Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2020 March 8

= March 8 =

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
Ref   number  2 is in the  red. Please fix. Thanks 175.33.49.35 (talk) 00:19, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Done. But what's the deal with all the spaces? J I P  &#124; Talk 00:45, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia article name
Hi Helpdesk, 1. As an senior editor, I have been updating name to match the article file name. Is there a rule that specify it is ok to have a mismatch name? 2. An IP user follows my edits and persistently alters name to not match article changes such as Eugene P. Ruehlmann and Joe Coulombe.

Thanks, SWP13 (talk) 03:53, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Before you take any other action, you should discuss this with the other editor. Start by assuming, in good faith (WP:AGF), that both of you are trying to improve the encyclopedia, and try to reach consensus on what makes the most sense. I suspect that it may be more nuanced than a simple rule. -Arch dude (talk) 05:01, 8 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Nevertheless, there is an established convention that the full legal name begins a bio, and the article title matches the name at the top of the infobox. See MOS:FULLNAME.--Shantavira|feed me 09:43, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Crediting articles in WP in other languages
I wanted to add to an article on a German film which is brief in the English Wikipedia, but quite full in the German one. I recall seeing others tagging and/or crediting an article from another language, but it was quite a while ago and I cannot find info on how to do this. Is it enough to write an attribution note in the edit summary? (I would also find and cite new English sources, of course.) Laterthanyouthink (talk) 05:22, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * See Copying within Wikipedia. However, you cannot use a Wikipedia article as reference in another Wikipedia article. If the German article makes assertions, I assume that those assertions are cited to reliable sources. Your English article must cite those references themselves, not the German article. It's perfectly OK if those references are in German. So, you are attributing the Germain article (because it is copyrighted CC-BY-SA), but you are referencing its sources, not the article, because Wikipedia does not consider itself to be a reliable source. -Arch dude (talk) 06:18, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Great, thanks for that, . Yes, I understand about the need for citing everything. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:34, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

The Tale of Two Charles's
I've just discovered that Charles James McDonnell and Charles J. McDonnell are two separate articles about the same person, and they have both existed side by side of each other for almost nine years. I wasn't sure how to go about this, or which article to fold into which. Rusted AutoParts 18:11, 8 March 2020 (UTC)


 * I would merge to Charles J. McDonnell as that is the first name the obituaries on both articles use. Fortunately both articles are short. Merging should explain the process and you can always come back to the helpdesk of it doesn't. TSventon (talk) 19:20, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

having issues citing dates
trying to site this date for a website |date=09 August 2019 and it keeps saying this  Template:Use dmy-all dates|date=09 August 2019. Retrieved Template:Use dmy-all dates|access-date=08 March 2020. Check date values in: |access-date=, |date= (help) — Preceding unsigned comment added by WA.IVRaps (talk • contribs) 23:03, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * We don't use leading zeroes in Wikipedia dates; see MOS:BADDATE. --David Biddulph (talk) 00:02, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Just to clarify for other readers and situations, that is true of DMY (9 March 2020) and MDY (March 9, 2020) dates. YMD format (2020-03-09) requires them, and some templates that take separate year, month, and day values, like, allow them. —[ Alan M 1 (talk) ]— 08:04, 9 March 2020 (UTC)