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Archive 5←Archive 8Archive 9Archive 10Archive 11Archive 12→Archive 15

AWB task requests, from the Portals WikiProject

1) Replace the intro box sections on portals with an upgrade. See details at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#AWB task: converting/upgrading intro sections.

2) Replace categories box sections on portals with an upgrade. See details at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#AWB task: Converting category sections.

Enjoy.    — The Transhumanist   08:08, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

greetings

as a matter of background (unnecessary) I used to live next to an unskiable mountain in tasmania - it got snow but was a horrible conglomerate part of the west coast range....

recently I have found a vast amount of categories with the word mountain in their title with no mountain project tag on the talk pages - and had gone from various regions and today bumped into the alps, in a manner of speaking...

WikiProject Mountains of the Alps - that is

the project looks resurrectable - but needs some tweaking in template/assessment areas - any thoughts/advice/whatever? JarrahTree 09:50, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Hi JarrahTree, thanks for dropping by. I've left a reply on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mountains of the Alps. I do agree that looking at reviewing quality assessment could be helpful. Nick Moyes (talk) 10:34, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

NPP Backlog Elimination Drive

Hello Nick Moyes, thank you for your work reviewing New Pages!

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel: there are currently 2900 unreviewed articles, and 4000 unreviewed redirects.

Announcing the Backlog Elimination Drive!

  • As a final push, we have decided to run a backlog elimination drive from the 20th to the 30th of June.
  • Reviewers who review at least 50 articles or redirects will receive a Special Edition NPP Barnstar: Special Edition New Page Patroller's Barnstar. Those who review 100, 250, 500, or 1000 pages will also receive tiered awards: 100 review coin, 250 review coin, 500 review coin, 1000 review certificate.
  • Please do not be hasty, take your time and fully review each page. It is extremely important that we focus on quality reviewing.

Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 06:57, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #009, 15 June 2018

(Article slideshow prototype)
Selected animals
  • Image 1 The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture. Experts estimate that due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids. Dogs have been bred for desired behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and color. They have the same number of bones (with the exception of the tail), powerful jaws that house around 42 teeth, and well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and sight. Compared to humans, dogs have an inferior visual acuity, a superior sense of smell, and a relatively large olfactory cortex. They perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, companionship, therapy, aiding disabled people, and assisting police and the military. Communication in dogs includes eye gaze, facial expression, vocalization, body posture (including movements of bodies and limbs), and gustatory communication (scents, pheromones, and taste). They mark their territories by urinating on them, which is more likely when entering a new environment. Over the millennia, dogs became uniquely adapted to human behavior; this adaptation includes being able to understand and communicate with humans. As such, the human–canine bond has been a topic of frequent study, and dogs' influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of "man's best friend". (Full article...)


    The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture. Experts estimate that due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids.

    Dogs have been bred for desired behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and color. They have the same number of bones (with the exception of the tail), powerful jaws that house around 42 teeth, and well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and sight. Compared to humans, dogs have an inferior visual acuity, a superior sense of smell, and a relatively large olfactory cortex. They perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, companionship, therapy, aiding disabled people, and assisting police and the military.

    Communication in dogs includes eye gaze, facial expression, vocalization, body posture (including movements of bodies and limbs), and gustatory communication (scents, pheromones, and taste). They mark their territories by urinating on them, which is more likely when entering a new environment. Over the millennia, dogs became uniquely adapted to human behavior; this adaptation includes being able to understand and communicate with humans. As such, the human–canine bond has been a topic of frequent study, and dogs' influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of "man's best friend". (Full article...)
  • Image 2 The cat (Felis catus), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. Valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin, the cat's retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations—including meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting—as well as body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It secretes and perceives pheromones. Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn in temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens. Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Animal population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of bird, mammal, and reptile species. As of 2017 '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000002-QINU`"' ,[update] '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000003-QINU`"' the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households owning at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020 '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000004-QINU`"' .[update] '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000005-QINU`"' As of 2021 '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000006-QINU`"' ,[update] '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000007-QINU`"' there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world. (Full article...)


    The cat (Felis catus), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. Valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin, the cat's retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations—including meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting—as well as body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It secretes and perceives pheromones.

    Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn in temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens. Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Animal population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of bird, mammal, and reptile species.

    As of 2017
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000002-QINU`"'
    ,
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000003-QINU`"'
    the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households owning at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000004-QINU`"'
    .
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000005-QINU`"'
    As of 2021
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000006-QINU`"'
    ,
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000007-QINU`"'
    there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world. (Full article...)
  • Image 3 The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, which are horses that never have been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and possess a good sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down, with younger horses tending to sleep significantly more than adults. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under a saddle or in a harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years. Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods", such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods", developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses. (Full article...)

    The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, which are horses that never have been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.

    Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and possess a good sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down, with younger horses tending to sleep significantly more than adults. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under a saddle or in a harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

    Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods", such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods", developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses. (Full article...)
  • Image 4 House mouse (Mus musculus) A mouse (<abbr title=" '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000008-QINU`"' ">pl.: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Mice are also popular as pets. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are locally common. They are known to invade homes for food and shelter. Mice are typically distinguished from rats by their size. Generally, when a muroid rodent is discovered, its common name includes the term mouse if it is smaller, or rat if it is larger. The common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Typical mice are classified in the genus Mus, but the term mouse is not confined to members of Mus and can also apply to species from other genera such as the deer mouse (Peromyscus). Domestic mice sold as pets often differ substantially in size from the common house mouse. This is attributable to breeding and different conditions in the wild. The best-known strain of mouse is the white lab mouse. It has more uniform traits that are appropriate to its use in research. (Full article...)
    House mouse (Mus musculus)

    A mouse (<abbr title="
    '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000008-QINU`"'
    ">pl.: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). Mice are also popular as pets. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are locally common. They are known to invade homes for food and shelter.

    Mice are typically distinguished from rats by their size. Generally, when a muroid rodent is discovered, its common name includes the term mouse if it is smaller, or rat if it is larger. The common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Typical mice are classified in the genus Mus, but the term mouse is not confined to members of Mus and can also apply to species from other genera such as the deer mouse (Peromyscus).

    Domestic mice sold as pets often differ substantially in size from the common house mouse. This is attributable to breeding and different conditions in the wild. The best-known strain of mouse is the white lab mouse. It has more uniform traits that are appropriate to its use in research. (Full article...)

Don't mind that box to the right. We'll be talking about that later, below.

Almost done...

With the portals upgrades?

No. :)

What is almost done is the updating of the main list of portals!

There are 23 portals left to be listed.

Kudos to the WikiGnome Squadron, for spearheading this.

