User talk:Sadads/Archive index/May 2017 - August 2019
Category:English children's novels
[edit]Do you have a strong belief that this category, which you created in 2011, should exist? I am thinking of merging it with the catch-all British children's novels category. Current placement of novels seems pretty random. There are no equivalent Welsh and Scottish categories. --- Robina Fox (talk) 23:18, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
- Hi @Robina Fox: I am actually not very committed the category structure at this point: I have shifted all my effort to Wikidata, because it does most of the things that I wanted the categories to do back in 2011 and more (these intersectional categories of two features of the work: place of origin and genre, are kindof nonsensical for new editors to add to articles, because category structure is very arcane: thus making them almost impossible to maintain for the long run). I am happy to change to folks like you. I hope you aren't migrating the category manually, but using something like AWB/JWB. Sadads (talk) 02:09, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
Rollback
[edit]Thank you for your kind words about me. Since I will never use my rollback privileges, you might as well remove them. Creuzbourg (talk) 03:51, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
Stub sorting
[edit]Please try to stub sort instead of using {{stub}}, which is what you did at Centre for Window and Cladding Technology. Thanks. -- I dream of horses If you reply here, please ping me by adding {{U|I dream of horses}} to your message (talk to me) (My edits) @ 04:50, 17 May 2017 (UTC)
- @I dream of horses: Thanks for the reminder! I have been patrolling a lot of areas that I don't know very well with New Page patrol, and have been using the default stub tag, when I don't have a firm sense of where the stub should go (I know some of the biography and literature stub trees pretty well, but not other content. Sadads (talk) 12:50, 17 May 2017 (UTC)
- The operative word of my request could very well be "try".
-- I dream of horses If you reply here, please ping me by adding {{U|I dream of horses}} to your message (talk to me) (My edits) @ 01:18, 18 May 2017 (UTC)
- The operative word of my request could very well be "try".
Speedy deletion declined: Selfish Age
[edit]Hello Sadads. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Selfish Age, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: A9 cannot be applied if the artist has an article, consider redirecting per WP:ATD-R. Thank you. SoWhy 08:03, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
Hi, I am the article's creator. Thank you for taking time to review it. I would appreciate some guidance to improve the quality as per the hatnote, could you be more specific as to which is passages in particular were concerning for you in respect of OR or lacking sources (there are over 60 already, not including multiple citations), so that I can focus on these and try to get appropriate sources on consider removing the content? At present the notice is too general for me to work out what you're referring to. Thanks. Crowsus (talk) 13:29, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Hi @Crowsus:: the main challenge here, is the number of analytical statements, which as opinions or summary, are not backed by an external source, per WP:Verifiablity. Also, there are a some conclusions that approach WP:Original Research. For a topic about a feud between two different sports teams: this is likely to lead to broad disagreement by people invested in one side of the feud or another. I would recommend moving towards almost every statement having a footnote tying it to an opinion of an external source. Sadads (talk) 13:45, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
On this day, 6 years ago...
[edit]- @Lepricavark: Thank you! I don't use the tools as much as I used to! But, been making an effort to work on more backlog queues recently when I have down time. Sadads (talk) 03:16, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
Admin
[edit]You deleted my request for admin. But everyone deserves a second chance. Some people say I'm a bad editor but I just made some honest mistakes. Please let reverse the request for administration.Kick ass editor (talk) 03:53, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
- Hi @Kick ass editor:: as a new editor, you need to focus on gaining experience in the Wikimedia community before you even consider the need for Admin rights. Please consider starting with something like The Wikipedia Adventure.Sadads (talk) 03:56, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
Editing
[edit]I don't need to do the adventure I am an experienced editor so please give me admin. I got a new tablet and my son plays on Wikipedia so all the mistakes are his mistakes.Kick ass editor (talk) 04:01, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
Hello! I am notifying interested projects and editors that I've listed Abu Eesa Niamatullah for discussion at AfD.
I invite you to contribute to the discussion. Mujaddouda (talk) 21:26, 28 May 2017 (UTC)
We're on Twitter!
[edit]WikiLGBT is on Twitter! | |
---|---|
|
RachelWex 18:51, 3 June 2017 (UTC)
Autopatrolled
[edit]Thanks! --S.Didam (talk) 15:06, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
- Your welcome! Happy to do it! Sadads (talk) 15:24, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
PERM
[edit]Hi. The helper scripts, mostly developed by MusikAnimal are more than just an optional aid. They have become an essential feature of the processing of WP:PERM requests. By using the Assign permissions link, they carry out several important functions which would be tedious to do manually each time, such as according the right to the user's account, automatically notifying the candidates, populating lists and cats.
The scripts cut down the admin load by two thirds, but there is no one around any more to mop up if it is done manually and some functions are left uncompleted. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 22:30, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
- Kudpung is referring to User:MusikAnimal/userRightsManager, which indeed does the 3-step process in a matter of seconds! But the more commonly forgotten task is that when approving at WP:PERM/NPR, we add the user to the mailing list. The script will do this for you as well :) Cheers — MusikAnimal talk 17:07, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
- Acknowledged @Kudpung and MusikAnimal:, Sadads (talk) 18:51, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXIV, June 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:52, 8 June 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for noticing !
[edit]Thanks for noticing my new article, Defeating ISIS ! What do you think of the article? Sagecandor (talk) 00:43, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Sagecandor: Its a fairly well done article, for a newer contributor! However, there are a number of moments in the article, which verge on WP:SYNTH -- evaluating the sources together as saying something. Moreover, there seems to be plenty more room to represent the reception more thoroughly. I hope you keep contributing, and let me know if you need any additional feedback, Sadads (talk) 23:31, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
Thanks giving msg
[edit]Thank you dear Sr wikipedian. You have reviewed few articles which I have created. It is really helpfull and encouraging for me. Keep helping. Thanks again. Pinakpani (talk) 05:52, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Pinakpani: Keep up the good work! I hope that you continue finding good ways to fill gaps and create content on Wikimedia projects! Sadads (talk) 23:27, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
George R. Bidwell
[edit]Hello, Sadads. Thanks for looking at my article. The position of Collector of the Port of New York seems to be enough to confer notability, as there are plenty of other articles about Collectors of the Port of New York. Bidwell's job as a bicycle salesman also gives him some notability. I do understand that this might not be clear in the article, however. I'll try to find something else, too. Alexschmidt711 (talk) 18:09, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Alexschmidt711: I think what is unclear to me is that he has long-lasting importance for a public audience. For example, what significance did he contribute to cycling in the United States? Or why is he an important Collector? Did he do something of note in either of those roles? What about his political activities? Were they significant to me. Reading the lead, and most of the rest of the article, I don't understand why I should care as someone who lives over a hundred years after he did things. Sadads (talk) 23:34, 12 June 2017 (UTC)
Wondering if I could ask you advice on something. Let me know? cOrneLlrOckEy (talk) 01:34, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Cornellrockey: Restored, and added a few references: he appears notable to me. Sadads (talk) 03:55, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks @Sadads: - more broadly, was that a correct use of Speedy Delete? cOrneLlrOckEy (talk) 12:55, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- No: you made a really clear Wikipedia:Credible claim of significance, and if the closing Admin had been reviewing those per the terms of CSD. Moreover, a quick Google search, indicates that there is plenty of indication of notability including book reviews, and rather extensive commentary on his opinion pieces (though perhaps not as much as an ideal longer article), Sadads (talk) 13:18, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Cornellrockey: Fixing a ping. Also, this should have been a PROD or AFD if we thought that claim of significance, didn't meet the threshhold of notability, since the article had been living so long, and there clearly are sources discussing him. Sadads (talk) 13:20, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- ah, makes sense. @Sadads:. Thank you cOrneLlrOckEy (talk) 15:08, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Cornellrockey: Fixing a ping. Also, this should have been a PROD or AFD if we thought that claim of significance, didn't meet the threshhold of notability, since the article had been living so long, and there clearly are sources discussing him. Sadads (talk) 13:20, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- No: you made a really clear Wikipedia:Credible claim of significance, and if the closing Admin had been reviewing those per the terms of CSD. Moreover, a quick Google search, indicates that there is plenty of indication of notability including book reviews, and rather extensive commentary on his opinion pieces (though perhaps not as much as an ideal longer article), Sadads (talk) 13:18, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks @Sadads: - more broadly, was that a correct use of Speedy Delete? cOrneLlrOckEy (talk) 12:55, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Turning down "autopatrol" right
[edit]Thank you for giving me the "autopatrol
" right, and I appreciate the gift. However, I think I must turn it down for now. May you accept my wishes please? I'll ask for a grant at another time. Thanks. --George Ho (talk) 03:40, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @George Ho: I want to clarify, that the right only helps others maintain the New Page Patrol backlog it doesn't actually give you the ability for any additional actions. Can you please confirm that you don't want to help others with the backlog? Sadads (talk) 03:44, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- I appreciate your concerns about the backlog. However, I have a lot in my mind, so I don't think I need one. Also, this year I created redirects and dabs a lot more than I did new articles. There are many others who deserve the right. For me, I'll request one when I want one. But thanks, anyway. --George Ho (talk) 03:49, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- BTW, good work on clearing out the backlog of new pages. --George Ho (talk) 03:50, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @George Ho:
Done you could have kept the right, we patrol redirects and dabs as well: no sense in them not being auto-patrolled, Sadads (talk) 04:08, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- (by talk page stalker) I am all about not carrying rights you don't need. This situation, however, has me wondering if there's just a miscommunication of what "autoreviewer" is or if the Wikipedian in question really wants me to patrol via NPP the pages he makes because he thinks that's better somehow. Chris Troutman (talk) 04:38, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @George Ho:
Thank you both for your concerns. I know that the right would automatically patrol/mark off my new creations, including dabpages and redirects. However, this year I'm refraining myself from obtaining any right for now. As said, I have a lot in my mind, and I've seen changes around me. Therefore, until things remain calmer (to me), I'll remain "rights-less" without worrying about retaining any rights for the whole year, and I might be "rights-less" next year. I apologize for your reactions, but I must sort myself out, reduce my own stress, organize myself, and figure myself out what to do in life. I would obtain the right again someday... but not now and not this year. --George Ho (talk) 05:32, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
- @George Ho: Thanks for the explanation! I hope that everything goes well! I have also had several windows of time where I needed a break. Let me know if there is anything I can do, and will also offer a piece of advice: Wikimedia projects are volunteer time; participation should bring a bit of satisfaction and strong sense of self worth; if you find those feelings lapsing, its okay to take a break, and come back (or not) when you are ready. Your contributions have been very valuable! But wellbeing is just as important! Let me know if we can help, Sadads (talk) 13:40, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Charlie Grant
[edit]Thanks for your help. It's not often I make an article so it's appreciated.
Just for fun, I've never seen this style before "[[Nazi Germany|Nazi]]<nowiki/>s". SlightSmile 15:53, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Deletion of Sumana Roy page
[edit]Hello Sadads, I want to thank you for helping me set up a page on Sumana Roy, an Indian English poet, writer and environmentalist on 6th June, 2017. I now find that someone has deleted the page and all the work I put in is gone. I am a PhD student and there's only so much time I can give to this. It is frustrating. I wanted to do this because it's related to the subject of my PhD. But I don't think I will waste my time on this again. Thank you for your help. Murmurmurmur (talk) 07:34, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
I have unreviewed a page you curated
[edit]Hi, I'm Oluwa2Chainz. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, City University, Malaysia, and have un-reviewed it again. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.
—Oluwa2Chainz »» (talk to me) 00:10, 18 June 2017 (UTC)
- @Oluwa2Chainz: Thanks for reaching out! I hope you get a chance to learn more about contributing to our community. Sadads (talk) 21:23, 19 June 2017 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 22
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 22, April-May 2017
- New and expanded research accounts
- Global branches update
- Spotlight: OCLC Partnership
- Bytes in brief
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:35, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
You've got mail!
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Mail-message-new.svg/40px-Mail-message-new.svg.png)
Message added 17:02, 28 June 2017 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template. at any time by removing the
--Cameron11598 (Talk) 17:02, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXV, July 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 07:34, 4 July 2017 (UTC)
Sunday July 16: New England Wiknic @ Cambridge, MA
[edit]Sunday July 16, 1-5pm: New England Wiknic | |
---|---|
![]() ![]() You are invited to join us the "picnic anyone can edit" at John F. Kennedy Park, near Harvard Square, Cambridge, as part of the Great American Wiknic celebrations being held across the USA. Remember it's a wiki-picnic, which means potluck.
We hope to see you there! --Phoebe (talk) 16:33, 12 July 2017 (UTC) |
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for Boston-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
Raymond M. Lemaire
[edit]Hello. The article provides an important list of articles and books on which the whole article is based. If you think this is not enough, you should indicate what information is not credible in your eyes and for which you would ask for a more specific reference. Andries Van den Abeele (talk) 18:35, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
- @Andries Van den Abeele: On English Wikipedia, unlike other language Wikipedia's, our standard for WP:Verifiability, requires the use of Inline Citations as a means of ensuring that the content can be checked by future users, if it can be questioned. Since you include a number of statements with unclear sourcing (almost all of the content, since its rather esoteric bits of information about a historical individual), best practice would be to add citations to almost every statement. Since you are the creator of the article: you are in the best position to bring the content up to English Wikipedia's standard for quality. Sadads (talk) 13:15, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
- I do not think that your way of seeing things is universally accepted. I would almost say, to the contrary, as tens if not hundreds of thousands of articles demonstrate. Many English-writing users are quite astonished when they read articles where numerous references are given to newspaper articles or other ephemere sources, which offer no certitude of longevity. It is much wiser to work like alle encyclopedies all over the world do, with the Encyclopedia Brittanica as major example, by offering in fine an excellent bibliography where the interested reader can find all relevant information and references, and can check the content. By the way, can you give examples of what you call "esoteric bits"? Andries Van den Abeele (talk) 15:06, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
- @Andries Van den Abeele: I am not suggesting that you should add links to we content, but rather the offline sources that are listed at the bottom of the article, should be provided as Inline Citations. Take for example the lines "He attained international recognition thanks to his activities as an expert and counsellor for important restorations and numerous renovations. This was the case for his activities regarding:" These are very broad and controversial claims, and need to be attached to very specific sources or authors, otherwise they appear overblown. Similarly, many of the early parts of the biography are very specific pieces of information (who he collaborated with, where he went to school, etc). All of these are things that I seriously doubt is "common knowledge" for someone who does not have access to the Source materials. If I were a researcher, and wanted to retrieve the right reliable source to verify that information in a publication, I wouldn't know which source to request from a library: especially since these are relatively rare sources, that might cost my local library 300-400 dollars in Interlibrary loan requests. Sadads (talk) 14:01, 30 July 2017 (UTC)
- @Sadads. If a researcher on Raymond Lemaire wanted confirmation of what is written, he would not be helped by casual references here and there and would have by all means to consult the sources given. If he were not prepared to do so, then he would not be a genuine researcher on the subject. I wondered how you are dealing yourself with references in articles you have written on Wikipedia, and I looked up at the earliest you wrote, back in 2007: Lake Braddock Secondary School. Apart from the question if this article was really worth to be put on Wikipedia, an impressive number of the given references are obsolete allready. This unfortunately happens frequently with articles on the English Wikipedia, when almost every sentence is supposed to receive a reference. I confirm my view: Look at the good old encyclopedias on paper and follow their excellent example. And, by the way, what did you mean by 'esoteric bits'? Andries Van den Abeele (talk) 08:46, 31 July 2017 (UTC)
- @Andries Van den Abeele: Its really telling that you had to look back to my contributions in 2007, many of which haven't persisted into the live articles.... You realize that is 10 years ago, and the standard has changed on English Wikipedia? or that I haven't worked on that article in ages? or that I have over 100,000 more edits, and hundreds of articles since, almost all of which have a much higher standard of citation?
- What you contributed is not bad content (it meets notability, (which is the criteria for inclusion)), but rather its poor quality content -- because its no longer easily verifiable. By leaving it as such, you are creating more work for the future community -- and as an experienced editor, I would think you would appreciate the importance of trying to avoid future work for folks. And when I say "esoteric bits", as I give the example above, almost every line in the sections ( Family, Studies and first activities, Monuments Man, Activities in Belgium, and International Activities), are things I would want to be able to confirm with specific sources: as they are facts, I cannot trust right now. Sadads (talk) 17:51, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
- @Sadads. If a researcher on Raymond Lemaire wanted confirmation of what is written, he would not be helped by casual references here and there and would have by all means to consult the sources given. If he were not prepared to do so, then he would not be a genuine researcher on the subject. I wondered how you are dealing yourself with references in articles you have written on Wikipedia, and I looked up at the earliest you wrote, back in 2007: Lake Braddock Secondary School. Apart from the question if this article was really worth to be put on Wikipedia, an impressive number of the given references are obsolete allready. This unfortunately happens frequently with articles on the English Wikipedia, when almost every sentence is supposed to receive a reference. I confirm my view: Look at the good old encyclopedias on paper and follow their excellent example. And, by the way, what did you mean by 'esoteric bits'? Andries Van den Abeele (talk) 08:46, 31 July 2017 (UTC)
- @Andries Van den Abeele: I am not suggesting that you should add links to we content, but rather the offline sources that are listed at the bottom of the article, should be provided as Inline Citations. Take for example the lines "He attained international recognition thanks to his activities as an expert and counsellor for important restorations and numerous renovations. This was the case for his activities regarding:" These are very broad and controversial claims, and need to be attached to very specific sources or authors, otherwise they appear overblown. Similarly, many of the early parts of the biography are very specific pieces of information (who he collaborated with, where he went to school, etc). All of these are things that I seriously doubt is "common knowledge" for someone who does not have access to the Source materials. If I were a researcher, and wanted to retrieve the right reliable source to verify that information in a publication, I wouldn't know which source to request from a library: especially since these are relatively rare sources, that might cost my local library 300-400 dollars in Interlibrary loan requests. Sadads (talk) 14:01, 30 July 2017 (UTC)
- I do not think that your way of seeing things is universally accepted. I would almost say, to the contrary, as tens if not hundreds of thousands of articles demonstrate. Many English-writing users are quite astonished when they read articles where numerous references are given to newspaper articles or other ephemere sources, which offer no certitude of longevity. It is much wiser to work like alle encyclopedies all over the world do, with the Encyclopedia Brittanica as major example, by offering in fine an excellent bibliography where the interested reader can find all relevant information and references, and can check the content. By the way, can you give examples of what you call "esoteric bits"? Andries Van den Abeele (talk) 15:06, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXVI, August 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:38, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
COI - of a different kind
[edit]Hi Sadads/Archive index. Because it involves New Page and AfC reviewers along with other maintenance workers (SPI, COIN), an informal chat has begun on some aspects of paid editing. See Conflict of Interest - of a different kind. Please add your thoughts there. It is not a debate or RfC.
From WP:NPPAFC. Opt-out. Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:24, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
.
Thanks for the Welcome
[edit]I appreciate your welcoming me. So far, my experience here has been pretty positive, though I can't seem to write an article higher than B-class. No worries, I'm sure that will come. If you have any DH-specific pages you might need my assistance on, let me know. Grlucas (talk) 10:41, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks, again; I appreciate the resources. I have had my students use Wikipedia before in-class, but not in an official Wikipedia way. I was likely a bit too green myself to be very effective. Still, this is something I will likely pursue in the spring. Previous classes have done some work on various pages relating to Norman Mailer. Since writing my own articles, I now feel as if I can teach this environment much better. Again, I appreciate your feedback and encouragement. Grlucas (talk) 14:34, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
- @Grlucas: Thats awesome! We have found that with the help of the Wiki Education Foundations' materials, most faculty can run the assignments fairly effectively. With the experience you have, I think you can give even better feedback. (I find that I can run assignments in less time, with my experience as a Wikimedian: I know how to get students from 0-75 much quicker, than at other times. Sadads (talk) 20:59, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 23
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 23, June-July 2017
- Library card
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Spotlight: Combating misinformation, fake news, and censorship
- Bytes in brief
Chinese, Arabic and Yoruba versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:03, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
A Thank You Note
[edit]Thank you for the barnstar, Alex! I see that we share both interests and visions – meaning, this is probably just one of the many messages I'll be leaving on your talk page in the future. Was working as an editor at a publishing house in Macedonia for a long period until recently, before realizing (all of a sudden) that my work there didn't amount to much: a single Wikipedia article will probably do much more for the world than all of the hours I spent editing those abysmal translations. Also: I missed Wikipedia - I'm an administrator at the Macedonian version, but, the restart of my career coincided with a revelation that working here may be much more important, since there are quite a few great East European and Balkan writers that have been left out of most world's encyclopedias, Wikipedia included. Possibly, an article or two about them may inspire some readers out there to find them and read them - and, most importantly, translate some of their books into English, French, German, Spanish... stirring up the great discussion among nations of which humanity is in a desperate need at the moment. It's nice to think that we, as Wikipedia contributors, are already able to participate in that great and beautiful debate of true minds. --Виктор Јованоски (talk) 08:10, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
- @Виктор Јованоски: Welcome to English Wikipedia! Its so awesome to have a truely diverse and reprsentative community here! Keep filling in gaps around literature: we tend to be very well represented in the super-popular authors and plot summaries, but digging into the meet of other parts of the literature (reviews, criticism, and popular impact of works), is sorely missing in many cases! Let me know if I can help, Sadads (talk) 15:48, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXVII, September 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 23:33, 8 September 2017 (UTC)
Invitation to Admin confidence survey
[edit]Hello,
Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.
The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.
To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.
We really appreciate your input!
Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.
For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 20:56, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
Notability of Dauðans óvissi tími
[edit]Just to say I've responded to your question about the notability of Dauðans óvissi tími on the talk page. Perhaps, if you agree with the reasoning there, you could remove the tag? Thanks! Alarichall (talk) 09:36, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
2017 Military history WikiProject Coordinator election
[edit]Greetings from the Military history WikiProject! Elections for the Military history WikiProject Coordinators are currently underway. As a member of the WikiProject you are cordially invited to take part by casting your vote(s) for the candidates on the election page. This year's election will conclude at 23:59 UTC 29 September. Thank you for your time. For the current tranche of Coordinators, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:39, 21 September 2017 (UTC)
Hi. Thankyou for your participation in the challenge series or/and contests. In November The Women in Red World Contest is being held to try to produce new articles for as many countries worldwide and occupations as possible. There will be over $4000 in prizes to win, including Amazon vouchers and paid subscriptions. If this would appeal to you and you think you'd be interested in contributing new articles on women during this month for your region or wherever please sign up in the participants section. If you're not interested in prize money yourself but are willing to participate and raise money to buy books about women for others to use, this is also fine. Thankyou, and if taking part, good luck!♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:37, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXVIII, October 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 23:42, 7 October 2017 (UTC)
Thank you
[edit]...for reviewing Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30 and Abbey's Park Theatre.
Help design a new feature to stop harassing emails
[edit]Hi there,
The Anti-Harassment Tools team plans to start develop of a new feature to allow users to restrict emails from new accounts. This feature will allow an individual user to stop harassing emails from coming through the Special:EmailUser system from abusive sockpuppeting accounts.
We’re inviting you to join the discussion because you voted or commented in the 2016 Community Wishlist discussion or IdeaLab discussion about letting users restrict who can send them email.
You can leave comments on this discussion page or send an email to the Anti-Harassment Tools team.
It is important to hear from a broad range of people who are interested in the design of the tool, so we hope you join the discussion.
For the Anti-Harassment Tools team SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 21:48, 11 October 2017 (UTC)
Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.
Books and Bytes - Issue 24
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 24, August-September 2017
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Star Coordinator Award - last quarter's star coordinator: User:Csisc
- Wikimania Birds of a Feather session roundup
- Spotlight: Wiki Loves Archives
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Kiswahili and Yoruba versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:53, 21 October 2017 (UTC)
Women in Red November contest open to all
[edit]![]() ![]() Contest details: create biographical articles for women of any country or occupation in the world:
| ||
(To subscribe: Women in Red/English language mailing list and Women in Red/international list. Unsubscribe: Women in Red/Opt-out list) |
--Ipigott (talk) 10:07, 23 October 2017 (UTC)
DYK for Birthday card
[edit]On 25 October 2017, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Birthday card, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that researchers found that sending birthday cards to 21-year-olds did not help reduce harmful birthday drinking? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Birthday card. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Birthday card), 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.
Alex Shih (talk) 00:02, 25 October 2017 (UTC)
Halloween cheer!
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Wikipedia_Halloween%27s_Day.png/214px-Wikipedia_Halloween%27s_Day.png)
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Halloween_pumpkin_night_puzzle.jpg/246px-Halloween_pumpkin_night_puzzle.jpg)
Hello Sadads:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia, and have a happy and enjoyable Halloween!
– —usernamekiran(talk) 21:15, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
- Thank you @Usernamekiran:! Sadads (talk) 22:43, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
- My pleasure. :) You should see this.
—usernamekiran(talk) 22:49, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
- @Usernamekiran: Hehehe! Happy to at some point: I regularly attend Wikimania and other movement events in my staff capacity! I will keep you guessing on the username until we meet, but you might be a bit dissapointed :P Sadads (talk) 22:54, 28 October 2017 (UTC)
- My pleasure. :) You should see this.
Category:Books about the domestic sphere has been nominated for discussion
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Ambox_warning_orange.svg/48px-Ambox_warning_orange.svg.png)
Category:Books about the domestic sphere, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to see if it abides with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. –Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 19:45, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
Invitation to join Women in Red
[edit]![]() You might be interested in becoming a member of our WikiProject Women in Red where we are actively trying to reduce Wikipedia's content gender gap. If you would like to receive news of our activities without becoming a member, you can simply add your name to our mailing list. In any case, thank you for actively contributing to the coverage of women (currently, 17.14% of English Wikipedia's biographies).
| ||
(To subscribe: Women in Red/English language mailing list and Women in Red/international list. Unsubscribe: Women in Red/Opt-out list) |
--Ipigott (talk) 10:26, 3 November 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXXXIX, November 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:29, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
A Barnstar for you!
[edit]![]() |
The New Page Patroller's Barnstar | |
Thank you for patrolling new pages and helping us out with the backlog! Keep up the good work! — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 05:14, 21 November 2017 (UTC) |
Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!
ArbCom 2017 election voter message
[edit]Hello, Sadads. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
Autopatrolled right for relatively inexperienced editor
[edit]Hi Sadads. I happened to notice that you gave Merrilee the autopatrolled user right back in June 2015. You said this was for an editathon, but I can't figure out why an editathon participant would need to be autopatrolled, and Merrilee does not meet the usual requirement for that right. So I'm wondering whether it was a mistake? Apologies if I'm overlooking something obvious here; I don't have any experience with editathons. – Joe (talk) 22:47, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
- Hi @Joe Roe:. That was a long time ago, but Merrilee is a long trusted, and highly experienced community member in facilitating and teaching as part of offline activities. I may have misunderstood the policy at the time, and she is not a regular creator of articles, so I don't think the right actually directly effects her activities on wiki. Sadads (talk) 23:57, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
- Still, with only seven article creations I don't think it's appropriate that her future contributions won't be reviewed like every other editor's. Would you object to me removing the right? (I'll ask Merrilee too and explain that she can re-apply for it when she has more under her belt.) – Joe (talk) 08:06, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
- Yes, that is fine @Joe Roe:, Sadads (talk) 13:38, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
- Still, with only seven article creations I don't think it's appropriate that her future contributions won't be reviewed like every other editor's. Would you object to me removing the right? (I'll ask Merrilee too and explain that she can re-apply for it when she has more under her belt.) – Joe (talk) 08:06, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for your nod of support re William Godwin
[edit]That led me to your userpage, and I see that you too were inspired by Adrienne W. This emboldens me to ask you a question: I believe she wrote or spoke about the Enlightenment Encyclopédistes, and the dangers of restricting an encyclopedia by the interests and backgrounds of its contributors. A cursory search turned up nothing. Do you happen to know what I am half-remembering? Carbon Caryatid (talk) 20:56, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
- There are a number of us around who fondly remember her work! Hard memory to pull back up. My first instinct was to look at https://www.hastac.org/u/wadewitz -- but not finding anything immediately. There is also the piece in Hacking the academy: wikisource:Wiki-hacking:_Opening_up_the_academy_with_Wikipedia. Could likely be some of the things in: google scholar? It definitely sounds like the kinds of critique and framework she approached Wikipedia with. Sadads (talk) 21:47, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
- @Carbon Caryatid: Realize I didn't ping, Sadads (talk) 22:29, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
- I am remiss in not having thanked you earlier. Those leads are good starts. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 07:55, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
- @Carbon Caryatid: Realize I didn't ping, Sadads (talk) 22:29, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
2017 Military Historian of the Year and Newcomer of the Year nominations and voting
[edit]As we approach the end of the year, the Military History project is looking to recognise editors who have made a real difference. Each year we do this by bestowing two awards: the Military Historian of the Year and the Military History Newcomer of the Year. The co-ordinators invite all project members to get involved by nominating any editor they feel merits recognition for their contributions to the project. Nominations for both awards are open between 00:01 on 2 December 2017 and 23:59 on 15 December 2017. After this, a 14-day voting period will follow commencing at 00:01 on 16 December 2017. Nominations and voting will take place on the main project talkpage: here and here. Thank you for your time. For the co-ordinators, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:35, 8 December 2017 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXL, December 2017
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 11:16, 10 December 2017 (UTC)
Inputs for WikiCV (an outreachy project)
[edit]Hi,
I'm a 4th year Computer Science undergraduate student based out of India. I've been selected as an intern for Wikimedia under Round-15 of Outreachy. I'll be building a web tool called WikiCV (under the mentorship of Gergő Tisza and Stephen LaPorte), somewhat similar to your LinkedIn, StackOverflow or Github profile.
Before starting with the project, I wanted inputs from users who are my target audience. My mentor Gergő asked me to talk to you as your input will be quite valuable.
In order to just give a bit of background -
We came up with this project because we feel that Wikipedia needs a powerful force to draw new editors to the project and allow existing editors to spend more time on it without harming their career; unfortunately, due to the highly collaborative nature of Wikipedia, the value of one's participation is hard to measure for an outsider, which makes it very hard for contributors to take credit for value added to Wikipedia.
Hence, we want to create a contribution summarizing tool which (unlike the existing ones that focus on statistics and are hard to interpret for someone not familiar with Wikipedia editing) highlights contributions in an easy-to-understand manner.
I want your inputs on:
1. What all things would you like to see in your CV for Wikipedia contributions?
2. In what way should we present the data/ contribution summary so that it is understandable by a non-Wikipedia user?
3. What are the benefits/problems of the current tools that summarize the contribution of a user (like Xtools)?
4. The CV will definitely reflect your contribution, but would it be better if it shows your current standing with respect to other users? For example, reputation points in Stack Overflow reflect how good you are relatively. One idea that I thought was - Imagine a tool that tells someone is in the top 1% of editors. Would it be nice? If yes, what would you consider a good basis for that statement?
Also, I prepared a mockup for the CV to give a rough idea as to what we are thinking of. Please check it out as well.
Apart from this, I thought of presenting the contributions in a manner similar to Github. I've prepared a tool for that. Kindly have a look at that as well and give your reviews about it.
My work is largely dependent on your inputs, so please pour in your comments/views. Your help will be quite appreciated!
Eagerly waiting for your inputs :)
Meghasharma213 (talk) 16:37, 11 December 2017 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 25
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 25, October – November 2017
- OAWiki & #1Lib1Ref
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Spotlight: Research libraries and Wikimedia
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Korean and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:57, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
You are invited to join the discussion at WP:Village_pump_(proposals)#List of previous creators of an article. —usernamekiran(talk) 04:16, 21 December 2017 (UTC)
User group for Military Historians
[edit]Greetings,
"Military history" is one of the most important subjects when speak of sum of all human knowledge. To support contributors interested in the area over various language Wikipedias, we intend to form a user group. It also provides a platform to share the best practices between military historians, and various military related projects on Wikipedias. An initial discussion was has been done between the coordinators and members of WikiProject Military History on English Wikipedia. Now this discussion has been taken to Meta-Wiki. Contributors intrested in the area of military history are requested to share their feedback and give suggestions at Talk:Discussion to incubate a user group for Wikipedia Military Historians.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:30, 21 December 2017 (UTC)
Speedy deletion nomination of Talk:Science and technology in Vietnam
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Information_icon4.svg/48px-Information_icon4.svg.png)
If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.
You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. This is a notice that the page you created, Talk:Science and technology in Vietnam, was tagged as a test page under section G2 of the criteria for speedy deletion and has been or soon may be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:58, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
Category for merging
[edit]Please see my proposal to merge Category:Works set in Kenya into Category:Works about Kenya Hugo999 (talk) 00:55, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLI, January 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:15, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 8 – 15 January 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 8 – 15 January 2018
![]() Metadata on the March[edit]From the days of hard-copy liner notes on music albums, metadata have stood outside a piece or file, while adding to understanding of where it comes from, and some of what needs to be appreciated about its content. In the GLAM sector, the accumulation of accurate metadata for objects is key to the mission of an institution, and its presentation in cataloguing. Today Wikipedia turns 17, with worlds still to conquer. Zooming out from the individual GLAM object to the ontology in which it is set, one such world becomes apparent: GLAMs use custom ontologies, and those introduce massive incompatibilities. From a recent article by sadads, we quote the observation that "vocabularies needed for many collections, topics and intellectual spaces defy the expectations of the larger professional communities." A job for the encyclopedist, certainly. But the data-minded Wikimedian has the advantages of Wikidata, starting with its multilingual data, and facility with aliases. The controlled vocabulary — sometimes referred to as a "thesaurus" as term of art — simplifies search: if a "spade" must be called that, rather than "shovel", it is easier to find all spade references. That control comes at a cost. ![]() ![]() Case studies in that article show what can lie ahead. The schema crosswalk, in jargon, is a potential answer to the GLAM Babel of proliferating and expanding vocabularies. Even if you have no interest in Wikidata as such, simply vocabularies V and W, if both V and W are matched to Wikidata, then a "crosswalk" arises from term v in V to w in W, whenever v and w both match to the same item d in Wikidata. For metadata mobility, match to Wikidata. It's apparently that simple: infrastructure requirements have turned out, so far, to be challenges that can be met. Links[edit]
Editor Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him. Back numbers are here. Reminder: WikiFactMine pages on Wikidata are at WD:WFM. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:38, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
Query re Book Review; The story of Francis Cludde
[edit]I'm assuming ythe tag requesting citations came from you - if not, my apologies.
Happy to comply but I'm not sure what additional references I can provide. Weyman is a now obscure 19th century novelist, so there aren't really a ton of supporting book reviews (one reason why I wanted to put this up).
Thoughts?
Robinvp11 (talk) 13:10, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
- @Robinvp11: Thanks for the questions! I think the best recommendations for starting research about books is at: Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Novels#Finding_sources! Moreover, for this particular book, you might check out the results on Google Scholar or the books mentioned here. Typically, if the book itself is WP:Notable we can find a small number of sources, ~3-6, which can help identify the work and its impact. Not all of these sources are going to be reviews: some of it might be discussion of the work as a historical object. If you can't find the sources, we really ought to merge the documentation of the novel into the article about the author. Let me know if you have more questions, Sadads (talk) 13:57, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
NPP Backlog Drive Appreciation
[edit]![]() |
Thank You | |
Thank you for reviewing articles during the 2018 NPP New Year Backlog Drive. Always more to do, but thanks for participating. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 05:45, 31 January 2018 (UTC) |
Books and Bytes - Issue 26
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 26, December – January 2018
- #1Lib1Ref
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Spotlight: What can we glean from OCLC’s experience with library staff learning Wikipedia?
