User talk:Mathglot/User talk snippets

Snippets of commonly used boilerplate text to customize, and paste into User talk pages.

Bareurls, and how to use links in references
Hi, Username, and thanks for adding citations in your contribution to ARTICLENAME. There was a problem with the citation(s), however, as they consisted of BAREURLS. When adding a reference, at a minimum please add Title, Author, and date. Here's a sample reference you can cut-paste right into articles you are editing:



substituting the correct information instead of the italicized parts above. For full citation format, see Template:Citation. Example of Citation template usage:

For more help on creating footnotes, see Help:Footnotes. Thanks,

Bare urls 2
Thanks for your contribution to ARTICLENAME. And thanks for adding a reference for your content, as you did in this edit. Unfortunately, you only added a url, and bare urls can be problematic for verification. Please use a standard citation, as described in Help:Footnotes. The citation templates cite book, cite journal, and cite web may be helpful in this regard. Here's a mockup of cite web you can copy and paste:

Going forward, when creating citations, it may help you to use one of these copy-and-paste models: More at Help:CS1, or the documentation at cite book, cite journal, or cite web. For quotations from other languages, say, French, you can do this: Hope this helps,

ES: /* Bare urls */ Using citation templates instead of bare urls.

Linking to a chapter
Hi, User:Example, there are a few ways to include a chapter of a book in a citation. You can use either a full inline citation (i.e., &lt;ref> ... &lt;/ref>), or a short citation (i.e., sfn). The method you choose should conform to existing usage in the article. Here's an example of each, for a chapter by "Robert Supko" in a book called "Astronomy" edited by John Doe. The top one is for an article with full citations inline:
 * – see WP:NAMEDREFS for how to create multiple citations to the same page/same chapter
 * – for short footnotes, linking to a full citation in the bottom matter

If your article uses short footnotes and has multiple citations to different chapters of the same book, you can cite them without any duplication of references by using short footnotes and the chapter citation template citec to link to the underlying cite book template for the book. To do this, just vary the loc param and page(s) as needed: and add one citec template for each unique chapter you wish to cite.
 * – page number(s) that verify the assertion in the article, not the entire chapter
 * – list loc and page(s) in another chapter of the same book

Here's an example using templates sfn and citec to link content in chapters of one book:



Galaxies have billions of stars. Stars sometimes explode in a supernova. Big ones collapse into a black hole.



Stars
Galaxies have billions of stars. Stars sometimes explode in a supernova. Big ones collapse into a black hole.

Category links
Hello, USERNAME,

Regarding your response to OTHERUSER, here, the category link you meant to add isn't there. (See sentence: "COPY OF THE SENTENCE LACKING A CAT LINK.") I wanted to explain why.

When you wish to create a link that opens a Category page, you have to include a colon in front; see WP:LINK for details. For example: to link to category "Start-Class Technology articles", you code it like this:

and if you leave it unpiped, it will look like this in running text:
 * Click Category:Start-Class Technology articles to go to the category page.

If you leave off the colon, it will look like this in running text:
 * Click to go to the category page.

and not only that, it will categorize the Talk page itself, into the category. If you go to User talk:OTHERUSER, scroll down, and look at the list of categories at the bottom of the page, you will see that it is categorized in "CATEGORY DESIRED". When there's no colon in front, that's what it does.

You can fix the link, by just prepending  to that link. That will simultaneously make that link visible, as well as remove the Talk page from that Category. Using Preview mode before publishing is always a good idea, so you can catch this sort of thing before it happens. Hope this helps,

Change to first sentence

 * Matter-of-fact

Regarding your edit to ARTICLENAME: Wikipedia depends on content of articles being verifiable, by means of references to reliable, independent, secondary sources. You might be right about the change you wanted to make, but the lead of an article is supposed to summarize the body, and the first sentence plays a special role in an article. Rather than change the first sentence of the lead without any change to the body it's supposed to summarize, see if you can find a reliable source that supports the change you wish to make, and add something about that to the body of the article, along with a citation to the source you found first. Then, you can come back and perhaps change the definition. Thanks,


 * More for new users

Please do not make changes to the first sentence of an article, without a proper edit summary, and without discussing it first on the Talk page, as you did in this edit to ARTICLENAME.