Once it is fully updated, we need to keep it up to date. When you complete a portal, remember to add it to Portal:Contents/Portals.

Concerning portal upgrades, we are working on those section-by-section...

Associated Wikimedia section conversion task complete

The Associated Wikimedia sections of the entire set of portals have been upgraded. These are now handled on each portal base page (bypassing the previously used corresponding subpages), using the {{Wikimedia for portals}} template rather than reiterated copied/pasted code.

So, to be more accurate on reporting upgrade progress, that's one section down (for the whole set of portals), with (about) nine sections to go. (Skipping curated portals, regarding custom content sections, of course).

Further section conversions (using AWB)

Work is underway on converting Portals' introduction sections, and the categories sections.

If you would like to help, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Upgrade introduction sections and Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#AWB task: Convert category sections

Further section conversions (by hand)

Work has also started with converting selected picture sections to picture slideshow sections. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Install picture slideshows.

Quality rating system for portals under development

Currently, there is no quality rating for portals: in the Portals WikiProject box on each portals' talk page, it just says "Portal". But times are a changin'. Quality assessment is on the way, and you can help. See the discussion.

What's coming: excerpt slideshows

Evad37 has figured out a way to apply the picture slideshow feature to displaying article excerpts (now you can check out the provided box above). :) This allows us to bypass page purging to see the next selection, and you can even click through them rather quickly. Currently, the wikicode for doing this for article excerpts is a bit eye-boggling, and so we are looking into simplifying it. A streamlined version may be just around the corner.

Note that this is a prototype, not ready for widespread use. Click on the box in between the lesser than and greater than signs, to see what I mean. It was meant for pictures, and so the thumbnail feature doesn't apply to article prose very well. I've presented it even though it isn't ready, to show the direction portal development is heading. See the discussion.

Wow

I'm amazed at how rapidly portals are evolving. And we're still within a single generation of portal technological evolution. Imagine what they might be in 2 or 3 more generations of developments. Pretty soon, portals will be able to shake your hand. :)    — The Transhumanist   11:04, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

You're wasting your breath

WP:Administrators'_noticeboard/IncidentArchive969#Violations_of_WP:CIVIL,_WP:NPA,_and_WP:TPO EEng 00:07, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-25

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

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 19 June at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Some old web browsers will not be able to read the Wikimedia wikis. This is because they use an insecure way to connect to them. This means that we get less security for everyone else too. This affects about 0.08% of all traffic to the Wikimedia wikis. This affects for example those who read Wikipedia on a PlayStation 3. [2][3]
  • The new filters for edit review tools and interface for watchlists will leave beta. Because there is no new MediaWiki version this week it will happen on 25 June for most wikis. For the rest it will happen in early July. [4][5]
  • Advanced item All wikis that have not already done so will switch to use the Remex parsing library on 5 July. This is to replace Tidy. You can help fix remaining errors. [6]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:47, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Link to the article that claims the final vote for the EU Copyright Law will be in December 2018 or January 2019

https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17482554/eu-european-union-copyright-filter-article-11-13-passes-juri-vote — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.180.75 (talk) 22:40, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanks - do please add this to the page. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:41, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

The problem is, I'm not very good at adding sources — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.180.75 (talk) 23:06, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

There's only one way to learn! Give it a go.Nick Moyes (talk) 23:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Merge into VLBI

Hi Nick,

While I think the IVS is likely notable on it's own, I think it was OK to merge into the VLBI article until it gets developed further. But you forgot the {{R from merge}} template. This is important for preserving attribution. .--Mark viking (talk) 22:46, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Yes, sorry, you may be right, though as yours were the only two edits, I felt I'd not unreasonably attributed the content to you on the target page. Hardly likely to lose any external links to it after just an hour in mainspace, either. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:57, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Content tags on David O. McKay School of Education

Nick, about a month ago you added some content tags to David O. McKay School of Education. I have tried to address those issues. Do you think the tags about "written like an advertisement", "excessive intricate detail", and "relies too much on primary sources" can now be removed? Thanks. Scd123 (talk) 19:38, 27 June 2018 (UTC)

Reckon it should be ok to remove them now. Thanks. Regards from the Swiss Alps. Nick Moyes (talk) 16:38, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

o

July 2018 at Women in Red

Hello again from Women in Red!


July 2018 worldwide online editathons:
New: Sub-Saharan Africa Film + stage 20th-century Women Rock
Continuing: Notable women, broadly-construed!


Latest headlines, news, and views on the Women in Red talkpage (Join the conversation!):

(To subscribe: Women in Red/English language mailing list and Women in Red/international list. Unsubscribe: Women in Red/Opt-out list) --Rosiestep (talk) 14:04, 28 June 2018 (UTC) via MassMessaging

Portals WikiProject update #010, 30 June 2018

We've grown to 94 participants.

A warm welcome to dcljr and Kpgjhpjm.

Rating system for portals

We are in the process of developing a rating system specifically for portals, as the quality assessment scheme for articles does not apply to portals. It is coming along nicely. Your input would be very helpful. See the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/General#Proposed new quality class assessments.

Better than a barnstar

One of our participants got involved with this WikiProject through interest in how the new generation of portals would be handled in WP's MOS (Manual of Style). It didn't take long before he got sucked in deeper. This has given him an opportunity to look around, and so, he has made an assessment of this WikiProject's operations:

I'm quite frankly really impressed and inspired by what's happening here. If you'd asked me a year ago if I thought portals should just be scrapped as a failed, dragged-out experiment, I would have said "yes". This planning and the progress toward making it all practical is exemplary of the wiki spirit, in particular of a happy service-to-readers puppy properly wagging its technological and editorial tail instead of the other way around, and without "drama". It's also one of the few examples I've seen in a long time of a new wikiproject actually doing something useful and fomenting constructive activity (instead of acting as a barrier to participation, and a canvassing/ownership farm for PoV pushers). Kudos all around. — SMcCandlish

Congratulations, everyone. Keep up the great work.

Slideshow development

We've run into a glitch with slideshows: they don't work on mobile devices.

Initially, we will need to explore options that allow portals to have slideshows without adversely affecting mobile viewers. See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design#Mobile view support.

Eventually, we may need another way to do slideshows. If we do go this route, and I don't see why we wouldn't, then (user configurable) automatic slideshows also become a possibility.

TemplateStyles RfC passed

Once implemented, this will allow editors to create and edit cascading style sheets for use with templates. This will expand what we can do with portals. For more detail, see mw:Extension:TemplateStyles and Wikipedia:TemplateStyles.

