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User:Nick Moyes

This user is a Teahouse host.
This user has been editing Wikipedia for at least ten years.
This user has administrator privileges on the English Wikipedia.
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Hello. I've been an active editor here for some years, and am happy to help you if you hit problems editing Wikipedia. You can find me at the Teahouse along with my fellow 'hosts' who are there 24/7/365 to answer all newcomer questions. I'm also a 'Mentor', and I get randomly assigned to new users via their 'Homepage' Tab. So, if my name appears in the "Your mentor" box, you can reach out to me directly through your "Ask your mentor a question" button, or you can post straight to my Talk page. If you don't get a reply in good time, you are free, of course, to ask anyone at the Teahouse for help and advice. We'll get you sorted one way or another!

I am finding real world matters are seriously reducing the time I can spend on Wikipedia. So please forgive me if I do not always respond immediately to any query.

Working with Wikipedia - a Museum's Perspective
(or, how I got involved). Talk at Derby Museum GLAM-Wiki event, April 2011)
Talking about introducing QRpedia to Derby Museum in 2011
Video created for Montreal Wikimania Conference in 2017 (Women in Red presentation)

Notices

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The Signpost
12 December 2024
Tip of the day...
Cannot find what you are looking for?

Wikipedia is not Yahoo! Answers. But if you have a general question such as, "Why is the sky blue?", and you cannot find a Wikipedia article that answers it, you can ask your question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. If it turns out that no article on the subject exists, you can request one be written at Wikipedia:Requested articles.

Read more:
Become a Wikipedia tipster
To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use {{totd3}}



About Me

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"Take that - Fake news!"

Hi, I'm Nick Moyes. I'm honoured that in 2020 the editing community trusted me sufficiently to give me administrator privileges here on Wikipedia. I see this additional role as helping our community of editors to grow and to work cooperatively and constructively, undisturbed by bad-faith actions. I'm bound to make mistakes at first, so please let me know if you have any concerns over any of my actions. If I've made a really obvious or stupid mistake, I authorise another experienced admin to revert my actions without the need to first consult me. I am not always around to respond immediately - just leave a note on my talk page if you've felt the need to reverse one of my admin actions, or want to politely express any concerns about my actions here.

I recently took early retirement, but was Senior Keeper of Natural History at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, where I worked for over 25 years. I also worked in Kirklees at Tolson Museum and Bagshaw Museum, though my first ever museum job was a student post within the European herbarium of the Natural History Museum, London. I have also worked for the CIA and the TA.

Peregrine falcon chicks on Derby Cathedral

I set up the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project in 2006, which I still run today. (You can watch our live nest camera here). Dangling off ropes, installing nest platforms, fixing webcameras, helping to ring wild falcon chicks, meeting the public and doing tons of social media stuff has been incredibly rewarding (though not monetarily!)

It was an approach to Derby Museum in late 2010 to use QRpedia codes that led to my serious involvement with Wikipedia (see video on right), though I only really started editing in earnest from 2015 onwards.

For 20 years I collected and computerised nearly a million vascular plant records from across my county and, in 2015, I jointly published a major new version of the Flora of Derbyshire. It replaced Clapham's 1969 Flora and the 1903 Flora, both of the same name. (See here -again, it was done for love of the subject, not for profit). My involvement with Wikipedia picked up once that huge project was out of the way. From 2011 to 2017 I worked as a Biodiversity Project Officer, doing BAP stuff (see here) and LNP-related stuff).

I have interests and expertise in biological recording; species mapping; botany; herbaria; Floras and biographies of UK botanists; peregrine falcons; glow worms; ecology, biodiversity and conservation; geology; Derbyshire and, of course, museums. Other interests include alpine mountaineering, mountain biking, photography and, of course, Wikipedia. Former activities included radio comms, self-sufficiency/defence and the TA.

