Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 June 28

= June 28 =

Can't find use of the Official Website template in Lynette Woodard
The article Lynette Woodard is in Category:Official website not in Wikidata. I can't find where the Official Website template is being used though. If I edit the article, I see at the bottom that it's being called. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks, Dismas |(talk) 04:12, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * , don't know if that is usefull fo to you, but on the there is a Blank template with parameters for retired players, maybe that would solve the problemn. Lotje (talk) 04:36, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Categories like this are included from a parent template that check a page's Wikidata entry and - upon finding the entry is missing this data - categorizes it as such. You should search for "Category:Official website not in Wikidata" in the source code of the templates transcluded on that page to figure out which one is including it. Scarce2 (talk) 04:43, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I found it. While going through the category, I kept running across basketball players.  I finally ran into one that didn't have a lot of templates to dig through.  It seems that Template:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has the official web site of the Basketball Hall of Fame in it.  Is there a way to fix that?  Dismas |(talk) 06:04, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Fixed in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Naismith_Memorial_Basketball_Hall_of_Fame&diff=669040206&oldid=662611230]. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:31, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Wow! I was totally overthinking that. Thanks, PrimeHunter.  Dismas |(talk) 04:21, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

My User Page
I want an experienced volunteer to make my name in my user page User:Silver Samurai  look Silver .--  Silver    Samurai   10:49, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I've made an edit. The software allows DISPLAYTITLE to make only very minor changes to the actual title. "display:none" is not honoured, and, as you found, if you ask it to remove the space between "Silver" and "Samurai" the whole thing is ignored. There's more detail at Template:DISPLAYTITLE. -- John of Reading (talk) 10:55, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

question about possible sockpuppet
Ive had a couple of run ins with an IP on a talk page, (I had never had any conversation with one) now a user who has been to the same talk page seems to have a similar pattern, what should I do ( I felt harassment)?--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:52, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Which page and user is this referring to? CorporateM (Talk) 19:31, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * CorporateM this ip which this administrator said this .....then this user (administrators talk page discussion about the user)  and then this happened today (second to the last edit) this had been posted at wikiproject med talk--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:52, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * It's too bad we don't have the feature (suggested by a while back) to simply block a specific user from your Talk page yourself. Regarding the Talk page posting, you do control your own Talk, but I agree with 's note from the edit-warring board; I don't see anywhere where you have actually asked the user to stop posting. Regarding the sockpuppeting accusation, that is a long discussion with a lot of users involved. It would help to know which user specifically you are accusing. A lot of times editors start accusing each other of socking or harassment, when it is essentially a content disagreement that has gotten distracted from focusing on the content. CorporateM (Talk) 15:36, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
 * it would be the last two links on my original answer...the first link shows an administrators answer in regards to the user...the second link was just yesterday(its the second edit from the top) the individual blanked what I and another editor had taken several hours to do on an article) I did not wish to confront the individual so I brought it here ( I had noticed similar edits by the IP and user on the talk page of Wikiproject med)...I felt harassment from this user, what should I do?( the ip --Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 15:48, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
 * You need to understand that constructive criticism of your editing is not an attack on your person. I undid some of your changes (only yours, not another editor's) because you added sources that did not support the claims in the article, as explained here. And no, the IP address is not me. KateWishing (talk) 16:23, 29 June 2015 (UTC)
 * So when you have multiple brand new accounts that edit a single article exclusively, that is usually a more clear case for socking. In this case, the user has a long editing history on a diverse range of topics. That doesn't mean they aren't socking, but it's less likely. What you would have to do to establish socking is identify editing patterns, such as use of similar language, timing of edits, etc. that strongly imply both accounts are likely operated by the same person and present your case to Sockpuppet investigations. Here is an example. However, I should state again, that you should just focus on content and collaborate in good-faith, unless there is a compelling reason to believe there is socking going on. CorporateM (Talk) 05:19, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Transcluding things that are not templates.
I was wondering how transcluding things that are not templates could work. (I want to transclude some Special Pages of the Maintenance type on a subpage of mine.) Donkey Kong Fanatic (talk) 17:26, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * You can transclude, for instance, Special:RecentChanges by typing Ruslik_ Zero  17:38, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