- Bytes in brief
Arabic and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:35, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 9 – 5 February 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 9 – 5 February 2018
![]() Wikidata as Hub[edit]One way of looking at Wikidata relates it to the semantic web concept, around for about as long as Wikipedia, and realised in dozens of distributed Web institutions. It sees Wikidata as supplying central, encyclopedic coverage of linked structured data, and looks ahead to greater support for "federated queries" that draw together information from all parts of the emerging network of websites. ![]() Another perspective might be likened to a photographic negative of that one: Wikidata as an already-functioning Web hub. Over half of its properties are identifiers on other websites. These are Wikidata's "external links", to use Wikipedia terminology: one type for the DOI of a publication, another for the VIAF page of an author, with thousands more such. Wikidata links out to sites that are not nominally part of the semantic web, effectively drawing them into a larger system. The crosswalk possibilities of the systematic construction of these links was covered in Issue 8. Wikipedia:External links speaks of them as kept "minimal, meritable, and directly relevant to the article." Here Wikidata finds more of a function. On viaf.org one can type a VIAF author identifier into the search box, and find the author page. The Wikidata Resolver tool, these days including Open Street Map, Scholia etc., allows this kind of lookup. The hub tool by maxlath takes a major step further, allowing both lookup and crosswalk to be encoded in a single URL. Links[edit]
Editor Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him. Back numbers are here. Reminder: WikiFactMine pages on Wikidata are at WD:WFM. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:50, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot
[edit]I've expanded this article but it keeps showing http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Earl_of_Argyll%27s_Regiment_of_Foot in the URL link. Why is that? Thanks!
Robinvp11 (talk) 09:02, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
- @Robinvp11: That is how the software stores some of the special characters: I don't know why it's rendering in the url. It's explained at the help page on Meta. However, I thought we had the ability to render those correctly in the urls. Sadads (talk) 03:13, 11 February 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLII, February 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 07:16, 11 February 2018 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 11
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/WikiProject_X_icon.svg/70px-WikiProject_X_icon.svg.png)
Check out this month's issue of the WikiProject X newsletter, with plans to renew work with a followup grant proposal to support finalising the deployment of CollaborationKit!
-— Isarra ༆ 21:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)
Courses Modules are being deprecated
[edit]Hello,
Your account is currently configured with an education program flag. This system (the Courses system) is being deprecated. As such, your account will soon be updated to remove these no longer supported flags. For details on the changes, and how to migrate to using the replacement system (the Programs and Events Dashboard) please see Wikipedia:Education noticeboard/Archive 18#NOTICE: EducationProgram extension is being deprecated.
Thank you! Sent by: xaosflux 20:28, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
Disruptive editing at Benito Cereno
[edit]In March 2016 you were kind enough to reward my work on BC with a raise of the article to the B-rank. On 9 March some heavy editing has been done, probably some student assignment. This editing includes tinkering with the quotations and inline citations, which may no longer be correct anymore. I'll have to check everything against the sources. So maybe the article is not a B at the moment.MackyBeth (talk) 20:00, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
- @MackyBeth: I think you have done a wonderful job keeping the student work in check: it never should have been the subject of a student assignment. Thank you for being vigilant! Sadads (talk) 00:32, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
- It is my assumption that it was some sort of assignment. The pattern of multiple editors in one day makes it look that way. The thing is that this is a B-class article, so edits not moving the article in the direction of future GA-status are not helpful.MackyBeth (talk) 00:37, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
- Yeah, I helped develop a lot of guidance for the WP:Wikipedia Education Program and if you are following best practice, you never put students on long pages or popular ones. I am betting some faculty had read about these kinds of assignments, knew they were reading Benito Cereno and just assigned the students to add something. If the faculty had support for their work, they would have definitely chose easier pieces to contribute to. Sadads (talk) 01:07, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
- It is my assumption that it was some sort of assignment. The pattern of multiple editors in one day makes it look that way. The thing is that this is a B-class article, so edits not moving the article in the direction of future GA-status are not helpful.MackyBeth (talk) 00:37, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLIII, March 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 10:36, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 10 – 12 March 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 10 – 12 March 2018
![]() Milestone for mix'n'match[edit]Around the time in February when Wikidata clicked past item Q50000000, another milestone was reached: the mix'n'match tool uploaded its 1000th dataset. Concisely defined by its author, Magnus Manske, it works "to match entries in external catalogs to Wikidata". The total number of entries is now well into eight figures, and more are constantly being added: a couple of new catalogs each day is normal. Since the end of 2013, mix'n'match has gradually come to play a significant part in adding statements to Wikidata. Particularly in areas with the flavour of digital humanities, but datasets can of course be about practically anything. There is a catalog on skyscrapers, and two on spiders. These days mix'n'match can be used in numerous modes, from the relaxed gamified click through a catalog looking for matches, with prompts, to the fantastically useful and often demanding search across all catalogs. I'll type that again: you can search 1000+ datasets from the simple box at the top right. The drop-down menu top left offers "creation candidates", Magnus's personal favourite. m:Mix'n'match/Manual for more. For the Wikidatan, a key point is that these matches, however carried out, add statements to Wikidata if, and naturally only if, there is a Wikidata property associated with the catalog. For everyone, however, the hands-on experience of deciding of what is a good match is an education, in a scholarly area, biographical catalogs being particularly fraught. Underpinning recent rapid progress is an open infrastructure for scraping and uploading. Congratulations to Magnus, our data Stakhanovite! Links[edit]![]()
Editor Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him. Back numbers are here. Reminder: WikiFactMine pages on Wikidata are at WD:WFM. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:26, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
ACTRIAL - next steps for the Future of AfC & NPP
[edit]Hello Sadads/Archive index, thank you for your efforts reviewing New Page and AfC submissions and your support for the ACTRIAL initiative.
The conclusion to the ACTRIAL report commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation strongly reiterates our long-time on going requirements for the NPP and AfC processes to be improved. Within minutes of the trial being switched off, the feed was swamped with inappropriate creations and users are being blocked already.
This is now the moment to continue to collaborate with the WMF and their developers to bring the entire Curation system up to date by making a firm commitment to addressing the list of requirements to the excellent suite of tools the WMF developed for Curation. Some of these are already listed at Phabricator but may need a boost.
The conclusions also make some recommendations for AfC.
A place to discuss these issues initially is here where you are already a task force member.
Wikipedia:The future of NPP and AfC. To opt-out of future mailings, go here. From MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:02, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
Welcome to The Wikipedia Adventure!
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/TWA_guide_left_bottom.png)
- Hi Sadads! We're so happy you wanted to play to learn, as a friendly and fun way to get into our community and mission. I think these links might be helpful to you as you get started.
-- 09:01, Sunday, March 18, 2018 (UTC)
Mission 1 | Mission 2 | Mission 3 | Mission 4 | Mission 5 | Mission 6 | Mission 7 |
Say Hello to the World | An Invitation to Earth | Small Changes, Big Impact | The Neutral Point of View | The Veil of Verifiability | The Civility Code | Looking Good Together |
Precious anniversary
[edit]![]() | |
Three years! |
---|
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:39, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
- @Gerda Arendt: Thank you! It's such a lovely reminder of how much I have contributed to the community to have you stop by and remind me :D Thank you for being such an awesome community builder! Sadads (talk) 13:01, 26 March 2018 (UTC)
- ... four years now! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:13, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- @Gerda Arendt: Thank you so much! I really enjoy seeing this each year :) Sadads (talk) 16:08, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- ... four years now! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:13, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
April 2018 Milhist Backlog Drive
[edit]G'day all, please be advised that throughout April 2018 the Military history Wikiproject is running its annual backlog elimination drive. This will focus on several key areas:
- tagging and assessing articles that fall within the project's scope
- adding or improving listed resources on Milhist's task force pages
- updating the open tasks template on Milhist's task force pages
- creating articles that are listed as "requested" on the project's various lists of missing articles.
As with past Milhist drives, there are points awarded for working on articles in the targeted areas, with barnstars being awarded at the end for different levels of achievement.
The drive is open to all Wikipedians, not just members of the Military history project, although only work on articles that fall (broadly) within the scope of military history will be considered eligible. This year, the Military history project would like to extend a specific welcome to members of Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red, and we would like to encourage all participants to consider working on helping to improve our coverage of women in the military. This is not the sole focus of the edit-a-thon, though, and there are aspects that hopefully will appeal to pretty much everyone.
The drive starts at 00:01 UTC on 1 April and runs until 23:59 UTC on 30 April 2018. Those interested in participating can sign up here.
For the Milhist co-ordinators, AustralianRupert and MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:53, 27 March 2018 (UTC)
Share your experience and feedback as a Wikimedian in this global survey
[edit]Hello! Sorry for writing in English. The Wikimedia Foundation is asking for your feedback in a survey. We want to know how well we are supporting your work on and off wiki, and how we can change or improve things in the future. The opinions you share will directly affect the current and future work of the Wikimedia Foundation. You have been randomly selected to take this survey as we would like to hear from your Wikimedia community. The survey is available in various languages and will take between 20 and 40 minutes.
You can find more information about this survey on the project page and see how your feedback helps the Wikimedia Foundation support editors like you. This survey is hosted by a third-party service and governed by this privacy statement (in English). Please visit our frequently asked questions page to find more information about this survey. If you need additional help, or if you wish to opt-out of future communications about this survey, send an email through the EmailUser feature to WMF Surveys to remove you from the list.
Thank you!
--WMF Surveys (talk) 01:32, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
Wien Nordwestbahnhof | Maintenance template removal?
[edit]Dear Sadads! First of all, thank you for your great work. Is it possible to remove the Maintenance template? I hope everything is alright now. Joadl (talk) 11:19, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLIIV, April 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:55, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 11 – 9 April 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 11 – 9 April 2018
![]() The 100 Skins of the Onion[edit]Open Citations Month, with its eminently guessable hashtag, is upon us. We should be utterly grateful that in the past 12 months, so much data on which papers cite which other papers has been made open, and that Wikidata is playing its part in hosting it as "cites" statements. At the time of writing, there are 15.3M Wikidata items that can do that. Pulling back to look at open access papers in the large, though, there is is less reason for celebration. Access in theory does not yet equate to practical access. A recent LSE IMPACT blogpost puts that issue down to "heterogeneity". A useful euphemism to save us from thinking that the whole concept doesn't fall into the realm of the oxymoron. Some home truths: aggregation is not content management, if it falls short on reusability. The PDF file format is wedded to how humans read documents, not how machines ingest them. The salami-slicer is our friend in the current downloading of open access papers, but for a better metaphor, think about skinning an onion, laboriously, 100 times with diminishing returns. There are of the order of 100 major publisher sites hosting open access papers, and the predominant offer there is still a PDF. ![]() From the discoverability angle, Wikidata's bibliographic resources combined with the SPARQL query are superior in principle, by far, to existing keyword searches run over papers. Open access content should be managed into consistent HTML, something that is currently strenuous. The good news, such as it is, would be that much of it is already in XML. The organisational problem of removing further skins from the onion, with sensible prioritisation, is certainly not insuperable. The CORE group (the bloggers in the LSE posting) has some answers, but actually not all that is needed for the text and data mining purposes they highlight. The long tail, or in other words the onion heart when it has become fiddly beyond patience to skin, does call for a pis aller. But the real knack is to do more between the XML and the heart. Links[edit]
Editor Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him. Back numbers are here. Reminder: WikiFactMine pages on Wikidata are at WD:WFM. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:25, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
NPR Bronze Award
[edit]![]() |
The New Page Reviewer's Bronze Award | |
For over 1000 new page reviews in the last year, thank you very much for your help at New Pages Patrol! — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 00:12, 14 April 2018 (UTC) |
Reminder: Share your feedback in this Wikimedia survey
[edit]Every response for this survey can help the Wikimedia Foundation improve your experience on the Wikimedia projects. So far, we have heard from just 26% of Wikimramedia contributors who Wikimedia programs like the Education program, editathons, or image contests. The survey is available in various languages and will take between 20 and 40 minutes to be completed. Take the survey now.
