User talk:Nick Moyes/Archive 8

Hi, I'm Boleyn. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Ntombi Lentheng Mekgwe, and have un-reviewed it again. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.

Boleyn (talk) 19:37, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

@Boleyn: No problem. She is clearly a notable politician, so and I have added references and removed the PROD. Many thanks. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:15, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi Nick, sorry, I misclicked and this was auto-sent. Thanks, Boleyn (talk) 06:41, 27 April 2018 (UTC)

We now have 52 members, and more are joining daily.

*poof*

16:18, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

I opened a discussion about Thierry Deuve's notability in Talk:Thierry Deuve. I would be happy to get your input. DGtal (talk) 06:30, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Hi Nick, forgot to ping you on your excellent ideas (and my response) at Talk: Teahouse -- Paulscrawl (talk) 03:16, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

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

Administrator changes

None

Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news

• The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
• A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news

• AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
• When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. 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. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
• The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.

Obituaries

• Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.

Hi Nick, Nice to meet you... Yes I'd be interested in pursuing the idea of using a Did You Know...? spot for the page I created for William Eyton-Jones. Although you may need to walk me through it a little I'm afraid! Dan Petley (talk) 21:24, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Hi Dan Petley. I'am away from a keyboard for a few days. Bottom line is that a WP:DYK submission has to be put in within 7 days of going live. The guidelines are not easy to follow, but, taken step by step, I think you can do it with this article, providing you are willing to put in the effort to follow the instructions step by step. You'll need to identify at least one interesting'hook' with a clear suppoting inline reference, no copyvios, or quality issues. Having created the DYK template for your article, you then add it to in chronological order to the DYK nominations page. Your article will get assessed and you may well get feedback you will need to address. The whole process can take a few weeks or more before it gets on the main page as a DYK. But critical is creating the nomination within 7 days if article going live. As well as the guidelines in the dyk page, try this simple guide: User:Rjanag/Quick DYK 2. Hope thus helps. Nick Moyes (talk) 08:59, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

This is great, I'm well up for this... Thanks! Dan Petley (talk) 11:42, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for being a member of the Portals WikiProject, and thank you for all the work you have all been doing on the portal namespace. To see the activity, check out the watchlist.

This is our 3rd issue, see previous issues at the Newsletter archive.

Hello! After the successful pilot program by Wikimedia India in 2015, Wiki Loves Food (WLF) is happening again in 2018 and this year, it's going International. To make this event a grand success, your direction is key. Please sign up here as a volunteer to bring all the world's food to Wikimedia. Danidamiobi (talk) 20:14, 6 May 2018 (UTC)

On 7 May 2018, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that a newly discovered plankton species, Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, has been named in honour of the BBC TV documentary series The Blue Planet, and its presenter, Sir David Attenborough? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Syracosphaera azureaplaneta. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Syracosphaera azureaplaneta), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Gatoclass (talk) 12:01, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

16:28, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Hello Nick Moyes, thank You for the review. The technical solution i described on the page "Smart drum trigger" is different than the re-directed thing. It is not the same. The Smart drum trigger is an original solution confirmed by local and international patent grants. Please consider the following documents: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2017200427A1 https://patents.google.com/patent/RU2616911C1 Best Wishes! ILYA Mudrenov — Preceding unsigned comment added by MudrenovILYA (talk • contribs) 05:47, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Hello, MudrenovILYA. I appreciate you responding to me-thank you. Unfortunately, Wikipedia is not here to promote individual inventions, and relies solely on in-depth coverage of each topic from reliable sources that are independent of that topic. A Google patent clearly fails that because it's not independent of the subject, and nor are you. So can you now, or are you ever likely be able to prove that a smart drum trigger is Notable as Wikipedia defines it? If not, I advise you not to add anything to the destination page, but simply to leave the WP:REDIRECT in place. As the inventor, you are too closely connected to the topic, and we are not here to promote or advertise your ideas, no matter how worthy they may seem. My advice is just to leave the redirect alone, only adding to the destination page (Trigger (drums)) once you have reliable coverage in music magazines, books or whatever. If you want the page to remain like this, I am confident it will be very speedily deleted. I am sorry for being the bearer of bad news. I know how disappointing it is for a newcomer to have their work deleted, so my attempt at a redirect was to avoid that situation. You probably need to read Wikipedia:Your first article, and in future prepare an article in draft or in your sandbox, and then submit it via Articles for Creation to avoid disappointment. Regards from the UK,  Nick Moyes (talk) 08:32, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

Concerning the deletion discussion notices, I tracked down all other portals using the following methods:

1. Did a scan of the database dump from 02/20, for all portal pages not including a slash.
2. Used AWB's make list feature to list all pages in the portal namespace, then filtered out all those with a slash

Many of them are incomplete portals that never got listed or linked to. They might be watchlisted by their creators, and so the notices could get noticed.

