User talk:Geraldshields11/Archive 4
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WikiCup 2015 launch newsletter

Round one of the 2015 WikiCup has begun! So far we've had around 80 signups, which close on February 5. If you have not already signed up and want to do so, then you can add your name here. There have been changes to to several of the points scores for various categories, and the addition of Peer Reviews for the first time. These will work in the same manner as Good Article Reviews, and all of the changes are summarised here.
Remember that only the top 64 scoring competitors will make it through to the second round, and one of the new changes this year is that all scores must be claimed within two weeks of an article's promotion or appearance, so don't forget to add them to your submissions pages! If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, and you hope to get it promoted before the end of the round, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAN, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages. Good luck! Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs)
If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Opted-out of message delivery to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:51, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 9
Books & Bytes
Issue 9, November-December 2014
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs)
- New donations, including real-paper-and-everything books, e-books, science journal databases, and more
- New TWL coordinators, conference news, a new open-access journal database, summary of library-related WMF grants, and more
- Spotlight: "Global Impact: The Wikipedia Library and Persian Wikipedia" - a Persian Wikipedia editor talks about their experiences with database access in Iran, writing on the Persian project and the JSTOR partnership
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:36, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
Strange edit to The Reader
I reverted this edit of yours since, while tagged as minor and summarized as a copyedit, it removed a substantive paragraph about the beginning of the film as well as a non-free image that was relevant to the article (I only found out just now when I got a notice that the image was orphaned and thus tagged for deletion if it wasn't put back in an article within a week). Since that explanation was at odds with such a substantial edit, I restored it. If there was some reason for it, please feel free to explain.
I wonder if it was an accident? It seems out of character with the edits you made before and afterwards, most of which genuinely were minor copy edits. If so my apologies for any presumptuousness I may come across as having had above. Daniel Case (talk) 03:37, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
- Dear @Daniel Case:, Thank you for the revert. I did not intent to remove the text in the process of my wikignome work. My best regards, Gerald Shields11
- No problem! Happy editing! Daniel Case (talk) 19:54, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
Tom Mintier
I am an old colleague of Tom's and find that his wiki entry does not do justice to his photojournalist career. 24.165.84.131 (talk) 22:10, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
- Thank you for the suggestion and I will work on it. My best regards, Geraldshields11 (talk) 16:39, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
Reference Errors on 28 January
Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:
- On the Tom Mintier page, your edit caused an unsupported parameter error (help). (Fix | Ask for help)
Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:30, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
Museum hacks and museum edits
Hello there!
Upcoming events:
- February 6–8: The third annual ArtBytes Hackathon at the Walters Art Museum! This year Wikimedia DC is partnering with the Walters for a hack-a-thon at the intersection of art and technology, and I would like to see Wikimedia well represented.
- February 11: The monthly WikiSalon, same place as usual. RSVP on Meetup or just show up!
- February 15: Wiki Loves Small Museums in Ocean City. Mary Mark Ockerbloom, with support from Wikimedia DC, will be leading a workshop at the Small Museum Association Conference on how they can contribute to Wikipedia. Tons of representatives from GLAM institutions will be present, and we are looking for volunteers. If you would like to help out, check out "Information for Volunteers".
I am also pleased to announce events for Wikimedia DC Black History Month with Howard University and NPR. Details on those events soon.
If you have any questions or have any requests, please email me at james.hare
wikimediadc.org.
See you there! – James Hare
(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 03:12, 2 February 2015 (UTC)
Disambiguation link notification for February 4
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Time slip, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Interstellar. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 08:59, 4 February 2015 (UTC)
Wikimedia DC celebrates Black History Month, and more!
Hello again!
Not even a week ago I sent out a message talking about upcoming events in DC. Guess what? There are more events coming up in February.
First, as a reminder, there is a WikiSalon on February 11 (RSVP here or just show up) and Wiki Loves Small Museums at the Small Museum Association Conference on February 15 (more information here).
Now, I am very pleased to announce:
- Tuesday, February 17 from 10 AM to 3 PM there will be #WikiTurgy at the University of Maryland. Join fellow theatre enthusiasts for a “mass act of public dramaturgy!”