Mountains I've climbed over 4,000 metres (13,123 ft), by height:   Mexico: Pico de Orizaba; Iztaccihuatl; Nevado de Toluca; Alps: Mont Blanc; Dufourspitze; Nordend; Zumsteinspitze; Signalkuppe; Dom; Liskamm; Weisshorn; Täschhorn; Liskamm; Matterhorn; Mont Maudit; Parrotspitze; Dent Blanche; Ludwigshöhe; Nadelhorn; Schwarzhorn; Combin de Grafeneire; Dôme du Goûter; Finsteraarhorn; Mont Blanc du Tacul; Stecknadelhorn; Castor; Zinalrothorn; Hohberghorn; Vincent Pyramid; Alphubel; Rimpfischhorn; Aletschhorn; Strahlhorn; Combin de Valsoray; Breithorn; Bishorn; Mönch; Pollux; Ober Gabelhorn; Gran Paradiso; Aiguille de Bionnassay; Gross Fiescherhorn; Grünhorn; Dürrenhorn; Allalinhorn; Hinter Fiescherhorn; Weissmies; Dôme de Rochefort; Dent du Géant; Lagginhorn; Aiguille de Rochefort.

I am always keen to share my knowledge and experience, and to learn from others - whatever their age or gender. If you still feel the need for a WP:COI, please see below. I'm using the rest of this and other sub-pages as a notepad to help me manage or plan future editing. I variously edit via a desktop, a tablet, an iPhone and a laptop, catching whatever sleep I can in between!

My Contributions

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Wikipedia Editathon 2017 - relax, enjoy, or even listen to the live sound of everyone contributing here.

All my contributions:

Nick Moyes (talk · contribs · logs · block log · page moves · count · edit summaries · non-automated edits · articles created · BLP edits · AfD votes · XfD votes · admin score (beta) · CSD log · PROD log · previous RfAs)

New Pages: Mouseover for symbol meaning: unassessed stub class start class C class B class A class GA class FA class list class Did you know (DYK)

Significant Input to:

Wikipedia Events:

Adoptees:

Tools & Useful Pages

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Social distancing / video learning /events


Administrator Info and Tools

Sockpuppet Investigation work
  • Admin help needed at SPI

Are you a bored administrator looking for a new area to pick up? Consider helping out at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations! We have a pretty large volume of cases and could use additional help. As long as you are an administrator, you do not need any special permissions or clerkships to perform many of the functions of SPI. As an administrator, you can (among other things):

  • Analyze the evidence presented in a case, commenting in the "Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments" section of each case
  • Block suspected sockpuppets if you are convinced by the evidence, adding sockpuppet tags like {{sockpuppet}} at your discretion
  • Request CheckUser attention on cases by switching {{SPI case status}} to {{SPI case status|curequest}} and leaving a comment explaining why
  • Mark cases as closed by switching {{SPI case status}} to {{SPI case status|close}}

A few tips to help you out:

  • You can find instructions and useful scripts at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/SPI/Administrators instructions.
  • The "easier" cases tend to be the more recently filed ones under the "Open" category. The SPI case table is organized chronologically within each status category.
  • If you are not convinced by the evidence presented, you can state why then mark the case as closed without action. All cases that are marked as closed are sanity-checked by a clerk or checkuser before they are archived, so it is always a team effort.
  • Usually every September, the Arbitration Committee issues a call for CU/OS applications. Consider applying for CheckUser access after gaining experience as an SPI administrator.

Thanks for listening to me. Cheers, Mz7

Request posted at WP:AN, 30 May 2021.

Helping other editors

Adopt-a-user

Keeping informed

  • Wikipedia:Dashboard - summary of all the latest noticeboard messages
  • Wikimedia Space new in 2019 an off-wiki communication platform for news and conversations. (Comment: Why off wiki??)

