This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Levent added a Recognition section to the Ryan Adams article which in my opinion is over-referenced tripe. I do not intend to delete any of it (I know NOTHING about Adams), but thought you would be amused by part of Levent's edit explanation "Every single statement is well cited from reliable sources and is also checked by Nick Moyes who gave a green signal to add this." David notMD (talk) 21:43, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
@David notMD: Ah, that'll be as a result of my god-like status finally being recognised (- if only by one person, thus far) About time, I say! I know nothing about Adams either - see post above for where my "green signal" came from. Likewise, I'm minded not to delete it, either, but it needs care not to overdo sections like these. Cheers. Nick Moyes (talk) 21:58, 3 April 2019 (UTC)
@JJBullet: Do you think I'm stupid? I shall answer on your talk page in due course. In the meantime be advised that editing other users pages and subpages is taken very seriously. Nick Moyes (talk) 11:23, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
@CalOtter: I've worked out what's been going on. It's a worrying case of WP:CIR which I shall address on their talk page first, but may well take to WP:ANI if it's not resolved. Watch that space! Nick Moyes (talk) 21:46, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
I just looked at his recent edits, and one of them had the edit summary of "Installing User:Nick Moyes/common.js (script-installer)". His edits that were adding things to your pages used the same summary as yours, which makes me wonder if one of your scripts does that. He could have believed that they were going to be added to his userpage, so this could actually just have been a mistake. CalOtter (talk) 21:52, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
@CalOtter: Yes, I knew that, thanks. Am just investigating their other activities and the odd mendacious statement. I think it's a case of a fairly bright kid who seeks recognition and lots of fancy hats, but doesn't know enough to drive a big car yet. Hope we can sort them out before they have a head on crash here. Cheers Nick Moyes (talk) 22:31, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
I am extremely sorry to everyone that has been offended by whats been going on, i have not meant to hurt anyone in the process JJBullet (😂 Talk) 09:19, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
Thank you. However, I do see far too many apologies from you in the wake of all your activities here, and I don't want to see any more. Just so long as you read and digest the implications of the concerns I have left on your talk page you will be fine. But you have been running before you can walk, and Wikipedia is a serious place with 5.8 million articles that I don't want you messing with until you learn the basics of how to edit encyclopaedia articles (which is why we're all here). Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 09:26, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
Im Probably going to stop editing on the wiki until i can get my personal issues sorted, can you block me from editing for 24 hours pleaseJJBullet (😂 Talk) 09:35, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
@JJBullet: I cannot do that as I am not an administrator, nor is that the right way to proceed. Just unplug the computer and only use it for key tasks - that's the best way. Nick Moyes (talk) 09:47, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
@CalOtter: Thank you very much for your email. The information you provided was very interesting, and I will definitely monitor the situation from here on in. Nick Moyes (talk) 17:13, 4 April 2019 (UTC)
@Clovermoss: Oops - blooming heck - yes, better now and I got sidetracked. I'm really sorry about that. I'll take a look tomorrow evening and reply as soon as I can after that. (am off to bed right now I'm afraid). Nick Moyes (talk) 01:25, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
Ah, that's okay! Thanks for taking the time to reply. It's getting late for me too, I should probably start gettig ready to go to sleep soon as well. Besides, I got to talk to Oshwah about some other questions I had. He's been incredibly helpful. :) Clovermoss (talk) 01:32, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
I'm okay with waiting
I've asked a lot of questions at the adoption page recently. I'm just writing here because I am aware that it is a lot of questions and that I'm okay with waiting for answers. I've noticed that sometimes you answer all my questions in one big wall of text and if you don't always want to do that, I'm perfectly fine with recieving an answer or two and waiting for the others. I don't want to be overwhelming with all of my questions and I understand that you have a life and even other interests on Wikipedia. I've also noticed that your other adoptee has asked for your advice on his draft. I'm fine with waiting my turn if you want to take a look at that first. :) Clovermoss (talk) 18:02, 6 April 2019 (UTC)
I had my suspicions based on writing style and a lot of postings at Teahouse, but Levent H. recently posted a not-logged-in screed at Teahouse (deleted by another editor), revealing to be same person as previously blocked for sockpuppetry. David notMD (talk) 14:38, 8 April 2019 (UTC)
Yes, I saw that and also had concerns - though it sould be noted at this time that the IP and LH aren't necessarily the same person. I note the IP was swiftly blocked and good to see that an SPI will look into it further, though it could be a 'joe job' (a new phrase on me). I wonder what proportion of those posting at the Teahouse end up getting blocked? Could make an interesting study. Nick Moyes (talk) 14:50, 8 April 2019 (UTC)
More wikis are now testing visual editor section editing for mobile users. You can read more.
When you add an edit summary the VisualEditor will search your recent edit summaries in case you want to re-use one. This works in both the visual and wikitext modes on desktop. It also works on the mobile site. [1]
Soft cell
Hi,
Please advise how I would add a citation or reference? There are various websites mainly reddit.com that have this text “ They were first spotted by David Oddie, boss of Wakefield based Ambergris Records in a Bradford club, who passed his enthusiasm onto Dead Good Records in Lincoln, famous for their Hicks From The Sticks compilation, who in turn approached Polygram, the newly formed amalgam of Polydor and Phonogram” Smithsonp (talk) 18:41, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
@Smithsonp: Unfortunately, Reddit is a user-generate website and is not an acceptable, reliable source, and many sites copy one another's content. A music magazine, book or website under proper editorial/journalistic control would be fine, however, but not blogs or personal websites/social media. See WP:RS to learn what we mean by 'reliable source', and see WP:REFBEGIN for how to add an inline citation. The bottom line is that if you can't support a statement that is liable to be challenged by providing a proper reference to a reliable source - simply leave it out. Google Books can sometimes be a good place to search for sources, too. Nick Moyes (talk) 18:56, 9 April 2019 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
All wikis now have the TemplateWizard for the wikitext editor.
