Wikipedia:Help desk: Difference between revisions

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How to know if the biography from different Wikipedia is worth the article in En Wiki?

I found this article Wikipedia:Notability (people), but it's not clear if the person needs to be notable worldwide or can be notable on a country level. I have two articles (on Polish Wikipedia):

• pl:Andrzej Dragan
• pl:Urszula Wolska

The first person is a well known professor (there are 5 langauges) and the second is an artist, she was listed on this page Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Missing articles by occupation/Artists. Dragan may be more known outside the country, he is a researcher, Wolska is not that well known outside of Poland (article is only in one language).

How to decide if I can create articles for them in En Wiki. They are notable in pl Wiki, but I'm not sure about en Wiki. jcubic (talk) 10:19, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

This Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion are summarised at WP:42. More specifically, for academics we also have WP:NPROF, and for artists WP:NARTIST. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:21, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

jcubic If you want advice on the notability of a woman's biography, you can ask at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women in Red. Different Wikipedias have different criteria, so a pl article is not necessarily notable in en. TSventon (talk) 12:38, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@TSventon: I know that different Wikipedia have different criteria, that's why I'm asking this question. Will try to ask on project talk page. From my experience, most projects on Wikipedia (at least on Polish Wiki) are dead and no one replies. jcubic (talk) 17:28, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@Jcubic: there are a lot of dead en wikiprojects, I would advise looking for recent replies before posting on a project talk page, but Women in Red is active. TSventon (talk) 17:38, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@Pigsonthewing: Yes, I've read that. The link to that article is in the question. It don't answer my question. Those statements are very generic, similar to the one we have in Polish Wiki. It doesn't explain what citation is. Should it be English worldwide citation, or can it be citation in a different language. Is the article notable if all reference are language other than English? jcubic (talk) 17:27, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@Jcubic: the general guidance on notability for humans is Wikipedia:Notability (people). The main requirment (basic criteria) is have they received significant coverage in multiple published secondary sources that are reliable, intellectually independent of each other, and independent of the subject. It doesn't matter if the sources are from Poland or in Polish. There are also more specialised guidelines, e.g. for academics. TSventon (talk) 17:41, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

"That"? I gave you three links. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:45, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@Pigsonthewing and Jcubic: I should have said that Wikipedia:Notability says that sources can come from anywhere in the world and be in any language. TSventon (talk) 17:52, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes! the biography from different Wikipedia is worth the article in En Wiki!

Piñanana (talk) 19:12, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

Utilizing AI to translate Chinese/Japanese articles into English.

I am interested in translating some articles from Japanese Wiki into English Wiki using AI.

So, there are now AI tools capable of translating much more comprehensive Wikipedia articles from Japanese or Chinese into English without losing context, better than DeepL or Google translation due to their ability to scour the Internet for context.

One example is Google’s AI Studio, which has an option to more or less quickly analyze Japanese texts for historical accuracy, resulting in consistent naming and far less discrepancies as compared to ordinary machine translation. I was pretty amazed because it made hitherto impossible to understand machine translations legible.

So, I have a simple question.

Would it be a good practice / is it allowed to fully copy well-researched articles from foreign-language Wikipedia, translate them using such AI tools, and then paste the content into the English Wikipedia, citing only the original foreign-language article as the source?

I am somewhat well-read on certain topics, so I'd be able to spot the obvious translation errors, but the problem I have is the workload with sources.

For example, the Japanese Wikipedia article on Kiyohime is far more robust and detailed than the English version. It could be made vastly more accessible to the English-speaking audience if AI translation tools were used.

The problem, I mentioned, is the general paucity of foreign wikipedia articles. A character from a Fujiwara clan can have an entire wikipedia page on JP wikipedia, but not exist in the English one. Worse still, a JP article can have hundreds of sources, but to copy them one to one into EN wiki would just be far too work intensive, if every source, reference, and hyperlink were to be included.~2025-33734-00 (talk) 14:29, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Do not under any circumstances use AI to translate Wikipedia articles from one language to another, unless you are capable of reading both languages yourself, and are prepared to carefully check that the entire translation is supported by sources you can also read yourself. Given the well-documented, routine, and unavoidable tendency of AI to 'hallucinate' where it lacks data, such translations simply cannot be trusted. Any article translation of any reasonable complexity will contain errors and falsehoods, and you will be responsible for dealing with them. AndyTheGrump (talk) 14:56, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Even if they do the things you mention, it's still leaving the AI or original article to determine structure, covered topics, points of view, and other things which should be intentionally chosen. I'd just throw the whole thing out - I wouldn't give the editor a mop to clean-up :) --Edwin Herdman (talk) 22:44, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello @~2025-33734-00. To add to what Andy said: in articles in many Wikipedias (and also in many older articles in English Wikipedia) the sources cited are nowhere near adequate for an article to be added to English Wikipedia today. Translating an article from another Wikipedia (whether manually or with machine assistance) is a waste of time unless you first verify that the sources are adequate by the current standards of English Wikipedia (see WP:42). ColinFine (talk) 19:36, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Beyond all the good and useful answers you already received, there's this: The large amount of extra work forced on you by the errors of AI is probably much worse than just writing a completely new article that's in English from the start.

Using AI here is like asking a three-year-old to cook dinner for four people; you already know you're going to have to redo the entire thing. TooManyFingers (talk) 05:10, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Using AI here is like asking a shopping website for the best cheapest product in a category, it will recommend the product with the highest profit, hide items for corporate reasons, and other tactics. AI services are not "altruistic".

Piñanana (talk) 19:20, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for asking instead of just doing it :) I don't have a problem with automating needlessly repetitive formatting tasks, but there's many appropriate tools, like a citation builder, and their output still needs to be checked. However, you're also giving over full interpretative and editorial control to the AI. You can't guarantee that an AI won't do more in a 'formatting pass' than you asked for. A more 'consistent' translation may look reasonable, but be wrong.

Even if I ask the best human experts hand translate the article, we don't know if it is good for English Wikipedia. We might not want the same structure, conclusions, and points of view. It might not be considered notable here (sad noises).

There's no rush to translate an entire article at once, even though there's many more articles to translate than we have the time. Good articles are still built up slowly over time. It's no big deal if you have to flag an article as incomplete, but it is a big deal if you publish an article with subtle errors that will stick around for a long time (it happens anyway, but we want to avoid it by checking each step). I don't know if you've written Wikipedia articles before, so I'd suggest practicing smaller edits before going for a full essay. You don't have to know all the Wikipedia rules and tools, or be a subject expert before you edit, but people won't tolerate pretending to do the work.

Citation builders and machine translators may be useful to you personally, but so are the groups and editors that cover various topics. If you have something interesting, try reaching out to them and see if it's useful to them. Just make sure you're paying attention to any step you're involved in, and don't assume any automated tool is correct. --Edwin Herdman (talk) 22:31, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

• Never, ever use AI to translate from Japanese to English. It does not work. Never, ever incorporate translated Japanese Wikipedia articles into the English Wikipedia without substantial review. The Japanese Wikipedia has very different standards. Most of its articles lack anything close to the kind of sourcing we require here, and are often written from a purely Japanese perspective. Japanese Wikipedia articles can be useful for gathering sources, but the articles themselves are very rarely good enough to serve as the basis for an article on the English Wikipedia. There are human translators on the English Wikipedia, such as myself, who would be happy to provide assistance as needed. Yours, &c. RGloucester — ☎ 01:54, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

I need help displaying a map properly; Openstreetmap relation is created, can't get it to show up in the article

Hello, I tried to get this to work for some time but had no luck. I've asked for help elsewhere but people only seem to know wikipedia or openstreetmap, not both. Is there someone who can please help who speaks both? No matter the attempts I made I just couldn't seem to crack it.

The relation in question is here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19476256

The article in question is The Stourbridge Line (note the commented code right in the infobox).

Thanks in advance to whomever can help! Kether83 (talk) 16:19, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

@Kether83 If you don't quickly get help here, ask again at WP:Graphics Lab/Map workshop, where the specialists hang out and you can submit a new request. Mike Turnbull (talk) 17:59, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks; much appreciated. I think this marinated here long enough and I'll reach out now. Kether83 (talk) 17:04, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

I commented on Kether83's Graphics lab post but an OSM editor needs to take a look. Commander Keane (talk) 14:27, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Pages

How can i create a page for a person ~2025-34620-12 (talk) 12:00, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-34620-12 Please read Help:Your first article and our criteria for assessing whether someone should have an article at all (we call this notability). If the "person" you have in mind is yourself, best to forget the idea as we strongly discourage WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY for the reasons explained at that link. In any case, if you are unfamiliar with Wikipedia policies and guidelines you would be better off editing existing articles for a while to gain experience. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:07, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome to the helpdesk.

Making a new article is one of the most challenging things to do on Wikipedia, even for experienced editors. It requires a robust understanding of policies and guidelines like notability and neutral point of view, as well as technical skills like finding and citing sources and formatting your article in accordance with the manual of style. It's not something we recommend new editors try to do right away.

I would strongly advise that you first spend a while (at least a couple of weeks) participating in discussions here at the Teahouse and at noticeboards, asking questions, and editing already-existing articles to build the knowledge and skills I've mentioned above, and then come back to the article creation process later.

