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The Signpost: 27 February 2017

Your BRFA

Your BRFA, Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Pi bot has been approved - this is limited to bot/operator user space at low volumes. — xaosflux Talk 01:53, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

This Month in Education: [February 2017]

This Month in Education

Volume 6 | Issue 1 | February 2017

This monthly newsletter showcases the Wikipedia Education Program. It focuses on sharing: your ideas, stories, success and challenges. Be sure to check out the full version, and past editions. You can also volunteer to help publish the newsletter. Join the team!

In This Issue


Featured Topic


Newsletter update

Common Challenges: Time is not an unlimited resource



From the Community

Medical Students' contributions reach 200 articles in innovative elective course at Tel Aviv University

Wikilesa: working with university students on human rights

An auspicious beginning at university in Basque Country

The Wikipedia Education Program kicks off in Finland

The Brief Story of Mrgavan WikiClub

Citizen Science and biodiversity in school projects on Wikispecies, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons


From the Education Team

WMF Education Program to be featured at the Asian Conference for Technology in the Classroom

Opportunities to grow in Oman

An invitation to participate in the "Hundred Words" campaign!

Education Collab updates membership criteria


In the News

Students Can Learn By Writing For Wikipedia

Online communities are supercharging people's careers

Using open source to empower students in Tanzania

Signpost Special Issue: Wikipedia in Education


We hope you enjoy this issue of the Education Newsletter.-- Sailesh Patnaik using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:54, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2017).

Administrator changes

AmortiasDeckillerBU Rob13
RonnotelIslanderChamal NIsomorphicKeeper76Lord VoldemortSherethBdeshamPjacobi

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • A recent query shows that only 16% of administrators on the English Wikipedia have enabled two-factor authentication. If you haven't already enabled it please consider doing so.
  • Cookie blocks should be deployed to the English Wikipedia soon. This will extend the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user after they switch accounts under a new IP.
  • A bot will now automatically place a protection template on protected pages when admins forget to do so.

DYK for Church of the Ascension, Lower Broughton

On 3 March 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Church of the Ascension, Lower Broughton, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the Church of the Ascension, Lower Broughton, was built in 1869 and was recently restored, only for its roof and interior to be destroyed by fire in February 2017? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Church of the Ascension, Lower Broughton. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Church of the Ascension, Lower Broughton), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Mifter (talk) 12:02, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #250

DYK for Viaduto do Chá

On 8 March 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Viaduto do Chá, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Viaduto do Chá, São Paulo's first viaduct, was originally constructed from German iron before being replaced by a concrete span? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Viaduto do Chá. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Viaduto do Chá), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Mifter (talk) 12:02, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM: February 2017





Headlines
Read this edition in fullSingle-page

To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

DYK for Snugburys

On 11 March 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Snugburys, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Snugburys, a British ice cream manufacturer, has constructed a series of large sculptures made of steel-reinforced straw, including one of the Lovell Telescope (pictured)? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Snugburys. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Snugburys), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Mifter (talk) 12:01, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

DYK for Villa-Lobos State Park

On 11 March 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Villa-Lobos State Park, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Villa-Lobos State Park in São Paulo, named after composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, was created on the site of a landfill in 1989 and now has around 37,000 trees? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Villa-Lobos State Park. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Villa-Lobos State Park), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Mifter (talk) 12:02, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #251

Template:Observatory

I was trying to figure out how to correct the Italian description that shows up in the top infobox for Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex and discovered that to do so one has to edit a Wikidata entry. One of my pet complaints about Wikipedia is that the template editing process is so code-oriented and persnickety about sometimes-inconsistent syntax that it intimidates many editors. Outsourcing the entry to Wikidata compounds this rather than corrects this: nobody who's not very determined will take the time to figure out how to make a simple correction of this kind if they're sent to a separate project with its own editing context. I'm hardly unskilled and I find it fussy. How would an editor of less than ten years' standing understand this? Is there a better, more transparent way? It seems like ease of editing is being sacrificed for the benefit of Wikidata. Acroterion (talk) 15:59, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

