Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2021 March 5

= March 5 =

I am editing the article "Garry Owen (actor)" and I found an online source with a lot of information about him. How do I use that information without simply cutting and pasting?
I am editing the article "Garry Owen (actor)" and I found an online source with a lot of information about him. How do I use that information without simply cutting and pasting? This is the source page: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77125453/garry-owen Thanks in advance.

Dratman (talk) 00:16, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * You need to summarize what the sources say.  Additionally, findagrave is not a reliable source since the information is user generated, so it can't be used.  See Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources.  You will need to find other sources for the article. RudolfRed (talk) 00:22, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Dratman (talk) 02:25, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Geography
Th canary and the madagascar island — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.223.213.82 (talk) 01:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * No canary (or swallow, African or European) can carry a coconut from the Canary Islands to Madagascar. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:38, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't that depend on the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, European obviously, as the African is non-migratory...Jokulhlaup (talk) 10:42, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I have to say here that I've been to Doune Castle. They sold coconut-shells in the giftshop. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:25, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Do they deliver? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:55, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Random insult on my talk page
Permalink

I doubt the insult is directed at me, but it's still troubling to see. Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with it? I could file an ANI report, but am not sure if it's overreacting. Banedon (talk) 11:53, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * If you're unsure if something is "ANI-worthy" then you could raise a message to the editor that you think their edit is unacceptably uncivil and you believe they should remove it. In this case it's on your talk page so you have a full right to just remove it anyway should you wish, and you can more than reasonably ask the user to be polite on your TP. What you're doing here is (asking for a second opinion on severity) is also fine, and for a new editor, the HD is probably a reasonable place to ask. Nosebagbear (talk) 12:13, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I would agree with you that the insult seems more likely to have been aimed at the person who started that subsection on your page, although the insult was ambiguously worded as to whom they meant by "you". In any event, I'd move to the talk page of JBL and comment that you don't want that type of addition on your Talk Page, as such material is rarely justified anywhere. I think that ANI would be an over-reaction in this case, assuming you've never had trouble from JBL before. Mike Turnbull (talk) 13:41, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * It's unacceptable, whoever it is aimed at. I've issued an only warning. Mjroots (talk) 17:28, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Is there anything that marks SPAs in an edit history?
Does anyone know of a script that'll somehow mark in an article edit history any accounts that have very few edits to any other article? It would be nice to be able to see at a glance which other editors have edited nothing/almost nothing else. —valereee (talk) 12:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * , I can't say that I know of a script that does that, but I felt bad that no one responded to you, so I did. You probably already know, but on Special:RecentChanges you can filter by editors with Newcomers (<10 edits and/or <4 days), Learners (<500 edits and/or <30 days) and Experienced (>500 edits and/or >30 days). This does come in quite handy for someone like me who spends a lot of time skimming through recent changes for vandals. Hope that helps a little! :) Thanks, EDG 543 (message me) 20:29, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I did find a script called "histFilter" which adds a button to filter the page's history to only show revisions of blocked users. Here is the code if you want to try it:  Thanks, EDG 543 (message me) 20:42, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks, EDG. I already can see which edits were made by users who are blocked, so I must already have something like that installed! Appreciate all the research! :) —valereee (talk) 17:35, 7 March 2021 (UTC)
 * A simple solution would be for anyone who flags an article with the COI tag to also start a discussion on the talk page explaining their rationale. Few do this unfortunately, which leaves it up to those of us trying to clean up the article to retrace their steps to figure out who the problematic editor was. TimTempleton (talk) (cont)  17:40, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Article for Deletion Questions
Do users creating a page receive any warning that the page they are requesting has been deleted? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Recreation_of_previously_deleted_pages

Is there any way an editor can see that an article has previously been deleted? Can you query the deletion log to find breakdown by AfD reason? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/delete Can you tell how many articles a user has created and how many they have deleted? My interest is that Some pages are pure mis-representations  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Branch_Insurance&oldid=prev&diff=1000898425&diffmode=source — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wakelamp (talk • contribs) 5 March 2021 12:46 (UTC)