Welcome Committee and Related Research'

Vandalism and spelling

Editor activity

  • IP checking tool - to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.
    • paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
    • checkuser-en-wp@wikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

New page tools

Checks within pages


References and Improving pages

Taxobox issues to fix

Images-related


Video and file-editing tools


Chrome Extensions

  • Useful twitter list
  • Paperpile - Extension works with Paperpile, a clean and simple reference and citation manager. Sign up for Paperpile at https://paperpile.com
  • Scribe make screen recordings. Game-changer for teaching & collaborating, especially remotely. Records your screen and generates an automatic step-by-step of everything you did with screenshots.
  • Swiftread - Works on any web page. Shows you 1 word at a time at a speed you choose.
  • Toby - Tab Manager. Organise tabs into collections, save workspaces and searches.
  • OneTab - Whenever you have too many tabs open, click the OneTab icon to convert them all into a list. Save up to 95% memory and reduce tab clutter.
  • Speechify - Listen to any text on the web. Makes writing & editing easier. Natural-sounding speech (huge plus).
  • Forest - Focus timer. The more you focus, the more your trees grow. Bunch of stats to show you how you’ve been doing. Helps curb procrastination.
  • Wordtune - AI-powered writing companion that understands what you’re trying to say, and suggests ways to make your writing more clear, compelling and authentic.
  • Small PDF - Compresses PDFs without any huge, noticeable quality reductions.
  • Mendeley Web Importer - Fast, convenient import of references and PDFs to your Mendeley Reference Manager library.
  • Save to Google Drive - Save web content or screen capture directly to Google Drive.
  • Google Scholar Button - Lookup scholarly articles as you browse the web.
  • Unpaywall - Legally get full text of scholarly articles as you browse. points you to legal, author-posted manuscripts hosted on university and government web servers.
  • Print Friendly & PDF - removes ads, navigation and junk before you print. Pages are optimized for clear printing.
  • HelperBird Dyslexia & accessibility support. Over 32 accessibility & productivity features to support every kind of reader, learner and writer.
  • Quillbot - Save time and instantly improve your writing with our cutting-edge grammar checker, paraphrasing tool, and summarizing tool.
  • StayFocusd - helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you've blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.
  • LeechBlock - productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites
  • Power Thesaurus - find synonyms by button in toolbar, right-click or by word selection on any page.


Other

Wikipedia Guidance

Further information: Help:References and page numbers

Learning Resources


Wikidata

Training Guides

Text blocks

  • To add a 'submit for review' button to a draft article {{subst:AfC submission/draft}}.
  • To add Project Assessment Template to Talk Page add the code {{WikiProject Plants|class=stub|importance=low|needs-image=yes}}.
  • To convert sandbox article to Draft AfC WP:AfC: add the code {{subst:submit}} to top of the draft/sandbox page.
  • To mark a userpage as a Userpage draft: add the code {{user page|logo=yes|noindex=yes}}
  • To request Userpage delete: Put the code {{db-user}} at top of the page, and save; an administrator will delete the page.
  • Code for adding page number after calling a reference: <ref name=bookname />{{rp|199}}
  • To request an image of a botanist in an article, insert the code {{Image requested|date=October 2015|botanists}} in the talk page, which adds the article to Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of botanists.
  • To insert the standard author abbreviation, add the code {{botanist|J.Bloggs}}
  • To insert citation needed template with reasons/date add the code {{citation needed|reason=Your explanation here|date=October 2015}}
  • To flag a page containing no references, add the code: {{Unr}}. See Template:Unreferenced
  • To meet minimum critieria for articles on authors of plant species names, add {{Infobox scientist}}. See Template:Infobox_scientist for full details.
  • To add reference listing all taxa' named by that botanist, add the text: Bloggs has published over xxx scientific papers, and is the [[[Binomial_nomenclature#Authority|scientific authority]]] for over ??? plant taxa, predominantly in the Orchidaceae ref: "Plant Names Search". The International Plant Names Index. Retrieved DD Month Year
  • To insert a quotation {{Quote|text=quote goes here|author=K.Harold 1066}}
  • To link to a foreign language wiki page, with no English equivalent: {{illm|Achillea nana|fr|Achillée naine}} This creates a red link to en wiki, and a small link to the live, foreign language page.
  • To add WikiProject Alps banner (without gradings) use this code: {{WikiProject Mountains|class=|importance=|alps=yes|alps-importance=}}
  • To put foreign language spelling of an article into introductory sentence: The '''Argentière Hut''' ([[French language|French]]: ''Refuge d'Argentière'') is a...
  • To convert metres to feet{{convert|4000|m|ft|0}} or {{convert|46|km|mi} or {{convert|20|km|mi|0|abbr=on}}
  • Adding reference section with good column layout: ==References=={{Reflist|30em}}
  • Link to Cut/Paste my own text blocks
  • DYK assessment::* :* The article is a 5-fold expansion in last7 days: {{ok}} :* The article is long enough: {{ok}} :* The hook is interesting: {{ok}} :* The hook is referenced: {{ok}} :* The hook is below 200 characters: {{ok}} :* No (0%) copyvio found with Earwig's tool: {{ok}} :* The article follows most other important policies: {{ok}} :* QPQ: {{ok}} :* [[File:Symbol confirmed.svg|16px]] Article is good to go.
  • To bulk spellcheck using Google e.g.: find 'Portugese'"Portugese" -inurl:wiki/Template -inurl:wiki/File -inurl:wiki-User -intitle:Talk -inurl:wiki-Wikipedia -inurl:wiki-WP -"redirected-from" site:en.wikipedia.org