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 April. It will be on all wikis from 18 April (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Wikidata will get a new constraint status called suggestion. This will change how the WikibaseQualityConstraints constraint checking API works. [2][3]
You can test the depicts property for structured data on Commons.
I saw your comment earlier about interest in a study what % of users at the Teahouse are blocked. Here's what I found in a very small sample size of the threads at archive 900.
In these threads:
8 editors who had asked a question had edited in the past month
16 editors who had asked questions had edited since the start of 2019 (some were more active than others, but none of these editors were blocked)
1 editor recieved a COI warning. They weren't blocked and haven't edited for awhile.
1 editor was blocked for sockpuppetry.
3 additional threads were started by editors who had previously asked questions at the Teahouse (limited to this specific archive)
5 experienced editors (which I defined as having accounts older than 6 months) asked questions
Some other interesting information:
In total, 3 articles were created and passed AFC by 2 editors who had asked question(s) at the Teahouse.
In total, 9 articles were created and failed AFC by 4 editors who had asked question(s) at the Teahouse.
In total, 1 article that had failed AFC was resubmitted and passed by 1 editor who asked question(s) at the Teahouse.
In total, 2 articles that had failed AFC were resubmitted and failed again by 2 editors who had asked question(s) at the Teahouse.
In addition, Denkiden asked questions at the Teahouse that were archived without an answer. I'm also worried that they might not be here to build an encloypedia, since they are here to "raise awareness of memes" according to their userpage. Clovermoss (talk) 16:48, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
@Clovermoss: Thank you very much for this, and for previous posts on our adoption page. I'm currently on holiday in Spain, and will endeavour to digest and reply asap over the next few days or so. (Ping me again if I don't!) Meanwhile, Cullen328 might be interested in your small sample analysis of Teahouse questions, as indeed might Thegooduser, too. Regards for now, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:16, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
As I said, it is a very small sample size. One archive out of 900+ isn't really enough to make any generalizations or anything. If I'm bored, I might look at other archived threads and see how they compare to each other/if there are any signifigant trends. Also, I hope you enjoy your vacation! Clovermoss (talk) 21:41, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
Thanks. Jim might give you a link to a video of his, giving an interesting breakdown of Teahouse questions a couple of years back. Nick Moyes (talk) 21:54, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
The advanced search function URL now shows which namespaces you search in. The namespace field is collapsed by default on the search page. You can also add new fields to the search interface through a hook. [4][5][6]
The wikis now look slightly different in the mobile web version. [7]
Mary Trefusis
Hello, Thank you for your message; most of the articles I have created were done in the early years under another user name. It seems that the occasional article I create nowadays gets criticized, e.g, Diocese of Aude and Ninove Abbey which got reduced to drafts and were only revived later on.--Johnsoniensis (talk) 10:28, 24 April 2019 (UTC)
@Johnsoniensis: I can understand your frustration. But if you've returned after a long break away, you do have to realise that Wikipedia has grown up considerably now. I think there's less concern to get articles created, and more concern to ensure that content now being added meets our high standards of verifiability and reliable sources. Stuff that might once have been OK, probably isn't any more. I hope you can appreciate that's why you might be feeling criticised, when previously your weren't. What you've experienced isn't anything personal - just a reflection of the higher standards we've all set ourselves to work under. Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 16:48, 24 April 2019 (UTC)
Your explanation makes good sense but I shall probably not be creating any new articles in the future so some editors will need to do so. I have in fact not been away very much but I did change my user name a few years ago after operating as User:Felix Folio Secundus from 2008 and under the present name for a number of years. None of the articles to which I made major contributions has got any more than a B class for quality but it seems no-one else had tried to create them at the time.--Johnsoniensis (talk) 18:24, 24 April 2019 (UTC)
@JJBullet: I'm fine thanks - just back from a family holiday abroad. Lots of sun and not too much Wikipedia - who could ask for more? LOL! I'm glad you've slowed down and I am grateful to Dlohcierekim that they reached out to you. I hope that contact helped. Just remember - if you need any support, we're always available at the Teahouse or you can contact us individually on talk pages if you need advice, and aren't in a rush. Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 16:54, 24 April 2019 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
The Wikipedia app for Android now invites users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. [8][9]
Problems
Tech News was late last week because of a MassMessage bug. Other newsletters had the same problem. [10]
Changes later this week
You will see when you last refreshed the recent changes page. This is so you can see how recent the changes are. [11]
When you write a comment in Structured Discussions but have not posted it yet your web browser will save it in local storage instead of session storage. This means you do not lose them even if you close your web browser. Structured Discussions used to be called Flow. [12]
You will be able to turn off milestone notifications. Milestone notifications congratulate you when you have made certain numbers of edits. [13]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 May. It will be on all wikis from 2 May (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 1 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
The Wikidata wb_terms table will be dropped. This will affect some Wikidata tools. They need to be updated. The table has become too big which is causing problems. This will happen on 29 May. You can read more. You can ask for help if you need it.
Wikimedia wikis will soon use a token when you log out. This changes how the API works. Some tools might need to be updated. [14]
I noticed here that you are the most active member of the Teahouse for the last 50,000 revisions with 1,781 edits.
