Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2015 March 28

= March 28 =

Is there a way to preserve history when splitting an article into 2 (Ellen Pao)?
— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  18:56, 31 March 2015 (UTC) The article Ellen Pao gender discrimination lawsuit was just created by copying/pasting it from its parent. Is there no way to preserve the contribution history from the original? Just wondering since many editors contributed over years. Ottawahitech (talk) 03:40, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * See WP:CORRECTSPLIT· A couple of the steps answer your question. - X201 (talk) 06:41, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

four tilde's use to give the username with a timestamp
four tilde's use to give the username with a time-stamp does it still or do I have the number of tilde's wrong, eg 4? ```` Grateful Deadhead (talk) 03:58, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Worked when I "Sign your posts on talk pages: ````"


 * this works for me. Mlpearc  ( open channel ) 04:06, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * It still does, and you have the number right. See WP:SIGHOW for that and two other options. You can use your sandbox to experiment with such things. &#8213; Mandruss  &#9742;  04:08, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * It looks as if the OP is using the wrong character. He has ```` whereas it should be ~ . The position of the tilde character varies between keyboard layouts. On a normal UK keyboard it is shift and #, whereas on a US keyboard it may well be shift and ` (hence it looks as if the OP may have a US keyboard and missed the shift). See Tilde. --David Biddulph (talk) 04:30, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * You are correct as to US kb. I suggest that, before saving, the user look at the screen and see if they typed tildes. If they don't know what a tilde is, there is a picture in Tilde. &#8213; Mandruss  &#9742;  04:32, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

TY--yes on this new keyboard need Shift as such: Grateful Deadhead (talk) 07:11, 28 March 2015 (UTC) (:+D)been 10+ years and 4 keyboard's...

Incorrect information regarding Roddy Radalj
Dear people my name is BOB SATTLER,and it is I that played with Roddy Radalj,and co-wrote MANY of the songs as well as playing ALL THE LEAD guitar on the singe"Dynamite party" Regular Records,and the ENTIRE ALBUM "Orgazzmatazz,and "Mouthfull Of Chicken" Shock records.

I'am utterly incensed by this constant "Black Balling" regarding my contributions to Australian Rock,also being left out of being a touring and recording member "HITMEN DTK" -UELA EP also released by SHOCK records.

John Freckleton did replace Bill Gibson of "Eastern Dark" fame but I played LEAD GUITAR for Roddy Radalj from "Dynamite Party' till 'Mouthfull of Chicken"-Shock Records.

I implore you to redress these glaring and quite frankly suspicious errors. Sincerely Bob Sattler (email removed) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.170.253.121 (talk) 05:44, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * This is the Help Desk, which is for questions about how to use and edit Wikipedia (see the notes at the top of this page). If you feel that an article is in error, please discuss it on the article's talk page, which you can access by clicking "Talk" near the top left of the article page. &#8213; Mandruss  &#9742;  07:18, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * And when you go to the article talk pages, be ready to provide reliable sources for all your claims. We cannot take your word for what you say is true, especially since you have a conflict of interest.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  19:27, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Is there any function can return one page is a disambiguation page or not.
Hi, guys! I noticed disambiguation pages contain the magic word " __DISAMBIG__ ", so is there a parser function or one module can do that? --CAS222222221 (talk) 12:54, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I know there is a way to identify them. This User:Anomie/linkclassifier.js changes the colors of links based on what they are redirects, disambiguation etc. -- GB fan 13:34, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I have created disambiguation pages, most recently Inkcap, and I never put anything in them to make it clear to an automated process that that's what they are. Maybe I've been doing it wrong. Maproom (talk) 20:56, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * All mainspace pages should have at least one category (except redirects which should preferably also have a category by adding a redirect template). Inkcap is a set index article. As Set index articles says: "A set index article is not a disambiguation page." Plantdrew did it right by adding one of the set index templates Fungus common name in [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inkcap&diff=649173569&oldid=648762044], placing it in in the visible Category:Set indices on fungus common names as well as the hidden Category:All set index articles. Disambiguation pages should have disambiguation or one of the more specific disambiguation templates. This identifies them as disambiguation pages to the software by adding the magic word  from mw:Extension:Disambiguator. However, I know of no practical way to test for this in wikitext. An impractical way would be to transclude the whole page and use a string function to search it for disambiguation indicators but this would be too expensive. Don't try that. User:Anomie/linkclassifier.js uses JavaScript which runs client side. JavaScript gives completely different possibilities but is not available in Wikitext. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:32, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Name Change
Hi there! I've tried editing the name for National World War II Museum because their name is not "National World War II Museum," it is officially, "The National WWII Museum." I can't seem to do it by adding to the article's wikitext. Could you please help? Thank you! SIContent (talk) 18:36, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * fixed it for you. You can't edit the title of an article. You have to move the page to a newly-titled article.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:37, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I just thought I'd add that you need to be autoconfirmed before you will be able to move pages. Dustin  ( talk ) 20:59, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

CAPTCHA
Hello, I've been trying to edit a page but I keep getting an error message stating, "Missing or Incorrect CAPTCHA." How can I fix this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ef121075 (talk • contribs) 20:30, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * You have to enter it correctly. See CAPTCHA.--Bbb23 (talk) 20:35, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Title of newly created page to be changed
I have created the article Creating Engineering and Technology History Wiki. The word Creating should be deleted. Is an administrator intervention needed?

