Wikipedia:Help desk#Celebrity impersonators

Starting from around July-September 2025, a nationwide merge and changing of hierarchy of literally every single administrative division would be underway in Vietnam; such as shrinking the province count from 54 to 34, etc.

Has enwiki reached a consensus regarding what it should do about the articles about administrative divisions here? There's an ongoing discussion over at vi.wiki here, you guys can read them for reference tynjee 18:46, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

:This has been briefly discussed at WikiProject Vietnam here. Pickersgill-Cunliffe (talk) 18:48, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Hi all

Some images taken in France are being discussed for deletion here because there is no freedom of panorama in France. I understand from this template that these images would be allowed on Wikipedia. Please could someone tell me if there's a tool or process to copy them across?

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 09:13, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

:I asked the same thing on WP:VPT recently and was directed to https://wikifile-transfer.toolforge.org/ - however, every time I try using it, including just now, I get an "error 500" (which I have reported on its GitHub page, with no response as yet). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:39, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

What should I do if I see a problematic user ({{np2|Ultra 348}}) who has repeated final warnings on their talk page and has been brought to ANI before (though the thread became stale) continue to not use edit summaries and other problematic behavior for which they have already been warned multiple times? Since I have never been directly involved with the user, I don't think that bringing up another ANI discussion would be appropriate, especially as I have never been there before. I'm also not sure I want to put in the effort to find all the diffs for their problematic behavior, which stretches back to 2023. If there is a better venue to bring this up, please point me in the right direction. Thanks, it's lio! | talk | work 11:00, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

:You could notify User:Magnolia677 (as I do, here), who issued the last warning on the user's talk page. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:35, 3 May 2025 (UTC)

{{courtesy link|Wikipedia:Gender}}

Hi. I made a new shortcut for the wikiproject gender studies. Could it please be reviewed? DarknessGoth777 (talk) 07:11, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

:Shortcuts are usually reviewed relatively quickly, also there is a WP:NPP backlog drive this month. In case a reviewer sees this, I have added a link.

:I am not sure this redirect is a good idea as it seems ambiguous and the project is marked as inactive. TSventon (talk) 07:29, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

:You repurposed an existing redirect. While that may be good thing, please update the existing uses of it, which were clearly meant to point to the old target. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:18, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Hello all,

I created the article Godwin Ubaka Okeke and It was recently marked for speedy deletion. My question here is... can I rewrite the article or will that cause my harm. Akwugo (talk) 11:54, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

:@Akwugo According to the discussion on your talk page, the issue is the copyright of the text you copied into your draft. I suggest you continue to discuss the issue on your talk page unless more general questions arise. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:22, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

Might be an obvious answer, but is there any sort of category for works about Asian Australians? Sarsenet•he/they•(talk) 05:49, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:Not according to :Category:Works by nationality, but I'm also not readily seeing that any of the categories listed there combine multiple nationalities, which doesn't even account for the fact that "Asian" isn't a nationality. I think I'd have to advise against creating such a category, though you might ask at WT:CAT. DonIago (talk) 06:29, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:For naturalised or other migrants, see categories like :Category:Chinese emigrants to Australia; for anyone else, categories like :Category:Australian people of Chinese descent. Note also :Category:Australian people of Asian descent and its regional subcategories, if the country of origin is not known precisely. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:51, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

How can i make new portal? Whatback11 (talk) 09:13, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:Which new portal do you want to create? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:44, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::I want to make Draft:Portal:Politics of South Korea. Whatback11 (talk) 11:08, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Could someone tell me what the arrow symbol below at the right means when Wikipedia places it at the beginning of a line in an article we're editing? I've seen it several times off and on now, and although I seem to be able to delete it I'd like to know why it comes.

File:Downward-leftward arrow symbol.png

Augnablik (talk) 10:22, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:Hi Augnablik - I've never seen it in one of our articles, are you using the mobile or desktop version? - I assume it is a carriage return (enter) symbol, that has been copy-pasted in from another application. We used to get lots of obj in a dotted rectangles, from a similar problem. - Arjayay (talk) 10:46, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::As far as I recall, @Arjayay, it’s come just on my computer. Can’t swear to that, though.

::I too thought of a carriage return — even though laptops no longer have carriages! — but considering each case, I couldn’t imagine why the symbol would be placed there.

::If you’ve never seen the symbol, then it would seem it came because of my computer, or even my browser. Augnablik (talk) 11:20, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:::Hi Augnablik, if you go back in one of the affected pages' history, and re-open the version you saw it on, is it still there? If so, you could try opening it on another device, which would determine if it is your computer/browser. If it is "reproducible" then you could ask at WP:VPT, where the "techs" hang out. - Best wishes - Arjayay (talk) 12:06, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::::Arjayay, I went back as you suggested and checked a lot of earlier versions of the article in which I think I saw one of those symbols most recently — but no luck. I remember that I often deleted the symbol when I'd see it, though.

::::I’ll keep a lookout to see if it will pop up again soon so I can bring it for your inspection. Augnablik (talk) 13:35, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:::::In one of my sandboxes today, that mysterious arrow I mentioned that sometimes appears to the left of a sentence beginning a new paragraph popped up several times on my work. Whenever I saw one, I copied it along with a line of text to show you here ... but then when I tried to paste it, the arrow disappeared.

