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.
In the Not quite a wikibreak, but... section on your user page, it says R...up to spring 2019 I shall have less time for Wikipedia work.... Was this intentional or by accident? InterstellarityT 🌟 22:20, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
More new features are being added to the feed, including the important red alert for previously deleted pages. This will only work if it is selected in your filters. Best is to 'select all'. Do take a moment to check out all the new features if you have not already done so. If anything is not working as it should, please let us know at NPR. There is now also a live queue of AfC submissions in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to review AfCs, but bear in mind that NPP is an official process and policy and is more important.
QUALITY of REVIEWING
Articles are still not always being checked thoroughly enough. If you are not sure what to do, leave the article for a more experienced reviewer. Please be on the alert for any incongruities in patrolling and help your colleagues where possible; report patrollers and autopatrolled article creators who are ostensibly undeclared paid editors.
The displayed ORES alerts offer a greater 'at-a-glance' overview, but the new challenges in detecting unwanted new content and sub-standard reviewing do not necessarily make patrolling any easier, nevertheless the work may have a renewed interest factor of a different kind. A vibrant community of reviewers is always ready to help at NPR.
Backlog
The backlog is still far too high at between 7,000 and 8,000. Of around 700 user rights holders, 80% of the reviewing is being done by just TWO users. In the light of more and more subtle advertising and undeclared paid editing, New Page Reviewing is becoming more critical than ever.
Move to draft
NPR is triage, it is not a clean up clinic. This move feature is not limited to bios so you may have to slightly re-edit the text in the template before you save the move. Anything that is not fit for mainspace but which might have some promise can be draftified - particularly very poor English and machine and other low quality translations.
Notifying users
Remember to use the message feature if you are just tagging an article for maintenance rather than deletion. Otherwise articles are likely to remain perma-tagged. Many creators are SPA and have no intention of returning to Wikipedia. Use the feature too for leaving a friendly note note for the author of a first article you found well made or interesting. Many have told us they find such comments particularly welcoming and encouraging.
PERM
Admins are now taking advantage of the new time-limited user rights feature. If you have recently been accorded NPR, do check your user rights to see if this affects you. Depending on your user account preferences, you may receive automated notifications of your rights changes. Requests for permissions are not mini-RfAs. Helpful comments are welcome ifabsolutely necessary, but the bot does a lot of the work and the final decision is reserved for admins who do thorough research anyway.
Other news
School and academic holidays will begin soon in various places around the Western world. Be on the lookout for the usual increase in hoax, attack, and other junk pages.
Our next newsletter might be announcing details of a possible election for co-ordinators of NPR. If you think you have what it takes to micro manage NPR, take a look at New Page Review Coordinators - it's a job that requires a lot of time and dedication.
Stay up to date with even more news – subscribetoThe Signpost. Gohere to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings.
In a related matter, the account throttle has been restored to six creations per day as the mitigation activity completed.
The scope of CSD criterion G8 has been tightened such that the only redirects that it now applies to are those which target non-existent pages.
The scope of CSD criterion G14 has been expanded slightly to include orphan "Foo (disambiguation)" redirects that target pages that are not disambiguation pages or pages that perform a disambiguation-like function (such as set index articles or lists).
The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Community feedback is invited.
Miscellaneous
In February 2019, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) changed its office actions policy to include temporary and project-specific bans. The WMF exercised this new ability for the first time on the English Wikipedia on 10 June 2019 to temporarily ban and desysop Fram. This action has resulted in significant community discussion, a request for arbitration (permalink), and, either directly or indirectly, the resignations of numerous administrators and functionaries. The WMF Board of Trustees is aware of the situation, and discussions continue on a statement and a way forward. The Arbitration Committee has sent an open letter to the WMF Board.
Hello, i will be permanently merging to Wikidata ASAP, and will no longer be active on the enwiki, i am sorry that i have come to thius decision, but i do kind of prefer how wikidata works, sorry again~JJBullet~{Talk}14:20, 20 June 2019 (UTC)
Hi nick, i'm getting on very well at wiki-data, been proving my abilities & got the IPBE privilege and getting on well with it in general~JJBullet~{Talk}12:19, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
Hi there JJBullet. I'm glad you think you're getting on well. That's great. To be brutally honest, I still can't see that you've actually contributed anything there yet, either, other than fiddle around at the edges, seeking permissions and playing with scripts. But just take care, and try to be constructive when you can. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:02, 8 July 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
For event organizers, if you request a temporary lift of the IP cap for mass account creation, this will now also raise the edit rate limit for those new accounts at the event, which will prevent another bottleneck. [1]
Administrators at all Wiktionary, Wikivoyage, and Wikisource wikis are now able to use the new partial blocks feature. [2]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 July. It will be on all wikis from 11 July (calendar).
