Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2022 May 9

= May 9 =

How does this piece of code work?
On Template:FGAN, there is the following code: Why is there a  before the , and what does it do? What is the difference between that and I.hate.spam.mail.here (talk | contributions) 03:58, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * @I.hate.spam.mail.here That code is used so that when you substitute the template the output of the if statement is substituted onto the page, rather than the if statement code. See mw:Help:Substitution. 163.1.15.238 (talk) 11:32, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * An explanation of what how it works might be useful too. If you write  in a template directly then when you save the template page the substitution will be performed and the template code will contain the output of the if statement. By using   the safesub is only processed when the template is evaluated and parameters substituted, because you're providing it as the default output of the parameter "". 163.1.15.238 (talk) 11:40, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Got it, thanks! I.hate.spam.mail.here (talk | contributions) 17:48, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Trouble inserting link
I've tried to add a film, The 25th Hour, to actor Brian Cox's page but it's not working for me. If anybody can show me what I got wrong, I'd appreciate it. Bodding (talk) 04:11, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi . It looks like our article on the 2002 film is at 25th Hour. You'll also want to put the single quotes we use for italicization outside the square brackets. The final markup should be 25th Hour (2002) Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 04:17, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much. I appreciate the help. Bodding (talk) 17:30, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * I fixed your link. The title of our article about the film is 25th Hour, not "The 25th Hour (2002 film)". Deor (talk) 12:27, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much! I appreciate the help. Bodding (talk) 17:29, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Personal Information warnings
How do I respond to a user when they include apparent personal information, like telephone numbers? Nythar (talk) 06:26, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * You remove the personal information, and tell them it that they shouldn't do that. -- Jayron 32 11:18, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * But then the personal information shows up in the history. I thought I'd seen cases where such things have been removed and somehow blocked in, or excised from the history. Uporządnicki (talk) 14:30, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * For that you'd want to request a WP:REVDEL. DonIago (talk) 15:01, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

Article - Terry Quinn - Poet
I went into this page to add more material and found it had been edited and placed with Terry O Quinn. there is not relatonship and these are separate entries and should be treated as such Terry Quinn is a Derby poet not to be confused with O'QUINN an American actor. please retsore the original page help me to add more information  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Trentius (talk • contribs) 11:51, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia does not appear to have a page named Terry Quinn which is a redirect to Terry O'Quinn. It seems you have previously removed the redirect and attempted to create an article about the poet (which was unsourced). If you wish to write an article about Quinn (rather than O'Quinn) please review the guide to article creation and the notability guidelines. Some links will also be left at your talk page which will hopefully assist you. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 12:11, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Created a template
Hi everyone. I was hoping to create a new template which is essentially Template:Talk quote inline but with a darker font color. I created Template:Talk quote inline darker and took these steps: These steps did not achieve the desired result. In testing, the issue I had is that the color of test content using the new template always matched the color of the old. Disturbingly, they both took on whatever color I set in my style sheet. Did I somehow break the original template? Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 19:55, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @Firefangledfeathers: The hex value in both .css sheets are the same from what I can tell. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 21:03, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi . I rolled back to the original hex code when I got worried that I might be breaking the old tq template. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 22:03, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @Firefangledfeathers I think (and I might be mistaken here, I'm not 100% certain about the operation of mediawiki sanitised CSS) the issue is that you've used the same class names in your new template as were used in the old one. When a page is loaded using both the new and the old template you get two style sheets loaded, and you get a CSS conflict as both contain a definition for "inline-quote-talk" "inline-quote-talk-italic" and "inline-quote-talk-marks". When CSS conflicts occur the last CSS page loaded is the one used and earlier ones are overwritten. You need to rename the definitions in the CSS sheet and change the definitions used in the new template to match. 163.1.15.238 (talk) 13:24, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * That was it! Thanks. Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 13:55, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I learned something new today. I'll keep this in mind if I ever decide to fiddle with CSS. — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 15:23, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

New question
I notice when i'm logged out of Wikipedia when I hover my mouse over a link I can see part of the lead title and the picture of the page. But when i'm logged in and I hover my mouse over a link it does show anything. Is there anyway to change this in settings? --Aaron106 (talk) 20:38, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * try turning on Navigation Popups gadget in your preferences. RudolfRed (talk) 20:50, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * thank you although doesn't the look the same, would there be anyway to make it look the same like when you're logged out? --Aaron106 (talk) 21:00, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @Aaron106: You may be thinking of Page Previews, which you can enable at . — Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 21:06, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

