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Deletion of articles referred to in questions here

Often when a link to an article is posted on the help desk I find that the same article is nominated for deletion shortly thereafter. This happens even when the article has survived on Wikipedia for many years without challenge, for example Lynn_Walsh, an article that has been around for eight years and has suddenly been nominated for deletion shortly after an editor posted about it here.

I am not sure about the causality in this particular case, however I wonder if there is something we should do to bring this general phenomenon to the attention of those who innocently ask questions here? Ottawahitech (talk) 15:14, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Just because an article has existed for some time, does not mean that it *should*. Many small and obscure articles are poorly watched, and especially if little is happening, may get little attention. In particular articles from the early days of Wikipedia tended to receive less scrutiny at creation. And yes, when attention is called to it, people will look at it, and if it shouldn't exist, it may well (and should!) get nominated for deletion. I'd also point out that nobody owns an article, nor does any topic deserve an article unless it meets the notability criteria. Rwessel (talk) 16:00, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

There are several hundred thousand of articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. It will take years, but work on them as I see them. There is a possibility that when one article has problems, related articles might also, and if I have time, I try to check them. DGG ( talk ) 22:43, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

I realize I am more inclusionist than most here, but I still believe it is disingenuous not to tell users of the helpdesk that when they ask for help they are opening their articles to the scrutiny of delitionists. If the word gets around, many will simply stop asking for help. Just my $.02. Ottawahitech (talk) 23:26, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

Yet anything that might cause an editor to look at a page could trigger the scrutiny leading to an PROD or AfD. And anyone looking at a page might see and fix some other problem as well. Do we really need to warn users that if they ask for help with a page, that someone might actually look at that page? Rwessel (talk) 04:43, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

I think that it is good that occasionally articles get nominated for deletion from here. It means that there are some diligent Wikipedians here who nominate things that need nominating. I don't see any need for a warning, but I wouldn't object to a warning. Does anyone think that there should be a warning? Robert McClenon (talk) 08:29, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

No, per Rwessel. ―Mandruss ☎ 10:32, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

@Ottawahitech: We shouldn't be stopping people from nominating an article for deletion when they see it at Wikipedia:Help desk. We should instead be looking for a way to prevent articles from missing getting nominated for deletion that don't belong in Wikipedia. One to do that is to notify experienced editors that if they enjoy helping Wikipedia, one highly helpful thing they could do is click "Random article" so that if they get an article that doesn't belong in Wikipedia as is, they can either nominate it for deletion or if they're expert enough in the topic of the article, improve it enough that it does belong. Blackbombchu (talk) 01:05, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Since everyone here seems to think article deletion is a good thing, I thought i would pull out some recent deletion "discussions" to illustrate that deletion processes are not much different than playing Russian roulette.

Picked (mostly) at random from top of:WikiProject Medicine and wproj Canada alerts

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Canadian Burn Foundation

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Logistics Health Incorporated

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mad Bomber Society

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Las Brisas condominium

Ottawahitech (talk)

What exactly is that supposed to prove? All it demonstrates is that we have a process for discussing the appropriateness of content, when it is questioned. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:37, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

It shows that Ottawahitech is having trouble accepting our WP:OWNERSHIP policy. His statement "I still believe it is disingenuous not to tell users of the helpdesk that when they ask for help they are opening their articles to the scrutiny of deletionists" above says it all. If someone wants "their" article to be immune from scrutiny, they should publish them on a personal blog, not on Wikipedia. If "your" article doesn't meet our standards for inclusion, keeping a low profile will only give you a temporary reprieve. Eventually we will notice it and delete it. The right way to keep "your" article from being deleted is to improve it, paying particular attention to sourcing. --Guy Macon (talk) 19:03, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

@Guy Macon: I have tried to point out that the process of deletion at Wikipedia is a game of Russian Roulette. It woud not be so bad if the rules were clear about what gets to stay and what gets to go, but the rules are a moving target and consensus cannot not be achieved when only one or two people are present (not necessarily concurrently so no dialogue can be expected). Using condescending language and implying that the rules are applied equally to every page that is proposed for deletion are obviously wrong.

Please don't ping me. When I make a comment, I watch the thread for replies.

As usual when someone writes "I have tried to point out..." the thing they are "pointing out" is an assertion unsupported by any evidence other than personal opinion. Well, I have an opinion as well: the process of deletion at Wikipedia is not a game of Russian Roulette. A lot of good people have worked very hard to develop clear rules about what gets to stay and what gets to go. The process in not perfect, but it is pretty good. --Guy Macon (talk) 14:07, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

The original poster and Guy Macon disagree about how good the deletion process is. However, the original post was only secondarily about the deletion process. It was, if I understood it correctly, basically saying that the deletion process is so bad that editors should be cautioned to avoid mentioning articles at the Help Desk because they may be nominated for deletion. In other words, our deletion process is so bad that we should create a smokescreen around it. Even if I agreed that the deletion process is terrible, I wouldn't think that a smokescreen was the right answer. I suggest the following actions instead: First, discuss improvements of the deletion process. In particular, if the concern is that too few editors participate in deletion discussions (which I think is sometimes true), then we should find a mechanism for increasing participation in deletion discussions, such as a robotic feedback service. Second, an uninvolved editor should close this thread, as one that is not really about the Help Desk. Third, take any discussion to Village Pump Proposals or a deletion talk page. Robert McClenon (talk) 14:34, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I already did that at here before I even knew about this discussion and then I discovered a link to this discussion here. Blackbombchu (talk) 01:16, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

So, yes I still believe we should encourage and coach (wannabe) editors who use the helpdesk how to write verifiable and NPOV articles instead of chasing them away by treating them and the articles they care about like undesirables.Ottawahitech (talk) 01:51, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

@AndyTheGrump: If you check actual AFD discussions you will see that most of them have VERY few participants. How can Consensus be determined when only one or two people participate? Why are articles here deleted by a vote (yes it is a vote in many cases) of a couple of people who usually have no expertise or interest in the topic? Just my $.02 Ottawahitech (talk) 11:43, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

If someone has the 'expertise' to create an article, they should be able to do so in a manner that demonstrates that it meets the notability requirements arrived at through community consensus. That is how the system works. It isn't perfect - but given that we are all volunteers, and mostly anonymous, I can't think of a better way to avoid the encyclopaedia becoming an unstructured heap of fancruft, trivia and puffery. AndyTheGrump (talk) 13:45, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

@AndyTheGrump: May I disagree? As I said above in my answer to Guy Macon:

Deletion is a game of Russian Roulette

Notability is not a clearly defined concept

The rules for notability are a moving target

Consensus cannot not be achieved by one or two people

Consensus cannot not be achieved when dialogue is not possible Ottawahitech (talk) 11:23, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

You clearly disagree with current Wikipedia policy and practice regarding deletion, but this isn't the place to propose changes. And until changes are made (if there is consensus for them), nothing that goes on at the help desk needs to change, as far as I can see. AndyTheGrump (talk) 13:41, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Let's see if I understand. It appears that the Original Poster is saying that editors who create inconsequential poorly-watched articles should be warned not to ask questions about them here, because they risk being nominated for deletion. That is, the problem isn't inconsequential poorly-watched articles; it is the publicity of this Help Desk. Then the articles may be nominated for deletion via the poorly-watched AFD process. I certainly don't see the solution being a warning here to avoid mentioning your inconsequential poorly-watched articles. If there are problems with the deletion process, which many of us think that there are, they should be discussed directly with the deletion process. My only proposal that I will make here is that, since AFD is a process with very little participation, we should increase participation in it in the way that participation in RFC is increased, with a bot that notifies editors randomly. Other than that, I see this thread as missing the point, because this thread is supposedly about the Help Desk and is really about deletion. I certainly don't want to warn people away from the Help Desk. Sometimes, as opposed to articles being nominated for deletion, disruptive editors come to the Help Desk. One of two things sometimes happens. Either they are mentored, and become less disruptive, or they are seen to be not here for constructive reasons and are dealt with by boomerang. A caution about mentioning articles certainly seems like the wrong answer to whatever the problem is. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:59, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

I think better than a "warning" at the Help desk would be a "warning" upon account creation and a better "warning" upon article creation. -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 14:51, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Well, I mostly agree that maybe a better reminder of notability policies for account creation might be in order. Article creation is more subtle, because article creation typically happens in one of three ways. Either the article is created in draft space via Articles for Creation and is then accepted by a review, or the article is created in user space and then moved into mainspace by the creator, or the article is directly created in mainspace. The first is a collaborative process, and the reviewer will not accept an article unless she thinks that it should be accepted. The "warnings" are already present in the process. Our guidelines already advise article creators to use the Articles for Creation process. The second is usually done by experienced editors, who are aware of the Articles for Creation process. If they disregard it, they are aware of the Articles for Deletion process. As to directly creating articles in mainspace, with a single edit, if an editor can do that, more power to them, but I don't have sympathy for anyone who starts to create an article in mainspace, saves it, and has it tagged for speedy. They could have used AFC or userspace. I agree that we don't need a "warning" at this Help Desk. If there are concerns about the AFD process, discuss them, rather than proposing a smokescreen. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:59, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Drop(?) in participation on another wiki-board

At the end of August 2015 the number of page views on another wiki help type board dropped from a daily average of over 600 to less than 200. I don’t know what happened there, but just wondering if this is at all connected to the same issues discussed here? 14:10, 12 September 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ottawahitech (talk • contribs)

Wikipedia:Editor assistance has existed for many years and I don't see reason to suspect a connection. Going back further with page views, it looks like the high numbers in August was an anomaly and it has just returned to a normal level. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:00, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Should the Village Pump be added to "Are you in the right place?"?

Should WP:Help desk/Are you in the right place have a link to WP:VP? Tevildo (talk) 10:06, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

likely archiving hiatus

My semiautomated bot and I will be traveling for the next week or so with uncertain internet access, so the rest of you will likely have to add date headers manually and, if the desk gets too large, do some manual archiving. "We apologize for the inconvenience." —Steve Summit (talk) 11:14, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

I'm back; normal archiving resumes. Thanks to Stabila711 and John of Reading for taking care of things in my absence. —Steve Summit (talk) 17:36, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Editing

This is Jahangir here. I am Fan and Frequent Reader of Wikipedia.For most of my assignment, Notes, Exam Preparation i take help from here. I would like to suggest your group to kindly take notice of Wiki on Prophets, as they are Highly Respected by all the People of The Books, to Mention before every Prophet NAME: 'PROPHET' and AFTER NAME : 'PEACE BE UPON HIM'.

I would be grateful of you, for taking notice of my suggestion. Anticipating an Answer From You.