The design of MediaWiki's software windows will change for desktop users. Layout will be simpler, buttons will be bolder and clearer, and close buttons will be just icons. This is like the mobile design. This will affect ContentTranslation, VisualEditor, TemplateWizard, and other tools. [3]
Meetings
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 10 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [4]
There will be a change in the name format of new Wikidata RDF dumps starting on 15 July. [5]
We would like to ask to correct the transliteration of the city name.
Argumentation:
In accordance with the decision of the executive committee of the Zaporizhzhya City Council, dated August 28, 2017, No.476, the transliteration of the spelling of the geographical name of the city of Zaporizhzhia on maps and other publications in Latin was approved as - "Zaporizhzhia" [6], in accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 27, 2010 N 55 "On the ordering of transliteration of the Ukrainian alphabet in Latin "(which is valid).
Unfortunately, my editing has been rejected.
At this time, mistakes occur oftenly while using the Latin name of the city. I consider it would be appropriate to prescribe the correct name of the city in English in the article.
The correct place to make this point is on the article talk page, but I see you have now done that. (I will copy my comment to that page). Please read WP:COMMONNAME to understand that English Wikipedia chooses its article titles and spellings by how that subject is most frequently written in English. Thus French Wikipedia will have an article about London, but it will be written as Londres, because that is how the French refer to the English city where I was born. Whilst Zaporizhzhia may have changed its own spelling in its own tongue, that may not be reflected on Wikipedia by an immediate change of spelling. We would have to wait until the majority of Reliable Sources start to refer to it in that way. That said, it's quite OK to mention the formalisation of regional spelling in the article itself...just please don't keep trying to change the spelling throughout the article until such time as there is a consensus (agreement) to do so. Many thanks, Nick Moyes (talk) 01:33, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
Clarification
Sorry for the mess!, I now understand that English Wiki waits until the day the thing happens. It's like President Macri of here Argentina will jointly declare Hezbollah with Mike Pompeo, US Sec of State, a terrorist organization. But I have to wait until then right? Thank you and bless. --CoryGlee (talk) 01:16, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
@CoryGlee: Well, if a reliable newspaper or website says a major event is scheduled, we can describe those reports that say it likely to happen. But we cannot speculate what the outcome will be. Nick Moyes (talk) 01:24, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
Appreciation and Request
Hello Nick.
Just wanted to thank you for your kindness and assistance as I've been learning the ropes.
Also, I've had some harsh comments about the article I'm working on and wanted to check in with you about it as you are the only person who has seemed reasonable and responsive on here.
I realize that you don't focus on the same area as this article, nor are you available to adopt anyone. I just need some direction because I've researched the subject thoroughly and have listed all points of view that are available on her regardless of whether it is flattering or not. I was looking at other romance authors on wikipedia as my guide for how to write it and thought that the voice was the same.
It is still a work in progress as I'm trying to find a primary source for the charity work as I know that the authors website stating the information isn't that.
@Azurerae: I will try to take a look for you. However, I may not be able to do that for a while as I already owe a couple of other editors detailed and lengthy replies to their requests for support, and I'm feeling guilty I haven't dealt with those yet. My fellow Hosts at the Teahouse are used to providing supportive replies to new editors. (That said, I've taken a quick peek: Please don't ever be discouraged - creating a new article is actually the hardest thing anyone can do here. The fact that you want to contribute is, itself, fantastic. I don't think Ashley's charity work impacts on their Notability at all - so my advice is always to leave out stuff that you cannot find sources too. Sometimes "less is more". I'm not sure that having one's books listed on Times best sellers lists confers notabilty to the author per se. Sometimes WP:TOOSOON is linked to to help editors appreciate that maybe waiting a while longer for better sources to be published about a person is actually a good idea. Take a look at WP:NBIO and WP:NAUTHOR for help in understanding how a person may or may not meet our notabilty guidelines. Sorry I can't spend longer in providing a detailed reply. Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 10:48, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
@Nick Moyes: Thanks again Nick. I updated the page again removing the charity section and adding a source to the writing section. Also added some text trying to explain why she’s different from just being another romance author, trying to follow the neutral point of view guideline. But, she is different not only in her writing style but in how she became a self publishing titan of kindle after years of rejection.Azurerae (talk) 18:08, 11 July 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 mobile web will get more advanced editing tools. Seven more Wikipedias can use them now. This works for Arabic, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai Wikipedia. You can try the tools on the mobile web and give feedback. [7]
Changes later this week
The abuse filter system user will soon do maintenance edits on broken abuse filters. This user is called Edit filter and has administrator rights. This is meant to fix technical problems. It will not do any other changes. You can read more.