This sorted it! Thank you both for helping out,. --Aaron106 (talk) 21:10, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Ghost Archive
Hi Folks!!. Does anybody know about Ghost Archives at https://ghostarchive.org? An example can be found at Harold Lloyd. Is it genuine and authorised, if such a thing exist and needs to be authorised. Is it a good service, for example. I don't have much clue about how they on work on Wikipedia, except in refs. Thanks.  scope_creep Talk  20:56, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I just see the one link that has a backup link to ghostarchive from one of the references, In the "cite web" template there is an option for an archive URL and it's possible the person creating that reference put that one in there. I am a librarian who kind of keeps up with the permalinking space and I had never heard of it before. The website is registered in Canada and has all the personal information on ownership privatized. There is a Tumblrblog which is likewise anonymous. The site has been around since August 2021. No versions of their About page that I have seen have any personal information on them. For me personally, I continue to rely on Archive.org. Jessamyn (my talk page) 21:13, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * I use Archive.org as well. The editor is putting in hundreds. Is it genuine? I've not heard of it up until this point.    scope_creep Talk  07:40, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @Scope creep Yes, it is a legitimate archiving site, it's got a listing at WP:WEBARCHIVES if you want to know more about using it. This site is quite good at archiving JavaScript heavy pages. 163.1.15.238 (talk) 12:05, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
 * @Scope creep hello again, nice to see you here, when i have time I should return back to AfD.
 * Well as Jessamyn said the site has been active since last year and its been in use since then so I am a little suprised you haven't heard of it but again when discussion tools was activated people still didn't know even with the big banner on watchlists.
 * The site does the job, and it works for things like Youtube videos and Instagram. I use all 3 of the archiving websites, all are good for me. Rlink2 (talk) 12:02, 10 May 2022 (UTC)

Restore revision
I think this is supposed to be in the Edit Summary box when restoring a old revision, "Restored revision 1074725345 by Example (talk): Reverted test edit". Why am I not seeing this? --Aaron106 (talk) 22:30, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi Aaron106. Is it possible you are pressing the undo button in the page history? If so, does then an edit window open with a red warning above it saying "The edit could not be undone due to conflicting intermediate edits; if you wish to undo the change, it must be done manually."? – NJD-DE (talk) 22:54, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Hi no I don't see that warning, when i restore a revision of a page I go to View history > prev > Edit source and there I see a blank box in the edit summary when i think i should be seeing "Restored revision 1074725345 by Example (talk): Reverted test edit" --Aaron106 (talk) 22:57, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Ok got it now I think. Edit summaries like "Restored revision 1074725345 by Example (talk): Reverted test edit" are usually the result of using an anti-vandal tool like Twinkle. It adds a specific button on the old version of an article named "[restore this version]". When hitting it a popup appears asking you to provide an explanation, e.g. "Reverted test edit". It will then revert to this version and produce the edit summary you are referring to. When simply going back to an old revision and editing it there won't be an automated edit summary. – NJD-DE (talk) 23:06, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

NJD-DE Thank you I just tested this out right now in my Sandbox, & is Twinkle the only way to show this message? --Aaron106 (talk) 23:12, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * When undoing specific revisions a similar text is prefilled as edit summary (that was what I first thought you were trying to do). Afaik edit summaries like this when restoring old versions of an article are only possible with additional tools/scripts such as Twinkle. There would be alternatives to Twinkle of course. – NJD-DE (talk) 23:19, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

NJD-DE But officialy Wikipedia on their website only lets you use Twinkle to do this? --Aaron106 (talk) 23:21, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

NJD-DE And finally how do I get it to show "reverted good faith efforts by" I can't see to find it when I click Undo --Aaron106 (talk) 23:30, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * You can check out the Twinkle doc for more information on what it can or can't do. I think the section Wikipedia:Twinkle/doc#Restore_and_rollback might be of interest. Any actions done using a script are still in your responsibility. Other tools can also be used, e.g. Red-Warn. However, Twinkle is probably the most commonly used one. – NJD-DE (talk) 23:36, 9 May 2022 (UTC)

Unable to log in.
I have submitted password change requests, 3 yesterday, only 1 today. NONE of them are coming back to me. Yes, I verified I'm using the correct characters. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.243.212.175 (talk) 22:37, 9 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Did you have an email confirmed-connected to your account?
 * Asparagusus  (interaction)  23:24, 9 May 2022 (UTC)
 * 1) did you check your spam folder? 2) What was the account's username? Victor Schmidt mobil (talk) 10:46, 10 May 2022 (UTC)