Automation effort

We've run into an obstacle using Lua-based selective transclusion: Lua is incapable (on Wikipedia) of reading in article names from categories. Because of this, we'll need to seek other approaches for fully automating the Selected article section. We are exploring sources other than categories, and other technologies besides Lua.

Speaking of using other sources, the template {{Transclude list item excerpt}} collects list items from a specified page, or from a section of that page, and transcludes the lead from a randomly selected link from that list. Courtesy of Certes. So, if you use this in a portal, and if the template specifies a page or section serviced by JL-Bot, you've now got yourself an automatically updated section in the portal. JL-Bot provides links to featured content and good articles, by subject.

What is "fully automated"? When you create a portal using a creation template, and the portal works thereafter without editor intervention, the portal is fully automated. That is, the portal is supported by features that fetch new content. If you have to add new article names every so often for it to display new content, then it is only semi-automated.

Currently, the Selected article section is semi-automated, because it requires that an editor supplies the names of the various articles for which excerpts are (automatically) displayed. For examples, look at the wikisource code of Portal:Reptiles, Portal:Ancient Tamil civilization, and Portal:Reference works.

So far, 3 sections are fully automatable: the introduction section, the categories section, and the Associated Wikimedia section.

Where is all this heading?

Henry.

Or some other name.

Eventually, the portal department will be a software program. And we won't have to do anything (unless we want to). Not even tell it what portals to create (unless we want to). It will just do it all (plus whatever else we want it to do). And we will of course give it good manners, and a name.

But, that is a few years off.

Until then, building portals is still (partially) up to us.    — The Transhumanist   13:33, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-27

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 database for tags will be changed. This will happen on 2 July on French Wikipedia and 9 July on all other wikis. Please report if recent changes get slower or you can't save edits. This could especially affect editors who use the database on ToolForge. [7]

Problems

  • Last week's MediaWiki update was rolled back. This was because of a database problem. [8]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 3 July at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 4 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

00:46, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).

Administrator changes

added Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
readded Gogo Dodo
removed Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes

removed Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

  • An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
  • A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

  • Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
  • Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
  • IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

  • Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Why does it matter that I created her?

y Sheesh, so anyways I STILL don't understand why 1. I can't become famous off my tumblr account https://emthecartoongirl.tumblr.com and 2. Why Josy the rabbit STILL doesn't qualify for "notability". And I've wondered, are The irate gamer and Sonichu notable either? Emilyiship'05 (talk) 01:17, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

If you can show to me how other, independant sources have covered your rabbbit cartoons in detail and in depth then I'll gladly help you understand what is and isn't regarded as 'notable' here. Wikipedia isn't a platform for you to push or promote your pet projects. Go do that somewhere else please. As for the second part of your question, I've no idea what you're referring to, I'm afraid. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 13:21, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-28

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

  • WebM video files have smaller file size but still be of the same quality. Creating WebM files will take longer time. [9]
  • The new filters for edit review tools and interface for watchlists will leave beta. This was supposed to already have happened but was delayed. For most wikis this will happen on 9 July. For the rest it will happen on 16 July. [10]
  • Advanced item All wikis now use the Remex parsing library instead of Tidy. This could cause errors. You can help fix the errors. [11]

Problems

  • When you rolled back an edit it could get both the Rollback and Undo tags. This has been fixed. [12]
  • Rollbacks from autopatrolled users were not marked as patrolled. This has been fixed. [13]

Changes later this week

  • When you edit a link in the visual editor there will be two separate buttons to change which page the link goes to (target) or its text (label). [14][15]
  • On the mobile version you can find a link to an editor's contributions from their user page. Now this will work even if they haven't created a user page. [16]
  • When you edit a discussion on the mobile version you sometimes get your signature automatically added. This will now not happen if you have already added a signature manually. This is to avoid double signatures. [17]
  • Structured discussions toolbars will have more style options. [18]
  • Advanced item When you look at Wikimedia code in Gerrit there will be a new interface. It is on by default for new users. This is also true for developers. This is to make it easier to understand what is happening. [19]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 July. It will be on all wikis from 12 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 10 July at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 11 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Today all administrators can edit CSS and JavaScript for the entire wiki. There will be a new user group for editing CSS and JavaScript. Administrators will no longer automatically be able to do this. This is because it is a security risk when all administrator accounts can edit JavaScript even if they never plan to or do not know how it works. You can read more. [20]
  • Page previews will be on by default for new accounts. [21]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:09, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #011, 10 July 2018

We now have 97 participants.

Be sure to welcome our newest members, BrantleyIzMe, Coffeeandcrumbs, and Nolan Perry, with warm regards.

Work is proceeding apace. We have 2 major thrusts right now: converting the intro sections of portals, and building the components of the one-page automated model...

Converting the intro sections

We need everybody, except those building software components, to work on converting intros. If you have AWB, definitely use that. If not, then work on them manually. Even one a day, or as often as you can muster, will help a lot. There are only about 1,000 of them left to go, so if everyone chips in, it will go pretty quickly. Remember, there are 97 of us!

The intros for most of the portals starting with A through F have already been converted to use the {{Transclude lead excerpt}} template.

The standard wikicode for the automated intro that we want to put into place looks like this: 

{{/box-header|Introduction|noedit=yes|}}
{{Transclude lead excerpt | {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs=1-2 | files=1}}
{{Box-footer|[[{{PAGENAME}}|Read more...]]}}

That works for most portals, but not all. For some portals it requires some tweaking, and for others, we may have to use a different or more customized approach. Remember to visually inspect each portal you work on and make sure that it works before moving on to the next one.

Be sure to skip user-maintained portals. They are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Portals#Specific_portal_maintainers.

AWB tips

I've started an AWB tips page, for those of you feeling a bit overwhelmed by that power user tool. Feel free to add to it and/or improve it.

Portal automation

We have some very talented Lua programmers, who are pushing the limits of what we can do in gathering data from Wikipedia's various namespaces and presenting it in portals. Due to their efforts, Lua is powering the selective transclusion core of our emerging automated portal design, in the form of selected article sections that rotate content, and slideshows.

To go beyond Lua's limits, to take full advantage of Mediawiki's API, we are in the midst of adding another programming language to the resources we shall be making use of: JavaScript. The ways that JavaScript can help us edit portals to boost the power of our Lua solutions, are being explored, which will likely make the two languages synergistic if not symbiotic. Research is under way on how we can use JavaScript to make some of the portal semi-automated features fully automatically self-updating, in ways that Lua cannot. Like gathering random members from a category and inserting them into a portal's templates as parameters. Once the parameters are in place, Lua does the rest.

If you would like to get involved with design efforts, or just keep up on them, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

When should we start building new portals?