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 July. It will be on all wikis from 18 July (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 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add image captions to images on Commons. It will only invite users who have added a number of edits in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback. [8]
The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team has recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:
The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.
Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.
New and active projects
This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.
Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how:📲Try Edit Cards.
Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use. The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.
Looking ahead
Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to them about how editing can be improved.
Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.
Learning more
The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.
Thanks for reviewing this page, and for the web reference. I will be adding stats and other details over the next few days. seglea (talk) 11:23, 20 July 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
Communities interested by easing newcomers' first steps can now benefit from the Growth team experiments on their wikis. Check the conditions and the request process.
The Coolest Tool Award 2019 is looking for nominations. You can recommend tools by July 29. The awarded tools will be presented at Wikimania. [9]
Problems
The release of the last version of MediaWiki (1.34.0-wmf.14) has been blocked for groups 1 and 2. [10]
Changes later this week
Phabricator database will be moved to a different server. Writes will be blocked on Thursday 25 July, between 05:30 and 06:00 AM UTC. Reads will remain unaffected. [11]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 July. It will be on all wikis from 25 July (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 24 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Some items in the visual editor will change later this week. This will make it easier to edit links, citations, and templates on both desktop and mobile. [12][13]
With advanced search turned on you will be able to choose the sorting order of the search results when you do a search. [14][15]
@Nick Moyes Sorry, if I did not respond in a correct manner. I am still familiarizing myself with the editing process for Wikipedia. I actually personally know this French artist. He has independent articles and websites posted about him outside of Wikipedia. He is listed on the website of a Miami art museum also for his exposition. I guess for the lack of better wording, my friend was helping to translate his wiki page to Russian and German but didn't have the option for English. I don't need a translation machine to translate the page from French to English. I speak French myself and can give an accurate translation of the French wiki page to English. Would it be possible I could make that contribution after 4 days? I appreciate the help. PoojaCucumber (talk) 00:54, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
Just a courtesy note to say that because you've duplicated your question here, I decided it is best if I answered it at the Teahouse, as it follows on from my previous reply to you there. Hope that's OK. Nick Moyes (talk) 01:19, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
You said here you had been working on one for 18 months. Mine is at 9 years. Even when I started, I didn't know certain sources were unacceptable, and now even some of those are gone. I'm pretty sure this man is notable but I can't find the proof or the right kind of sources.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:08, 29 July 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.
Problems
Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [16]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 July. It will be on all wikis from 1 August (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 31 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Following a research project on masking IP addresses, the Foundation is starting a new project to improve the privacy of IP editors. The result of this project may significantly change administrative and counter-vandalism workflows. The project is in the very early stages of discussions and there is no concrete plan yet. Admins and the broader community are encouraged to leave feedback on the talk page.
Since the introduction of temporary user rights, it is becoming more usual to accord the New Page Reviewer right on a probationary period of 3 to 6 months in the first instance. This avoids rights removal for inactivity at a later stage and enables a review of their work before according the right on a permanent basis.
Many thanks. Yes, it's just down the road from me, though I wasn't aware of the building myself (I'm/was a museum naturalist not a social historian).But it's clearly notable as one of England's very important Grade II* listed building. I've given a fuller justification at MfD for moving straight to mainspace. Thank you both for your work on this and for notifying me. Nick Moyes (talk) 10:15, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
I saw the Derbyshire and the museum, and thought that you are least in the right part of the planet and close enough to know where to look for sources. I used to give this stuff to Senra (talk·contribs), but xe is quiet at the moment. I do not know where to send the likes of The Lexington, Islington (AfD discussion) and Penrhiw Priory (AfD discussion), both of which were/are full of recentist commercial information about a pub and a hotel, including a list of the past month or so's stage acts, and make little or no mention of (respectively) a vicarage that has World War 2 history and a street address that has been a tea gardens, two pubs, a restaurant, and others during its 2½ century history. Uncle G (talk) 11:16, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
A cup of tea for you to share with those cookies!
Thank you Nick for taking the time to give a kind reply and links to read up on; very helpful indeed! And in reading the info on YOU, I see that you have been, and will continue to be, one busy fellow! My word, you're busy! I've raised 6 children and am now in "damage control" with what life I have left! Carry on and thank you!