Sincerely Yours, Jahangir Shaikh — Preceding unsigned comment added by 39.48.15.70 (talk) 09:55, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Jahangir. You can find information related to this question at: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Islam-related articles#Islamic honorifics. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 10:00, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

direct democracy ireland

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

i have tried to reason with editors but to no avail i have used citable material which i was told i could use and when i use it the page is reverted i have left queations on the users pages and they have not replied,if you are willing to accept my sources as citable sources i will engage in a calm and collective mannerRailsparks (talk) 18:28, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

You have already discussed this on the article's talk page, which is the best place to iron out disagreements. I know absolutely nothing about the organisation, but the first reference I looked at says: "Back at home, the people around Gilroy and DDI founders, Raymond Whitehead and Clare Leonard, have discovered that their populist views include an empathy with UKIP leader Nick Farage, the anti-abortion Christian Solidarity Movement and the extreme right-wing Freeman movement."

If you disagree, please find a reference that claims something different. Dbfirs 21:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Semi-protected edit request on 2 January 2016

I made a page named Alaska Renee and it met the requirements. I forgot to add one more thing on it. Can I have what I wrote emailed to me and have the page put back up. thank you. AlaskaRenee (talk) 01:33, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Not done: This is a talk page for discussing the Wikipedia help desk itself. Your article at Alaska Renee was deleted because it did not credibly indicate why its subject was significant. If you wish to have the content you wrote undeleted and sent to you, a Wikipedia administrator might action your request faster if you make it at the page Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion instead.

In the meantime, I invite you to to give our page at Wikipedia:Your first article a read, as it does a good job of explaining our expectations regarding new articles. If you yourself are Alaska Renee, please be aware that writing an autobiography is strongly discouraged by the Wikipedia community, because it presents a conflict of interest that may make it difficult to maintain our three core content policies of verifiability, neutrality, and no original research. If you have any questions regarding these, feel free to ask them either at the help desk or the Teahouse. Best of luck, Mz7 (talk) 01:13, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Notice to participants at this page about adminship

Many participants here are core editors, understand the problems faced at Wikipedia, know policy well, and much more. Well, these are just some of the considerations at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship.

So, please consider taking a look at and watchlisting this page:

• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Optional RfA candidate poll

You could be very helpful in evaluating potential candidates, and maybe even finding out if you would be a suitable RfA candidate.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:15, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

I thought this was about to be canvassing for a moment there. Don't scare me like that. --allthefoxes ^(Talk) 01:03, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Archiving delay

The Mediawiki/Wikipedia login/authentication framework is changing, and scsbot is currently unable to log in. Until I can get this worked out, the Help Desk and Reference Desks won't be archived, and we're going to have to add the date headers by hand. I expect this will be resolved in a day or two; I hope we won't have to resort to manual archiving (which is a plain nuisance). —Steve Summit (talk) 13:03, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I can help with the archiving while the bot is down. Just let me know when it is back up. Thanks. --Majora (talk) 19:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

The bot is barely working for the moment, though more than by luck than by design. Tonight's run has caught up and finished (on the Reference Desks, though Majora beat it to the punch here), and likely tomorrow's, too. If I can beat the cut-off and finish making the required changes before WMF finishes deploying the changes that demand them, we'll be fine, otherwise I may be back here asking for help/forgiveness again soon. —Steve Summit (talk) 02:09, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Help will always be available. Forgiveness is not necessary as you have done nothing that needs it. Just let me know when the bot is fully operational again. In the meantime, I can continue to manually archive. No problem. --Majora (talk) 06:51, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

I second that. There's no need for forgiveness, as you have done nothing wrong. Your efforts are voluntary and, as best I can tell, it broke through no fault of your own. It is just one of those things. If you need any help with code, I'm sure there are people willing and able to assist. I have some familiarity with pywikibot core, for example. Murph9000 (talk) 08:04, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

David Cobb, Green Party

Question moved to "Wikipedia:Help desk#David Cobb, Green Party". Murph9000 (talk) 08:09, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

My page

Question moved to "Wikipedia:Help desk#My page". -- ChamithN (talk) 17:34, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

archiving instabilities likely

I am once again traveling, with sporadic Internet connectivity, so archiving may be intermittent for the next 3-5 days. Feel free to add date headers if you see them missing. I doubt anything will get so overloaded that manual archiving will be necessary. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:19, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Any way to filter for actionable questions on this page?

When I help out here, it is usually only because I'm already on the page, waiting for the answer to a question I asked. Finding where one can help is cumbersome: I have to read through many questions that have already been sufficiently answered. I wonder if there might be a way to have a filtered view for helpers that excludes at least some of these. For me, the ideal list of sections to exclude would be:

1. Topics marked {{resolved}}. (I'm not seeing that much anymore; this seems to have fallen in disuse.)
2. Topics where the OP thanked for the resolution.
3. Topics where a helper replied that it doesn't belong on HD.
4. Topics where a helper asked for clarification from OP that has not been provided yet.

I would come here more often just to help out if I could have just a link for "HD for helpers" that provided just such a filtered view. — Sebastian 17:19, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Help talk:Getting started

We have a large amount of new editor at Help talk:Getting started lately because of a recent redirect. Could we get more watchers over there pls. --Moxy (talk) 19:38, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Single edit tab

I've just posted information about an upcoming change for editors who have the visual editor enabled. The information is at Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 52#Single edit tab. If you currently have two edit tabs (Edit/Edit source), then this will give you the options of having only one Edit button, if you prefer that.

This change is likely to happen in mid-to-late April, and it's likely to result in a few editors coming to this page to ask what happened to their second edit tab/how to find the other editing environment. Please read that information, and share it with other editors. Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:37, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Foreign Language Wikipedia Questions

It is not infrequent for us at the English Wikipedia Help Desk to get questions that are about non-English Wikipedias, and which often are questions that can be answered at a Help Desk. My question is: Would it be a useful project to develop a list of wikilinks to the Help Desks for as many as possible of the Wikipedias in various languages? Robert McClenon (talk) 01:24, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon: Many of those links are already listed under the Languages section on the sidebar. You can also look at the wikidata entry for the help desk for the links. Whether or not these should be more prominently displayed is a different question. --Majora (talk) 01:50, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

An issue with the links in Languages is that they're written in the language in question, which is fine for most people looking for a *article* in another language (presumably if they're looking for such, they will be able to read it), but for English speaking editors looking for the same page in another language just to provide a link, the existing list is somewhat problematic. Many people will likely guess that "Tiếng Việt" is Vietnamese (and that guess can be verified by hovering over the link), but most people are going to have considerable trouble finding the Tamal link. What would probably be useful is a general link in the languages bar to provide an "expanded" view of the links. Perhaps just making the heading a link to such. This sort of idea/suggestion probably belongs over at Village Pump, though. Rwessel (talk) 21:23, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Help:Maintenance template removal

We often see questions about maintenance template removal – people not knowing they are not automatically removed and related issues. I've proposed a new process to address this. Please see Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Implementing Help:Maintenance template removal.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:28, 10 April 2016 (UTC)

JOB

How can I apply for a position with Wikipedia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jenyflores (talk • contribs) 14:35, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

All editors (and almost all administrators) are volunteers. If you mean that you are interested in a job with the Wikimedia Foundation, see this site instead. Ian.thomson (talk) 14:45, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Pinging questioner when answering?

I started lurking around and answering a few questions. To my surprise, I see that help desk volunteers rarely ping the questioner.

I always do that (unless I have reason to suspect the user is a relatively seasoned editor) because I assume newbies do not know about watchlists etc. yet, but I wonder if there is a rule or tradition to not do so. I could not find anything in the archives here or at Wikipedia:Help_desk/How_to_answer.

Hence I ask the following question to the veteran of the HD: is it against etiquette, or are there any reasons to avoid, pinging by default any registered user asking a question (I guess "do not ping the regulars" applies though)?

I intentionally exclude IPs because while an account identifies a person or a group of persons, an IP identifies at best a computer. Pinging an IP could thus leak information to another person using the same computer (the Special/contribs page can reveal it, but many more people will notice the ping notification - I would argue most people do not even know their IP address nor how to retrieve it) so it comes with a whole other pack of problems. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:10, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

@Tigraan: I always ping when answering questions (unless I forget to), regular editor or no. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 16:17, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Tigraan, I think only some editors don't ping the questioner. Most do (by what I've seen). In case the requesting editor is an experienced editor, it's okay to not ping as the editor will check back. Lourdes 16:32, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

@Tigraan: IPs don't get pings anyway. As to whether you ping when answering - I do if I remember (and the post is directed at a single person), but I usually don't remember. —  crh ₂₃  (Talk) 16:34, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Oh well. I remembered receiving an OBOD back in the days I edited under IP. Am I really that old an editor? Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:53, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

OK, I went back on the HD page to do a rough tally of who pings and who does not and I see that the July 1st/2nd have a low proportion of pinging compared to usual. If pinging is agreed to be a good thing, maybe we could add a note at Wikipedia:Help_desk/How_to_answer#Formatting.2Fediting? Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:53, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

• Do it. Sounds really sensible. Lourdes 17:26, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

 Done [1] - I tried to tiptoe around the "don't ping the regulars" issue. Any revisions are welcome. Considering that we decided on that within half a day, I wait to see if the "night shift" (editors in non-European time zones) opposes. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 18:11, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

I've edited it a bit. Hope that's alright. Lourdes 02:48, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

My general rule of thumb is to ping the user if the link to their userpage is in red. †Dismas†|^(talk) 11:44, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Nomination for merging of redundant help desk templates

Template:Creation and many other similar templates have been nominated for merging with various subtemplates of Template:HD. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the Templates for discussion page. Pppery (talk) 15:36, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

Adding a cause to a medical page

Moved to Talk:Dysarthria

Note: This section was moved two years ago on 11 August 2016. I have manually archived it because I don't think the bot realized it was old due to lack of timestamp. - Purplewowies (talk) 17:17, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 August 2016

I tried to contribute this edit to the Robin Sherwood page but did not reference it correctly. I then tried to remove it but it still needs to be edited back in. Would you please add this as the very last paragraph and sentence? The new paragraph and sentence to be edited in is below:

Robin Sherwood made her first personal appearance at The Lincoln Center for the opening night of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Film Comment Selects 2015 film festival at the Walter Reade Theater."

That would make it the very last paragraph after the present last paragraph which is:

Robin returned to acting in 2009. In 2014, she stars in the feature-length documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014). The documentary is directed by Mark Hartley and was produced by Brett Ratner.

I referenced The Lincoln Center's website, https://www.filmlinc.org/films/electric-boogaloo-the-wild-untold-story-of-cannon-films/, however and I did not enter it properly.

Thank-you so much for your help. Inspiring Dreams Inspiring Dreams (talk) 01:32, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Inspiring Dreams (talk) 01:32, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Copied to the main page. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 10:10, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 August 2016

Hi,

Please can we update the Fruit Shoot information on the site as a lot of this information is out of date and incorrect?

Below is the correct information:

Robinsons Fruit Shoot is a refreshing drinks brand with a fruity flavour, designed especially for kids, made with real juice and no added sugar, artificial colours or flavours. Fruit Shoot is a leading global kids brand produced by Britvit PLC since 2000 in a re-sealable colourful sports cap bottle and offers a range of product options such as Fruit Shoot No Added Sugar, Fruit Shoot Hydro and Fruit Shoot My5, to fit current kids’ balanced diet and nutrition.

