User talk:Darkwind/Archive 3
Nice SKSHi, I saw your picture of your heavily modified SKS. I just picked one up and I'm also going to modify it and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. You can reach me at [email protected]. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.240.241.2 (talk) 05:37, 5 June 2011 (UTC) GOCE elections
Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 07:46, 19 June 2011 (UTC) GOCE drive invitation
Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 08:53, 3 July 2011 (UTC) A kitten for you!![]() Ball's in your court Robinson4ever (talk) 13:36, 28 July 2011 (UTC)
revision changesWhy did you undo my revision? The page is about me & my family. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrblackwell67 (talk • contribs) 19:55, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
Minute to Win It challengesAck, hit the wrong button? How do you manage that? cyberpower (talk) 19:23, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
Sorry About The Arlington Road DisasterI was trying to fix the page, which had been obviously vandalized (i've seen the film before) but it was overbloated with a cast list where 80% of the film cast list were not anywhere to be found in teh film. Tried to edit it, but it came out badly and wasn't sure how to fix it back. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.61.154.57 (talk) 05:08, August 8, 2011
SUL requestsThis is to confirm that I request to usurp the username Darkwind on es.wikipedia and nn.wikipedia. —Darkwind (talk) 05:51, 12 August 2011 (UTC)
highcockalorumyou've rejected my (first ever) update to a Wiki page regarding Highcockalorum. I felt I had some relevant information and clarification (eg as stated the 'rules' are VERY ambiguous -12 per team or total; ref to a room which can, in fact, be an open space; etc; etc. I don't uinderstand what I've done wrong! I cann't even find a route to what I wrote! Can I have a red-penned copy? As a 'newbee' I've even found it difficult to get to this page and i still cann't see how to send it to you but will try 'save'. I've done the 4 tildes as instructed. All not very user friendly! Rennatian (talk) 17:20, 7 August 2011 (UTC)
Defeated, almost!
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Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 16:15, 21 August 2011 (UTC) Re: Your GA nomination of Mobile Suit Gundam SEEDThanks for the review. Regards.Tintor2 (talk) 10:52, 23 August 2011 (UTC) Shandi FinnesseyThanks for the quick review. Could you please finish the procedures for passing an article described at WP:GAC.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 03:29, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
Speedy deletion declined: Verified Audit CirculationHello Darkwind. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Verified Audit Circulation, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: The article makes a credible assertion of importance or significance, sufficient to pass A7. Thank you. Danger (talk) 04:27, 28 August 2011 (UTC) Sequence of inline references using AWBHi. At Anne McCaffrey yesterday, do you know the rationale for reordering the sequence of inline references below line 90 (latest revision)? --P64 (talk) 00:15, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
lakota west high schoolMatt Ferrall is not a notable alumni from lakota west. It isn't cited and shouldn't be in there. He's a nobody who just put his name in for fun. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.11.11.3 (talk) 17:47, 3 September 2011 (UTC) Please comment on Talk:C++Responding to RFCs
Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:C++. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! However, please note that your input will carry no greater weight than anyone else's: remember that an RFC aims to reach a reasoned consensus position, and is not a vote. In support of that, your contribution should focus on thoughtful evaluation of the issues and available evidence, and provide further relevant evidence if possible. You have received this notice because your name is on Wikipedia:Feedback request service. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from that page. RFC bot (talk) 07:35, 6 September 2011 (UTC) How to provide 3O"Provide third opinions on the disputed article talk pages, not on this page." - from the 3O page. I relisted.--Elvey (talk) 16:14, 14 September 2011 (UTC)
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Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 05:28, 21 September 2011 (UTC) Thank you for your comments on my edit. This was my first attempt and I'm a little confused as to what I should do now - and also where such a comment should go. The question is a serious one. Our Israeli guide pointed out the anomaly and could not understand how this word had got into the hymn. Perhaps my suggestion could in time support an edit of the original text of this well-loved hymn. However my Hebrew is not good enough for me to have the temerity to even suggest that at this stage, so I wanted to pose the question in an open forum.EAnnP (talk) 07:29, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:VerifiabilityResponding to RFCs
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</noinclude> Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 04:15, 8 October 2011 (UTC) Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/IconsResponding to RFCs
Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Icons. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! However, please note that your input will carry no greater weight than anyone else's: remember that an RFC aims to reach a reasoned consensus position, and is not a vote. In support of that, your contribution should focus on thoughtful evaluation of the issues and available evidence, and provide further relevant evidence if possible. You have received this notice because your name is on Wikipedia:Feedback request service. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from that page. RFC bot (talk) 00:15, 21 October 2011 (UTC) GOCE drive newsletter
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Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! However, please note that your input will carry no greater weight than anyone else's: remember that an RFC aims to reach a reasoned consensus position, and is not a vote. In support of that, your contribution should focus on thoughtful evaluation of the issues and available evidence, and provide further relevant evidence if possible. You have received this notice because your name is on Wikipedia:Feedback request service. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from that page. RFC bot (talk) 00:16, 5 November 2011 (UTC) Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/LayoutResponding to RFCs
Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Layout. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! However, please note that your input will carry no greater weight than anyone else's: remember that an RFC aims to reach a reasoned consensus position, and is not a vote. In support of that, your contribution should focus on thoughtful evaluation of the issues and available evidence, and provide further relevant evidence if possible. You have received this notice because your name is on Wikipedia:Feedback request service. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from that page. RFC bot (talk) 01:15, 20 November 2011 (UTC) Please comment on Talk:Citing sourcesResponding to RFCs
Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Citing sources. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! However, please note that your input will carry no greater weight than anyone else's: remember that an RFC aims to reach a reasoned consensus position, and is not a vote. In support of that, your contribution should focus on thoughtful evaluation of the issues and available evidence, and provide further relevant evidence if possible. You have received this notice because your name is on Wikipedia:Feedback request service. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from that page. RFC bot (talk) 01:15, 5 December 2011 (UTC) Please comment on Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowserGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 02:15, 20 December 2011 (UTC) GOCE drive newsletter
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Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 06:04, 2 January 2012 (UTC) Please comment on Talk:Richard von Krafft-EbingGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 02:15, 4 January 2012 (UTC) San Francisco meetup at WMF headquartersHi Darkwind, I just wanted to give you a heads-up about the next wiki-meetup happening in SF. It'll be located at our very own Wikimedia Foundation offices, and we'd love it if some local editors who are new to the meetup scene came and got some free lunch with us :) Please sign up on the meetup page if you're interested in attending, and I hope to see you soon! Maryana (WMF) (talk) 22:52, 6 January 2012 (UTC) Please comment on Talk:Hindhead TunnelGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Hindhead Tunnel. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 04:15, 3 February 2012 (UTC) Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soap OperasGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Soap Operas. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 05:15, 18 February 2012 (UTC) New Page Triage engagement strategy releasedHey guys! I'm dropping you a note because you filled out the New Page Patrol survey, and indicated you'd be interested in being contacted about follow-up work. This is to notify you that we've finally released both the initial documentation about the project and also the engagement strategy, which sets out how we plan to work with the community on this. Please give both a read, and leave any comments or suggestions you have on the talkpage, on my talkpage, or in my inbox - okeyes It's awesome to finally get to start work on this! :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 02:18, 3 March 2012 (UTC) Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbersGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 06:16, 4 March 2012 (UTC) Eric Franklin articlePlease, could you have a look to the article? I have tried to follow your advices. Tell me if there is any other mistake. Thank you. "Sferaviola (talk) 14:16, 8 March 2012 (UTC)" Evercore Wealth ManagementYou tagged my post for Evercore Wealth Management for reasons which I do not understand. EWM is one of the largest wealth managers in the United Statesd (Barron's survey 2010), the fastest growing RIA (registered investment advisor) according to Investment News, and the wealth management subsidiary of Evercore, as is mentioned on the parent company's wiki page. Certainly these reasons justify a page don't you agree? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Halligan96 (talk • contribs) 13:55, 9 March 2012 (UTC) The version of the article that I tagged for deletion did not mention any of those facts -- the article, at the time, did not say why Evercore is important. If you've updated the article to reflect its importance, great! The admin who reviews the deletion request will see that and not delete the article. —Darkwind (talk) 04:55, 10 March 2012 (UTC) Thanks!Thank you and please correct me if I do something wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xomanowar (talk • contribs) 20:43, 10 March 2012 (UTC) Barnstar
New Page Triage newsletterHey all! Thanks to everyone who attended our first office hours session; the logs can be found here, if you missed it, and we should be holding a second one on Thursday, 22 March 2012 at 18:00 UTC in #wikimedia-office. I hope to see you all there :). In the meantime, I have greatly expanded the details available at Wikipedia:New Page Triage: there's a lot more info about precisely what we're planning. If you have ideas, and they aren't listed there, bring them up and I'll pass them on to the developers for consideration in the second sprint. And if you know anyone who might be interested in contributing, send them there too! Regards, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 00:24, 14 March 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 12 March 2012
Anonymous commentWait what did I edit?72.223.39.119 (talk) 19:42, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Today's featured listGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Today's featured list. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 07:15, 19 March 2012 (UTC) Article about JOSEF HEDINGERHello - honestly I am a little bit confused about your comment on the article about Josef Hedinger - of course I can put many more sources to back up this article but I am not sure if they qualify as a "reliable sources". the point here is that we are talking about a singer complitely unknown YET in USA who achieved a huge success as a debut artist overseas in Poland and Indonesia. When a new artist appears in any country the sources to back up his success are TV appearences, live performences during music avards galas, interviews and articles in press, main websites etc. It's impossible to provide sources like quotations from books or anything, what author except press journalist would write in a book about a debuing artist? When it comes to Josef Hedinger and his success in Poland, except that sources that I provide (maybe really to little of them - I'll improve it) I can only provide links to the articles on Polish MAIN websites such as WP.PL or ONET.PL, and tones of other links to the articles about Josef, as well as references to the like 20 articles about Josef Hedinger in Polish press including main weeklies, monthlies and dailys (as. "Tele Tydzien", "Twoj Styl", "Popcorn", "Metro" and many many more) so I am able and I will provide these sources soon. When it comes to Indonesia - it's more complicated here - Indonesian internet is very very poor and limited. Josef Hedinger released his album with Warner Indonesia, he was on a list of artists on Warner Indonesia website, but this website (http://www.warnermusic.co.id/) but this website seems to not exist anymore. I have print screens and scans of about 30 music Indonesian charts of Indonesian radios such as DJ FM, Kiss Fm etc, that shows Josef Hedinger's songs being charted there on top places - BUT I have them phisically on my hard disk, It's not like they are gathered on any website. If you want I can send you all print screens of all Charts (over 50 of them) from both Poland and Indonesia radio and national charts - just please provide me with your e-mail adress. I want an English speaking Wikipedia readers to find out about a great artist, being maybe in front of popularity also in English speaking countries, who achieved a huge success in Poland and Indonesia being complitelly unknown in his homeland - USA. Please advise what should I do - I will improve the article and give as many sources as possible, but it's impossible to give sources like books, encyclopedias etc, it's a young debuting artist who appearde in many TV shows, achieved frist places on many charts was a topic of many articles (NOT reviews, but regular articles and interviews) in Polish press, was one of the participants of INTERNATIONAL SOPOT FESTIVAL (central European big music event) etc. I want English readers to know that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikimyan (talk • contribs) 18:49, 19 March 2012 (UTC) help triage some feedbackHey guys. I appreciate this isn't quite what you signed up for, but I figured as people who are already pretty good at evaluating whether material is useful or not useful through Special:NewPages, you might be interested :). Over the last few months we've been developing the new Article Feedback Tool, which features a free text box. it is imperative that we work out in advance what proportion of feedback is useful or not so we can adjust the design accordingly and not overwhelm you with nonsense. This is being done through the Feedback Evaluation System (FES), a tool that lets editors run through a stream of comments, selecting their value and viability, so we know what type of design should be promoted or avoided. We're about to start a new round of evaluations, beginning with an office hours session tomorrow at 18:00 UTC. If you'd like to help preemptively kill poor feedback, come along to #wikimedia-office and we'll show you how to use the tool. If you can't make it, send me an email at okeyes All the best, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 21:36, 20 March 2012 (UTC) Carlos CastanedaHello, Received this notification recently: "Your recent edit to the page Carlos Castaneda with this edit appears to have added incorrect information and has been reverted or removed." signed with your name. Not exactly clear on what has been "reverted" or why. What information did I add or change which you believe to be "incorrect"? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.92.174.105 (talk) 21:11, 22 March 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 26 March 2012
The Signpost: 02 April 2012
A big NPT updateHey! Big update on what the developers have been working on, and what is coming up: coding
All other elements are either undergoing research, or about to have development started. I appreciate this sounds like we've not got through much work, and truthfully we're a bit disappointed with it as well; we thought we'd be going at a faster pace :(. Unfortunately there seems to be some 24-72 hour bug sweeping the San Francisco office at the moment, and at one time or another we've had several devs out of it. It's kind of messed with workflow. Stuff to look at We've got a pair of new mockups to comment on that deal with the filtering mechanism; this is a slightly updated mockup of the list view, and this is what the filtering tab is going to look like. All thoughts, comments and suggestions welcome on the NPT talkpage :). I'd also like to thank the people who came to our last two office hours sessions; the logs will be shortly available here. I've also just heard that the first functional prototype for enwiki will be deployed mid-April! Really, really stoked to see this happening :). We're finding out if we can stick something up a bit sooner on prototype.wiki or something. I appreciate there may be questions or suggestions where I've said "I'll find out and get back to you" and then, uh. not ;p. I sincerely apologise for that: things have been a bit hectic at this end over the last few weeks. But if you've got anything I've missed, drop me a line and I'll deal with it! Further questions or issues to the usual address. Thanks, Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 17:10, 3 April 2012 (UTC) GOCE March drive wrap-up
Smile!
The Signpost: 09 April 2012
Typoscan is working againJust in case you haven't been following Wikipedia:WikiProject TypoScan, Reedy got this working again. Happy editing! GoingBatty (talk) 01:57, 15 April 2012 (UTC)
The Signpost: 16 April 2012
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tennis/Tennis namesGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tennis/Tennis names. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 07:16, 18 April 2012 (UTC) GOCE May copy edit drive
The Signpost: 23 April 2012
Patrick Denis O'DonnellIn response to your query, I can confirm that the photo of this subject was taken by me from a photo owned by the late Patrick Denis O'Donnell, and under license from his heirs to use in the global commons and for the wikipedia article on him. Seneschally (talk) 22:11, 29 April 2012 (UTC)
Mike JemisonHello, I am trying to edit part of Mike Jemison's page. There is information that has kept him from some success in his life after his troubles. Please let me know how I can get rid of it. thank you, (1wirenut (talk) 02:29, 1 May 2012 (UTC))
Please comment on Talk:Get Smart!Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Get Smart!. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 08:15, 3 May 2012 (UTC) New Pages updateHey Darkwind/Archive 3 :). A quick update on how things are going with the New Page Triage/New Pages Feed project. As the enwiki page notes, the project is divided into two chunks: the "list view" (essentially an updated version of Special:NewPages) and the "article view", a view you'll be presented with when you open up individual articles that contains a toolbar with lots of options to interact with the page - patrolling it, adding maintenance tags, nominating it for deletion, so on. On the list view front, we're pretty much done! We tried deploying it to enwiki, in line with our Engagement Strategy on Wednesday, but ran into bugs and had to reschedule - the same happened on Thursday :(. We've queued a new deployment for Monday PST, and hopefully that one will go better. If it does, the software will be ready to play around with and test by the following week! :). On the article view front, the developers are doing some fantastic work designing the toolbar, which we're calling the "curation bar"; you can see a mockup here. A stripped-down version of this should be ready to deploy fairly soon after the list view is; I'm afraid I don't have precise dates yet. When I have more info, or can unleash everyone to test the list view, I'll let you know :). As always, any questions to the talkpage for the project or mine. Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 23:28, 5 May 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 07 May 2012
ThanksThat's fine. Thanks for the heads up.Hoops gza (talk) 03:01, 13 May 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 14 May 2012
GOCE May mid-drive newsletter
Please comment on Talk:Chernobyl after the disasterGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Chernobyl after the disaster. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 08:15, 18 May 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 21 May 2012
Articles for Creation Appeal
The Signpost: 28 May 2012
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbersGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 09:15, 2 June 2012 (UTC) GOCE May drive wrap-up
The Signpost: 04 June 2012
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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject CategoriesGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Categories. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 10:15, 17 June 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 18 June 2012
GOCE July 2012 Copy Edit Drive
The Signpost: 25 June 2012
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject YugoslaviaGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Yugoslavia. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 11:15, 2 July 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 02 July 2012
The Signpost: 09 July 2012
Wikipedia has a long history of collaborating with educational institutions. The Schools and universities program — international and in many languages, but dominated by US institutions — started in 2003 and evolved case by case with little system. However, that changed in 2009 as Wikimedia embarked on its formal strategic process, and outreach in higher education came to be seen in terms of achieving explicit goals — especially that of increasing editor participation.
The Russian Wikipedia has been blacked out for 24 hours, ending 20:00 UTC Tuesday, as a protest against Russian State Duma Bill 89417-6, a bill currently before the Duma (the Russian parliament). Visitors to the Russian Wikipedia are confronted by the sign above in protest at a draconian internet censorship bill before the Duma. The Russian word for Wikipedia is crossed out in this banner, and the text says: "Imagine a world without free knowledge. The State Duma is currently conducting the second reading of a bill to amend the "Law on Information", which has the potential to lead to the creation of extra-judicial censorship of the Internet in Russia, including the closure of access to the Russian Wikipedia. Today, the Wikipedia community protests against censorship as a threat to free knowledge that is open to all mankind. We ask that you oppose this bill."
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Football, which focuses on the sport also known as association football or soccer. WikiProject Football is by far the largest sport project and one of the most active projects on Wikipedia in terms of the number of articles covered, edits to articles, and talk page watchers.
Eight featured articles were promoted this week: ... Aries (constellation) by Keilana. Aries the Ram (symbol ♈) is one of the constellations of the Zodiac and one of 88 currently recognised constellations. Its area is 441 square degrees (1.1% of the celestial sphere). Although fairly dim, with only three bright stars, it is home to several deep-sky objects.
No cases were closed or opened, leaving the number of open cases at three. ... The case concerns alleged misconduct with regards to aggressive responses and harassment by Fæ toward users who question his actions.
The results from last month's trial of the LastModified extension were published this week on the Wikimedia blog. The first analyses have indicated a significant positive impact, suggesting that the extension – which makes the time since a page's last edit much more prominent in the interface – could eventually find its way onto Wikimedia wikis.
GOCE July 2012 mid-drive newsletter
The Signpost: 16 July 2012
User:Fæ was elected as the inaugural chair of the new Wikimedia Chapters Association, despite the controversies that have surrounded Fæ on the English Wikipedia and Commons, most recently aired in a live case before the Arbitration Committee. This is in marked contrast with unexciting movement, during the Wikimania meeting, on the most important issues facing the establishment of the association.
During Wikimania (July 12-15), the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) board finalized and enacted long-discussed reforms of the movement's financial structures, and considered procedures for creating new ways for Wikimedians to organize themselves into offline communities. The board moved on the controversial image filter issue, approved the 2012–13 annual plan, and issued a statement on the wikitravel proposal. It also appointed the two new chapter-selected trustees and elected the four office-bearers.
With the Tour de France in its final week, we traveled to the French Wikipedia for a chat with Projet Cyclisme (WikiProject Cycling). The French Wikipedia places a greater emphasis on portals than the English Wikipedia, which explains why WikiProject Cycling and its discussion page are actually extensions of the Cycling Portal. The project is home to two Article de Qualité (equivalent to Featured Articles) and eight Bon Article (Good Articles), primarily biographies of cyclists.
A brief overview of the current discussions on the English Wikipedia, including one regarding the purpose of the Community Portal. Started by Maryana, a Wikimedia Foundation employee, is this page for new users to be educated about the community, or is it for experienced users to find updates about the community?
Nearly 1400 Wikimedians and others from 87 countries descended on the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., for Wikimania 2012. Even with an unprecedented number (1400) of conference attendees — the previous two Wikimanias, held in Gdańsk (Poland) and Haifa (Israel), were attended by fewer than 1100 people combined – Wikimania 2012 was a complete success, with attendees' reaction to the conference coming out as ecstatic and laudatory.
Eight featured articles were promoted this week, including Paul McCartney by GabeMc. McCartney (born 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and composer. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and his collaboration with John Lennon is highly celebrated. After the band's break-up he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings. McCartney has been described by Guinness World Records as the "most successful composer and recording artist of all time", and his song "Yesterday" has been covered more than any other song in history.
As Wikimania, the annual conference targeted at Wikimedians and often well attended by those with a technical slant, draws to a close, comments have already begun to come in from attendees regarding the many tech-related features of the conference.
No cases were closed or opened, leaving the number of open cases at three. A new remedy in the Fæ case calls for him to be indefinitely banned from the site after his attempts to solicit intervention from the Foundation, claiming that publicly listing all his accounts would be too onerous due to "ongoing security risks." He was further criticised for attempting to dodge good-faith concerns; the committee believes that if Fæ's claims are valid then he must be removed from the community.
The Signpost: 23 July 2012
Does Wikipedia pay? is an ongoing Signpost series seeking to illuminate paid editing, paid advocacy, for-profit Wikipedia consultants, editing public relations professionals, conflict of interest guidelines in practice, and the Wikipedians who work on these issues... by speaking openly with the people involved.
The Signpost's goal is to provide readers with essential information about the Wikimedia movement and the English Wikipedia – both of which have become large and extremely complex institutions that require timely, balanced and in-depth coverage.
Two weeks ago the Signpost reported that the Russian Wikipedia had just begun a 24-hour blackout in protest at a bill that was before the Russian parliament that proposed mechanisms to block IP addresses and DNS records. The protest, implemented after on-wiki consensus was reached during the preceding days, concerned the potential of the amendment to the information law to allow extra-judicial censorship of the internet in Russia, including the closure of access to the Russian Wikipedia. Among the questions now are how effective the blackout was and where we go from here in terms of internet freedom in one of the world's biggest and most influential countries.
With the 2012 Summer Olympic Games beginning this weekend in London, we decided to catch up with the chaps at WikiProject Olympics. The last time we interviewed WikiProject Olympics was in February 2010 when the project was gearing up for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. We wanted to know how the project has grown since then and whether preparing for a Summer Olympics was more grueling.
For the second time this year (and the third in the history of the committee), there are no open cases, as all three active cases were closed last week.
There has never been a better time to improve the behavior of marketing professionals on Wikipedia. For the first time we're seeing self-imposed statements of ethics. Professional PR bodies around the globe have supported the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) guidance for ethical Wikipedia engagement. Although their tone is different, CREWE and the PRSA have brought more attention to the issues. Awareness among PR professionals is rising. So are the number of paid editing operations sprouting up and the opportunity for dialogue.
One featured article was promoted this week, Melville Island. A small peninsula in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, it was discovered by Europeans in the 1600s and initially used for storehouses. The land was purchased by the British and used to hold prisoners of war, then to receive escaped slaves from the United States. After being used as a place of quarantine and later a recruitment centre, the land was granted to Canada in 1907 and used to house prisoners of war. It is now home to the clubhouse and marina of the Armdale Yacht Club.
In the first of a series looking at this year's eight ongoing Google Summer of Code projects, the Signpost caught up with developer Harry Burt.
GOCE July drive wrap-up
The Signpost: 30 July 2012From the modeling of social dynamics in a collaborative environment to why the number of Wikipedia readers rises while the number of editors doesn't.
Wikimedia Foundation published its Annual Plan, focusing on technical improvements, editor retention, and structural reforms over the coming year. The movement's total revenue, including almost all chapter funding, is slated to rise by 35%, from $34.2 million to $46.1 million, and global spending to more than $42.1 million. The foundation's own core spending will grow by 15% to $30.2 million in 2012–13.
We continue our Summer Sports Series this week with WikiProject Horse Racing. Started in November 2005, the project has grown to include nearly 8,000 articles maintained by 34 active members. There are 10 Featured Articles and 19 Good Articles included in the project's scope. In addition to preparing articles for GA and FA status, the project attempts to create requested articles and locate requested images. We interviewed Redrose64, Montanabw, Tigerboy1966, Ealdgyth, and Cuddy Wifter.
Eight new featured articles, five new featured lists, and eight new featured pictures. The highlights include a new featured picture of Frank Sinatra, created by William P. Gottlieb and nominated by Tomer T. Sinatra (1915–98) was a highly successful American singer and film actor whose career spanned 60 years. This image dates from around 1947.
In the light of recent questions over the long-term reliability of Wikimedia wikis, the Signpost caught up with CT Woo, the Wikimedia Foundation's director of technical operations.
Arbitrator Kirill Lokshin proposed a motion requiring the alteration of any instances of an editor's previous username in arbitration decisions to reflect their name changes. The Devil's Advocate has initiated an amendment request for the controversial Race and intelligence case.
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Vietnamese)Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Vietnamese). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 12:15, 1 August 2012 (UTC) Page Triage newsletterHey all. Some quick but important updates on what we've been up to and what's coming up next :). The curation toolbar, our Wikimedia-supported twinkle replacement. We're going to be deploying it, along with a pile of bugfixes, to wikipedia on 9 August. After a few days to check it doesn't make anything explode or die, we'll be sticking up a big notice and sending out an additional newsletter inviting people to test it out and give us feedback :). This will be followed by two office hours sessions - one on Tuesday the 14th of August at 19:00 UTC for all us Europeans, and one on Wednesday the 15th at 23:00 UTC for the East Coasters out there :). As always, these will be held in #wikimedia-office; drop me a note if you want to know how to easily get on IRC, or if you aren't able to attend but would like the logs. I hope to see a lot of you there; it's going to be a big day for everyone involved, I think :). I'll have more notes after the deployment! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 20:01, 3 August 2012 (UTC) Nomination of Anthropophilia in animals for deletion![]() A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Anthropophilia in animals is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted. The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Anthropophilia in animals until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines. Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article.— Preceding unsigned comment added by James Cantor (talk • contribs) 16:59, August 6, 2012 (UTC) New Pages newsletterHey all :) A couple of new things. First, you'll note that all the project titles have now changed to the Page Curation prefix, rather than having the New Pages Feed prefix. This is because the overarching project name has changed to Page Curation; the feed is still known as New Pages Feed, and the Curation Toolbar is still the Curation Toolbar. Hopefully this will be the last namechange ;p. On the subject of the Curation Toolbar (nice segue, Oliver!) - it's now deployed on Wikipedia. Just open up any article in the New Pages Feed and it should appear on the right. It's still a beta version - bugs are expected - and we've got a lot more work to do. But if you see something going wrong, or a feature missing, drop me a note or post on the project talkpage and I'll be happy to help :). We'll be holding two office hours sessions to discuss the tool and improvements to it; the first is at 19:00 UTC on 14 August, and the second at 23:00 on the 15th. Both will be in #wikimedia-office as always. Thanks! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 15:40, 10 August 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 13 August 2012
In a certain way, writing Wikipedia is the same everywhere, in every language or culture. You have to stick to the facts, aiming for the most objective way of describing them, including everything relevant and leaving out all the everyday trivia that is not really necessary to understand the context. You have to use critical thinking, trying to be independent of your own preferences and biases. To some effect, that's all there is to it. Naturally, Wikipedians have their biases, some of which can never be cured. Most Wikipedians tend to like encyclopedias; but millions of people in the world don't share that bias, and we represent them rather poorly. I'm also quite sure that an overwhelming majority of Wikipedia co-authors are literate. Again, that's not true for everyone in this world. Yet we have other, less noticeable but barely less fundamental biases.
The Bangla language, also known as Bengali, is spoken by some 200 million people in Bangladesh and India. The Bangla Wikipedia has a very small active community of about ten to fifteen very active editors, with another 35–40 as less active editors. The project faces particular challenges in being a small Wikipedia, and Dhaka-based WMF community fellow User:Tanvir Rahman is working to understand these challenges and to develop strategies that can improve small wikis that have strong potential to expand their editing communities.
A request for arbitration was filed late last week, ending the three-week long absence of pending cases.
Six featured articles were promoted this week, including Business US Highway 41, which was a state trunkline highway that served as a business loop in Marquette in the US state of Michigan.
Three weeks into a month-long evaluation of code review tool Gerrit, a serious alternative has finally gained traction in the review process: Facebook-developed but now independently operated Phabricator and its sister command-line tool Arcanist.
This week, we interviewed the lively bunch at WikiProject Dispute Resolution. Started in November 2011 to study and discuss improvements to Wikipedia's resources for resolving disputes between editors, the young project has supplemented dispute resolution efforts currently handled at the Dispute Resolution Noticeboard, Mediation Committee, and other venues. Over 40 editors have signed up to provide feedback, a variety of ideas have been proposed, and a manual for dispute resolution has been created.
Current proposals and requests for comments include a competition to redesign the main page ...
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject AirportsGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Airports. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 13:15, 16 August 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 20 August 2012The Wikimedia Foundation sometimes proposes new features that receive substantive criticism from Wikimedians, yet those criticisms may be dismissed on the basis that people are resistant to change—there's an unjustified view that the wikis have been overrun by vested contributors who hate all change. That view misses a lot of key details and insight because there are good reasons that Wikimedians are suspicious of features development, given past and present development of bad software, growing ties with the problematic Wikia, and a growing belief that it is acceptable to experiment on users.
The Core Contest is a month-long competition among editors to improve Wikipedia's most important "core" articles—especially those that are in a relatively poor state. Core articles, such as Music, Computer, and Philosophy, tend to lie in the trunk of the tree of knowledge; by analogy, featured-and good-article processes generally attract more specialist topics out on the branches.
In the Utah Court of Appeals this week, the majority opinion in Fire Insurance Exchange v. Robert Allen Oltmanns and Brady Blackner relied on Wikipedia for the basic premise of their legal opinion, and included a concurring opinion devoted solely to the issue of citing Wikipedia in a legal opinion.
Thirteen featured articles were promoted this week, including pelicans, which are a genus of large water birds comprising the family Pelecanidae, characterised by a long beak and large throat-pouch. They have a fossil record dating back at least 30 million years and are most closely related to the Shoebill and Hammerkop. These fish-feeders have a patchy relationship with humans: the birds are sometimes persecuted and sometimes feature in mythology.
New embeddable scripting ("template replacement") language Lua received considerable scrutiny this week when it began its long road to widespread deployment, landing on the test2wiki test site on Wednesday (wikitech-l mailing list). ... the fourth in our series profiling participants in this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC) programme.
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Korea. Started in September 2006, WikiProject Korea covers the history and culture of the Korean people, including both countries that currently occupy the Korean peninsula. This task has proven difficult with North Koreans notably absent from the Wikipedia community due to tight control over access to external media. The project is home to over 16,000 pages, including 15 pieces of Featured material and 66 Good and A-class Articles.
GOCE news and September drive invitation
The Signpost: 27 August 2012
Wikimedia editors have been debating a community proposal for the adoption of a new project to host free travel-guide content. The debate reached a new stage when a three-month request for comment on Meta came to an end, with a decision to set up the first new type of Wikimedia project in half a decade. The original proposal for the travel guide unfolded during April on Meta and the Wikimedia-l mailing lists, centring around the wish of volunteer contributors to the WikiTravel project to work in a non-commercial environment.