By the way, I noticed you receive the tech newsletter. I happen to have a little tech of my own to report...

I've been learning JavaScript because I want to help automate things on Wikipedia. I'd like to fully automate page construction, but that is a ways down the road.

In the meantime, while I'm learning, I've been building semi-automated (interactive) software tools for Wikipedia.

One that I've recently created is SearchSuite.

It enhances search results and makes copying/pasting results to lists (including outlines) very easy.

It's also good as a general navigation aid, as it can reformat search results to 1 item per line, stripping out all details. Great for browsing lots of topics fast.

It can also sort.

Each feature is presented as a menu item to turn it on and off. And the script remembers the switch positions between pages.

I hope you find it useful. All feedback is welcome.      — The Transhumanist     06:46, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist: Thanks for getting in touch. I hope my comment on missed Portals didnt sound like a criticism - I'm glad someone took the initiative! I was appalled that at least two respected editors felt that not informing all 1515 Portals that their demise was being discussed was an acceptable way for us to go about things. I do use AWB myself, but so far only for basic tasks like spelling/grammar checking.. I'd love to have more techie abilities for developing scripts. I can just about tweak a simple script to meet my needs (like Lupin's spellcheck tool) - but only the simple things around the edges. I monitor the Tech News because of my work as a Teahouse host. I thought it helpful to keep one eye on future changes that might impact on new user questions. I love the idea if your Search Tool enhancement. I'll definitely give that a go sometime, and let you know if I encounter any issues. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 09:14, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

No worries. You were being semantically accurate. You prompted me to find every last one of them. Thank you.

It is interesting that you said "I'd love to have more techie abilities for developing scripts." There is another approach I've been working on, that you might be interested in. For each script I develop, I turn its talk page into a workshop page, as the development area for that script. Each workshop has several features, one of which is a section for a detailed walk-through of the source code, statement-by-statement and line-by-line.

One weird thing about programming is that you can build scripts using bits and pieces from other people's code, without knowing how it works. But, to be able to write code yourself, you've eventually got to learn it. So, I'd spend hours or days figuring out how it worked, with trial-by-error tweaking. Then, after not looking at it for weeks or months, it would look like Greek again when I returned to it. Like I'd never seen it before. It became a learning curve each time. So I started writing the walk-throughs to get myself back up to speed fast. A quick read, and it all comes flooding back.

And since they are essentially tutorials explaining the specific scripts, others might find them useful for learning programming in context.

The cost to me is, that it is as time consuming, if not more so, than the programming. And so it is easy to fall behind on writing them. I'm behind on the walk-throughs for some of my scripts, but I'll look through them and will point out to you which ones have the most complete treatments. In case you are interested.

I'll be in touch.     — The Transhumanist    10:00, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist: Sorry if I made you more work! I've also just realised that WikiProjects themselves are liable to be deeply affected by this RfC and editors there might have mixed opinions - especially if there are moves to make/encourage them to take over content from 1500 Portal pages. Would it be a lot of work for you to inform each via their talk pages of the RfC? I think that would be sensible, and firmly meets the first criterion under WP:APPNOTE. Regarding your script, yes - I saw that you'd made quite detailed explanatory pages, and that could certainly assist learners - I may well try to look through if I dare. Like you, I've found that writing detailed explanatory notes on using complex tools like GIS software are very helpful when you only perform an essential task once or twice a year. Whether I have enough free time to take on another learning task on yet another area of Wikipedia, I don't know! We'll see. (I still rue the loss of .BAT files which I did understand. But then I did my Ham Radio licence exam on valve theory, because transistors were only just coming into general use back then. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 10:52, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

