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Edit summaries, and minor edits

How important are summaries? Should I always write one as a rule?

Also, what exactly constitutes a minor edit? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nelson21101805 (talk • contribs) 23:50, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

Nelson21101805 Welcome to Teahouse. It is a good practice to leave a edit summary to briefly inform (a way of communication) other editor of the nature of your edit as Wikipedia is a collaborating work among many editors. An minor edit is defined the edit is superficial differences exist between the current and previous versions such as bold a word. However, it is always encouraged to provide edit summary even if it is a minor edit. Thank you. CASSIOPEIA^(talk) 00:35, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi Nelson21101805. Help:Edit summary suggests always leaving a summary, and tells you what to do if you forget to leave one. Help:Minor edit explains what we mean by "minor edit", usually typographical errors. "Any edit that changes the meaning of an article is not a minor edit." Hope this helps. StarryGrandma (talk) 03:17, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Proposing an Addition to Country Info-Boxes

What is the formal process for proposing an addition to country info boxes? The info boxes are already quite amazing for quick glances relating to economics, linguistics, demographics, geography, etc. but they seem to be lacking in political science information. The Democracy-Dictatorship Index (DD Index) and the Polity IV Dataset are used extensively throughout the field of comparative politics and international relations yet their coding for each country are only available on their respective pages. Up until recently the DD Index coding was not even available in the article (I have since added it).

The info-boxes already contain the "official" categorization of each country's government and legislature but these are largely not used within the field of political science. There is however abundant information already available for economics and some international politics like GDP, PPP, Gini, and HDI. I would like to propose adding additional information to the info-boxes either immediately after the "Government" and "Legislature" sections or immediately after the "Gini" and "HDI" sections: the DD Index categorization (there are six possible) and the Polity IV ranking (both number and categorical name).

As I've said, DD Index and Polity IV are used extensively throughout the field of political science and especially comparative politics. Polity IV is updated every year and while the DD Index hasn't been updated since 2008 it is currently in active progress. I don't think this is too much of a problem as some countries have Gini coefficients from the 1990's.

I just want to know the official route I can go down to propose this? I'm a bit new to the background workings of Wikipedia but I've been editing for quite a while. Thanks --Olfbir (talk) 03:54, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Welcome to the Teahouse, Olfbir. The proper place to discuss your proposed changes is Template talk:Infobox country. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:17, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

(e/c) Hey Olfbir. To some extent it depends on how broad an audience you seek; the formality you want involved; whether you just want to dip your toes, or lay out a concrete proposal with some degree of formality. I mean you could start with a post to Template talk:Infobox country, which has 247 page watchers. Or maybe you might start by asking the folks over at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics for some input. A wider forum though would be the proposals section of the village pump. There are also ways to escalate discussion; to seek a wider audience regardless of which forum is chosen to first raise some matter. For example, the discussion can be done through the auspices of a request for comment – and such an RfC can be made very broad by advertising it through {{Centralized discussion}}, or for some really huge issue, a site notice can be placed. (I am just give you a picture of the playing field – I'm sure you realize I'm not suggesting [nor would it be appropriate] to start at the top of the mountain). I would test the waters with a post at the template's talk page and maybe the village pump afterwards, if that garners very little comment (the fact it has 247 page watchers probably means only about 50 of them or less are active). Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:35, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Thanks

I'm interested in English Wikipedia. But do not know that how I contribute... — Preceding unsigned comment added by شادان خان (talk • contribs) 03:36, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi, welcome to Wikipedia. I'd recommend to read the tutorial Help:Getting started, there's a bunch of links to other tutorials in there to get you started. Another great tutorial to start with and get familiar with the Wikimedia software is Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Adventure. If you have any further questions feel free to ask. Kind regards, TruthToBeSpoken (talk) 08:59, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Why not give a chance?