Thanks, SilvrFox2u, that's very kind of you. If you have the time and motivation, contributing to Wikipedia can be a really satisfying way of spending some of that free time, especially as it's our children - and theirs - that are really going to benefit from those improvements. If you ever need any help or encouragement, just pop by the Teahouse, or leave a note here. You might perhaps like to think about creating your own userpage and saying a few words about your interests/experience that are be relevant to editing this encyclopaedia? All the very best, Nick Moyes (talk) 22:56, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
Interstellarity would like to nominate you to become an administrator. Please visit Wikipedia:Requests for adminship to see what this process entails, and then contact Interstellarity to accept or decline the nomination. A page has been created for your nomination at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Nick Moyes. If you accept the nomination, you must state and sign your acceptance. You may also choose to make a statement and/or answer the optional questions to supplement the information your nominator has given. Once you are satisfied with the page, you may post your nomination for discussion, or request that your nominator do so.
@Interstellarity: Whilst I thank you muchly for you confidence in me and your keenness to nominate me for adminship, had you read the post right above this one you would have seen that, not only have I been encouraged to stand by four (well three now) current administrators who are willing to support me, but also that I had clearly indicated I am not in a position to run for an RfA right now as I have very little free time at present. Whilst I may well do so in the next six months, I think it might also have been less awkward had you acted on the advice at WP:RFA/NOMELSE and asked me first before creating the RfA page for me, which I have now had to decline.
I saw this and was quite surprised, but thought I'd wait for you to respond yourself before doing anything about it. Yes, a G7 tag would be best; an RFA page created without the candidate's consent isn't particularly useful. Vanamonde (Talk)17:15, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I have tagged the page for speedy deletion. I am very sorry for nominating you early. Whenever you feel you are ready for adminship, please let me know and I'll be willing to nominate you again. Also, I noticed you left a message for me on my talk page. As I have stated in my notice above, I prefer to keep discussions in one place so So if you leave a message on this page, I will reply on this page unless you direct me to a discussion elsewhere. To reply to a message I left on your talk page, then please post the reply on your talk page, and use {{ping}} to notify me. I hope this helps at least a little and I wish you well whether or not you want to become an administrator. Regards, Interstellarity (talk) 17:43, 18 August 2019 (UTC)
@Interstellarity: No worries and thanks. Regarding your talk page advice to me: you are aware, aren't you, that your templated nomination invitation, above, contained a request to respond to it on your talk page, and that I did indeed reply to you here, as well as notifying you out of courtesy directly on your own page, per that template? I was a little surprised you felt you needed to tell me that. Anyway, not to worry. Best, Nick Moyes (talk) 19:47, 18 August 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.
Tech News
There will be no Tech News issue next week. The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 2 September 2019.
Problems
Some abuse filters stopped working because of a code change. Only variables for the current action will work. Variables defined inside a branch may not work outside of that branch. You can read more to see how to fix the filters.
Only six accounts can be created from one IP address per day. Between 12 August and August 15 this was two accounts per day. This was because of a security issue. It is now six accounts per day again. [17]
Changes later this week
Only a limited number of accounts can be created from one IP address. An IP address can be whitelisted so that it can create as many accounts as needed. This is useful at events where many new persons learn to edit. IP addresses that are whitelisted for this reason will also not show CAPTCHAs when you create accounts. This will happen on Wednesday. [18]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 August. It will be on all wikis from 22 August (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 21 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
There is an RFC about creating a new global user group with the right to edit abuse filters. This will be used to fix broken filters and make sure all filters will still work when software changes happen. You can read more and comment.