Like the rest of us, you're here because you want to contribute to an encyclopedia. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to contribute other than creating articles. You can copyedit (see gnoming), patrol the Recent Changes page to revert vandalism, get involved with a WikiProject you're interested in (like WP:AICLEANUP for me), read through discussions on boards like WP:ANI to see how disputes are handled here, etc. Athanelar (talk) 23:01, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

I have been asked to create a Wikipedia page. I am an experienced website editor and spending "at least a couple of weeks" participating in discussions seems like overkill. I just want to post one page. Lkmorrisseyndu (talk) 20:05, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

If that's the case, then I recommend you simply read WP:BOSS and tell whoever asked you to make an article about them that it's not going to work out.

Being an 'experienced website editor' gives you no advantage here. As I said, making an article here is a complex task which requires a solid understanding of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If you've been asked to create a page about someone on their behalf, then you need to be familiar with our conflict of interest guidelines for example. You should also be aware that promotional content is forbidden on Wikipedia. And that's assuming this person is even notable enough to warrant an article about them; which 99% of the time people who commission an article about themselves are not.

You have no idea how Wikipedia works, and you're here to fulfill a commission rather than to build an encyclopedia. If you don't have the time to spare to learn to make an article properly, then you're not going to be successful at making an article, so you're going to end up wasting your time, your client's time, and our time for nothing. Athanelar (talk) 20:13, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Uncertainty in year category

If someone is said to have been born c. year BY, should the category be BY births or Year of birth uncertain? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:30, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

@Clarityfiend To make life more difficult or easier: why not both? So let's say Category:2025 births and Category:Year of birth uncertain? Polygnotus (talk) 04:11, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't like having two mutually exclusive categories, so I'm going to go with the latter. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:21, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Well, you are (a) Clarityfiend. Polygnotus (talk) 10:26, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Often a Category:Births by decade subcategory will be applicable. jlwoodwa (talk) 18:18, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

@Jlwoodwa: Excellent suggestion. Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:23, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

No place to enter code in app

I’m using an older version of the app on my iPad mini 4 and it’s sending a verification code to my email and I’m supposed to enter it in the app. However, there’s no place to enter it. KaposiaDarcy (talk) 17:27, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

@KaposiaDarcy: I haven't heard of verification codes specially for the app. Maybe you can enter it in a browser. If the mail has a link and tapping it opens the app then try the same address in a browser. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:11, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

If this is about Apples 2FA, you can enter the code on old devices by typing your password and then the code. something like this (password123456) with the numbers being the 2FA code mgjertson (talk) (contribs) 20:12, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Want to create a page for my supervisor

Could you please help me or direct me for making a bography page for my professor Azs0242 (talk) 19:43, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

@Azs0242 Hello! Who is your supervisor/professor? Thanks, Polygnotus (talk) 19:46, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Azs0242 (ec) My advice to you is- in short- don't, at least not now. The longer version you should read WP:BOSS for, you should also read conflict of interest. It takes much effort and skill to create a new article, and diving right in to the process is not recommended, not without first spending time editing existing articles in areas that interest you, and using the new user tutorial. Diving right in often leads to frustration and anger, which we do not want for you. 331dot (talk) 19:49, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the suggestion, I really appriciate it Azs0242 (talk) 07:16, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

@Azs0242: also, you can take a look at Wikipedia:Notability (academics) which deals with professors. Commander Keane (talk) 14:46, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Taxable

Are certificates of deposits taxable and when?  ~2025-34956-59 (talk) 21:28, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

This is not a general help desk, and we cannot give you tax or financial advice; please consult a qualified professional. 331dot (talk) 21:32, 19 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) 20:13, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Quantum computers

quantum computors ~2025-34982-53 (talk) 22:38, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

If you're asking for help editing the article Quantum computing, then please specify the kind of help that you want. -- Hoary (talk) 23:01, 19 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) 20:13, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Neighbours andrew robinson

there is some wrong information on Andrew robinson neighbours wikepedia page Darren pearn (talk) 11:40, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

in which case, you should go to Talk:Andrew Robinson (Neighbours), and explain what it is that you think is false, providing the necessary source to back this up. AndyTheGrump (talk) 11:46, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

ok Darren pearn (talk) 11:47, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

...like this. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:22, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Yes Darren pearn (talk) 14:55, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

The comments and requests now at Talk:Andrew Robinson (Neighbours)#Andrew robinson are of no value, Darren pearn, as none of them points to a reliable source for what the writer asserts.-- Hoary (talk) 23:49, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

How to delete my account

How do i delete my wikipedia account Wikwritergal (talk) 17:21, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, Wikiwritergal. For legal reasons related to attribution of your contributions, it is not possible to delete an account. You can simply abandon the account and stop editing. If you want to conceal your past contributions, please read Wikipedia:Courtesy vanishing. Cullen328 (talk) 17:28, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

You have made only three edits, of which only the question above is still live. Just abandon the account and stop using it. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:38, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

retrieve draft?

Hi - I was still working on the draft page for Robert Caughlan and it was removed for copyright but I hadn't intended for it to live, just to save the changes. Is there a way to retrieve the work?

Christinanevada67 (talk) 19:33, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Copyright violations cannot be restored. Note that clicking "publish changes" makes your edit visible to the public. (Even a draft) 331dot (talk) 19:44, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

If there is a significant amount of original material, and only some copyvio, a kind admin might be willing to email the content to you, so long as you give a clear undertaking not to repost the copyvio. Ask at WP:REFUND. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:40, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

eBay Seller is offering Wikipedia backlinks for money

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326314545854 Create a backlink on Wikipedia for your website ~2025-35278-02 (talk) 21:02, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

also this one sold 31 @ $29.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325755879922 ~2025-35278-02 (talk) 21:06, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

We can't do much about this unless you can prove that whomever is offering that has edited here, see WP:REPORTPAID. 331dot (talk) 21:17, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Our software automatically adds nofollow (see meta:nofollow) to external links so this service is nearly worthless if the advertiser even adds the links. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:26, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

They're using the Wikipedia logo, so WMF may be able to get the ads taken down on that basis (though that won't stop them returning with new branding). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:32, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Urgent help

Some one is using my account I don't get reset password on my email ~2025-35254-43 (talk) 21:57, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

If you don't have access to the account and the email has been changed, your options may be limited. It depends on the situation, though. For more information, see Wikipedia:Compromised accounts#After being compromised —Rutebega (talk) 22:36, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Roland Barthes

Evidence from multiple reputable sources suggests that Roland Barthes died on March 26, 1980, rather than on March 25. Could someone verify this information and make the necessary correction? ~2025-35212-81 (talk) 00:59, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

Please suggest this on Talk:Roland Barthes, providing the necessary sources. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:07, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

to add to the above, I note that one source cited in the article body, Le Monde states March 26. As does the Washington Post, if I've got the days of the week right. [1] I can't access the source cited in the lede though (I think it is supposed to be Roland Barthes: Or the Profession of Cultural Studies by Martin McQuillan, though it isn't entirely clear), and it should still be discussed on the talk page. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:25, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

archives chronically overloaded

"The server at archive.is is taking too long to respond."

web.archive.org/save/ "The capture will start in ~10 minutes because our service is currently overloaded. You may close your browser window and the page will still be saved."

GPT LLM

Piñanana (talk) 19:08, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

Do you have a question? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:57, 21 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) 18:04, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Publisher Changes Over Time

If I cite an old article from a website like The A.V. Club and I want to specify who the publisher/parent company is. Do I use the company that owned it at the time that the article was published (i.e. depending on the year it could be Onion Inc., G/O Media, Paste Media Group) or the company that owns it now? TipsyElephant (talk) 02:43, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, TipsyElephant. Use the publisher at the time of publication. That was the correct moment in time. "Now" is ever changing. Cullen328 (talk) 03:56, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Template:Cite web#Publisher says the publisher at the time of publication, but that "publisher" is rarely used for websites or periodicals. TSventon (talk) 04:05, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Draft:Analyn Anzano Cabras error

I'm trying to fix lint errors, and when I came across Draft:Analyn Anzano Cabras I saw that the entire page is bold, and the text that should be bold is just bolder than the irregularly bold text. Looking at the source of the article, there doesn't seem to be any reason for this. It doesn't even seem to be through a template, as it says on the lint error search page for it (except for the manually bolded {{Draft}} template). dot.py 02:50, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Somebody bolded the actual "draft" template. Unbolding that fixed the problem. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:25, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Oh, I never knew that bolding the template did that! Will keep that in mind if I encounter that again. Cheers! dot.py 04:37, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

The code said '''{{draft|Analyn Anzano Cabras}}'''. It's risky to add bold or italics around a template call because it may interfere with the template output which in this case also had code for bold. HTML has different code <b> and </b> for start and end of bold but MediaWiki has the same ''' (similar for italics ''). It's easy to write but sometimes causes trouble when an intended end is interpreted as a start. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:45, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Two articles

I Love My Country (Dutch TV series) and Ik hou van Holland are redundant.