Fruit Shoot No Added Sugar is made using real fruit juice and water and it is a low calorie drink with added multivitamins and minerals to help keep kids refreshed. It offers a variety of tasty flavours such as: Apple and Blackcurrant, Orange, Summer Fruits, Peach and Mango, Tropical flavour, Apple.

Fruit Shoot Hydro is sugar free refreshing flavoured water made from spring water with no artificial colours or flavours. Hydro offers a variety of flavours such as Apple and Raspberry, Blackcurrant, Orange and Pineapple.

Fruit Shoot My-5 is a school approved fruit juice drink designed to give kids 1 of their 5 a day of fruit. My-5 is packed with real fruit juice and contains no artificial colours, no flavourings, no sweeteners and no preservatives.

Fruit Shoot has made it its mission to inspire and encourage kids’ adventurous side. As kids love outdoor adventure and challenges, the brand has teamed up with the world’s greatest obstacle event, Tough Mudder to create Fruit Shoot Mini Mudder, a 10 obstacles 1 mile course, making it the ultimate kids obstacle adventure.

Today Fruit Shoot can be found in supermarkets and retail shops in more than 25 countries

195.99.180.72 (talk) 09:22, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Copied to the main page. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 10:10, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Small change requested

Can the Skip_to_bottom to changed to skip_to_toc on the helpdesk page? Thanks in advance. Ottawahitech (talk) 16:05, 19 August 2016 (UTC)please ping me

Or, better yet, could we have both? — Gorthian (talk) 21:19, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

Please do NOT get rid of "skip to bottom" - probably the most useful feature on the page - Arjayay (talk) 21:25, 19 August 2016 (UTC)

• Done. The template used ({{stb}}) defaults to displaying skip-to-toc and skip-to-bottom. It only took a small change to implement. -- The Voidwalker ^Discuss 02:29, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

What is the Help Desk?

Is the Help Desk now the "I can't make this minor edit that Wikipedia can live without for a few hours, so please make it for me Desk"? I'm referring to Srbernadette, of course. Specifically this request. I don't mind helping people who genuinely need it but I don't see why we need to perform our own edits and Srbernadette's as well. †Dismas†|^(talk) 11:49, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

• Meh. I understand your frustration, and I personally will not be fixing her mistakes. But if others are ready to "babysit", let them do it. What's the worse that could happen, a few reference errors in articles? Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 12:02, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

I quite agree. This editor (whether editing under his user name or one of the many IPs, such as Special:Contributions/101.182.141.11) is a pain in the backside. He makes no effort to learn from the help he is given, and continually makes the same mistakes and expects other editors to clear up his mess. I did take the view that he couldn't honestly be this incompetent and must be trolling, but other editors disagreed with me. If people keep falling for it and doing everything that this editor asks them to do, it will encourage him to keep making unreasonable demands. I feel that this editor should be topic-banned from the help desk; if some editors wish to spoon-feed him he can make requests on his user talk page. --David Biddulph (talk) 12:22, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Although I have often fixed things brought here by bernadette or her(?) multiple IPs, I also agree that the help-desk should not really be used with such consistency to request that minor edits, that everyone else does themselves, be completed by volunteers here. Eagleash (talk) 12:44, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

There are three choices. First, help her. Second, ignore her. Third, report her for being a nuisance. The third is extreme and unwarranted, since we can always ignore her. My own thought is we do not need a consensus on what to do, that most of us will ignore her and a few of us will help her, and no harm is done either way. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:06, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

I try to help editors who are less technically competent than me. Unlike disruptive and troublesome users, Srbernadette recognises his own weaknesses, and is not argumentative. He uses the help desk to ask for help, and does so clearly, concisely, and politely – a ban would be wrong. Maproom (talk) 08:25, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: Is Srberndaette the same person as the various IPs?(Mike?) I remember someone mentioning "students" and I've always been under the notion that there were a group of (equally incompetent) people involved and the requests for assistance come from various users editing the same subject. - NQ (talk) 09:11, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

One of the IPs signed himself as "Mike E" in this edit this morning. The errors and behaviour, and stubborn refusal to learn from the help and advice given, are sufficiently similar that I'm convinced that most (if not all) of the edits are by the same person. It would be surprising (and worrying) if a teacher were able to pass on their bad habits to his students so effectively. David Biddulph (talk) 09:36, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Results of a TFD

{{vanish}} is being merged into {{HD/vanish}} per this discussion. This notice is to start a discussion about the final product and text. Primefac (talk) 04:29, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

@Primefac: Why is this discussion necessary, rather than an admin simply moving {{Vanish}} to {{HD/vanish}} and deleting the latter template? Pppery 11:20, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Pppery, there was some concern (albeit briefly) about the final content of the notice. If someone has issue with what has been done, it's better to give them a space to discuss it. You didn't even contribute to the original TFD, so I'm confused as to why you're so upset about my actions. Primefac (talk) 14:36, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Um, I initially suggested the merger. Pppery 14:42, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Oh... whoops. My apologies. I got this one and another one confused. Primefac (talk) 15:35, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Advising creating in mainspace

Now that we have the Article Wizard and the Draft space, I do not think we should be even suggesting to new users the possibility of creating an article in mainspace. I would like to edit {{HD/new}} to remove steps 6 and 7 and bring the Article Wizard into the list rather than having it as a sort floating alternative in the rubric. (This would match the changes I made to WP:YFA a few months ago, though there I mentioned creating in mainspace as a possibility, but recommended not to use it unless you were very sure you could create a good article in one go). [I posted essentially this message on the template talk page, but Pppery suggested that it would be better discussed here]. --ColinFine (talk) 21:15, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

I see no objections Pppery 21:16, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

I concur. Maproom (talk) 21:29, 8 September 2016 (UTC)

Your suggestion is good and can be done. Lourdes 03:12, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Yes, the fewer new users creating mainspace articles, the more decent articles we'll get from them. Joseph2302 11:47, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

I have made this change, and several other related changes, to the template. In particular,

• I have made reading WP:YFA the first step, rather than a background suggestion
• I have demoted creating an account from a requirement to a recommendation (because you don't need to do so in order to use the WP:WIZZ).
• I have added "Base the article on what the references say, rather than on what you know."
• I have changed the last paragraph to talk about drafts not being accepted, rather than about articles being deleted.

Pinging Pppery, Maproom, Lourdes, Joseph2302, and Murph9000. --ColinFine (talk) 21:26, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Thank you. These are steps in the right direction. Let's hope we see an improvement in the quality of new articles. Maproom (talk) 21:35, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Very finely done. Thank you ColinFine. Lourdes 00:54, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

HD templates at TfD

The following HD-related templates have been proposed for deletion at TfD:

Template:HD/shout

Template:HD/cite

Template:HD/chromeblue

Template:Hd no sig

There is also a proposed merger of Template:HD/GKG, Template:HD/YKG and Template:HD/Bing. – Uanfala (talk) 16:08, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Vandalism on Vikander's page

Did you notice the continuous offensive vandalism on Alicia Vikander's page? They keep editing her personal life details claiming she's been sleeping with several men, that she's bisexual (??? she's NEVER said so!) and she's not really with fassbender, only to diffamate her while they're relationship has been and keep being confirmed by the two actors.We know who hides behind these posts. They are few people running hate blogs against actors on the net, they are internet trolls pretty jealous of Vikander and so they find amusement in creating lies. Can you please do something not to make it happen again? What I read this morning was incredibly offensive. Her partner is Michael fassbender , met on the set of The Light Between Oceans and they've been dating since autumn 2014 (http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/alicia-vikander-michael-fassbender-and-i-have-never-hidden-the-fact-we-re-a-couple-a3353831.html - http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/michael-fassbender-home-support-takes-my-breath-away-424782.html - http://www.vogue.com/13374233/alicia-vikander-january-2016-cover/ - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8HUetP9sHT8 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aIXaXBJRhqA )

and she's never admitted that "she had sex relationships with other men" during the years nor that she's bisexual (which wouldn't be a problem but it's not true). Please, protect her personal details, its awful and offensive. Also, in the main part of the bio, there are many inaccurancies, fake accusations and offensive sentences towards here, clearly written by someone who hates Vikander and changed her page to make her look an unpleasant person. I've re-edited it but vandals may change it again as they apparently did and keep doing several times.

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andrea Jones (talk • contribs) 08:29, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

The person who did that stuff has been blocked. Ian.thomson (talk) 08:55, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

How to interlink same articles from 2 different languages wiki??

Like Brian Lara from English wiki and the same person's article ब्रायन लारा from Nepali wiki to be interconnected. Anyone?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thapa Kazi999 (talk • contribs) 07:27, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

@Thapa Kazi999: The links between those two articles are already in the Languages section of the left sidebar. If they were not already there, see the procedure at Wikipedia:Wikidata. By the way, in the future please ask questions at Wikipedia:Help desk rather than this talk page. —teb728 t c 08:43, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Write Article in wikipedia means waisting time only.

i was publish 3 Article in wikipedia about 3 famous Actress in Bangladesh. they told me to publish it. and provide me all information about them. but after i done every things with in 10 days all was deleted because i didn.t donte the money for wikipedia. Guys don't write anything in wikipedia for waisting yout time. for creat one article take my 1 week time. shit and fuck off wikipedia. Badol1234 (talk) 18:35, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Probably not deserving of a response, but I will note that Sabnam Parvin, Moonmoon(Bangladeshi Actress) and Shefali Ghosh are based on drafts created by this editor. None have been deleted. General Ization ^Talk 18:39, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

By now Moonmoon (renamed to remove unneeded disambiguation) has been deleted because it had been previously deleted as the result of a deletion discussion. —teb728 t c 12:22, 6 November 2016 (UTC)

Adding a new slang being used in the Nirtheast! It's called the LaVecchia maneuver, it's when you drive past all stopped traffic and cut in at last second

Please help me get this added it's becoming very big Brian gage (talk) 18:39, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

 Not done - you are on the wrong page, and we do not include Neologisms, as explained at WP:NOTNEO - Arjayay (talk) 18:42, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Upload picture

I have to upload pictures (official logo and poster) of an art event but they do not have copyright. Which are the practical steps to follow? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Art.contributor (talk • contribs) 09:09, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

@Art.contributor: The person(s) who created the logo and poster acquired a copyright by doing so. You need them (at least the creator of the poster) to grant a free license (one that allows reuse by anyone for anything). In the case of the logo, we may be able to use it without a license. —teb728 t c 09:33, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Can I upload events logos with a free licence? how?