Manual of Style (selected) Manual of Style - most useful pages

Botanical Resources

Taxonomic Lists

Mountain Resources

Common.js settings

In October 2019 a suite of useful scripts on my common.js page suddenly stopped working. This section is initially intended to help me determine the cause of the problem. (Once resolved, it may be retained as a list of those functioning scripts that I recommend to others. Note Skript=Script to avoid any problems on a standard userpage)
Contents of my common.js page as at 31 Oct 2019

var pagesToCollect = [ {page: 'User:Nick Moyes/tomonitor', caption: 'Follow up checks needed'}, {page: 'User:Nick Moyes/todo', caption: 'Edits needed by me'}, {page: 'User:Nick Moyes/infopages', caption: 'Useful pages'} ];

// load pageCollector script:

  • importScript('User:קיפודנחש/pageCollector.js');
//
// Edit tools for the vandal whack-a-mole game
// User:Kbh3rd/whackamole.js - please include this line
//
importSkript('User:Kbh3rd/whackamole.js');

/* Adds a toolbox link to do a copyvio check on the given page. */

mw.loader.using("mediawiki.util", function() { 

   mw.util.addPortletLink(
       "p-tb",
       "https://tools.wmflabs.org/copyvios/?lang=" + mw.config.get("wgContentLanguage") + "&project=" + mw.config.get("wgSiteName").toLowerCase() + "&title=" + encodeURIComponent(mw.config.get("wgPageName")),
       "Copyvio check",
       "t-copyvio-check",
       "Check this page for copyright violations"
   );

importSkript('User:Lourdes/PageCuration.js'); // Linkback: User:Lourdes/PageCuration.js });

.

Feedback and Suggestions

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This is a list of ideas I've encountered whilst editing since 2015. Some I've since found solutions for ...I do need to do some housekeeping of this section. If you've stumbled on this page and know a suggestion already has a solution - do feel free to add a note next to it.

  • Whilst the expand/collapse section function in mobile view is helpful, functionality would be enhanced by having a 'collapse previous section' (or 'collapse all sections) function at the bottom of each expanded section. Not having this means that the user still has to scroll up to find the relevant collapse button. Linked to this suggestion is the ability to collapse the lead in mobile view, thus turning the sub-headings effectively into a clearly visible Table of Content.  


