Help desk
< January 16	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 18 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Help Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current Help Desk pages.

January 17

How do I add a footnote?

I'm making my first edit to a Wikipedia page and am not sure how to create a footnote. Thanks for your help! Jessica InspireEdit — Preceding unsigned comment added by InspireEdit (talk • contribs) 00:15, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@InspireEdit: Welcome to Wikipedia, and thanks for wanting to make it better and including citations to your additions. You can learn how to do citations at WP:TUTORIAL and WP:REFB. If you have further questions, please come back and ask. RudolfRed (talk) 00:22, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Potternewton

Ref number 6 - I could not work out what to put for the writer/author. This is a book on line. Can you fix and please leave in quote. This one was difficult for us here at the college to do. sorry 175.33.45.21 (talk) 00:53, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed Once again, please do not create multiple threads with the same heading. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 01:01, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Eagleash - I do hope your health is OK. References 5 and 35 are exactly the same but need to be there. Please do the little letter thing - "a" 's and "b" 's - that I have seen on other pages if you can please. Thanks 175.33.45.21 (talk) 04:20, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The way for you to do that is described at Help:Referencing for beginners#Same reference used more than once. --David Biddulph (talk) 06:59, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Replacing a Wikipedia entry

May I submit entirely new entries for Joseph Forer (prominent US civil rights attorney) and for his daughter Jane Forer Gentleman (renowned US-Canadian statistician? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:387:3:805:0:0:0:79 (talk) 03:06, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Courtesy links: Joseph Forer and Jane F. Gentleman. Generally speaking, this should not be done. Instead, the existing articles should be improved with whatever additional information from independent and published Reliable sources an editor without any Conflict of Interest may have found and can Cite (existing incorrect, and contentious uncited, information should of course also be removed).

The only instance where such a completely fresh start might be appropriate is if the existing articles were so bad, in Wikipedian terms, that they merited deletion: this might be due to high proportions of uncited claims, libellous claims, breach of copyright, seriously incompetent structure and language, or major non-compliance with Wikipedia's Manual of Style. None of these seem to be the case here, and I notice that both articles are less than 2 years old – few articles reach their full potential in so short a time.

If any such action were to be even contemplated, it should first be discussed thoroughly on the articles' Talk pages, from which the proposer ought to contact all major and recent editors of the articles, who can be identified from the articles' respective View history pages. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.217.251.247 (talk) 04:10, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Article creation

Hi,

I have a dought that, 1. Can only one article in an account be performed? 2. Can user page can create separately? Please help me..

Seenu — Preceding unsigned comment added by Santssocial (talk • contribs) 03:31, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Santssocial, if you are asking whether you can draft more than one encyclopedic article at a time, yes you can have any number of drafts at once as long as they have different names, for example User:Santssocial/Sandbox, User:Santssocial/Sandbox2, User:Santssocial/Xyz, and Draft:Acme Widget Co. Your principal user page, User:Santssocial, however, is not a good place to draft an article, for it is reserved for writing about yourself as a Wikipedia editor. See WP:Your first article about creating an article. —teb728 t c 07:21, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

By the way Santssocial, I am a little concerned about your username. Just so you know, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not a social media site. —teb728 t c 07:30, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Editing the Article

I couldn't find the article which i have submitted on previous day. I wanted to edit the article. Please help me regarding this. My page url : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Uravu2019

Note: The article is not yet published. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uravu2019 (talk • contribs) 05:47, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Uravu2019: The above is the only edit which you have submitted to English Wikipedia. Did you click "Publish changes"? Without clicking that nothing is submitted. —teb728 t c 07:50, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Editing an article

I am the Head at St Bede's Inter-Church School in Cambridge. I would like to update the information on Wikipedia about St Bede's but this is proving difficult. What citations are needed for this to take place?

Thank you,

Alistair — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alistair Day (talk • contribs) 09:31, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Alistair Day: Wikipedia is generally looking for independent reliable sources. Primary sources (such as the school's website) are acceptable only in limited circumstances, usually for purely factual information(like number of students enrolled, location, etc.) Since you are the head of the school, you should avoid editing the article about it directly as you have a conflict of interest and are a paid editor(please review those policies, one of which is a Wikipedia Terms of Use requirement). However, you can make a formal edit request(click that link to review how) on the article talk page to request any corrections you feel are needed. There is a "Talk" tab at the top of the article which you can click to access it. 331dot (talk) 09:53, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Reset password/login without email

I would like to reset my password/login for my account, however, I believe my account is linked to an old Hotmail email address which I deleted years ago. I haven't used my Wikipedia account in a few years as well. Is there another way to reset my password or log in using my new email address? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.246.151.75 (talk) 09:42, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If you don't remember your password, I believe the only way to recover it is to use the email address associated with it. You can't change the email address associated with it unless you are logged in(otherwise anyone could change your email address and hijack your account). If it has been several years since you used your account, I would just create a new account and note on its user page that it is a successor account to your original account. 331dot (talk) 09:48, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Help to create bio page

hi there can you help me to create a music brand bio page ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by M R SAMEER KHAN (talk • contribs) 11:43, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

M R SAMEER KHAN before creating a page for the brand, you must ensure that it passes WP:MUSICBIO, Or atleast WP:GNG. Daiyusha (talk) 11:48, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"Short description" template - should I not use it?