Here are some other editors in the top 10:
Actually, embarrassing for me (David notMD) as I am not formally a Teahouse advisor, and also, this relatively recent fascination has taken time from my more skill-set appropriate role in improving articles related to health, nutrition and dietary supplements. David notMD (talk) 11:41, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
Ah interesting stuff. I think you should halve my count as I'm always coming back to fix my own spytso erm, typos! I don't think there is any real 'formal' advisor status -I'd certainly regard you, David notMD, as an extremely valuable host. Funnily enough, a few weeks back I was doing some preparatory work, prior to suggesting an update to the displayed, and very out-of-date, list of images at the top of the TH page, and I did consider posting a list of the latest article that each of the most active hosts had created - purely to help new editors see what we each get up to. But it's actually a crude method of competence, especially as some very experienced TH hosts haven't created any yet, or at least for many years. So I dropped that thought. Nice work there, Mstrojny. The TH is certainly a time-sink, but I still find it a wonderful way to both share and learn new techniques - like PrimeHunter's tip on searching across two categories that was posted today. Regards, all. Nick Moyes (talk) 12:07, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
Yeah, but whilst considered against how many editors are active on Wikipedia, that might sound impressive, the reality is I've only actually ever made 37 edits there! (only click this link if you really need proof). I always tell my daughters that I am actually the 71st best father in the world because, well, I'm happy to be that high up on that list! Nick Moyes (talk) 17:32, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
@Hailyrulesamerica: Hi there. Thanks for coming over to my talk page to discuss any concerns you have, but please take care to post messages at the bottom of an editor's talk page, not some random point midway along, please. That's really unhelpful. Errm, no, I haven't used any such word myself. As you saw in the level 3 warning I left on your userpage, I simply reverted your edits to gender bender which appeared to me to go against consensus on the article's talk page. Sorry if I misunderstood, but I didn't think I had. Please discuss it there, not here, as I was only monitoring vandalism, and you, I'm afraid, appear to be on a one-person campaign to censor articles, as you did at Fuck by blanking the entire article. That way lies doom, my friend. ...OK, slight exaggeration; blocking, anyway. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:35, 6 April 2019 (UTC)
Implementation of the new portal design has been culled back almost completely, and the cull is still ongoing. The cull has also affected portals that existed before the development of the automated design.
Some of the reasons for the purge are:
Portals receive insufficient traffic, making it a waste of editor resources to maintain them, especially for narrow-scope or "micro" portals
The default {{bpsp}} portals are redundant with the corresponding articles, being based primarily on the corresponding navigation footer displayed on each of those articles, and therefore not worth separate pages to do so
They were mass created
Most of the deletions have been made without prejudice to recreation of curated portals, so that approval does not need to be sought at Deletion Review in those cases.
In addition to new portals being deleted, most of the portals that were converted to an automated design have been reverted.
Which puts us back to portals with manually selected content, that need to be maintained by hand, for the most part, for the time being, and back facing some of the same problems we had when we were at this crossroads before:
Manually maintained portals are not scalable (they are labor intensive, and there aren't very many editors available to maintain them)
The builders/maintainers tend to eventually abandon them
Untended handcrafted portals go stale and fall into disrepair over time
These and other concepts require further discussion. See you at WT:POG.
However, after the purge/reversion is completed, some of the single-page portals might be left, due to having acceptable characteristics (their design varied some). If so, then those could possibly be used as a model to convert and/or build more, after the discussions on portal creation and design guidelines have reached a community consensus on what is and is not acceptable for a portal.
A major theme in the deletion discussions was the need for portals to be curated, that is, each one having a dedicated maintainer.
There are currently around 100 curated portals. Based on the predominant reasoning at MfD, it seems likely that all the other portals may be subject to deletion.
An observation and argument that arose again and again during the WP:ENDPORTALS RfC and the ongoing deletion drive of {{bpsp}} default portals, was that portals simply do not get much traffic. Typically, they get a tiny fraction of what the corresponding like-titled articles get.
And while this isn't generally considered a good rationale for creation or deletion of articles, portals are not articles, and portal critics insist that traffic is a key factor in the utility of portals.
The implication is that portals won't be seen much, so wouldn't it be better to develop pages that are?
And since such development isn't limited to editing, almost anything is possible. If we can't bring readers to portals, we could bring portal features, or even better features, to the readers (i.e., to articles)...
Some potential future directions of development
Quantum portals?
An approach that has received some brainstorming is "quantum portals", meaning portals generated on-the-fly and presented directly on the view screen without any saved portal pages. This could be done by script or as a MediaWiki program feature, but would initially be done by script. The main benefits of this is that it would be opt-in (only those who wanted it would install it), and the resultant generated pages wouldn't be saved, so that there wouldn't be anything to maintain except the script itself.
Non-portal integrated components
Another approach would be to focus on implementing specific features independently, and provide them somewhere highly visible in a non-portal presentation context (that is, on a page that wasn't a portal that has lots of traffic, i.e., articles). Such as inserted directly into an article's HTML, as a pop-up there, or as a temporary page. There are scripts that use these approaches (providing unrelated features), and so these approaches have been proven to be feasible.
What kind of features could this be done with?
The various components of the automated portal design are transcluded excerpts, news, did you know, image slideshows, excerpt slideshows, and so on.
Some of the features, such as navigation footers and links to sister projects are already included on article pages. And some already have interface counterparts (such as image slideshows). Some of the rest may be able to be integrated directly via script, but may need further development before they are perfected. Fortunately, scripts are used on an opt-in basis, and therefore wouldn't affect readers-in-general and editors-at-large during the development process (except for those who wanted to be beta testers and installed the scripts).