@Acroterion: On the Goldstone article, it looks like that's a bug in the code that's being used - @RexxS:, can you have a look? It seems that the media legend is present on Wikidata in Italian, but not English, so we shouldn't be showing one here.
On the ease of editing point: I actually started Wikidata-ifying infoboxes so that it becomes easier to edit articles - when you start editing an article, you're immediately presented with a lot of wikitext that makes the infobox rather than the content of the page, and I think most people will want to edit that text rather than the infobox contents. Then if you do want to edit the infobox, then you can do so using a nicer(-ish) interface on Wikidata. There is of course also the visual editor, and ideally it should be possible to edit the Wikidata information directly in there, but that support isn't in there yet. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:56, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
Sorry Mike, I didn't write the function claim() that you're using in Template:Infobox observatory:
caption2 = {{{caption|{{#invoke:Wikidata|claim|P18|qualifier=P2096|FETCH_WIKIDATA}}}}}
It isn't language aware as far as I can tell, so I'm not surprised that it returns the first thing it finds. If you had used the function I wrote, getImageLegend(), you'd get the results you were looking for:
{{#invoke:Wikidata |getImageLegend | FETCH_WIKIDATA | lang=en |id=Q618630}} → The 70m antenna at Goldstone
{{#invoke:Wikidata |getImageLegend | FETCH_WIKIDATA | lang=it |id=Q618630}} → L'antenna di 70 m di diametro presente nell'Osservatorio Goldstone
{{#invoke:Wikidata |getImageLegend | FETCH_WIKIDATA |id=Q618630}} → The 70m antenna at Goldstone
The last one reads the local wiki's language code and should normally be the one used in infoboxes.
Nevertheless, I'd still recommend adding an English media legend (P2096) to Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex (Q618630) and whenever you find it missing. HTH --RexxS (talk) 22:30, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
Aah, thanks @RexxS - I should have checked that the template was using the latest code first! I've changed it in the infobox code, and it's now working properly in the article. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 22:40, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
Thanks (both of you) for looking into this and fixing it. On the ease of use angle, I remain unconvinced. Obviously I have objections to Wikipedia's template format, so in principle I'm on board with circumventing that, and I agree that new users confronted with masses of curly and square brackets, pipes and dashes right at the beginning of an article are likely to give up. But I'm not convinced that sending them off to a different URL on another project and giving them yet another interface to figure out is a good thing. The arm's-length nature of Wikidata with respect to references and data fields seems awkward to me.
I admit I'm not a fan of Wikidata in its present form. It has great potential for stealthy BLP violations and outright vandalism that's not quickly findable or fixable with reverberations across multiple projects. I've seen a few (minor) cases of BLP violations via Wikidata that would be immediately rejected as unsourced or opinion if they'd occurred on WP. We've all gone on template and image vandalism hunts and had to flag down admins on other projects to fix some of them. With this format it's possible to have admins on Wikipedia, Commons and Wikidata chasing vandals at the same time. Vandalism aside, referencing should be tightly-bound and transparent, and it's hard to do that on another screen on another site.
On the other hand, I like the reference field hints on WD and the interface shows promise. Given the WMF's abysmal record with user experience improvements I don't know how this might be incorporated into the main projects. <end rant> Thanks for your help! Acroterion (talk) 23:35, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

DYK for São Vicente Suspension Bridge

On 17 March 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article São Vicente Suspension Bridge, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the São Vicente Suspension Bridge (pictured), constructed 1911–1914, was one of the first suspension bridges in Brazil, and was originally conceived to carry a sewage pipeline? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/São Vicente Suspension Bridge. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, São Vicente Suspension Bridge), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Maile (talk) 00:02, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Peter Coles, you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages Wiley and John Barrow. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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Weekly Summary #252

A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
<grin> there should be a barnstar for good use of Wikidata information </grin>

Thanks GerardM (talk) 13:59, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Gerard! Mike Peel (talk) 08:40, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #253

Administrators' newsletter – April 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2017).

Administrator changes

added TheDJ
removed XnualaCJOldelpasoBerean HunterJimbo WalesAndrew cKaranacsModemacScott

Guideline and policy news

  • Following a discussion on the backlog of unpatrolled files, consensus was found to create a new user right for autopatrolling file uploads. Implementation progress can be tracked on Phabricator.
  • The BLPPROD grandfather clause, which stated that unreferenced biographies of living persons were only eligible for proposed deletion if they were created after March 18, 2010, has been removed following an RfC.
  • An RfC has closed with consensus to allow proposed deletion of files. The implementation process is ongoing.
  • After an unsuccessful proposal to automatically grant IP block exemption, consensus was found to relax the criteria for granting the user right from needing it to wanting it.

Technical news

  • After a recent RfC, moved pages will soon be featured in a queue similar to Special:NewPagesFeed and require patrolling. Moves by administrators, page movers, and autopatrolled editors will be automatically marked as patrolled.
  • Cookie blocks have been deployed. This extends the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user if they switch accounts, even under a new IP.

This Month in Education: [March 2017]

This Month in Education

Volume 6 | Issue 2 |March 2017

This monthly newsletter showcases the Wikipedia Education Program. It focuses on sharing: your ideas, stories, success and challenges. Be sure to check out the full version, and past editions. You can also volunteer to help publish the newsletter. Join the team!

In This Issue


Featured Topic Newsletter update

Overview on Wikipedia Education Program 2016 in Taiwan


From the Community

High School and Collegiate Students Enhance Waray Wikipedia during Edit-a-thons

Approaching History students as pilot of Education program in Iran

An experience with middle school students in Ankara

Wikishtetl: Commemorating Jewish communities that perished in the Holocaust


From the Education Team

UCSF Students Visit WMF Office as they start their Wikipedia editing journey

Meet the team


In the News

Från dammiga arkiv till artiklar på nätet


If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, update your subscription.

The new issue of the newsletter is out! Thanks to everyone who submitted stories and helped with the publication. We hope you enjoy this issue of the Education Newsletter.-- Sailesh Patnaik using Saileshpat (talk) 19:07, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #254

Pi bot

Just letting you know that FloNight contacted Functionaries list re the bot being IP-blocked. I've granted it IPBE here on enwiki, but you might want to ask for it globally or at least on Meta as well. Thanks for creating and operating the bot. Risker (talk) 00:16, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

That's great, thanks @Risker and @FloNight! Mike Peel (talk) 11:34, 8 April 2017 (UTC)