Well, not at the present time, because building portals is quite time consuming. The good news is that we are working on a design that will be fully automated, or as close to that as we can get. And the new design is being implemented in the portal department's main portal creation template. This means, that not only will portals update themselves, their creation will be highly automated as well. That's the nature of templates. You put them in place, and they just... work.

What I'm getting at here, is that it would be better to wait to build lots of new portals until after the new design is completed. Because with it, instead of taking hours to create a new portal, it will likely take minutes.

That does not mean we should be idle in the meantime. The main reason most of us are here is because it became apparent that portals were largely unmaintained and had grown out-of-date. This had become so apparent that a proposal was made to delete all the portals and the portal namespace to boot. That makes our main objective in the short term to improve all the existing portals so that the community will want to keep them—forever.

Building lots of new portals comes later. Let's fix up the ones we have first. ;)

And on that note, I bid you adieu. Until next newsletter, see ya 'round the WikiProject.    — The Transhumanist   12:31, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

Peter Mt. Shasta

Hi Nick, I hope that I am replying to your take down notice correctly, as the method to reply was not clear. Obviously I am a new editor on Wikipedia. I started a page on Peter Mt. Shasta yesterday, July 12, 2018, and don't understand why you want to remove it. Although it is about a living person, he is a public figure who has been interviewed on radio talk shows. At least one of his books has been published by an independent publisher, Pearl Publishing. He is an internationally known spiritual teacher with 8 books in circulation and 20 videos on YouTube. He is also mentioned in at least 2 other Wikipedia articles (Ascended Masters is one). It is a public service to have this page available. Please advice with any suggested edits to make it more acceptable to you.

Best wishes, DharmaMountain (talk) 16:42, 13 July 2018 (UTC)Dharma Mountain

Nick, I added the references you requested to the Peter Mt. Shasta page and removed the tag. Please let me know if you find this satisfactory.

Many thanks DharmaMountain (talk) 18:56, 13 July 2018 (UTC)Dharma Mountain

@DharmaMountain: You didn't quite post on my talk page correctly, but not to worry. I've moved them both together here now. New posts go at the bottom of a talk page - just click 'add topic' and you'll get a box in which to write to another user.
As a new editor, may I welcome you to Wikipedia. It can be very hard to understand all the procedures and guidelines, and making an acceptable new article is actually the hardest task for any new editor to achieve. You said to me, you "don't understand why you want to remove it". It's not that I wanted to remove it immediately, but we have a hard and fast rule here that any biography of a living person must be referenced. At the time yours did not, so I placed a WP:PROD notice as a way to get you to fix that shortcoming. So thank you for responding. Unlike a Article for deletion notice, anyone can remove a PROD notice. But that doesn't stop an article subsequently being put forward for a deletion discussion, where consensus of other editors is sought. I fear yours may soon be, as I see nothing yet that makes this person clearly meet our Notability criteria for people. Admittedly, I haven't looked to see if any of those references are available online yet, but we need in depth coverage of a person by independent sources to show that they are 'worthy' of people taking note of them. Like him, I've been on many radio talk shows, appeared many times on TV, and have published scholarly books and articles, but I do also know I don't get anywhere near meeting Wikipedia's notability criteria. So please focus on how others have written about him. Importantly, as a manner of style, we need a lead sentence which summarises who he is, and why he's important (notable). Just take a look at any other article to see what I mean. After that, a section on his life, religious awakening, awards and honours etc would break the article down into navigable chunks. We also need a references section
I'd also suggest removing the redlinks to the books you mentioned - I doubt they would meet our WP:NBOOKS criteria, and redlinks in borderline articles tend to serve as a flag that demonstrate people are trying too hard. Ensure every statement is supported by a reference, and include the url in the reference if one's available. Both of our editing tools have drop-down templates for inserting references, each capturing fields like title, author, date, publisher. See Referencing for Beginners.
Bottom line: I really can't see anything that makes this person stand out as meriting an article on Wikipedia. We aren't a public service, listing or promoting every minor celebrity, sportperson, scientist or preacher. Wikipedia only cares about people that other independent sources have written about in depth. It ignores self-published books, blogs and so forth. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but I'm holding back on putting this article up for deletion purely so as not to discourage a new editor, as I know how horrible it is to have one's work dismissed. I do hope this sounds reasonable, and do please understand that most editors experience one of their pages put up for deletion at one time or another. Just like a young bird leaving the nest, this is a vulnerable time for any new article. Maybe with a bit more understanding and a chance to strengthen its wings this article might well fly. But sadly I have my doubts. I'll pop by in a few weeks and see how it's coming along. It may be then that a discussion on deletion - or otherwise - is worth having. Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 01:55, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

What are you talking about?

Ashwrat is an actual Hindu deity i could provide a citation if so needed, Your allegation is unfounded and quite rude. Newke 2.0 (talk) 00:46, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Hello, Newke 2.0. Of course a citation is needed! More than one in fact. Until you cite some sources we don't know whether what you've written is made up or not. We call this Verifiability, and even you seem to have some problems spelling the name consistently. Like I said, I didn't know enough about the subject to determine whether what you were trying to write about was genuine or not. I'm sorry if you interpret my reply to you at the Teahouse as rude. Clearly, if you can supply citations to support what you want to write about, then do that, please. Until you actually do - and write about it in more than 14 words - any draft article (such as Draft:Ahswrat) is wholly unworthy of submission for review, and most people do find rejection at WP:AFC very demoralising. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 01:03, 14 July 2018 (UTC)
Ah, I see your draft has now been deleted as a 'blatant hoax'. So there you go. Nick Moyes (talk) 21:19, 14 July 2018 (UTC)

Kung Fu Panda

Just an FYI, there is an WP:LTA regarding KFP. I'm not an expert on it but I think the Teahouse thing is part of it. John from Idegon (talk) 02:51, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #012, 15 July 2018

We have 97 participants.

Getting faster

Automation makes things go faster, even portal creation. One of the components Certes made was {{Transclude list item excerpt}}. I became curious about its possible applications.

So I worked out a portal design using it, the initial prototypes being Portal:Kyoto (without a "Selected pictures" section), and Portal:Dubai (with a "Selected pictures" section). Then I used Portal:Dubai as the basis for further portals of this type...

I was able to revamp Portal:Munich from start to finish in less than 22 minutes.
Portal:Dresden took about 19 minutes.
Portal:Athens took less than 17 minutes.
Did Portal:Florence in about 13 minutes.
Portal:Stockholm also in about 13.
Portal:Palermo approx. 12 minutes.

Why?

To see, and to show, what may become feasible via automation.

It now looks highly feasible that we could get portal construction time down to a few minutes, or maybe even down to a few seconds.