Piñanana (talk) 13:28, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Not so; the former is about the overall concept; the latter about the specific national version, comparable with I Love My Country (British TV series). Perhaps the former should be at "I Love My Country (TV series)"? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:43, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

In I Love My Country (Dutch TV series) the infobox and whole lead except the last third of the last sentence is about the Dutch TV series so it's confusing. Maybe the lead should be rewritten and the title changed to "I Love My Country (franchise)" like Big Brother (franchise) which also started as a Dutch TV series. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:01, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

split as:

I Love My Country (Dutch TV series) Ik hou van Holland

I Love My Country (TV franchise) I Love My Country (Dutch TV series)

??? Piñanana (talk) 14:14, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps. This would be better discussed on a talk page - perhaps the talk page of the franchise article, with a pointer to that discussion on the other talk page. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:31, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Verifiability

I saw in some media format articles including this featured article that is a book—I saw it in some videogames, movies and tv shows too—when they write content summary it is without citation to any source. why is this allowed in wikipedia, where everything should be cited to a trusted source? Vastmajority20025 (talk) 13:52, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Are you talking about the lead? (i.e., the part of the article above all the section headers?)

As per MOS:LEADCITE, it's normal (and acceptable) to not cite the info in the lead; because the lead should summarise the info in the rest of the article, and the claims should be sourced when they appear there. Although some discretion should be used e.g. for particularly controversial claims. The necessity for citations in a lead should be determined on a case-by-case basis by editorial consensus. Complex, current, or controversial subjects may require many citations; others, few or none. Athanelar (talk) 14:01, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

No @Athanelar, I'm not talking about lead section, I know what you said about lead. In articles about books, movies and tv shows, even those that are featured ones—like Synopsis section of this, that is a featured article—editors write the content summary of that media material, and they dont cite to any source, that's what I'm talking about. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 18:03, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Well, because the source for a synopsis is naturally the book itself. What would you expect them to cite? Athanelar (talk) 18:51, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

In wikipedia everything you write has to be cited to a reliable source, but in the case im talking about, this rule is just allowed to be not followed, and it's not in some articles, it's in some featured articles too—like the one i mentioned. I wanna know if this is under a specific rule in wikipedia. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 19:46, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

There is a specific rule that you don't cite the original book when giving a plot summary, because it's obvious that that's where the information comes from.

There is another specific rule that you don't give a citation for a fact that is merely what anyone would expect (for example, in an article about a lake, you shouldn't put any references that the lake contains water and is mainly surrounded by land). TooManyFingers (talk) 04:37, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Please give some examples. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:57, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025 Have you seen MOS:PLOTSOURCE? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 22:32, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you @Gråbergs Gråa Sång! In WP:PLOTREF I found what I was looking for. It is actually allowed—for example—to just read a book chapter by chapter or watch a movie yourself, and with standards written in MOS:PLOT, write the plot section of it without citing to any source, but with below conditions noted in WP:PLOTREF:

“If the summary includes a direct quotation from the work, then Wikipedia:Verifiability requires it to have an inline citation, just like any other direct quotation. Inline citations from the primary work can also be helpful (but are not required) to source key or complex plot points. If all or most of the summary has been derived not from the work itself but from a comprehensive plot summary in a reliable secondary source, citing that source is recommended as a convenience to others”.

@Andy Mabbett, you wanted example, here some other examples that are featured articles: Everything Tastes Better with Bacon, The Beginning of the End (Lost) and A Beautiful Crime.

Yeah @TooManyFingers, but It seemed so out of place, because in here, the most obvious strict rule is cite everything you write to a reliable source, you can't just read publication informations of a book—like when it got published, place of publication, translations, etc. and dont cite to anything, or criticisms of it and not cite them to anything, but in writing plot section, I found out that this is actually allowed, and is an exception. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 14:11, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Changing knitting needle size

I'm starting a sweater that calls for a #9 circular needle. In knitting the pattern it seems that the pattern is too loose so I'd like to charge to a smaller needed like a 4. If I do, do I double the number of stitches from the beginning such as originally starting with 50 stitches to 100 stitches? Freshdesign2 (talk) 19:20, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. Jauerback^dude?/_dude. 19:33, 22 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) 18:05, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Logging in

Could you tell me how can I log into my account if I don't remember my username? ~2025-35639-01 (talk) 20:41, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @~2025-35639-01. Do you remember any articles you edited? You can look through their history for a name that rings a bell.

Alternatively, if you remember something distinctive that you put on your user page, you could do an advanced search for that in Namespace User.

Other than those, I can't think of anything to suggest. ColinFine (talk) 20:53, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

If you gave an email address, check your emails for one welcoming you to Wikipedia. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:55, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

If you stored your email address then you can use Special:PasswordReset to get both username and a temporary password. See more at Help:Logging in#What if I forget my username? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:19, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Weird text in image caption

I looked at Etching#/media/File:Tools of etching.svg, and the caption at the bottom looked like this:

.mw-parser-output .messagebox{margin:4px 0;width:auto;border-collapse:collapse;border:2px solid var(--border-color-progressive,#6485d1);background-color:var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#fbfcff);color:var(--color-base,#202122);box-sizing:border-box;border-inline-start-width:8px}.mw-parser-output .messagebox.mbox-small{font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .mbox-warning,.mw-parser-output .mbox-speedy{border:2px solid var(--border-color-error,#b22222);background:var(--background-color-error-subtle,#ffdbdb);border-inline-start-width:8px}.mw-parser-output ...

And so on, until it eventually got to the real text:

... img{max-width:none!important}This image has been created during "DensityDesign Integrated Course Final Synthesis Studio" at Politecnico di Milano, organized by DensityDesign Research Lab in 2016. Credits goes to Carola Barnaba • CC BY-SA 4.0

I don't know where the problem is coming from. Is this something that can be fixed by editing the page, or does an actual web developer need to get involved? FactoidCow (talk) 00:35, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

EDIT: I guess the problem lies in how the Commons template (c:Template:DensityDesign/2016) interacts with the caption box. But I'm still not sure what to do about it. FactoidCow (talk) 00:42, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

@FactoidCow: It only happens in the mobile version, not desktop. The caption is actually "Steps in the typical technique" from Etching#Printmaking technique in detail and is displayed correctly by MediaViewer. Below that it tries to write the author in the "Author" field at File:Tools of etching.svg#Summary, but the field is a box and MediaViewer ends up exposing its HTML to the viewer. The box is made by commons:Template:DensityDesign/2016 and the same happens for other images using it. I don't have more time now but may investigate more tomorrow. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:44, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

@Jon Harald Søby: The exposed code is CSS from commons:Module:Message box/mbox.css. This is similar to phab:T211444 where it was the description field and you made a fix. This time it's the author field. Can you handle it? PrimeHunter (talk) 19:46, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

I've contributed articles to Wikipedia before, but I'm not allowed to anymore.

I keep getting stuff about "practice before you contribute your first article." Why? Bmwilcox (talk) 01:29, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bmwilcox: Can you provide the entirety of the error message? Children Will Listen (🐄 talk, 🫘 contribs) 01:40, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Also give the exact title of the article you are trying to create. You can create most titles by just entering them in the search box and clicking a link on the resulting page. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:44, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia Article Creation Help

Dear Team,

I am serving as non-executive director for a company on unpaid basis, where the company has gained good attention and popularity across reputed and mainstream media's. Now, am I allowed to create a wikipedia company page for the same company thereby citing relevant online sources and references? Your opinion and comments will be appreciated. Malaya Kumar Biswal M (talk) 05:03, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

See WP:BOSS and Your first article. This is never recommended due to the conflict of interest involved.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 07:50, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, and welcome to the Teahouse.

You've indicated that you want to write an article about a company or organisation you appear to have a connection to.

First of all, we strongly discourage editors from creating or editing articles relating to subjects they have a connection to, especially in the case of corporations and organisations where this usually takes the form of paid editing. If you still wish to proceed, please thoroughly read everything below.

Warning against COI editing

First and foremost this is because conflict of interest editing often results in issues with the neutral point of view expected on Wikipedia, due to biases whether consciously or unconsciously. While you may not intend to be biased, the types of information you include or exclude from an article are likely to be skewed by your connection to the subject. It's also very common for conflicts of interest to result in promotional writing such as advertisement-like articles for companies or resume-like articles for people. You may innocently intend to 'raise awareness' or 'correct misinformation' about the subject, but this is still promotion, and promotion of any kind is not allowed on Wikipedia.

People with conflicts of interest tend to be very bad at gauging whether the thing they're writing about meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines. In order for a subject to have a Wikipedia article it needs to be 'notable,' which is a word that has a particular and slightly unintuitive meaning here on Wikipedia. There are a number of different criteria for notability depending on the subject, such as the 'general' notability guidelines, the guidelines for notability of companies or organisations, the notability of creative professionals etc. The vast majority of people and companies are not notable in the Wikipedia sense, and do not warrant a Wikipedia article about them. A good rule of thumb is that if a person or company is notable enough to justify a Wikipedia article, then soon enough somebody else will write it for them, and there's no need to do it yourself. So if you're here to write an article about yourself or someone or something connected to you, it's generally a good indicator that the subject does not yet meet Wikipedia's notability requirements. A special note is necessary here that ChatGPT and other AIs do not understand Wikipedia notability. It's very common for COI-writing newcomers to get themselves confused because they ask ChatGPT whether they should write an article about themselves/their company and it spits out a few trivial sources and claims that these sources constitute 'notability.' You need to thoroughly read the notability guidelines relating to the subject you want to write about and make sure you understand whether the available sources support the notability of the subject. Do not try to take shortcuts by asking an AI, it will likely be wrong.