  • Alerts for Cross-wiki Notifications disappear completely from the drop-down Notifications list once they've been marked as 'read' (unlike en-wiki, where they remain on view). There is no way for these notifications from other projects to be retrieved at Special:Notifications, nor for any Preferences to be altered to allow their retention. I find this severely limits my ability to return to threads on related projects.
  • The Special:Contributions page should contain a "click for IP range contributions" button, to quickly enable the display of IPv6 edits across the /64 range.
  • Suggestion: Provide a Preference option to enable a user to activate a skip to top and bottom button on the frame of all pages they visit. Rationale: Not all users like this function as they feel it gets in the way, whereas other users really value its functionality. But try visiting WP:ANI on a mobile device to see how much scrolling is needed to move around easily.
  • Suggestion: Permit autoconfirmed editors to self-protect their own userpages. In the wake of discussions on civility and harassment re WP:FRAMBAN, and having experienced a multiple IP-hopping sock posting unpleasant remarks on my own talk page wishing me dead recently (see revdel-ed edits June 2019), I've been considering how editors could protect themselves from abusive posts by others. I've concluded that one solution could be if every registered editor had the ability to self-protect their own talk pages against edits from non-autoconfirmed users for a period of up to, say, 24 hrs within a set period of time. It would auto-expire, but could be reactivated again. It would not need a page protection request to an admin, and I'm sure it would reduce the level of hostility from blocked users coming back as deranged or abusive IPs, yet still permit genuine (autoconfirmed editors and IPs) from posting as it would not block them.
  • Suggestion: The new user log at Special:Log/newusers should allow selection of only usernames who have already made a contribution. (Benefit: Would enable speedier identification or accounts which violate username policy and to permit easier posting of welcome messages to the active ones.)
  • Suggestion: (Courtesy of Thnidu: Add a small 'info' icon next to the Publish changes button in both editing tools to bring up a brief explanation of function to help differentiate saving edits in userspace/drafts from actually 'publishing' to mainspace. e.g. "This 'Publish changes' button will save the page, with your changes. The saved version can be seen by anyone." It functions in userpages, sandboxes, drafts and main articles. To actually move a draft article into mainspace, see Moving a page or Wikipedia:Drafts#Publishing_a_draft.
  • Suggestion: When choosing to switching editors between Visual Editor and Source Editor, remove the need to Confirm (except when editing Talk pages, where edits might be lost).
  • Suggestion: When previewing in Source Editor(Alt-Shift-P), continue to display editing window at cursor position, rather than returning to top of page. (Very irritating when working in long pages, lists or tables)
  • Suggestion: Enhance searching facility where search criteria match two Categories (e.g. topic category against a template for enhancement category). There appears to be an exciting proposal here: WP:Category intersection, but no solution as yet. (Value: Would focus efforts on improving articles by interested users)
  • Suggestion: Enable feedback for page creators under New Page Patrol to be optionally inserted into the Talk Page of the Article itself (Purpose: greater visibility of helpful comments. See here and here.)
  • Suggestion: Email notification from Watchlists should include a) the number of bytes changed + or - , and b) the first 40 or so characters of the changes made.
  • Suggestion: Email notification text should use different wording whenever a new Section heading or topic is added, so as to help editors who are only interested in seeing new topics or section changes differentiate email types.(Useful for separating emails with message rules in email client)
  • Suggestion: Article sub-headings should include the numbering and sub-numbering, as displayed in the Contents. (especially important in longer articles) (Available in Preferences>Appearance)