Not too much work. But I'm not sure it will be needed. The opposes are coming in faster than the supports. They're trailing by only a handful of posts. I expect it will likely be closed due to deadlock soon.     — The Transhumanist   13:23, 14 April 2018 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist: Well, although you could be right, I still believe from WP:APPNOTE that informing WikiProjects would still be most appropriate. And even if it were to be closed early, they do  all need to be made aware of the proposals that could potentially still affect them - especially if, as I suspect, we're likely to see a flurry of individual WP:MFD nominations and 'merge' proposals in the future. In fact a few came to light in these duscussions that are so narrow in scope that I'd gladly nominate them for deletion myself. Maybe, moving forwards,  we need a discussion on content, maintenance and marking individual portals as being moribund/historical. Perhaps some rebranding is also needed? I'd be happy for us to call them something like 'Topic Tasters', and to create a help sheet on maintaining them. When I first wanted to help improve Portal:Alps I found it hard to understand how it was constructed and edited. The wails about lack of maintenance could have been addressed if Portals had helped themselves by having a 'Want to help maintain this Portal?' link on them, taking a user to the guidance page, alluded to above. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 08:36, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for joining the Portals WikiProject.

Here's our first project-wide update. I hope you enjoy it...

We've grown to 73 members, and morale is high. Thank you for joining. Here is some news, and some tasks...

Thanks for the links Nick! While finding where to type this, I read everything on here and I think I became inspired... Anyway, I have looked at some of them and they really helped. Again, thanks! Searcher of useful facts01 (talk) 05:49, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

Nick, regarding your notability post for Isola (comics), I've updated the page now that the issue is out with a "Reception" section that hopefully fulfils your criteria. —Hellboybookeeper (talk) 15:20, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

22:23, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

We are at 74 members. If you know anyone who might find this WikiProject interesting, please invite them.

I wish to start a portal about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but I am not very good with the coding, so please can I have some help? Here is the page: Portal:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I would also like the background to be carmine colour (##960018), and the text to be gold colour (#FFD700). Thank you! --Mozart834428196 (talk) 17:23, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Hi, Mozart834428196. You're probably aware there was a recent RFC which proposed the deletion of all portals? Thankfully, consensus was in favour of their retention, and there's now a lot of work going on to ensure that all Portals are properly maintained, and that pages that serve no purpose are deleted. If you genuinely feel that a new portal on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would serve as a topic taster to his life and work in a manner that the existing page does not, and that it would be be well-maintained, then that's really great. There are currently huge changes happening to the way Portals are operated, though I don't think there's yet any new guidance on how to properly build a new one and to maintain them. I don't think I am the right one to advise or help you, as I only help maintain previously constructed portals. Might I suggest you either post your question on the talk page of Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals, or on the talk page of User:The Transhumanist who has done an absolutely brilliant job of defending them and ensuring their retention and in working towards new ways of running them? My one note of real concern on your ambition is to observe that you've only been on Wikipedia for three weeks, so I do wonder whether you'll stick around to see it through. Whilst there's currently no obligation to gain concensus for creating a new Portal, I might suggest you would do well to raise the proposal at the Talk page of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Classical music to see who might be willing to assist you in determining what content is appropriate, and what is not. It's very easy to start a project and not see it through, or to maintain it. It was for those reasons that many editors were in favour of the deletion of every single Portal. Good luck! Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 22:34, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

@Mozart834428196: as Nick conveyed above, things have changed quite a lot, and are continuing to change pretty fast. So, don't worry too much about being a portal maintainer, but by all means be a portal builder! Once you have the portal set up fully, it will almost run completely on its own, and whoever else is around after that could easily maintain it. Once we (the WikiProject) are done developing tools for portals, portals will be fully automated after their initial build, and will be contained almost fully on a single page. For now though, some subpages are needed (like for pictures).

Check out the portal now. I've given you a more developed starting point, using some of our new coding (much easier). To stick in your colors, go to Portal:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/box-header. There are also notes in most of the sections on how to complete them. Though, for the picture section, click on the redlink, and insert a file in the new page that opens up. Keep doing that until no more redlinks come up. That will give you a selection of 5 pictures that the portal will randomly show.

Feel free to change anything you want. Don't worry about making errors, as everything is fixable. Also feel free to ask further questions. And, above all, have fun.

Portals use templates extensively, so it would help you to read up on those. The template used for the "selected" sections is Template:Transclude random excerpt.