It's very common that articles written by those connected to the subject end up being written backwards. This means that you first write the article with everything you know about the subject due to your connection to it, and then try to find sources to confirm the information you've written. This is the wrong way to write a Wikipedia article. As an encyclopedia, the purpose of Wikipedia is to summarise the existing information available about a subject in reliable, independent secondary sources. The goal is not to present new information or to synthesise multiple existing sources to provide new conclusions. When writing an article you must first search for sources relating to the subject (appropriate sources, those meeting the golden rule) and only include information in the article which is written in the sources. You may well know information about the subject which is not available in any of the existing sources, but you must not include this kind of 'original research' in your article. It is understandably frustrating to want to provide certain information and not be able to, but that is the limitation of writing for an encyclopedia, and precisely why we strongly discourage people from writing about subjects they are connected to. If the existing sources don't say it, you can't put it in an article.

You should also keep in mind that having an article about yourself, your company etc is not always a good thing. You (or the person or company you're writing on behalf of) do not own the article, and cannot control what is in it. If you're writing about this company because you're an employee and your boss or colleagues have asked you to do it, then please thoroughly read WP:BOSS and report the information therein back to them.

If after reading all of that, you still think you can go ahead and beat the odds and create this article, then follow the steps below.

Writing a COI article

First, and most important, you need to disclose your conflict of interest. There are instructions on how to do this at WP:COI If your conflict of interest involves being paid to create this article, you should follow the instructions at WP:PAID to disclose that also.

Next, heed what I said above about not writing an article backwards. You need to forget everything you know about the subject of the article, which is obviously the most difficult part. Search Google and elsewhere for sources first. Remember that those sources need to be reliable, independent and secondary. Avoid trivial coverage such as listicles, especially when writing about companies as this type of day-to-day corporate coverage is very common. The sources you use need to actually prove the subject's notability (according to the most relevant guidelines) as I discussed above, which passing/trivial coverage does not. If you use ChatGPT or another AI to find sources for you (which you shouldn't), you must double-check the sources yourself and verify that they actually say what the AI claims they do, because source-to-text inconsistencies are extremely common when using LLMs to search for sources.

Once that's done, you can extract information from the sources and write your article. For guidance on that, follow Help:Your first article and feel free to ask any more specific questions here at the Teahouse.

Athanelar (talk) 12:04, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

The fact that you are in an unpaid non-executive position doesn't change the fact that you have a conflict of interest when writing about the company. TooManyFingers (talk) 14:31, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

{{{case: ~ }}}

What does {{{case: ~ }}} mean in {{{case: {{{1|}}}|{{{default|}}}}}}? (from this) Whatback11 (talk) 12:05, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Whatback11. I can't find that it means anything. Notice that that template didn't last long. ColinFine (talk) 13:01, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

You may get an answer by asking at WP:VPT. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:46, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

That isn't any kind of special syntax. It's just a parameter reference, where another parameter is used to determine which parameter to reference. jlwoodwa (talk) 20:55, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Do any of these sources provide significant coverage of this topic?

See also: Wikipedia:Source assessment/JackSucksAtLife

At Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Draft:JackSucksAtLife, the user Georgeykiwi stated that the now-deleted draft included a few reliable sources, but they were only mentioned by name. I recently asked for links to them and I received an answer really quickly, so here they are:

• "Inside Cameo's Stan Economy". GQ Magazine.
• "German Union IG Metall is Backing YouTubers Fighting Google". Bloomberg UK. August 14, 2019.
• "YouTuber Oszukal YouTube by Zdobyc Prestizowa Nagrode". Gry-Online.
• "YouTuber Ermogelt Sich Diamond Button". Gamestar.

If none of these sources constitute significant coverage of JackSucksAtLife, or the ones that do only cover him in the context of one event, then that would explain why they weren't enough to save the draft. – MrPersonHumanGuy (talk) 13:37, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

GQ looks okay. I can't assess Bloomberg (walled). Gry-Online and Gamestar are about him exploiting YouTube to get an award he was not eligible for. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v ^{threads critiques} 16:57, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Would a bot have repaired this page's archive fault?

The bot's addition to Wikipedia:Help desk/Archive 74 reduced the archive from showing 156 sections to 119. I've repaired it by putting nowiki tags around an unclosed ref tag. (It wasn't closed because the help request was about a cite error and quoted the error message "Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).") Would some other bot have repaired it anyway, and would it have been better if I'd left well alone? NebY (talk) 15:04, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

No; you did the right thing. Thank you. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:01, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Oh cool, thanks. Now to figure out how to check if it's happened to any other archives. NebY (talk) 16:21, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Eyebombing creator

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OJQdjiHXcU&list=PLfFsdmim5aec-BPLW6eM3lUAyUqGyZQRC&index=46&t=13s
• https://medium.com/@nixiep/the-origins-of-eyebombing-3203d18da5d9

I just want to give credit where credit is due, so here are two more pieces of evidence, if needed, that "eyebombing" was indeed born in Aix-en-Provence and that its creator is the French artist Do Benracassa, residing in Aix-en-Provence, and not the two Danish artists who appropriated the concept by simply changing the name to "eyebombing"! The French artist Do Benracassa created this concept in 1984, and here is the link to his website: https://www.do-benracassa.com/eyebombing-france/ ~2025-35834-96 (talk) 18:20, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Is this not more suitable for the talk page of googly eyes? GarethBaloney (talk) 18:26, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

The Youtube link is to a video, seemingly from a TV program but reaching us via the channel "la Chaine de Do Benracassa", in which Do Benracassa chats with others. Not a source independent of Benracassa (and perhaps also problematic in terms of copyright status). The Medium article is by "Nixie P", who isn't obviously a reliable source. And you link to a third source, to Do Benracassa's website. None of these three sources is both reliable and independent of Do Benracassa. So there's no point presenting them as evidence. If you do have other, sound sources, then yes, Talk:Googly eyes would be where you could use them to argue your point. -- Hoary (talk) 07:20, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

If there is BLP why is there no BDP

I just wiki-wonder in my wiki-sense why there is biographies of living persons and there is no biographies of dead persons? Theknoledgeableperson (|have a chat) 19:51, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Theknoledgeableperson. If you see a need for such a subject, feel free to open a discussion at WP:VPP or perhaps WP:VPI, and argue the case for why it is needed.

The very first edit to WP:BLP, back in 2005, had the edit summary "I started this due to the Daniel Brandt situation". Perhaps you want to go looking for that and find out why it was felt to be needed. ColinFine (talk) 20:11, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

ok thanks Theknoledgeableperson (|have a chat) 20:16, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

You can't libel the dead. That's why. DuncanHill (talk) 20:16, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

That is one reason, certainly. More generally though, the community seems, from the policies enacted, to recognise a moral obligation to avoid causing harm to living people, or at least to minimise the unnecessary harm that can occur with unregulated content that doesn't properly belong in something that claims to be an encyclopaedia. As to whether this worthy objective is achieved as often as it should be, opinions differ. AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:29, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

But there is a WP:BDP. It has been previously observed that BLP is just standard policy, but done with an urgency to reduce harm. Therein lies the key difference. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 20:21, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

@Zzuuzz, WP:BDP is for recntly dead people covered by WP:BLP, Theknoledgeableperson (|have a chat) 20:24, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

I think a big part of the reason is that fewer people would benefit from lying about someone who died a long time ago. It happens, but apparently it's been kept under control well enough using the normal policies. TooManyFingers (talk) 21:39, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Note that the policy includes the section: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Recently dead or probably dead. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:12, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

It's not exclusively for dead people, but perhaps WP:MOSBIO has something of what you're after. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:50, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

National Historic Register Listings for Maryland

I have been uploading photos for Wicomico and Talbot Counties in Maryland, but not seeing them show on the listings. Could someone check status please? Linda Roy Walls (talk) 04:43, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, Linda Roy Walls. This is your first ever edit to the English Wikipedia. I see that you have uploaded a lot of photos of historic buildings to Wikimedia Commons, which is a separate but related project. Thanks for that. If you want to use these images in English Wikipedia articles, then you will have to link to the image files in those articles. It does not happen automatically. See Help: Images. Cullen328 (talk) 05:45, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@Linda Roy Walls For example, like so: [2] Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:55, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

What do you mean by "listings"? If you mean categories like c:Category:National Register of Historic Places in Maryland or c:Category:National Register of Historic Places in Talbot County, Maryland, then you—or someone—needs to add them to each file page. This will happen eventually, as other volunteers get around to it, or you can do it by following the guidance on c:Commons:Categories.