I need to upload logos (and other kind of pictures) related to an art event. How can I prove their free licence? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Art.contributor (talk • contribs) 03:32, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

• If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must determine the proper license of the image (or whether it is in the public domain). If you know the image is public domain or copyrighted but under a suitable free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure of the licensing status, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy.
• If you want to add an image that has already been uploaded to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, add [[File:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information. I hope this helps. Pppery 03:44, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

@Art.contributor: you can prove a free license by linking to a publication (such as a website) by the copyright holder where a free license is explicitly stated. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 03:51, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Default image size

The default image size set in preferences does not seem to be working today, anyone else notice? --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 20:19, 2 December 2016 (UTC)

Fixed! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk • contribs)

OK. I moved the question to Wikipedia:Help desk#Default image size and replied before seeing your "Fixed". PrimeHunter (talk) 22:37, 2 December 2016 (UTC)

Madhu Singhal

Madhu Singhal is blind by birth and she is extremely determined, confident and talented. She has won National award. I wrote this article depending on personal interview with her. I am fine to submit all documents supporting the information provided. But providing links are not possible cause people failed to notice such a great personality. Please suggest. Sudipa Biswas (talk) 20:01, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Please see our No original research policy and notability policy. From your brief description, it sounds like Madhu Singhal does not meet the requirements to have a Wikipedia article about her. Jc3s5h (talk) 20:17, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

First-level headings

I just noticed this page uses first-level = Headings = (<h1>...</h1>) for the date, which are also used for the name of the page. Isn’t this invalid HTML and semantically bad besides? —67.14.236.50 (talk) 04:19, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

It is done this way because the "new section" link automatically makes new sections with level 2 headers. This makes it necessary to make the higher headers level 1. --Majora (talk) 04:19, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Can that be changed for a specific page? Seems like something that the software should make possible if it doesn’t already. Or at least change the “Click here to ask a question” link to generate a level-three heading; I know we have that capability.

Or am I wrong that having multiple top-level headings on a WP page is a problem? —67.14.236.50 (talk) 05:15, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

It really isn't a problem and I'm really not sure if that can be changed on a particular page anyways. The &section=new switch automatically makes the header a level 2 header. I don't think that is changeable. --Majora (talk) 05:17, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Protected pages

Why can certain pages not be updated? Who is the person that is able to update these pages and why? Hooof (talk) 10:18, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Protected pages can only be edited by admins, to prevent vandalism, etc. PS, this is the talk page for the help desk. Post questions like this to the help desk, not the talk page. Benjamin (talk) 10:21, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

What is the purpose of the help desk?

Yes, this is a legitimate question and is a continuation of this thread from the last August.

My view of the help desk is a place for new editors to learn the ropes or for experienced editors to get a quick answer to a question that isn't readily apparent through normal searching. My number one expectation, however, is that both of these types learn and use that knowledge in the future. Not repeatedly asking the same questions over and over again with a type of stubborn refusal to learn that raises such issues that would be "removable" offenses in some other parts of the encyclopedia. Is this the view of others as well? If not, what do you see the help desk as? Where should the line be drawn (if it should be drawn at all)? --Majora (talk) 01:20, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, @Majora: that certainly agrees with my philosophy. I always have the intention of learning from the answers to my questions, and I note many of them down in my book of Wikipedia spells. Of course, I am not perfect so sometimes I slip up and ask a variation of the same question without realizing - when that happens, I can only apologize to all concerned and thank them for their tolerance and help. --Gronk Oz (talk) 02:02, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Twice, three times, even half a dozen is fine Gronk Oz. We are all human (except for the bots anyways). The circumstances that brought up this and the previous thread amount to dozens and dozens of instances (perhaps bordering on 100+). It is that level that I am talking about. --Majora (talk) 02:05, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

In full disclosure, Majora posted a response here: Lupton Family to which I responded in kind: without final reply. The editor in question (which has prompted this post) has been a topic of various discussions for quite some time and seen in different light by various editors; as recent as this: Prince Christian of Denmark. Since that time, certain editors have taken a different stance and have chosen to either simply ignore the requests, or fix the problem without further discussion. That being said, it has been recently noticed that comments in a disparaging manner that display personal opinion of what manifests these requests are detrimental to the help desk. They are counter productive and send the wrong message to "new editors" as mentioned above. As can be seen, editors have chosen to simply "fix" and move along: Help Desk Action History, which is duly noted and appreciated by the editor in question: James Matthews Racing Driver. Hope this helps shed a bit more light on this topic. Maineartists (talk) 02:18, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

If you truly believe that was "disparaging" WP:ANI is thataway. Otherwise, why don't you actually comment on the point of this thread? --Majora (talk) 02:27, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Another twist which seems related to this: I have noticed that some editors lately seem to be treating the Help Desk as a kind of task allocation system, with rather terse instructions "fix this, do that". So each new task gets raised the same way. Sometimes this gets under my skin: you're not my boss to give me orders. So I take a couple of deep breaths to calm down. If somebody finds an error which they don't have the skills to fix then I don't mind them raising it here, at least to get some direction about how to get help. And hopefully it could also be a learning experience. But I agree there has been a run of posts lately that take a less collaborative approach. I wish I had some deep insight to fix the problem... --Gronk Oz (talk) 02:48, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

In the past, I've also suggested to the editor Srbernadette to do the fixes themselves. At the same time, I've chosen to not be particularly pointy to them, of my own volition, as they seem to be working to improve the project (given their full set of contributions). I do agree that they seem to be at the lower end of competence despite repeated instructions; however, their overall intent seems very positive. I would prefer them posting on the Help Desk than letting the mistakes continue in the articles they point (only a few of the mistakes being pointed out on the Help Desk are of their own making). But in this light, I also don't actually see anything wrong with what Majora wrote to them on the Help Desk. An editor should be advised to process simple mistakes themselves. Lourdes 02:55, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

If you don't want to fix a problem that someone has raised on the Help Desk, then just don't. If someone is obviously very new, then consider dropping a Welcome Box on their talk page. If someone is getting up your nose or on your wick, then just move on. DuncanHill (talk) 03:01, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

@DuncanHill: So we should not encourage people to be bold? We should just mindlessly fix whatever we are commanded to fix or say nothing? And yes Gronk Oz, I agree on the statement that we are commanded quite a lot. --Majora (talk) 03:11, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

There's no need to ping me, I do have a watchlist. I'm not saying you shouldn't suggest that someone be bold, I am saying that there are alternatives to biteing. DuncanHill (talk) 03:14, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Gronk Oz Yes, but can you blame such directness? There is such an ownership that has also slowly arisen among certain editors with the entitlement of "WE" at Wikipedia as if there is ownership of the site itself. The patrolling that occurs on a routine basis by regular editors on the "Help Desk" has granted some into thinking that absolute power corrupts absolutely; and that civility is for weaker minds: thus, certain comments left in response: "Do it yourself!" . Lourdes I'm actually surprised that you would condone such a response, as I have always held your editing in high esteem and regard due to your mild temperament and level headed approach. I have seen even your exchanges with Srbernadette and thought you might have a bit more reserve. What I can't understand is: if this one editor is bothering you so much -- why not approach WP:CONDUCTDISPUTE or WP:ANI and be done with it? There is absolutely no history of response through comment on the "Help Desk", "Talk Page" or otherwise. I shake my head at all this frustration. When is the wall going to move? If WP is open to all, then either get used to it, or stop editing. Honestly, the editor in question has already been supported by other editors and has been shown to not be vandalistic in their edits or disruptive. Maineartists (talk) 03:16, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Maineartists. Like I mentioned, I don't have a problem with Srbernadette posting on the Help Desk. At the same time, I'm perfectly okay with any editor including Majora advising other editors to do simple tasks themselves. Majora's exact words were: "So click edit and delete it yourself. You added it, you can remove it.". I think that's a very sensible guidance. I don't find any pointiness in this statement. It's just a statement of fact. If you feel this statement is bitey in nature, I think that's a simple of difference of opinion you have, which is okay. Lourdes 07:58, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Lourdes I think you may be justifying your defense behind the knowledge that we all know the history regarding these two editors. Please remove the editor in question who posted the original question:Srbernadette and replace it with a newcomer to the Help Desk; and tell me the statement would have been justified in tone and manner. I have read some of the gentlest, most compassionate, guiding, helpful, informative responses by you more than any other editor at WP; where others just tag directive templates. I think you're vision on this one has become clouded just a bit with your own frustration with said editor. Judging by the tone above, and follow-through from the original scenario, it would be diluting the situation in saying that the original response had more than just "sensible guidance" behind its intent of posting. Maineartists (talk) 11:37, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

The Help Desk is "for questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia". Admittedly, Srbernadette's requests are not like that. They are requests for something to be done, that Srbernadette cannot do. But I know of no better place to make such requests. I don't know what Majora expected to achieve by writing "You added it, you can remove it" – anyone who does know "the history" will realise that this is false. Maproom (talk) 11:27, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Luckily I'm glad I'm not your music teacher either. Primarily because I have no musical talent whatsoever (although I have been trying to learn how to play the ocarina). Not quite sure what that has to do with it. But anyways. The point of the matter is that we are being commanded to do things and then when I attempted to ask them to attempt to fix it themselves (which has worked before on occasion) I got yelled at. Hence the point of the thread, which you didn't really answer by the way. If they can make the edit on the article, and make the edit here, what is wrong with asking them to attempt to fix it themselves first? Even if it results in nothing. Continually fixing it without prodding them to attempt to do it themselves only leads to more commands. Especially when it is something that has been pointed out before and something that they can obviously do (edit and save). --Majora (talk) 21:37, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

1) Because you didn't "ask" them. 2) Who yelled at you? 3) Is this entire thread regarding just one editor or others that you have yet to name? 4) "WE" are not commanded to do anything - "YOU" choose to help as is your prerogative -- a right / privilege as an editor at WP. 5) and so that I am not accused of not answering the question: A) Is this the view of others as well? No, not mine. B) If not, what do you see the help desk as? A place to help individual requests without bias, judgment or prejudice. C) Where should the line be drawn? we all walk one ... we should never draw one for another. Maineartists (talk) 23:26, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I made one of the aforementioned "disparaging" replies to the user on the "Prince Christian of Denmark" request. Now don't get me wrong, I'd rather the editor come to the help desk than leave it and hope that someone else fixes it. Nonetheless, can't we create a discussion with the user or give them a quick tutorial on how to fix the issues which they continually ask about? If this is not possible, then I guess it's best that they continue to ask here. The user has been contacted on their talk page and tagged in questions on the help desk, with no replies to my knowledge. What other methods can we try? Jjamesryan (talk | contribs) 23:29, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

The problem with this approach is: numerous editors have attempted this time and again with little or (and most often the case) no response; which has led some to believe that young students are involved under the umbrella of this OP or a mental disability is at play. Some choose to lash out and believe it is intentional; while others choose to be less accusatory and either simply move along without reply or grant the simple request with the understanding as you stated: at least they are coming to the Help Desk and making it known other than just leaving it for others to find. Regardless, this has been going on for a very, very long time; and it seems that it is not going away -- which leads me to the statement: if it isn't vandalistic or hurting you personally, focus your frustration in more positive areas on WP. Maineartists (talk) 23:53, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I shall from now on — it's just disappointing that we seem to have given up on teaching the user how to edit more productively. Jjamesryan (talk | contribs) 04:04, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

I think we're all agree that the aim (or at least a major aim) is to teach the user. But if the user shows no interest or aptitude to take on that learning, what can we do? (That's not meant as a rhetorical question: really, if you have a suggestion then please tell us.) --Gronk Oz (talk) 05:03, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

That's the problem. I don't know, and it seems no one else does either. "Giving up" was perhaps the wrong term, but the situation is apparently, unfortunately, unsolvable. Jjamesryan (talk | contribs) 09:03, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

The problem of teaching Srbernadette may be insoluble. But I for one am happy to continue to fix references etc. for them; it contributes to the primary objective, of improving Wikipedia. Maproom (talk) 14:16, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Well then you can continue to fix them and I shall continue in other ventures and leave any requests be. I guess I thought, in a way, that fixing such mundane issues isn't enticing to me, therefore it wouldn't be to other editors either. But, if you're happy doing what you're doing, and I'm happy doing what I'm doing, then all's well. Have a good one. Jjamesryan (talk | contribs) 22:09, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

• I have to repeat what I said in April, but a bit more verbosely. The worse that happens with Srbernadette is that she takes up some space at the help desk and makes edit that break formatting in articles, but neither is done at a disruptive pace. I very much doubt that will ever lead to an editing restriction of any nature.