The development of such scripts falls under the scope of the Javascript-WikiProject/Userscript-department, and will likely be listed on Wikipedia:User scripts/List when completed enough for beta-testing. Be sure to watchlist that page.
Where would that leave curated portals?
Being curated. At least for the time being.
New encyclopedia program features will likely eventually render most portals obsolete. For example, the pop-up feature of MediaWiki provides much the same functionality as excerpts in portals already, and there is also a slideshow feature to view all the images on the current page (just click on any image, and that activates the slideshow). Future features could also overlap portal features, until there is nothing that portals provide that isn't provided elsewhere or as part of Wikipedia's interface.
But, that may be a ways off. Perhaps months or years. It depends on how rapidly programmers develop them.
Keep on keepin' on
The features of Wikipedia and its articles will continue to evolve, even if Portals go by the wayside. Most, if not all of portals' functionality, or functions very similar, will likely be made available in some form or other.
Hi Nick. I see you've been keeping an eye on JJBullet. I think his editing on Jnr.void is innocent if misguided. I note that both boys are attached to the same trust, Novalis, which appears to cater for "the education of children, young people and adults, including those with emotional and behavioural difficulties". I suspect that having set up his page he is helping out a fellow resident. That brings me to the main point, in the infoboxes for both of them are full names and email addresses. This worries me, particularly in light of the description of Novalis. Should they be redacted? Regards, Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:08, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
Thank you - that's good advice. You'll see I've just replied and await a reply, but am now away for a few hours. I'm happy to contact an admin later re revdel if you aren't able to. i.e. let me know if you do taken any action yourself, so as to avoid duplication of effort. In haste. Nick Moyes (talk) 11:27, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
I saw his explanation and your reply after I'd written the above. I think it best to let you run with this for the sake of a few hours, JJBullet seems to relate to you and trust you, I'd just be a stranger upsetting things. If you need to be away for days rather than hours I'll step in, but otherwise let's keep it cool. Best regards, and thanks for your caring attitude to newbies, Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:40, 30 April 2019 (UTC)
@Martin of Sheffield:I just saw your message, and thank you so much to both of you for helping me, if you want to help at all Martin then im more than happy, just because i relate to Nick a bit more doesnt mean i wont take on board what you are saying, best wishes, - JJBullet (Talk)10:39, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
Some news :)
It's been a while since we've actually talked with your vacation and all that, but I've been learning a lot of stuff on my own. Anyways, one of my drafts passed AFC and Katherine Hughes (activist) is now a live article! I've also done other stuff and picked up on a few things. Created a redirect (for Katherine Angelina Hughes), talked a bit on article talk pages (for example, Alexei Romanov, and I read and used some of WP:MOS (check out today's article for improvement for an example). I've been busy (and will remain so until the weekend) but I figured I should write an update of sorts. Clovermoss (talk) 02:07, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
@Clovermoss: Thank you. I did see you'd been busy and productive, which is really great. I also recognise I owe you some roplies to earlier questions, which I will get around to doing as soon as I can. You do absolutely the right hing by also posting at the Teahouse for immediate replies when you need them. I generally need access to quiet time and to a keyboard, rather than faff about on a tiny mobile screen at odd moments which I've been doing a lot of lately. (Daughter has been stealing my laptop for doing her exam revision, which doesn't make it easy) Also: thanks for your holding reply to another user re adoption, which I'm about to reply to. Did you know that Alexei Romanov is a WP:DAB page, and that you can display those links as orange if you go to Preferences>Gadgets>Appearance and tick the box marked Display links to disambiguation pages in orange? It's really helpful when checking for accidentally wrong linkages. TTFN, Nick Moyes (talk) 11:04, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
Well, at least your daughter isn't procastinating :). I have a lot on my plate too, but at least my exams are still a few weeks away. I was hoping for more time this weekend for Wikipedia, but I still have a lot to do so I won't be around as much as I would like. As for the link, I forgot to check whether or not it was the right one. This sounds like an interesting suggestion to prevent that from happening in the future. Clovermoss (talk) 20:42, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
XTools Admin Stats, a tool to list admins by administrative actions, has been revamped to support more types of log entries such as AbuseFilter changes. Two additional tools have been integrated into it as well: Steward Stats and Patroller Stats.
Arbitration
In response to the continuing compromise of administrator accounts, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion amending the procedures for return of permissions (diff). In such cases, the committee will review all available information to determine whether the administrator followed "appropriate personal security practices" before restoring permissions; administrators found failing to have adequately done so will not be resysopped automatically. All current administrators have been notified of this change.
Following a formal ratification process, the arbitration policy has been amended (diff). Specifically, the two-thirds majority required to remove or suspend an arbitrator now excludes (1) the arbitrator facing suspension or removal, and (2) any inactive arbitrator who does not respond within 30 days to attempts to solicit their feedback on the resolution through all known methods of communication.
Hello, I found your listing on the adoption page and out of all the adopters, I was most interested in you. We share an interest in the sciences (particularly biology, it seems), and also to WP:WOMRED although that's something of a stretch goal. At the moment I have very little interest in administrative tasks and I am generally most interested in learning to be a more effective editor. NPP is also something I would love to work on in the future when I feel like I really have my editing skills together.
I feel like I should explain my contribs, as well. I have nearly 2,000 edits on paper, but that is a poor representation of what kind of work I have done and I feel like it overestimates me. My first major project on Wikipedia was to completely clear the backlog of over 800 unassessed articles at WP:Biology using Rater as noted on my userpage. If you have used Rater, you will know that it is super easy. I consider it valuable work and I learned some really useful skills from it, but they don't transfer as well to the work areas that I want to break into and unfortunately it sort of pads my edit count.
