Ask a question/Recent questions/Archive 1

Jane023's question

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For an editathon I would like to make a list of articles in a special category that are stubs (so less than 2500 bytes or thereabouts). I see that there is a page_len field set in the page table so I was wondering if I could query this somehow through the api? Question from Jane023 16:19, 25 January 2017 (UTC) [reply]

Jane023, sorry for the delay in response. I am not sure that `page_len` is exposed through the API, but you can use a tool like Quarry to conduct database queries. I have created this query that should answer your question. If you would like to drill down further, please do let me know. (I suspect there are a lot of articles under 2500 bytes in size.) Harej (WMF) (talk) 22:53, 17 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, but it turns out I can do this with Petscan too. Jane023 (talk) 08:47, 18 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Jane023: btw, As far as the API goes, you can list of page lengths of all pages in a category, but you are not allowed to filter of sort by it - e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&generator=categorymembers&gcmtitle=Category:Physics&prop=info&formatversion=2 . For the shortest pages in general, there is also Special:ShortPages BWolff (WMF) (talk) 13:58, 30 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Very interesting, thanks! Jane023 (talk) 06:09, 1 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Pharos's question

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Can one get a professional certification in Wikimedia use for education? Pharos (talk) 19:08, 20 June 2017 (UTC) [reply]

Copying Nichole Saad who might know more. Harej (WMF) (talk) 19:45, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Pharos and Harej (WMF), there is nothing official yet. Some affiliates have their own protocols for issuing certifications, but at the WMF we are still considering how we can best support educators globally, and if it makes sense to provide some kind of badge or certification. To keep updated, you can follow our newsletter on outreach. NSaad (WMF) (talk) 20:11, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@NSaad (WMF): the newsletter page you have linked here is empty: "There is currently no text in this page." --Hadi (talk) 19:32, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hadi, the page is available here: outreach:Education/News (with a capital N). Harej (WMF) (talk) 01:33, 31 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Checkingfax's question

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Is there a system in place to semi-automate the renewal process for a WMF Rapid Grant? Checkingfax (talk) 17:18, 2 July 2017 (UTC) [reply]

Thank you for your question.. Pinging Chris, who may know. Harej (WMF) (talk) 19:24, 5 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hey Checkingfax. I'm not sure what renewal process you're referring to in Rapid Grants. Right now, if there are extra funds leftover from a Rapid Grant, an applicant either needs to start a new Rapid Grant (for larger amounts of money) so we can allocate those funds or briefly describe a few key details of a program/event on the report talk page (for smaller amount of money). Otherwise, those funds need to get returned. We also permit extensions to Rapid Grants; if those extensions cause the project to extend beyond a year, we normally ask for an interim report so we know how things are progressing. Were you referring to one of these processes, or something else? I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:36, 5 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Ben Creasy: Checkingfax (talk) 04:04, 24 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Our money looks like it will last for a few months more. We periodically update some information and metrics month-by-month anyhow but could do an overview if necessary. For renewal, I think we should provide another application similar to the original... (we are talking about https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_WikiSalon) Ben Creasy (talk) 02:01, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Ben Creasy: If you do need additional funds for a given grant (e.g. because new, grant eligible expenses cropped up or something cost more than estimated), e-mail rapidgrants wikimedia.org right away detailing your situation and request. We can provide an additional payment up to a certain limit, or arrange an agreement for a new grant request. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 18:21, 26 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mactwyver's question

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Dear,

I am working on a separate wiki but this wiki does not allow me to use annotated images. I tried to export and import the template:annotated_images_4, but this doesn't work. How can I transfer the image annotations to another wiki? Mactwyver (talk) 18:54, 12 July 2017 (UTC) [reply]


@Mactwyver: I am assuming you selected to include all dependencies when exporting/importing the template? If so, can you confirm whether you have ParserFunctions set up on your wiki? You can check by going to the page "Special:Version" on your wiki. If not, you can follow the instructions here. Let me know if I should clarify anything. harej (talk) 22:51, 12 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia / Wikipedia Slide Deck Overview Question