 * Yes, when you create a previously deleted page a notice should pop up saying that the page has been previously deleted
 * This is not occouring when I try to create Branch Insurance. Or do I have to publish it??? Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 15:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * No you cannot query the log for AFD reasons. Usually pages deleted via AFD will say so in the log and provide a link to the AFD
 * Is it possible to request a query to do this? Looking through the AFD discussions, there is some commonality of issues. As an aside, In all honesty, I had thought the AFD over-zealous in their task - I had no idea how much junk there is. Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 15:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Not using Wikipedia but some external tools like xtools can show you that number.  Asartea  Talk  undefined  Contribs  14:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Awesome. I clicked through to see my own. The report has links to wiki. I can't view "You do not have permission to view a page's deleted history" even for my own deletions Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 15:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Good question. If I click this redlink Günter Bechly I get info about previous deletions. But if I go to WP:DRAFTS and enter the name there for creation, I don't seem to get any warning. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 14:20, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I see [] when I enter Branch Insurance in the search box and then click on the red link. TimTempleton (talk) (cont)  17:49, 7 March 2021 (UTC)
 * hmmm I don't get the warning. Wakelamp branch insurance creation.png Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 02:49, 9 March 2021 (UTC)
 * hmmm I don't get the warning. Wakelamp branch insurance creation.png Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 02:49, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Requesting an un-involved person to close a merge discussion
Talk:Luca Attanasio has been open for 2 weeks with the last response (before a request to close from me today) over a week ago. Can someone close it? Elijahandskip (talk) 14:37, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I'll close it, but for the future, Administrators' noticeboard/Requests for closure is the preferred location for this type of request (and yes, it is ridiculously backlogged). ~  ONUnicorn (Talk&#124;Contribs) problem solving 17:13, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah thanks for that. I didn’t know that existed.  Elijahandskip (talk) 17:16, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Merging of accounts in two accounts with different username
Hello!

If I did understand correctly my reading of the FAQ for the merging of accounts in differents languages, the username that I don't plan to use need to be changed to the one I will use in the future. (Exemple: I change my French username to match the English one).

Thanks!

Van Quoc Vinh (talk) 14:41, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * There are different help pages and you may have read something obsolete. It hasn't been possible to merge accounts for many years. Accounts cannot be renamed to a name which is taken at any wiki. You can use your existing account at other wikis. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:37, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Inappropriate picture
Dear Sir I would like to point out a picture of Prophet Mohemmed PBUH. in one of your article about SPLITTING OF MOON, which hurt me deeply. Kindly remove mentioned picture. Sincerely IRAM SHAMSI — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2400:ADC1:157:E300:F1DE:C696:6874:37C7 (talk) 15:34, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Please understand that Wikipedia is not censored for any reason, including religious reasons. There is much content here that is offensive to many religions, and removing it all would leave little behind. There are ways for you to prevent the display of images on your computer, and if you create an account there are ways to prevent seeing images that are described at WP:NOSEE. 331dot (talk) 15:37, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * You may be interested in the text (but not the images) in Depictions of Muhammad. -Arch dude (talk) 18:04, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Help:Options to hide an image may be of help. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:30, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

Whitespace character guide?
Is there a guide on using whitespace characters when editing Wikipedia? WP:WHITE isn't exactly what I'm looking for (that's about blank space). I'm looking for a guide that answers questions like "Is it appropriate to use character tabulations when editing Wikipedia; if yes, then where?". 85.76.140.34 (talk) 17:34, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Don't use tabs. Our wikitext gets converted to HTML before it's sent to the reader's browser. Tabs and other whitespace are all consolidated by the browser into the equivalent of a single space character by the browser, as part of the way HTML rendering works. If you to wish to present aligned columns, use a table. -Arch dude (talk) 18:58, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I would prefer to create My First Article™ or take up herding cats as a full-time profession rather than attempt to create a table on WP. If you are utterly determined, Help:Table might not sap your will to live. This is just one example of where Wikipedia manages to turn a simple visual artefact into a woebegone technological disaster, leading to severe hair loss if not permanent mental breakdown. MinorProphet (talk) 19:44, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you for making me laugh. Wakelamp d&#91;@-@&#93;b (talk) 21:08, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

IP blocks
Why IP blocks are not for ever? Dr Salvus (talk) 23:52, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Other users have the same IP. Why punish them for one idiot's misdeeds? Clarityfiend (talk) 00:47, 6 March 2021 (UTC)
 * IP addresses can change frequently. Blocks will likely ensnare unwitting IP editors to whom the address has been reassigned and also the intended target could move to a new address. A range block will also handicap 'innocent' editors. Eagleash (talk) 00:53, 6 March 2021 (UTC)
 * If you mean that no IP should be allowed to edit then see Perennial proposals. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 6 March 2021 (UTC)