The singularity is just around the corner. :)

Slideshows

When using the {{Random slideshow}} template to display pictures, be sure to use the plural tense in the section title: "Selected pictures". That's because slideshows don't show up on many mobile devices. Instead the whole set of pictures is shown, hence the section title "Selected pictures", as it fits both situations.

In case you are curious, here is a list of the portals so far that have a slideshow:

Progress on intro conversions

The intros for most of the portals up through the letter "O" have been converted, using this wikicode: 

{{/box-header|Introduction|noedit=yes|}}
{{Transclude lead excerpt | {{PAGENAME}} | paragraphs=1-2 | files=1}}
{{Box-footer|[[{{PAGENAME}}|Read more...]]}}

Where the pagename didn't match the article title for the subject, the title was typed in.

Most of the portals that do not contain {{/intro}} or {{{{FULLPGENAME}}/Intro}} have not yet been processed.

About a thousand portals use the method of selective transclusion for the intro section. That's about two-thirds. That means we have one-third of the way to go on the intro section conversions.

Much more to come...

So much has been happening with portals that I can't keep up with it. (That's good). Which means, more in the upcoming issue. Until then, see ya 'round the project. Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   08:46, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-29

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

Changes later this week

  • Your watchlist will show changes from the last seven days instead of three. If you have already set a length preference it will not change. [25]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 17. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from July 18. It will be on all wikis from July 19 (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on July 17 at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on July 18 at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Some articles have messages to readers about problems with the article. For example that it does not cite sources or might not be neutral. Readers do not see these messages on the mobile version. The developers now want to show them. You can read more and leave feedback.
  • You can use <inputbox> to create search boxes for specific pages. For example to search the archives of a community discussion page. Instead of prefix:Page name you will see a text that explains which pages are being searched. You can read more and leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:01, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #013, 18 July 2018

I got overwhelmed IRL (in real life) during the production of issue #12. So, here is a catch-up issue, to help bring you (and me) up to speed on what is happening with portals...

By the way, we still have 97 participants. (Tell all your friends about this WikiProject, and have them join!)

Panoramas!

One cool feature of some of the geographical portals is a panoramic picture at the top of the intro section.

Check these out:

The Portals WikiGnome squadron is busy adding panoramas to geographical portals that don't yet have one. Feel free to join in on the fun. See task details at Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Add a panorama or skyline to a geographic portal.

Caveat: avoid super-huge pics, as they can cause portal scripts to time-out. Please try to keep picture size down below 2 megabytes. Thank you.

Auto-populated slideshows

Speaking of pictures...

We now have two slideshow templates. You may be familiar with {{Random slideshow}}, in which the editor types in (or copies/pastes) a list of pictures he or she wants it to display.

Well, now we have another template, courtesy of Evad37, which accepts one or more page names instead, and displays a random image off of the listed pages. So instead of listing dozens of files by hand, you can include a title or three to be scanned automatically. It even lets you specify particular sections.

The new slideshow template is {{Transclude files as random slideshow}}.

Here's a sample, that grabs images from a single page:

Selected motorcycle or motorcycling pictures

New Template:Box-header colour

Speaking of new templates, here's another one!

Also from Evad37, we have a new component for starting section boxes, that is color configurable, and that bypasses the need for box-header subpages altogether. It is {{Box-header colour}}.

For color support, see Web colors.

For the discussion in which this was inspired, see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Tasks#Colour combinations for accessibility.

(In case you didn't notice, the slideshow box above uses this new template).

BTW, don't forget to close your box with {{Box-footer}}.

Where are we on the redesign?

The answer to this question is quite involved, and would fill this page to overflowing. Therefore, this subject, including a complete update on where we are at and where we are going with portal design, is covered at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

Where are we on portal conversion?

An AWB pass to convert intros on the portals has been completed. The pass couldn't convert them all (due to various formatting configurations, etc.).

All but about 170 portals now have introductions selectively transcluded on the base page. Not counting manually maintained portals, that leaves about 70 portals that either need their intros converted, or they need an intro.

Next, we'll be converting the categories sections!

What's the plan, man?

The course of action we have been taking goes something like this, with all steps being pursued simultaeneously...

1) Design a one-page automated portal model

2) Convert existing portals to that design (except those being manually maintained)

3) Remove subpages no longer needed

4) Develop further tools to empower editors working on portals

Later, when the tools are up to the task, filling in the gaps in coverage (with new portals) will also become practical.

Are we caught up yet?

Probably not.

Who knows what our programmers and editors have dreamed up while I was writing this.

See ya again soon,    — The Transhumanist   11:08, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Box-header colour

The docs for Box-header colour states "Other parameters that are accepted by Template:Box-header can also be used in this template, apart from the following (which will be ignored if specified):

  • title
  • editpage
  • noedit
  • border
  • titleforeground
  • titlebackground
  • foreground
  • background

Which means it defaults to all of Box-header's other behaviors.

The docs for Box-header says "A template standardizing the portal templates and for other purposes. If used for other purposes, note that if the TOC and EDIT parameters are missing or not set to yes, the table of contents and all section editing will be suppressed."

So, I added TOC=yes, and it seems to have solved the problem. I think my talk page has TOC=yes somewhere else.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to check on the other participants' TOCs.    — The Transhumanist   00:56, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Thank you

Hello, Nick Moyes. I want to thank you for the very compassionate and perceptive response to a young editor at the Teahouse. And, thank you also for all the helpful advice you offer there. Cullen328 Let's discuss it 03:37, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

@Cullen328: Thank you for that. I've certainly learned a lot since you invited me to contribute there, and its good to support amd help others when we can. Nick Moyes (talk) 08:45, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

August 2018 at Women in Red

An exciting new month for Women in Red!


August 2018 worldwide online editathons:
New: Indigenous women Women of marginalized populations Women writers Geofocus: Bottom 10
Continuing: #1day1woman Global Initiative
Notable women, broadly-construed!


For the first time, this month we are trying out our Monthly achievement initiative

  • All creators of new biographies can keep track of their progress and earn virtual awards.
  • It can be used in conjunction with the above editathons or for any women's biography created in August.
  • Try it out when you create your first biography of the month.

Latest headlines, news, and views on the Women in Red talkpage (Join the conversation!):

(To subscribe: Women in Red/English language mailing list and Women in Red/international list. Unsubscribe: Women in Red/Opt-out list) --Rosiestep (talk) 11:22, 23 July 2018 (UTC) via MassMessaging

Tech News: 2018-30

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

  • When you log in to your account you can choose to keep being logged in. This checkbox now works better than before on the mobile version for users without JavaScript. [26]
  • Wikis that use Citoid can automatically generate citations for Swedish news sites. This only works in the visual editor. This now works for Swedish public service radio. More will come. Others could use this to add news sites in other languages in the future. [27]
  • Editors can do max 90 edits per minute. This is new since last month. This does not affect bots or administrators. [28]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 24 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 25 July. It will be on all wikis from 26 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 25 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

09:44, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2020-26

Changes later this week

  • The developers are working on a new interface to solve edit conflicts on talk pages. This will be released on 24 June. You can give feedback. [29]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 June. It will be on all wikis from 25 June (calendar).