Also, new users shouldn't make unilateral changes to the the lead, until they understand better the purpose and function of the lead as a summary of the body of the article, not a place for unique information. But that goes double for the first sentence of an article, which defines the topic of the article. Thanks,

ES: /* Changes to lead */ Please see WP:FIRSTSENTENCE and WP:LEAD.

Collapse off-topic
A nony mous (talk) 32 Octember, 1752 (UTC)

Collapse off-topic post per WP:TPO and WP:TALKNO: Do not use the talk page as a forum or soapbox for discussing the topic: the talk page is for discussing how to improve the article, not vent your feelings about it. Use the Reference desk for general discussion about a topic.

Or this:

A nony mous (talk) 32 Octember, 1752 (UTC)

Collapse per WP:TPO and WP:NOTFORUM. You're welcome to add your suggestions about how to improve the article here, but not to expound on your personal theories about it. The Talk page is for discussion about how to concretely improve the article. If you would like to ask general questions about the topic, you can do so at the Reference Desk, or the Tea house. Thanks,

Translate attribution is required
Every edit to an article which includes copied or translated content from an article on any Wikipedia, requires an attribution statement per Wikipedia's licensing requirements. This is not like a Wikipedia policy or guideline, which you should follow (but can sometimes ignore); this is a legal requirement to uphold obligations under copyright law which you must follow.

Every time you add translated content to an article, please append the following information to your edit summary (which, as usual, should also have notes about what that edit was about):



If you saved a version of a page where you included some translated content, and forgot to add the attribution statement in the edit summary, then it has to be supplied after the fact. This involves creating a dummy edit in order to provide attribution for an earlier edit.



Please see WP:RIA for full instructions.

Translate and copy attribution, and repair
Wikipedia's licensing requirements require attribution when copying or translating text from other Wikipedia articles. Please use an edit summary with every edit that includes copied or translated text, of the type indicated at WP:TFOLWP; at a minimum:

When attribution wasn't added in the edit summary of the same edit, it can be added later, as explained at Repairing insufficient attribution, using a Dummy edit.

Suggested edit summary for attribution repair (adapted from WP:TFOLWP and WP:RIA):
 * Minimum:


 * Better:


 * Best:

Thanks.

Copyvio

 * Great advice, stolen from Diannaa, here, in a comment to a WikiEd student:

Content has to be written in your own words and not include any wording from the source material. One thing I find that works for me is to read over the source material and then pretend I am verbally describing the topic to a friend in my own words. Stuff should also be presented in a different order where possible. Summarize rather than paraphrase. This will typically result in your version being much shorter than the source document. There's some reading material on this topic at Wikipedia:Close paraphrasing and/or have a look at the material at Paraphrase: Write It in Your Own Words. Check out the links in the menu on the left for some exercises to try. Or study this module aimed at WikiEd students.

Contributions link
Specific contributions: showing last N contributions of USER ending at TIMESTAMP: (revision history link)

Example:
 * gives:
 * last 15 edits of ClueBot NG ending 06:19:05.00 on 2021-10-18

Cross-posting and discussion fragmenting
Hi, USERNAME, Welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like it here, and decide to stay.

You did the right thing by advertising your intentions by posting on the Talk pages of relevant articles or projects. In the future, if you add a notice like this, please create your message about your plans in just one place, whatever the most logical Talk page location is. For all the other messages, instead of duplicating the entire message, just add a brief message with a Wikilink to the main discussion.

The way this would work in your current example, is to start by leaving the full message at TALKPAGE, which seems like the most logical place for it. Then, in the other locations, like OTHERTALKPAGE, just leave a brief, neutrally-worded comment with a link to your main message, something like this:


 * Your feedback is requested concerning BRIEF-DESCRIPTION at TALKPAGE. Thanks, ~

This will help keep all the replies in one place, and avoid fragmenting the discussion, so others can all participate together, if they choose to. I've taken care of this for you, this time, but please follow this recommendation if this situation comes up again. Good luck, and again: welcome!