- Thursday, February 19 from 10 AM to 4 PM we are hosting the Howard University Black History Edit-a-Thon. We are working in partnership with the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of African-American and African diasporic history.
- Tuesday, February 24 from 6 PM to 8 PM we have the Black History Month “First Edit” at NPR. Help improve Wikipedia and help others make their first edit to Wikipedia!
- Finally, our monthly dinner meetup is on Saturday, February 28.
There is going to be a lot going on, and I hope you can come to some of the events!
If you have any questions or need any special accommodations, please let me know.
Regards,
(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 18:19, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
WikiCup 2015 March newsletter

That's it, the first round is done, sign-ups are closed and we're into round 2. 64 competitors made it into this round, and are now broken into eight groups of eight. The top two of each group will go through to round 3, and then the top scoring 16 "wildcards" across all groups. Round 1 saw some interesting work on some very important articles, with the round leader
Freikorp (submissions) owing most of his 622 points scored to a Featured Article on the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which qualified for a times-two multiplier. This is a higher score than in previous years, as
Godot13 (submissions) had 500 points in 2014 at the end of round 1, and our very own judge,
Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) led round 1 with 601 points in 2013.
In addition to Freikorp's work, some other important articles and pictures were improved during round one, here's a snapshot of a few of them:
-
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) took Bumblebee, a level-4 vital article, to Good Article; -
AHeneen (submissions) worked-up the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 article, also to Good Article status; -
Rodw (submissions) developed an extremely timely article to Good Article, taking Magna Carta there some 800 years after it was first sealed; - And last but not least,
Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points) worked up a number of Featured Pictures during round 1, including the 1948 one Deutsche Mark (pictured right), receiving the maximum bonus due to the number of Wikis that the related article appears in.
You may also wish to know that The Core Contest is running through the month of March. Head there for further details - they even have actual prizes!
If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), Miyagawa (talk · contribs · email) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email)
Thanks for your assistance! Miyagawa (talk) on behalf of Wikipedia:WikiCup.
(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:54, 1 March 2015 (UTC)
Editing for Women's History in March
Hello,
I am very excited to announce this month’s events, focused on Women’s History Month:
- Sunday, March 8: Women in the Arts 2015 Edit-a-thon – 10 AM to 4 PM
- Women in the Arts and ArtAndFeminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Free coffee and lunch served!
- More information • RSVP on Meetup
- Wednesday, March 11: March WikiSalon – 7 PM to 9 PM
- An evening gathering with free-flowing conversation and free pizza.
- More information • RSVP on Meetup (or just show up!)
- Friday, March 13: NIH Women's History Month Edit-a-Thon – 9 AM to 4 PM
- In honor of Women’s History Month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is organizing and hosting an edit-a-thon to improve coverage of women in science in Wikipedia. Free coffee and lunch served!
- More information • RSVP on Meetup
- Saturday, March 21: Women in STEM Edit-a-Thon at DCPL – 12 PM
- Celebrate Women's History Month by building, editing, and expanding articles about women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields during DC Public Library's first full-day edit-a-thon.
- More information • RSVP on Meetup
- Friday, March 27: She Blinded Me with Science, Part III – 10 AM to 4 PM
- Smithsonian Institution Archives Groundbreaking Women in Science Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Free lunch courtesy of Wikimedia DC!
- More information • RSVP on Meetup
- Saturday, March 28: March Dinner Meetup – 6 PM
- Dinner and drinks with your fellow Wikipedians!
- More information • RSVP on Meetup
Hope you can make it to an event! If you have any questions or require any special accommodations, please let me know.
Thanks,
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, remove your name from this list. 02:24, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 10
Books & Bytes
Issue 10, January-February 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs)
- New donations - ProjectMUSE, Dynamed, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and Women Writers Online
- New TWL coordinator, conference news, and a new guide and template for archivists
- TWL moves into the new Community Engagement department at the WMF, quarterly review
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:40, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
A new reference tool
Hello Books & Bytes subscribers. There is a new Visual Editor reference feature in development called Citoid. It is designed to "auto-fill" references using a URL or DOI. We would really appreciate you testing whether TWL partners' references work in Citoid. Sharing your results will help the developers fix bugs and improve the system. If you have a few minutes, please visit the testing page for simple instructions on how to try this new tool. Regards, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:47, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
Upcoming attractions in DC
Hello!
