for the subsection titles to simply be a date range like 1865-1967 or should there also be a descriptive term added like "1865-1967: something early history"? yutsi (talk) 13:08, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Yutsi 1865–1967 seems to be sufficiently descriptive; date ranges as subsections like this are in common use on Wikipedia. Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:02, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

For questions of this sort, a good way to approach it is to consider if adding the descriptive portions would aid in navigation or understanding for readers - or if it would just add verbiage. Matt Deres (talk) 14:26, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Microsoft PowerShell

Where are language files on PowerShell? Green Wave (talk) 14:38, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Green Wave This is not a general help desk, sorry. Questions should pertain to using Wikipedia. You could try the Reference Desk. 331dot (talk) 14:40, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello! This page is for people who need help editing wikipedia. You might have better luck with a search engine like google or duckduckgo. If you still want help from a wikipedian, then the reference desk could prove helpful! mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 19:23, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

How to tell which editors are working on a task

I'm working on depopulating Category:All articles with bare URLs for citations

Some are straightforward and some are tricky. I'd like to chat with others who are working on this initiative but I don't know how to figure out who is working on it. Is there a way to figure this out? S Philbrick(Talk) 18:35, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Sphilbrick:, you could go to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Citation cleanup, which seems to be active. TSventon (talk) 18:44, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I'm embarrassed that didn't occur to me, thanks. S Philbrick(Talk) 19:53, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Head teacher

want to redirect Superhead to Head teacher

needs Wikipedia:Administrators

q.v.: Alan Davies (headmaster) Hope and Glory (TV series) Centre for High Performance

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2024/39/superhead
• https://schoolsweek.co.uk/tributes-paid-to-superhead-amanda-phillips-who-died-after-a-fall/
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/superhead-anthony-seldon-and-his-challenge-to-improve-wellington-college-317608.html

Piñanana (talk) 18:39, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Piñanana: I suggest that you ask the admin who protected the page at User talk:Diannaa. TSventon (talk) 18:48, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Diannaa: there is a person referred to on the internet as Superhead hence the block, this is an important different usage because many UK educational trust administrators (Superhead) have been newsworthy ... Piñanana (talk) 23:22, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

This article indicates not all head teachers are superheads. The term super-head (with a dash) has also been used. The term seems to be primarily used to dis a particular actress; people would be very surprised for "Superhead" to redirect anywhere else. So I don't think is a good idea to create an ordinary redirect. I will create it as a soft redirect to the Wictionary entry. Hope this meets your approval! — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 23:51, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

superheads are a subset of head teacher, head master, Executive head teacher, and High master (academic), "super head teachers"

"A specialist headteacher sent, by government or other authority, to reorganise and improve a school that is perceived to be failing."

They have been appointed since Tony Blair and Michael Gove to solve problems at UK educational institutions

They have sometimes abused their enhanced powers thus becoming newsworthy

Their jurisdiction could be only one school or an educational trust with more than one school.

They are like a US Superintendent (education) like Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District or California State Superintendent of Public Instruction

------------------------------

"The term seems to be primarily used to dis a particular actress"

This usage seems to be mostly a North American usage.

Piñanana (talk) 04:52, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

from oxford reference ("This article"), super-head and Superhead seem to mean Executive head teacher, a sub-section of head teacher

Piñanana (talk) 05:01, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Backronymously

Can one use the word "backronymously" in Wikivoice? It is the adverbial form of "backronym" ―Howard • 🌽³³ 19:55, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I would say not, as it would grant a degree of pseudo-legitimacy to a particularly hideous neologism. --Orange Mike | Talk 20:01, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

ah I see. thanks! ―Howard • 🌽³³ 20:04, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Howardcorn33: please use backronymously in a sentence... Piñanana (talk) 23:25, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Example for Piñanana: The USA PATRIOT Act was named backronymously. Meaning: After the name 'USA PATRIOT Act' was thought up, a longer form ('Uniting and Strengthening...') was devised so that 'USA PATRIOT' could be described as its acronym. Backronymously is standardly derived from backronym (a term that's not widely used but is well established) -- cf synonym → synonymous → synonymously -- so there's no grammar-based reason not to use it. But other than within a discussion of backronymy, it's likely to hinder communication, so it's better avoided. -- Hoary (talk) 00:14, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