BBCLCD (talk) 21:11, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I have changed it to Engineering and Technology History Wiki. No admin powers were required. However, the article is at risk of being deleted unless someone adds some citations of reliable independent published sources that establish that the wiki is notable. Maproom (talk) 21:23, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Is it possible to receive e-mail notifications every time a specific page is edited?
I know that it's possible to receive an e-mail for various types of notifications, such as when someone leaves a message on my talk page or when someone reverts one of my edits. But I don't see an option on the preferences page to receive an e-mail whenever articles on my watchlist are edited. Now, I certainly wouldn't want to receive e-mail notifications for all of the articles on my watchlist, as I have quite a few. But it would be really nice to have this feature for specific pages, especially talk pages. Does anyone know if a feature like this exits? Or if it doesn't, does it sound like something that could potentially be created? --Jpcase (talk) 22:00, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * "Email me when a page or file on my watchlist is changed" is at the bottom of the first tab Special:Preferences. It's an old option and not part of the newer feature on the Notifications tab. It only works for the whole watchlist at the same time. Sock puppetry allows alternative accounts in some circumstances. You could create an alternative account with a brief watchlist. A talk page and the associated non-talk page cannot be separated. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:55, 28 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I had thought that something like this existed, but when I went back to look, I only checked the Notifications section of the Preferences page. Creating an alternative account would be a good idea, though I wish that there was a more direct approach. Do you think that this would be something that somebody might be able to design? I wouldn't need the talk pages to be counted separately - the main reason that I want this feature would be to watch Talk page discussions, but it would be fine if the article pages were included in the e-mail alerts as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jpcase (talk • contribs)


 * Multiple watchlists is an old request. See Perennial proposals and T7875. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:26, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * And would probably take 1/100th of the time that has been so far devoted to VE. And yet... --Neil N  talk to me 23:32, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * What's VE? --Jpcase (talk) 23:41, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh, visual editor. Gottcha. --Jpcase (talk) 23:43, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * But are you saying then, that this would be feasible to implement? --Jpcase (talk) 23:44, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Jpcase, if the poobahs at the WMF decided to throw editors who actually work on the site a bone, it could be done in a couple weeks at the outside. --Neil N  talk to me 23:52, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Is there a technical issue holding them back? Or have they just not bothered to work on it yet? Is there any way that I could show support for this feature? --Jpcase (talk) 00:08, 29 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Jpcase, given that it's a perennial proposal, I'd say the WMF is well aware of it. You'd think they'd take an easy win and do something, but... Pinging Whatamidoing (WMF) for their thoughts. --Neil N  talk to me 14:32, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking that it would be convenient for me, even if few other people used it. How would you expect it to work?  We can't have a second watchlist star or anything like that; it would be too confusing.   (Please ping!  I'm a bit distracted with other projects right now.)  Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:48, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I couldn't say how a feature like this would best work, since I have absolutely no technical knowledge of my own. I wasn't necessarily thinking of having two stars, but perhaps there could be a drop-down arrow underneath the star, offering different options. I decided to leave a message at this page on phabricator, and someone responded saying that they're now working on trying to design the feature. So we'll see what that person comes up with. :) --Jpcase (talk) 01:04, 31 March 2015 (UTC)
 * To keep it simple, adding articles to the main watchlist would remain as is. If an editor has the multiple watchlists option enabled, and has the watchlist names defined, these names would appear in a dropdown list beside each page entry on the watchlist page along with a copy and move button. If you want a lighter page, the dropdown list and buttons would only appear once at the top of the watchlist page and checkboxes would appear beside each watchlist entry. --Neil N  talk to me 16:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Without interrupting the conversation, it is worth pointing out that, if you use the multiple accounts trick, you will need to log in, and look at the changes using the alternative account, before you receive any further e-mail notifications of any changes to that article. Looking at the changes when logged in using your usual account, will not trigger any further e-mails. This is annoying as one can forget which account you were using when you looked at a change, or having logged in on the alternative account to read the change, edit the page whilst logged in using that alternative account; which can easily lead to accusations of sockpuppetry. - Arjayay (talk) 18:13, 29 March 2015 (UTC)
 * So the e-mails only come so long as the account is active? That's a shame. I wouldn't actually use an alternative account. --Jpcase (talk) 14:25, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Jpcase No, it doesn't have to be active in the sense of having to use it to edit with, but the e-mail is sent in response to the watchlist on the second account, and no further e-mails are sent about that article (but one e-mail will be sent about any other article(s) on that watch-list that are changed), until you have logged into using that second account, and looked at the changes with that second account. The danger is that, having logged in with the second account, people forget and use it to edit with. I don't know if the techies can sort out a "read-only" option for the second account, that still allowed people to add articles to/delete articles from the watchlist. Arjayay (talk) 14:43, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying. I'd rather not have to sign into an alternative account at all. I suppose it wouldn't be that much of a hassle, but still - I'd really like to see an article-specific e-mail function exist. --Jpcase (talk) 15:01, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Oops. I didn't ping you correctly the first time, and correcting it doesn't work without a new signature. --Jpcase (talk) 15:04, 30 March 2015 (UTC)