Here are some upcoming DC meetups in April and May:
- Tuesday, April 14: National Archives Hackathon on Wikipedia Space with American University – 2:30-5pm
- See the latest work on the Wikipedia Space exhibit in the new NARA Innovation Hub and brainstorm on new ideas for a public exhibit about Wikipedia
- Friday, April 17: Women in Tech Edit-a-thon with Tech LadyMafia – 5-9pm
- Team up with Tech LadyMafia to improve Wikipedia content on women in the history of technology.
- Saturday, April 25: April Dinner Meetup – 6 PM
- Dinner and drinks with your fellow Wikipedians!
- Friday, May 1: International Labour Day Edit-a-Thon – 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM
- An edit-a-thon at the University of Maryland
Hope to see you at these events! If you have any questions or require any special accommodations, please let me know.
Cheers,
To remove yourself from this mailing list, remove your name from this list. 22:16, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
WikiCup 2015 May newsletter

The Herald (submissions) during the second round.The second round one has all wrapped up, and round three has now begun! Congratulations to the 34 contestants who have made it through, but well done and thank you to all contestants who took part in our second round. Leading the way overall was
Cas Liber (submissions) in Group B with a total of 777 points for a variety of contributions including Good Articles on Corona Borealis and Microscopium - both of which received the maximum bonus.
Special credit must be given to a number of high importance articles improved during the second round.
-
Coemgenus (submissions) was one of several users who worked on improving Ulysses S. Grant. Remember, you do not need to work on an article on your own - as long as each person has completed significant work on the article during 2015, multiple competitors can claim the same article. -
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) took Dragonfly to Good Article for a 3x bonus - and if that wasn't enough, they also took Damselfly there as well for a 2x bonus. -
LeftAire (submissions) worked up Alexander Hamilton to Good Article for the maximum bonus. Hamilton was one of the founding fathers of the United States and is a level 4 vital article.
The points varied across groups, with the lowest score required to gain automatic qualification was 68 in Group A - meanwhile the second place score in Group H was 404, which would have been high enough to win all but one of the other Groups! As well as the top two of each group automatically going through to the third round, a minimum score of 55 was required for a wildcard competitor to go through. We had a three-way tie at 55 points and all three have qualified for the next round, in the spirit of fairness. The third round ends on June 28, with the top two in each group progressing automatically while the remaining 16 highest scorers across all four groups go through as wildcards. Good luck to all competitors for the third round! Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), Miyagawa (talk · contribs · email) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email) 16:32, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 11
Books & Bytes
Issue 11, March-April 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs), Nikkimaria (talk · contribs)
- New donations - MIT Press Journals, Sage Stats, Hein Online and more
- New TWL coordinators, conference news, and new reference projects
- Spotlight: Two metadata librarians talk about how library professionals can work with Wikipedia
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:21, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
The Wikipedia Library needs you!
The Wikipedia Library is expanding, and we need your help! With only a couple of hours per week, you can make a big difference in helping editors get access to reliable sources and other resources. Sign up for one of the following roles:
- Account coordinators help distribute research accounts to editors.
- Partner coordinators seek donations from new partners.
- Outreach coordinators reach out to the community through blog posts, social media, and newsletters or notifications.
- Technical coordinators advise on building tools to support the library's work.
Delivered on behalf of The Wikipedia Library by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:16, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
Bank of Iraq
Hey, was just checking on the current governor of the Central Bank of Iraq. I think the temporary governor is al-Allaq (or something like that). It isn't Turki anymore. Would you be able to confirm that? I am curious to know who it is. I read your instructions about communicating with you, but I'm don't think I am quite literate enough to get it right. For example you want us to sign with this? 174.48.244.144 (talk) 18:39, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
- Thank you for the note. The four squiggly lines (~ ~ ~ ~ ) (with no spaces) is what you sign with. I am working on other things now and I encourage you to be bold and make the change. Geraldshields11 (talk) 18:51, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 12
Books & Bytes
Issue 12, May-June 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs), Nikkimaria (talk · contribs)
- New donations - Taylor & Francis, Science, and three new French-language resources
- Expansion into new languages, including French, Finnish, Turkish, and Farsi
- Spotlight: New partners for the Visiting Scholar program
- American Library Association Annual meeting in San Francisco
The Interior 15:23, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
WikiCup 2015 September newsletter
The finals for the 2015 Wikicup has now begun! Congrats to the 8 contestants who have survived to the finals, and well done and thanks to everyone who took part in rounds 3 and 4.
