Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 September 16

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September 16

Locked pages

I was just about to make a Donation when I saw there are many “locked pages” and they are biased and contain misinformation. The sandy hook shooter conspiracy for example. There are many pages like this .the thing I liked about Wikipedia is it is FOR US BY US AND WE CAN CHANGE IT but you guys are clearly working for some agency now that is part of banning and censoring the truth. It is corporate or government? There’s no difference in this oligarchy really I guess MichaelStephen1977 (talk) 00:07, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Hello, MichaelStephen1977. The Wikimedia Foundation does the fundraising and volunteer Wikipedia editors are not involved with the finances and have no way of knowing who does and who does not donate money. We care far more about who donates content. If you don't want to donate money, that is fine. The WMF is rolling in cash.

As for articles being "locked" or protected, that is solely to deter an ongoing pattern of vandalism and disruptive editing. Semi-protection, by far the most common form, only requires an account four or more days old that has made ten or more edits in order to edit. That's not onerous.

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories is semi-protected because of heavy and persistent vandalism/violations of content policy over a series of years.

As for clearly working for some agency now that is part of banning and censoring the truth, frankly speaking, that is a ludicrous assertion. I have been an editor for 15 years and a highly active administrator for seven years. Never once has any "agency" or anyone else told me what to do and I have been involved with some highly controversial matters. Cullen328 (talk) 00:33, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

You may want to read Wikipedia's protection policy to understand how and why these pages are restricted from editing. In short, it's a response to frequent vandalism or other disruption, and it's not meant to enforce a particular version of the page. Article content is decided by the consensus of the Wikipedia community, not external governments or agencies. jlwoodwa (talk) 00:37, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Wikipedia is for us and we can change it as long as we do so in accordance with relevant Wikipedia policies and guidelines. Wikipedia has never intentionally been a free-for-all where anything goes. So, if you're unable to edit a particular article because it's protected, you can use the article's associated talk page to propose changes. -- Marchjuly (talk) 00:46, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Interestingly, no one has made an edit request on Talk:Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories in three years. Cullen328 (talk) 00:52, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Editing

Hello - If an editor sees an article about a subject with whom the editor has a COI and should therefore not edit that article, how would the editor best seek corrections? Sylvan1971 (talk) 02:03, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

@Sylvan1971, have a look at WP:ER for instructions. -- asilvering (talk) 02:10, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Copyright status of images of possibly copyrighted items/designs

Hi, I uploaded File:Pinky peach mint.jpg and File:Pinky Monkey.jpg to Commons to improve Pinky (candy). I've looked at both items closely and I didn't see any indication of it being copyrighted (like a symbol or some text), so I'd assumed it would be fine to take a picture and upload it. However, I was looking at Reese's Pieces and noticed that the image of the bag was uploaded to Wikipedia as non-free fair use image. Do my images of the container and mascot violate copyright? If so, how would I fix this? (Could anyone direct me to a page with more information?) AsYouWish13 03:27, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Note: Marchjuly has tagged c:File:Pinky Monkey.jpg for deletion, citing c:COM:TOYS. jlwoodwa (talk) 04:51, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

That generally answers my question about Pinky Monkey. (It is a Japanese toy, so it should be fine, though I don't know if I tagged it correctly.) However, the other image is more valuable to the page and I am still worried about the copyright status of that image. Is it ok? AsYouWish13 05:13, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

The relevant information is at c:COM:UA and c:COM:TOO Japan. As far as I can tell, nothing there directly applies to this situation, but the wrapper depicted in File:Pinky peach mint.jpg is arguably ineligible for copyright. But even if Commons decides to delete it, you can upload it locally as a non-free image – it would clearly meet the criteria. jlwoodwa (talk) 05:40, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

@AsYouWish13: As the last sentence of c:COM:TOYS states, the toy needs to be OK under Japanese copyright law and US copyright law for it to be OK for Commons. This toy seems to be eligible for copyright protection under US copyright law; so, it likely can't be hosted by Commons. It could be uploaded locally to English Wikipedia as non-free content, but each it would need to meet WP:NFCC each time it's used. The way it's currently be used wouldn't satisfy WP:NFCC#8 in my opinion, and I don't think you'll be able to establish a consensus that it does. The other image might not be OK for Commons per c:COM:PACKAGING per c:COM:JAPAN, though under US copyright law such images are sometimes considered OK because of the case Ets-Hokin v. Skyy Spirits Inc. Another user named Clindberg is fairly knowledgeable about how this case is applied on Commons, and perhaps he can help sort things out. The container for the candy is almost certainly utilitarian; so, the only issue is the label. The photo might be OK under US copyright law because it shows the container and the label together, and just doesn't focus on the label itself. The only possible issue would then be who took the photo. If that was you, then it's a non-issue. Unlike the keychain/toy, though, this file seems OK to upload as non-free (as long as you took the photo) even if it's not free enough for Wikipedia per US copyright law. In that case, the photo would be licensed under the CC license you used on Commons, but the label would need a non-free license and a non-free use rationale; the file would also need to comply with WP:NFCC each time it's used. If you didn't take the photo yourself, then it's likely too non-free per WP:FREER even for non-free content since both the photo and the label would need to be treated as non-free content for different reasons. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:21, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the link to c:COM:PACKAGING; for some reason that synonym of "wrapper" didn't occur to me. jlwoodwa (talk) 14:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

@Marchjuly Thank you for the thorough response. I don't think the picture of the mascot is all that important, so I'll go ahead and G7 it (I think there's a Commons equivalent? Hopefully I'm doing everything right.) I'm the one that took both photos, so I'll wait for a response regarding the label. AsYouWish13 14:40, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

There is indeed a Commons equivalent; it's even got the same name: c:COM:G7. jlwoodwa (talk) 14:48, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

New wiki page

How do you create a wikipedia page for an author? 2600:1004:B330:AC04:50EF:D799:7AA6:9588 (talk) 09:34, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

My earnest advice to new editors is to not even think about trying to create an article until you have spent several weeks - at least - learning about how Wikipedia works by making improvements to existing articles. Once you have understood core policies such as verifiability, neutral point of view, reliable, independent sources, and notability, and experienced how we handle disagreements with other editors (the Bold, Revert, Discuss cycle), then you might be ready to read your first article carefully, and try creating a draft.