:::::I might mention that the arrow often disappears on its own from the original on my computer even without me deleting it.

:::::Maybe the issue really does have something to do with my computer, as I haven't seen the arrow in text on on my phone. On the other hand, I hardly ever use my phone for Wiki editing. Augnablik (talk) 11:14, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

{{outdent|::::::}}{{Ping|Augnablik}} I might know what you are encountering. Are you using the visual editor? If so, these arrows (carriage returns) indicate single line breaks. Double line breaks create a new paragraph, but single line breaks may be used variously to break up the appearance of the text in the source/code editor and are common after the end of inline references/footnotes. Since you can't see them otherwise in the visual editor, they appear as this arrow. The following text would produce one of these arrows after the : Some people format their references with a lot of line breaks to make them easier to parse.{{Cite book

|first=John

|last=Doe

|date=2024

|title=Elements of Style

}}

The next sentence will appear to follow the one before the footnote to a reader, even though there are line breaks in the code. -- Reconrabbit 14:30, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:Yes, @Reconrabbit, I use the VE. Now you’ve confirmed what @Arjayay also thought the arrow meant. I do wonder why it happens sometimes but not others, though, because I always press Return (Enter) once to start a new paragraph.

:I thought my question might end up unsolved like another one I’ve had a long time, more frustrating because it involves a cursor jumping up to the line above and to the left on my computer when I’m trying to type a capital letter or certain kinds of punctuation … only when I’m in Wikipedia and while I’m typing messages. No one at the Village Pump seems to know what that’s all about! Augnablik (talk) 15:53, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

::I can only guess as to the source of your second problem. Maybe when you press the shift key, something interprets this as pressing the arrow keys or the "Home"/"Page Up" keys. -- Reconrabbit 16:26, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

The bot is dumping everything into archive 1, which is fairly massive by now. Anyone up to fixing this, and perhaps "spread it out" properly? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 06:14, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:The archiving instructions were accidentally reset in 2017. I'll move the 2016-2017 material from archive 1 into a new archive 13 and tell the bot to start archive 14. Archive 13 will be about 200K, which I don't think is too large for an archive page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:04, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

::Thank you! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 07:17, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

Dear Wikipedia Help Desk,

I am submitting this message as the founder of the *Vishwa Shanti Janata Party (VSJP)*, which is the **world’s first fully digital political party**, founded on April 2, 2025. We are officially active across global digital platforms including YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Threads, and Google Sites.

Our political activities are carried out entirely through the internet, making us a precedent in digital democracy. As such, our existence represents a shift in political structure aligned with modern technology and accessibility.

However, due to Wikipedia’s current guidelines, we find difficulty in meeting notability criteria through traditional media references. We respectfully request that Wikipedia acknowledges this **global digital transformation** and consider updating editorial inclusion for new-age political movements like VSJP.

All documents are publicly available and have been submitted to:

• UNESCO
• WIPO
• UN OHCHR
• Election Commission of India

We kindly ask for editorial review support or alternative recognition guidance.

Thank you for your time and understanding.

-- Aaryan Narasimhan Radhakrishnan Founder & International Leader – Vishwa Shanti Janata Party

Chief Ambassador of World Peace | Digital Father of the World Website: https://www.vsjp.org Aaryan Narasimhan R (talk) 08:16, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:Hello, {{u|Aaryan Narasimhan R}}. From the point of view of Wikipedia, we do not care what you and your political party says about itself. We care only about what reliable published sources entirely independent of your political party say about it. There are no special carve-outs for organizations that operate only digitally. Your party must meet Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies) to be eligible for a Wikipedia article. Cullen328 (talk) 08:51, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

I WP:COPYWITHINed and spiced things up a bit to create a Classic rail in China article. May someone please help me expand it? Thanks! Félix An (talk) 08:35, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:This is a place to get help with technical and practical matters around editing. For subject-related assistance, try the relevant Wikiproject, in this case at WT:WikiProject Trains and/or WT:WikiProject China. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:18, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

A new editor has made a couple of attempts to lodge a semi-protected edit request (most recently [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Robert_Burns&diff=prev&oldid=1289122408 here]) but it corrupts the display of the talk page in question, blanking a large section and failing to display their own post. I suspect it is connected with their inclusion of refs in the request and it won't corrupt and will display if these are removed. Is there a way for them to make the request with refs included or should they simply be omitted? Mutt Lunker (talk) 11:37, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:@Mutt Lunker Posts on talk pages can certainly include references. If done with tags, then the addition of a {{T|talkref}} template (not indented) at the foot of the section will format things correctly. It would help the other editor if you could restore their edit with that template included. Mike Turnbull (talk) 12:55, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

::There was a non-balanced tag in a section from over 5 years ago. I fixed it.[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Robert_Burns&diff=prev&oldid=1289256327] DMacks (talk) 13:04, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

:::Thanks all. Mutt Lunker (talk) 13:36, 7 May 2025 (UTC)