In round 3, we had a three-way tie for qualification among the wildcard contestants, so we had 34 competitors. The leader was by far
Casliber (submissions) in Group B, who earned 1496 points. Although 913 of these points were bonus points, he submitted 15 articles in the DYK category. Second place overall was
Coemgenus (submissions) at 864 points, who although submitted just 2 FAs for 400 points, earned double that amount for those articles in bonus points. Everyone who moved forward to Round 4 earned at least 100 points.
The scores required to move onto the semifinals were impressive; the lowest scorer to move onto the finals was 407, making this year's Wikicup as competitive as it's always been. Our finalists, ordered by round 4 score, are:
-
Cas Liber (submissions), who is competing in his sixth consecutive Wikicup final, again finished the round in first place, with an impressive 1666 points in Pool B. Casliber writes about the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. A large bulk of his points this round were bonus points. -
Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points), second place both in Pool B and overall, earned the bulk of his points with FPs, mostly depicting currency. -
Cwmhiraeth (submissions), first in Pool A, came in third. His specialty is natural science articles; in Round 4, he mostly submitted articles about insects and botany. Five out of the six of the GAs he submitted were level-4 vital articles. -
Harrias (submissions), second in Pool A, took fourth overall. He tends to focus on articles about cricket and military history, specifically the 1640s First English Civil War. -
West Virginian (submissions), from Pool A, was our highest-scoring wildcard. West Virginia tends to focus on articles about the history of (what for it!) the U.S. state of West Virginia. -
Rodw (submissions), from Pool A, likes to work on articles about British geography and places. Most of his points this round were earned from two impressive accomplishments: a GT about Scheduled monuments in Somerset and a FT about English Heritage properties in Somerset. -
Rationalobserver (submissions), from Pool B, came in seventh overall. RO earned the majority of her points from GARs and PRs, many of which were earned in the final hours of the round. -
Calvin999 (submissions), also from Pool B, who was competing with RO for the final two spots in the final hours, takes the race for most GARs and PRs—48.
The intense competition between RO and Calvin999 will continue into the finals. They're both eligible for the Newcomers Trophy, given for the first time in the Wikicup; whoever makes the most points will win it.
Good luck to the finalists; the judges are sure that the competition will be fierce!
Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs) 11:48, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 13
Books & Bytes
Issue 13, August-September 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs), Nikkimaria (talk · contribs)
- New donations - EBSCO, IMF, more newspaper archives, and Arabic resources
- Expansion into new languages, including Viet and Catalan
- Spotlight: Elsevier partnership garners controversy, dialogue
- Conferences: PKP, IFLA, upcoming events
The Interior via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:30, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
Notificiations
Hey Gerald. In messaging individual people about your grant proposal, there is no need to include my username at all; it also has sent me individual notifications for every post you've made so far, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw 70+ notifications earlier today. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 03:10, 16 October 2015 (UTC)
- Dear I JethroBT (WMF), Sorry, I thought the ping command only did that and did not understand the wiki coding. I will not do that again.Geraldshields11 (talk) 12:06, 16 October 2015 (UTC)
- Dear I JethroBT (WMF), I posted a mea culpa on the project page saying I am sorry. I also modified my postings. Geraldshields11 (talk) 14:35, 16 October 2015 (UTC)
Guccifer
Hi there, I made a norwegian wiki page about Guccifer, and I need to link it to Guccifer's English wiki... I see that you have edited Guccifer here on the english site, could you help me to link it with the norwegian, please? I want to write more abut Guccifer, before they delete the page...