Moved. At my talk page, you asked about...

 * On their page, add a new section, possibly the same title as their section name, if it makes sense:


 * Thank you for your message at my Talk page. In an attempt to avoid fragmenting the conversation, and keeping everything all in one place, I'm going to respond to your comments here instead; that will also keep it somewhere where you can find it more readily, as I archive my Talk page periodically.

In response to your question regarding...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque nec laoreet ex. Maecenas efficitur neque ac eros sollicitudin convallis. Donec sit amet nisl urna. ~


 * If selectively transcluded, then at my page, add:


 * Moved. ~

D/s alert gender-related



 * This is a standard notice about editing gender-related articles. It isn't about you or your editing; everybody that edits gender-related articles gets one of these sooner or later. Basically, the notice informs you that beyond all the regular rules around here, there is a more stringent set of rules governing the behavior of editors who edit in certain controversial topic areas, like gender, that you need to know about.  Please read it, and follow the links.  Thanks,



/* Standard notice about editing gender-related articles */ Added Ds/alert.

Checking your work before publishing
Thanks for your edit at ARTICLE NAME. Before you click the "Publish changes" button to save your work, it's always a good idea to check your work first to make sure that you are publishing what you intended to. You can check your work by clicking "Show Preview", and/or "Show Changes" buttons in the shaded section below the Edit box where you typed your changes to the article: explaining how this edit improves the article. The Show Preview button shows you what the whole article (or section) will look like, if you publish the article. The Show Changes button shows just what you changed, in Wikipedia's special, Diff format.

ES: /* Checking your work before publishing */ Use the "Show Preview" and "Show Changes" buttons first.

Undid good faith revisions
Undid good faith revisions by USERNAME (talk) to last version by PREVIOUSUSER. You’re welcome to put this material back if you can find a reliable source that backs it up. See also WP:V, WP:CITE and Help:Footnotes.

Google trends
See also: Search engine test

General Talk page example


I appreciate your comment about Google Trends data, because it seems like an attempt on your part to tie this question to concrete data about what the actual sources are saying, and that's a laudable goal. However, Trends does not meet the criteria for a reliable source, for more or less the same reasons that iMDB, Urban Dictionary, and even Wikipedia itself do not: since anyone can perform a search on Google, there is no peer-review or reliability there. You could organize an online campaign on social media and get Trends to indicate something different in a few days. Even worse, generally you cannot draw any conclusion about why someone is searching for a particular term: are people searching for "Moon landing hoax" because they think it's true, or because they think it's false? So, for both reasons, any data from Google Trends is irrelevant here. Data from Google books, on the other hand, would generally be considered relevant.

Discussion: invalid data
The poll results above in this may be tainted by invalid data being presented, although clearly in good faith, by the OP. In the meantime, in my opinion, this request should be withdrawn or procedurally closed, and a new one opened.

Google Trends data show the results of the terms people use in their online searches, and have no connection to the proportion of reliable sources on a subject. User searches are not reliable sources, and don't provide useful information on how to decide an issue like this. To see why this is so, consider the results of these two Google Trends data analyses, to try and determine whether Elvis is alive or dead, and whether the moon landing was real or faked. It is of course, absurd; but that is the point: what people are searching for, has no relation to what sources say. When thousands of people search for "Elvis is alive", that doesn't mean it's true (or false), it doesn't mean there are many (or any) reliable sources that make that claim, and it doesn't even mean that the person searching believes that Elvis is alive. It only means that they are searching for that expression and nothing more. Also, when people search for "", what does that mean? Do they search for terms they already know? I usually look up expressions I'm not familiar with and want an explanation. Maybe it means, they all use "", and they just wanted to see if anybody really says it the other way. The point is, we really just don't know why they searched for that term.