Mediocre Legacy

So there is this user called User: Mediocre Legacy that keeps editing without edit summaries. Is it possible that he could be blocked or something? It also looks like he may have vandalised some things as well, Thanks. Sport.07GamerDet (talk) 18:47, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

And also how do I revert an edit? Sport.07GamerDet (talk) 18:50, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Wtf did I vandalize Mediocre Legacy (talk) 19:08, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

@Mediocre Legacy: I can't comment on that, as football is not my thing, and the new editor did not specify anything for me to look at. However, I do think your total failure to use edit summaries is a legitimate concern, and I might be be posting on your talk page about that in the next few days. I certainly shalln't be blocking anyone for that right now, though if the community repeatedly asks someone to conform to its practices, and an editor refuses, then recent decisions at WP:ANI tend not to have not gone in their favour, and blocks have ensued. That does seem to be the case with your edits, where 99.2% of your 43,000 edits have no explanatory edit summary, and I see repeated requests for you to explain your edits when you add or remove content. So could you address that please and save me the trouble of posting a formal request on your talk page? Thanks a lot Nick Moyes (talk) 19:33, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
@Sport.07GamerDet: We don't block an editor for failing to leave an edit summary, although repeatedly ignoring requests from the community and not fixing the issue can lead to sanctions. (And that could, potentially, happen here.) I've just noticed that you did recently leave a request for them to use edit summaries, but for some reason you posted in the middle of their talk page. I'm not sure why. New threads and warning notices should go at the bottom of a talk page, as you've done here on my page.
If an editor either vandalises, or inserts content which you dispute and which isn't supported with a citation, then you can REVERT their edit. This is more likely to happen if the user fails to explain the reason for their edit. In desktop mode, just go to the 'View History' tab of any page, where you'll see each edit on a separate line (with date, editor's name, size of change and - we would expect - a clear edit summary). Note the link to 'thank' the editor, or to 'undo' their edit. Each line has a radio button which you can select in order to see the changes made across a number of edits, and displayed as a DIFF, showing the before and after impacts of that change or set of changes. (That's a very useful thing to have as you can copy the url and paste it elsewhere for others to see the changes you want to talk about. If you have Twinkle enabled in your user preferences, you also see a 'rollback' link, of which there are three types - Green:rollback Good Faith edits; Blue: rollback average edits; Red: rollback Vandalism. Rollback is powerful, and mustn't be abused, as poor use can revert an entire series of one person's edits, rather than just the last one you wished to revert. (That can really upset people!) If you aren't sure of these, just use the Undo option to revert a change, making sure you always leave an explanatory edit summary when you do so.
Finally, I've not looked at the individual edits of the editor you're mentioned here, and won't do so unless you link to a specific diff. But to be frank, it's far better to engage with an editor in the first instance before raising it on an admin's page, as you've done here, as this can cause offence to them, and issues are best sorted out without them escalating onto a 3rd party's page. It's especially important to avoid accusing another editor of vandalism (i.e. a deliberate attempt to disrupt a page) if all they've done is make a change they've not explained or which appears to be a genuine attempt to improve a page, even if you disagree with it. See WP:VANDALISM for more information, and maybe next time just say to that 3rd party editor "I'm a bit unsure if this edit (INSERT DIFF LINK) is vandalism or not - what do you think?"
Of course, if you're convinced an edit is done in bad faith, you can use Twinkle to select and to leave an appropriate notice on the offending editor's talk page. These should generally escalate in 3 or 4 steps and, once an editor has continued editing in bad faith beyond the final (Level 4) warning notice, then that's the time to report the editor to WP:AIV. There an admin can assess the edits and decide on the best course of action. (I seem to spend a lot of my time there, declining requests because the editor has not been sufficiently warned, or because the reporting editor has placed a warning notice and immediately reported the other user to AIV, rather than waiting to see if their warning notice has been seen and acted upon.) Only when they are clearly continuing to transgress should they be reported to AIV. Blocks are issued to stop immediate disruption (or to implement the wishes of the community in certain circumstances where examples of poor editing behaviour are deemed to be causing everyone else problems).
I hope this explanation aids your understanding. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 20:48, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Yea okay I kind of don't know what I'm doing so that is why I asked you Sport.07GamerDet (talk) 20:53, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Thank you, Nick Moyes. The reason I do not have many edit summaries is because I do a lot of minor edits and it would take a long amount of time to add repetitive summaries for each of them when many of them are self explanatory or quite small. I do not feel as if I have ever vandalized a page, and I make sure to cite my sources whenever required. I will try to leave more edit summaries in the future (especially on bigger edits), but please know I have no ill intentions and have tried to be fair with all my edits in the past. I do listen to criticism but have also not had any major or long-standing problems with those who sent me requests previously. Mediocre Legacy (talk) 21:56, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

OK, Mediocre Legacy - that really would be appreciated. My view is that a 99% failure to give edit summaries is actually very concerning, so I'm lpeased to hear you say you'll try to do a lot better from now on. Like you' I've also made over 40,000 edits, but have a 98% record of including edit summaries, and I've set my User Preferences to prompt me for them. I do this out of respect for others, and to help me find my own past edits. Feel free to Tick the box for a MINOREDIT, if it's genuinely that, or just say 'updating records' if that's what you're doing. 'Adding ref' (or even +ref) says you're inserting a source. It would be great to hear you say you'll set your User Preferences to prompt you to do this, though I can't force you. Like you, I do a lot of my editing from a tiny iPhone5 screen, and rarely have problems leaving edit summaries. I really thank you for engaging here, and hope to see you carrying on with your constructive editing in a clearer way in future. (Chuffed to see your last two edits did exactly that. Keep it up!) Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 22:18, 24 June 2020 (UTC)  

Also sorry if I caused any trouble to anybody Sport.07GamerDet (talk) 22:28, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Thank you both for your understanding. Mediocre Legacy (talk) 23:24, 24 June 2020 (UTC)

Yeah sorry about that my mistake Sport.07GamerDet (talk) 00:07, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Midshipman Percy

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ooh Saad. Doug Weller talk 17:46, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

WikiLoop Battlefield new name vote

Dear Nick Moyes,

Thank you for your interest and contributions to WikiLoop Battlefield. We are holding a voting for proposed new name. We would like to invite you to this voting. The voting is held at m:WikiProject_WikiLoop/New_name_vote and ends on July 13th 00:00 UTC.

xinbenlv Talk, Remember to "ping" me 05:15, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2020).