I added a {{Short description}} to an article but someone reverted it, saying it should go in Wikidata instead. But the Wikipedia:Short description and Template:Short description pages don't indicate that short descriptions should be added to Wikidata in preference. My gut feeling is that perhaps Wikidata should be used in preference to adding them directly to the article's page. So ought I to put short descriptions into Wikidata instead of the article? (If so, I suppose this means the Wikipedia:Short description and Template:Short description pages should be revised accordingly.) --A bit iffy (talk) 14:00, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikidata is not under the control of enwiki, so it is much safer to have the short description here. That's why Wikipedia:Short description and Template:Short description were written, see Wikipedia:Short description#Background/overview. --David Biddulph (talk) 15:47, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I have added the short description back, as Wikipedia:Short description#Background/overview linked above mentions that after having over 2 million descriptions, The Wikidata description will not be displayed on any page. –FlyingAce^✈hello 17:59, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks.--A bit iffy (talk) 19:26, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Venari Resources Wikipedia entry

Hi. I work for Venari Resources and we would like to have our Wikipedia entry deleted. The link to our page is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venari_Resources — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.231.228.130 (talk) 17:08, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A company does not get to decide on its own if there is an article about it on Wikipedia. See WP:OWN. If there are reasons based in Wikipedia guidelines to do so, that's a different matter, but not just because the subject wants it to be. If you represent the company, you must comply with WP:COI and WP:PAID. 331dot (talk) 17:17, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Closing discussions

Hi, does a discussion on a Talk page have to be closed by an uninvolved third-party editor or can one of the editors involved in the discussion close it when it is clear that further discussion will not accomplish anything? It is not clear from Wikipedia:Closing discussions if it has to be an uninvolved editor. Also, if three editors are in agreement and one is not, does this count as a rough consensus WP:ROUGHCONSENSUS? I know consensus is not a head count, but I'm not sure if this is enough to assert a rough consensus. Thanks for your help. - Epinoia (talk) 17:38, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Changing page name

How do I change the very top title of a page related to our company. Our name says Ty Inc. But we want it to say Ty . — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aceyoutoo (talk • contribs) 18:07, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You can request a page move, or move it yourself, but you need a good reason to. Why should the page drop the Inc.? WelpThatWorked (talk) 18:27, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Normally the Inc. would be omitted, see WP:Naming conventions (companies), but in this case Ty is a disambiguation page. --David Biddulph (talk) 18:37, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Would Ty (company) be an improvement? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 19:08, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Gråbergs Gråa Sång, I think so. Would have to change the related template name. I would be fine with doing that. WelpThatWorked (talk) 19:16, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Discrimination

How can I send a message to Justice Ruth Bater Ginsburg about the Discrimination act that she added to the Constitution This Is Very important? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:204:D400:26F6:5075:C74D:7830:1124 (talk) 21:35, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for asking about Wikipedia editing or use only. That said, Justice Ginsburg cannot add one word to the Constitution so the premise of your question is flawed. 331dot (talk) 21:41, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the OP is referring to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though I wouldn't hold my breath, the most likely way to actually reach a Supreme Court Justice is to write—pen, paper, envelope, stamp—send it to:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The Supreme Court of the United States
One First Street N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20543

Don't send a printed letter. Use neat cursive. Don't misspell her name as you did above.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:37, 18 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Trying to publish the draft page: Turnu Fort

Mandatarm (talk) 22:08, 17 January 2019 (UTC) I've created and edited the "Turnu Fort" page which i would like to be published under the name of "Turnu fortress". I am a newbie on wikipedia and i do not know how or whom to talk to verify and publish my draft. Can anybody help me with some infos? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mandatarm (talk • contribs) 22:07, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Mandatarm. There are two things you can do. If you are confident that the article meets the minimum requirements for an article on English Wikipedia, (and on a very quick glance, I think it does) you can simply MOVE it to main space. Alternatively, you can request a review by inserting {{subst:submit}} (with the double curly brackets) at the top. When a reviewing editor accepts it, they will move it to main space.

I am a little concerned that the very first version of Draft:Turnu fort that you created was so fully written, and I wondered if it might be a copyright violation - which Wikipedia takes very seriously. Looking at ro:Cetatea Turnu, I'm pretty sure that you have translated the article from the Romanian. This is perfectly fine - as long as you attribute it. If you do not attribute it, then it is a violation of the CC-BY-SA licence, but this can be quickly corrected: see WP:Translation#How to translate. --ColinFine (talk) 22:31, 17 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]