What are the options? Imagine an even dumber question On article Foo, the first sentence lacks a capitalization, could you fix it?. You can either:

1. Ignore the question altogether.
2. Answer with a painfully detailed answer - e.g. On the right of your keyboard is located a "mouse" with which you can click. Use this to (left-)click on "edit", then...
3. Perform the requested change, with or without a short note on the HD.
4. Bite.

That the editor in question is a help desk regular does not make 4 an acceptable option. 3 is usually best avoided (man, fish teach) except when the request is clearly legitimate but borderline impossible for a newbie (e.g. nominating an AfD is a click of Twinkle for us, moving a page is impossible without autoconfirmed). If you are frustrated that 2 is useless because the user will not listen, at least half the problem is on your end: you could do 1. We have no responsibility, individual or collective, to address all questions on the help desk.

If you ignore her but someone else does not, why would you care? It is not your time that is being "wasted". You can try to convince others to ignore her, but that is their decision to make, not yours. One might argue that, should every newbie ask similar requests it would drown out the questions that deserve to be answered, thus that a signal should be sent that no such request will be answered, thus that HD regulars should not answer such queries; but that argument rests on multiple premises that are for the least disputable and I would expect a proposal to that effect to fail by a wide margin. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:44, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately quite a number of editors take option 3 on your list, which just encourages more of the same sort of unjustified requests. If individuals are happy to respond to that sort of request there is no reason why they should not deal with such requests if made either on their own user talk pages or on the user talk page of the troublesome editor, but they ought not to be continuing to encourage this editor to clutter up the help desk when he is not prepared to learn how to fish. --David Biddulph (talk) 09:53, 12 March 2017 (UTC)

I routinely take option 3. I've seen others explain to Srbernadette how to type a date correctly and in the right field; and I've encouraged Srbernadette to make requests on my talk page instead of at the Help Desk. It seems that neither has any effect. As I'm here primarily to help improve Wikipedia rather than to help others do so, I don't see a problem. Maproom (talk) 14:25, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

I’ve only briefly skimmed some of the discussion here, but I have to ask: How much of an obligation is a good-faith editor under? In my understanding, a WP:VOLUNTEER is under no obligation except to continue to act in good faith—even if that editor has no desire and/or ability to perform seemingly trivial edits directly, so long as the user doesn’t make a mess of things through gross negligence. The user in question here seems to have done nothing but add and correct links, asking more capable Wikipedians here to do anything else that needs doing. It sounds like some would prefer to chase away such casual editors, or make it a bannable offense to try to help improve things without getting more directly involved.. —67.14.236.50 (talk) 03:36, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Tips

Was the addition of a "tip of the day" to the top of the Help Desk discussed anywhere? I can't find anything on this Talk page. Rojomoke (talk) 10:34, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

It was added 14 March by The Transhumanist.[2] I haven't seen a discussion. Today's Wikipedia:Tip of the day/March 30 seems very bloated and poorly suited for a narrow box. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:24, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

@Rojomoke, PrimeHunter, and JoeHebda: Thank you for the feedback. The TOTD was designed for beginners. Do you think they find the tip useful in this location? I agree that that tip is a doozy. Some tips are longer than others. On the vast majority of days, it doesn't extend longer than the TOC. This seems like an obvious good use for otherwise dead column space. It may be possible to fix the problem you spotted, perhaps by editing down any unwieldy tips, or splitting them up into multiple tips. Or the formatting could be adjusted, by reducing the font size. I've pinged the main tipster to see if he can provide further problem-solving suggestions. Anything we can do to help. If you believe that removal is best, I certainly won't object. But if it can be adjusted to your satisfaction, I will do my best to see if it can be done. Fortunately, that tip page won't display again for another year, and the next mega tip won't hit until May 15. The Transhumanist 20:41, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

@Rojomoke, PrimeHunter, and The Transhumanist: – Yes, I agree the March 30 tip is large. It can be easily divided in half, for example, March 30, "Working on the Main Page - I" and March 31, "Working on the Main Page - II". With March 30 ending line of (continued tomorrow) and March 31 beginning with (continued from yesterday). It's been a long day for me today, so I will address tomorrow morning. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 03:45, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

@Rojomoke, PrimeHunter, The Transhumanist, and Moxy: – Greetings, At TOTD I did split the large March 30 tip in half; first part on March 29 and last part the next day March 30. Hope this helps. Also, the original March 30 main page tip was duplicated on June 28 so I replaced that one as well. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:26, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Simply a horrible place to spam this. Pls dont go out of your way to overwhelm pages with junk unrelated to the page its self. Pls dont make our readers looking for interactive help have to read and scroll through a wall of unrelated text. We have Template:Wikipedia help pages that is collapsed and contains static help pages without overwhelming the page with one tip that people are not here to see.--Moxy (talk) 05:17, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

I agree with Moxy. It's sometimes necessary to post an important warning at the top of a discussion page. But so much unimportant and/or irrelevant material ends up at the tops of pages, that many users learn to ignore everything up there and scroll down to the content they are looking for. Please don't encourage that attitude. Maproom (talk) 15:31, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

I tend to agree as well. TOTD is not "junk unrelated with the HD", so the idea is not outright stupid, but that's just part of information overload. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 10:52, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Survey

Hey all,

I'm looking into doing some research about the things that users seek out help for. If noone has any objections I'd like to add a brief survey to this page to collect some anonymous data about what people are looking for and how we can help them better. I'd like to add this in the next week or so. Ping me if anyone has any issues with this. Seddon (WMF) (talk) 22:58, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Seddon I see you have posted this message to seven pages. Some are reading matter; Help:Contents and Help:Getting started are mainly collections of links to reading matter; the Tutorial is, guess what, an online tutorial; but this Help desk is a question-and-answer service (and you haven't included the Teahouse, where we direct new editors in particular to put their questions). I applaud the idea of researching the topic, but I'm not sure we want to interfere with what may well be already confused new people at the time they are trying to submit their questions or exploring a tutorial. How are you planning to present the survey to the readers or users of these pages? What feedback are you intending to give to maintainers of these pages?: Noyster (talk), 08:57, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Footer

See upper right corner. This looks like what you asked for, no?

Would it be possible to have a big Skip to bottom link (top right) as used on reference desk pages? — 107.15.152.93 (talk) 08:51, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

It's already there. Perhaps you missed it (unless what you're saying is to convert the current link to a big link). Lourdes 04:06, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

If it's there, Lourdes, I'm not seeing it either (in large or small form), and never have. (I presume that the OP means this Talk page, not the Help Desk Project page.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.183 (talk) 10:03, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Reference desks like Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous have a big Wikipedia:Reference desk/header/skip looking similar to the request. Wikipedia:Help desk only has a small {{Skip to bottom}}, so I guess the request is about Wikipedia:Help desk and not this talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:22, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Correct; this query is "about the Help Desk itself", per 'IMPORTANT NOTE' above. ;) — 107.15.152.93 (talk) 16:42, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Are you using the mobile site? Because of the desktop site (on Chrome) it definitely is there. See picture on the right. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:32, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

I am using Firefox and have never seen this option; and do not see it now. Actually, I never even knew it was an option (on any desk / page). It would make things much easier, though. Maineartists (talk) 16:40, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Reply to orangemike

Actually I have been told that the article already proves notoriety and just needs birthdate and info box orangemike. Your comment didn't answer my question and clearly you didn't look at the comments from reviewers or the history of this article. Parplaywright (talk) 02:37, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Note content copied to project page. Eagleash (talk) 02:45, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

People Maliciously and/or Randomly Deleting Profiles

There should be guidelines to prevent "real" pages from being randomly deleted. Too many people create fake profiles just to cause havok to others.

Musicprogirl1 (talk) 19:24, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Copied to the Help desk, does not belong on this talk page. ~ GB fan 19:50, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Note Editor has made multiple posts at help desk. Eagleash (talk) 19:57, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Need help

I've been searching for help on how to upload a page and it tells me to do research but I don't know how to upload one. Can someone help me? And I'm on my mobile device (phone) so is that a problem? Dinah Kirkland (talk) 19:41, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Note Copied to help desk project page. Eagleash (talk) 19:46, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Canned answer to image insertion requests

Hi there. How to insert an image is one of the frequently-asked questions on the Help Desk, but there is no canned answer to that, so I just went ahead created {{subst:HD/image}}. I will post this notice both at the Help Desk where people may want to discuss whether it is useful, and at copyright-savy places to make sure it is correct (I believe it to be, but better safe than sorry). Feel free to tweak the template to improve it, of course. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:58, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Hey Tigraan. {{UPIMG}} is one of the templates listed at {{Help desk templates}}. (It doesn't have a great name, which is maybe why you didn't notice it.) Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:59, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

So, it had already been done... Well, I guess a semi-duplicate does not really hurt, now that it is there, but to be honest I did not know about Wikipedia:Help_desk/Templates. Should we move all HD templates into "subtemplates" of {{HD}}? Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:10, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

I would rather we not. {{HD}} is one of the templates that is itself listed in {{Help desk templates}} (which is displayed in Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer#Stock answers, as linked in the help desk header under "How to answer"); it preexists HD; it is a container for expected-to-be high use ones, and doing so makes the history of each template and their copyright attribution much less direct, plus most of the help desk templates have a Z number, and shifting them upon a merge would be necessary.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:17, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Yes, we definitely should, as I attempted to do at tfd. {{Help desk templates}} and friends should be merged with {{HD/doc}}, rather than leaving a mess of often hard-to-discover templates behind. Pppery 00:10, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

What mess? You mean a series of culled, high-use templates for answering common help desk questions, set out in an easy to read, organized template that distinguishes them from the profusion to wade though in HD, that people will naturally find through the how to answer link, in the header at the top of the help desk, where Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer#Answering is a section explicitly explaining this and HD? What are you talking about?---Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:39, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Speedy deletion