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

Arbitration

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:25, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

Editing news 2020 #3

On 16 March 2020, the 50 millionth edit was made using the visual editor on desktop.

Seven years ago this week, the Editing team made the visual editor available by default to all logged-in editors using the desktop site at the English Wikipedia. Here's what happened since its introduction:

  • The 50 millionth edit using the visual editor on desktop was made this year. More than 10 million edits have been made here at the English Wikipedia.
  • More than 2 million new articles have been created in the visual editor. More than 600,000 of these new articles were created during 2019.
  • Almost 5 million edits on the mobile site have been made with the visual editor. Most of these edits have been made since the Editing team started improving the mobile visual editor in 2018.
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  • In 2019, 35% of the edits by newcomers, and half of their first edits, were made using the visual editor. This percentage has been increasing every year since the tool became available.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 02:06, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for your contribution at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Ireland#Titles_of_articles_on_17th_and_18th_century_Irish_language_poets as it is a very valid point. Turns out four of the five poets in question actually do have verifiable English forms of their names. Mabuska (talk) 14:12, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

IP warned

Hey Nick, hope you're doing well. I saw you warned 172.58.43.120 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log). Just wanted to give you a heads up they are most likely related to Six feet away or six feet under. Your choice. (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) and Wash your hands for 20 seconds (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), among other block-evading accounts and IPs. -- LuK3 (Talk) 00:57, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Thank you LuK3. I'm glad they were blocked; a bored kid, I expect. But when I'm not sure myself, I prefer to err on the side of ensuring someone is fully warned, rather than immediately blocking, to give them that one last chance. All I had to go on were the contributions which showed they'd last edited 12 hours previously. I'd not seen that style of silly vandalism before. Thank you for letting me know. I hope eventually to gain a deeper understanding of the issues around how CU operates. But for now I'm still gaining general experience as a new admin. That said, I do believe there are certain situations where I feel IPs are not blocked for sufficiently long. For example, I didn't feel the warning given by another admin to 166.181.253.26 was appropriate for some of the horrible comments (some now revdel-ed) they'd made, so I weighed up indeffing versus a 1 year bock. I went for the latter, but it's always a case of trying to judge what is for the best of the project. I'm happy to receive feedback on any actions I take, and will either try to explain/justify or to reconsider in the light of greater understanding. Thanks for stopping by. Nick Moyes (talk) 11:44, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
Nick Moyes, I appreciate your response. I completely understand why you warned them. Vandalism fighting helps you pick up on vandalistic behavior patterns so when I saw their edits to the disambiguation pages I wanted to report them to AIV so their fun was cut short. Of course, if there is anything I can help with, feel free to let me know. Thank you again! -- LuK3 (Talk) 12:01, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
LuK3 Sure thing- thanks. The one thing I would quite like to ask - of everyone - is not to report a user at AIV if either they've not edited for some time, or if they've not been properly warned. As an admin, it can be frustrating to see editors failing to warn a troublesome user at all, or warn someone and then immediately report them, despite there being no further editing on their part. I used to - and indeed still do - add such an editor to my own watchlist (or equivalent) and keep my eyes on them before warning and then reporting them. I'd like to see editors taking more responsibility to monitor and then only report the user when there's a clear need for admin involvement, so that it doesn't require them to do much backtracking and checking of each person's activity levels and warnings received. This isn't said against you - just a feeling I have in general. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 13:41, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

msg

Hello, Nick Moyes. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Soulbust (talk) 18:42, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

July 6th 2020

For The Bad News Bears, I believe the spelling is correct because i know that actor he's a relative to me and my dad told me the spelling of Jaime is wrong it's Jayme. ILoveCocomelon (talk) 19:02, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

@ILoveCocomelon: I'm afraid Wikipedia follows what published sources say, not what family and friend say - even if the former are wrong and the latter is right! The source you added and then removed also used the spelling Jaime, so we're stuck with it, I'm afraid. Nick Moyes (talk) 23:21, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
@Nick Moyes: Well we will have to wait and see as time goes by if there is a movie website that has the spelling "Jayme". ILoveCocomelon (talk) 11:09, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
@ILoveCocomelon: Absolutely! My reply didn't mean that we'd never shift our position. But, per WP:COMMONNAME, Wikipedia follows what name is commonly in use, and not what the person or thing is actually called by. That might seem counterintuitive, but that's how we work, as we reflect what the world at large says about a topic via proper, published sources (and that isn't always the same as the truth). I did check every image of the DVD and all the website listings - the DVD didn't list him; all the websites used Jamie, and I could find no social media profile account for them. It's something we'll have to live with for now, I'm afraid. Thanks for the cookie! Nick Moyes (talk) 11:21, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
@Nick Moyes: You're welcome and thanks for helping me out!!! ILoveCocomelon (talk) 11:24, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for understanding me even though i can't change the typo :-) ILoveCocomelon (talk) 10:58, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

115.69.59.49

user:115.69.59.49 is abusing her talkpage. CLCStudent (talk) 01:12, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

East Midlands Railway Services Suspected Vandalism

Hello,

Regarding your recent edit revert on the East Midlands Railway about the London st Pancras to Melton Mowbray service. People using Ip adresses have been changing the article when it has been made right E.g the service has been added back as it is a service EMR provides but then the edit reverted by a different user. I personnaly think that the services section should have the London to Melton service. I was wondering though what could be done when people change parts of the article as it is not very reliable and with people removing correct parts all of the time it is becoming quite hard to get anything done to it. There are 2 users in particular User:92.14.199.35 and User:80.2.21.113 that have kept changing the part of the article in question. Could they be classed as vandalising the article as they have kept removing information that is correct. I did revert a edited with the reason "Reverted vandalism of correct and useful information." but I wasn't sure if this was correct so reverted my own edit. I would appreciate any help and guidence. Thanks E.Wright1852 (talk) 21:01, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

@E.Wright1852: I should start by saying that I only reverted the edit because I regard once a day as 'regular', albeit infrequent. I'm not familiar with what other train operating service articles put in their pages, though I never like seeing Wikipedia being used like some timetable service, which will immediately go out of date when the interested editor leaves. It's important that yo don't get into an edit war, and one of the IP editors had posted at the talk page, so I advise you to enter into a discussion and come to some sort of consensus - because you're all interested in seeing a reasonable-quality article at the end of the day. I'm not going to semi-protect the article when all I see is constructive editing, albeit with slightly different views on how it should go. I don't feel it's vandalism. Remember that IP's are human too - so try to work together and agree how the article should look. It's really your move to reply on the talk page now. I'm sure you'll be fine,a nd it's fair that trivia ought not to go into articles if it can be found elsewhere. All the best. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:57, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
@Nick Moyes: Thank you for your reply I will start a discussion about it to see what people want to do about this service. Thanks E.Wright1852 (talk) 10:35, 10 July 2020 (UTC)
Great. That's always the best way - even if it doesn't work out exactly as you'd have hoped. Nick Moyes (talk) 10:57, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