Question about user profile under preferences
I was curious about the "How do you prefer to be described?" item on the "user profile" section of the preferences page. Specifically I'm curious about the disclaimer at the bottom: "Setting this preference is optional. The software uses its value to address you and to mention you to others using the appropriate grammatical gender. This information will be public." What is the software that addresses me and mentions me to others? If the information is public then where can it be found? Or is it only "public" to those with more privileges than I have (e.g. admins/oversighters/checkusers/etc)? I couldn't find much about the topic in the archives or elsewhere online. Thanks in advance for any help understanding this. -Thibbs (talk) 18:30, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The software is MediaWiki, the platform that Wikipedia and some other Wiki's are built on. The value set can be parsed using the  variable in certain message constructs and API calls (not by basic wiki-text entry). TLDR version - it allows the software to use the correct language syntax/forms when addressing users, especially in language localisation. It is public because anyone who carries out an action on you that results in such a message will see a gender specific variant of that message. Nanonic (talk) 18:51, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the excellent answer, ! That's just the info I was looking for. -Thibbs (talk) 20:55, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The info can be used via pronoun, he or she and several related templaes, generally on talk pages. DES (talk) 22:01, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the info, ! -Thibbs (talk) 23:16, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

Justice Wynn Underwood: to add an explanation why he was"disappointed" at not being appointed Chief Supreme Court Justice
Mr. Hemingway'ss article in the Burlington Free Press sating that Justice Underwood was "disappointed" in not being chosen to be Chief Spreme Court Justce  by Governor Snelling is correct. As Justice Underwood's wife I can provide  the reason for his disappointment.

Justice Underwood had spent considerable professional time recently attending sessions at Canadian Supreme Court in Vancouver, He was impressed with various aspects of the Court. He found ideas he thought would be good to introduce into the Vermont Supreme Court. When he was not given the opportunity to make changes, he was admittedly "disappointed" and retired to other pursuits.

I think it is valuable to know this.

Sincerely yours,

Sharry Underwood........... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.168.0.105 (talk) 20:22, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Hello, thank you for your interest in Wikipedia! However, Wikipedia article content is based upon what reliably published sources with editorial oversight present about the subject of the article, not what individual editors may personally know. If you have a reliable source that relates the information, you can place it on the article talk page and someone can help format the citation and get it into the article. --  TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom  23:02, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

Unable to verify my email address
I have received two different emails asking me to confirm my email address, however when I copied each URL and then pasted in my browser, each time it showed me

"Sorry, there are no Web results for this search!"

I am at a loss. I also made sure to change my settings by unchecking the Family filter.

Please help so that I can get a solution to this.

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 916brownie (talk • contribs) 23:22, 28 June 2015 (UTC)


 * The message sounds like you are copying the url to a search field instead of the address bar in your browser. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:38, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

What is even the point of having redirects?
I was going down the list of pages that redirected to WWE wrestler Luke Harper's previous ring name of Brodie Lee. Next I get 11 notices at once that many of those have been changed back. That's just one example. Shouldn't we want it so that when we click on a word/name/title/etc. it goes to the correct page rather than, "Redirected from [X]"? Doesn't it make pages look better that way?JIK1975 (talk) 23:25, 28 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Redirects serve several useful purposes.
 * They allow the Wikipedia search engine to find plausible alternate terms for and spellings of a suject.
 * They allow links to moved pages to continuwe to work withotu needign mass chanes.
 * They allow alaises for templates.
 * They allow people to link to plausible forms of a name or term without needing to check the correct current form.
 * When an alternate term has the potential to be made into its own article, redirets offer a pre-specified set of links to the new article, when and if it is created.
 * Compared to a piped link, they are more transparent as the "redirected from" note helps the reader understand how and why s/he got to the ultimate target page. This doesn't happen with piped links, and that can be confusing, particualrly when the piped text is very differen from the actual name.
 * Do please read the pages tha were linked in the messages you recieved on your talk page, and see if they don't make things a bit clearer. DES (talk) 23:43, 28 June 2015 (UTC)


 * Your post is unclear about what you did but I examined your contributions and saw you changed  to   many times, for example in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jimmy_Olsen_%28wrestler%29&diff=prev&oldid=669072340]. Brodie Lee is currently a redirect to Luke Harper but the change to a piped link is bad for several reasons. Some of them are listed above and in the links you already received at User talk:JIK1975. Some reasons specific to this change:
 * Brodie Lee and Luke Harper are both stage names for a man actually named Jon Huber. Maybe his article wil be moved to his real name or a third stage name in the future. The redirect at Brodie Lee will be simple to update but it will be rather confusing if articles about his activities under his first stage name pipe the link to a later stage name which then redirects to a third name.
 * Readers clicking "Brodie Lee" may be confused by arriving at the completely different name "Luke Harper", and wonder whether they clicked the wrong link. "Redirected from Brodie Lee" tells them they didn't.
 * Editors seeing  may wonder whether the completely different names is an error and waste time checking the link.
 * The piped link was the only change in the edits so you added an unnecessary edit to the page histories, wasting time for people examining it.
 * Please respect our guidelines even if you disagree with them. After being pointed directly to the relevant guidelines at User talk:JIK1975 you still made unwanted mass changes. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:21, 29 June 2015 (UTC)