Please how do I stop a page I created from being deleted? Adewukehinloni (talk) 23:35, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi Adewukehinloni. This is the talk page of the help desk, for discussing the help desk itselfl that is where questions are asked. Ask there, not here. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:48, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

@Adewukehinloni:, you need to add citations to reliable sources that corraborate the information in the article. The first thing you should do though is put {{hang on}} on the article's talk page along with a reason why you think the article should be kept. (Such as "I'm still working on this article and will add sources shortly.") ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 00:12, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

P.S. it's not going to be speedy deleted, it's already been declined. You still need to add sources though. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 00:15, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

@ONUnicorn:, the hangon process was replaced in 2015 with the Contest this speedy deletion button in the speedy deletion tags themselves and the template deprecated.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:04, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Oh. Oops. Thanks for letting me know. ~ ONUnicorn^{(Talk|Contribs)}problem solving 03:07, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

New search results feature

In the ongoing effort to improve the discoverability of all the world's knowledge, the Discovery team is proposing an enhancement to the search results page on Wikipedia (Special:Search). The goal of this feature is to display related content for each individual search result returned from query, so that even when the search result itself isn't maybe entirely useful, perhaps its related content would be. We would like your early feedback on this new feature—more information can be found on MediaWiki about the explore similar functionality and testing can be done in your own browser, using step by step self-guided testing instructions. Cheers, DTankersley (WMF) (talk) 21:01, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Does it still suggest "Kate Bush" if you search on "Ugly", as the beta version did? ‑ Iridescent 21:31, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Iridescent:, it looks like you're referring to a different feature that we've been working on: the sister project snippets display, and not the explore similar feature that this post was referring to. When the sister project snippets display goes live soon, the commons / multimedia results will no longer display in the snippets section on the search results page on enwiki as they currently do when using the testing URL. We're sorry for any confusion on this. However, have you had a chance to review the explore similar functionality? Thanks, DTankersley (WMF) (talk) 12:53, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Making an article that has been proposed for deletion public

My article was proposed for deletion but I have fixed it up with references and links but the user who proposed deletion redirected it to someonelse and that someonelse isn't responding right now so how do I go about getting rid of whatever tags that have been placed and making my article public. Thanks Wikipagecreator10 (talk) 12:19, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Wikipagecreator10 Your request has been copied to Wikipedia:Help desk where it should have been posted - Arjayay (talk) 12:34, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Sorry i thought this was where I was meant to post it. Thank you though — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikipagecreator10 (talk • contribs) 12:38, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Archival notification bot to take from WP:TH?

Hello folks,

As some of you may already know (as I spammed wrote multiple times at WT:TH) I have coded a bot that notifies thread posters when their thread gets archived (example diff of a notification). The bot is still in trial at the Teahouse, though I have reasonable hopes it will get approved.

It would be fairly easy to fork it and have a sibling-bot at the Help Desk, where there is also a stream of newbies that may not know what archival is. The bot can easily be modified to check whether a user has more than X edits or has advanced userrights before posting to their talk page (in the spirit of WP:DTTR).

So, what do you think of it? (If you support the idea, please also say what criterion you would use to only notify "newbies", if any - it is probably unreasonable to notify each and every poster.) Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 23:29, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

• Well, firstly, I should thank you for the effort. I would prefer that newbies, apart from getting notified about their queries being archived, also get notified by the bot if their queries get replied to. One criterion (for archival) could be to notify the newbie only in case the newbie has not acknowledged the replies to their query (or has not posted again at the thread, in case no reply is received). Does that make sense? Thanks. Hope you are doing well. Lourdes 12:24, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

  All of this makes complete sense for a human, but it is harder for a computer.

Notifying when there is a reply is a different bot, but I believe it is feasible to determine with near certainty in which section a given edit is made. (It may be harder to approve though.) However, for everything else... To be blunt, if you want it to happen by me, you need to give me the algorithm on a silver platter.

The hardest part in designing the bot was to know who made a post in the thread, with something that would be robust to a newbie forgetting to sign, misindenting the thread, changing thread location, title changes, etc. (Notifying an editor when they did not start a thread is spam and is IMO a big no-no.) The way it is done is by finding the edit that created the thread in the page history, which is feasible because the edit summary has a specific format (and the edit maker can hardly be falsified). Parsing the text of the thread and the history thereof (to check that posts were not moved etc.) to make non-trivial decisions in a way that is robust is a different kettle of fish. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 17:20, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Deleting a user page

How do I delete a personal wiki page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.136.97.72 (talk) 17:30, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

You are posing this question in the wrong place. Please see the large notice at the very top of this page. General Ization ^Talk

Template:HD/facebook

The template Template:HD/facebook, links to the FB page "Community pages and profile connections" on their Help Center; however, this link seems to be the main page of the help center - could someone see if they could find the right link and add it to the template? Thanks.  Seagull123  Φ  18:10, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

The page once contained [3] (Internet Archive from 2011). I haven't found a current replacement at Facebook and don't know how much of it still applies. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:26, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

By the way, the template was created when we got many posts about errors (mainly wrong locations) or problems on Facebook pages which had links to Wikipedia articles, and the posters incorrectly thought the errors were copied from Wikipedia. I haven't seen such posts about Facebook for years (now they are usually about Google), so maybe Facebook stopped giving these misleading impressions. Based on an archive search, Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2017 July 29#How do we get Modelbane europa appears to be the only use of the template since 2014. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:39, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

New advice template available

I have created {{Steps to Article}}, a templated version of a post I have made in several variations to users here asking how to create a new article. The template parameters allow it to be tailored to the inquiry to some extent. Please take a look at it, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Please feel free to use this if in your view it is helpful.

I have also created two redircts to this:

• {{7STEPS}}
• {{SevenStepsGuide}}

There is some discussion of possible added/altered features at Wikipedia talk:Teahouse#New advice template available. If people comment there it will avoid fragmenting the discussion. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 17:05, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Um, you just created a template that is completely redundant to {{HD/new}} Pppery 18:34, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, I didn't know of that. I like my wording and formatting much better, as well as the links to the various SNGs, but the content is very similar, yes. By the way, are you going to fix your very confusing signature any time soon, Pppery? DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 19:49, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

I think this is far superior to {{HD/new}} -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 19:57, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

In that case, what you should do is replace the contents of {{HD/new}} with this template, possibly adding and icon. Pppery 20:05, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps. It appears that none of the current sub-templates to {{HD}} have any parameters. Would the inconsistency be an issue, does anyone think? In any case this is not designed exclusively for help-desk use, indeed it was first designed for the Teahouse but I have used a version of it directly on a user talk page, and expect to do so in future. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 20:30, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

I would prefer this not be replaced with HD/new. This current template has more depth and is quite explanatory; while HD/new is short and nicely summarized. I feel both have their unique advantages. If it's a particularly new user (0~20 edits), I'll prefer using this current template. If it's a user who's not new but still fresh (~50), I'll prefer using HD/new. Regardless, well done DESiegel. (And I don't think Pppery wanted to put you off or anything like that when they said you've replicated the HD/new template. Just their way of speech I guess.) Thanks again for the effort. Lourdes 03:23, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I wasn't put off; in a sense that statement is quite correct, and i hadn't known it. FYI this template started as what I thought was a one-off post at the Teahouse. I liked it enough that I reused it with variations several times, and then recast it as a template, incorporating those variations and some others via parameters. We get so many questions on how to create a new article, often after a draft has been declined or a page speedy-deleted, but sometimes before any work has been done. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 03:28, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

• Let me ping Tigraan who also has commented on such issues earlier. Lourdes 03:24, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

  Tigraan already commented at Wikipedia talk:Teahouse#New advice template available, but any further comments would be welcome. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 03:29, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

  Would people here think this appropriate for inclusion in {{Help desk templates}}? Or Wikipedia:Help desk/Templates? DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 03:36, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

  Without doubt. Lourdes 03:40, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

I have modified this template slightly, so that if used on the help desk, it does not link to the help desk, and if used on the Teahouse, it does not link to the Teahouse. DES ^(talk)_{DESiegel Contribs} 00:22, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Where to ask copyright questions

I was making improvements to Wikipedia:Help desk/Are you in the right place after seeing several people's answers on the Help Desk about where to go. This page had two talk pages listed for copyright problems but not Commons:Village pump/Copyright, which User:Seagull123 sent several people to in response to Help Desk questions. I added the link but it looks kind of strange right now.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:20, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Vchimpanzee. Are you looking for Wikipedia:Media copyright questions maybe? TimothyJosephWood 15:27, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

That is one of the options. But User:Seagull123 sent people to the other place and I'm thinking maybe that needs to be on the page.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:29, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Well... my intuition is that we should probably prefer a venue on en.wiki, since in case something needs deleted, or something deleted needs viewed, there's not that much overlap in en.wiki and commons admins. TimothyJosephWood 16:03, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

I also added another link to the Commons help desk because people sometimes say to go there. Is there anything wrong with that?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:17, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

I... just don't much see the point of pointing someone to a page on a different project. Presumably, they are at the help desk on en.wiki because they had an issue on en.wiki, and if they have an issue on commons, they probably received something like Commons:Template:Copyvionote, and should seek help on commons. Although I would note that even that template points users to the commons help desk and not to COM:VPC. TimothyJosephWood 16:23, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

I directed people to COM:VP/C when they mention something about copyright or something on pictures, because pictures and stuff are on Commons (and also because I didn't realise Wikipedia:Media copyright questions existed) - but I see what you mean, Timothyjosephwood, about keeping people at en.wp, so I will point them there in the future.  Seagull123  Φ  16:34, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Well... not all pictures are on Commons, since not all can be, although all that can be should be. Images are very particular like that, and your average newish user probably doesn't understand the difference in whether they should be here or on commons. Probably best most of the time to let them explain the details and guide them to the appropriate place depending on whether the content is freely licensed or fair use. TimothyJosephWood 16:39, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Whatever everyone thinks is best. I assumed since the last item was not on Wikipedia (before I got involved) that other sites would be an acceptable places to ask questions. And it is quite common on the Help Desk and Teahouse to get questions that can only be answered these other places.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:58, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

New subpage about color contrast

This new subpage shows the contrast-against-white ratio for all 148 CSS colors, in descending sequence, dividing the colors into "recommended" and "not recommended" groups. By reducing the learning and effort required, the subpage aims to facilitate compliance with the signature appearance policy at WP:SIGAPP. It has been linked from SIGAPP and from WP:SIGTUT. Because the information applies to all uses of text on a white background, not only signatures, it is a subpage of WP:Manual of Style/Accessibility and has also been linked from WP:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Color (WP:COLOR). Thank you. ―Mandruss ☎ 16:30, 30 August 2017 (UTC)