Tea house

Thank you for your help at the tea house! Lima Bean Farmer (talk) 17:44, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Wankys software technologies Pvt Ltd

Hi,

Was it your intention to only block this account for 24 hours. From what I've seen, accounts like these are usually indefinitely blocked. Thanks. 67.170.36.142 (talk) 19:34, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi, IP editor. No, that was indeed an error on my part. I did see it at AIV, but normally we only block accounts that have actually already edited, unlike this one. So please report if it actually starts editing - I'll then be happy to extend the block. But not until. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:33, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Follow-up

I sent you a follow-up email. Thank you again. Best wishes, Soulbust (talk) 22:48, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

Autoblock resolved

Thanks Nick, I have been unblocked.

I appreciate the help. Livingstone Imonitie (talk) 14:16, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

I'm glad this was sorted. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:39, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Alvin Kallicharran

Hi Nick. Would you mind watching this for a bit? There have some recent attempts to completely rewrite the article by accounts claiming to be the wife of the subject and the subject himself. I tried to get WikiProject Cricket involved per WT:CRICKET#Alvin Kallicharran the other day and one of its members has been trying to clean things up, but the account that showed up this morning is edit warring. I posted some things on their user talk page, but I'm not sure whether they even know they have a user talk page. The next revert will push them beyond 3RR and things will not go well for them at AN3. -- Marchjuly (talk) 23:07, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

OK. Am off to bed soon, but will keep an eye on it. Thanks, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:11, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks. - Marchjuly (talk) 23:20, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

Paris-Roubaix

Hi, I did some search and found on the news that a Women's race at Paris-Roubaix is forseen for this year for the first time. Maybe we ll need to add a new section or even a new article (probably better). See here.Rpo.castro (talk) 07:55, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

@Rpo.castro: That's brilliant, thanks. -if you can find a published source that indicates this has either happened, or will happen, it would be great to have in the article. I'd suggest a new section first, then forking off sa appropriate. I wont interfere, as it's not my area, and I hate reverting well-meaning but unsourced edits, as I felt I had to there. Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 09:35, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2020).

Administrator changes

added Red Phoenix
readded Euryalus • SQL
removed Jujutacular • Monty845 • Rettetast • Madchester

Oversight changes

readded GB fan
removed Keegan • Opabinia regalis • Premeditated Chaos

Guideline and policy news

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:21, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

Advice for newcomers

Hello,
You are receiving this message because you are invited to take part at Wikipedia:Advice for newcomers where you can provide advice that will help our newcomers in the future. It is not a discussion forum, just a place where you say what advice would be helpful to our future editors. I would like to get at least 100 editors to take part in this so please feel free to spread the word to other editors as well. I look forward to seeing what you say to newcomers. Interstellarity (talk) 13:20, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

@Interstellarity: An interesting initiative. You've not set up any criteria for additions, such as maximum length. 20 words? 50 words? 500 words? Do you plan to create sub-sections in which to put different bits of advice? I suggest you prepopulate the page with those divisions or otherwise a new edit will be overwhelmed with 100 bits of random, unstructured advice. Are timestamps necessary? How and where would this page be used/promoted? Do you plan to 'curate' this page or just let it develop as a free-for-all? All things worth thinking about before going public. Maybe a better name would be 'Editor advice for newcomers', or something less formal-sounding. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 13:46, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for your feedback. I have moved the page to WP:Editor advice for newcomers. I do not plan on setting up a maximum length for the advice. I don't think the timestamps are necessary. I am unsure how to prepopulate the page. My thinking is that when editors provide advice to newcomers on the page, newcomers can use this advice to help them become better Wikipedians in the future. I don't quite understand what you mean by curating the page, but I am thinking it could be a free-for-all. These are my thoughts on developing this. Interstellarity (talk) 13:58, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
'Curating' is the modern idiom for anyone who rearranges a few pictures or posts on their website/social media account. (As a professional museum curator, I hate that abuse of the word. But what I mean is that a random list of helpful suggestions is just that - random. No structure; no order; no flow, and probably overwhelming and unreadable and unhelpful. Subdivided and ordered, it can more useful to a newcomer. By way of an example, I use a page collector script to amass Wikipedia pages, essays and guidance names that I find of interest and that I don't want to forget. I think I've 'curated' (sorted and subdivided) only a half of those entries - the second half is a random mess that I'll get around to going through one day. Take a look at the difference: User:Nick Moyes/infopages.) So, you should think of relevant subdivisions into which an editor can place their little peral of wisdom. And, yes, I earnestly suggest you ask people to stick to a maximum length - say two lines. (You know how I can go on!) Nick Moyes (talk) 14:15, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
I have added some headings to start off with. I have also added a sentence that says to keep the advice to be a maximum of 3 sentences. If it is not good, do you think I should tag the page for deletion and not do this? Interstellarity (talk) 14:25, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
Certainly not - at least, not at this early point anyway. I don't know who you've contacted, but a mix of old hands and new editors might be good. As the 'curator' I suggest you make it clear that you do intend to select out duplicates and keep the best/most helpful - otherwise you might drown in random, repeated thoughts. Nick Moyes (talk) 14:29, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
Or you could keep it as a work in progress and simply amass other people's short, sensible advice (with a link and a credit) whenever you stumble across a little gem someone says. (It might prompt me to keep my words short!) Nick Moyes (talk) 14:34, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
I do understand your rationale of removing duplicate comments. I'm not against it, but my concern with that is that it will discourage other editors from contributing. If I can find a way to get around this, that would be great. Interstellarity (talk) 14:43, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
These things really are worth thinking out in advance before you rush into them. You could, for example, aim to gather the Top Ten Tips in each category (moving other ones into a hidden section, or over at the talk page. Like any project that goes public - think through the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and think ahead to work out what might really be of interest and of real use to the target audience. I'm not suggesting it's a vanity project, but planning, planning planning always gets the best results. Nick Moyes (talk) 14:48, 9 July 2020 (UTC)
I see that I got a few editors comment on that page. If you want to add something yourself, you are free to do so. Interstellarity (talk) 18:20, 2 August 2020 (UTC)
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