Special:Contributions/newbies will no longer be working. This is because of performance reasons. It showed edits by new accounts. You can see this in the recent changes feed instead. [19]
@Tarkiwi25: Glad to have been of help. You'd be surprised what just a little subtle investigation can reveal about others. I can't say more about my tradecraft, or I'd have to kill you. LOL. Nick Moyes (talk) 11:00, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
Update
Just leting you know I'm still around. My computer charger broke so when I'm on Wikipedia lately it's been on mobile. I prefer to do more substantial edits on desktop, but that doesn't stop me from doing small edits for things like punctuation. I've also been enjoying my summer vacation, hanging out with friends, back to school shopping and focusing more on hobbies of mine. Clovermoss (talk) 04:07, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
Hey - great to hear from you. I'm pleased to hear you've made the most of your summer vacation. It's exam results day here in the UK today, so many people will be thinking of their futures and the paths they take on returning to college. I guess you will be, too? I'm sorry to hear of your charger problem - maybe worth checking on eBay to see if you can get a 2nd hand replacement, but be aware there are so many different sizes of connections even within one manufacturer that you need to ensure the right one. Like you, I've had laptop problem - it's keyboard has suddenly started missing certain letters, so I'm also doing most of my editing on a mobile. This means the more complex issues have to be kept in abeyance. Whilst I generally recommend using 'desktop view', did you know that 'mobile view' now has an additional settings facility, given you more editing functions than were previously available. You might like to check them out. Best wishes for now, Nick Moyes (talk) 07:04, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
I'm still switching between the two modes. I do like the new mobile design, though. I'm not sure we quite have an exam day here in Canada in that sense, but I got my report card earlier. I'm also not quite college age yet, but that's stuff I'll be thinking about later this year as I'm going into grade 12. Clovermoss (talk) 13:57, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
Tildes
For no reason in particular I found myself looking to see if anyone else had used {{tildes}} and I was really delighted that someone (you) had. Thank you It was a trivial bit of work just to make things a little easier for myself and I didn't expect anyone to notice. I'm very glad that someone did. › Morteetalk23:25, 24 August 2019 (UTC)
@Mortee: I can't remember how I found it, but those little tweaks can be very useful. I've no idea if anyone else uses this shortcut I created (WP:THF) but I rarely use anything else. Nick Moyes (talk) 03:32, 25 August 2019 (UTC)
here is where you can find the sources I am going to put on Bad History
@Answermeplease11: I don't see any independent links there. Do you actually have any you can give me a url to without me going chasing around to other people's pages? If not, forget it. Nick Moyes (talk) 14:46, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
You know what! I think you (or another person) should find an independent source!
Hello, Nick Moyes! Here is the April 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Wikipedia News
MediaWiki has a new logo. Looks great, doesn't it?
Did you get to see the April Fools DYK for the Main Page? If not, catch them here (Under April 1)
In the Beta Features, try out "Discussion tools" it is a very useful feature for replying to talkpage messages. You will need an account to do so!
Memorials
Pi zero has passed away. Our condolences go out for Pi zero and anyone who knew him. Thank you Pi zero for your service here at Wikimedia. We are very sorry to hear this. We will never forget your valuable contributions to Wikipedia and it's sister projects.
Humour
Tsugaru's Humour Section
April Showers can't Bring May Flowers, if the Flowers ran away to June!
You can't get in trouble, if you don't cause trouble!
The May Flowers can't be flowers if they are roses!
Please find CanadianOtaku's Humour Section below
Sadly, there was no edit war of 2021, maybe next year.
This joke space is up for rent!
You too can be a hacker by removing everything in an article!
Error 410: I dropped this joke and I can't find it.
Editor's Notes
Just a reminder that TWW is delivered between the 16th to the 20th of each month
Like this Issue? Got Feedback? Spot a mistake? Discuss this issue here
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
Email to the Wikimedia wikis are handled by groups of Wikimedia editors. These volunteer response teams now use Znuny instead of OTRS. The functions and interface remain the same. The volunteer administrators will give more details about the next steps soon. [20][21]
If you use syntax highlighting, you can see line numbers in the 2010 and 2017 wikitext editors when editing templates. This is to make it easier to see line breaks or talk about specific lines. Line numbers will soon come to all namespaces. [22][23][24]
Because of a technical change there could be problems with gadgets and scripts that have an edit summary area that looks similar to this one. If they look strange they should use mw.loader.using('mediawiki.action.edit.styles') to go back to how they looked before. [25]
The latest version of MediaWiki came to the Wikimedia wikis last week. There was no Tech News issue last week.
Changes later this week
There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Future changes
The user group oversight will be renamed suppress. This is for technical reasons. This is the technical name. It doesn't affect what you call the editors with this user right on your wiki. This is planned to happen in two weeks. You can comment in Phabricator if you have objections.
Hello, Catropst Benzt. Thank you for your interesting question. Just as in real life, the keys to a successful discussion are understanding the other person's point of view, and why they hold it, and also considering your own views. Am I (or they) only saying something because they have a personal interest (WP:COI) in a topic, or perhaps have only found biased/flawed sources and are unable to see the fuller picture? Staying polite and responding calmly is so important here, especially as nobody can interpret in typed text the subtle tones, humour, friendliness/unfriendliness that they might pick up in a face-to-face conversation. Wikipedia:No personal attacks demands what its title says. Namely, put your efforts into presenting reasoned arguments about a topic, rather than attacking the other editor and insulting them as an individual. That serves no purpose here. Wikipedia:Explode is a humourous article. By telling you to 'blow your top' and rant and abuse the other editor with the slightest provocation, it is actually pointing out the folly of that behaviour. So don't take it seriously!
