Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 September 2

= September 2 =

Table and template questions
Hi, advice needed and kindly see below: Thank you.  CASSIOPEIA(talk) 03:59, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) could the top panel/row, first column and  any choosing combination of row and column of a table to be frozen (fixed in one position in the table) while scrolling  up/down or left/right, if so, kindly advise how this would be done.
 * 2) could an automatic numbering be set in the table?
 * 3) if a new parameter is to be added to an existing template (say between the parameter 14 and 15 ), could it be just added "new 15 parameter" and move existing parameter 15 to parameter 16 and existing parameter 16 to parameter 17 and so on and so fort? and would this effect the rest of the articles which used this particular template?
 * It is not possible to do this for other readers of a page. The bottom of Special:Preferences has the option "Make sure that headers of tables remain in view as long as the table is in view (requires Firefox v59 or Safari)". It only applies to your own account and has some issues.
 * There is no good way to do this. See Help:Sorting and row indexer for problematic options.
 * If the parameter is named then the order doesn't matter and the parameter can be inserted anywhere in calls of the template. If the parameter is unnamed then it is referred to by its position among unnamed parameters and insertion of a new unnamed parameter will increase the position of following unammed parameters. This will often cause existing template calls to fail. See more at Help:Template.
 * PrimeHunter (talk) 19:39, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Hey, Thank you for the above info. Appreciate it. Cheers  CASSIOPEIA(talk) 01:19, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Had no words.
Is referencing to an older revision of Wikipedia is allowed??--Jeromi Mikhael (talk) 08:18, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Wow, haven't seen that before. No, WP shouldn't be used as a cite on WP. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:52, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * The old page used, doesn't seem good either. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:54, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Foreign family names in English
There are people with names such as Peter de Jong, Robert van Buren. In Netherlands aka Dutch the surname does not include 'van' or 'de'.

My question: how does one write these names on an English Wikipedia page?

Is it:

The footballers de Jong and van Buren have been reported for...

or is it:

The footballers De Jong and Van Buren have been reported for...

or are both ok?

Mary Hartman (talk) 11:02, 2 September 2018 (UTC)


 * , I'm fairly sure it's the first, see Nobiliary particle. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:47, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I'd stick to the Dutch rules in this case, which means footballers De Jong and Van Buren. It's not a nobiliary particle, so that page won't help you much. Femkemilene (talk) 13:47, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you. If there's a WP:COMMONNAME here (in English sources), that's the way to go. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:37, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Watchlist just talk pages
Hi,

I have several extremely active pages (where my editing focus is fairly narrow) that single-handedly clog up my watchlist. However they do have talk pages discussions that I'm fairly active in and need to know when posts are made.

Is there any way to stay watchlisted to a talk page and not the article (or filter specific mainspace watchlist posts out with the new filtering options)?

Cheers, Nosebagbear (talk) 11:19, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * See Help:Hide Pages in Watchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:04, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Cheers Nosebagbear (talk) 15:56, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * While that may prove useful alternative, I believe that's not what you're exactly looking for. What you're actually asking for is not yet available but is one of the features that have been repeatedly requested in Community Wishlist survey every year but never made it to the top ten, which are the only requests the developers work on. See for example: 2016 request and 2017 request. I am sure it will be requested again this year in November, so just be ready to add your support when the survey starts and let's make it possible. –Ammarpad (talk) 17:35, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Indeed - this if the first year I've been active enough to actually be ready and present to look at the wishlist Nosebagbear (talk) 17:42, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Cutting down a tree
Do we have an article about the concept of cutting down trees? Tree-cutting is a redlink, Logging covers much more than just the cutting down, and I can't think of anything else. Nyttend (talk) 12:03, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Tree felling, which sounds to me the best term, redirects to Arboriculture, which is a rather weak article. Edwardx (talk) 12:06, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * That redir is an WP:EGG so I changed Tree felling so it now points to the correct article, Felling. I wouldn't object to simply changing the latter's name to "tree felling".  Technically that's sort of redundant but it would probably help people in our modern day understand what it is right away. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 12:51, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you, NewsAndEventsGuy. Edwardx (talk) 13:40, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for finding that. Nyttend (talk) 23:20, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

Setting a reminder for tasks left undone
Is there a way to automate a notification to myself, about tasks I want to come back to? For example see the wikicode at User_talk:NewsAndEventsGuy, where I included. Not sure how that will work in user space when the time expires. Is there a better way to set a popup reminder for myself? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 12:44, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi I don't know if this would help you, but I once wrote a little template that lets me set a reminder. It takes three arguments; a date, the number of days, and a task, so  gives:  and  gives: . Perhaps you can copy my template and adapt it for your own purposes. --Vexations (talk) 13:15, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks, when the timer goes off, do you get a notification or pop up? Or do you have to do the two step process of (A) remembering to look at your to do list and (B) actually noticing that the text changed? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 13:17, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * No, this is a very basic template. No alerts. You'd have to actually look at your to-do list. You can easily change the code so that it only shows a note if it's time, or highlights it. I don't use it myself. I use a task management app that suits me. Vexations (talk) 13:36, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for info NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 18:37, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

History of Christianity
In the article History of Christianity there is a tag that the article is too much hig. But actually the article is not that much big. The problem is even the sub-sub-sections are shown in the article. In the other articles the sub-sub-sections have not been shown. That is why the article look too much big. But in fact the article is not that much big. The article is almost equal size of the History of Islam and History of Buddhism. Please can anyone solve this problem?--Genghis khan2846 (talk) 18:02, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * "Too big" is a matter of editorial opinion. You should create a new section on the article's talk page and recommend that the "too big" tag be removed. If noboby objects, then after a suitable time (at least a few days) remove the tag. If someone objects, try to reach a consensus. -Arch dude (talk) 21:15, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

I am not so good in English. It is not possible for me to make a discussion in the talk page. I want help from the other administrators, who are interested.--Genghis khan2846 (talk) 22:32, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Genghis khan2846, if you write an explanation here, I can write a good English explanation and put that on the talk page. You can write in your own language and use Google Translate, if you do not want to write in English.  If I cannot understand what Google Translate says, I can ask you to say it a different way.  Nyttend (talk) 23:19, 2 September 2018 (UTC)
 * , you can limit what the table of contents shows with or similar. Other editors may still feel that the article itself is too long but the table of contents will be shorter. As a side note, the editor that added that tag joined Wikipedia eight days before. &rsaquo;  Mortee  talk 23:26, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

I have followed the policy of Mortee. Let us see what happens.--Genghis khan2846 (talk) 00:27, 3 September 2018 (UTC)