Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 April 25

= April 25 =

Filmography Tables for Actors
Help! :)

Ok, not a big deal and I am trying to nip something in the bud.

While on RC patrol, I ran across two articles of actors where an IP editor is: -removing filmography tables -misquoting policies to justify their position -making up policies -insisting that if the tables are kept they be be as bare as possible (no info about awards etc). -exhibiting WP:OWN attitudes and behaviors

What I am looking for: Some other users with experience to look at these pages, especially someone who has lots of experience in film and acting pages, especially with tables Ways to find such editors... I have looked on WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers and don't see a place I can post.

Articles in question: Desmond Tan and Zen Chong

Basically I am concerned about a lot of work being lost through made up standards for film and actor tables. Thanks (ps if there is a better place to post this, please let me knowSethie (talk) 02:18, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Tables are acceptable in filmographies. (I personally don't like them, but only because they're extra work.) AFAIK, there is no policy or guideline that prohibits them, and I've been active in editing film-related articles for at least a decade. A couple of observations though. First, TV series don't belong in a filmography. They should go in a separate section. Second, we generally don't include billing positions in the notes. Third, I don't quite know what "pairs with" means exactly, and if it's what I suspect, it's not particularly noteworthy. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:31, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks! (you are welcome to weigh in at either page btw) Sethie (talk) 03:13, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


 * It seems this will affect a number of articles and some form of consensus would be required. Perhaps a place to raise this would be at WT:FILM? Eagleash (talk) 03:03, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thats my concern too, appreciate the lead will post on WP:FILM. Sethie (talk) 03:13, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Login Attempts
Haven't found information about this anywhere else, so figured I'd ask here. I'm not too active anymore, but for the past year (perhaps longer, since LoginNotify was launched) someone has been really, really determined to get into my account and I'm not quite sure why. I've gotten perhaps 50 failed login emails at this point, and they're still going at it from a host of different IP addresses. Not quite sure what my question is, just looking for insight or perhaps information on what can be done (if anything). Shaun 05:53, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Your username is a very common name, so it is very likely to be in the list of some bot that just tries things. If your username is sufficiently strong (say over 12 characters long or something) and not used for any other website, then their really is nothing to worry about, and in your case i would then suggest to simply turn off the notification for such attempts in your preferences. But make sure your your password is secure enough, because the attempts are not likely to stop. —Th e DJ (talk • contribs) 06:01, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I was worried about this too so I created a committed identity so that if someone does get into my account I can prove my true identity. Basically, you go to a website like this and enter a string of characters that you won't forget and nobody would guess (something that you will both never forget and will never need to change). If your account gets compromised and you're completely locked out, and people are unsure if you are really you, you just send that private string to ArbCom or whomever and they'll be able to verify that you're the legit person by just running that private string through the website and seeing that the output hash matches what's on your userpage. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 06:06, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Wow sorry I forgot. You use this template, Template:Committed identity, and put your hash on your user page (you can see mine on my userpage for example). You don't just keep the hash on a piece of paper at home. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 06:07, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Actually the nobody would guess part of the committed identity is not needed. The hash (i.e. the string of gibberish characters you get as output) is seemingly random, but you do not need it to be "hard to guess" (unless you are extremely concerned about privacy, e.g. if your Wikipedia contributions would expose you to arrest by the local authorities); for the committed identity purpose, you want it "hard to fake", i.e. it should be hard to produce a collision attack (another string that has the same hash but indicates another person).
 * For instance, I can give some info about my committed identity string: it is of the form "  is Tigraan", with the email address the standard firstname.lastname@domain and the domain contains only letters and at most 15 of them. This information makes it easier for you to guess what the string is, but it makes it harder to find a collision while respecting the given format (while controlling the given email and having ID for the name you give).  Tigraan Click here to contact me 14:52, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * One comment, you do want to write down somewhere the exact string that you hash. Just knowing it's your name and email and such isn't enough. A difference as small as an extra comma, etc, is enough to make the resulting hash completely different. CrowCaw 15:48, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Venda article: can't see how to remove nonsense text
The history section of Venda begins "Today, I went to the beach front with my kids. caaaakafbfdcabcf" but when I try to remove that, it doesn't appear in the edit window. What's going on? --A bit iffy (talk) 09:11, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * It was vandalism to the 'SouthAfrica state' template used in the article. Corrected with this edit. Eagleash (talk) 09:56, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks.--A bit iffy (talk) 10:21, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Publish a page
I have drafted a page, how do I go about publishing it on wikipedia? Any help, advise and guidance will me much appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AR40422 (talk • contribs) 13:16, 25 April 2018 13:16 (UTC)
 * Hello, This presumably relates to Draft:Sultan Bahadar Aziz. It will need a little bit of work before it is ready for mainspace. When you consider it is appropriate you can place  at the top of the page, which will submit it for review. In the meantime I will leave some helpful links at your talk page and you should also read WP:YFA and WP:REFB which is a basic guide to adding references. Please remove the bluelinks from headings. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 13:48, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