Remember that in a discussion, even though you might present a very good, reasoned argument for doing one particular thing, we work by WP:CONSENSUS here. If more editors believe a different way of doing things should be implemented, then your very sensible way is not likely to succeed at this time. Obviously, a topic might be hijacked by two or three editors with a particular biased perspective (see WP:NPOV), and you might feel you can make no headway against them. So it's important to base your arguments for a certain action based first and foremost upon our Policies, and then our Guidelines, especially that on Reliable Sources and WP:NOR. But, if you genuinely feel other editors are not acting in the best interests of Wikipedia, there are routes to get additional input into a discussion. One is WP:THIRD for arguments between two editors; another is WP:RSN if the discussion centres around good or bad sources, or WP:RFC for broader issues. It is also possible to highlight a discussion at a given WP:WIKIPROJECT by linking to the discussion you've been having and inviting other editors to take a look and offer their own opinions in order to gain a broader consensus.
Could you please help to know some useful template for discussion. I would also like to know if there is a template for failed discussion. Please also make a comment to User performed conversion at Wikipedia OR noticeboard. So, that I can know how my argument are placed. Catropst Benzt (talk) 07:08, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
@Catropst Benzt: See Template:Discussing and Template:Discuss for two ways to flag up the existence of ongoing discussions. Note, too, the 'See also' sections in these templates which offer a range of other icons that can be dropped into a page, such as Resolved, Rejectedor Disagree, but always use these sparingly, or people will simply ignore them. Probably the most-used template to close and mark a discussion's results is Template:Archive top (matched by Template:Archive bottom to mark the end of that closed discussion). It permits an editor to include a summary of the discussion, whether it has reached a consensus, or otherwise.
To your last point: Whenever you ask someone to look at either a whole discussion, or just to one edit someone has made, it's courtesy to provide either a link to that discussion, or a WP:DIFF to that edit or edits, as it's unfair to expect someone to go chasing around to find discussions and wonder what it is exactly that someone wants them to comment upon. So I must respectfully decline your invitation without such a link as I am simply too busy to take wild guesses or go in search of stuff. Sorry. Nick Moyes (talk) 07:49, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
Sorry Sir, Actually through mobile, it is not easy to place reference. Today, I was struggling to add a reference to the discussion and even the edits aren't published easily. However, after several tries, I manage to add the refrence. Now I think the laptop is the best platform to place edits in Wikipedia and will continue placing edit through this platform. Here is the link to the discussion [[26]]. I will try my best to be a great editor. Again, I am sorry for my mistakes. Catropst Benzt (talk) 10:12, 20 April 2021 (UTC)
I am now going to lodge a formal complaint about your abusive and aggressive attitude towards me Nick Moyes. Please advise of who this complaint should be addressed to. Thanks very much. Anton Cleary; Solo guitarist/street performer. Anton Cleary (talk) 19:43, 5 May 2021 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Hello Anton Cleary. I'm sorry to hear you're unhappy in some way with my responses to your question at the Teahouse. As 'hosts' we are here as volunteers to help, advise and steer new editors - many often quite misguided in their aspirations or expectations for creating articles. You know, just as in real life, it's always best to try to discuss matters with the other person first, and then, if not satisfied, the place to complain about the behaviour of any editor - including me - would be WP:ANI. It's important to understand the process beforehand, but if consensus were to find I am at fault in some way, I'd then be only too willing to offer an apology to any injured party. Until then, you might wish to read WP:BOOMERANG, too. I'm sorry you believe I've been "abusive and aggressive" towards you. I'm really not sure why you think that of me. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 20:28, 5 May 2021 (UTC)
Thank you and I really appreciate your clarification since I am here solely on volunteer basis considering I have love writing and I believe this platform will help me sharpen my skills. I look forward to more edits and hope some day I will have 50,000 edits too. Thank you. Bibihans (talk)Bibihans — Preceding undated comment added 12:43, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
@Bibihans: You're most welcome. If you look at the thread immediately above this one you can see the typical issue we get of promotional editors demanding that their favourite subject (themselves!) is covered here, and then getting blocked as a result of their aggressive approach to achieving that goal. Best wishes for all your future contributions, and warm regards from the UK. Nick Moyes (talk) 16:44, 7 May 2021 (UTC)
The user group oversight will be renamed to suppress. This is for technical reasons. You can comment at T112147 if you have objections.