If you are not fluent in English, I apologize again for posting in English. If you have already taken the survey, we are sorry you've received this reminder. We have designed the survey to make it impossible to identify which users have taken the survey, so we have to send reminders to everyone.If you wish to opt-out of the next reminder or any other survey, send an email through EmailUser feature to WMF Surveys. You can also send any questions you have to this user email. Learn more about this survey on the project page. This survey is hosted by a third-party service and governed by this Wikimedia Foundation privacy statement. Thank you! —WMF Surveys (talk) 17:18, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
Reminder: Wikimedia survey (corrected link)
[edit]Every response for this survey can help the Wikimedia Foundation improve your experience on the Wikimedia projects. So far, we have heard from just 26% of Wikimramedia contributors who Wikimedia programs like the Education program, editathons, or image contests. The survey is available in various languages and will take between 20 and 40 minutes to be completed.Take the survey now.
If you are not fluent in English, I apologize for posting in English. If you have already taken the survey, we are sorry you've received this reminder. We have designed the survey to make it impossible to identify which users have taken the survey, so we have to send reminders to everyone. If you wish to opt-out of the next reminder or any other survey, send an email through EmailUser feature to WMF Surveys. You can also send any questions you have to this user email. Learn more about this survey on the project page. This survey is hosted by a third-party service and governed by this Wikimedia Foundation privacy statement. Thanks! —WMF Surveys (talk) 17:24, 15 April 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes - Issue 27
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 27, February – March 2018
- #1Lib1Ref
- New collections
- Alexander Street (expansion)
- Cambridge University Press (expansion)
- User Group
- Global branches update
- Wiki Indaba Wikipedia + Library Discussions
- Spotlight: Using librarianship to create a more equitable internet: LGBTQ+ advocacy as a wiki-librarian
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Chinese and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:49, 18 April 2018 (UTC)
Your feedback matters: Final reminder to take the global Wikimedia survey
[edit]Hello! This is a final reminder that the Wikimedia Foundation survey will close on 23 April, 2018 (07:00 UTC). The survey is available in various languages and will take between 20 and 40 minutes. Take the survey now.
If you are not a native speaker of English, I apologize for writing in English. If you already took the survey - thank you! We will not bother you again. We have designed the survey to make it impossible to identify which users have taken the survey, so we have to send reminders to everyone. To opt-out of future surveys, send an email through EmailUser feature to WMF Surveys. You can also send any questions you have to this user email. Learn more about this survey on the project page. This survey is hosted by a third-party service and governed by this Wikimedia Foundation privacy statement. Thank you!! --WMF Surveys (talk) 05:54, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
Ecology and nature
[edit]![]() |
Thank |
Human, ecological, and natural 天青一雁远 (talk) 23:53, 21 April 2018 (UTC) |
I have unreviewed a page you curated
[edit]Hi, I'm John from Idegon. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Children in emergencies and conflicts, and have un-reviewed it again. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.
John from Idegon (talk) 06:28, 3 May 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLIV, May 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 15:00, 12 May 2018 (UTC)
Seven years of adminship
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Wikipe-tan_mopping.svg/60px-Wikipe-tan_mopping.svg.png)
Thank you very much
[edit]The RfC discussion to eliminate portals was closed May 12, with the statement "There exists a strong consensus against deleting or even deprecating portals at this time." This was made possible because you and others came to the rescue. Thank you for speaking up.
By the way, the current issue of the Signpost features an article with interviews about the RfC and the Portals WikiProject.
I'd also like to let you know that the Portals WikiProject is working hard to make sure your support of portals was not in vain. Toward that end, we have been working diligently to innovate portals, while building, updating, upgrading, and maintaining them. The project has grown to 80 members so far, and has become a beehive of activity.
Our two main goals at this time are to automate portals (in terms of refreshing, rotating, and selecting content), and to develop a one-page model in order to make obsolete and eliminate most of the 150,000 subpages from the portal namespace by migrating their functions to the portal base pages, using technologies such as selective transclusion. Please feel free to join in on any of the many threads of development at the WikiProject's talk page, or just stop by to see how we are doing. If you have any questions about portals or portal development, that is the best place to ask them.
If you would like to keep abreast of developments on portals, keep in mind that the project's members receive updates on their talk pages. The updates are also posted here, for your convenience.
Again, we can't thank you enough for your support of portals, and we hope to make you proud of your decision. Sincerely, — The Transhumanist 09:15, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
P.S.: if you reply to this message, please {{ping}} me. Thank you. -TT
Facto Post – Issue 12 – 28 May 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 12 – 28 May 2018
![]() ScienceSource funded[edit]The Wikimedia Foundation announced full funding of the ScienceSource grant proposal from ContentMine on May 18. See the ScienceSource Twitter announcement and 60 second video.
The proposal includes downloading 30,000 open access papers, aiming (roughly speaking) to create a baseline for medical referencing on Wikipedia. It leaves open the question of how these are to be chosen. The basic criteria of WP:MEDRS include a concentration on secondary literature. Attention has to be given to the long tail of diseases that receive less current research. The MEDRS guideline supposes that edge cases will have to be handled, and the premature exclusion of publications that would be in those marginal positions would reduce the value of the collection. Prophylaxis misses the point that gate-keeping will be done by an algorithm. Two well-known but rather different areas where such considerations apply are tropical diseases and alternative medicine. There are also a number of potential downloading troubles, and these were mentioned in Issue 11. There is likely to be a gap, even with the guideline, between conditions taken to be necessary but not sufficient, and conditions sufficient but not necessary, for candidate papers to be included. With around 10,000 recognised medical conditions in standard lists, being comprehensive is demanding. With all of these aspects of the task, ScienceSource will seek community help. Links[edit]![]()
Editor Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him. Back numbers are here. Reminder: WikiFactMine pages on Wikidata are at WD:WFM. ScienceSource pages will be announced there, and in this mass message. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:16, 28 May 2018 (UTC)
Category:People associated with William Blake has been nominated for discussion
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Ambox_warning_orange.svg/48px-Ambox_warning_orange.svg.png)
Category:People associated with William Blake, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to see if it abides with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. --woodensuperman 13:09, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLVI, June 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 10:35, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes – Issue 28
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 28, April – May 2018
- #1Bib1Ref
- New partners
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Wikipedia Library global coordinators' meeting
- Spotlight: What are the ten most cited sources on Wikipedia? Let's ask the data
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Italian and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
Invitation to attend a meetup in Balboa Park
[edit] You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Meetup/San Diego/July 2018 . RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 00:12, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
A kitten for you!
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Red_Kitten_01.jpg/150px-Red_Kitten_01.jpg)
Thanks for all your help at bootcamp. I have tons of questions... but one outlier is how does an article move from stub to start and up the line? If I see something has evolved past one threshold is there a way to poke someone to evaluate it again? or does this all happen automatically? e.g.http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Kynaston_McShine I want to learn more about these ratings and how to make a better article... so far I have only two c graded articles as my best work. :/ thanks so much!
Heathart (talk) 22:01, 22 June 2018 (UTC)
- @Heathart: Glad you learned alot! There are so many things! As for reevaluation -- its all largely a judgement call thing, and for many pages, they haven't been looked at in years (the assessment data is not well maintained for most WikiProejcts). I usually just reevaluate articles when I find ones clearly well out of class, using a combination of the Rater Gadget and the Wikipedia:Metadata gadget -- between the two of them, you can view an articles class and assess it directly from the article page. The only classes which you can't "just add" are FA and GA (and the rare A class supported by Wikiprojects).
- As for improving the quality, its mostly a matter of trying to include content similar in depth or quality as a higher class article (think something like any of the Good articles on a similar topic. I am noticing that a lot of your articles on your listed on your User page, are missing structural things like well expanded WP:Lead sections, breaking those articles out into appropriately deep sections (and making sure to extract enough depth from each source), and improving the flow between paragraphs and sections. Alot of this kind of stuff is part structural, and part having distance from your own writing. I would recommend trying to get an article through the Good Article process (see WP:GAN). Its a good way to get peer review from someone who has an eye for the kinds of stuff that other Wikimedians are looking for. Not all reviews are thorough as others, and there is usually a bit of a backlog (so can take a while to get started), but its a good process for getting someone with domain interest in your topic, to pay attention to the article. 22:32, 25 June 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 13 – 29 May 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 13 – 29 May 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Facto Post enters its second year, with a Cambridge Blue (OK, Aquamarine) background, a new logo, but no Cambridge blues. On-topic for the ScienceSource project is a project page here. It contains some case studies on how the WP:MEDRS guideline, for the referencing of articles at all related to human health, is applied in typical discussions. Close to home also, a template, called {{medrs}} for short, is used to express dissatisfaction with particular references. Technology can help with patrolling, and this Petscan query finds over 450 articles where there is at least one use of the template. Of course the template is merely suggesting there is a possible issue with the reliability of a reference. Deciding the truth of the allegation is another matter. This maintenance issue is one example of where ScienceSource aims to help. Where the reference is to a scientific paper, its type of algorithm could give a pass/fail opinion on such references. It could assist patrollers of medical articles, therefore, with the templated references and more generally. There may be more to proper referencing than that, indeed: context, quite what the statement supported by the reference expresses, prominence and weight. For that kind of consideration, case studies can help. But an algorithm might help to clear the backlog. ![]()
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:19, 29 June 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – July 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
Gogo Dodo
Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD
- An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
- A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.
- Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
- Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon (
) in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
- IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
- Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
The Bugle: Issue CXLVII, July 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:12, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 14 – 21 July 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 14 – 21 July 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Officially it is "bridging the gaps in knowledge", with Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town paying tribute to the southern African concept of ubuntu to implement it. Besides face-to-face interactions, Wikimedians do need their power sources. ![]() Facto Post interviewed Jdforrester, who has attended every Wikimania, and now works as Senior Product Manager for the Wikimedia Foundation. His take on tackling the gaps in the Wikimedia movement is that "if we were an army, we could march in a column and close up all the gaps". In his view though, that is a faulty metaphor, and it leads to a completely false misunderstanding of the movement, its diversity and different aspirations, and the nature of the work as "fighting" to be done in the open sector. There are many fronts, and as an eventualist he feels the gaps experienced both by editors and by users of Wikimedia content are inevitable. He would like to see a greater emphasis on reuse of content, not simply its volume. If that may not sound like radicalism, the Decolonizing the Internet conference here organized jointly with Whose Knowledge? can redress the picture. It comes with the claim to be "the first ever conference about centering marginalized knowledge online". ![]()
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:10, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
- After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
- Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.
- The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.
Your recent review
[edit]I've moved Draft:Boris Rotman back to draft-space, as it is not ready. The entire "Education" section is unsourced, and half the academic stuff is sourced to the subject's own works. Plus I really doubt that this meets WP:NPROF. When people unilaterally move their own articles to mainspace without going through AFC they really deserve extra scrutiny (especially BLPs), and shouldn't be marked as good to go 9 minutes after their creation. Bradv 02:03, 10 August 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CXLVIII, August 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 08:35, 12 August 2018 (UTC)
Peer review newsletter #1
[edit]Introduction
[edit]Hello to all! I do not intend to write a regular peer review newsletter but there does occasionally come a time when those interested in contributing to peer review should be contacted, and now is one. I've mailed this out to everyone on the peer review volunteers list, and some editors that have contributed to past discussions. Apologies if I've left you off or contacted you and you didn't want it. Next time there is a newsletter / mass message it will be opt in (here), I'll talk about this below - but first:
- THANK YOU! I want to thank you for your contributions and for volunteering on the list to help out at peer review. Thank you!
- Peer review is useful! It's good to have an active peer review process. This is often the way that we help new or developing editors understand our ways, and improve the quality of their editing - so it fills an important and necessary gap between the teahouse (kindly introduction to our Wikiways) and GA and FA reviews (specific standards uphelp according to a set of quality criteria). And we should try and improve this process where possible (automate, simplify) so it can be used and maintained easily.
Updates
[edit]Update #1: the peer review volunteers list is changing
[edit]The list is here in case you've forgotten: WP:PRV. Kadane has kindly offered to create a bot that will ping editors on the volunteers list with unanswered reviews in their chosen subject areas every so often. You can choose the time interval by changing the "contact" parameter. Options are "never", "monthly", "quarterly", "halfyearly", and "annually". For example:
{{PRV|JohnSmith|History of engineering|contact=monthly}}
- if placed in the "History" section, JohnSmith will receive an automatic update every month about unanswered peer reviews relating to history.{{PRV|JaneSmith|Mesopotamian geography, Norwegian fjords|contact=annually}}
- if placed in the "Geography" section, JaneSmith will receive an automatic update every yearly about unanswered peer reviews in the geography area.
