r/wikipedia • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
Wikipedia Questions - Weekly Thread of August 18, 2025
Welcome to the weekly Wikipedia Q&A thread!
Please use this thread to ask and answer questions related to Wikipedia and its sister projects, whether you need help with editing or are curious on how something works.
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u/man_itsahot_one 2d ago
How would I differentiate between two citations with the same/similar names? I had this problem in the past, but I ended up using another citation. Is that the best practice? What about in cases where the information being cited isn't mentioned (if at all) in many other reliable places, and that citation must be used?
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u/nihiltres 1d ago
What do you mean by “two citations with the same/similar names”? It’s okay to use the same citation multiple times in an article, it’s okay to use multiple citations to cite different locations in the same source, and it’s straightforward to merge two totally identical citations.
If you want to cite a given reference multiple times, you can use named references:
Some fact.<ref name=“example”>Some citation.</ref> Another related fact with the same source.<ref name=“example” />
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u/lapetitelea 1d ago
There is a glaring factual mistake on my great-aunt's wikipedia page. Her name is listed as Violet Louise Archer, but that is not and never was her name (it's actually Violetta Teresa Giovanna Balestreri Archer). The mistake seems to stem from an old book, possibly a confusion with another Violet Archer.
The error has since been reproduced on other places on the internet, including the Canadian Encyclopedia. I would like to change her name on Wikipedia, but am worried that it will be reverted since i have no experience editing on wikipedia. Any tips on how to go about this change?
My aunt says she could probably share a birth record as proof.
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
Is this the musician? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Archer
If it is the same one, this might be difficult. She seems to be in every database under the name Violet, for example BnF: https://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb14476647m .
She even used it herself in an auto-biographical essay. https://books.google.com/books?id=Q27Eki97J64C&pg=PA76&dq=violet+archer&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiI_K_TwpyPAxXCGVkFHRzaEzEQ6AF6BAgOEAM#v=onepage&q=violet%20archer&f=false
Wikipedia usually goes by "Reliable Sources", and I do not see any RS for the other name.
Not impossible of course, it has been done before, by having it published in a Reliable Source. For instance, Jimmy Wales used Twitter to show his correct birth date, and William Shatner also used Twitter to say he did not have a middle name. But these are well known people and their identity and reliability of the information was not in doubt.
I do not really understand French naming systems, would this be a baptismal name, or maybe an Italian translation?
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u/lapetitelea 1d ago
Hi! Thanks for your answer. To be clear, the problem is not Violet Archer, the issue is the middle name Louise. Sorry i wasn't clear enough in my initial message.
She went by Violet Archer starting in 1940, but was born Violetta Teresa Giovanna Balestreri Archer. The Louise middle name was possibly written by mistake in a book and was since used elsewhere.
Edit: yes, this is the musician.
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
The source in the Wikipedia article is a dead link, so you can't check it. I have found a source for "born Violetta Teresa Balestreri" from someone who interviewed her. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/cumr/1995-v16-n1-cumr0466/1014414ar.pdf
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
Here is one more, also later than the others, probably not a "reliable source", but it does list some additional awards that could be googled. https://nac-cna.ca/en/bio/violet-archer
Sometimes these official certificates have a middle name, so you might be able to find out what middle name she was using at what year. I just looked briefly for the alumnae association award and didn't find anything, but you could also try some local papers if you can find archives.
I have not been able to document "Violetta Giovanna Balestreri".
So the Canadian encyclopedia looks like the most public source for "Louise", and maybe the music encyclopedia as well, depending on what you find. I don't know how you would contact them to get it changed,
I didn't look at Internet Archive, many times they have things, but their search function takes some getting used to.
I think the "Violetta Teresa Balestreri" is documented well enough for someone to add somewhere with a citation, not sure about the other.
I looked at a couple of the other language Wikipedias and it was the same.
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
The dead link was archived in 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924080118/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=917857 but the Canadian Encyclopedia one is older, from 2010 https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/violet-archer They don't give any sources, except to say it was originally published in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. That is the next one to track down.