Arbitration
The community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure was closed, and an initial draft based on feedback from the now closed consultation is expected to be released in early June to early July for community review.
I hope you are well and hopefully still remember me from last year (when we were still able to meet people!) - I took part in an Edithaton at the University of Warwick that you co-organised. Back then, we also had a chat about my research project which is concerned with the offline meetups of Wikipedians. My project has progressed well and I will soon be starting the final year of my PhD. As my final year starts, my funding unfortunately ends. To allow me to continue focusing on my project, I applied to a Wikimedia Project Grant and I successfully progressed to the second round! My project still lacks a bit of community support, so if you endorsed it at the bottom of the proposal page, this would be greatly appreaciated: Proposal. Of course, any other feedback is also welcome!
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Anearlier issue of Tech News said that the citoidAPI would handle dates with a month but no days in a new way. This has been reverted for now. There needs to be more discussion of how it affects different wikis first. [32]
Changes later this week
MediaWiki:Pageimages-blacklist will be renamed MediaWiki:Pageimages-denylist. The list can be copied to the new name. It will happen on 19 May for some wikis and 20 May for some wikis. Most wikis don't use it. It lists images that should never be used as thumbnails for articles. [33]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 May. It will be on all wikis from 20 May (calendar).
Welcome to the eighteenth 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
A screenshot of "add a link" feature in development in beta.
"Add a link" is now being tested in production and is nearing release on our four pilot wikis (Arabic, Czech, Vietnamese, and Bengali Wikipedias). We'll be doing final tests this week and next week, and then plan to deploy to the four wikis either during May 24 week, or May 31 week. After two weeks, we will analyze the initial data to identify any problems or trends. We expect that this feature will engage new kinds of newcomers in easy and successful edits. If things are going well after four weeks, we'll progressively deploy it to the wikis with Growth features.
We are currently working on a Mentor dashboard. This special page aims to help mentors be more proactive and be more successful at their role. The first iteration will include a table that shows an overview of the mentors current mentees, a module with their own settings, and a module that will allow them to store their best replies to their mentees questions.
Community configuration editing form under development
We are working on project to allow communities to manage the configuration of the Growth features on their own. In the past, communities have needed to work directly with the Growth team to set up and alter the features. We plan to put this capability in the hands of administrators, through an easy-to-use form, so that the features can be easily tailored to fit the needs of each community. While we developed it initially for Growth features, we think this approach could have uses in other features as well. We'll be trying this on our pilot wikis in the coming weeks, and then we'll bring it to all Growth wikis soon after. We hope you check out the project page and add any of your thoughts to the talk page.
Scaling
Growth features are now available on 35 wikis. Here is the list of the most recent ones: Romanian Wikipedia, Danish Wikipedia, Thai Wikipedia, Indonesian Wikipedia, Croatian Wikipedia, Albanian Wikipedia, Esperanto Wikipedia, Hindi Wikipedia, Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia, Japanese Wikipedia, Telugu Wikipedia, Spanish Wikipedia, Simple English Wikipedia, Malay Wikipedia, Tamil Wikipedia, Greek Wikipedia, Catalan Wikipedia.
A new group of Wikipedias has been defined for the deployment of Growth features. Please contact us if you have questions about the deployment process, or if your community likes to get the features in advance.
Hi, it's Clovermoss. Remember me? I haven't been around the past year because I've had a lot of obligations/real life-stressors that made it difficult to log on to Wikipedia. I don't think I'll be as active as I used to be for awhile, but I do hope to edit every so often. If you don't mind me asking, how have you been? Clovermoss(talk)00:40, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
Hello Clovermoss It's lovely to hear from you. I was just off to bed (as it's nearly 2am here.) I was thinking about you recently as have heard a bit about the difficult Covid situation in Canada which sounded worrying, and had noticed you'd stopped editing last spring. I guessed it was more likely to be 'cos of academic matters, but it's great to hear from you. I've been very busy since January with another house renovation project, just coming to completion, and have had a few annoying health issues over the last year or so, but am dealing with them. One daughter is finishing her degree soon; the other now looking forward to starting at a university next September that she still hasn't had a chance to visit and look around because of the pandemic restrictions. If you want to drop me an email to speak off wiki, do feel free. I might not reply immediately though. I hope your real life issues haven't been too awful, and that college/uni has worked out ok for you. Is it first year you're now in - I can't quite remember offhand? Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 00:52, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
Yes, this was my first year as a university student. As for the pandemic in Canada, it's not doing that great right now. Here in Ontario we're in another stay-at-home lockdown. At least the vaccine is becoming more available. I should be able to get it soon-ish. :) Clovermoss(talk)14:15, 19 May 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 Wikimedia movement has been using IRC on a network called Freenode. There have been changes around who is in control of the network. The Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts have decided to move to the new Libera Chat network instead. This is not a formal decision for the movement to move all channels but most Wikimedia IRC channels will probably leave Freenode. There is a migration guide and ongoing Wikimedia discussions about this.