We can at this stage only use the broad peer review section titles to guide what reviews you'd like, but that's better than nothing! You can also set an interest in multiple separate subject areas that will be updated at different times.
Update #2: a (lean) WikiProject Peer review
[edit]I don't think we need a WikiProject with a giant bureaucracy nor all sorts of whiz-bang features. However over the last few years I've found there are times when it would have been useful to have a list of editors that would like to contribute to discussions about the peer review process (e.g. instructions, layout, automation, simplification etc.). Also, it can get kind of lonely on the talk page as I am (correct me if I'm wrong) the only regular contributor, with most editors moving on after 6 - 12 months.
So, I've decided to create "WikiProject Peer review". If you'd like to contribute to the WikiProject, or make yourself available for future newsletters or contact, please add yourself to the list of members.
Update #3: advertising
[edit]We plan to do some advertising of peer review, to let editors know about it and how to volunteer to help, at a couple of different venues (Signpost, Village pump, Teahouse etc.) - but have been waiting until we get this bot + WikiProject set up so we have a way to help interested editors make more enduring contributions. So consider yourself forewarned!
And... that's it!
I wish you all well on your Wikivoyages, Tom (LT) (talk) 00:31, 11 August 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 15 – 21 August 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 15 – 21 August 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
![]() To grasp the nettle, there are rare diseases, there are tropical diseases and then there are "neglected diseases". Evidently a rare enough disease is likely to be neglected, but neglected disease these days means a disease not rare, but tropical, and most often infectious or parasitic. Rare diseases as a group are dominated, in contrast, by genetic diseases. A major aspect of neglect is found in tracking drug discovery. Orphan drugs are those developed to treat rare diseases (rare enough not to have market-driven research), but there is some overlap in practice with the WHO's neglected diseases, where snakebite, a "neglected public health issue", is on the list. From an encyclopedic point of view, lack of research also may mean lack of high-quality references: the core medical literature differs from primary research, since it operates by aggregating trials. This bibliographic deficit clearly hinders Wikipedia's mission. The ScienceSource project is currently addressing this issue, on Wikidata. Its Wikidata focus list at WD:SSFL is trying to ensure that neglect does not turn into bias in its selection of science papers.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:23, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes – Issue 29
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 29, June – July 2018
- New partners
- Economic & Political Weekly–10 accounts
- Wikimania
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
Hindi, Italian and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 12
[edit]This month: WikiProject X: The resumption
Work has resumed on WikiProject X and CollaborationKit, backed by a successfully funded Project Grant. For more information on the current status and planned work, please see this month's issue of the newsletter!
-— Isarra ༆ 22:24, 30 August 2018 (UTC)
Wikiproject Military history coordinator election nominations open
[edit]Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election are now open. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting doesn't commence until 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the coord team. Cheers, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:54, 1 September 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – September 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
None
Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam
Interface administrator changes
Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux
- Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.
- Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
- Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says
Deprecated. Use ... instead
. An example isarticle_text
which is nowpage_title
. - Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is
page_age
.
- The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.
The Bugle: Issue CXLIX, September 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 22:19, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced
[edit]G'day everyone, voting for the 2018 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:35, 15 September 2018 (UTC)
Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced
[edit]G'day everyone, voting for the 2018 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:22, 15 September 2018 (UTC) Note: the previous version omitted a link to the election page, therefore you are receiving this follow up message with a link to the election page to correct the previous version. We apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
You've got mail
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Mail-message-new.svg/40px-Mail-message-new.svg.png)
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template. at any time by removing the Orange Mike | Talk 00:49, 22 September 2018 (UTC)
Have your say!
[edit]Hi everyone, just a quick reminder that voting for the WikiProject Military history coordinator election closes soon. You only have a day or so left to have your say about who should make up the coordination team for the next year. If you have already voted, thanks for participating! If you haven't and would like to, vote here before 23:59 UTC on 28 September. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:29, 26 September 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 16 – 30 September 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 16 – 30 September 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
![]() In an ideal world ... no, bear with your editor for just a minute ... there would be a format for scientific publishing online that was as much a standard as SI units are for the content. Likewise cataloguing publications would not be onerous, because part of the process would be to generate uniform metadata. Without claiming it could be the mythical free lunch, it might be reasonably be argued that sandwiches can be packaged much alike and have barcodes, whatever the fillings. The best on offer, to stretch the metaphor, is the meal kit option, in the form of XML. Where scientific papers are delivered as XML downloads, you get all the ingredients ready to cook. But have to prepare the actual meal of slow food yourself. See Scholarly HTML for a recent pass at heading off XML with HTML, in other words in the native language of the Web. The argument from real life is a traditional mixture of frictional forces, vested interests, and the classic irony of the principle of unripe time. On the other hand, discoverability actually diminishes with the prolific progress of science publishing. No, it really doesn't scale. Wikimedia as movement can do something in such cases. We know from open access, we grok the Web, we have our own horse in the HTML race, we have Wikidata and WikiJournal, and we have the chops to act. ![]()
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:57, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – October 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
Justlettersandnumbers • L235
Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter
Interface administrator changes
Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333
Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno
- Following a request for comment, the process for appointing interface administrators has been established. Currently only existing admins can request these rights, while a new RfC has begun on whether it should be available to non-admins.
- There is an open request for comment on Meta regarding the creation a new user group for global edit filter management.
- Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
- The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
- Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.
- The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
- The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
- Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
- Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.
Re Category:Books with missing isbn the template has been re-targeted so nothing points to that category anymore. The only reason there are still pages there is because of caching. --Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 20:44, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CL, October 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 07:01, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Ambox_warning_pn.svg/48px-Ambox_warning_pn.svg.png)
A tag has been placed on Category:Space divisions of the United States Air Force requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section C1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the category has been empty for seven days or more and is not a disambiguation category, a category redirect, a featured topics category, under discussion at Categories for discussion, or a project category that by its nature may become empty on occasion.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. AusLondonder (talk) 21:18, 7 October 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes, Issue 30
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 30, August – Septmeber 2018
- Library Card translation
- Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref spreads to the Southern Hemisphere and beyond
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
French version of Books & Bytes is now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:43, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
Boo!
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Wikipedia_Halloween%27s_Day.png/214px-Wikipedia_Halloween%27s_Day.png)
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Halloween_pumpkin_night_puzzle.jpg/246px-Halloween_pumpkin_night_puzzle.jpg)
Hello Sadads:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia, and have a happy and enjoyable Halloween!
– —usernamekiran(talk) 07:05, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
- @Usernamekiran: Thanks! I really appreciate the unexpected and lovely bit of moral building! Keep up the great work of supporting the community! Cheers, Sadads (talk) 09:16, 31 October 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 17 – 29 October 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 17 – 29 October 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Around 2.7 million Wikidata items have an illustrative image. These files, you might say, are Wikimedia's stock images, and if the number is large, it is still only 5% or so of items that have one. All such images are taken from Wikimedia Commons, which has 50 million media files. One key issue is how to expand the stock. Indeed, there is a tool. WD-FIST exploits the fact that each Wikipedia is differently illustrated, mostly with images from Commons but also with fair use images. An item that has sitelinks but no illustrative image can be tested to see if the linked wikis have a suitable one. This works well for a volunteer who wants to add images at a reasonable scale, and a small amount of SPARQL knowledge goes a long way in producing checklists. It should be noted, though, that there are currently 53 Wikidata properties that link to Commons, of which P18 for the basic image is just one. WD-FIST prompts the user to add signatures, plaques, pictures of graves and so on. There are a couple of hundred monograms, mostly of historical figures, and this query allows you to view all of them. commons:Category:Monograms and its subcategories provide rich scope for adding more. And so it is generally. The list of properties linking to Commons does contain a few that concern video and audio files, and rather more for maps. But it contains gems such as P3451 for "nighttime view". Over 1000 of those on Wikidata, but as for so much else, there could be yet more. Go on. Today is Wikidata's birthday. An illustrative image is always an acceptable gift, so why not add one? You can follow these easy steps: (i) log in at https://tools.wmflabs.org/widar/, (ii) paste the Petscan ID 6263583 into https://tools.wmflabs.org/fist/wdfist/ and click run, and (iii) just add cake. ![]()
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:01, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – November 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2018).
- A request for comment determined that non-administrators will not be able to request interface admin access.
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the Mediation Committee should be closed and marked as historical.
- A village pump discussion has been ongoing about whether the proposed deletion policy (PROD) should be clarified or amended.
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether pending changes protection should be applied automatically to today's featured article (TFA) in order to mitigate a recent trend of severe image vandalism.
- Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
- A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
- The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.
- Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
- The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-en
wikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.
The Bugle: Issue CLI, November 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:40, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
ArbCom 2018 election voter message
[edit]Hello, Sadads. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 18 – 30 November 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 18 – 30 November 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
GLAM ♥ data — what is a gallery, library, archive or museum without a catalogue? It follows that Wikidata must love librarians. Bibliography supports students and researchers in any topic, but open and machine-readable bibliographic data even more so, outside the silo. Cue the WikiCite initiative, which was meeting in conference this week, in the Bay Area of California. ![]() In fact there is a broad scope: "Open Knowledge Maps via SPARQL" and the "Sum of All Welsh Literature", identification of research outputs, Library.Link Network and Bibframe 2.0, OSCAR and LUCINDA (who they?), OCLC and Scholia, all these co-exist on the agenda. Certainly more library science is coming Wikidata's way. That poses the question about the other direction: is more Wikimedia technology advancing on libraries? Good point. Wikimedians generally are not aware of the tech background that can be assumed, unless they are close to current training for librarians. A baseline definition is useful here: "bash, git and OpenRefine". Compare and contrast with pywikibot, GitHub and mix'n'match. Translation: scripting for automation, version control, data set matching and wrangling in the large, are on the agenda also for contemporary library work. Certainly there is some possible common ground here. Time to understand rather more about the motivations that operate in the library sector.
Account creation is now open on the ScienceSource wiki, where you can see SPARQL visualisations of text mining.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:20, 30 November 2018 (UTC)
Nominations now open for "Military historian of the year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" awards
[edit]Nominations for our annual Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards are open until 23:59 (GMT) on 15 December 2018. Why don't you nominate the editors who you believe have made a real difference to the project in 2018? MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – December 2018
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz
Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike
Interface administrator changes
- Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
- A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
- A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
- A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.
- Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
- To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
- Since deployment of Partial blocks on Test Wikipedia, several bugs were identified. Most of them are now fixed. Administrators are encouraged to test the new deployment and report new bugs on Phabricator or leave feedback on the Project's talk page. You can request administrator access on the Test Wiki here.
- Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 3 December 2018. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.
- In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
- Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.
- Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as Raymond arritt on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.
The Bugle: Issue CLII, December 2018
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 10:34, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
Voting now open for "Military historian of the year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" awards
[edit]Voting for our annual Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards is open until 23:59 (GMT) on 30 December 2018. Why don't you vote for the editors who you believe have made a real difference to Wikipedia's coverage of military history in 2018? MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:17, 16 December 2018 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 13
[edit]This month: A general update.
The current status of the project is as follows:
- Progress of the project has been generally delayed since September due to development issues (more bitrot than expected, some of the code just being genuinely confusing, etc) and personal injury (I suffered a concussion in October and was out of commission for almost two months as a result).
- I currently expect to be putting out a proper call for CollaborationKit pilots in January/February, with estimated deployment in February/March if things don't go horribly wrong (they will, though, don't worry). As a part of that, I will properly update the page and send out announcement and reach out to all projects already signed up as pilots for WikiProject X in general, at which point those (still) interested can volunteer specifically to test the CollaborationKit extension.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Pilots was originally created for the first WikiProject X prototype, and given this is where the project has since gone, it's only logical to continue to use it. While I haven't yet updated the page to properly reflect this:
- If you want to add your project to this page now, feel free. Just bear in mind that more information what to actually expect will be added later/included in the announcement, because by then I will have a much better idea myself.
