Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 October 31

= October 31 =

Recently Active Users
Hello people. I am not sure how to fix this but if you look at the recently active users log, the link for myself leads to a blocked sock of someone impersonating me. Of course, this is not a huge issue but it seems strange. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 02:48, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * You might raise that with the tool author, . Or, if you tell us the sock puppet's username, maybe someone will notice something obvious.  I don't currently see your name in the list. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 05:52, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I see the tool currently links "Cote d'Azur" to User:Cote d so I guess it has problems with percent-encoding of special characters and links "HickoryOughtShirt?4" to User:HickoryOughtShirt. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:47, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, you're right. I'll bring it up with the tool author. Thank you both! HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 15:10, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Signature
A user keeps asking me to fix my signature, but I do not know how. Can anyone tell me?--NeoBatfreak (talk) 04:26, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * To change your signature, go to your preferences at the top right of the page, scroll down past the user profile and internationalisation sections, and you will find a field where you can modify your signature. To fix your signature so it links correctly to your user and user talk pages as required, copy this code:  into the signature field, check the box which says "treat as wiki markup", and save your preferences at the bottom of the page. For more information, see Help:Signature. – Teratix ₵ 04:38, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * An easier way to get a valid signature is to leave the Signature field blank at Special:Preferences and have no checkmark at "Treat the above as wiki markup". This is the default. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:23, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Your signature was correct in your question, so you don't need to change anything. You had obviously cured the earlier problem. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:11, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

How to create a report of the use of a particular template in a specific time period with editing user
Is it possible to create/get a report of the use of the a particular template, Template:Geobox/type/river, in new articles (or the first addition of the template to an article) for a specific time period (say since January 1, 2018) and the user names of the editors who created/edited those new articles with the template/to ad the template? I note the Geobox river template has a tracking category, Category:Geobox usage tracking for river type. Thanks. --papageno (talk) 05:22, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Would WikiBlame help with this? -- Jayron 32 16:26, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * I wrote a query that will tell you the number of times a Geobox template has been transcluded on an article. https://quarry.wmflabs.org/query/30789 It appears that there are no articles that use Geobox/type/river. As you can see at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Geobox/type/river there are pages that transclude that template, but they're not articles in mainspace.

Vexations (talk) 19:37, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your replies. Given that Geobox river is used on some 15,000+ articles, and I have created several hundred myself (eg Malotte Creek), perhaps we need to try a different approach. Every time the template is included on a article, the tracking category Category:Geobox usage tracking for river type automatically gets added to the article. Is there a way to know when that category has been added to an article for a given time period, and to get a report of those changes? Regards. --papageno (talk) 05:08, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Problem with logging in.
I took valuable time to edit your article on Walter Bosshard, Swiss photographer, then logged into my account only to find you keep rejecting my password. This is very frustrating, since I refuse to change my password--have too many already, and went through several tests to prove I'm not a robot when I tried to create a new account. What to do? Thanks, PC. 2602:306:CF09:D460:115C:72D5:A14:1311 (talk) 4:15 am, Today (UTC+0)


 * Hi Paul, sorry you are having problems. If you provided an e-mail address when you created your account, then you can recover your password.  See Help:Reset password for details.  It's possible that a different keyboard layout, or a changed space or capital letter is preventing your password from being accepted, so do try different combinations, and maybe a different keyboard.  I've removed your e-mail address from public view since you don't it collected by spambots.  Ask again if you are still having problems.  I note that the article Walter Bosshard has not been edited for two years, so I assume you were using a word processor or a text editor.  That is probably not a good idea.  It is better to make your edits in small steps in the live article, and provide edit summaries.   Dbfirs  08:32, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Another possible reason for password rejection is entering a wrong username. If your account has email enabled (we cannot tell without knowing the username) and you get a temporary password at Special:PasswordReset then you can set your preferred password at Special:Preferences after logging in. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:28, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Data vizualization
Dear All, I'd appreciate your attention for this question on data visualization. Thank you in advance! Have a nice Reformation Day/All Saints' Day/day Yours, Ciciban (talk) 08:52, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

Heading Question
Hello I was wondering how do you add a new category or headings in Wikipedia? Thank You Cheryl Crown Boone Castlegate22 (talk) 18:53, 31 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Categories are created as described at WP:Categorization.
 * Headings are created as described at WP:Manual of Style.
 * --David Biddulph (talk) 19:37, 31 October 2018 (UTC)