Given that the data prsented in the is based on Trends, one must assume that all !votes to this point are tainted. We could provide the results of actual web or books search and try to carry on with the voting based on more accurate statistics, but I don't think it's worth it, because the closer would then have to somehow compare tainted votes with untainted ones. I think that's an impossible task, and the request should be withdrawn or procedurally closed now. But if not, when the time comes to evaluate the results of the poll above, the closer should consider the tainted data, and for that reason, I'm asking that the closer be an experienced admin.

Dual page views graphs
Default page title is: Daily pageviews of this article

or, using default collapse bar title with toolforge link to page views:

Help me link
You can click to ask for help on your Talk page.


 * Edit
 * Click to start a new discussion.
 * Help:Contents/helpmepreload
 * See also User:Oshwah/Templates/OfferHelp
 * See also User:Oshwah/Templates/OfferHelp

Url to preload new section on page
You can click to ask for help.

Simple manual archiving
There are many ways to archive your talk page, but here's a simple, manual archiving method that links automatically with archive indexing from the Talk page header: Then, come back here in a different tab, edit this page, select/cut the desired discussions, switch back to Archive_1 in the other tab, edit it, paste the selection, set another edit summary ('Adding N conversations to archive'), and hit Publish. View the page, to make sure your discussions are in there. If so, switch back to the this page again (where you already cut the discussions, but haven't saved yet), and hit Publish. View this page, and those discussions should be gone here, and present in the Archive. You're done!
 * 1) create User talk:/Archive 1
 * 2) add   to the top of the new page
 * 3) set the edit summary to something like, 'Creating Archive_1', and hit Publish.

If you have a Talk page header template at the top of the Talk page, it will automatically pick up your archive and link it from the header, and include an Archive search box as well.

Alternatively, you can install one of the One click archiving scripts, and use that.

Image help

 * , In response to your question about adding images, see some of these Wikipedia links:
 * Images
 * Image use policy, especially section Uploading images
 * Preparing images for upload
 * Uploading images – this one has answers to your questions about permission
 * Training/core/Adding images
 * Training/For students/Adding images
 * Normally, images are added to Wikipedia's sister project, Wikipedia Commons (you can find it here). The FAQ page at Commons will probably answer a lot of your questions. Hope this helps,

The lead summarizes the body
Placeholder. See User talk:Mathglot/Tips.

Header templates


Section sizes for use in Draft articles:

Talk page protocol
, please always sign your posts with four tildes  at the end of your message; see WP:4TILDES. Please also read WP:THREAD and WP:FOURTILDES about how to engage in discussions on Talk pages.

When you address or reply to another editor in a comment, in order to make them aware of it, you need to make sure they are notified. To do that, link their username, like this, using the exact spelling of their username:. Another way to do it, perhaps a bit easier, is with a template: see templates reply and ping. Thanks,

Reply, indent, and sig
Please also read WP:THREAD and WP:FOURTILDES about how to use Talk pages. Happy editing, and don’t hesitate to ask questions here (about how to best improve the article) or on your Talk page (with Help me; for general questions about editing or any other topic not related to a specific article) or on my talk page. See also templates reply and ping.

Indent and outdent example
The basics about discussion threading can be found at WP:THREAD. At its most basic, each reply has one more level of indent than the previous one, but it's a bit more complicated than that, depending on whether you're responding to the very last message in the thread, or an earlier one. If a discussion has so many levels of indent that it gets squished over to the right too much, you can use the outdent template, to shift back to the left margin. Here's a simple example with only two people, and each comment is a reply to the previous one. This example picks up in the middle of some imaginary thread already indented six levels at that point:

Excerpt from the middle of some imaginary discussion already indented six levels at the point this example picks up:
 * It's clear that lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam dictum blandit sollicitudin. Pellentesque id nibh eu odio hendrerit accumsan id id massa. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Aliquam semper, orci sed sodales sollicitudin, nunc quam imperdiet risus, in tincidunt ipsum urna et ipsum.  10:51, 32 Octember, 2025
 * Not true, because maecenas vitae nisi id arcu consectetur ultricies. Vestibulum facilisis turpis ac erat mattis cursus. Mauris purus ex, viverra at mauris iaculis, aliquet tincidunt lacus. Aenean id ullamcorper enim. Nullam in convallis mauris, sit amet dignissim elit. Duis maximus pellentesque magna at efficitur.   12:39, 32 Octember, 2025
 * Actually, donec justo elit, ultrices quis erat a, ornare fringilla risus. Pellentesque in nisl sit amet neque tempor viverra vitae sed est. Vestibulum at elit justo. Suspendisse erat massa, rutrum sodales venenatis id, vestibulum et nisl. Pellentesque erat diam, luctus nec tincidunt non, consectetur at massa. Nunc scelerisque sit amet metus a bibendum. Sed ac dapibus eros, vitae tincidunt odio.   22:09, 32 Octember, 2025
 * You're missing the fact that pellentesque massa nibh, malesuada sed pretium non, rutrum at justo. Sed vehicula, nisi id rhoncus porttitor, lacus ex pretium diam, in consectetur diam est non tortor. Phasellus congue metus ut iaculis pulvinar. Aliquam sem diam, fermentum id tempus sed, placerat ut sem.   10:11, 33 Octember, 2025

No, due to praesent volutpat at felis a dictum. Vestibulum in odio eros. Nam facilisis, eros eget auctor sollicitudin, enim ex laoreet augue, in laoreet turpis diam sit amet libero. Mauris mollis eget augue sed ultricies. 17:59, 33 Octember, 2025 That little angled line between the last two comments, is the result of the outdent; except for that, replies keep shifting one indent level more each time.

User and article TP - long version
There are two kinds of Talk pages: 1) User talk pages, like this one, and 2) Article talk pages, like Talk:ARTICLENAME for example.

This page is your User talk page. Where you left a message for me, was my User talk page. We use User talk pages to leave messages for a user about a topic that pertains to that user, or that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily care about. An article talk page, on the other hand, is not directed at a particular user. It is a place where all users interested in the topic of an article can get together and discuss how best to improve the article. That is really the only purpose of an Article talk page, although discussions can take many forms.

You can read more about using Talk pages here: Help:Talk pages. When you reply to a comment on a Talk page, rather than create a new section to follow up to a previous comments, just edit the existing section, and follow the Talk page guideline for follow-up comments. Note particularly the section Help:Talk pages about using colons for indentation to separate the original post from new replies, and to make it clear who is replying to whom.

To begin, just create a new section at Talk:ARTICLENAME, like you did at my Talk page, and repeat your question. Create a section header relevant to your question. Since the issues on the Article talk page are about how to improve the article, any editor from anywhere on Wikipedia might respond to you, and join in the discussion.

If you wish a response from a particular user, or if you just wish to let a particular user know that the Talk page discussions exists so they can read what you have to say, you generally need to let them know about it by pinging them. If you start your message at a Talk page with the user's id in brackets, then they will get a notification. So, to alert me to a new message on an article Talk page (or on your User page), you can start off your message with, and then type your message.

I hope this clears up how to use User and Article talk pages. Please read Help:Talk pages for starters, and WP:TALK and WP:INDENT for more details about this. The absolute basics:
 * 1) reply to Talk page discussions in the same section by clicking the little [edit] link to the right of the section header, rather than creating a new section every time;
 * 2) WP:INDENT your comments one tab stop to the right further than the comment above yours; use colons to indent; see WP:THREAD;
 * 3) Except at a user's own talk page where it isn't necessary, do Notify user(s) of your reply with template reply or ping. Hope this helps,

Two types of Talk pages - short version
There are two kinds of Talk pages: 1) User talk pages (like this one) and 2) Article talk pages, like Talk:EXAMPLE for example. (Actually, there are other kinds of Talk pages, too; but User talk pages and Article talk pages are the first two you should be concerned with for the time being.)