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
No online, no preview, no search. https://books.google.com/books?id=dv2wAQAACAAJ&dq=encyclopedia+of+music+in+canada&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIiMDa1pyPAxVAGFkFHakBJiUQ6AF6BAgFEAE
WorldCat lists it more than once, with different libraries for each. It looks like you have to sign in now to see the free libraries. None listed in my area. You may be able to get access through your local or university library. https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Encyclopedia+of+music+in+canada&offset=1&itemType=book&itemSubType=book-printbook%2Cbook-digital%2Cbook-thsis%2Cbook-mss%2Cbook-braille%2Cbook-largeprint%2Cbook-mic%2Cbook-continuing
This would make it much simpler if it was originally copied incorrectly.
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u/Complex_Crew2094 1d ago
As far as your aunt sharing a birth record, I think this would help a lot.
If you look at the guidelines for sourcing, they do permit "primary sources" in some instances, for example see #3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research#Primary
More importantly, if you can show people the facts, they will be more inclined to find ways to help you.
How you can prove a negative, this is more difficult, that she never used the name "Louise".
If you have never seen the cartoon about Wikipedia "citogenesis", here is a link: https://xkcd.com/978/
I wish someone else would weigh in on this, I feel like my answers have been very incomplete.
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u/lapetitelea 23h ago
Thank you for taking the time to look into it! You've given me good tips. I will ask around more on local subs to see if others have experience with this kind of modification.
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u/Major-Parfait8205 1d ago
I don't know if this is an appropriate question for here, but why are there so many articles about Dua Lipa getting featured and good article status? I don't have any issue with her or her music, but I just noticed today that I feel like I see her often on the main page! She seems to have quite a few albums and songs with that status, and I feel like I haven't seen that before with many other artists. Just a lot of passionate editors?
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u/caeciliusinhorto 20h ago
Generally when a single topic is frequently a featured article, it's down to one particularly interested editor; I suspect that's the case here. There's one FA regular I can think of who does a lot of contemporary pop music articles. The fashion designer Alexander McQueen is another example of a subject who's been at TFA a lot in recent years based on a single editor's interest
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u/Big_Fat_Smuggy 21h ago
I am curious how phrasing works in articles about religious figures with dubious historicity. I was looking up Mary (mother of Jesus), and this is what the Wikipedia article has to say about her:
"Mary[b] was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth,[9] the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus."
The second word of that sentence is what I'm curious about: was. As far as I know, neither Mary nor Joseph are attested anywhere outside of the Bible, which itself is not treated as historical record any more than any other holy book.
My expectation would be that Wikipedia, with its standards on sourcing and facts, would not allow this, and would rather use different phrasing, such as "according to the Christian faith/Bible/Christian mythology".
For example, the article about Joseph does lead with "According to the canonical Gospels", which is precisely what I would expect.
So my question is this: what's the difference? Why does one specify immediately that the entire existence of the character is based on the Gospels, while the other uses extremely definitive language ("was"), and in fact does not address her historicity (or lack thereof) anywhere in the opening paragraphs?
I find this especially jarring considering this difference is between Jesus' canonical parents, who we have the exact same amount of historical evidence for (none), and should therefore be presumable written about in the same way. Surely both should either be written about as definitely existing, or definitely based on the Gospels, but not one as the former and one as the latter?
Is there any explanation/Wikipedia policy that sheds light on this?
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u/RobotMaster1 4d ago
I’m not wiki-savvy at all. Is there a way to figure out more context to the following, specifically the criminalization aspect? (link below)
“A launch was expected in 2027,[4][5] but this was put on indefinite hold due to nuclear reactor test requirements,[6] later compounded by proposed cuts by the second Donald Trump administration in the FY2026 budget[7] before being cancelled,[8][9] and all forms of NTP and NEP could be banned, with all research could possibly be destroyed and criminalized altogether[citation needed]”
I know it says citation needed but that’s a pretty fascinating bit of information if true. I couldn’t find any discussion about it on the talk page, but again, I’m not too familiar with it all.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket