User talk:Mkdw/Archive 4
Speedy deletion converted to PROD: Churning WatersHello Mkdw. I am just letting you know that I have converted the speedy deletion tag that you placed on Churning Waters to a proposed deletion tag, because I do not believe CSD applies to the page in question. Thank you. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 07:40, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
"Kweesh...."Closest Chinook Jargon-like expletive I can think of right now for "whew!" (kweesht is more like "oh shit", that's from up Lillooet).Skookum1 (talk) 16:47, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 01 April 2013
The Wikimedia Foundation has released its latest report card for the movement's hundreds of sites. The WMF has published statistics about the sites since 2009, but only recently have these been expanded in scope and depth to provide a rich source of data for investigating the movement and the world it serves. Dutch-born Erik Zachte is the driver of the WMF's statistical output, and he writes that the report card and accompanying traffic statistics comprise "enough tables, bar charts and plots to keep you busy for a while".
This week's Report is dedicated to answering our readers' questions about WikiProjects. The following Frequently Asked Questions came from feedback at the WikiProject Report's talk page, the WikiProject Council's talk page, and from previous lists of FAQs.
The Signpost interviewed prolific featured content creator and former Signpost "featured content" report writer Crisco 1492 about ? and Indonesian cinema. ? was the "Today's featured article" for 1 April 2013. 1 April is popularly known as April Fools' Day in many countries.
The first round of individual engagement grants (IEGs) have been awarded, disbursing about $55.6k (€42.7k) to seven applicants.
A case brought by Lecen involves several articles about former Argentinian president Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877).
Users of ten Wikipedias got access to phase 2 of Wikidata following its first rollout to production wikis.
Luke CamilleriHi, this is not eligible for PROD as it was previously at AFD; please take back there and open a new nomination. Regards, GiantSnowman 18:00, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
Requests for Comment: Proposal for rewording WP:NSONGHi, an RfC has begun which proposes rewording WP:NSONG. As you participated in a related discussion, I invite you to join the RfC conversation. Regards, Gong show 04:52, 10 April 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 08 April 2013
Numerous Wikimedia Commons editors have chimed in on the Wikimedia Foundation's deployment of a new feature to its mobile website. Allowing anonymous users to register and upload pictures for use in an article, the feature was placed prominently at the top of Wikipedia articles in multiple languages.
This week, we felt the world tremble in the presence of WikiProject Earthquakes. The project was started in May 2008 to deal with articles about earthquakes, aftershocks, seismology, seismologists, plate tectonics, and related articles. While the project has seen success building 14 Featured Articles, one A-class Article, and 21 Good Articles, a fairly heavy workload remains, with a relative WikiWork rating of 4.94. WikiProject Earthquakes maintains a portal, a list of open tasks, a popular pages listing, and an article alerts watchlist.
Last Friday, the Wikimedia movement awoke to news that one of their number—Rémi Mathis, a French volunteer editor—had been summoned to the offices of the interior intelligence service DCRI and threatened with criminal charges and fines if he did not delete an article on the French Wikipedia about a radio station used by the French military.
The arbitration committee is looking for expertise in Argentina and the Spanish language for a case involving former Argentinean president Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877).
Four articles and two pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
The deployment of phase 2 of Wikidata to the English Wikipedia, originally scheduled for 8 April but delayed due to technical problems, may be rescheduled again as the result of community resistance.
I watch the page, so if you would like to restart the discussion on Wikipedia talk:Refactoring which your new thoughts, I look them over and reply. -- PBS (talk) 16:52, 12 April 2013 (UTC)
![]() You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template. --Vigyani (talk) 00:15, 13 April 2013 (UTC) Ducktails (band)Hi there I created a page for the band Ducktails - after several people before me tried and had their attempts deleted - but it was deleted by a chap named bwilkins who insists it doesn't meet the notability standards. He recommend I get in touch with an administrator involved with WP:MUSIC You can see the page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Marcushamblett/Ducktails_(band) I believe it meets several of the required criteria... what are your thoughts? thanks! Marcushamblett (talk) 23:42, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
DYK nomination of Sheng nu
![]() Message added 09:24, 23 April 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template. BarnstarThank you! I feel honored! —♦♦ AMBER(ЯʘCK) 21:37, 23 April 2013 (UTC) Speedy deletion converted to PROD: Digital dementiaHello Mkdw. I am just letting you know that I have converted the speedy deletion tag that you placed on Digital dementia to a proposed deletion tag, because I do not believe CSD applies to the page in question. Thank you. JohnCD (talk) 09:13, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
advice/actionPlease see User talk:Sunciviclee#Comments (from Bearcat) and followups, also at Talk:Adrian Dix there's a lot, re this situation here, and not my comments under my real name which I think you know. Isn't there a rule somewhere in Wikipedia about journalists as editors? Bearcat has advised me to stand down, the adminship will deal with this and I can only make it worse; I'm contemplating a complaint to the Press Council of BC for the Sun's slander and false facts, but that's like complaining to the RCMP's pet watchdog, it's just there to protect reporters and newspapers....and is run by the MSM no less.Skookum1 (talk) 06:31, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
DYK for Nandu River Iron Bridge
Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:04, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
Disambiguation link notification for April 17Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Brad Zellar, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Bloomington (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject. It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 14:29, 17 April 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 15 April 2013The RfA process is widely discussed here on the English Wikipedia and it has been well documented that less and less new Requests for adminship are being filed. There are an abundance of bytes devoted to the discussion and analysis of this situation and plenty of hands have been wrung over the matter. Various RfCs have attempted to find a way to fix the problem. Many proposals have been made offering solutions, some more potentially drastic than others, with the goal of making the changes necessary to kick–start RfA back into regular action. However, Wikipedia operates based on consensus and, to this point, there are have simply been too many disagreeing views for us to reach a consensus on how to increase RfA activity.
This week, we ventured to WikiProject South Africa. The project was started in February 2005 and is home to thirteen pieces of featured material, two A-class articles, and twenty-one good articles.
The most recent move to reform the requests for adminship process on the English Wikipedia has failed, after a complex and drawn-out three-step procedure for community input was subject to decreasing participation as time wore on and came up with no clear consensus.
Four articles, twelve lists, and seven pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Provided ALT1 for DYK. Check it out. Proudbolsahye (talk) 07:15, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
Regarding Port Logan standing stonesGreetings, Mkdw. I'm not sure what you mean by reviewing this page. I patrolled it because I thought it looked like a constructive stub, but I thought patrolling and reviewing are different actions. So a print encyclopedia, a strawberry shortcake, and a sycamore walk into a bar - wait, have you heard this one? (talk) 10:12, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
BedsonThanks for your help. I should have just blocked him as soon as I saw him and then gotten a CU for others. He's persistent, or perhaps obsessive is a better word. Dougweller (talk) 14:10, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
Ducktails (band)Hi there I created a page for the band Ducktails - after several people before me tried and had their attempts deleted - but it was deleted by a chap named bwilkins who insists it doesn't meet the notability standards. He recommend I get in touch with an administrator involved with WP:MUSIC You can see the page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Marcushamblett/Ducktails_(band) I believe it meets several of the required criteria... what are your thoughts? thanks! Marcushamblett (talk) 23:42, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
DYK nomination of Sheng nu
BarnstarThank you! I feel honored! —♦♦ AMBER(ЯʘCK) 21:37, 23 April 2013 (UTC) Disambiguation link notification for April 25Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Sheng nu, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Typology (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject. It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 00:45, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
DYK for Sheng nu
Casliber (talk · contribs) 08:03, 25 April 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 22 April 2013An article by John Sweeney published on 22 April 2013 on scnow.com, the website of the Florence, South Carolina Morning News, reported that Florence city officials have taken to monitoring and correcting the Wikipedia article on their city.
This week, we spent some time with a project that develops tools and methods for improving the user experience in the hope that new users will continue editing the encyclopedia. The project was started in July 2012 and has grown to include 124 members. The project's members partner with the Teahouse and the Welcoming Committee to spread WikiLove, welcome new users, encourage civility, and other related activities.
The Wikimedia Conference is an annual meeting of the chapters to discuss their status and the organisational development of the Wikimedia movement. For the first time it included groups that wish to be considered for WMF affiliation as thematic organisations and one of the three groups that was recently affiliated as a user group. The conference was also attended by members of the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) Board of Trustees, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), the WMF Affiliations Committee, and a representative of the Wikivoyage Association.
Nine articles, four lists, eight pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.
The Sexology case is nearing completion after arbitrators were unable to agree on a topic ban for one of the participants.
On Monday, the English Wikipedia became the 12th wiki to be able to pull data from the central Wikidata.org repository, with other wikis scheduled to receive the update on Wednesday.
PROD Deletion of "Girl Power (Video)"Hello, I recently established a page for Sadie Benning's video "Girl Power". I've been notified that the page was challenged for its presumed insignificance (not enough "notability"). Considering the fact that feminist artists have been excluded from the mainstream art establishment and essentially omitted from history, I understand why one might thing a page dedicated to one of Sadie Benning's video MIGHT NOT have "enough notability". However, I would easily respond by mentioning that ALL of Sadie Benning's video, ESPECIALLY her video "Girl Power", played a pivotal role in the formation of Girl Power as a concept, radical feminist politics, and the Riot grrrl's commitment to the child icon. This video has been discussed amongst scholars and academics who focus on everything from art history to gender studies and from new media studies to sociology. If Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedic database that indexes "notable" historical and current events, then it would only make sense to include a page on this highly influential work that has greatly contributed to the emergence of feminist 90s politics and art. Any attempts to delete this page will be excluding important information about a widely-acclaimed video that has ONLY been excluded from historical documentation databases because of the artist's sex. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrisfalcone (talk • contribs) 05:40, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
BDD(refactored from User talk:GiantSnowman)Did you also confuse User:BDD with User:Bbb23 like I did? I was initially going to say the same thing until I realized it wasn't and then had to look through everything. Mkdwtalk 09:40, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
Help and advice about your talk page and IE9Dear Mkdw, for no good reason I stumbled onto your talk page. But it always crashes my default browser at work (IE9 on Windows 7). I am not too good at such things but am trying to learn and so was wondering is there something funny/clever that your page does that might be causing me this problem (or some add on or something that might be missing). I am just curious and asking for ideas and am not suggesting you do or change anything. I normally use another browser (am doing this on Chrome) so it is no real issue for me. Best wishes (Msrasnw (talk) 09:49, 26 April 2013 (UTC)) PS: It does it on your User page too (not just on the talk page). Best wishes (Msrasnw (talk) 09:52, 26 April 2013 (UTC))
Good pointRe: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Holy Cross Parish, Fall River. Since nobody pinged me on talk, I didn't see it till now. Cheers, --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 10:46, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
George Juskalian againThere's a dispute at Talk:George Juskalian on whether or not a local newspaper is a reliable source for the claim that Juskalian's awards are "among the rarest bestowed on United States service members". You've been involved with the article in the past; could you please take a look? Huon (talk) 18:18, 27 April 2013 (UTC) I'll cut you a deal. If you review my Template:Did you know nominations/De puinhopen van acht jaar Paars, I'll do yours. —♦♦ AMBER(ЯʘCK) 21:53, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
DYK for Hocutt v. Wilson
The DYK project (nominate) 08:03, 30 April 2013 (UTC) DYK nomination of Brad Zellar
The Signpost: 29 April 2013
The Funds Dissemination Committee released its recommendations to the WMF board last Sunday. The news that the Hong Kong chapter's application for US$212K had failed was followed by a strongly worded resignation announcement by Deryck Chan on the public Wikimedia-l mailing-list.
On 24 April 2013, novelist Amanda Filipacchi published what turned out to be an influential op-ed in the New York Times; illuminating the unusual background of the Yuri Gadyukin hoax.
Nine articles, three lists, three pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" this week.
This week, we traveled to the Japanese Wikipedia's WikiProject Baseball for perspectives from a version of Wikipedia that treats WikiProjects as their own unique namespace (プロジェクト:) independent of "Wikipedia:".
The WP:TOP25 and WP:5000 reports chronicle the most popular Wikipedia articles on a weekly basis.
The Sexology case closed shortly after publication with no changes.
A report on an online service which was created to conduct real-time monitoring of Wikipedia articles of companies, and more.
This week saw the deployment of the Echo extension, also known as "notifications".
Disambiguation link notification for May 2Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Hocutt v. Wilson, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Segregated (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject. It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 11:32, 2 May 2013 (UTC) Italic titleThank you for the help.Hoops gza (talk) 15:11, 4 May 2013 (UTC) Max BorinYou posted to User talk:Max Borin. He was another Paul Bedson sock. Keep an eye out for them. Dougweller (talk) 15:22, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
Can you look at this real quick?Hey Mkdw, hows it going? I was wondering if you could review the Spokane, Washington article real quick and just tell me what you think about it-its quality, scope, layout, or whatever. Dont spend too much time on it, I just want a quick opinion. I have been working to make it better for a little while and I have run out of ideas...I dont know what else can be done to make it any better, its rated as an A-Class article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.106.202.98 (talk) 01:40, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
ThanksThanks for your help and answering my help request. — JJJ (say hello) 02:40, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
How to add names to a list?Thank you for the advice. I would like the opportunity to examine the alternative. Being competent in both Excel and Access I am familiar with organizing and handling data. As a long time editor I am familiar with marking up text for publication. If you examine the history of the List of George Cross recipients for 23 April you will understand why I do not want to repeat the exercise. My work may have been deleted in good faith but rather than getting irritated I will work towards consensus before adding the entries deleted which was the first installment of putting up the missing 244 names. Anthony Staunton (talk) 04:11, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
It's on...Good luck! Yunshui 雲水 09:58, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/GamienceI took the liberty of marking this submission for cleanup. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 22:14, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Shirt nom!Since I'm totally too late to nominate you for adminship, the least I can do is nominate you for a t-shirt! Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:13, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:13, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
its vs it'sFYI, most of your it's were correct. Wherever you want to say 'it is' or 'it has' it's is correct. You don't use it as a possessive though which, I can't find where now, you really did so only in one place. --regentspark (comment) 22:17, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 06 May 2013Although not yet in great numbers, candidates are coming forward for Wikimedia Foundation elections, which will be held from 1 to 15 June. The elections will fill vacancies in three categories, the most prominent of which will be the three community-elected seats on the ten-member Board of Trustees (or the first Board meeting after the election results are announced, if sooner). The current two-year terms for these trustee positions ends on 1 September.
The Wikimedia Foundation will be receiving more than $100,000 worth of free developer time courtesy of internet giant Google, it was announced this week. The funds, allocated as part of Google's Summer of Code programme, will support up to 21 student developers through three months of coding time.
May sees the beginning of Round 3 of the 2013 WikiCup, with 33 of the original 127 competitors remaining. ... six articles, ten pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
The SOS Children's Villages news service advised on 3 May 2013 that Wikipedia for Schools 2013 is nearly ready for release. ... On 26 April 2013, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation published an article reviewing Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's edits to the English Wikipedia, where it revealed the name of Breivik's English Wikipedia account.
This week's English Wikipedia project, WikiProject Biophysics, is home to several experts in their fields and a collaboration with the Biophysical Society. The project is hosting a contest through July 15 with six contributors winning $100 in cash and given the opportunity to attend the 2014 meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Francisco. Other strong entries will be awarded barnstars online and everyone who contributes can receive a physical button mailed out to them.
Discussion noticeYou participated in the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people)#RFC-birth date format conformity when used to disambiguate so I thought you might want to comment at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people)#Birth date format conformity .28second round.29.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 15:05, 11 May 2013 (UTC) DYK for Brad Zellar
Casliber (talk · contribs) 00:59, 13 May 2013 (UTC) TalkbackPS your "userpage • talk page • contributions • my templates • edit info" thing messes up Twinkle by blocking selection of items. Jason Quinn (talk) 07:14, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
DYK for The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
Casliber (talk · contribs) 16:53, 14 May 2013 (UTC) RfACongratulations on your 100 supports :) Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 06:01, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
Your RFAHi Mkdw, I have closed your RFA as successful — you are now an administrator. Please consider the guidance at Wikipedia:New admin school, it'll keep you from ending up here. Good luck! WilliamH (talk) 17:38, 15 May 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 13 May 2013
The removal of administrator rights from all volunteers on the Wikimedia Foundation's official website sparked a highly emotional reaction on the Wikimedia-l mailing list—one of the largest off-wiki methods of communication for the Wikimedia movement.
This week, we spent some time watching WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts, which was started in August 2005 and has grown to include 12 Good Articles and a Featured List.
Fourteen articles, three lists, and three pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia, including Boletus luridus, seen above.
An article published on May 10 on Odwyerpr.com written by Greg Hazley documented a "spar" between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and public relations firm Qorvis partner Matt Lauer, who disputes Wikipedia's guideline discouraging public relations firms from editing articles on their clients.
The Race and politics case has been accepted for arbitration, and the evidence phase is now open. Two other cases remain open.
He's at it again...I think he has a lot of spare IPs... [2] — Richard BB 18:33, 16 May 2013 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
Rowan steam railmotorHi, I was about to appeal the speedy deletion but it was deleted too quickly. Can you please undelete it so I can add more information. Junior Lightfoot (talk) 06:52, 18 May 2013 (UTC)
AFCWikipedia talk:Articles for creation/CTE: Learning that Works for America - Based on your feedback, I've declined the article instead. But doesn't it seem more appropriate to nominate any AfC submission for CSD should it be purely promotional and require a fundamental rewrite? hmssolent\You rang? ship's log 06:21, 19 May 2013 (UTC)
ClosureHi, I noticed that you just closed an Afd and are "doing things". Could I talk you into closing the simple issue here which just awaits someone? Thanks. History2007 (talk) 23:10, 19 May 2013 (UTC)
Please articulate a rationale for closing against numerical consensus, or redo your close to match it. To recap:
Userfy requestWould it be possible to have the content deleted from child genital mutilation and it's talk page userfied? I would like to work on it until it has more potential to survive as an article. Ranze (talk) 18:49, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
Since this is sort of a separate issue, my comment was a response to this comment. I was referring to you only because Tuma said "same admins shutting down MGM discussion". I don't take claims at face value so I was asking for evidence of his claim, identifying the shutter-down and requesting to know what he meant by 'same'. Your beef's with his claim, I think, not my inquiry pertaining to it. Ranze (talk) 23:16, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
MlapinigJust a heads-up: Mlapinig (talk · contribs) has appealed their block and upon review, I have modified it to indef as a VOA. Toddst1 (talk) 22:17, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
Weed bikeHi Mkdw, I see you removed the page Weed bike yesterday. However the page showed up again and I nominated it for speedy deletion. I don't know how to do, but maybe it's worthwhile to check how many times the page is deleted already and if it's published again by the same author (or IP)? Sander.v.Ginkel (talk) 10:38, 21 May 2013 (UTC)
Um, huh?User_talk:128.174.93.28 ... they were very clearly blocked for adding unsourced stuff about spinal cor injuries and a coach who had been fired 3 times, or junk ... (✉→BWilkins←✎) 00:26, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
Block-evading IPUser talk:92.7.9.108 is evidently edit-warring again and in breach of their block with IP 92.7.2.17. Can a range-block be applied? RashersTierney (talk) 17:02, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
RMWant to help close an easy RM? I can not because I participated, but there has been no support other than the proponent who has tried to convince just about everyone who has opposed. All you need to do is replace the top Requested move/dated template with {{subst:RM top|'''Not moved.'''}} at the top (it will sign itself, so no sig is needed) and {{subst:RM bottom}} at the bottom. The backlog is getting really high at WP:RM. If that one is closed, Talk:Fergie (singer)#Requested move (May 2013) is the same story, although with some support. Thanks. Apteva (talk) 23:37, 22 May 2013 (UTC)
Second opinion given, in the form of the Delete button. No way is that appropriate. Yunshui 雲水 07:11, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 20 May 2013
Nominations closed last Friday for the three community-elected seats on the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) ten-member Board of Trustees—the ultimate corporate authority of the worldwide WMF. The Board has influential roles and responsibilities over one of the most powerful global information sources on the Internet.
This week, we traveled to WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome. The project was started in May 2006 and has 37 featured articles.
On 16 May, the Spanish Wikipedia became the seventh Wikipedia to cross the million article Rubicon, a symbolic yet important achievement.
Salon.com published another article detailing the ongoing incidents with Wikipedia user Qworty, who has identified himself as Robert Clark Young. It documents Qworty's role in the controversy involving Amanda Filipacchi's op-ed, which kindled a debate on Wikipedia sexism as it relates to categories, where Qworty was responsible for a series of revenge edits against Filipacchi in the days after she released her op-ed.
Nine articles, six lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
User talk:LoubnanHi - I saw you restored a large number of pre-block warnings and notices at Loubnan (talk · contribs). I was curious as to the reasons for this. I don't see anything at WP:BLANKING which requires that those items remain. There is some discussion in an RFC about removal of discussions related to an ongoing block - but the pre-block content appears to be fine to remove under WP:BLANKING. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 21:30, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
The CultchHi there, Why did you delete the page I wrote on The Cultch? The Cultch is a legitimate cultural institution in East Vancouver that shows theatre, dance, etc. I am in no way affiliated with it. I was not attempting to promote it (unless every mention is also a promotion). I was merely trying to fill in a dead link from the Vancouver page, where The Cultch is mentioned, to a dead link. Thanks Charles Carroll — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ccarroll (talk • contribs) 14:29, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
Please AdviseHello, I'm contacting you with regard to the deletion of the Brad Peterson article. I may have been remiss in following protocol (As I am just now studying Wikipedia and how to effectively contribute), but I made effort top address all reasons mentioned in the proposal for deletion: 1) it was not meant for promotion; only to clarify Brad Peterson the singer song writer from another music publisher, pro golfer and published lawyer. 2) I added several citations per request including WGN news. 3) added several references of notability though I'm still trying to find an on-line reference to nomination for a Grammy award in the late 90s. I'm not sure all edits made it, but I'll happily provide what I can. Thank you for your time. Can you please advise? BPL BPLabsWiki (talk) 21:17, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
Deletion of Jaylen D Bledsoe"No explanation of significance" - how is being one of the few self-made teenage millionaires, and having been covered by fox news and the st. louis times. not significant? --Vincentjames (talk) 09:17, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
I don't understand why you say no reliable sources, Fox News and the St. Louis Times were listed in the article as sources. If these don't count what does? --Vincentjames (talk) 09:24, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
I'm sure you knew someone would be here sooner or later so I guess I will jump in as the first. Thank you for the props when closing the deletion discussion of the article. Also, thank you for listing your reasoning as I see so many closures that simply do not elaborate the reason for the closure one way or another. I am requesting that you overturn your closure from a redirect to a keep based on the reasoning I gave in the discussion and the lack of reasoning provided for by the redirect !votes. If you look through the discussion, you will find that even many of the redirect votes agree that they are notable, yet still did not change their !vote to keep. I'd be happy to discuss on my talk page as well if you would like. Thank you. --FoolMeOnce2Times (talk) 16:02, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
Stewart VarnadoThank you for your help on this page with stopping the vandalism and edit war that was inadvertently started by me I meant no harm or intended on causing such an uproar 68.114.152.179 (talk) 20:15, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
I believe gospelfan45 is up to his old tricks can you look at the varnado afd page and see what you think? 24.107.242.73 (talk) 18:02, 30 May 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 27 May 2013
Alongside the Signpost's interviews with the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) Board of Trustees candidates, the Signpost asked the candidates for the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and its Ombudsperson position a series of questions relating to the positions they may be taking on. For the FDC candidates, this will include specific recommendations to the WMF on how to disburse over US$11 million in donors' funds to affiliate organizations, something which appears to have garnered little attention from the editing community at large so far.
In the continuing saga of User:Qworty's outing as author Robert Clark Young, several blogs and websites covered the now-banned user's anti-Pagan editing. In an article published on 22 May 2013, TechEye described Qworty's edits as a "reign of terror" and were pleased to find that he had not succeeded in removing several prominent Pagan biographies from the encyclopedia.
The elections for the three community seats on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees start on 8 June. This second and final part of the interview explores two broad themes: Meta, the site that hosts movement-wide coordination; and offline entities—the chapters and the new thematic organisations and user groups.
This week, we plotted out the demarcations of WikiProject Geographical Coordinates, which aims to create a single standard of handling coordinates in Wikipedia articles.
Twelve articles, four lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
An article in Library Review offers a much-needed comparison of data from a population of editors outside the English Wikipedia.
Second only to the technical track of Wikimania in terms of numbers, the Berlin Hackathon (2009–2012) provided those with an interest in the software that underpins Wikimedia wikis and supports its editors a place to gather, exchange ideas and learn new skills.
The Signpost: 05 June 2013
I am excited to announce that a Portuguese-language journal, Correio da Wikipédia has been launched by Vitorvicentevalente. It has just published its third edition, and I encourage readers who speak the language to read and contribute to its already-expansive coverage of the Portuguese Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement.
Five articles, four lists, and thirteen images were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.
This is mostly a list of requests for comment believed to be active on 4 June 2013 linked from subpages of Wikipedia:RfC or watchlist notices.
On 31 May, the Wikimedia Foundation's Legal and Community Advocacy team announced that the Wikivoyage logo would have to be replaced, because it has become the subject of a cease-and-desist letter from the World Trade Organization (WTO).
An article on TheNextWeb.com says that the Chinese Government has effectively blocked Wikipedia by cutting off access to the HTTP Secure (https) "workaround", almost completely cutting off access to those in China.
This week, we reflect on the anniversary of D-Day by storming the shores of Operation Normandy, a special initiative of WikiProject Military History.
Last week, the Signpost reported on a feeling at the Amsterdam hackathon that Toolserver developers were coming round to the idea of migrating to Wikimedia Labs.
You're an admin? Why didn't you delete the hoax article Mario Kart U? The article was a direct copy of Mario Kart 7 but with false release dates. The game hasn't been unveiled yet! The article's been changed to a redirect now, but if you have a genuine reason that article should stay, please elaborate. Thanks, DarkToonLink (talk) 22:37, 7 June 2013 (UTC)
Thank you!
CSDEven concentrating on autobiographies, large unwikilinked article and CSDspam seems to have become a full-time job. Someone is doing a through job of rooting out spam user pages too, so then there's the blocking (although thanks to Easyblock, that's quicker than it used to be). It's a hard life... I need to write some content... Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:00, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
importScript("User:Animum/easyblock.js"); //User:Animum/easyblock.js
Triumphant Institute of Management EducationThe page on Triumphant Institute of Management Education was deleted with out any meaningful debate, based on one liners and opinions, not facts. I posted my observations on the page. Will be willing to help out on rewriting the page, confirming to wiki' s guidelines. Request a relook at the deletion. I am not sure how many users who posted on the AfD are Indians but as an Indian and one who has been tracking this company, it deserves a page.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Hairama44 (talk • contribs)
188.96.183.204188.96.183.204 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) who you warned earlier has now hopped to 188.96.190.75 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) and is carrying on the same silly edit war. --Biker Biker (talk) 21:08, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
Hi Mkdw, my reasoning in requesting a speedy deletion of the user page was the combination of user name representing company names and content about the company. I do realize that the user did add some personal content, but if one does a Google search using "Wikipedia:" [3] on the key terms of the company, the user does come up. I just wanted to let you know that I don't tag a user lightly, for everyone I tag like this, I probably assume good faith on 10 like it.--I am One of Many (talk) 21:46, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
Syler Page DeletionArtist was just featured in Vibe Magazine and has been nominated at Long Island International Film Expo. If I incorporate these additional references can the page be restored? SylerDurden (talk) 22:46, 9 June 2013 (UTC)
The artist has been featured in The Source, DJBooth.net, AllHipHop, Hip Hop DX, all of which are well known national hip hop publications. Additionally, his latest release is currently number 36 on the college hip hop top 40 via rapattacklives.com An additional 5-6 reliable references (websites that I see referenced in other artist's pages) should suffice. Should it not? SylerDurden (talk) 13:04, 10 June 2013 (UTC) I have read the page you referred to and am certain the artist meets the necessary requirements. Can the page be retored for editing or does it now have to be created again entirely? It would be nice if notifications were provided to the contributors of the article prior to deletion. SylerDurden (talk) 13:09, 10 June 2013 (UTC)
I was hoping to resolve this with you directly if possible. If you could perhaps undelete the page so as to allow me the opportunity to add additional reliable references? I would be very prompt with my edits, and if you still do not believe that the page is warranted, I am more than happy to go through a deletion review. SylerDurden (talk) 12:56, 11 June 2013 (UTC) Hello I was just following up again on my most recent message. SylerDurden (talk) 13:35, 14 June 2013 (UTC)
That sounds perfect to me, I am happy to go through the AFC review process again. Please let me know when I can begin my edits. Thanks again. SylerDurden (talk) 19:21, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
NoteI have remove several questions about obvious attempts by companies to promote their products or clients. Please see WP:ADVERT. I cannot "approve" your attempts to market your interests so please do not invest your time in doing so. If you would like to make a genuine request for a non-promotional article, I would recommend you avoid a conflict of interest in writing a neutral article and request one be written at WP:REQUEST. Mkdwtalk 05:49, 11 June 2013 (UTC) I do regret now the 50 eur donation I have sent Wikipedia a few months ago.193.77.151.160 (talk) 10:44, 12 June 2013 (UTC)
re the above sectionCan you please see Talk:Heritage Grill and Talk:Five Stones Church and have a look at the edit history on those articles.Skookum1 (talk) 05:56, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
"Smug" is what I'm getting off his tone now re "I'll wait for the AfD"; I'm being explicity and Perry Mason-like analytical in my responses but I know it weighs against me to people who think long-windedness is "ranting" or "angry"....it's like he's trying to goad me; maybe he was even put up to this by kwami, who likes to do that, who knows....I'm so bored with AfDs, CfRs, and the like.....as you can see from my usercontributions this last few days I'm taking measures to redress the lack of content and poor shape of the New West article and get more on that city in place; an AfD is just a waste of time.......and he knows that. Wikipedia will become a garbage dump of irrelevancy and "I think it's notable" judgments by single authors if this kind of "it's just you and me, take it to an AfD" weasely-ness continues....nothing useful will get written because knowledgeable people will shun the place, or find themselves tangled up in bearpits full of false comparisons and misapplications of rules.....and I know I always take the heat in them, too, for not having "wikiquette".....I don't speak softly and carry a big stick, but I do have a very big stick....called knowledge, and I see no point in speaking softly when somebody is speaking stubbornly and wielding a hot dog....Skookum1 (talk) 16:32, 12 June 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 12 June 2013Late last year, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) awarded $8.4 million in donors' money to 11 Wikimedia entities, including the Wikimedia Foundation and 10 nationally defined chapters. Under this arrangement, these organisations are required to issue quarterly reports on how far they have progressed towards their declared programmatic and financial goals. The FDC has now announced that all 11 completed and submitted their reports by the 1 April deadline, and have responded to each.
Seven articles, two lists, five pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
In an article published by the Huffington Post's United Kingdom edition, writer Thomas Church asserts that the new VisualEditor will change history, literally. It says that Wikipedia's mark-up language has been to its advantage, as most people didn't bother trying to learn it
I've long thought that we should get rid of the Wikimedia Commons as we know it. Commons has evolved into a project with interests that compete with the needs of the primary users of Commons and the reason it was created. It's also understaffed, which results in poor curation, large administrative backlogs, and poor policy development.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.
Last week's most popular article list on the English Wikipedia was dominated by the massively popular TV series Game of Thrones, which claimed six slots in the top 25, including the top three. Its popularity was likely stoked by the most recent episode, The Rains of Castamere. Bollywood continued to increase its share of views as well, aided by the tragic suicide of star Nafisa Khan.
Two cases, Race and politics and Tea Party movement have been suspended. Argentine History remains open, and a proposed decision was posted on 12 June.
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Computing. Started in October 2003, the project has grown to include 17 featured articles, 11 featured lists, 3 pieces of featured media, and 80 good articles.
wikibreakhave a nice break, I'm contemplating one, too, just not getting the time to work on articles, so much b.s. to plow through gets distracting. Maybe next day or two, I'm gonna get a certain couple of articles written...as you know I have survival issues going on and if not resolved I'll have to stop anyway once uprooted (sigh).Skookum1 (talk) 07:48, 15 June 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 19 June 2013Following last week's op-ed by Gigs ("The Tragedy of Wikipedia's Commons"), the Signpost is carrying two contrary opinions from MichaelMaggs, a bureaucrat on Wikimedia Commons, and Mattbuck, a British Commons administrator.
The season finale of Game of Thrones ensured that the epic high fantasy series would dominate the top 10 again last week; however, it was joined by Maurice Sendak and Man of Steel.
Memeburn.com published an article on the yearning of students in South Africa for free knowledge through Wikipedia Zero.
This week, we visited WikiProject Tennessee, a project dedicate to the state at the geographic and cultural crossroads of the United States.
With erysichton elaborata, the Swedish Wikipedia passed the one million article Rubicon this week. While this is a mostly symbolic achievement, serving as a convenient benchmark with which to gain publicity and attention in an increasingly statistical world, the particular method by which the Swedish site has passed the mark has garnered significant attention—and controversy.
Eleven articles, twelve lists, and eleven pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.
A list of current discussions on the English Wikipedia.
The WMF's engineering report for May was published recently on the Wikimedia blog and on the MediaWiki wiki ("friendly" summary version), giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month.
Richard Farmbrough was set to have his day in court, but as events transpired, this was not to be so. On 25 March 2013, an accusation was made against Farmbrough at Arbitration Enforcement (AE), claiming that he violated the terms of an automated edit restriction. Within hours, Farmbrough had filed his own request with the arbitration committee, citing the newly filed AE request and claiming that the motion was being used "in an absurd way" in the filing of enforcement requests: "I have not made any edits that a sane person would consider automation."
Page deleted but no reason statedHi Mkdw, I recently created a page for my company; however, it was deleted by you with no reason mentioned on the page. See page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Balloon_27 Do you mind letting me know the problem with the page? Sorry I am new at editing wiki, and am having a hard time understanding how submissions work. I requested my page was undeleted and i am hearing back as well. Thank you in advance for any tips or help! B27 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Byballoon27 (talk • contribs) 07:21, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 26 June 2013
With most TV shows on hiatus for the summer, attention has turned to movies, celebrity and sports. The dramatic events at the 2013 Confederations Cup drew massive attention, as did summer blockbusters like Man of Steel and World War Z. But the most searched event of the week was the tragic and unexpected death of popular actor James Gandolfini on June 19.
The Daily Dot has examined the perennial controversy over explicit or pornographic media on Commons. This latest salvo was touched off when Russavia uploaded a portrait of Jimmy Wales made by the artist Pricasso, who paints with his genitalia.
A comparative work by T. Yasseri., A. Spoerri, M. Graham and J. Kertész looks at the 100 most controversial topics in 10 language versions of Wikipedia, and tries to make sense of the similarities and differences in these lists.
Less than three days after the close of voting, the volunteer election committee posted the results on Meta. The worldwide Wikimedia movement has elected three WMF trustees for two-year terms on the 10-seat Board: Samuel Klein (supported by 43.5% of voters), Phoebe Ayers (38.3%), and María Sefidari (35.6%). The new trustees will take their seats at a critical time for the movement: one of the first tasks in their terms will be to help the Board to find and approve the new executive director to take up the top job when Sue Gardner departs.
A list of current discussions on the English Wikipedia.
This week, the Signpost interviews Adam Cuerden, a Wikimedian who has been for years gathering featured pictures, and who constantly participates in what could be his favourite part of the project. Cuerden dedicates most of his time to scanning and restoring old, valuable illustrative works. He explains to us how the featured process works, its relation with other parts of the encyclopedia, and how pictures evolve before reaching featured status.
This week, we walked the runway with WikiProject Fashion. Started in March 2007, the project is home to 4 Featured Articles and 41 Good Articles. The project has a lengthy list of how you can help and a list of Article Alerts.
Argentine History was closed. Two cases, Race and politics and Tea Party movement, remain suspended until July.
Can you please let me know why you deleted our page?? Thanks!Hello - You deleted the page 19:36, 28 May 2013 Mkdw (talk | contribs) deleted page Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) (G12: Unambiguous copyright infringement) because of copyright infringement. Can you please explain? My organization coined the phrase Small and Growing Business (SGBs) (please see our website - http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/aspen-network-development-entrepreneurs/ande-home/small-growing-businesses-sgbs) so I am not sure how we infringed on copyright by the Wikipedia page. We are trying to create the SGB defn page so we can link to it from our organization wikipedia page (Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs) Thanks for your help! Sp1newcastle (talk) 17:45, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
Deleted page of a public figure (reasoning G12)Dear Mkdw, Could you please let me know how I can edit the page I was trying to create, which you deleted, with the reasoning "G12: Unambiguous copyright infringement", so that it can be "Wikipedia material". The page I had created was about a public figure (reference below), and the information was from a publicly available biography on the person's official website. Should I better reference the source? Is it the person's publications which are missing references? Was there another reason? http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Henri_Malosse What is the next step for me to do - should I create a new article, or would you prefer to 'restore' the one I had made and give me some tips on what changes you would like to see, in order to approve it?) Thanks in advance!
The Signpost: 03 July 2013
Amy Chozick's profile of Jimmy Wales in the New York Times sparked significant controversy in international news outlets this week. Chozick's profile covered Wales's personal life, including his 12-year-old daughter, ex-wife, and current wife Kate Garvey, describing Wales himself as "a well-groomed version of a person who has been slumped over a computer drinking Yoo-hoo for hours." Chozick described his current role in Wikipedia as "Benevolent Dictator for Life", a statement which garnered conflict from all corners of the web, including from Wales, who responded to the piece as a whole with a lengthy talk page statement.
Four articles, four lists, and fifteen pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
This week, the Signpost went to the kennel and interviewed WikiProject Dogs. The project has several featured and good articles, along with a large number of "Did you know" entries. We asked three project members about the challenges of creating, curating, and maintaining canine content in an increasingly dog-obsessed world.
The key annual event in the Wikimedia calendar, Wikimania 2013, will be held in Hong Kong in just five weeks' time. Among the events will be a presentation by two people who are working to promote the development of medical content on Wikimedia projects. One is James Heilman of Wiki Project Med, a non-profit dedicated to making "clear, reliable, comprehensive, up-to-date educational resources and information in the biomedical and related social sciences freely available to all people in the language of their choice". The other is Lori Thicke, president of Translators Without Borders (TWB), the Connecticut-based organisation set up in 2010 to provide pro-bono translation services for humanitarian non-profits
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
The VisualEditor extension has gone live by default to registered users on the English Wikipedia, marking a huge milestone in a project that has taken the best part of a decade to reach fruition. The extension was previously described as "the biggest and most important change to our user experience we’ve ever undertaken" by the WMF team behind it.
The real world made a strong showing in the top 10 last week, as news stories such as Yahoo!'s purchase of Tumblr, the murder of Odin Lloyd, the continuing drama over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and the ill-health of Nelson Mandela crowded out the usual roster of TV shows, movies, websites and video games. Not that they were entirely excluded, of course.
Following a one-month period of moderated discussion, Tea Party movement has been reopened by the Committee. The proposed decisions are currently being voted upon. Race and politics remains suspended pending the return of User:Apostle12.
Fifth HarmonyThe group is still currently working on their debut album however during the process they have released music, tour dates, singles and have been seen performing on various events, talk shows, the radio and are going to perform on Good Morning America the Today show. To me that shows that they have gained lots of notability plus to top all that they've won various awards too! "Miss Movin On" is their first debut single it has been released digitally and will soon be released on iTunes after that I'm pretty sure the single will chart across the world in different countries and if that doesn't explain enough about how notable they are then I must not know what notability is? Welcometothenewmillennium 19:01, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
So what's this talk about the universe is inside us? Welcometothenewmillennium 5:01, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
Okay so wait how does the act of homosexuality, religion/belief, sex, nature/science, disabilities/diseases (Dyslexia/Apxergers/Cancer/ADHD) and human evolution all play out? I'm just asking you these types of questions because I want to expand my mind and knowledged! Welcometothenewmillennium 10:40, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 10 July 2013This is Wikinews' fundamental problem: it can neither do a good job providing a summary of world news, nor does it have any special focus that it does well. It's a collection of random articles, with only the occasional, passing resemblance to important current events.
This week, we traveled to Cymru with the folks at WikiProject Wales.
The most-viewed articles on the English Wikipedia last week include...
In apparent acknowledgment of the urgency of two issues facing the Wikimedia movement—the need to engage both women and the global south—the WMF Board has appointed Ana Toni as one of its four expert members. Toni will bring rare expertise to the movement, and the Signpost understands that her skills in advocacy and her key roles in international NGOs are likely to be a natural match with the WMF as the hub of disseminating free knowledge around the world.
The fundamental idea of an infobox is clear: keep it simple and limited to essentials. At some point, however, these basic principles seem to have been abandoned, in favour of an approach akin to "the more the merrier".
Five articles, six lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...
Unlock Fifth Harmony pageTheir debut single was released today on iTunes [4] and it's already charting worldwide [5] — Preceding unsigned comment added by PokerFace3 (talk • contribs)
Yeah but their single has charted they are now touring, released music, singles performed on live national television what more can you ask for? The group just released a single and it is charting now in different countries as we speak! Billboard Hot 100, iTunes, oh my god the freaking single it's charting in Canada, United States, North America, South America, Australia, Brazil all over the world! To add on top of all that they are about to tour with Cher Lloyd? Can someone please tell me why the girls arnt notable enough to hold a stand alone article? There are articles about less notable than Fifth Harmony! If they can't pass WP:BAND then what will make them pass it? Welcometothenewmillennium 20:17 23 July 2013. The Signpost: 17 July 2013
This week, we explored the fantasy worlds of video game developer Square Enix by interviewing WikiProject Square Enix. The project began in September 2006 as a spin-off of WikiProject Final Fantasy, but today covers that, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and a variety of other game series, with exceptions explained in the interview below. The project is home to 32 pieces of Featured material and 104 Good and A-class articles.
The most-viewed articles on the English Wikipedia last week include...
Last week the Wikimedia Foundation released its annual plan for July 2013 to June 2014. It provides a surprisingly frank view—of past achievements and failures, and future goals and risks—that could be afforded only by a non-profit that is confident and beholden to no commercial or political interests.
Four articles, five lists, and sixteen pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
The case Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds was opened. Voting on the Tea Party movement case continued, after a failed attempt at moderated discussion. A group tasked with deciding the content of the lead section of the Jerusalem article has reported back to the committee. Applications for checkuser and oversight permissions close on 22 July.
The Signpost: 24 July 2013
The Washington Post reported Tuesday on the most controversial articles on various language Wikipedias as determined by a cross-continental research group.
This week, the Signpost delved into the vast and complex areas of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that make up religion. WikiProject Religion has been around since 2005 and has a complex scope, in that it only takes articles that deal with religion in a non-sectarian sense, along with any articles that do not have a dedicated daughter project.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
Contributors to Wikivoyage, the sister project adopted by the Wikimedia Foundation last year, are celebrating their 10th anniversary this week. ... The Wikimedia Foundation has announced via press release that it has partnered with Aircel to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia.
Death hangs over the top 10 this week, as tragic deaths both past and present continued to cast their pall over an already troubled world. The death of Corey Monteith led to a spike in interest in the man himself, his girlfriend and co-star Lea Michele, and the show that made them both famous, Glee.
Twelve articles, seven lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
The case Infoboxes was opened. The evidence phase continues in Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds. Voting on the proposed decision continues in the Tea Party movement case.
Photo consensus discussion at Talk:Rick RemenderHi. Can you offer your opinion regarding the Infobox photo discussion here? Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 19:24, 28 July 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 31 July 2013One of the narratives I've heard a lot is that Wikipedia is unable to change, that it's too stagnant, too poorly resourced, too inherently resistant to change. I don't believe that at all.
An ArXiv preprint titled "Highlighting entanglement of cultures via ranking of multilingual Wikipedia articles" is about the Wikipedia articles on individuals and their position in the hyperlink network of the articles in each Wikipedia language edition, considering the whole hyperlink network.
Somewhat predictably, the birth of a new heir to the House of Windsor on 22 July led the English-speaking world to suddenly embrace Monarchism. In honour of this occasion, the Traffic report will be assiduously employing British spelling and dating conventions. Cheers.
This week, we visited the Turkish Wikipedia for an interview with VikiProje Siyaset (WikiProject Politics). The project began in April 2010 and has sustained a small but enthusiastic group of editors focusing on both the domestic politics of Turkey and international politics. The basics for article quality and importance ratings have been determined, but tracking this data has not yet become widespread on the Turkish Wikipedia. The project maintains a portal, a variety of resources, and a rotating selection of images to spruce up the project's page.
The ninth annual Wikimania conference will open in just over a week at the Jockey Club Auditorium, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Wikimania is for people worldwide who have an interest in Wikimedia Foundation projects. It features presentations and discussions on those projects, on free knowledge and content, and on related social and technical issues.
The case Race and politics was closed, while three other cases remain open.
Eight articles, five lists, seven pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia this week include...
The Signpost: 07 August 2013
Fourteen editors have been proposed for a six-month page ban in the Tea Party movement case. In the Infoboxes and Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds cases, the workshop and evidence phases have closed, and proposed decisions are scheduled to be posted.
It's crickets and tumbleweeds this week, as the top 10 sees its lowest view-count since the project began. If Wikipedia were selling anything, we'd be having a fire sale by now.
The opening days of the annual Wikimania, referred to as the "pre-conference", are not typically newsworthy. This changed dramatically when the Chapters Association council met on Thursday.
This week, we journey into a WikiProject that focuses about what keeps Wikipedia running, the freedom of speech.
The week's newest featured content includes...
Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
Neha Uberoi tennis playerHello why did you delete the page Neha Uberoi? She is a former professional tennis player and has valid sources to prove so. She is also a notable figure in India, America and South Asian communities worldwide. Kindly recreate for page. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neha_Uberoi — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uberoipr (talk • contribs) 17:15, 10 August 2013 (UTC)
FriendCan you be my new best friend? :D C: JuicyJam (talk) 09:50, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 14 August 2013
About a thousand Wikimedians journeyed to Hong Kong this week for the annual Wikimania conference, the annual gathering of the Wikimedia movement. Wikimania, which has been held since 2005, serves as the principal physical meetup for Wikimedians around the world.
One major story that came out of Wikimania was Jimmy Wales' statements at the conference that he would prefer to have Wikipedia banned entirely in mainland China than censored as it is currently.
The week's newest featured content includes seven articles, four lists, and twelve pictures.
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and its public face to most of the media, has declared that media organizations are missing out on the "opportunity of the century" by not conducting true investigative reporting into American surveillance practices, a debate kindled by information leaked by Edward Snowden.
Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
The Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds case has closed, with a unanimous decision to desysop a Wikimedia Foundation employee and indefinitely ban another editor. The Tea Party movement case has stalled yet again, in the wake of a controversial proposal to ban 14 editors. A proposed decision in the Infoboxes case was scheduled to be posted on 14 August.
WintopoPlease could you explain the reasoning behind deleting the Wintopo page? I thought it was informative rather than unambiguous advertising. What would need to be different/improved for re-inclusion? Can you reinstate or provide me the original text so that I may improve the page to appropriate standard? — Preceding unsigned comment added by NoThoughtPolice (talk • contribs) 09:30, 23 August 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 21 August 2013Wikipedia's gender identity MOS section and its effect on Chelsea Manning was both praised and emulated in the media this week. ... Coverage of the distributed open collaborative course called "Storming Wikipedia" continued this week.
98 registered participants attended the annual WikiSym+OpenSym conference from August 5-7 at Hong Kong's Cyberport facility.
This week, we secured free admission for WikiProject Amusement Parks, the project dedicated to amusement rides, roller coasters, theme parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.
The debt that Wikipedia owes sites like Reddit or Google often goes unacknowledged around here. If the purpose of Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to the world, then it is sites like these that are actually doing it.
The 2013 WikiCup competition is entering its final round. Eleven articles and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wikimedia's annual volunteer-driven and the world largest photo contest, is gearing up to be conducted throughout September 2013. The event, originally developed in the Netherlands in 2010, has gone global with 34 countries taking part last and 49 this year.
Wikipedia's traditional image gallery format, produced by the markup, has remained largely unchanged for years. The resulting layout, seen below, does not adapt well to variations in image size, and has been characterized by some critics as aesthetically unappealing.
The Signpost: 28 August 2013Wikipedia's gender identity MOS section and its effect on Chelsea Manning was both praised and emulated in the media this week. ... Coverage of the distributed open collaborative course called "Storming Wikipedia" continued this week.
98 registered participants attended the annual WikiSym+OpenSym conference from August 5-7 at Hong Kong's Cyberport facility.
This week, we secured free admission for WikiProject Amusement Parks, the project dedicated to amusement rides, roller coasters, theme parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.
The debt that Wikipedia owes sites like Reddit or Google often goes unacknowledged around here. If the purpose of Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to the world, then it is sites like these that are actually doing it.
The 2013 WikiCup competition is entering its final round. Eleven articles and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wikimedia's annual volunteer-driven and the world largest photo contest, is gearing up to be conducted throughout September 2013. The event, originally developed in the Netherlands in 2010, has gone global with 34 countries taking part last and 49 this year.
Wikipedia's traditional image gallery format, produced by the markup, has remained largely unchanged for years. The resulting layout, seen below, does not adapt well to variations in image size, and has been characterized by some critics as aesthetically unappealing.
The Signpost: 04 September 2013After media praise for Wikipedia's decision to move the Bradley Manning article to Chelsea Manning, the reversion of that page move on August 31, after a discussion in which several hundred Wikipedians participated, has so far triggered less favourable feedback, as well as a blog post from Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner expressing her disappointment with the decision.
On September 3, the Wikimedia Foundation launched the second stage of the process to improve the privacy policy implemented on most Wikimedia sites, including Wikipedia and its sister projects, by publishing a policy draft.
A news-heavy week offers some insight, perhaps, into humanity's priorities.
As mentioned in "In the news" on Wikipedia's main page, the Library of Birmingham in the United Kingdom has opened. This interior photo was taken a week before opening. The article reports that the library "has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe."
Four articles, four lists, and eight pictures were promoted to 'featured' status this week on the English Wikipedia
This week, we spent some time with the minds behind WikiProject Psychology. The project was created in March 2006 and has grown to include 14 Featured Articles and 43 Good Articles.
The dispute over the title for the Manning article escalated quickly to arbitration levels, as the Bradley/Chelsea Manning naming dispute case was accepted for arbitration.
In this week's "Technology report", we explore ways of making Wikipedia more accessible to users of screen readers. Graham87 is a highly active contributor who is also blind and accesses the site through a screen reader.
The Signpost: 11 September 2013'The National Law Journal reported on September 9 that lawyer Susan L. Burke has been taking legal steps to discover the identity of Wikipedia editor . Zujua had edited her biography, allegedly adding misleading content about various lawsuits in the process
The Signpost went to Indonesia this week.
Four articles, eight lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.
The deadline for proposals to the Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) volunteer committee on Meta will pass on 30 September. The program is designed to fund projects that tackle long-term problem and have a significant editing community impact; it has previously supported solutions like The Wikipedia Library, which improves Wikipedian access to online reference sources like JSTOR (see Signpost coverage).
While the Syrian Civil War crept its slow way into the minds of the public, with a new fourth related entry in the top 25, the top 10 remained dominated by celebrity, mainly sports and music. Two megabucks transfers stimulated public interest in football/soccer ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, while Lil Wayne's public apology ahead of his latest album release sent him to the top.
Discussion over the Manning title dispute was off to a running start as evidence and workshop phases continued in the Bradley/Chelsea Manning naming dispute. The Infoboxes case closed with topic bans for two users, and a recommendation for community discussion of infoboxes.
The Signpost: 18 September 2013The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), the volunteer-led body that evaluates chapter and (for the first time) thematic organizational annual plan grant requests to the Wikimedia Foundation, is preparing for its third round of public proceedings to deliberate on the distribution of several million US dollars of Wikimedia movement funds.
This week, the Signpost headed to WikiProject Good Articles. As of publishing time, out of the 4,331,477 articles on Wikipedia, only 18,464 are rated as "good" (about 1 in 235).
Thirteen articles, six lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status last week on the English Wikipedia.
In this week's "Technology report", we look at how the growth of Wikidata can benefit Wikipedia. Gerard Meijssen is a highly active contributor and frequent blogger about Wikidata. We asked him to share his thoughts on how the new project benefits Wikipedia.
The top 10 is bookended by unlucky dates, as Friday the 13th fell just after the anniversary of 9/11. Breaking Bad's final season continued to draw attention, while interest in Miley Cyrus's youthful exuberance is fading only slowly.
The Signpost: 25 September 2013Over the last year, there's been extensive debate about whether public relations professionals and other corporate representatives should participate on Wikipedia and, if so, to what extent and what kinds of rules should be followed.
The saga of Walter White, chemistry teacher-turned-drug kingpin, as told in the critically adored television series Breaking Bad, has been a water-cooler necessity for years, and now, as it nears its end, audiences are feverishly following every plot thread to guess what the finale will reveal.
Fox News writer Perry Chiaramonte published an article detailing Wikipedia's alleged abandonment of its fight to remove pornography.
On 30 September, Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), the Wikimedia community's global photo competition, will reach to the end of its submission period. The proceedings have been underway since the first of this month; national juries will start reviewing submissions for the first round of selections after it closes ... Community aggravation with one of the Wikimedia Foundation's signature initiatives, the VisualEditor, came to the fore again this week with the announcement and implementation of code blocking the tool.
This week, we continued our exploration of other language editions of Wikipedia by visiting the Spanish Wikipedia's Wikiproyecto Fútbol (WikiProject Football).
Twelve articles, six lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
A conference paper makes a rather serious claim: "We find a surprisingly large number of editors who change their behavior and begin focusing more on a particular controversial topic once they are promoted to administrator status."
Can you upload a cover art for O Lado Certo da Vida Certa https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/o-lado-certo-da-vida-certa/id709549803 189.4.33.62 (talk) 17:32, 1 October 2013 (UTC) Cornell University students need your help!Hey Mkdw, We are two university students who have been assigned to edit an article on wikipedia. The article we chose is Aaron Paul. As part of the assignment, we need to interact with other wikipedia editors. I noticed you posted on his page awhile ago. Would you mind reviewing the page after we edit it and give us some suggestions? Thanks! FingersInFood (talk) 17:48, 1 October 2013 (UTC) P.S. can you please reply on my talk page? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:FingersInFood sent you an email / Lorena GarciaJust a heads up. thanks! -Greg — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gbaroth (talk • contribs) 20:47, 1 October 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 02 October 2013Medical images have transformed many aspects of modern medicine. Over the past two decades the increasing sophistication of MRI, CT-scanning, and X-ray techniques has made these technologies the cornerstone of diagnosing a range of conditions, replacing what used to be largely guesswork by doctors. They can be the difference between life and death for a patient, and their importance is underlined by the tens of billions of dollars spent on them annually just in North America. For Wikimedia Foundation projects, advanced images are now a powerful tool for describing and explaining, and educating our worldwide readership of medical articles.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
In what will be remembered as a game-changing week for Wikimedia grantmaking, the Foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, published a forthright and in places highly critical statement, Reflections on the FDC process, and grantmaking staff revealed that the WMF will significantly strengthen its targeting of optimal impact in funding.
Six articles and two pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
Editor's note: To go beyond the mere facts of cases, the "Arbitration report" invited several editors who participated in the recent Infoboxes case to comment on infoboxes: what they are, where new users can go to find out about them, specifications and protocols, best practices, and how the upcoming community discussion recommended by the Committee in the case decision should be framed.
This week, we revisited the enthusiastic editors at WikiProject U2. Started in June 2007, the project has grown in spurts, resulting in a collection of 8 Featured Articles and 24 Good Articles. The project maintains a to do list, portal, and a list of references.
Disruptive editing.Happened to notice this guy vandalized the death penalty page. I checked his user contributions and from what I saw vandalism is all he does. Saw you warned him in the past and wasn't sure what the proper procedure was so I figured I would give you a heads up.Winfredtheforth (talk) 06:59, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 09 October 2013
If you're living in the United States, what did you do during the government shutdown? Well, it seems most people watched the final episode of Breaking Bad.
This week, we moved to the esoteric world of Australian roads.
Seven articles, six lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
An investigation by the English Wikipedia community into suspicious edits and sockpuppet activity has led to astonishing revelations that Wiki-PR, a multi-million-dollar US-based company, has created, edited, or maintained several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients using a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts.
The University of California, San Francisco attracted substantial media attention over its new course offering that will give credit to fourth year medical students for editing Wikipedia articles about medicine.
A proposed decision has been posted in the Manning naming dispute. The workshop phase of the Ebionites 3 case closes 13 October. Arbitrator NuclearWarfare has resigned.
Hi. Can you offer your opinion on which photo would be better for the Rebecca Housel Infobox in this discussion? If you are unable to, I understand; you don't have to reply to this message. Thanks. Nightscream (talk) 03:36, 17 October 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 16 October 2013
Media coverage on Wiki-PR, the multi-million-dollar US-based company that has broken several policies and guidelines on the English Wikipedia in its quest to create and maintain thousands of articles for paying clients, continued this week with a feature story by Martin Robbins in the British edition of Vice magazine.
A slow week, with low overall views and the Top 10 dominated by longstanding pages. Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's outer space-set action art film, not only held its position at the top of the US box office but climbed to the top of the Wikipedia chart as well, showing that it has become a major talking point.
This week, we studied coats of arms and flags with the folks at WikiProject Heraldry and Vexillology. Started in September 2006, the project has grown to include 20 Featured Articles and nearly 50 Good Articles. The project maintains a portal, a list of resources, and a variety of images and templates.
Six articles, two lists, and thirty-three pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
The Manning naming dispute case has closed, with a strong and unanimous statement by the Committee against disparaging references to transgendered persons. Sanctions were enacted against six editors.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
UpdateTo anyone passing by and has thought, "wow... Mkdw must be on one heck of a deadline if it's still going on after 4th months!" I have finished the project I was working on, am midway through another that overlapped, and this week I found out I will be moving to a new city. I am extremely excited for this brand new opportunity and big step but sadly means I will need to extend my leave of absence a little bit longer. Regards, Mkdwtalk 18:48, 22 October 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 23 October 2013
The next twice-yearly round of Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) grantmaking is soon to close for community questioning and commentary. Ten nation-based Wikimedia chapters and one thematic organisation are asking for a total of more than US$5M of donors’ money from the Foundation’s renamed annual plan grant process. Aside from Wikimedia UK ($708k), the three biggest asks are from the German-speaking chapters: Wikimedia Germany is asking for $2.4M and Wikimedia Austria $311k; and the German-language-related Swiss chapter is applying for $500k.
Media, sports and Google Doodles dominate, though a very odd fish decided to crash the party.
Twelve articles, four lists, and four pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week, including the article on cabbage.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
MIT Technology Review published a long article on what it called "The decline of Wikipedia". Editor involvement has decreased since 2007; according to the article, this has had an adverse qualitative effect on content, particularly on issues pertinent to non-British and American male geeks.
This week, we headed to an elementary subject with WikiProject Elements. Founded by Mav in 2002, this project has grown to have 19 featured articles, 2 featured topics, and 68 good articles. The project also has a list of templates, and a periodic table of elements filled with pictures.
Books and Bytes: The Wikipedia Library NewsletterBooks and Bytes
Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2013 Greetings Wikipedia Library members! Welcome to the inaugural edition of Books and Bytes, TWL’s monthly newsletter. We're sending you the first edition of this opt-in newsletter, because you signed up, or applied for a free research account: HighBeam, Credo, Questia, JSTOR, or Cochrane. To receive future updates of Books and Bytes, please add your name to the subscriber's list. There's lots of news this month for the Wikipedia Library, including new accounts, upcoming events, and new ways to get involved... New positions: Sign up to be a Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, or a Volunteer Wikipedia Librarian Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Off to a roaring start this fall in the United States: 29 events are planned or have been hosted. New subscription donations: Cochrane round 2; HighBeam round 8; Questia round 4... Can we partner with NY Times and Lexis-Nexis?? New ideas: OCLC innovations in the works; VisualEditor Reference Dialog Workshop; a photo contest idea emerges News from the library world: Wikipedian joins the National Archives full time; the Getty Museum releases 4,500 images; CERN goes CC-BY Announcing WikiProject Open: WikiProject Open kicked off in October, with several brainstorming and co-working sessions New ways to get involved: Visiting scholar requirements; subject guides; room for library expansion and exploration Thanks for reading! All future newsletters will be opt-in only. Have an item for the next issue? Leave a note for the editor on the Suggestions page. --The Interior 21:00, 27 October 2013 (UTC) The Signpost: 30 October 2013
The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.
While giving a speech on behalf of a gubernatorial candidate, Paul advocated his pro-life position, and compared allowing unrestricted abortions to the film Gattaca. He went on to use strikingly similar language and phraseology in his speech to what the Wikipedia page reads. The Washington Post's article conceded that Wikipedia is a widely used source for trivial information, but mocked the fact that a politician would view it as a reliable source.
In January we raised several potentially troublesome issues for the Wikimedia movement in taking on Wikivoyage, including the apparent inadequacy of the English Wikivoyage sex-tourism policy, hurriedly strengthened against mention of child sex after our inquiries. However, both sex-tourism and illegal-activities policies remain equivocal about how the site should treat entries about sex tourism more generally, and drugs that are classed as illicit in almost every country. Yet the Signpost has found it remarkably easy to locate material in Wikivoyage that violates both the spirit and the letter of the policies.
This year's WikiCup competition has finished, while three articles, five lists, and six pictures, were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
Laura Stein, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, has concluded that, based on her comparison of user policy documents (including the Terms of Service) of YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia, Wikipedia offers the highest level of participation power overall.
With Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and other gloomy celebrations this week, we're taking a look at Wikipedia's dead and dying. For some dead WikiProjects, the sole purpose of their life was simply to serve as a warning to others. Some of these projects may still be salvageable, but for most, a revival is unlikely. Here are some projects that never got off the ground and the lessons that can be gleaned from their follies
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