Hello everyone, I find a friendly atmosphere here at Teahouse so I am encouraged to join.I created an article "Draft:Alliance School Kermanshah" a few days ago and I put "in use" at the beginning. It was put in draft just as i clicked the first publish button.The person did not give me a second to continue. I wish to know what the problem is and what I can do. thank You Alex-h (talk) 14:45, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Welcome to the Teahouse Alex-h. As the message on your user talk page said, the article was moved to draft space to give you an opportunity to prepare it for article space. When you believe it is ready for article space, you can click the "Submit your draft for review" button, and if the reviewer accepts it, they will move it to article space. —teb728 t c 15:51, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Let me add Alex-h, that the purpose of the {{in use}} tag is not as an excuse for entering an unreferenced page in article space (if that is what you are thinking) but rather to alert other editors to avoid edit conflicts by not editing the page concurrently. —teb728 t c 16:18, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Hello, Alex-h. I'm really sorry to hear your frustrations. You did almost everything right (apart from where you started from), and teb728 makes a good point about the template. Perhaps I can invite you to look at if from the other perspective? As soon as you put content into the mainspace part of Wikipedia, we all expect a minimum standard of quality, content and references. So despite the 'in use' template, there really wasn't enough there to start with, and so the best place to construct an article from scratch would have been in Draft or your personal sandbox. I must say, you did do the right think by very politely questioning Cabayi on their talk page. I'm sorry you didn't get the courtesy of a quick reply there, but hopefully our response here will satisfy you. So, as teb728 says, you are still absolutely free to continue working up the article as you were hoping to do. I believe criteria for school notability have got a bit stricter in recent times, so do read WP:NSCHOOLS and check that you are able to supply references that demonstrate notability is being met before you expend too much time and effort on a page which would stand no chance of making it.

But speaking personally, I would never risk creating a brand new article from scratch in the main part of Wikipedia. It's inevitable that they start out dire. I always work on pages in my sandbox to ensure they're at a reasonable standard before moving them into 'mainspace' (i.e. the proper encyclopedia part of Wikipedia). Sometimes I can take over a year to get one ready; other times I do it in an evening! Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 16:29, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@Nick Moyes:@Teb728:, Hello and thank you for your warm response. I am glad I put my question in Teahouse. First for I have received your valuable guidance which I will use in my future work,Second, because I have found friends like you. Thanks again. Alex-h (talk) 09:15, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

You're very welcome! Nick Moyes (talk) 09:27, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Changing name of cities into their official name.

I tried to change the English accent names of Karnataka state cities into recently changed official names. But my edits were reverted. What's reason behind reverting as the names were officially changed by state government itself? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vishwanath K G (talk • contribs) 08:52, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi. When you make changes in an article it's recommended to explain what you changed and why in the edit summary, this way other editors know what and why you changed something. I think it's best to discuss the changes you want to make on the article's talk page and provide proof that the name has been changed (such as a newspaper) so your edit won't be reverted again. If you have any further questions feel free to ask (: Kind regards, TruthToBeSpoken (talk) 09:05, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Welcome to the Teahouse, Vishwanath K G. The article naming policy says to title an article from the common name rather than the official name. See WP:COMMONNAME. —teb728 t c 09:12, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Oh, I see you didn't move the articles to new titles (as I had assumed) but just changed the text. Anyway the same principle applies. BTW, I notice that your mechanical changes broke links in at least one case. —teb728 t c 10:39, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Adding a picture to an article

Hello, I'd like to add some pictures to an article about my father. Could someone offer any assistance ? Thanks

Ross Perry — Preceding unsigned comment added by RossAPerry (talk • contribs) 16:11, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

RossAPerry, You can use Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard to upload the file(or I can do it for you) and then I can help you add it to the article. What is the source of the photo? WelpThatWorked (talk) 16:14, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Categories

Hello,

I just created Manpreet Bambra, and I was having issues with the category additions. I added the ones that I could remember existed, but I was wondering if someone could help correct/amend/add more. I’m aware Bambra is of Indian descent, not sure if that has any specific categories. She also lives in London.

Thank you!

– Joesimnett (talk) 15:48, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi. I think the categories are alright, you can of course add more categories as long as they exist and are relevant. Kind regards, TruthToBeSpoken (talk) 16:20, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Recent Changes

Is there a setting which only shows problematic edits?Cedric White (talk) 14:44, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Cedric White, There are a variety of filters available, see WP:RC for more information. RhinosF1^(chat)_{(status)(contribs)} 15:22, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

This is the setting that I find useful for me when monitoring live edits. Nick Moyes (talk) 15:40, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Thanks Nick.Cedric White (talk) 16:43, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

A Fox in Space AfD

I just nominated A Fox in Space for deletion using Twinkle. The previous article I deleted (just beforehand) went through fine, but this has not created the link (red link on AfD). Did the same thing, not sure what happened. Any ideas? Thanks. Aurornisxui (talk) 16:33, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Hi Aurornisxui, do you mean that the AfD page is a red link? If so, it seems to have been created now. Often it takes a few seconds for Twinkle to process and execute everything. Cheers, --SkyGazer 512 ^{Oh no, what did I do this time?} 16:38, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

SkyGazer 512, thanks so much. I waited a couple of minutes and refreshed the page, I guess it wasn't long enough (still new at doing this). Aurornisxui (talk) 16:45, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

TWA

can i restart the wikipedia adventure. Denkiden (talk) 16:54, 31 January 2019 (UTC)