When you come to create your article, absolutely the first thing to do is to establish that the author meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability - you cannot assume that they will, even if they have published several books. If you can find the necessary sources, then go ahead: if you cannot, give up and do something different.

Notice also that an article about yourself isn't necessarily a good thing. ColinFine (talk) 10:25, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Try to always keep in mind that Wikipedia articles are about the subect, never for the benefit of the subject, or anyone or anything related to it. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 13:25, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Laird

In the right hand side - the large info-box should have a capital "T" on the first word in the box - "The" chapeau... I cannot fix this up. Please do so if you are capable. Thank you in advance. 58.171.152.120 (talk) 09:51, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Fixed, best. CMD (talk) 10:09, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Is "represents Scot barons" in that caption correct? I would alter it to "Scottish barons", but the fact that you noticed "the" but didn't say anything about "Scot barons" makes me wonder if it is correct for some reason. (There is nothing in thye text of the article that suggests so). ColinFine (talk) 10:32, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

I would have been inclined to use 'Scots' instead of 'Scottish' (because royalty and nobility in Scotland had a greater emphasis than in England about people ruled rather than territory controlled): however, either would evoke the idea of Scotland only. The baronetage in question was (to simplify) expanded (in 1624) to be that of Scotland and Nova Scotia, so 'Scot' might be considered more inclusive, although I have not managed to find any references in my collection of heraldry texts that supports this. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.6.83.137 (talk) 12:58, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

email

HELLO SIR,

              CAN I GET BACK MY BLOCKED EMAIL ADDRESS ,, 

THANK YOU' දෝන දමයන්ති (talk) 13:35, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

This page is for asking for help to edit Wikipedia. We know nothing about your email address. Also, please don't SHOUT. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:48, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Contributions history

Hi, it looks like all my contributions are not listed anymore in my profile ; can someone help me on this, please ? Granvorka Granvorka (talk) 15:22, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Your history indicates you have two edits, the above comment, and one edit to an article. If you know you made other edits, you may have made them while logged out. You can check the edit histories of where you edited. 331dot (talk) 15:35, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Granvorka, could you mean your contributions at French Wikipedia? Folly Mox (talk) 22:00, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Automatically substituting all elements of category into list

This is a complicated one, but could prove very useful for the WikiProject I am trying to recover. The list would look something like a continually updated version of: Wikipedia:WikiProject Academic Journals/Lists of pages/Articles. Key requirements of any technical solution:

• (A) The category concerned is only placed on the articles' talk pages while I need both the talk and mainspace page in my list.
• (B) Now, it is important that this list cannot be a transclusion, it must be a substitution. Ideally, this substitution should be repeated very regularly to make sure that these two keep tracking each other. Who runs a bot that would be best-suited for such a task?

I might want to repeat your instructions for multiple categories in the future...

Kind regards. Biohistorian15 (talk) 16:31, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps try WP:VPT. Polygnotus (talk) 09:22, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

User:ListeriaBot does this, based on data from Wikidata, rather than categories, but if should be possible to write a query that finds everything ((that should be) in a given category. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:44, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

What did I do wrong & what do I need to do to correct my page?

What did I do wrong & what do I need to do to correct my page? I read the help logs and I'm still not sure if it's the name I chose or the content I published??? Please advise Fraternity and Sorority Gifts (talk) 16:51, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Editor blocked for obvious spam. Acroterion (talk) 16:54, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

The user name you were hoping for seems to be Fraternity and Sorority Gifts. User accounts are almost always for one person, not a group. Also, the purpose of Wikipedia is not promoting this or that business, and it seems unlikely a user with that name would adhere to Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a soapbox or means of promotion. That is why the account has been blocked (but leaving the ability to ask questions in certain places, like here). Jc3s5h (talk) 16:58, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, their block does not leave them able to edit this page (or any, besides their talk page). They created this section here before the block was placed. jlwoodwa (talk) 17:03, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Disable images in search widget for certain skins

Can you clarify the paragraph below in detail? I want to perform this procedure:

Search result images can be turned off by altering the respective common.css for the skin being used and adding a rule to not display background images for spans of the class .wvui-typeahead-suggestion__thumbnail. For example:

span.wvui-typeahead-suggestion__thumbnail {
  background-image:none !important;    
}

Kidgeorge (talk) 21:06, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Customisation § Skins might be helpful. For example, if you want to turn off search image results on Monobook, you'd create/edit Special:MyPage/monobook.css and insert that code. If you want to do this for all skins, you'd edit Special:MyPage/common.css instead. jlwoodwa (talk) 23:18, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

Wrong title

Please correct the title of new article Joe Scaife. I inadvertently uploaded it from my Sandbox with the name of Eagledj/sandbox/Joe Scaife. Please change the title to simply "Joe Scaife". Thank you for helping. Eagledj (talk) 21:07, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

I've submitted a technical move request on your behalf. jlwoodwa (talk) 23:13, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

The move request has been carried out, and the article is now at the title Joe Scaife. jlwoodwa (talk) 23:20, 16 September 2024 (UTC)