Complaints about articles

A recent Help Desk question was a complaint about the content of an article. I don't know whether that is significant enough for its own category on Wikipedia:Help desk/Are you in the right place. I'm hoping it is found in a Frequently Asked Questions list. — Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:14, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee: It's already there, actually – it's the third item in the table (... a problem with our article about a particular topic – Click on "talk" or "discussion" at the top of the article and then click on "new section" at the top of the talk page.) –FlyingAce^✈hello 16:19, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

I decided to be bold when no one repsonded, so that's why it's there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vchimpanzee (talk • contribs) 14:47, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

A little help

Hello,

Basically, Gerda Arendt appears to have given me some kind of award three years ago on my user page:

User:Futurist110

However, I want to have this award be put on the left side of my user page and I have no idea how to do this. Indeed, can someone please help me in regards to this? Futurist110 (talk) 01:55, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi Futurist110, hope you're well. You can generally place such queries on the main HD page than on this talk page. I've done your fix. Warmly. Lourdes 02:48, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you very much both for this advice and for your work in fixing the location of my award on my user page, Lourdes! For that, you get a barnstar from me! Futurist110 (talk) 03:12, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. Lourdes 03:16, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Monobook problems

Hello. I use monobook, and problems have emerged. Yesterday or so there are now gaps between items, and the two alert buttons have disappeared leaving a gap (I can still click on the space where they were and they will appear, but are not listed anymore). Just a few minutes ago the top line (user name, alert buttons, talk, sandbox, etc.) has become very small. It was normal size a few minutes ago, now is tiny. Please wave the magic tech wand and bring Monobox back to normal, thanks! Randy Kryn (talk) 15:42, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

@Randy Kryn: Hi, I have copied your question to the help desk main page. Eagleash (talk) 15:45, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Barnstar

The Tireless Contributors' Barnstar

Hola Help Desk Team. Thanks so much for helping me each time in the past when I have posted queries here. This forum is perhaps the most amazing place on Wikipedia given the effort you all are taking. One reason I have continued on Wikipedia is because of the wonderful support given by you all. I am sure that must be the same case with other new editors who have been patiently guided by you all. You all are my tireless contributors. Lourdes 07:05, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

why this page get deleted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaurav_Kotli ThakurSaabji (talk) 09:59, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Note Content copied to project page. Eagleash (talk) 10:00, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Templates for frequently used answers?

Thanks to all the editors here who answers the same stupid questions over and over: I only do so occasionally because I'm afraid I'll get too terse and snippy. I notice a bit of combat fatigue sometimes sets in even for our more patient editors.

To avoid this, I think we need a set of preformed, easy-to-use answers, possibly in the form of templates. With those, we can afford to create polite helpful, and friendly answers and use them even when the same stupid question recurs for the tenth time in a single day. Has this been done? If not, is it a good idea? What canned answers do we need? In most (all?) cases these answere are just a more polite way of directing the user to the appropriate WP policy pages.

Here as the ones I see often:

• {{help NOTBLOG}}

meaning: this is an encyclopedia, not a blog, dummy.

text: Wikipedia is an Encyclopedia, not a blog. If your subject is suitable for an encyclopedia, then someone other that you may choose to create an article. Please see WP:NOTABLOG. There are many fine bloogging web sited that would be suitable for your blog.

• {{help OWN}}

meaning: it's not your article. you have no special rights.

text: Wikipedia articles do not have "owners". Anyone can create or edit an article,but must follow certain rules. In particular, all information in the article must "verifiable" and come from what we call "reliable sources". For our definition of these terms , see WP:V and WP:RS.

• {{help OWN|family}}

meaning: you have less rights, not more.

text: (appended to the above) This can be especially frustrating for people with a close connection to the subject of an article, especially when information in a "reliable source" is incorrect, and you have personal knowledge of the facts. Unfortunately, Wikipedia has no way to verify that you are who you say you are for this purpose. Please try to find the correct information in a reliable source.

• {{help OWN| coi}}

meaning: you should not edit that article.

text:(appended to OWN) while we appreciate your efforts, you appear to have a conflict of interest. If so, you are strongly discouraged from directly editing of this article. See WP:COI.

• {{help OWN|paid}}

meaning: you must declare your paid interest.

text: (appended to ONWN|paid) In addition to your apparent conflict of interest, you appear to be a "paid editor" Please see WP:PAID for our definition. You must immediately declare your paid status on your talk page to avoid being blocked from further editing.

• {{help TALK}}

meaning:Use the talk page, Luke!

text:

Please feel free to add to this list and/or suggest changes to the text, or comment if this whole thing is a bad idea. -Arch dude (talk) 16:44, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

We already have many stock answers. See {{HD}} and Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer#Stock answers. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:33, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Also see these Category:Help desk templates - X201 (talk) 17:35, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Help me

How do i get my content back from speedy deletion

Note: Copied to project page. Eagleash (talk) 23:32, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

Archive pages not updating

When I had slow internet, I had to start reading the shorter archive pages rather than the main page. I just kept doing this even after my speed got upgraded. At the top of each day's archive page, there is supposed to be a link to the next day's page. I have manually fixed the pages but this should be working automatically.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:56, 4 November 2017 (UTC)

The pages use #ifexist: to link to the next day if the archive exists, and to the current help desk otherwise. Wikipedia pages are cached for performance reasons so an archive page may have been cached before the next day existed and continue to link the current help desk for a while. You can fix it by purging the page when the next day exists. You can check the ifexist code works by viewing the version before this edit. Maybe we should always link the next day to avoid the issue (it will make the link misleading red when the page was cached before the next day existed). Then we could link to the current help desk in addition if ifexist at evaluation time said the next day didn't exist. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:13, 4 November 2017 (UTC)

I had not manually updated two of the pages, but when I purged, it worked. Thanks.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:33, 5 November 2017 (UTC)

Or just configure the bot to maintain a redirect from the day that would otherwise be red to the main help desk page. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 03:46, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Redirecting highly specialized questions

Now and then I see a very specialized question coming across the Help Desk or the Teahouse (for the latest example, see Wikipedia:Teahouse#WikEd_blocks_the_keyboard_shortcuts_on_Google_Chrome_and_Firefox.). Those questions are fair game for the HD/TH, but they often go unanswered. Common offenders are technical questions (to redirect to WP:VPT) and nontrivial copyright questions (to redirect to WP:CQ).

I suspect the reason is that the regulars seeing them recognize them as fair game (and hence do not tell the asker to go somewhere else, unlike RefDesk questions or ANI-complaint-like questions) but do not know how to answer them (and hence do not answer, expecting someone with more knowledge of the topic to answer). That result is IMO worse than "go see at [more relevant place]". I mean, we try to field all intelligible and relevant questions to the best of our ability, and the current result for those is not what I would call the best of our ability.

Shouldn't we try to answer these with some variant of "you were 100% right to ask this here, and maybe you will get an answer, but you would probably get a faster/better answer at place X"? I think it would not hurt to have a carefully-worded canned reply to this effect; it would be easy enough to create a subtemplate of {{HD}}. I am asking because I wonder whether I was reinventing the wheel and a template already exists, or violating a traditional rule that partial answers are frowned upon. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 14:42, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Inappropriate material...

I believe I have found material that is not in line with terms of use policy. I’m not aware of the correct process to change or remove content that is not in scope of what is appropriate for this site.

Please look at the Federal section for the material in question

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_enforcement_agencies_in_Canada

Thank you Cnethers (talk) 16:55, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

 Reverted vandalism and warned disruptive IP. Thank you for alerting us to this issue. In the future you can revert any obvious vandalism yourself. Persistent and obvious vandalism can be reported to WP:AIV. Thanks again for raising the alarm. -Ad Orientem (talk) 17:05, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Actually, erring on the side of caution, I've reported the edit to WP:911 and revdelled it. The IP has been blocked for 1 week. -Ad Orientem (talk) 17:14, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Ya, that sounds like something concerning. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 18:59, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Wow. Not sure what the IP added, but I think that's about as drastic response for a single edit by an IP that I've ever seen.Naraht (talk) 15:58, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Fixing bugs in math rendering

Is there some standard forum for reporting bugs with the Wikipedia software itself? Specifically, I'm looking for a place to report the bug described at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics/Typography#Apparent_bug_in_rendering_\operatorname* -- The Anome (talk) 19:15, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

Phabricator. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 20:46, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

Differences between copryrighted and public domain images?

What are the differences between copyrighted and public domain images? Are public domain pictures still copyrighted? PhinbellaMedia (talk) 14:02, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

In short, no. They're released to the public for use by whomever/whenever. See public domain and copyright. †dismas†|^(talk) 15:00, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Pinging user: PhinbellaMedia †dismas†|^(talk) 15:02, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

• Well, technically, not all PD images are "released". Some of them are released at the time of creation by their author, but others lapse in the public domain (usually a certain time after publication or author's death); the latter sometimes happens very much against the wish of whoever holds their copyright at that time. Public domain to the set of works for which no intellectual property applies at a given moment, without getting into the details of why. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 17:37, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Question about uploading free images that came from another websites.

So I have a question. Does free images from another websites can be uploaded on Wikipedia? Many images are taken using a camera and uploaded on another website by others. I know it is not copyrighted, but I'm not sure if it's acceptable here on Wikipedia or not. PhinbellaMedia (talk) 12:52, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

• Note Question moved to project page. Eagleash (talk) 12:58, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Hey PhinbellaMedia. If you can provide a link we can probably be more helpful. GMG^talk 17:50, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

@GreensMeansGo: Answered at Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2018 January 22#Question about uploading free images that came from another websites.. Cheers. Eagleash (talk) 17:59, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Ah. That's what I get for stepping out for a smoke and using my phone. GMG^talk 18:00, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Long 'phone call! :) Eagleash (talk) 18:16, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Section: "Editing without logging in"

This section of the help template {{HD/ip}} is out of date and needs amending in the light of the wiki-wide namechange from "Save changes" to "Publish changes". I've not altered this myself as I was unsure about the script that is being recommended. Could someone check and confirm when when it's good to go in an up-to-date form. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 13:44, 26 February 2018 (UTC)

OLDEST LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD IS TAMIL

Helo Sir / Madam

The article posted on the wikipedia is obviously wrong, the world most oldest language is tamil, before i jave used to check in wikipedia it were tamil, im not sure howlong it would have been, but now im so shocked that it turn to sanskrit, How could it be happen? Is wikipedia allows to make record whatever we narrate as our wish / editing pages just like what I have did just now..? So dissappointed, truth has to be truth, i have read a lot about tamil in the articles and it was the oldest language in the world.hope you may check with that.Thanks Jeffreyfernaz (talk) 22:38, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

• Note: The above copied to the project page. Eagleash (talk) 22:50, 1 April 2018 (UTC)

sorry

sorry for that because I don't edit that someone one go to my Wikipedia page and do that. Alimranft01 (talk) 18:30, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

• Note: The OP posted at the project page and then deleted it. Not sure why. Welcome msg left at their talk page. Eagleash (talk) 19:00, 19 May 2018 (UTC)

Not for new pages

I'm seeing a lot of users try to submit new articles on the help desk. Might it be helpful to add an edit notice or similar template saying that this is not the place to do so? — pythoncoder  (talk | contribs) 21:27, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Hugo Grenier

Can anyone help me I feel like im losing my mind, haha. I was editing the page of Hugo Grenier and the doubles finals he’s won appear on the preview and can be edited but then they seem to have disappeared now the page is saved. Have I done something silly? Hildreth gazzard (talk) 20:22, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

• Note: The above copied to the project page. Eagleash (talk) 22:33, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Bot that leaves a talk page message when thread gets archived: aye or no?