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I am planning to do a presentation to my team based on what I learned and experienced at Wikimedia 2017, and while I have a lot of my own notes to process, I want to provide an overview to Wikimedia / Wikipedia as part of the introduction. Do you have a basic content slide deck that I can use as a starter with this more standard overview information? I envision others may have similar needs, so thought I would check here about a slide library before creating my own. After all, why not leverage all of our combined efforts and ask / share first! Thank you. FULBERT (talk) 17:25, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]


@FULBERT: Unfortunately I am not aware of a "gold standard" slide deck. On Wikimedia Commons there is Category:Wikimedia presentations, which possibly includes too many presentations. Please let me know if it is helpful. Harej (WMF) (talk) 16:55, 17 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Harej: This is very helpful; had not seen these before. Thanks!! FULBERT (talk) 17:26, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

اين ساجد كتاب تعليم الفوركس يكون مفيد

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سلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

هل ممكن مساعدتي في ايجاد كتاب تعلم الفوركس كي اطور معارفي ويكون فيه بعض الاستراتيجيات وشرحها في انتظاركم''''

Hello Alayoua. Unfortunately, I do not speak Arabic, so I have used Google Translate to understand what you are asking. I believe you are asking for help finding a book to teach you about about Forex; please correct me if this is not accurate. If I understood your question correctly, unfortunately I am not able to provide a reference to a book for you. This page is intended to address questions for and about the Wikimedia Foundation, which supports (among others) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
We provide articles about many subjects on our websites, and it's possible that your question was intended for another organization, company or institution you read about on one of our projects. This might have been an organization that we have an article on, or one that is advertising through a website that copies our content. We have no connections with the organizations that are written about in Wikimedia projects, however, and are thus unable to answer questions intended for them. You may wish to use a search engine or other resource to locate the appropriate contact address. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Below, I am translating this message into Arabic using Google Translate. I am sorry for any errors or difficulty it introduces! Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 16:34, 15 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]
مرحبا Alayoua. للأسف، أنا لا أتكلم العربية، لذلك لقد استخدمت جوجل ترجمة لفهم ما كنت تسأل. أعتقد أنك تطلب المساعدة في العثور على كتاب ليعلمك عن الفوركس. يرجى تصحيح لي إذا لم تكن دقيقة. إذا فهمت سؤالك بشكل صحيح، للأسف أنا لست قادرا على تقديم إشارة إلى كتاب لك. وتهدف هذه الصفحة إلى معالجة أسئلة حول مؤسسة ويكيميديا وحولها، والتي تدعم (من بين أمور أخرى) ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة. نحن نقدم مقالات حول العديد من المواضيع على مواقعنا، ومن الممكن أن سؤالك كان موجها لمؤسسة أخرى أو شركة أو مؤسسة تقرأ عنها عن أحد مشاريعنا. قد يكون هذا منظمة لدينا مقالة عن، أو التي يتم الإعلان من خلال موقع على شبكة الانترنت التي نسخ المحتوى لدينا. ليس لدينا أي ارتباط مع المنظمات التي كتبت في مشاريع ويكيميديا، ومع ذلك، وبالتالي فهي غير قادرة على الإجابة على الأسئلة المخصصة لهم. قد ترغب في استخدام محرك بحث أو مورد آخر لتحديد موقع عنوان الاتصال المناسب. نعتذر عن أي إزعاج قد سببه لك هذا الأمر. Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 16:34, 15 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Please add a field in the form for the URL

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Please add a new field in the form used to add resources for adding a URL link to the resource, its very unclear how to do this in the current form, there is no preview and editing the entry afterwards on that big page with all the warnings is kind of scary. Thanks.

John Cummings (talk) 12:45, 9 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi John Cummings! I'm not sure off the top of my head who is maintaining the form fields, but I will ask around and see if I can find out and pass your request on to them. Thanks for pointing this out! Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 14:55, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Kbrown (WMF), the form is created in FormWizard if that helps, I think that James Hare created it? John Cummings (talk) 15:35, 12 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

An addition I'd like to make

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I'm interested in bringing together something either within or parallel to the Wikimedia Resource Center, but targeted users/readers rather than contributors. Content I'd want to link would include (but not be limited to):

Some of that content may be due for a rewrite; it hasn't been revisited in a long time, and I have not recently done a close review of it.

Thoughts? In particular, could we add this to the same Wikimedia Resource Center, or do you think it belongs elsewhere, and if so where?

(Please ping me when responding, I don't maintain a watchlist on Meta.)

Jmabel (talk) 05:52, 11 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

p.s. I initially tried contacting James Hare about this, but it's been 8 days without a response, so I figured I'd ask here. - Jmabel (talk) 05:54, 11 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Jmabel: Thanks for the suggestion-- creating a section directed toward readers is an interesting idea. I think the Wikimedia Resource Center was originally conceived to be targeted at folks who are contributing to our projects, so a section on readers seems a little out of place, so it might need another home if it were to be created. I'm not sure where that might be at the moment, but I'll take a look around Meta and other projects to see what's been made already. In terms what might be included, my first impression is that a lot of what would be included is very project specific (e.g. "What is wikibooks?") or partially so (editorial policies and how they are implemented), and it may be better to develop this kind of guidance for readers on local projects rather than a centralized place. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:54, 11 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]


2601:205:4100:D358:A1E7:84EE:D502:582E's question: John Lear

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Curious,

Why is Bill Lear searchable on Wikipedia and not John Lear?

2601:205:4100:D358:A1E7:84EE:D502:582E 19:27, 5 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello 2601:205:4100:D358:A1E7:84EE:D502:582E. The Wikimedia Foundation does not create or curate the contents on Wikipedia or the other sites we manage, or create the policies that govern what material is published on them; instead, this work is done by a vast community of volunteers. Anyone and everyone is invited to join. That means that if you find an area where the community has not already written an article on a topic, you are welcome to do so! You can find more information about how to contribute here. Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 18:49, 10 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Just A Regular New Yorker's question: Account deletion

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I have had a global account for a while that I am looking to delete. Is there anyway to do this?

J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 17:58, 10 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi New Yorker. Unfortunately, the software on which Wikimedia projects currently operate does not permit deletion of accounts. However, it does not hurt anything to leave accounts unused; you may simply stop using the account.

If for some reason you wish to remove your userpage, most wikis have a template you can use to request a page you created be deleted (it looks like this is Wikiquote's page on the topic), and one of the community's volunteer administrators will delete the page.

Otherwise, all you have to do is stop logging into the account. I hope this answers your question, and I am sorry to hear that you have decided to stop contributing to Wikipedia. If you wish to return, you may simply begin using the account again.

Hope this info helps! Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 18:49, 10 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion request by subject of article

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Hello. I'm an administrator from the Frisian Wikipedia (fywiki). We have been asked to delete the article on artist fy:Geeske van de Molengraft by someone using the user name Geesmolen, suggesting this is the artist herself. Geesmolen visited our Wikipedia for the first time on January 11th 2018 and blanked the entire page about Geeske van de Molengraft. No explanation was offered, and when one of our administrators asked for such an explanation, this request was ignored. We restored the article. Today (August 22nd) Geesmolen reappeared and again blanked the entire page about Geeske van de Molengraft, this time adding the comment "Please delete the Geeske van de Molengraft item with all its links and images from the Frisian Wikipedia." Again no further explanation was given.

We have a couple of issues with this. First of all, we can't know for sure who this Geesmolen is; it could very well be some troll and not Geeske van de Molengraft herself at all. But more importantly, do we want to have the subjects themselves determine whether or not we write articles about them? As the Frisian Wikipedia is one of the smaller Wikipedias, we have never encountered a problem like this. Does Wikimedia have guidelines for this sort of thing? Ieneach fan 'e Esk (talk) 19:41, 22 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Ieneach fan 'e Esk (talk · contribs), and thank you for your question. Each Wikipedia has its own policies about exactly how article subjects may and may not interact with the project, and about how such article subjects can verify their identity if necessary, so there's not a lot of specific guidance I can give you, but I do want to point you to the Wikimedia Foundation Board's "Resolution on Biographies of living people", which functions as a high-level global policy for all Wikimedia projects. That resolution states:

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees urges the global Wikimedia community to uphold and strengthen our commitment to high-quality, accurate information, by:

  1. Ensuring that projects in all languages that describe living people have policies in place calling for special attention to the principles of neutrality and verifiability in those articles;
  2. Taking human dignity and respect for personal privacy into account when adding or removing information, especially in articles of ephemeral or marginal interest;
  3. Investigating new technical mechanisms to assess edits, particularly when they affect living people, and to better enable readers to report problems;
  4. Treating any person who has a complaint about how they are described in our projects with patience, kindness, and respect, and encouraging others to do the same.
So there is an expectation that Wikipedia community governance will take the potential real-life effects Wikipedia content can have on article subjects into account when creating and applying policies in relation to articles about living people. How exactly that is applied is something your community can - and should - determine for itself in terms of your local policies and standards.
I hope this information is helpful to you! Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 14:57, 10 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Kbrown (WMF): Yes. Thank you for taking the trouble to compose such a comprehensive answer. Ieneach fan 'e Esk (talk) 22:39, 10 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jazzaking's question

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i got blocked for VOA on wikivoyage but i never vandalised anything please help get me unblocked? Jazzaking (talk) 03:52, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jazzaking (talk) 03:52, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]



John Cline's question

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If an admin is available, I need a little help. The admin who answered my G6 deletion request seems to have missed reading the comment I included with the request, and they are no longer available to follow up on it. It involves this request: Community Wishlist Survey 2019/Miscellaneous/A special NavBar for Special:ExpandTemplates. I'll settle for having the page and its history userfied to me. Thanks.John Cline (talk) 06:58, 31 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Situation resolved. Thanks.

John Cline (talk) 06:58, 31 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]


KASTRA28's question

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Are translations and Editing paid to Contributors of Wikipedia? KASTRA28 (talk) 22:11, 16 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello KASTRA28. I think you are asking if Wikipedia pays translators and editors who contribute to it? If so, the answer is no, Wikipedia content is created and administered by unpaid volunteer editors from all over the world. There are some situations where a Wikimedian is compensated for editing one of our projects by a gallery, library, archive, or museum that wishes to get certain types of cultural content into a place where the public can access it; these positions are referred to as Wikimedians in Residence. These editors are not paid by Wikipedia, however. Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 13:49, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I want to pursue a career in information technology?

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I want to pursue a career in information technology, but... im only 12. Are there anythings i should know before i have a strong mindset on it? What can i do to make sure i have a good shot at being one? How much do they usually make an hour or a month? Thanks in advance for those who answer it means alot. (:

Hello @Techhikers:! I'm happy to hear that you're so interested in information technology. I'm sorry that I can't provide specific answers to your questions, but I would recommend using your preferred search engine to look up things like "average salary information technology [your country name]", "requirements university majors information technology", but keep in mind that your interests may change as you get older and that you'll probably have a better idea of what you want to do in the future. Best of luck! ELappen (WMF) (talk) 23:46, 21 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Outil WMFLabs

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Bonjour,

En pleine préparation du w:fr:WP:Mois africain Wikipédia, il me faudrait un outil dérivé de celui du mois asiatique. Pourrait-on faire cela avant le 25 avril je dirais (l'événement commence le 1er mai).

Merci & Cordialement, Aabbccddeeffabcdef (talk), le 16:59, 8 April 2019 (UTC).[reply]

Aabbccddeeffabcdef (talk) 16:59, 8 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Aabbccddeeffabcdef, apologies for responding in English but unfortunately I do not speak French. Thanks for your question. I am not sure which tool you are asking about. I looked at the Asian Month wikipages, and some of them link to toolforge:fountain. If that's the tool you're asking about, then you should contact the developer directly for assistance - their username is linked at the bottom of the tool. If you're asking about a different tool, feel free to respond specifying. ELappen (WMF) (talk) 18:02, 8 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]