I am really interested in continuing this kind of work, though--maintaining projects via assessment, management of categories, (tasteful) tagging, and working through cleanup listing. At the same time, I have my own personal backlog of many articles I have come across during my assessment spree that need direct, dedicated work. I have become frustrated with my skills on multiple occasions, especially when I'm working with trickier aspects. Short-term goals would be learning more about formatting, infoboxes, useful templates/tags, and so on, while a good mid-term goal for me would be full proficiency in taking diverse articles (in my field) up to C quality, even from a stub. I'm not interested at this time in contributing to GA/FA-level articles--I feel that would be a waste of my time.
I went over your page on adoption and I want to assure you that I understand the basics of the concepts you listed. I can't say I have memorized them but I am aware of all those policies, I take them seriously, and I plan to review them regularly. In addition, I just completed WP:TWA last night. I left the badges on my page as proof but I'll be deleting them soon for cleanliness. I also glanced at how you made a separate page for User:Clovermoss, and should you decide to accept me I think that would be a good course of action for us as well.
Anyway, thank you for your time in reading this and your consideration. I hope you are not too busy because we seem to be a very good fit! Prometheus720 (talk) 00:18, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
It might take a while for Nick to get back to you since he's been on a vacation. I just thought I should let you know since I was pinged :) Clovermoss (talk) 01:55, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
Hi, Prometheus720 thanks for coming over to my page to seek some support and guidance. Ironically, I was just thinking of temporarily removing my current offer for adoption as I'm finding I have very little spare time beyond my own faffing about on Wikipedia, let alone rapidly assisting others. That said, if I can help you, I certainly will. I agree with you that working to get an article to GA or FA level takes tremendous commitment and effort, and it's definitely not something to start off with. (I managed it with this article which I converted from a simple list, but burned myself out so that when it got to my FA submission, I took too long to resolve a couple of matters, and it was put on hold. Two years later I now need to find some mental space to sit down and take that final tiny step to get it reassessed, as I'm confident it's there. Lurking at Peer review might be better, but I actually think you might find that simply aiming to improve one or two stubs to Start class is probably the most rewarding for some selected topic you're interested in. I see you've not yet created anything new yourself (which is fine - don't get me wrong), but you could consider giving that a try. For example, there are a million red-linked species articles out there just ripe for creation, and I could guide you through that process if you wished to. I don't do a vast amount of repetitive maintenance tasks myself, despite these being immensely valuable. I have, however, found myself drawn towards some of the other administrative and support work here, and will probably put my name forward for consideration of being given admin rights later this year when I've a little more free and able. I can see that with c 2,200 edits, though less than 150 in mainspace, with no single article you've worked on in detail, you could learn a lot by focussing on just one subject and working to improve that over a period of time. I'm probably not the best person to advise you on some of the more gnomish tasks that you've done so far. In fact, you could probably teach me some of them...I've never tried Rater, for example.
So look, here's the deal. I can offer to support you in the way you've seen I've tried to help Clovermoss. I.e. a dedicated on which we ping one another, keeping everything in one place, though I can't promise to give quick replies most of the time. I have absolutely no issues with anyone going to the Teahouse or to WP:HD for immediate assistance. But I can probably address some of the more complex and general questions you might have on the less gnomish work around her, and guide/steer you through some of them, or you can call me to invite me to look through work you've been preparing. i.e. the kind of things that are bit too long to tease out with a Teahouse question. If I can help you get the confidence to work on writing good, well-referenced article content - even if it's only stub or start level - and to understand where you can find some of the key resources for yourself to do that, I think my job is done. So let me know what you think. It might be nice to know your biological interests and current academic level (I'm more plants than animals). It would also be helpful (but not essential) to have some idea of your age so I can appreciate where you are within the education system (pre University/first year/post grad? etc). Gender is nice to know, but neither are things you should reveal publicly here if you're not OK doing that. Not revealing that is fine, too. Anyway, I must shoot. Apologies for any typos in this reply. Let me know what you think. Nick Moyes (talk) 11:45, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for your reply! I don't so much feel that I need help with the gnomish work. I'm actually in the process of writing a guide for Rater right now, which I will be submitting to Evad37 when I'm finished--I'll be sure to ping you when I do. I would not be surprised if I am one of its heaviest users by the end of this year or even earlier. It is sadly very underutilized. Really the main gnomish stuff I want to get into is categories, citations, and cleanup tags. What I would really like is help getting into editing articles. To me, FA/GA status is an unreasonable standard for most of the nearly 6 million articles on enwiki. Some subjects truly cannot be discussed at that length, and even if they are it is questionable whether it's worth that much time. I see B-class as a more achievable standard--I rarely complain when I look something up as a reader and find a B article. I don't expect myself to be pushing articles beyond B-class probably ever, except perhaps a few B-class articles I have found that seem worth a GA review to me. Even those I would want to be out of my hands.
I'm a senior biology student, very eclectic. I have had less education in wildlife bio, plants, or computational biology, but I find those topics very interesting as well and I plan to educate myself. I think that I have a slight preference for "concept" articles over taxon articles, which is why I have worked mainly outside the purview of Wikiproject Tree of Life so far. I enjoy neighboring topics such as geology and organic chemistry. I am male, but one of my top priorities with Rater is to ensure that all female biography articles are properly included in the appropriate wikiproject (usually WPWS but sometimes others are more relevant). I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now with the sciences but eventually I would like to work with Women in Red as well. After I complete my degree I will be seeking certification to teach high school (or maybe middle school) and I would love to use Wikipedia as an educational tool in that far-flung future, especially with underrepresented students.