Thanks in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nilserik bærum (talk • contribs) 13:25, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
- Thank you. Geraldshields11 (talk) 21:00, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
WikiConference USA Photos
Hi, Gerald. I enjoyed meeting you at the conference, and it would be fun to see some of the photos you took. Are they on the web anywhere? Thanks! Prosekc (talk) 19:41, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
- Dear @Prosekc: Yes, I posted them on WikiCommons under the category of "WikiConference USA 2015". Later, the category was changed to "People at WikiConference USA 2015". Please see commons
.wikimedia . Geraldshields11 (talk) 20:05, 20 October 2015 (UTC).org /wiki /Category:People _at _WikiConference _USA _2015
To you also
Appreciate your kind thanks for my small edits to Viola Drath. A real boost. Manytexts (talk) 07:14, 22 October 2015 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 5

Hello there! Happy to be writing this newsletter once more. This month:
In July, we launched five pilot WikiProjects: WikiProjects Cannabis, Evolutionary Biology, Ghana, Hampshire, and Women's Health. We also use the new design, named "WPX UI," on WikiProject Women in Technology, Women in Red, WikiProject Occupational Safety and Health. We are currently looking for projects for the next round of testing. If you are interested, please sign up on the Pilots page.
Shortly after our launch we presented at Wikimania 2015. Our slides are on Wikimedia Commons.
Then after all that work, we went through the process of figuring out whether we accomplished our goal. We reached out to participants on the redesigned WikiProjects, and we asked them to complete a survey. (If you filled out your survey—thank you!) While there are still some issues with the WikiProject tools and the new design, there appears to be general satisfaction (at least among those who responded). The results of the survey and more are documented in our grant report filed with the Wikimedia Foundation.
There is more work that needs to be done, so we have applied for a renewal of our grant. Comments on the proposal are welcome. We would like to improve what we have already started on the English Wikipedia and to also expand to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Why those? Because they are multilingual projects and because there needs to be better coordination across Wikimedia projects. More details are available in the renewal proposal.
The Wikimedia Developer Summit will be held in San Francisco in January 2016. The recently established Community Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation is interested in investigating what technical support they can provide for WikiProjects, i.e., support beyond just templates and bots. I have plenty of opinions myself, but I want to hear what you think. The session is being planned on Phabricator, the Wikimedia bug tracker. If you are not familiar with Phabricator, you can log in with your Wikipedia username and password through the "Login or Register: MediaWiki" button on the login page. Your feedback can help make editing Wikipedia a better experience.
Until next time,
WikiCup 2015: The results



WikiCup 2015 is now in the books! Congrats to our finalists and winners, and to everyone who took part in this year's competition.
This year's results were an exact replica of last year's competition. For the second year in a row, the 2015 WikiCup champion is
Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points). All of his points were earned for an impressive 253 featured pictures and their associated bonus points (5060 and 1695, respectively). His entries constituted scans of currency from all over the world and scans of medallions awarded to participants of the U.S. Space program.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came in second place; she earned by far the most bonus points (4082), for 4 featured articles, 15 good articles, and 147 DYKs, mostly about in her field of expertise, natural science.
Cas Liber (submissions), a finalist every year since 2010, came in third, with 2379 points.
Our newcomer award, presented to the best-performing new competitor in the WikiCup, goes to
Rationalobserver (submissions). Everyone should be very proud of the work they accomplished. We will announce our other award winners soon.
A full list of our award winners are:
-
Godot13 (submissions) (FP bonus points) wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 330 featured pictures in the final round. -
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 160 did you knows in the final round (310 in all rounds). -
Cas Liber (submissions) wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for 26 featured articles in all rounds. -
West Virginian (submissions) wins the prize for fourth place -
Calvin999 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize. -
Rationalobserver (submissions) wins a final 8 prize. -
Harrias (submissions) wins a final 8 prize and the FL prize for 11 featured lists. -
Rodw (submissions) wins the most prizes: a final 8 prize, the GA prize for 41 good articles, and the topic prize for a 13-article good topic and an 8-article featured topic, both in round 3. -
ThaddeusB (submissions) wins the news prize for the most news articles in round 3.
We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2016 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.
Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · logs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs · logs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · logs) 18:39, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
ArbCom elections are now open!
Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:54, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Books and Bytes - Issue 14
Books & Bytes
Issue 14, October-November 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs), Nikkimaria (talk · contribs)
- New donations - Gale, Brill, plus Finnish and Farsi resources
- Open Access Week recap, and DOIs, Wikipedia, and scholarly citations
- Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref - a citation drive for librarians
The Interior, via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:12, 10 December 2015 (UTC)
Editing of Law articles
Hi Gerald, I'm looking for input from a lawyer (but not legal advice).
An editor contacted me regarding a number of items, including:
- Use of a Wikipedia article as a reference
- Use of external links in a template (i.e. an external link not in the references section or in an External links section)
- Red links contained in a See also section
Each of the three things are discouraged by editing guidelines. While guidelines are not absolute, I think one must present a decent reason if one wants to create an exception.
The editor contacted me on my Talk Page User_talk:Sphilbrick#User_Wikidea I tried contacting NYB User_talk:Newyorkbrad#Need_some_help_involving_law_articles, but haven't gotten much response. I also posted to Wikiproject Law Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Law#Help_on_templates_and_case_links, where there is some pushback, but not a lot of discussion.
Would you be willing to weigh in? I think William is right, but I do see that some templates including external links have been in use for quite some time, so perhaps there has been community consensus that this violation of guidelines is an acceptable exception?--S Philbrick(Talk) 17:18, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
- Dear @Sphilbrick: I will look into the issues. But, I am not really an editor of the law articles but I just do wikignome work of the commas. Geraldshields11 (talk) 17:26, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
- Well, arguably, gnoming is relevant. I'm not interested in arcane legal theory, but in application of editing guidelines. Is there something special about identifying relevant cases that means legal articles should be able to ignore well-established guidelines. I appreciate your willingness to take a look. I was somewhat surprised that when I thought about editors I knew, I could only identify two who were lawyers.--S Philbrick(Talk) 18:42, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
| Geraldshields11 is taking a short wikibreak and will be back on Wikipedia soon. |
Leader's Greetings to you!

Dear Geraldshields11,
A wise man said "man is the master of everything and decides everything"
. Reflecting the single-hearted unity of our editors, I have decided to send these Leader's Greetings to you – Geraldshields11 – a masterful Wikipedian professing indomitable independence, creativity and consciousness in editing. May the popular masses and world progressive people enjoy your contributions next year, too! Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 17:57, 21 December 2015 (UTC)
WikiCup 2016 is just around the corner...
Hello everyone, and we would like to wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2016 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. There are some changes we'd like to announce before the competition begins.
After two years of serving as WikiCup judge, User:Miyagawa has stepped down as judge. He deserves great thanks and recognition for his dedication and hard work, and for providing necessary transition for a new group of judges in last year's Cup. Joining Christine (User:Figureskatingfan) and Jason (User:Sturmvogel 66) is Andrew (User:Godot13), a very successful WikiCup competitor and expert in Featured Pictures; he won the two previous competitions. This is a strong judging team, and we anticipate lots of enjoyment and good work coming from our 2016 competitors.
We would also like to announce one change in how this year's WikiCup will be run. In the spirit of sportsmanship, Godot13 and Cwmhiraeth have chosen to limit their participation. See here for the announcement and a complete explanation of why. They and the judges feel that it will make for a more exciting, enjoyable, and productive competition.
The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. The judges are committed to not repeating the confusion that occurred last year and to ensuring that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.
If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Figureskatingfan (talk), and Godot13 (talk).--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
Billboard
I saw your name in the article's edit history and thought you may be interested. David King, Ethical Wiki (Talk) 05:20, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
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Season's Greetings
| Wishing you a Charlie Russell Christmas! 🎄 | |
| Best wishes for your Christmas Is all you get from me 'Cause I ain't no Santa Claus Don't own no Christmas tree. But if wishes was health and money I'd fill your buck-skin poke Your doctor would go hungry An' you never would be broke." —C.M. Russell, Christmas greeting 1914. Montanabw(talk) |
- Dear Montanabw Thank you so much for the holiday cheer. My best regards, Geraldshields11 (talk) 04:21, 25 December 2015 (UTC)