  • Suggestion: Provide optional Footer template allowing a a user to skip from the bottom of long Talk Pages and Help Pages up to the Table of Contents/Top of Page. (Would be especially useful when working from a small mobile screen) (This exists: {{Skip to top and bottom}})
  • Suggestion: Provide a link at the top of each article to Jump to contents to enable users to quickly get to the table of contents, rather than have to scroll down manually each time. - especially frustrating when one is repeatedly editing and previewing changes to a long article with an equally long header.
  • Suggestion: Allow switching between citation template with retention of shared elements entered in one template to another.(Would avoid repeating data entry when wrong template has initially been selected.)
  • Suggestion: Hovercards should be made to work in Wikipedia's Help fields.
  • Suggestion: Hovercards should show the quality assessment of the article being displayed.
  • Suggestion: A Favourite this page button should be available under Preferences for repeat editing or viewing of key articles.
  • Suggestion: Preferences and Beta choices set in EN-wiki should apply when logged on to all other language wikis.
  • Suggestion: Preferences should clearly indicate what each Default settings normally is. How else can a user assess what impact using Restore all default settings (in all sections) will have on page appearance and functionality?
  • Suggestion: The ability to sort Watchlist by date would be very helpful in removing pages accidentally 'watched' during bulk-editing activities.
  • Suggestion: Save all to Watchlist should be made to work on all pages listed within a selected Category for speedy monitoring of related articles.
  • Suggestion: File uploads to Wikimedia Commons should only go ahead at the end of the upload process, with final user-authorisation needed, and not at the start.
  • Suggestion: Email alerts to changes on Watchlist articles should include a count of the number of characters added/removed.
  • Suggestion: We received notification emails of changes to articles on our watchlist. But I would suggest an on-page watchlist alert would be a useful tool, along with a 'clear' facility to quickly remove those we've seen or wish to ignore.
  • Suggestion: Provide a facility to add/remove articles in Watchlist from within the User contribution page.
  • Suggestion: The timescales for deletion requests are ridiculously short. An uncontentious article can sit in mainspace for years, but if someone slaps an 'improve or delete notice on it, then we're given just seven days to put it right, or it's gone. Aren't we allowed holidays, or a week away from the computer? Maybe an automated delete if nothing happens to a page after, say 2 to 6 months. But as with Wikimedia, why a week? - it's just potty, and quite insulting. Imagine a suite of related articles being attacked in this way - would anyone notice before every one had all been deleted, or could the one or two people lucky enough to spot them in time be able to address all the issues in just 7 days? We need to be realistic here whenever articles are challenged. If an article is unlikely to attract a legal challenge for defamation, nor is breaching any major guidelines, why do we need to act with such unseemly haste? There are a lot of poor articles here, but that is a legacy of the early days of Wikipedia. Deleting them all with just a week's notice is not the way forward.
  • Suggestion: Users to be able to 'favourite' Wiki Help pages to create their own bespoke 'How To Do It' library. (Solved with Page Creator script)
  • Suggestion: Search results should show presence of internal links in those results to help ensure quick checks and enhancement of articles where links are needed, but not present.
  • Suggestion: Display the highest 'Quality grading allocated to that article at the top of the main article. This would readers understand how the community assess the article's quality or completeness. (I found this facility already exists under 'Preferences')
  • Suggestion: Allow sorting of articles in other languages by size of article, or by quality grading (to enable the most extensive articles to be quickly found, accessed and translated).
  • Suggestion: Wikimedia should allow upload of associated files used to create images (eg the raw PowerPoint or other graphic files from which jpgs were created) This would allow others to access and make changes or modifications much more easily.