- Until then, you can find me in my corner working on making the CollaborationKit code do what we want and not just what we told it, per the workboard.
Until next time,
-— Isarra ༆ 22:44, 20 December 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes, Issue 31
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 31, October – Novemeber 2018
- OAWiki
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:34, 21 December 2018 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 19 – 27 December 2018
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 19 – 27 December 2018
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Zotero is free software for reference management by the Center for History and New Media: see Wikipedia:Citing sources with Zotero. It is also an active user community, and has broad-based language support. ![]() Besides the handiness of Zotero's warehousing of personal citation collections, the Zotero translator underlies the citoid service, at work behind the VisualEditor. Metadata from Wikidata can be imported into Zotero; and in the other direction the zotkat tool from the University of Mannheim allows Zotero bibliographies to be exported to Wikidata, by item creation. With an extra feature to add statements, that route could lead to much development of the focus list (P5008) tagging on Wikidata, by WikiProjects. There is also a large-scale encyclopedic dimension here. The construction of Zotero translators is one facet of Web scraping that has a strong community and open source basis. In that it resembles the less formal mix'n'match import community, and growing networks around other approaches that can integrate datasets into Wikidata, such as the use of OpenRefine. Looking ahead, the thirtieth birthday of the World Wide Web falls in 2019, and yet the ambition to make webpages routinely readable by machines can still seem an ever-retreating mirage. Wikidata should not only be helping Wikimedia integrate its projects, an ongoing process represented by Structured Data on Commons and lexemes. It should also be acting as a catalyst to bring scraping in from the cold, with institutional strengths as well as resourceful code.
Diversitech, the latest ContentMine grant application to the Wikimedia Foundation, is in its community review stage until January 2.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:08, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2018).
- There are a number of new or changed speedy deletion criteria, each previously part of WP:CSD#G6:
- G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
- R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
- G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.
- The Wikimedia Foundation now requires all interface administrators to enable two-factor authentication.
- Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.
- Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:
- At least 8 characters in length
- Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
- Different from their username
- User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.
- Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
- {{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.
- Following the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: AGK, Courcelles, GorillaWarfare, Joe Roe, Mkdw, SilkTork.
- Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
- Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
The Bugle: Issue CLIII, January 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 23:58, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
Jabari Asim
[edit]I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with you that the majority of the external links are appropriate for Wikipedia. It's basically the highlights of a Google search for Jabari Asim vomited up onto the bottom of our article. What we've got is poor. There are passing mentions of Asim, trivial examples of Asim's work being discussed, his own reviews (how many links to reviews do we carry for other reviewers) and a selection of audio/video links primarily from more than a decade ago where Asim discusses the N word, none of which appear to me to add any real depth to the content or aid understanding of the encyclopedia article on Asim. Just look at what you've reverted back to - the second EL Ms. Rodgers confidently read a story, Daddy Goes to Work, by Jabari Asim, to her son Elijah and his classmates. is the sum total of Asim being mentioned on the Education Week link, for example. If you think some of these links are more important than I have assessed them to be and you believe they should be kept, let me know which ones and I'll just remove the remainder. Cheers, Nick (talk) 18:28, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 20 – 31 January 2019
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 20 – 31 January 2019
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Recently Jimmy Wales has made the point that computer home assistants take much of their data from Wikipedia, one way or another. So as well as getting Spotify to play Frosty the Snowman for you, they may be able to answer the question "is the Pope Catholic?" Possibly by asking for disambiguation (Coptic?). Headlines about data breaches are now familiar, but the unannounced circulation of information raises other issues. One of those is Gresham's law stated as "bad data drives out good". Wikipedia and now Wikidata have been criticised on related grounds: what if their content, unattributed, is taken to have a higher standing than Wikimedians themselves would grant it? See Wikiquote on a misattribution to Bismarck for the usual quip about "law and sausages", and why one shouldn't watch them in the making. Wikipedia has now turned 18, so should act like as adult, as well as being treated like one. The Web itself turns 30 some time between March and November this year, per Tim Berners-Lee. If the Knowledge Graph by Google exemplifies Heraclitean Web technology gaining authority, contra GIGO, Wikimedians still have a role in its critique. But not just with the teenage skill of detecting phoniness. There is more to beating Gresham than exposing the factoid and urban myth, where WP:V does do a great job. Placeholders must be detected, and working with Wikidata is a good way to understand how having one statement as data can blind us to replacing it by a more accurate one. An example that is important to open access is that, firstly, the term itself needs considerable unpacking, because just being able to read material online is a poor relation of "open"; and secondly, trying to get Creative Commons license information into Wikidata shows up issues with classes of license (such as CC-BY) standing for the actual license in major repositories. Detailed investigation shows that "everything flows" exacerbates the issue. But Wikidata can solve it.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:53, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – February 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
Interface administrator changes
- A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
- Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
- A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.
- A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.
- Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
- A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.
The Bugle: Issue CLIV, February 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:19, 10 February 2019 (UTC)
Adaptations of novels
[edit]Hi Sadads, I don't know if you saw this? I'm looking for clarification of sourcing requirements for Adaptations in articles on novels and was interested in your comments. Harold the Sheep (talk) 03:38, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
Books & Bytes, Issue 32
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 32, January – February 2019
- #1Lib1Ref
- New and expanded partners
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:30, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
Move discussion notice - Wikipedia talk:Adding open license text to Wikipedia#Requested move 25 February 2019
[edit] Hey there! I'm Psantora. There is a move discussion at Wikipedia talk:Adding open license text to Wikipedia#Requested move 25 February 2019 requiring more participation, please consider commenting/voting in it along with the other discussions in the backlog (Wikipedia:Requested moves#Elapsed listings). - PaulT+/C 16:22, 26 February 2019 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 21 – 28 February 2019
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 21 – 28 February 2019
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Systematic reviews are basic building blocks of evidence-based medicine, surveys of existing literature devoted typically to a definite question that aim to bring out scientific conclusions. They are principled in a way Wikipedians can appreciate, taking a critical view of their sources. ![]() Ben Goldacre in 2014 wrote (link below) "[...] : the "information architecture" of evidence based medicine (if you can tolerate such a phrase) is a chaotic, ad hoc, poorly connected ecosystem of legacy projects. In some respects the whole show is still run on paper, like it's the 19th century." Is there a Wikidatan in the house? Wouldn't some machine-readable content that is structured data help? Most likely it would, but the arcana of systematic reviews and how they add value would still need formal handling. The PRISMA standard dates from 2009, with an update started in 2018. The concerns there include the corpus of papers used: how selected and filtered? Now that Wikidata has a 20.9 million item bibliography, one can at least pose questions. Each systematic review is a tagging opportunity for a bibliography. Could that tagging be reproduced by a query, in principle? Can it even be second-guessed by a query (i.e. simulated by a protocol which translates into SPARQL)? Homing in on the arcana, do the inclusion and filtering criteria translate into metadata? At some level they must, but are these metadata explicitly expressed in the articles themselves? The answer to that is surely "no" at this point, but can TDM find them? Again "no", right now. Automatic identification doesn't just happen. Actually these questions lack originality. It should be noted though that WP:MEDRS, the reliable sources guideline used here for health information, hinges on the assumption that the usefully systematic reviews of biomedical literature can be recognised. Its nutshell summary, normally the part of a guideline with the highest density of common sense, allows literature reviews in general validity, but WP:MEDASSESS qualifies that indication heavily. Process wonkery about systematic reviews definitely has merit.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:02, 28 February 2019 (UTC)
Il corbaccio destubbed
[edit]Hi, I'm not sure about the assessment criteria for stubs but suspect that your warning on Corbaccio can be removed. Am I correct? Scarabocchio (talk) 08:44, 1 March 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – March 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2019).
|
![]()
|
- The RfC on administrator activity requirements failed to reach consensus for any proposal.
- Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.
- A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.
- The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
- paid-en-wp
wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
- checkuser-en-wp
wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.
- paid-en-wp
- The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
- Following the 2019 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Base, Einsbor, Jon Kolbert, Schniggendiller, and Wim b.
The Bugle: Issue CLV, March 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 11:00, 10 March 2019 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 22 – 28 March 2019
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 22 – 28 March 2019
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Half a century ago, it was the era of the mainframe computer, with its air-conditioned room, twitching tape-drives, and appearance in the title of a spy novel Billion-Dollar Brain then made into a Hollywood film. Now we have the cloud, with server farms and the client–server model as quotidian: this text is being typed on a Chromebook. The term Applications Programming Interface or API is 50 years old, and refers to a type of software library as well as the interface to its use. While a compiler is what you need to get high-level code executed by a mainframe, an API out in the cloud somewhere offers a chance to perform operations on a remote server. For example, the multifarious bots active on Wikipedia have owners who exploit the MediaWiki API. APIs (called RESTful) that allow for the GET HTTP request are fundamental for what could colloquially be called "moving data around the Web"; from which Wikidata benefits 24/7. So the fact that the Wikidata SPARQL endpoint at query.wikidata.org has a RESTful API means that, in lay terms, Wikidata content can be GOT from it. The programming involved, besides the SPARQL language, could be in Python, younger by a few months than the Web. Magic words, such as occur in fantasy stories, are wishful (rather than RESTful) solutions to gaining access. You may need to be a linguist to enter Ali Baba's cave or the western door of Moria (French in the case of "Open Sesame", in fact, and Sindarin being the respective languages). Talking to an API requires a bigger toolkit, which first means you have to recognise the tools in terms of what they can do. On the way to the wikt:impactful or polymathic modern handling of facts, one must perhaps take only tactful notice of tech's endemic problem with documentation, and absorb the insightful point that the code in APIs does articulate the customary procedures now in place on the cloud for getting information. As Owl explained to Winnie-the-Pooh, it tells you The Thing to Do.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:45, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – April 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2019).
|
![]()
|
- In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.
- The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the {{ARBPIA 1RR editnotice}} edit notice.
- Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
- As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.
The Bugle: Issue CLVI, April 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 21:59, 8 April 2019 (UTC)
"...I have unreviewed a page you curated..." Please translate
[edit]Thank you for your message. I am completely flummoxed because although most of the words you use are words I recognise, I think you may be using some of them with meanings that have only recently appeared on the scene.
I know what "review" means. I do not know what "unreview" means, though that does not prevent me from attempting a guess. What does one actually do in order to "unreview" something? And, since you kindly take time out to tell me about it, what should I wish to do about it?
I know what "curate" means. I had no idea I was "curating" the entry to which you refer. What did I do that makes you think I was "curating" it? Was "curating" it - in the sense in which you use the word - a useful thing to do? Or not? And what, if you had been told you had curated something, would you want to do about it. Is there a problem here? Or are you simply sharing information to be helpful?
Thank you in anticipation of enlightenment!
Regards Charles01 (talk) 16:49, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
- @Charles01: Sorry about that -- I think that I accidently clicked something that triggered that message using the tools around Special:NewPagesFeed -- don't know what happened on that article. Hope you keep creating great content! Sadads (talk) 20:22, 28 April 2019 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 23 – 30 April 2019
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 23 – 30 April 2019
![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
![]() Talk of cloud computing draws a veil over hardware, but also, less obviously but more importantly, obscures such intellectual distinction as matters most in its use. Wikidata begins to allow tasks to be undertaken that were out of easy reach. The facility should not be taken as the real point. Coming in from another angle, the "executive decision" is more glamorous; but the "administrative decision" should be admired for its command of facts. Think of the attitudes ad fontes, so prevalent here on Wikipedia as "can you give me a source for that?", and being prepared to deal with complicated analyses into specified subcases. Impatience expressed as a disdain for such pedantry is quite understandable, but neither dirty data nor false dichotomies are at all good to have around. Issue 13 and Issue 21, respectively on WP:MEDRS and systematic reviews, talk about biomedical literature and computing tasks that would be of higher quality if they could be made more "administrative". For example, it is desirable that the decisions involved be consistent, explicable, and reproducible by non-experts from specified inputs. What gets clouded out is not impossibly hard to understand. You do need to put together the insights of functional programming, which is a doctrinaire and purist but clearcut approach, with the practicality of office software. Loopless computation can be conceived of as a seamless forward march of spreadsheet columns, each determined by the content of previous ones. Very well: to do a backward audit, when now we are talking about Wikidata, we rely on integrity of data and its scrupulous sourcing: and clearcut case analyses. The MEDRS example forces attention on purge attempts such as Beall's list.