Note that all those pages are on Wikimedia Commons, not Wikipedia. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:59, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

All your uploads are at:

Wikimedia Commons TooManyFingers (talk) 17:38, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Oops - I forgot to @Linda Roy Walls TooManyFingers (talk) 17:39, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

[3] is perhaps more viewable. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:44, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

If listings means pages like National Register of Historic Places listings in Talbot County, Maryland I have added an image here as an example. TSventon (talk) 17:55, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Ok, I think I may see the issue. When the article says "Upload image" like that, it's natural to assume the upload will be added on that page. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:59, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, the uploads do eventually show up on the Historic listings page, but this month, it took much longer than usual. I assumed I was doing something wrong. I wanted to get that cleared up before I continue my photo uploads as a devoted volunteer. And thanks for all you do too! Linda Roy Walls (talk) 20:47, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

I need a list of journals on my project work

Antibacterial potential of senna alata against Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from nosocomial wounds. ~2025-36090-42 (talk) 13:18, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

It's up to you to find the journals required, nobody's going to do your research for you, but if you need access try Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:36, 24 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) 18:08, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-36090-42 I just placed your exact text into Google Scholar, which gave this result. Had you not already tried that? Mike Turnbull (talk) 18:26, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

GIF instead of screenshot

Can I use a GIF of a few seconds instead of a screenshot to show a videogame's gameplay? If yes, how many seconds of the gameplay can I use in the article? Vastmajority20025 (talk) 14:11, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

I'm not seeing anything in MOS:VGIMAGES or WP:SCREENSHOT that would preclude you from using an animated GIF for a gameplay screenshot. However I'm not sure how useful a non-static image would be while still keeping inside the size limits for a non-free image and within the limits on the length of an animated GIF (5 seconds per MOS:ANIMATION) Amstrad00 (talk) 15:27, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

{TCMdb}

{TCMdb} https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/913841|41847/Dwain-Esper/

now redirect to https://www.tcm.com/

but they all say "powered by AFI"

so

https://catalog.afi.com/Person/41847-Dwain-Esper

exists

so, for all https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/*

there is a https://catalog.afi.com/*

Piñanana (talk) 15:47, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Piñanana. What is your question about Wikipedia? ColinFine (talk) 16:16, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

About disambiguation; how to disambiguate an article about a person

I created an article about a well-known Irish musician, Martin McHugh, and added citations. There are three other Wikipedia articles on people named Martin McHugh, all listed on a disambiguation page. They are distinguished by parenthetical expressions following each of their names, for instance, Martin McHugh, (Gaelic Footballer). In creating the article about the musician, I followed this style practice, naming the article Martin McHugh, (traditional musician). Now that the new article has been created, however, I cannot locate it with a search unless I search for the entire name, "Martin McHugh, (traditional musician)", and the article does not appear on the disambiguation page with the others named Martin McHugh.

My question:

How to disambiguate the new article so that by searching Martin McHugh a reader will taken to the disambiguation page to see the listing for Martin McHugh (traditional musician) as well as the other three Martin McHugh articles? Ucumcoru (talk) 19:41, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

I added Martin McHugh (traditional musician) to Martin McHugh(the disambiguation page). I would question having the word "traditional" as a disambiguator as there are no other musicians described on the disambiguation page. 331dot (talk) 19:49, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Good point, thanks. Can I simply delete the word traditional from the parenthetical expression?

If not, how to change the disabiguator to "(musician)"? Ucumcoru (talk) 20:11, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

You can Wikipedia:Move the article from "Martin McHugh (traditional musician)" to "Martin McHugh (musician)". TSventon (talk) 20:26, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Going back to the original question, I expect that the search didn't work because you search a cached version of the database, but the article is appearing in Wikipedia searches now. I don't know why searching for the entire name, "Martin McHugh (traditional musician)" was different. TSventon (talk) 21:03, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining. Ucumcoru (talk) 23:17, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

On a side note, years should be added to human name dab pages. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:06, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

What action to take?

If you mark an article for CSD, which explicitly states in bold do not remove this notice from pages that you have created yourself., and yet the article creator still removes it, and attempts to hide it among other edits, what do you do? Should you go to WP:ANI immediately? Wikieditor662 (talk) 20:31, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Which article are you referencing? 331dot (talk) 22:48, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

unless there is something more significant going on, I would start by reverting and substing a Template:uw-speedy1 or Template:uw-speedy2 on their talk page. If they persist I'm not sure there's a dedicated venue but ANI could certainly handle it. —Rutebega (talk) 22:48, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Filter 1,060 usually stops this from happening. SuperPianoMan9167 (talk) 23:24, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@331dot I was referring to the 2025 ITF Fujairah Championships – Doubles article

@Rutebega Thanks, although giving two warnings beforehand means making 2 reverts beforehand which I think is a form of edit warring, which I want to avoid.

@SuperPianoMan9167 Appreciated, but how do I apply this filter?

Wikieditor662 (talk) 03:49, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

The edit filter is automatic, but in this case it didn't catch the edit. Removing deletion tags without a valid reason is a type of vandalism so reverting it might be 3RR exempt, but either way you should at least leave some kind of note about it on the creator's talk page, which creates an opportunity to discuss and see if it's just a misunderstanding. —Rutebega (talk) 04:08, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Looking more closely, CSD A10 doesn't apply to that article. If you think it should be merged, you should discuss it on the talk page. —Rutebega (talk) 04:18, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I gave them the Template:uw-speedy1 warning. Do I still revert because they vandalized, or do I just let it be? And as for the merge, is there a more formal way to do this, or do I just have to bring it up on the talk page? Because I'm worried the talk page may not be seen by enough people. Wikieditor662 (talk) 05:14, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Lua Modules Help

Hello everyone, this is not an editing question.

How can i invoke {{PAGENAME}, {{#property:P345}} or anything simillar directly from a Lua Scribunto module, if even possible. Or do i have to pass the values as args in {{#invoke:module_name|___}}.

I am new to Wikipedia Lua Modules, and i would like your assistance/help.

Thank you in advance. Mant08 (talk) 23:02, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@Mant08 I think you'll have more luck asking over at WP:VPT. Polygnotus (talk) 23:14, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@Polygnotus Isn't WP:VPT, only for issues/bugs though? Mant08 (talk) 23:27, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

@Mant08 Ideally, MediaWiki bugs should be posted on Phabricator. A question like yours should go to WP:VPT: The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia.. Polygnotus (talk) 23:51, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Don't use the {{PAGENAME}} magic word; use: mw.title.getCurrentTitle().text. See mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#Title_library

Fetching stuff from wikidata is more complex. See wikibase.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:05, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Polygnotus Thank you for informing me about the correct help request avenues, and the speed of you responding.

@Trappist the monk Thank you for providing this amount of specialised information and answering the original question. Mant08 (talk) 00:13, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hotel Haegumgang

Hotel Haegumgang is claimed to be the worlds first floating hotel (since 1988), yet the RMS Queen Mary has been a hotel since 1971 and in Kashmir (and probably other places) houseboats were used as hotels in the 19th century. Queen Mary Hotel opened her doors in 1972 and you can still stay there although people don't recommend it. Polygnotus (talk) 23:14, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

I suppose it could be argued that a structure specifically designed to be a floating, though static, hotel is more properly a hotel than a passenger ship repurposed for this function. If the latter were admitted, we might also have to consider Prison ships (including hulks) which have been used to house people (though involuntarily) in numbers (as opposed to houseboats) for centuries. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2025-31359-08 (talk) 01:06, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah I think it is far more likely that it may be the first floating structure specifically designed and built to be a hotel, according to some guy who tried to promote it and probably didn't spent a lot of time and effort trying to disprove that claim.

When the British left following Independence in 1947, there were fears the houseboat business would die out, but the owners re-purposed them into hotels catering to visiting Indian tourists, marketing them astutely as “floating palaces.” Then, in the 1960s, the houseboats became a popular draw for internationals travelers on the so-called “Hippie Trail,” an overland route between Europe and Southeast Asia.[4]

These floating hotels that have rested on the lakes of Kashmir since the 1800s,[5]

In 1961 Hikawa Maru was permanently berthed at Yamashita Park, Naka-ku, Yokohama, as a floating museum, hotel and restaurant. --Hikawa Maru.

I am gonna remove the claim because it is very unlikely to be true. Polygnotus (talk) 02:12, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

merging cells in a table

How does one bring up the ​ table with downward triangle ​ menu button from ​ Help:Introduction to tables with VisualEditor/2 , ​ to merge cells in a table? ​ ​ ​ When I try to create such a table, I'm only seeing the version without the downward triangle, and that doesn't give a "merge" option. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ JumpDiscont (talk) 00:18, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@JumpDiscont: Click in the table. Drag the mouse to mark cells you want to merge. Which table is it about? Some tables are built in ways VisualEditor cannot handle. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:28, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I may be missing something before the ​ Click in the table ​ step:

I was initially thinking the table might need to have been already created, so I created one at ​ Wikipedia:Sandbox . ​ ​ ​ When I click ​ Edit ​ on that page, I see a text representation of the table on the left and the resulting table on the right. ​ ​ ​ I have tried clicking and dragging in both of these regions, and I neither saw the triangle appear nor saw any other merge option.