  • Suggestion: Wikimedia should discourage the "Exterminate!" approach. Whilst recognising the need to keep Wikimedia free of copyrighted material - and the good job done by many to ensure this happens - it is utterly ridiculous to expect action to address minor concerns can be executed in just 7 days. Where an infringement has been identified, but where there is no 3rd party challenge or threat of legal action, it would seem appropriate for Wikimedia to show that it is taking action, but to act at a reasonable pace - something it is utterly failing to do at present, in my opinion. For that action to be received, then fully acted upon in such a short timescale is utterly impracticable. Not even the courts act this fast when a legal challenge has been made - so lets put some common sense into warning notices, giving at least a months to six weeks notice for something to be done, and for demonstrations of the matter being pursued to an appropriate conclusion. We weaken Wikipedia and Wikimedia if we fail to act, but we also weaken it if we make rules that turn a handful of sensible editors into gung-ho exterminators, out to purify the system at all costs and with unseemly haste. Here's what happened over the Christmas 2015 period to one image image of a statue in a public place that had been uploaded correctly by the photographer, had sat quietly on Italian Wikipedia for some years and was being used in mainspace. When I transferred it to Wikimedia to use on en.wikipedia it was (rightly) pointed out that Italian law meant that copyright permission from the creator is needed for works in a public place. As you can see, I immediately undertook this task to investigate and gave evidence of progress. But to no avail. This unseemly haste is the issue here - certainly not the principle of ensuring Wikimedia only contains legally held material. Lets use some sensible timescales that would be appropriate and commensurate with action taken in a court of law, and not a hanging party - that's just what I want to see. Encouraging over-hasty deletion simply discourages the rest of us from doing our best for the integrity and value of Wikimedia content.
  • Suggestion: WikiMedia should work with photo-sharing websites such as Flickr to promote and encourage awareness-raising of the benefits of users changing default settings to Creative Commons. Reason: So few users appreciate their images are set to be copyright, but can be changed to the benefit of projects such as Wikimedia.
  • Suggestion: Wikimedia should encourage those uploading iMnage to supply alt-text, and for this to be included within the use this file on Wikipedia text.
  • Suggestion: Enable Mobile preview option within the normal preview window, rather than requiring users to first save their edits before being able to see how they appear when laid out for mobiles.
  • Suggestion: Find and replace in Wikipdeia's visual editor needs greater clarity. Found text needs to be much more visible than the pale blue. Try find-and–replacing hyphens with en dashes. Not only are they impossible to spot, but the program does not track to the next 'found' selection, so users have to scroll down to look for them. Ideally there would be a Find–and–replace funbction in normal wikimarkup editing.
  • On the off-chance that someone might one day make an update to the operation of Lupin's Live Spellcheck tool, I'd like to offer the following observations based on a few thousand correction/edits made with it during the last week or so. Basically, it's an excellent tool, but:
    • Ignore typos in Wikimedia and Wikipedia image filenames, or in text containing [sic] or {{Notatypo}}
    • Edit summary should include the text 'identified with Lupin's automated spellcheck' tool, or equivalent. This would help other editors appreciate how/why the edits were made. ( Done: Just copy Lupin's script to own userpages and edit line 874. Mine now has its own description.)
    • Increase the time period before displaying a prompt to continue checking. Change this from 1hr 40mins to at least 4 hours to allow a full set of corrections to build up which can then be addressed in one session. ( Done Copy and edit line 1224 of script to own userpages. Mine now runs 1000 cycles.)
  • Sandbox pages should not be allowed to be indexed by search engines. I regularly find partial drivel I have thrown together in a sandbox page appearing in Google search results, and this seems daft. It needs a noindex command.