If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:27, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
[edit]![]() |
The Writer's Barnstar |
You know Ghana very well →Enock4seth (talk) 16:36, 30 April 2019 (UTC) |
- @Enock4seth: Thanks so much! I wish I could write more,but time and all that-- but will make a point of trying to keep it up :) Sadads (talk) 18:26, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
ArbCom 2019 special circular
[edit]![]() |
Administrators must secure their accounts
The Arbitration Committee may require a new RfA if your account is compromised.
|
This message was sent to all administrators following a recent motion. Thank you for your attention. For the Arbitration Committee, Cameron11598 02:30, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
Administrator account security (Correction to Arbcom 2019 special circular)
[edit]ArbCom would like to apologise and correct our previous mass message in light of the response from the community.
Since November 2018, six administrator accounts have been compromised and temporarily desysopped. In an effort to help improve account security, our intention was to remind administrators of existing policies on account security — that they are required to "have strong passwords and follow appropriate personal security practices." We have updated our procedures to ensure that we enforce these policies more strictly in the future. The policies themselves have not changed. In particular, two-factor authentication remains an optional means of adding extra security to your account. The choice not to enable 2FA will not be considered when deciding to restore sysop privileges to administrator accounts that were compromised.
We are sorry for the wording of our previous message, which did not accurately convey this, and deeply regret the tone in which it was delivered.
For the Arbitration Committee, -Cameron11598 21:04, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – May 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2019).
- A request for comment concluded that creating pages in the portal namespace should be restricted to autoconfirmed users.
- Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.
- XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.
- In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases,
the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions
; administrators found failing to have adequately done sowill not be resysopped automatically
. All current administrators have been notified of this change. - Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.
- In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases,
- A request for comment is currently open to amend the community sanctions procedure to exclude non XfD or CSD deletions.
- A proposal to remove pre-2009 indefinite IP blocks is currently open for discussion.
DYK for Alfred Brownell
[edit]Hi Sadads, I enjoyed your article on Alfred Brownell, and have nominated it for DYK. The DYK nomination is here. Thanks, Philepitta (talk) 02:57, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
- @Philepitta: Thanks so much! I really appreciate the interest and confidence in the article! You took part in expanding the article as well as, now, sheppherding it along the DYK process: make sure you take some credit as well! Sadads (talk) 07:08, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
Aaron Wade - short description
[edit]Hi Sadads, Greetings. This is regarding your edit. Pls see Wikipedia:Short description " all articles should have a short description template......The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) initially arranged for short descriptions to be drawn from the Description field in Wikidata entries. Later, WMF made provision for these to be overwritten by short descriptions generated within Wikipedia." If further explanation needed, pls contact Pbsouthwood. Thank you. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 14:01, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
- @CASSIOPEIA:: There is no consensus for them to be used in preference to Wikidata: see the mile long discussion, with no evidence to that case. The Wikidata description is better than the one on wiki... so no reason to overwrite. Sadads (talk) 14:22, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
- Hi Sadads,Greetings. my understanding is that we could import the info from Wikidata if it is suitable or we could edit the short description as we see fit. CASSIOPEIA(talk) 14:28, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CLVII, May 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 11:04, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
Hi. I'm not saying that the wikidata description isn't more, well, descriptive. Unfortunately, the SD should be 40 characters or less. This has to do with mobile users, apparently. Regardless, if you still feel the need to delete the sd, that's up to you. I'm simply trying to help fill in the sd's as I go along. Take care.Onel5969 TT me 14:35, 15 May 2019 (UTC)
Facto Post – Issue 24 – 17 May 2019
[edit]Facto Post – Issue 24 – 17 May 2019![]() ![]() The Editor is Charles Matthews, for ContentMine. Please leave feedback for him, on his User talk page.
To subscribe to Facto Post go to Wikipedia:Facto Post mailing list. For the ways to unsubscribe, see the footer.
Two dozen issues, and this may be the last, a valediction at least for a while. It's time for a two-year summation of ContentMine projects involving TDM (text and data mining). Wikidata and now Structured Data on Commons represent the overlap of Wikimedia with the Semantic Web. This common ground is helping to convert an engineering concept into a movement. TDM generally has little enough connection with the Semantic Web, being instead in the orbit of machine learning which is no respecter of the semantic. Don't break a taboo by asking bots "and what do you mean by that?" The ScienceSource project innovates in TDM, by storing its text mining results in a Wikibase site. It strives for compliance of its fact mining, on drug treatments of diseases, with an automated form of the relevant Wikipedia referencing guideline MEDRS. Where WikiFactMine set up an API for reuse of its results, ScienceSource has a SPARQL query service, with look-and-feel exactly that of Wikidata's at query.wikidata.org. It also now has a custom front end, and its content can be federated, in other words used in data mashups: it is one of over 50 sites that can federate with Wikidata. The human factor comes to bear through the front end, which combines a link to the HTML version of a paper, text mining results organised in drug and disease columns, and a SPARQL display of nearby drug and disease terms. Much software to develop and explain, so little time! Rather than telling the tale, Facto Post brings you ScienceSource links, starting from the how-to video, lower right.
The review tool requires a log in on sciencesource.wmflabs.org, and an OAuth permission (bottom of a review page) to operate. It can be used in simple and more advanced workflows. Examples of queries for the latter are at d:Wikidata_talk:ScienceSource project/Queries#SS_disease_list and d:Wikidata_talk:ScienceSource_project/Queries#NDF-RT issue. Please be aware that this is a research project in development, and may have outages for planned maintenance. That will apply for the next few days, at least. The ScienceSource wiki main page carries information on practical matters. Email is not enabled on the wiki: use site mail here to Charles Matthews in case of difficulty, or if you need support. Further explanatory videos will be put into commons:Category:ContentMine videos. If you wish to receive no further issues of Facto Post, please remove your name from our mailing list. Alternatively, to opt out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery to your user talk page.
Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery |
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:52, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
Books & Bytes, Issue 33
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 33, March – April 2019
- #1Lib1Ref
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:41, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
Please be more careful...
[edit]In 2016 you redirected AURYN to The Neverending Story#Plot summary with the edit summary "boldly redirecting, discusssed pretty well in plot section"
Woah! WTF!
This kind of redirection is a terrible disservice to readers.
I suspect it never occurred to you that AURYN is related to any other topic than the The Neverending Story. If so, frankly, your bold redirect showed a terrific failure of imagination, on your part. Today I was reading our article on Brandi Carlisle. That article said she had an AURYN tattoo. I clicked on the AURYN wikilink, expecting to be taken to an article about AURYN, that would explain the topic for me.
Imagine my shock when, instead, it plunged me into the middle of an article about a children's movie, from decades ago.
Wikilinks should do what readers expect. They should not lead readers on wild goose chases.
If a topic is significant enough for a redirect, it generally merits a standalone article. Geo Swan (talk) 20:56, 26 May 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – June 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2019).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
Andonic • Consumed Crustacean • Enigmaman • Euryalus • EWS23 • HereToHelp • Nv8200pa • Peripitus • StringTheory11 • Vejvančický
- An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
- An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
- An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.
- The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
- Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.
- The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
- The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.
Category:People associated with William Blake has been nominated for discussion
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5f/Ambox_warning_orange.svg/48px-Ambox_warning_orange.svg.png)
Category:People associated with William Blake, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. --woodensuperman 14:54, 10 June 2019 (UTC)
DYK for Alfred Brownell
[edit]On 11 June 2019, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Alfred Brownell, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Liberian lawyer Alfred Brownell won the "Green Nobel" prize for his efforts to protect more than 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) of tropical forest land? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Alfred Brownell. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Alfred Brownell), 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.
— Amakuru (talk) 00:01, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CLVIII, June 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:08, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
Thanks from Wastrel
[edit]Thanks for your feedback on my Darkover edits. I have collected some scholarly material and I'm still working on it. Progress is slow, and right now I have other things going on, but I still keep the pages open and make a small revision or addition daily. My sandbox is a mess. Wastrel Way (talk) 19:54, 29 June 2019 (UTC) Eric
Administrators' newsletter – July 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2019).
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/ANEWSicon.png/150px-ANEWSicon.png)
28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam1 • Flyguy649 • Fram2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
- 1Floquenbeam's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
- 2Fram's access was removed, then restored, then removed again.
|
|
- A request for comment seeking to alleviate pressures on the request an account (ACC) process proposes either raising the account creation limit for extended confirmed editors or granting the account creator permission on request to new ACC tool users.
- In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.
- The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
- The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
- A request for comment seeks to determine whether Wikipedia:Office actions should be a policy page or an information page.
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.
- In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop Fram. This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.
I have unreviewed a page you curated
[edit]Thanks for reviewing Pride De Goa, Sadads.
Winged Blades of Godric has gone over this page again and marked it as unpatrolled. Their note is:
Un-reviewing. This is far from an encyclopedic article and is rather a collection of trivia. Also, I suspect that the event is non-notable and might need to be merged to LGBT_culture_in_India per WP:NOPAGE.
Please contact Winged Blades of Godric for any further query. Thanks.
Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.
∯WBGconverse 15:35, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
Thanks
[edit]Hello @Sadads: thanks alot sir, I'm very greatful towards you. You really appreciate the efforts of newly Wikipedia editor who are learning and contributing to Wikipedia. Thanks very much to look into my article creation and giving your valuable time in reviewing. MDPMHG (talk) 01:11, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
Books & Bytes Issue 34, May – June 2019
[edit]Books & Bytes
Issue 34, May – June 2019
- Partnerships
- #1Lib1Ref
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:21, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CLIX, July 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:01, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
I have unreviewed a page you curated
[edit]Thanks for reviewing Belinda Brady, Sadads.
Kudpung has gone over this page again and marked it as unpatrolled. Their note is:
59% COPYVIO. You missed the numerous copyright violations . The author should be encouraged to write the article in their own words.
Please contact Kudpung for any further query. Thanks.
Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.
Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 00:14, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
I have unreviewed a page you curated
[edit]Hi, I'm Bensci54. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Abraham Mutholath, and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.
Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.
Bensci54 (talk) 16:05, 22 July 2019 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – August 2019
[edit]News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2019).
|
![]()
|
- Following a request for comment, the page Wikipedia:Office actions has been changed from a policy page to an information page.
- A request for comment (permalink) is in progress regarding the administrator inactivity policy.
- Editors may now use the template {{Ds/aware}} to indicate that they are aware that discretionary sanctions are in force for a topic area, so it is unnecessary to alert them.
- Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
- The new page reviewer right is bundled with the admin tool set. Many admins regularly help out at Special:NewPagesFeed, but they may not be aware of improvements, changes, and new tools for the Curation system. Stay up to date by subscribing here to the NPP newsletter that appears every two months, and/or putting the reviewers' talk page on your watchlist.
Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.
Thank You For Feedback
[edit]Really appreciate the reviews you did for my pages. Was looking through your user page and am very impressed by the range of pages you have created and contributed to, especially the Good Articles. My main ambition is to get the pages for novels I love to be Good Articles. I'd be curious to know what sort of requirements are looked for to get a page to Good Article status. ANDROMITUS (talk) 15:29, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
- Hi @ANDROMITUS: -- see the guidance Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Novels -- that is the main guidance I point folks to for writing novels articles. I am happy to give more targeted feedback on articles, if you have specific ones that you want to work on. Sadads (talk) 17:37, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
The Plumed Serpent
[edit]Hello, Sadads. On 17 April, 2017, you rated the article The Plumed Serpent as start-class. The article has been improved since then, so would you be willing to revise the rating? I would prefer not to rate my own work. Freeknowledgecreator (talk) 09:03, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CLX, August 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:41, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
The Bugle: Issue CLX, August 2019
[edit]
|
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:42, 16 August 2019 (UTC)