JumpDiscont (talk) 01:19, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@JumpDiscont: It sounds like you haven't started VisualEditor. I don't see that option at Wikipedia:Sandbox. Try User:JumpDiscont/sandbox. You can switch between source editing and VisualEditor on a pencil icon at the top right. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:35, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

When I click that link, I do not notice any pencil icon. ​ (I see an icon that looks close to a pen, but that is towards the left, and hovering over it shows "Syntax highlighting".) ​ What should be around the pencil icon? ​ ​ ​ JumpDiscont (talk) 01:50, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@JumpDiscont That means you are using the old WP:WIKIEDITOR, not the WP:VISUALEDITOR. To enable it, go to Preferences, click Editing, check Enable the visual editor, and click the Save button at the bottom. Help:VisualEditor#First_step:_enabling_VE To open it, see Help:VisualEditor#Opening_VisualEditor. After that Primehunters advice will probably start to make more sense. Polygnotus (talk) 03:32, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Ah a Raymond Smullyan fan! Polygnotus (talk) 03:36, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Thankyou; that worked. ​ I added a corresponding paragraph to the help page. ​ ​ ​ JumpDiscont (talk) 04:49, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Lych Gate in New York City

How do I add a photo? I was looking at the Lych Gate page which does not include the lych gate of The Church of the Transfiguration in Manhattan. I have a JPEG that I can sent to you. Sincerely, Thomas Merjanian. Oldtom99 (talk) 00:55, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Oldtom99 See Wikipedia:Uploading images and Wikipedia:How to upload a photo but note that people are very strict with copyright. Polygnotus (talk) 03:19, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Oldtom99: There are already many images in the Lychgate article, so I'm not sure that another one is needed. The Commons category for the church contains several images that show the lychgate, including the one used in the infobox of Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal (Manhattan). Deor (talk) 15:36, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Apolacon

Apolacon Township, Pennsylvania

Why doesn't the FIPS code show up there, despite it being in the infobox source code? KatarinaPanda (talk) 02:49, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@KatarinaPanda I fixed it. The template checks for |blank_name_sec1= first, and only if that isn't found it uses |blank_name= as a fallback. Polygnotus (talk) 03:09, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Okay, thank you! KatarinaPanda (talk) 03:11, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hidden note not completely hidden

I just created my first-ever hidden note in a Wikipedia article, but the --> at the end is still visible in the Read mode. Because it's just before the lead, it will look a little strange to readers who happen on the article before I'm finished copy editing it. I can't see anything wrong with the spacing or the coding. Please could one of you helpful Help staffers check to see what is wrong? The article is Muhacir. Augnablik (talk) 06:34, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Augnablik Hi! The reason you saw --> is because it was in there twice in a row. So the first one ended the hidden comment and the second one was visible. I noticed the comment contained a link to AI. Since AI is not a reliable source of information I deleted it. Polygnotus (talk) 06:45, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the fix information, Polygnotus … as for the note itself, I use AI as a diving board, so to speak, to begin further searching — never to support references — so that’s the only way I’ll be using the information in the note. Augnablik (talk) 07:47, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

It is seriously easier to just skip the AI. It's like having a witness in a court case who is known for frequent lying. A good judge would not try to correct their testimony and hope for the best. Throwing out that witness and ignoring their testimony is how it's done. TooManyFingers (talk) 20:05, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

All I’ve been trying to make a case for, TooManyFingers, is that AI searches can be a good starting place to get useful ideas and places to check out to delve further into a topic.

Following worldwide news every day, I find that this use of AI is increasingly pointed out as one of its best in the academic, corporate, and journalistic worlds — drawing from what you might call testimonials from an assortment of practitioners. Not overlooking AI‘s limitations but working within them, just as was eventually done when the printing press and the calculator were invented, causing apoplexy about the possibilities for misinformation, lessening of traditional authority, weakened social structures, job displacement, and more. Augnablik (talk) 10:11, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

By the way, @Polygnotus, I went back to the hidden note to see where the duplicate --> might be, as I'd seen only one when I'd typed it in the template. The way I used your feedback was to try to type the note again, and even though I typed it just the same way I'd done before, this time there was no duplicate --> in the Read mode. Strange, but useful further discussion from @Bazza 7 and @PrimeHunter was opened up. Augnablik (talk) 17:20, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Augnablik: But you are not the only reader of Wikipedia articles, and an article's text is not the place to be presenting such information, even if in a so-called invisible comment. Better would be to store such information in your own user pages; or document it on an article's talk page. The latter might give you a bonus of some engagement on your improvements from other editors. Bazza 7 (talk) 10:50, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Augnablik: I agree it doesn't belong in the article. Editors are expected to know how to use a search engine. The url in [6] is also gigantic (715 characters) when https://www.google.com/search?q=who+are+muhacirs appears to do the same. {{Find sources}} can be used on talk pages and includes Google searches. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:44, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Augnablik: You used VisualEditor in [7]. The user isn't supposed to type code but use buttons, menus and dialogue boxes, and let VisualEditor insert the required code. I guess you started by typing <!--. Then VisualEditor guesses what you want and opens a box (which can also be opened via the "Insert" menu") to insert an invisible comment. VisualEditor automatically adds the closing --> when you close the box. I guess you wrote --> inside the box so it became duplicated. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:50, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I think that’s exactly what happened! As I mentioned, this was the first time I’d ever tried working with a hidden note. Thanks, PrimeHunter. Your Wiki name fits your sleuthing skills very well. Augnablik (talk) 06:24, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@Bazza 7, @PrimeHunter, okay, I see now that hidden notes/invisible comments may be less hidden than I thought of them as ... and I’ve moved the information from the controversial note to one of several “Wiki storage units” I’ve created elsewhere.

That note — to be clear — was only to keep handy till I finished the copy edit, and then I’d figure out how to make use of it. My more immediate task on the lead, of course, is to shorten it into a summary of highlights. But I also see the value of adding to the lead a little information about other related uses of the term Muhacir, to give readers a more complete picture; and that's where some of the information in that note will come in ... just to draw from when I include that idea (not the AI note) in my list of follow-up suggestions on the article's Talk page. Augnablik (talk) 17:06, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Vandalism help request from ~2025-36055-56

I have noticed some vandalism at Talk:Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum. Namely, the first section. Would an editor please assist me with fixing it? Thank you, ~2025-36055-56 (talk) 06:51, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I've removed it, per from a policy in Wikipedia. Thank you. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 06:54, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

How to Revert more than one edit

How can I revert more than one edit? I know I can do it manually; I’m asking about other ways. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 12:59, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: You use the mobile version which has a limited interface. Click "Desktop" at the bottom of a page to switch to the desktop version which is documented at Help:Reverting. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:36, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Even on desktop, when I try to do it, I get the message: “The edit could not be undone due to conflicting intermediate edits…” I need more guidance. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 14:17, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: That can happen when you are not reverting the latest edit and a later edit has changed the content you want to revert. The usual solution is to make a manual edit to sort it out. If you want to revert a series of consecutive edits which includes the latest then you can revert all of them at the same time. If you post a link to the edits you want to revert then we can say more. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:29, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: I want to undo this edit because the user mistakenly erased my contributions. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 14:52, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: You could have reverted it normally when it was the latest edit but you made another small edit afterwards. Now you can revert both edits at the same time with Help:Reverting#Restoring a past version in the desktop version. If the later edit had a change which should be preserved (doesn't look relevant here) then you would have to do it manually after restoring the old version. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:07, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't know notable event as world general news?

Hello, I just don't know notable event as world general news? I add informathion in Portal:Current events. [8] СтасС (talk) 13:46, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@СтасС: That is not notable for a global encyclopedia. We are not a news site. Portal:Current events is for things readers around the World might look up later to see major events on a given day. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:57, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you!--СтасС (talk) 14:01, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

adding quote and review

Asked, and answered. Please do not keep asking the same question, as the response will remain the same each time. Find a policy-compliant source. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:35, 25 November 2025 (UTC) The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

I have been trying to add a review and quotation to Stephanie Andujar wiki page. I cited the source and included all the details required. Please advise on why this is not acceptable? https://showtones.com/2025/11/10/bill-eisenrings-review-of-tango-in-the-rockies-written-and-directed-by-james-jennings-and-the-rubber-band-company-written-and-directed-by-meny-beriro-at-the-american-theater-of-actors/ EditingWizard125 (talk) 17:22, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

See the edit summary where you were reverted. We don't cite random blogs. And please do not submit LLM-generated content. AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:32, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @EditingWizard125. As @IsCat said in their edit comment, some technical features of the edit suggest that you used a LLM (I suspect they mean the garbage "date" parameter - that's not an error I can image many humans making) and, much more important, that you cited a personal blog as your source. Blogs are almost never regarded as reliable sources.

As a procedural matter, when another editor reverts your edit, it means the other editor disagrees that your edit is an improvement. If you disagree with them, the first thing to do is to discuss it with that editor, usually on the article's talk page. See WP:BRD. ColinFine (talk) 17:33, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

i added the quote where it was written from. I'm simply trying to add the actress' accomplishments from this year. So, blog articles can't be used at all even If I included the reference, url, and name and access date? EditingWizard125 (talk) 17:50, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reliable sources. Anyone can write a blog. We need sources with "a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy". AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:54, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I can't add a quote from a writer because they choose to publish it via a blog? it doesn't say it's a blog. Showtones.com is a theater website. I supplied the link https://showtones.com/ EditingWizard125 (talk) 18:01, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

No, you can't cite the blog/website/whatever it is because it doesn't meet Wikipedia:Reliable sources guidelines. Please READ what you have been asked to. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:16, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hi, @AndyTheGrump. It says "Showtones: Bill Eisenring speaks on the next generation of the arts."

No evidence of an editorial policy.