So to circle back, I have private lists of articles that I want to improve in various ways, some articles that need to be deleted/moved/merged/etc (which I REALLY need help understanding on a per-article basis), a few articles that I need to create, and a few articles that need further assessment for GA status. I don't desire to do that myself and I'd like some advice on how to proceed with it. All of those are things that are beyond teahouse status for me. I should emphasize that I am actually a very experienced writer and I am used to writing every single day. I don't have any "bottleneck" at that level--it is translating that experience into the very specific style of Wikipedia that is difficult. For example, I have come across articles that are so poorly written that I want to just rewrite the entire thing--but I have to at least attempt to retain some of the aspects of the page that have been contributed by other users. This is not my encyclopedia but OUR encyclopedia, and I'm not used to being constrained in that way. Eventually, once I have cleaned out many of the gnome backlogs and I am only doing maintenance, I hope to be able to focus more on directly working on articles, perhaps improving one per day or so. I don't mind waiting on your responses at all--I have at least a month of heavy work (more than that at a slower pace) that I already know how to do, and I'm learning to do new things every day. There are probably 2-3 pages in my list that need attention very soon, but other than those nothing is really time-sensitive. I'd love to have some feedback on a few pieces of work I have already done, as well, but in due time. I would love to have a page to discuss all of this on. I never expected rapid responses--I assumed something more along the lines of you getting back to me when you aren't busy, more of a sort of within two weeks-ish time frame on average. The other question is, are we considering this adoption or something less formal? Thanks! Prometheus720 (talk) 16:02, 3 May 2019 (UTC)
OK, Prometheus720, thank you for that background explanation and information about yourself. On the basis of what you've said, and notwithstanding that I've not had much of a chance to look through your contributions thus far, I would be happy to support you as best I can. We clearly have some interests in common, and the idea that you might go into teaching and spread the word about the careful use of Wikipedia in schools is a real positive. I don't personally regard Adoption here as a very formal process. (My approach would not be a very structured one) In fact, the Adopt-a-User project became moribund some years ago when WP:HD and WP:TH were created. These both give users much faster responses to quick questions, and really are far better suited to new users. About a year ago I did start to work on a plan to turn WP:AAU around by making it solely targeted at people like you and User:Clovermoss (i.e. clearly committed and keen to improve across a number of areas in the medium to long term), and definitely not for brand new editors. Just as in real life, adoption does involve a commitment on both sides, and I didn't want to spend my time helping some POV-pusher learn to create one pet article about their company or favourite musician, but who then promptly leaves the project, never to be seen again. I see it as offering longer term support and gentle encouragement to improve - and definitely not instant answers - as you see by the tardiness of my reply to you! It has been my lack of time this last year or so which stopped me committing to try to improve and revive the AAU scheme.
So, if you're OK with it, I'm very happy to support you in learning to create articles from scratch. Providing you can get to a Start class level with most things you work on, and perhaps the odd C-class, I'd be very pleased. Going any further is just a bonus, not a target. I would propose to create a subpage here on my user page. We'd keep all conversations on adoption-related matters to that sub-page's Talk page, and my current approach with Clovermoss is to order the various shortcut links to policies, guidelines and help-pages on the user subpage so we both have a quick overview of what we've covered.
Unfortunately, I discovered that despite every user sub-page having an associated Talk page, the normal means of WP:NOTIFICATIONS doesn't work on them. Thus, you would need to add that page to your Watchlist, and because I'm away from my PC so much, and don't want to be swamped with email notifications, I have currently inactivated my own Watchlist email notifications. Thus I'd need you to 'ping' me correctly if you want me to actually know you've written there. We can each inform the other if we no longer wish to cooperate in this way together. And that might be simply because we have covered the basics you need and you or I now feel you're OK to go off on your own; or one or other of us might run out of free time, or we simply end up hating each other!!! Who knows? It's courteous and reasonable then just to agree ending things. Should you wish to copy over all or any content from the pages we work on, you're absolutely free to do that. If you wish, you may add {{Adoptee|Nick Moyes}} to your user page, and I will probably do the same on mine and on my entry on the AAU project page.
Perhaps I can get you to kick off when you're ready by copy/pasting bits of the summary above about yourself over to an 'About me' post, and perhaps follow it up with a bullet pointed list of questions or just listing different elements of article creation or other editing matters you feel you're still a bit unsure of and would like to get support with. If you can put them in a rough priority order, I can then work through that to get us started. By the way, during the summer the UK here works in UTC+1 hour, so I suspect we'll not be active at the same time. Nick Moyes (talk) 01:04, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
a barnstar for you!
The Original Barnstar
For your work in sorting out Pteroplax and working to resolve a conflict between two new well-intentioned users. Many helpers at Teahouse wouldn't have been so diligent in making sure neither new editor ended up deciding to quit editing. valereee (talk) 15:27, 12 May 2019 (UTC)
Interstellarity, yeah, I was looking for "Barnstar of New-user Handholding and Encouragement" but that one strangely doesn't exist --valereee (talk) 11:25, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard - May 2019
Hello, Nick Moyes! Here is the May 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
IPv6 addresses were written in lowercase letters in diffs. This caused dead links since Special:Contributions only accepted uppercase letters for the IPs. This has been fixed. [15]
Changes later this week
You can soon use Wikidata to link to pages on the multilingual Wikisource. [16]
Often editors use a "non-breaking space" to make a gap between two items when reading but still show them together. This can be used to avoid a line break. You will now be able to add new ones via the special character tool in the 2010, 2017, and visual editors. The character will be shown in the visual editor as a space with a grey background. [17][18]
Wikis use abuse filters to stop bad edits being made. Filter maintainers can now use syntax like 1.2.3.4 - 1.2.3.55 as well as the 1.2.3.4/27 syntax for IP ranges. [19]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 February. It will be on all wikis from 4 February (calendar).