 * many thanks for your help — Preceding unsigned comment added by AR40422 (talk • contribs) 13:51, 25 April 2018 13:51 (UTC)

Speed of Wikipedia coverage
How fast does Wikipedia write about events? I'm asking here for wording in page wp:About, which has claimed "within minutes" but I prefer phrase, "within hours" to wait on published sources to post details after/during a major event. Otherwise a claim of "minutes" seems to strongly imply first-person observations written about an event. Should this speed issue be an RfC topic and at wt:About? -Wikid77 (talk) 14:27, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Actually Wikid77, "within minutes" is pretty accurate. Pretty much as soon as news hits someone creates an article, and often two or three that need to be merged with one another once they find each other. Whether that's a violation of WP:NOTNEWS has been the subject of some debate.  G M G  talk  14:35, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Hello . You may want to read the more detailed advice at WP:BREAKING and the links from there. Basically, there is no limit to how fast articles about current events should be written, and in practice worldwide-news events usually get written about very quickly (in the internet area, news reports can arrive extremely fast after the event), but that should not be done at the detriment of quality.
 * As for changing the wording of a particular page, before launching a full-scale RfC, why not post on the talk page (WT:About) first? RfCs are usually the last-resort option when multiple editors fail to find a consensus, so do not resort to them before you have even tested the waters. Tigraan Click here to contact me 14:39, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * OK, thanks folks for the advice. -Wikid77 (talk) 14:49, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Creating an article by translation?
May I translate an entry from another language into English to create a page?
 * Short answer: if that "entry" is from another Wikipedia, yes. If it is from elsewhere on the internet, probably not.
 * See Translation for the long answer. In particular pay attention to licensing requirements (usually just saying "translated from the article at Foo at date X" is ok, though you can do better) and do not use raw machine translation (proofread it before posting). Tigraan Click here to contact me 14:57, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Take a look
Can someone take a look at Ola Cabs? A lot of IP edits seems to have added a lot of unwanted content. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.151.25.63 (talk) 15:00, 25 April 2018‎ (UTC)

It looks like User:GreenMeansGo cleaned it up. 💵Money💵emoji💵 Talk 11:37, 26 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Ah, sorry. I got busy and didn't reply here. I removed the worst of it, not that the article couldn't still use some TLC.  G M G  talk  11:39, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Mistake about May Day
Why this map shows that Labor Day in Belgium is not on May 1st? I can garantee you that "la fete du travail" is a national holiday in Belgium. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/International_Observance_of_Labour_Day.png Ericdec85 (talk) 16:09, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

EDIT: and also in Luxembourg, Slovakia and Poland. This map is just wrong. Should check again every single country. 16:10, 25 April 2018 (UTC)16:10, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Hello, . That file File:International_Observance_of_Labour_Day.png is in Wikimedia Commons, not Wikipedia, so you should take up the matter there, either on its talk page, or that of the Commons user Azurescapegoat, who created it. --ColinFine (talk) 22:42, 25 April 2018 (UTC)

Random featured article
Hi, I know there is a "Random article" feature, but is there any way to bring up a random featured ("gold star") article? (I know that I can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_articles and click somewhere at random myself.)

Okay, so you know the 2 boxes at the top of the Featured article page? On the right one, there is a link you can click called "Random featured articles" which will put you at a random featured article. Alternativly, you can click this link instead. Happy reading! 💵Money💵emoji💵 Talk 22:41, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you!

👍 💵Money💵emoji💵 Talk 00:11, 26 April 2018 (UTC)