By the way, what other portals are you interested in building?    — The Transhumanist   07:55, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

It would be quite good if we could make a Georgian Era portal. I advise the title Portal:Georgian Era. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mozart834428196 (talk • contribs) 12:26, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Also, in that portal, you could have a "selected Georgian satirical cartoon". --Mozart834428196 (talk) 12:30, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for reviewing the article. I'll go in an make those fixes thanks. When I am tired sometimes the temptation to use a bare link gets the better of me...Million_Moments (talk)

@Million Moments: No worries. I know what you mean, though. For that reason I like to prepare stuff as a draft or work on new articles in my sandbox, so I can get it all looking right before it goes live. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 14:06, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Hello Nick. I've resumed editing today after a sustained absence (and after tonight, I will be absent again but only for a week or two). I've just been reading the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting article and in its history I spotted this revert of yours, and subsequent examination led me to a conversation between you and the editor who was blocked as a sockpuppet (I make no comment on the accuracy but have no affiliation to any other accounts myself), and here I noticed this comment you made.

In the months before I briefly left the project, I was involved in edit disputes and talk page debate over a similarly related binary matter at White Helmets (Syrian Civil War). If your above comment and the reverts of User:Fake News Extinguisher are correct, would you not say that the second paragraph of White Helmets is a clear breach of NPOV procedure? It brazenly asserts in the Wikipedia voice that all exposure of the Helmets as terrorists is a "conspiracy theory", is "disinformation", and the sources in question "falsely promote" certain things.

These claims carry the burden of proof, and it simply isn't adequate to argue that "ABC sources claim this is so and they are classed as reliable" while "XYZ sources say the opposite and they are unreliable" because in this scenario, it is a deadlock. To that end, continuously haemorrhaging "RS" actually begs the question rather than provides sound reasoning for the claims.

The impasse is by all accounts divided down the usual partisan lines, but I am more inclined to go along with the quality of one's arguments rather than "who" said it. That means I would rather rewrite the entire article and present the Helmets for what they are, associates of Al-Qaeda. However, I also know the purpose of Wikipedia and do not wish to do this. I simply believe that a more neutral passage needs to be written that gives parity to the rival narratives. A point to note is that when I last looked at the article in 2018, only three groupings were "spreading disinformation": Russian sources, Iranian sources, and Syrian government sources.

At some point in the last 18 months, somebody added a Chinese source to the "disinformation" bundle. The band of editors hell-bent on presenting the Helmets as the cuddly band of non-dangerous fanatics have also objected in the most withering terms to add other writers/commentators from outside of the Russian/Iranian/Syrian/Chinese circle being adduced as sources. I refer to persons such as George Galloway, Eva Bartlett and former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, a man whose notability stretches to political activism (thereby deeming irrelevant his status as a musician). Can you see where this is going? I personally know of two more national news sources that expose the Helmets as terrorist-affiliated, and I am sure there is much much more, but in the current paradigm those sources would just be added to the "disinformation" bundle for no other reason than that is the side they are on, and all just to accommodate the other side's WP:TRUTH.

Could I ask you, if you haven't been involved in the past, to provide your own input on the article and/or the talk? I'd appreciate that a lot. --Coldtrack (talk) 21:16, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

@Coldtrack: Goodness... I will try and take a look when I have some clear headspace, though this isn't my area of expertise. (Forgive me for adding paragraph breaks to your post - I just needed to see and digest it in bite-sized chunks.) Nick Moyes (talk) 21:51, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

By all means this is your talk page! :)))) No rush. I don't expect to be online this next 10 or so days anyhow. Thanks for the acknowledgement! Warmest regards. --Coldtrack (talk) 22:00, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

OK, so I spent an hour and a half looking into this. Sorry i couldn't do more. It seems the main disagreement is that you like the word 'criticism' whilst others want to use the phrase 'sustained disinformation', and that you've been edit warring with others a bit over that - maybe for a couple of years - but also noting that there has been prior discussion on the Talk Page, plus a recent post from you, reiterating your concerns. Unfortunately, unlike the diff of mine that you cited to the page on [[Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting]], here I see a statement in the lead which does summarises what reliable mainstream media like The Guardian have reported, and which are expnded in the remainder of the article. Having looked at those sources, I tend to side with the view which is opposite to the one that you take - sorry. In fact, I have added a quotation from the The Guardian which I feel justifies the use of both 'sustained' and of 'disinformation', and the assertion that Russian TV has played its part in that campaign. Whilst I haven't added in references in my reply here, I would suggest that you consider always including both diffs and citations when you want to put forward an argument to support your view - it makes the job a lot easier if one can hear what the editor is saying, and then immediately see the source(s) they are basing their editing position upon. Just a suggestion to facilitate collaboration. Sorry I can't be more supportive of your perspective, but I must admit to very little experience in this field and have simply followed the sources. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:08, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