@Howardcorn33: The editor is is supposed to use editorial judgement. An editor using judgement should not IMO use "backronymously", because it's really ugly and is very easy to avoid. Example: The USA PATRIOT Act was named backronymously. can be rephrased as PATRIOT is a backronym. It's shorter and easier to understand. -Arch dude (talk) 02:26, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

The redirect "Qimir"

QimirQimir currently redirects to Qımır. However, I am struggling in my evaluation of which is less niche: the Star Wars character Qimir (who has a bullet point paragraph in Star Wars: The Acolyte#Cast and characters), or the aforementioned village. If the former is more well-known, then it should redirect there, but if not, then it shouldn't. (I wanted to bring this up at RfD, but that page seems like it's for deleting redirects rather than rerouting them. Yyannako (talk) 02:34, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

For future reference, RfD stands for Redirects for Discussion which includes discussing what is the proper target of a redirect. Sungodtemple (talk • contribs) 04:01, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Oh, that's good to know. I read the page, and the "tutorial" kept mentioning the deletion of redirects. Yyannako (talk) 13:14, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

If I understand right (and I didn't read at all closely), the Acolyte "Qimir" is the/a nom de guerre of some character in one of the many Star Wars products. Its well-knownness relative to that of Qımır (the village) would be hard to calculate, but it hardly seems overwhelmingly greater. The current hatnote -- "Qimir" redirects here. For the fictional character, see Qimir (character) -- seems helpful, unambiguous, and adequate. -- Hoary (talk) 04:22, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Aligning images to the top

Hi, in the header of this category I'm trying to present the order in which the five pieces of the map are aligned to each other. The buttom right image however needs to get aligned to the top of its row. How can this be facilitated? Thanks in advance, --Enyavar (talk) 09:37, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

@Enyavar: You can wrap it in <span style="vertical-align:top;">...</span>. I think the images should be much smaller and the alignment should be explained. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:19, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: Thank you for the response, I tried something similar already, and your code looks like what I want. But it didn't work yet. I followed your other advice; would you like to try your hand? Best, --Enyavar (talk) 11:28, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

It was only meant for that image.[7] PrimeHunter (talk) 11:38, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks again! --Enyavar (talk) 12:22, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Donations

if not for left-wing bias I would donate to wikipedia ~2025-33648-28 (talk) 14:04, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

The good news is, donating is optional and anyone is welcome to edit Wikipedia and contribute to the majority of discussions. If there are topics you're concerned don't meet our neutrality policy, you can raise those concerns on those talk pages. Nil🥝 14:10, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

"Reality has a distinct liberal bias." Stephen Colbert. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2025-31359-08 (talk) 14:14, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

It isn't possible to 'donate to Wikipedia'. Donations go to the WikiMedia Foundation, who are sitting on a huge pile of dosh, and are less than popular with a good few Wikipedia contributors who are less than happy with the way the WMF implies that the servers are liable to shut down any time soon if you don't add to the pile. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:28, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Sources

So I was reading through the French and Indian war page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_and_Indian_War). I noticed a source isn't stated. I'm new to this so I'm not sure if it matters or something. The source is (i'm pretty sure) Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763, By William M. Fowler. But yeah i'm just asking if theres anything I (or someone else) should do about this. Bacon (talk) 15:42, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Eatthebacons. While the policy is that everything in a Wikipedia article should be verifiable from a reliable published source, articles are not always required to cite the source. (It has often been proposed that they should be required to, but this has never been accepted: see WP:PERENNIAL#Require inline citations for everything.)

So an article missing a citation is not against policy.

Having said that, if you are able and willing to add a citation to an article that lacks one, that will be most welcome. All editors are welcome to improve Wikipedia. It doesn't actually matter whether you recognise the original source or not: as long as you cite a source that is reliable (and independent unless the information it is verifying is such as may be verified from a primary source), and you've checked that it does indeed verify the information in the article, you may add it.

If you're not sure how to add a citation, please see WP:REFB. ColinFine (talk) 16:35, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

The personal homepage and suggested edits

I am not see a Homepage tab on my account. Only User Page and Talk. What have I neglected to do? Jederyan (talk) 16:24, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Helloa, @Jederyan. You can turn that on in your user preferences, specifically at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-personal-homepage. ColinFine (talk) 16:39, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Can you please make a redirect Article for the 2028 College Football Playoff National Championship Please ~2025-33532-40 (talk) 16:55, 14 November 2025 (UTC)