You're welcome to ask about it at WP:RSN, but I'm pretty confident the consensus will be no. ColinFine (talk) 18:18, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

That was meant in reply to User:EditingWizard125. Sorry, Andy. --ColinFine (talk) 18:19, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

https://showtones.com/2025/11/10/bill-eisenrings-review-of-tango-in-the-rockies-written-and-directed-by-james-jennings-and-the-rubber-band-company-written-and-directed-by-meny-beriro-at-the-american-theater-of-actors/

The link provided is the article written by Bill Eisenring. Are there any conditions that will allow a quotation from the site? I'm also learning what is acceptable, so please, the information I'm asking for is helpful but I don't need to be "scolded" about what i can post and can not. it's a simple quote that is about an actress and it's from a reliable source. EditingWizard125 (talk) 18:25, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Copyright

Can I use 12 seconds of a gamer's gameplay on YouTube without asking the gamer? I'm sure about the 12-second duration. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 17:24, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

almost certainly not, without a fair use justification under Wikipedia:Non-free content guidelines. Which would probably require that particular game-play sequence, by that particular gamer, to have been discussed in secondary sources. AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:29, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't include the gamer's video, commentary, picture, or any other content—just the gamer's raw gameplay footage. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 17:59, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

I need wikipedia's rules about this. Vastmajority20025 (talk) 18:01, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Which is why I linked Wikipedia:Non-free content. You should also probably read Wikipedia:Non-free content. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:21, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Vastmajority20025. It sounds from your last question that you may be thinking that because it is lacking the things you mention it is somehow not subject to copyright. That's not the case. Anything you find published - in a book, in a newspaper, on the web, on YouTube, in a game, in a video, in a film, on a CD - anything, is copyright unless you can find a positive reason why it is not. ColinFine (talk) 18:27, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw that @AndyTheGrump—appreciate it.

Hello, @ColinFine. No, I don't think like that. Let me explain with an example: we can directly quote one or two short sentences from a book, journal, or magazine article without asking the author(s) or getting their permission—like in this featured article's reception section. I wanted to see if I can do the same with a gameplay video too or not? Because it seems like I'm allowed to do that. (About the direct quote, if it's otherwise, say so). Vastmajority20025 (talk) 18:44, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: the policy for quoting test and using other non-free content is at Wikipedia:Non free content#Policy. It has one sentence about quoting text and then ten criteria for including other non-free media. TSventon (talk) 19:00, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Publishing 3 pages

I have authored a new political economic system over the past 15 years. There is a free 700-page online reference at LandBasedCapitalism.org. During the spring and fall semesters a student consulting group, FACES, at the University of Illinois, studied the ideas and implemented a game based on the economic principles. I desperately need an investor to make implement the ideas. A set of Wikipedia pages (Land-based capitalism, the AFFEERCE business plan, the Elsie, and Trebling (optional)) would be invaluable. There are problems: 1) I am the author 2) The primary reference is the 700-page document, as this is a seminal work (although the document itself has many references, I doubt the Wikipedia page would get into such detail). The business plan is discussed on Facebook and to a lesser extent on X. I would be willing to donate up to $1,000 to Wikipedia to get these pages published. Perhaps a volunteer at Wikipedia can write the pages, giving an impartial account. I am open to any suggestions. Jeffgrau (talk) 19:11, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Until your work has been analyzed at length in reliable publications that have no personal or working connections to you, Wikipedia is not the place for it. TooManyFingers (talk) 19:37, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

[Edit Conflict] I'm afraid this idea is a non-starter, at least for the present.

(1) Wikipedia forbids its being used for any form of Promotion.

(2) Wikipedia is not a host for Original research.

(3) Wikipedia does not employ any paid editors; we are all volunteers and never ask for or accept payment. (There is no system making this possible – donations to The Wikimedia Foundation, though indirectly supporting Wikipedia, are completely insulated from editing activities.) "Professional" editors exist, but they have less standing than volunteer editors, their work is treated with great suspicion, and the large majority have proved to be incompetent and dishonest, promising (or threatening) things they have no power to enact. Doubtless your query here will attract some offers, but PLEASE read WP:Scam warning.

Wikipedia articles are (or should be) for the most part only summaries of what has been published about a subject at some length in multiple Reliable sources wholly independent of the subject (see WP:42).

Only such sources (which have to be cited) can be used to demonstrate the fundamental requirement of Notability. ("Lesser" sources can be used to a limited extent to corroborate minor uncontrovertial data only.)

Your work can only be described in Wikipedia, in neutral, non-promotional terms, based on what appears in published Reliable secondary sources as described, not primary sources or those directly connected to you. Until enough of such sources are published, it is probably WP:Too soon for your ideas to appear here, and in any case Wikipedia can in no way help you to attract sponsorship as you propose. I hope this clarifies and helps. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2025-31359-08 (talk) 19:38, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not accept bribes. AndyTheGrump (talk) 09:23, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Jeffgrau The Wikimedia Foundation would be grateful if you gave them $1000, but it would have exactly zero impact on whether or not your content is accepted. We editors don't see the money. 331dot (talk) 20:26, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Need to post my sandbox article

I have created a sandbox article and I need it to be published live (not in sandbox). The instructions are extremely confusing Lkmorrisseyndu (talk) 20:02, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

How do you know about the things you've written on there? TooManyFingers (talk) 20:08, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

They stated here that they were 'asked to create a Wikipedia page' so the answer, to nobody's surprise, is improperly disclosed COI by somebody who's WP:NOTHERE anyway. Athanelar (talk) 20:19, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @Lkmorrisseyndu.

My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft. If you don't follow this advice but try to create an article without this preparation, you are likely to have a frustrating and disappointing experience with Wikipedia.

Being an experienced website editor is not necesarily of much help: it's like if you said "I'm an experienced automotive engineer, and I'm going to build a house". Your experience will help you in some ways, potentially hinder you in others, and you will be no more aware of some of the essential skills (eg surveying, compliance with building regs) than the general public. ColinFine (talk) 21:42, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

You need to disclose your conflict of interest regarding the subject matter first. GarethBaloney (talk) 22:24, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Created a Bot

Hey.

I created a bot in Python who removed UTM parameters in all the articles.

So I want to know how can I run my User:FriboquenBot ?

Source of my bot: https://github.com/milomillow/friboquenbot VitorFriboquen :] (Talk) 20:52, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vitorperrut555: If it's for the English Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Bot policy#Approval process. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:04, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

In theory, @PrimeBOT can remove tracking parameters, which is run by @Primefac, although PrimeBOT has not removed tracking parameters in nearly two years. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 21:38, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

@Helpful Raccoon Hmmm, interesting. :-/
But, even the bot has not removed tracking parameters by 2 years ago, I will create this bot and his account. VitorFriboquen :] (Talk) 21:46, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Just be aware that you are required to get approval through Wikipedia:Bot policy#Approval process before the bot can make any edits. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 21:51, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Login

I can’t login. I clicked on Forgot Password and DID NOT get the promised email to reset my password. What now? ~2025-36365-27 (talk) 21:08, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Did you provide an email when creating your account? Did you check your email spam folder? Have you waited five minutes - an hour? Otherwise, just create a new free Wikipedia account and state on your User Page you used to go by [x] username but lost access. qcne (talk) 21:13, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Multiple references using "[[]]" in the same page to the same page

I just finished reading Middleware, it had multiple "operating systems" (3 or 4) along the page, I edited and deleted them to make it left only one. Am I right by doing that? I just come to the Embedded system page and I just saw 4 Linux, since sometimes some external disambiguation pages link to a specific part of a certain page, I assume if this redundancy is intentional, it is to make someone that comes from those disambiguation or redirects to be less confused, but I'm not sure ~2025-36508-74 (talk) 05:19, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

tl;dr the same Wikilink in the same page, delete redundant ones or not? ~2025-36508-74 (talk) 05:43, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

"ORB" appears once (in "object request brokers (ORBs)"). It's a term that could well be unfamiliar to many readers of that article; therefore if it appeared again, in a different section, it could be worth linking to again. (A second link wouldn't be redundant, and would be worthwhile.) By contrast, it's hard for me to imagine that readers of the article wouldn't have at least some understanding of "Linux", so a second link to it would I think be redundant and not worthwhile. On the other hand, additional links to "Linux" cost few characters in "source" and not many bytes in HTML, so a few redundant links are harmless. Just don't go overboard with them. -- Hoary (talk) 07:33, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Finding articles for CSD

Hey, I'm enrolled in the anti vandalism academy, and in it I need to find two articles to correctly mark for CSD. However, I'm having trouble, as the vast majority of new articles seem to be fine. Does anyone have any advice on how I can best find articles to mark for CSD? Wikieditor662 (talk) 06:17, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

According to User:pro-anti-air/CVUA/Wikieditor662, you have to tag "pages", which are not limited to just articles. There are lots of non-article pages created by new users that meet some CSD criterion. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 07:54, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, but even with that I'm having trouble, as most of these are talk pages or ones that have no reason to be deleted... Wikieditor662 (talk) 16:49, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

There's no hurry to get it done. Head on recent changes patrol and set your filters to only show you page creations and you'll no doubt catch something soon enough. Athanelar (talk) 00:47, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Random article in a category or its subcategories