I already mentioned it before, but it did not receive many replies, and the bot is now up and running.

I operate on the Wikipedia:Teahouse a bot (User:Muninnbot) that notifies users when their thread gets archived. The idea is that newbies might not be familiar with the archival process and could think that their post was ignored / disappeared with no explanation; such a notification explains what is going on and links to the correct archive. The notification looks like this.

I believe it could be useful to run the bot on the Help Desk as well, since we have a fair share of newbies. We can set it to only notify people with less than X edits / Y days since account creation or who are not autoconfirmed, in order not to spam long-term users who know about archival.

Please share your thoughts, whether you think that is the best idea ever, or that it's a waste of resource spambot. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 12:02, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Help:Help desk/New message link

Help:Help desk/New message link, a subpage of a redirect to Wikipedia:Help desk, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Help:Help desk/New message link and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Help:Help desk/New message link during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. — Godsy ^(TALK_CONT) 19:12, 3 June 2018 (UTC)

hatting off topic posts on talk pages

Moved to Wikipedia:Help desk

{{3x|p}}ery (talk) 19:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Man City

Is Jorginho a good signing aye or nah? Tombo Elbo (talk) 16:45, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

I think nah Tombo Elbo (talk) 16:45, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

@Tombo Elbo: This is the page for discussing how to improve the help desk. It is not for asking questions and Wikipedia in general is not a forum where players' merits are discussed. Eagleash (talk) 16:55, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

Is one non-English name always sufficient in each language?

According to a fellow editor, one non-English name is sufficient in each language. However I think the second alternative name is also worth mentioning. Is there any restriction that suggests to choose a single name? 123Steller (talk) 12:12, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Note: Above copied to the project page. Eagleash (talk) 12:31, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Locked page has been vandalized

Hi! I’d like to request an edit for the page for Emma Swan, character from Once Upon a Time. Her daughter’s name is Hope Swan-Jones (as seen on the pages for other Once Upon a Time characters). Someone changed it to Hope Swan-Mills. I can’t edit it because the page is locked, and i’m a new reviewer. I also believe the person who vandalized the page removed a great deal of the description section that discussed her relationship with her husband, Killian Jones (aka Captain Hook). Is there a way to restore that portion of the description? Thanks! Asinoski9595 (talk) 17:24, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Note: The above copied to the project page. Eagleash (talk) 17:38, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Using a preferred edit mode

So i tried to leave a question on the page and i realized visual editor was not available. i think visual editor should be made available for those who prefer it . TereseB —Preceding undated comment added 19:49, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

VisualEditor is not suited for discussions. Wikipedia:VisualEditor#Limitations says: "In the English Wikipedia, VisualEditor is not enabled for any talk pages, in the Template or Wikipedia namespaces, or in several of the namespaces that are rarely edited." PrimeHunter (talk) 20:49, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Copyvio in WP:HD#Addis Ababa Zoo Park Center removed

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: https://addisfortune.net/articles/city-expands-renovates-oldest-zoo/. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.)

For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, and, if allowed under fair use, may copy sentences and phrases, provided they are included in quotation marks and referenced properly. The material may also be rewritten, providing it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Therefore, such paraphrased portions must provide their source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. ColinFine (talk) 17:40, 15 August 2018 (UTC). --ColinFine (talk) 17:40, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Growth team is looking for your feedback and ideas

Hello!

Have you heard about Growth team? 

The Growth Team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects. We will be starting with Wikipedias, but we hope these changes will benefit every community.

We are contacting your project today, because you may be interested by what we work on.

8 ideas we consider: tell us what you think about them!

We are considering new features to build, that could retain new editors in mid-size Wikipedias. We will be testing new ideas in Czech and Korean Wikipedias, and then we'll talk to more communities (yours!) about adopting the ideas that work well.

We have posted the 8 ideas we are considering. We would really appreciate your thoughts and the thoughts from your community. Please share the ideas, and tell us what do you and your community think of those ideas before September 9.

Share your experiences with newcomers

We want to hear about what is working and what is not working for new contributors in your wiki. We also want to hear any reactions, questions, or opinions on our work. Please post on the team’s talk page, in any language!

Learn more about us

You can visit our team page to find out why our team was formed and how we are thinking about new editors, and our project page for detailed updates on the first project we'll work on.

Get updates on your project page

The Growth team's newsletter will provide updates regularly. You can subscribe to it.

On behalf of the Growth team, Trizek (WMF) (talk) 17:41, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

any lawyers here on copyright-themes?

Hi, dear all. I'm currently writing an article on the artist George Pusenkoff. In 1995 he had a copyright dispute with the photographer Helmut Newton, which Pusenkoff won. For my german article in which i refer to this lawsuit i found two kind wikipedians, who knew all about rightholderissues and could proofread my passage on this subject, whether i explained everything not only in "normal language", but also did use the "legal terms" correctly. I would be glad if i could find someone here, who is able to do the same for the english legal terms, once i've translated it. Kind regards, --Gyanda (talk) 18:19, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Note: copied to project page. Eagleash (talk) 18:34, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Dear Eagleash, i'm deeply sorry that i posted it on your page, i was in a hurry - and one shouldn't work in a hurry. Sorry for the stress for you! Kind regards, --Gyanda (talk) 21:04, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Accidental page disruption - help requested

Hello anyone. A few minutes ago I was adding a response to a query about an allegedly incorrect photo in an article. At first I got an edit conflict, on my second attempt the entire Help Desk seems to have lost all content between 14 September and today, leaving only a subsequent query concerning the title "Esquire" visible, which seems to have error notices on it which I don't understand – possibly this query has somehow caused a problem. I tried reverting my own last edit but this hasn't worked – can someone with more Wiki-fu please try to sort out the problem? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.172.36 (talk) 06:58, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

The problem was created by unterminated ref tags in this edit shortly before yours. Corrected by another editor soon afterwards. --David Biddulph (talk) 11:36, 18 September 2018 (UTC)

Help desk Categories

Not that it's earth-shatteringly important, but at the bottom of the Help desk Project page is a box showing that the page is in two categories, to wit: "Categories: Wikipedia help forums | Wikipedians in Hong Kong" Is there a good reason for the latter? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.221.81.75 (talk) 10:37, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

It's because of one of the infoboxes in the most recent section, Wikipedia:Help desk#Userboxes. The page will drop out of that category when that section is archived in a few days' time. --David Biddulph (talk) 10:42, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Ah, I see. I hadn't opened the 'Extended content' box that contains the relevant infobox, so wasn't aware of it. Thanks, David. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.221.81.75 (talk) 10:43, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Persistent_WP:CIR_issue

ANI thread currently open about Srbernadette, one of the help desk's regular question askers. See also previous context at Wikipedia_talk:Help_desk/Archive_12#What_is_the_Help_Desk?. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 13:21, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

Which is now archived without resolution...... Joseph2302 (talk) 13:24, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

AbubakkarSiddique

I just want to open it Awubakkar (talk) 22:57, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

@Awubakkar: Hello, this is the talk page relating to the help desk. It is not clear exactly what your question may be but if it relates to editing Wikipedia, please post it at the project page. Thank you. Eagleash (talk) 23:21, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 October 2018

I want to edit my user name. It is National CSR Netwoork at the moment, it should be National CSR Network. How can i edit it as i am unable to edit it? National CSR Netwoork (talk) 09:07, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

You may request a change of username using one of the two methods located at this link. However, you will need to choose a username that indicates an individual is using your account. It does not need to be your real name, it can be an alias, nickname, etc. 331dot (talk) 09:11, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 October 2018

Hello - on the Dallas Symphony's Wikipedia page, the box on the right says "Principal Conductor (vacant)". I'm asking if someone can change the title to be "Music Director" and change "vacant" to be "Fabio Luisi". We are seeing this box populate on Google, and its info is in error. Thank you! 12.14.8.195 (talk) 14:21, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Declined Please make your edit directly in Dallas Symphony Orchestra. That page is not protected. Also, this is the page for discussing the Help Desk itself, not other matters. ―Abelmoschus Esculentus 14:24, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

@Abelmoschus Esculentus: Some users may be coming here because the HD itself is currently protected due to vandalism. 331dot (talk) 09:12, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 October 2018

Please add a new section, "Diacritic".

There's something wrong with the third paragraph of the Diacritic article, and it was wrong before I fixed a typo. Here's the code:

In other alphabetic systems, diacritical marks may perform other functions. Vowel pointing systems, namely the Arabic harakat ( ـِ ,ـُ ,ـَ, etc.) and the Hebrew niqqud ( ַ◌, ֶ◌, ִ◌, ֹ◌, ֻ◌, etc.) systems, indicate vowels that are not conveyed by the basic alphabet. The Indic virama ( ् etc.) and the Arabic sukūn ( ـْـ ) mark the absence of vowels. Cantillation marks indicate prosody. Other uses include the Early Cyrillic titlo stroke ( ◌҃ ) and the Hebrew gershayim ( ״ ), which, respectively, mark abbreviations or acronyms, and Greek diacritical marks, which showed that letters of the alphabet were being used as numerals. In the Hanyu Pinyin official romanization system for Chinese, diacritics are used to mark the tones of the syllables in which the marked vowels occur.

If you change the width of your screen, the word layout changes, and some of the text becomes right-to-left highlightable. On my screen at normal zoom, the second line begins with the last niqqud, a parenthesis, and "mark the absence of vowels." The third line begins with an Arabic character, a parenthesis, and ", which, respectively," The fourth line begins "letters of the alphabet were being used as numerals" and there is no left parenthesis. The fifth line consists of "vowels occur." If you click on "Other uses include..." and try to highlight text farther left, some words get highlighted and others don't. And some of the text reads like this: "mark the absence of vowels. Cantillation marks indicate prosody. systems, indicate vowels that are not conveyed by the basic alphabet...Greek diacritical marks, which showed that Other uses include the Early Cyrillic titlo stroke ( ◌҃ ) and the Hebrew gershayim ( letters of the alphabet I don't know how to fix it. Can someone help? 208.95.51.53 (talk) 15:47, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

The best page for this discussion would be the article's talk page. I observe that replacing each occurrence of   by   prevents the problem of a line starting with a close- or ending with an open-parenthesis. Maproom (talk) 17:29, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

I'm seeing the issues with right-to-left highlighting as well. I moved this request to the main page - it's a weird enough thing happening that I probably would've put it at VPT, but this should work for the moment. ‑‑ElHef (Meep?) 17:38, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Moved to WP:Help desk