Future changes
Minerva is the skin Wikimedia wikis use for mobile traffic. When a page is protected and you can't edit it you can normally read the source wikicode. This doesn't work on Minerva on mobile devices. This is being fixed. Some text might overlap. This is because your community needs to update MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext to work on mobile. You can read more. [20][21]
Cloud VPS and Toolforge will change the IP address they use to contact the wikis. The new IP address will be 185.15.56.1. This will happen on February 8. You can read more.
Hello Nick,
I am a Nigerian based editor with a background in Media studies and Entrepreneurship.
Got registered on Wiki in 2018. Still trying to find my way around really.
Stumbled on your intro on WP:Adopt-a-user page and i am hooked.
I'd like to humbly request admission into your adoption program. I've got interests in in History, Photography and Biographies.
I recently participated in 2 Wiki programs -WikiGap and Decolonize the internet, both aimed at bridging the gender gap on here.
I have this bright idea that recruiting more female editors will no doubt translate to an increase in content about women, hence in 2021, i am focused on recruiting more women into Wiki. Challenge is, there is still a lot i have got to learn, thus i need the help of an experienced editor.
So please please Adopt me!!!
I will be your best student yet!
--OtuNwachinemere (talk) 15:10, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
The Wikipedia app for Android now has watchlists and talk pages in the app. [22]
Changes later this week
You can see edits to chosen pages on Special:Watchlist. You can add pages to your watchlist on every wiki you like. The GlobalWatchlist extension will come to Meta on 11 February. There you can see entries on watched pages on different wikis on the same page. The new watchlist will be found on Special:GlobalWatchlist on Meta. You can choose which wikis to watch and other preferences on Special:GlobalWatchlistSettings on Meta. You can watch up to five wikis. [23]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 February. It will be on all wikis from 11 February (calendar).
Future changes
When admins protect pages the form will use the OOUI look. Special:Import will also get the new look. This will make them easier to use on mobile phones. [24][25]
Some services will not work for a short period of time from 07:00 UTC on 17 February. There might be problems with new short links, new translations, new notifications, adding new items to your reading lists or recording email bounces. This is because of database maintenance. [26]
Last week Tech News reported that the IP address Cloud VPS and Toolforge use to contact the wikis will change on 8 February. This is delayed. It will happen later instead. [27]
Hello, Nick Moyes. I am really interested in this article and was wondering if you could take a look at it. I added reliable references to help it get published, so it should be good. but if you have any pointer,s please leave them on my talk page WaussusBeaver. (Note: please don't give me any broad answers, as I need specific details, so highlight issues if there are any).17:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)17:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)17:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by WaussusBeaver (talk • contribs) 17:41, 12 February 2021 (UTC)17:41, 12 February 2021 (UTC)~~
FYI - On 4 Feb, IP 174.3.212.76 (who may be WaussusBeaver not logged in) had deleted all the AfC Declines and a Rejected. I restored those. Same IP had deleted Declines twice before that. David notMD (talk) 20:27, 13 February 2021 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard-February 2021
Hello, Nick Moyes! Here is the February 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Pilot Project, trying a smaller and different style newsletter
Wikipedia News
A New Code of Conduct is being made by Wikipedia/The WMF more info here
THESE STATEMENTS ARE NOT TRUE/NOT GOOD ADVICE. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE POLICIES THAT WIKIPEDIA HAS. EVERYTHING LISTED HERE IN THIS SECTION IS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF HUMOUR
If you have a COI, and you don't want to declare it, don't! (For all we know, a dog could be writing [or rather typing] this statement ;) )
Notes
We have a new editor on our team! Berrely will be joining the TWW team as a proofreader starting from the next issue onwards! (No more typos now...)
The Wikipedia Ads section will be omitted, to make the flow of this newsletter easier. Discuss this issue here
Thank you for your Teahouse response to my student
Hello Nick, you wrote a wonderful response in the Teahouse to EpicCarnage12, who is a student in the information literacy course I am teaching this semester. Perhaps what he is learning in class and your enthusiasm and suggestions will encourage him to edit beyond the short span of the course. With best regards, and more soon, TrudiJ (talk) 04:20, 18 February 2021 (UTC)
@TrudiJ: Doh! I hadn't made the connection at all there! Just saw it and felt an encouraging reply was in order at the start of someone's Wikipedia journey. Hope it goes well... must get back to the renovation/redecoration work, or my wife will detect I've stopped! Will be in touch soon. Nick Moyes (talk) 12:04, 18 February 2021 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
The visual editor will now use MediaSearch to find images. You can search for images on Commons in the visual editor when you are looking for illustrations. This is to help editors find better images. [28]
Editing a timeline might have removed all text from it. This was because of a bug and has been fixed. You might need to edit the timeline again for it to show properly. [30]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 February. It will be on all wikis from 25 February (calendar).
Future changes
There is a user group for developers and users interested in working on Wikimedia wikis with the Rust programming language. You can join or tell others who want to make your wiki better in the future.