Greetings. Is there a page on Wikipedia that when given a category will spit out a random article from that category or one of its subcategories? Rockfang (talk) 07:43, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@Rockfang Try Template:Random page in category. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:24, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

How to Reference a Travel Website for Accurate Destination Information

Hi, I’m working on improving Wikipedia articles about travel destinations and want to ensure the sources I use are considered reliable. I run Australia City Guide, which provides information on cities, attractions, and travel tips. My question is: what criteria should I follow to cite a travel website properly without it being removed, and how can I ensure the content meets Wikipedia’s notability and reliability standards? ~2025-36491-67 (talk) 08:18, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@~2025-36491-67: There are no realistic circumstances where it would be acceptable to cite this source, and any efforts to do so would be treated as a form of spamming. Self-published websites are generally not considered reliable sources, especially not those that invite businesses to promote themselves. You are welcome to contribute to Wikipedia if you completely avoid citing or linking to your website. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 08:57, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

If your site is the only one available to support a statement, you can post an edit request on the talk page of the relevant article, stating that you are the publisher of the website, and ask whether others would like to include the citation. But if that is all you are doing, or if you persistently do so when other suitable sources are available, you are likely to be blocked as a spammer. See also WP:CITESELF. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:06, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

email hacked

my email was hacked and I can no longer log in with it, i.e. I no longer have access to the content I created as the user hskoppek. What can I do? Do I just leave it and potentially allow somebody else to take over my account? What is the Wikipedia policy on this? ~2025-36511-01 (talk) 08:44, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

When a person's account has been compromised, the account may subsequently get blocked and no further editing shall be made. See this page. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 08:46, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

And for your other questions, you're free to create a new Wikipedia account, with a new email of course. In your new account user page, it'll probably be best to say something like "I've lost access to my former account User:hskoppok, so this is my new account". Therefore, you're linking the two accounts. Hacked (Talk|Contribs) 08:52, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

If you know the password for your Wikipedia account but was asked for a verification code sent by mail then you can contact meta:Trust and Safety at cawikimedia.org. Don't reveal the password. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:12, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Hello, @~2025-36511-01 To add to the other comments: you do still have access to the content you created. All material in Wikipedia (even user pages) is fully public and anybody can read it. In most cases it is also open to editing by anyone. Editing other people's user pages is not normally considered good practice, but there can be no objection to your editing a user page of your own account that you can no longer login to. ColinFine (talk) 14:07, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia rules

According to wikipedia rules, at least how many sources needed for an article? Vastmajority20025 (talk) 12:19, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vastmajority20025: Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline says: "There is no fixed number of sources required since sources vary in quality and depth of coverage, but multiple sources are generally expected." PrimeHunter (talk) 12:29, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Usually, we require a minimum of three to demonstrate notability (the criteria for a topic to have an article), but you should use as many as it takes to verify each statement in the article. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:58, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Translation of other wiki pages

Hi

When I go to foreign-language wikis, I am usually offered the option to translate them into English. I assume this is a Wikipedia service, yes? If so, I may have come across an Easter Egg this morning while translating a Danish page.

The Danish page has a "Kilder" section heading which the translater translates as "Sources". But in the Table of Contents in the Sidebar, it seems to be translated as "Clitoris".

Not sure why. I wondered if it was an Easter Egg?

Any thoughts?

Fob.schools (talk) 12:27, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@Fob.schools: Wikipedia has no such translation service. It's a feature in your browser, maybe a browser extension like Google Translate. I'm Danish. "Kilder" has multiple meanings in Danish including sources, springs (as in water) and tickler. It can be slang for clitoris. Machine translations try to guess from context. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:45, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Referencing errors on Shell corporation

Special:Diff/1322676349

Reference help requested.

Good morning, regarding my contribution on the “shell companies” page—in the paragraph on the European Union—a label has appeared indicating possible citations using artificial intelligence. I have resolved the issue and corrected the URLs. There is no reference to artificial intelligence in the current version, and all citations refer to sources that actually exist. I would just like to know if the situation is now in order. This is the link to the reference page: Shell corporation#European Union. Thanks, Ioiods (talk) 14:30, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@Ioiods:I don't think that your linked edit relates to artificial intelligence. It is improving a {{Cite web}} reference, however it is still incomplete and shows an error message that it has no title. A more complete reference, including {{cite web |last= |first= |date= |title= |url= |trans-title= |website= |language= |access-date=}}, would help the reader and help guard against link rot. TSventon (talk) 16:02, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your opinion and advice. Ioiods (talk) 18:19, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Dharmendra

Dharmendra is not a hindu he is a punjabi sikh whose name is kewal kishan Singh Deol not Krishan Singh Deol some Hindu Editing Troll Has Done This On Purpose. ~2025-32615-04 (talk) 14:59, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Please see Talk:Dharmendra#Full Name/Birth Name. Note that, if you wish to participate in that discussion, you must be logged-in to an autoconfirmed or confirmed account (usually granted automatically to accounts with 10 edits and an age of 4 days).

Note also that you are required to assume good faith regarding other Wikipedia contributors.

I have left addtiional advice on your talk page. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:35, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Changing italics in a page name

Hello, someone put the Department of Government Efficiency title page in italics.

I have no idea how to change that. Can someone help? Selbstporträt (talk) 16:00, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Selbstporträt, it shouldn't be in italics Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:15, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

I know. How do we remove them? Selbstporträt (talk) 16:17, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

(edit conflict) @Selbstporträt: somebody added an extra infobox, which produced an italic title. I have added "italic title = no" to reverse that. TSventon (talk) 16:19, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! Selbstporträt (talk) 16:25, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

donation

want to donate. don't like giving my $$/information over phone/devices? no cheques? ~2025-36559-07 (talk) 16:07, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

You may mail a paper check; please see https://wikimediafoundation.org/en/give/#ways-to-give 331dot (talk) 16:17, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Editing a page with a conflict of interest

It looks like a few days ago a user, Patrick Stoica, made some edits to this page about me:

LendUp

He made up some citations (28, 29, 20) and then made up a blog post (citation 18) that you can easily verify do not link to any official source (broken links to make it look official) and self referencing links from his blog as a source of truth. I discovered out about this from his linkedin post where he said "I updated wikipedia for you...I will flood you with bad press and SEO hijacking" (I have the screenshot but the system is not letting me upload it).

I am not sure the process, but I created a Wikipedia account, deleted the made up content and fake references (URLs that lead to 404 pages, as they are made up URLs). I still see the page live so not sure the process of review, but this editor, Patrick Stoica, publicly admitted he is using Wikipedia to SEO hijack. I assume that is against your code of conduct.

Is there anything else I should be doing?

Sashaorloff (talk) 18:35, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

You should declare your conflict on interest on both the talk page of the article you are editing and also your user page with Template:User COI. GarethBaloney (talk) 18:46, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

And when you have done that, @Sashaorloff, you may post at WP:ANI. Please read what it says at the top of the page first. ColinFine (talk) 18:53, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

transferring a page from German version to the English version

I have a page already up and running on the German version.https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Elson I would love to have a page on the English version as well. Is there an easy way to do this, or is it starting from the beginning on the English Wikipedia site? Thanks for any info you can provide. ~2025-36599-36 (talk) 20:31, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

There's a page about Steve Elson in nl:Wikipedia too. What you write above can be read in different ways; but are you saying that you are Elson? ¶ That important question aside, the German-language article cites two sources. One is this from allaboutjazz.com; it's a gushy little PR piece. The other is on Fandom and is simply unacceptable. An English translation of the German-language article would be unpublishable here. -- Hoary (talk) 23:24, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

First, we typically discourage 'translation' type articles from one wiki to another. It's much better to rewrite the article from scratch using the same sources, because non-English-language sources are allowed on Wikipedia.

Please be aware though that the different language Wikipedias are entirely independent projects that have very different content standards, and English Wikipedia, to my knowledge, has the strictest standards; so an article that is acceptable on German or Dutch Wikipedia may not be acceptable on English Wikipedia with the same sources/prose. Athanelar (talk) 00:41, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

To avoid ambiguity: A fresh English article based on the two sources that are cited for the German-language article would be unpublishable here. -- Hoary (talk) 00:47, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Notability of a place.

Hey,

Someone help me with how Pangli is notable to have an article? not offensive, I am a bit confused. The above village is in Chipwi Township, and the villages and towns listed in this article Chipwi Township have independent articles. So are all they notable to have separate article?. They all mostly single-line articles.

Please ping me when replying to this. So I can get notified. Thanks AlphaCore talk 22:31, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

@AlphaCore: articles on English Wikipedia will not always meet current notability guideline, particulary articles which are as old as Pangli, created in 2008 . I believe that the relevant guideline is WP:GEOLAND, which begins Populated, legally recognized places are typically presumed to be notable, even if their population is very low. I don't know if Pangli is legally recognised, so I don't know if it is notable. There is a current discussion on the guidance at Wikipedia talk:Notability (geographic features)/workshop. TSventon (talk) 23:34, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Ah, the dreaded geostub. As per WP:NGEO WP:GEOLAND pretty much any town or village is notable enough for here, but 99% of these articles are forever one sentence stubs. There are many such examples for Iran and Germany. GarethBaloney (talk) 23:34, 26 November 2025 (UTC)