AutoWikiBrowser As a new user of WP:AWB, I encountered a number of criticisms over the way I initially (usually unintentionally) employed it. These suggestions are based on those experiences:

  • Whilst AWB's Manual clearly states it should not be used for Controversial edits, there appears to be no published guidance as to what does and does not constitute controversial. This is not helpful. The tool's own default settings probably permit more edits of this nature to be carried out than is necessary - especially for new users (hyphens to dashes, etc), so one has to suggest that its default settings are not correctly set.
  • Whilst AWB's search of the 500 latest New Articles has highlighted some appalling additions which needed immediate action through WP:CSD, or recommendation for WP:AfD, some editors (including myself) believe that more time needs to be given to new articles before anyone can tag them for improvement or deletion. Whilst Speedy Deletion is still appropriate for a number of serious issues (especially G1, G2 and G10), all other article creators need to be given a little bit more time if they are not to be put off from creating content. "New" needs to be defined as anything older than 30 minutes, not 30 seconds. (Comment made a year or so before ACTRIAL)
  • The AutoWikiBrowser portal needs a discussion section dedicated for New Users. The current discussion section is clearly frequented by experienced users, and I suggest it is off-putting for new users of this powerful tool to feel they can ask more basic questions there.

Wiki stuff to find out

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Too much to list here - please read all of Wikipedia first!

Library at Newnham College, Cambridge
Library at Newnham College, Cambridge
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"The certain fact that Wikipedians will eventually be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is the furthest thing from sarcasm. This grand experiment, born jumping off the deep end, has surprisingly tapped into an unprecedented marriage of societal wisdom, advancing technology, and an almost unfathomable basic trust in the potential of collective unselfishness in the human race. Wikipedia's creation was soon joined by millions of inquisitive sharing minds, and is constantly being recreated, polished, and improved by a literal second-by-second outpouring of intellectual strength. Wikipedia, now a recognizable treasure of civilization, changes the world for the better at an accelerating rate."

Declaration of Interests

WP:COI declaration: Working as a museum curator, over the decades I have produced a small number of publications: articles, journal papers and free information leaflets, plus one major book on some of the subjects listed in 'About Me', but (unfortunately!) I make no direct profit from the sale or distribution of any of them. I (and others) occasionally cite them as references, and I always endeavour to do so in a neutral manner. I was, of course, a paid member of staff when I helped introduce QRpedia codes to Derby Museum, and started to learn how to edit articles (see video above). This was not a part of my defined core duties; I have always been fortunate in being able to carve out my own areas of work - and Wikipedia seemed a logical extension of my desire to share and communicate the natural sciences with new audiences. In April 2011 I was paid by WMF (UK) to organise an editathon at Derby Museum (shortly after having been made redundant from that institution!) I was completely unaware back then of the need to declare WP:COI and WP:PAID (and the admin I was working with didn't say anything about declaring stuff). As Jimbo Wales and Wittylama both gave us an honourable mention for the work done at Derby (link), I doubt anyone had too many concerns about my employment in the WP:GLAM sector. That ended abruptly in March 2011, thanks to Tory-led Government spending cuts!

From July 2011 - May 2017 I was employed on a part-time basis to support a Local Nature Partnership and Local Biodiversity Action Planning. I am now semi-retired. I sign many petitions and very occasionally campaign on (usually environmental) issues that I think are worth standing up for. If you have concerns about the neutrality of any of my edits, in the light of the above or otherwise, please let me know on my talk page.

In April 2017 I created a second Wikipedia account (User:NM_Demo) intended specifically for the purposes of making teaching and demonstration resources on how to edit Wikipedia. I needed it to create screenshots so that new users would be able to see how pages normally appear with only their default settings in operation, rather than with my selected scripts and other personal settings in place. It is not intended that this extra account will be used for editing, apart from demonstration, editathon-type purposes, testing, or creating further screenshots. Because default settings for new accounts subsequently changed, I then need to create a third Wikipedia account User:NM Demo 2 which has mostly replaced my need for my second account. Doh!

In 2018 I was asked to give a talk and demonstration to a group of professional librarians on using and editing Wikipedia. A small fee was paid for my travel and time. I might do similar presentations in the future, and I have also claimed expenses from WMF(UK) for attending training events they were supporting. Notwithstanding the above 2011 mea culpa, I have never been paid to make any specific edits on behalf of any person or organisation.

Since 2018 I have contributed as an interviewee in a small number of academic or research studies into aspects of Wikipedia (ORES, Teahouse and RfA). These sometimes offer a very small payment or voucher as a 'thank you' for participating.

Wiki-will: In the event of my ceasing to edit here, I would like to have all newsletter messages and and future routine notices to my talk page cancelled or removed. If there is any content of merit in my sub-pages, please feel free to work this up into a finished product for the benefit of all.


I should also declare that I've done The Wikipedia Adventure!. Have you?

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