This page is your User talk page. Where you left a message for me, was my User talk page. We use User talk pages to leave messages for another user about a topic that pertains to them. An article talk page on the other hand, is not directed at a particular user. It is a place where all users interested in the topic of an article can get together and discuss how best to improve the article. That is the only purpose of an Article talk page, although discussions can take many forms.

Please read Help:Talk pages for a primer, and WP:TALK and WP:INDENT for more details about this. The basics: Hope this helps,
 * 1) reply to existing Talk page discussions in the same section by clicking the little [edit] link to the right of the section header; be CIVIL and assume good faith on the part of other editors;
 * 2) indent your comments one tab stop to the right further than the comment above yours; use colons to indent; see WP:THREAD;
 * 3) Except at a user's own talk page where it isn't necessary, Notify user(s) of your reply with template reply or ping. Hope this helps, Mathglot (talk) 06:43, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Yellow-boxed moved discussion
Hello again,.  For an article talk page:  I've moved the discussion here, so other interested editors may participate if they wish to; they are unlikely to find it on my Talk page. ..  For a user talk page:  I've moved the discussion here, so you'll see my response, and be able to refer to it later if you wish to; it will eventually get archived on my Talk page and will become hard to locate. ... ... Regarding your most recent questions or comments: blah, blah...

Your user page is not your sandbox
Hi, ,

Your user page is not the right place to develop an article, like the  article that is currently there. You have a sandbox for that: you can find it by clicking the blue 'Sandbox' link at the very top of every page on Wikipedia. The file location for your sandbox is here: User:USERNAME/sandbox. See Help:Sandbox for details and general info about sandboxes.

Your user page, on the other hand, can be used to give a brief amount of information about yourself. Most people choose not to give out too much information about themselves, especially information that could be used to track their identity, but you can talk about what your interests are, why you are, what areas you hope to contribute in, your school or college affiliation, interests or hobbies, things like that. Some people like to also post "User boxes", which are like little badges that tell something about them. See WP:USERBOX if you're interested in that topic.

If you would like me to move the content of your user page to your sandbox, let me know, or you can do it yourself. It's basically a cut-and-paste move, which is okay in this case, since both pages are entirely your own content. (Cut-and-paste moves are frowned upon in articles, so don't do that sort of thing there, i.e., don't copy text from one article to another, unless you know what you are doing. Ask for help, in a case like that. Here on your own pages, it's fine, though.) Adding User:USERNAME (Wiki Ed). Hope this helps,

Unclosed break tag
Use {{subst:User:Mathglot/sandbox/Templates/Unclosed break tag|History of France}} to get this: (pending fix of unsubst code)

Include my name in substed template
Hello, I'm  generates:

"Hello, I'm Mathglot"

UserN templates
Similar to user5 (replace 'xx:' and xx. with ccTLD):


 * produces:
 * UserName (talk &middot; contribs &middot; deleted contribs &middot; page moves &middot; block log )

Talk quote block
Real Talk quote block:

User:Example User wrote,

My response...

Ersatz: User:Example User wrote,  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

My response...

Selective transclusion
WP:SELTRANS.

By section name:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

By labeled section transclusion:

this is a chapter

To transclude section labeled chapter1 from a page called articleX:

Article creation templates
Some templates (boilerplate text) for creation of articles:


 * Biography:
 * User:Shalor (Wiki Ed)/biographies
 * Films:
 * User:Shalor (Wiki Ed)/film article template
 * Book:
 * User:Shalor (Wiki Ed)/book article

Wikicode snippets
These should eventually go on their own page.

V–T–E
The middot-abbreviated V-T-E on Navs and Infoboxes is produced by :

This can be simulated in Html. Here is the V-T-E for the Operation Car Wash sidebar as an example:

v &middot; t &middot; e

Side-by-side
Cut-paste code for side-by-side:

Before: 111333555 USER:ONE 06:24, November 11, 2020: After: 222444666 USER:TWO 10:05, November 11, 2020

Tip: horizontal scroll left a bit, until both columns are completely in view.