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 May. It will be on all wikis from 27 May (calendar).
I am fairly new to Wikipedia and I would like to get some help to learn the ends and outs of basic editing procedures as well as performing maintenance tasks such as vandalism patrolling, recent changes, etc. I wonder if you could help work with me and guide me along so that I can become a more knowledgeable and effective contributor to Wikipedia.
Hello, Shadowbreath15789, and welcome to Wikipedia. I'm very pleased to hear that you want to learn more about Wikipedia and have enquired about Adoption. To be frank with you, adoption better suits those who have already been around a bit and can demonstrate a reasonable commitment to the Project. I would have expected them to have explored various areas of the encyclopaedia, but then want to understand more of the finer details. It's quite a commitment, you see, and experience has shown that many brand new users don't stick around for that long. That probably doesn't apply to you, of course, but for anyone seeking quick answers as a beginner here the best place is to post a question at the Teahouse. You'll get a very quick answer in most cases. In addition I am extremely busy in real life right now and already offered to take on someone last January, but haven't yet had the time to support them - so am feeling rather guilty on that score. With just a dozen edits to your name, simply keep on making small contributions where you can. Try the interactive guide at The Wikipedia Adventure, or read HELP:Getting Started. There are various suggestions for useful tasks anyone can perform at either WP:Things to do, or at WP:Task Center. For vandalism patrolling, check out Wikipedia:Counter-Vandalism Unit. Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 22:01, 25 May 2021 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard-May 2021
Hello, Nick Moyes! Here is the May 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
The English Wikipedia, has just passed 6,300,000 articles!
Tip of the Month
This tip is one of the many ways to combat spam on Wikipedia:
On Wikipedia, articles either meet the General Notability Guideline or not. When you come across a new article, it is extremely important to determine if it is a real article, or just a spam article. Start with a search on Google, for reliable sources, if you get none in return, then look at the article for non-NPOV content, also scan the references section in the article to see what sources it uses, and check the 'other languages' section and Wikidata to see if it is on other Wikipedias. If other Wikipedias have the same content and/or a CSD or AfD tag (WP:AFD) it is likely spam or not notable, so you can then nominate it for deletion to get input, remember that CSD criterion does not always apply to these articles depending on the content/contex. Also remember to check for copyright violations via earwig's
Memorials
SlimVirgin has sadly passed away this month, you can read more about SlimVirgin's passing here
Moroboshi also sadly passed away earlier this month.
Our condolences go out to the editors and their families, thank you for your work on Wikimedia projects.
Humour
This section was made by CanadianOtaku, please note it contains some emojis, so you might just see a box if your browser doesn't support them. -つがるTalk to つがる:)🍁
Administrator changes
28bytes • Ad Orientem • Ansh666 • Beeblebrox • Boing! said Zebedee • BU Rob13 • Dennis Brown • Deor • DoRD • Floquenbeam1 • Flyguy649 • Fram2 • Gadfium • GB fan • Jonathunder • Kusma • Lectonar • Moink • MSGJ • Nick • Od Mishehu • Rama • Spartaz • Syrthiss • TheDJ • WJBscribe
Guideline and policy news
Technical news
Miscellaneous
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 July. It will be on all wikis from 11 July (calendar).
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 10 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
to start editing.
Arbitration
It was a trivial bit of work just to make things a little easier for myself and I didn't expect anyone to notice. I'm very glad that someone did. › Mortee talk 23:25, 24 August 2019 (UTC)
Resolved, 
Rejectedor
Disagree, but always use these sparingly, or people will simply ignore them. Probably the most-used template to close and mark a discussion's results is Template:Archive top (matched by Template:Archive bottom to mark the end of that closed discussion). It permits an editor to include a summary of the discussion, whether it has reached a consensus, or otherwise.
Administrator changes
Interface administrator changes
This user account is currently locked across all Wikimedia projects.