A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, edited jointly with the Wikimedia Research Committee and republished as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter.
Developers were left one step closer to an understanding of the code review outlook this week after the creation of a graph plotting "number changesets awaiting review" over time. The chart, which also shows the number of new changesets created on a daily basis, reveals a peak in the number of unreviewed changesets in mid-July, followed by a short drop. The current figure stands at approximately 219 unreviewed changesets.
This week the Signpost interviews Mark Arsten, who has written or contributed significantly to ten featured articles; most have related to new religious movements, and some have touched on other controversial or quirky topics. Mark gives us a rundown on how he keeps neutral and what drives him to write featured content; he also gives some hints for aspiring writers.
This week, we hopped in a little blue box with a batch of companions from WikiProject Doctor Who. Started in April 2005, the project has grown to include about 4,000 pages about the world's longest-running science fiction television show, its spinoffs, and various related material. The project is the parent of the Torchwood Taskforce and a child of WikiProject British TV and WikiProject Science Fiction. With new Doctor Who episodes airing this week and a 50th anniversary celebration around the corner, we thought now would be a good time to inquire about the famed Time Lord.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Lead sectionGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Lead section. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 13:15, 31 August 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 03 September 2012Some of Wikimedia's most valuable photographs have been shot and uploaded under free licenses as a direct result of the annual Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) event each September. Last year, the project was conducted on a European level, resulting in the submission of an extraordinary 168,208 free images of cultural heritage sites ("monuments") from 18 countries, making it the world's largest photographic competition. Organising the 2012 event—which has just opened and will run for the full month of September—has required input from chapters and volunteers in 35 countries.
Developers are currently discussing the possibility of a MediaWiki Foundation to oversee those aspects of MediaWiki development that relate to non-Wikimedia wikis. The proposal was generated after a discussion on the wikitech-l mailing list about generalising Wikimedia's CentralAuth system.
Five featured pictures were promoted this week, including a video explaining the recent landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. NASA called the final minutes of the complicated landing procedure "the seven minutes of terror".
Since May 2012 I've been a Wikimedia Foundation community fellow with the task of researching and improving dispute resolution on English Wikipedia. Surveying members of the community has revealed much about their thoughts on and experiences with dispute resolution. I've analysed processes to determine their use and effectiveness, and have presented ideas that I hope will improve the future of dispute resolution.
The Olive Branch: A Dispute Resolution Newsletter (Issue #1)Welcome to the first edition of The Olive Branch. This will be a place to semi-regularly update editors active in dispute resolution (DR) about some of the most important issues, advances, and challenges in the area. You were delivered this update because you are active in DR, but if you would prefer not to receive any future mailing, just add your name to this page. ![]() In this issue:
--The Olive Branch 18:57, 4 September 2012 (UTC) The Signpost: 10 September 2012
Thanks to the initiative of Yuvi Panda and Notnarayan, the Signpost now has an Android app, free for download on Google Play. ... but would readers be interested in an iOS app for Apple devices?
Much like article content, the English Wikipedia's help pages have grown organically over the years. Although this has produced a great deal of useful documentation, with time many of the pages have become poorly maintained or have grown overwhelmingly complicated.
Philip Roth, a widely known and acclaimed American author, wrote an open letter in the New Yorker addressed to Wikipedia this week, alleging severe inaccuracies in the article on his The Human Stain (2000).
Three hip hop discographies were promoted this week, alongside seven other lists.
After a week's hiatus, the WikiProject Report returns with an interview featuring WikiProject Fungi. Started in March 2006, the project has grown to include over 9,000 pages, including 47 Featured Articles and 176 Good Articles. The project maintains a list of high priority missing articles and stubs that need expansion.
In dramatic events that came to light last week, two English Wikipedia volunteers—Doc James (James Heilman) and Wrh2 (Ryan Holliday)—are being sued in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Internet Brands, the owner of Wikitravel.com. Both Wikipedians have also been volunteer Wikitravel editors (and in Holliday's case, a volunteer administrator). IB's complaints focus on both editors' encouragement of their fellow Wikitravel volunteers to migrate to a proposed non-commercial travel guidance site that would be under the umbrella of the WMF.
In its September issue, the peer-reviewed journal First Monday published The readability of Wikipedia, reporting research which shows that the English Wikipedia is struggling to meet Flesch reading ease test criteria, while the Simple English Wikipedia has "lost its focus".
The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for August 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project, phase 1 of which is edging its way towards its first deployment).
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject ShipsGreetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ships. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 15:27, 15 September 2012 (UTC) |