I want a article written but I do not know how to request or who is best at it
Because I am not fully understanding any possible manufacturing technology i think it should be a article by a historian familiar but I want exeperts , no catch nothing I expect in return 3DPrintingTimPostma (talk) 11:06, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
That's never going to happen. Wikipedia is not for you to promote stuff, as I had warned you. And now you've gone and got all your accounts blocked. 'Fraid I have little sympathy. Nick Moyes (talk) 13:59, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
National Hand Touch Football League
I would like to review the draft page if you see any mistakes I added References and stuff on there I think your going to like it. Demons24 (talk) 00:42, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
@Demons24: I'm not sure we're seeing things in the same way here. What I see at Draft:National Hand Touch Football League is a not very well-written lead paragraph which is quite confusing. There's some poor referencing, incomplete external links, sections without any text or citations, and not much additional content to demonstrate notability. I am quite disappointed you felt it was worthy of submitting to AFC review in this state. It will undoubtedly be turned down at this first time around if it remains in this parlous state. So you've got some work to do before it crosses a reviewer's screen. Try to stand back and look at it from a distance, and in comparison with other equivalent articles, and maybe you will see what it needs to turn this into a well-written encyclopaedia article. Because sports is not my thing, I can't comment on notability, but take a look at American Flag Football League for something a lot more coherent. Sorry to sound so critical - but it's best to say it like it is. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 00:58, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
No your alright in my books I hope it doesn’t get turned down Daniel Hand High School has been playing Hand Football also that’s why I put the links down there for Demons24 (talk) 01:01, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
Extirpated...we need a good definition, here on WP
Thanks so much for the excellent definition of "extirpated", that you provided on Ddum5347's talkpage. [31] I had consulted three different sources, but none of them explained the "deliberate human action directed towards that species," connotation so clearly...two of the sources did not mention it at all.
The Wiktionary example: "The cougar was extirpated across nearly all of its eastern North American range in the two centuries after European colonization." implies that humans were responsible. But Local extinction only mentions natural disasters, etc. Should this article be updated to include human action as a cause of extirpation/local extinction? (I don't know where to find sources for this scientific definition.) At this point, neither Wiktionary or WP provide the reader with a good explanation of "extirpated", unless we link to your cmts on Ddum5347's talkpage!! Thanks for your consideration, hope you are well! Best, Tribe of TigerLet's Purrfect!22:14, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
Wikis using the Growth team tools can now show the name of a newcomer's mentor anywhere through a magic word. This can be used for welcome messages or userboxes.
A new version of the VideoCutTool is now available. It enables cropping, trimming, audio disabling, and rotating video content. It is being created as part of the developer outreach programs.
Problems
There was a problem with the job queue. This meant some functions did not save changes and mass messages were delayed. This did not affect wiki edits. [32]
Some editors may not be logged in to their accounts automatically in the latest versions of Firefox and Safari. [33]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 March. It will be on all wikis from 4 March (calendar).
Arequest for comment is open that proposes a process for the community to revoke administrative permissions. This follows a 2019 RfC in favor of creating one such a policy.
Arequest for comment is in progress to remove F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a, which covers immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
Arequest for comment asks if sysops may place the General sanctions/Coronavirus disease 2019 editnotice template on pages in scope that do not have page-specific sanctions?
When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
Bymotion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, any gender-related dispute or controversy and associated people. Sanctions issued under GamerGate are now considered Gender and sexuality sanctions.
Welcome to the seventeenth newsletter from the Growth team!
The Growth team's objective is to work on software changes that help retain new contributors in mid-size Wikimedia projects.
Structured tasks
Add a link: the team is continuing to engineer on our first "structured task", which will break down the workflow of adding wikilinks to articles, and assist newcomers with an algorithm to identify words and phrases that could be made into links.
Add an image: even as we build our first structured task, we have been thinking about the next one. "Add an image" is a structured task in which newcomers would be recommended images from Wikimedia Commons to add to unillustrated articles. This is an ambitious idea with many details to consider. We have already learned a lot from community members, and we encourage everyone to look at the project page and join the discussion.
Moving forward: more wikis to get the features
Last November, our team published the analysis of the impact of newcomer tasks. We announced that we found that the Growth features, and particularly newcomer tasks, lead to increased editing from newcomers.
Because of these results, we believe all Wikipedias should implement these features.
We have started to contact more wikis to deploy the features, including Wikipedias of all sizes. Bengali Wikipedia recently began using Growth features, and Danish, Thai, Indonesian, and Romanian Wikipedias will be coming soon. Please contact us if you have questions regarding deployment.
We are looking for translators who can help by translating the interface. Translating is done on Translatewiki.net (it requires a different account that your Wikimedia one). Communities that already have the Growth features being deployed are invited to check on the translations. Access translations here.
Variant testing
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, we ran a test of two variants of the newcomer homepage, meant to find a version that increases users completing suggested edits. We have completed the experiment, and learned that one of the variants leads to more edits on desktop while the other leads to more edits on mobile. Therefore, we will deploy the strongest variants for each platform to all newcomers.
News for mentors
Mentor dashboard: we have interviewed mentors from several communities as we plan a mentor dashboard feature, which would help mentors track the progress of their mentees. We encourage all mentors to share their thoughts on tools that would help them.
Magic word for mentors: it is now possible to use a magic word, {{#mentor}}, to display the name of a given newcomer's mentor. This can be used on welcome messages, userboxes, etc.
Help panel questions going to mentors: in most wikis, newcomers using the help panel ask questions to the help desk. On Czech Wikipedia, we have experimented with sending these questions to mentors instead. This simplifies the newcomer experience, and only led to a increase in mentorship questions of about 30%. We tried this in Arabic, Bengali, French and Vietnamese Wikipedias, and we are making it the default experience.
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 April. It will be on all wikis from 18 April (calendar).
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 April at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Guideline and policy news
Technical news
Arbitration
Miscellaneous
Administrator changes
TJMSmith
Boing! said Zebedee • Hiberniantears • Lear's Fool • Only • WGFinley
Interface administrator changes