I appreciate your effort in looking into the issue and time in commenting. So you know, "disinformation" is an assertion which carries the burden of proof. To this end, dissenting voices such as what you read in the Guardian do not cut the mustard as they have not demonstrated their accusation that "the other side is lying". The issue is that rival narratives exist and sadly, they are always divided down the usual partisan lines. Although I cannot be sure which Guardian piece you refer to, I know that the Guardian does not report anything different to the rest of the mainstream media from DW to ABC News. This cartel has accused opponents of western foreign policy of "sustained disinformation" but if you read their argumentation carefully, you can throw every sentence into one of the following boxes: argument from ignorance, argument from incredulity, begging the question, appeal to authority, and the biggest one of all, argument by assertion. Believe you me, I know the sources from all sides as I follow world affairs from all angles. No mainstream source has produced evidence beyond reasonable doubt that that the Helmets are not affiliated to Al-Qaeda. Even the so-called "independent fact-checkers" such as SNOPES can at most offer the pitiful "we find no evidence of the Russian & Syrian claim" which is not the same as "we find evidence that they are spreading falsehoods". And while absence of evidence can never be the same as evidence of absence, I can safely say that among the public, SNOPES' reputation lies in ruins over this and other similar "findings". Anyhow, I am not denigrating the Guardian as a source, but I am saying that many other sources report the opposing narrative and they ALSO make representations that the western mainstream media is guilty of a disinformation drive. Those sources are too numerous for WP:FRINGE and so to choose one's favoured variation and give it WP:WEIGHT violates the rules of WP:PARITY. But just to wrap up, you see I cited the fallacies and you might be thinking "why did he say begging the question?" and the answer is because: the western governments and their obeisant echo chambers in the mainstream media (eg. The Guardian) use the White Helmets as a source of information. Therefore if someone is making claims about them, rightly or wrongly, you don't defend their rectitude by citing the very same sources who three pages behind the article you read adduced this organisation to make its points. For example, take the BBC: " Nine people, including three children, died when warplanes bombed the town of Talmenes, the White Helmets reported. " ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50821277 ). By this logic, the only way to decree the Helmets as terrorists is to find a passage in the "reliable sources" which says, "the White Helmets are affiliated to the Jihadist opposition in Syria, the Helmets themselves report" which is an absurdity. So you see, citing sources sympathetic to the Helmets is circular reasoning. --Coldtrack (talk) 19:07, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

@Coldtrack: Thank you for coming back. Getting to 'the truth' is, I am sure, a very difficult and complex task. And, yes, it does depend on what sources one assimilates. One person's truth is another person's injustice. You may have seen it written in the essays on Wikipedia that this encyclopaedia doesn't claim to portray'the truth' -it portrays what reliable sources have written about the subject - sometimes by both sides of a subject. There it is expected to present both sets of so-called 'truths' as reliably reported. I can do no more here except to say that very few of us here are 'experts' or political analysts, and that we try our best to present the available evidence as citations for statements. Just as there is currently no evidence to suggest that I now stopped beating my wife, there is equally no evidence to suggest that I ever have beaten her at all. It would be unfair to write about my wife-beating habits if no sources had reliably published evidence that I was being investigated by the police for wife beating, or had been found guilty of those crimes. I do to some extent understand the point you are making, but sympathies change when facts emerge. Look at the case of the heavily lauded Harvey Weinstein, or the serial abuser Jimmy Saville who our own BBC appeared to be protecting by not broadcasting investigative journalism that exposed him shortly before his death. It's not the same types of examples, but Wikipedia can only collate what is already available - it cannot be used to WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS. Kind regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:16, 3 June 2020 (UTC) 

Very comforting to know you don't beat your wife, just as I have never beaten my wife nor children either (although Igor, the oldest, is 19 and 6 foot 5, 196cm!!). I know what you're saying. You're describing a vacuous truth. Our situation at White Helmets is that there are two rival narratives, diametrically opposed, and both widely reported. This is why it is wrong to present one as factual and the other as false. I didn't seek to reverse the article but to rewrite any paragraph giving undue weight to the authors' favoured account. Block 1 says that Block 2 spreads disinformation and that the organisation is benign. Block 2 says Block 1 spreads disinformation and that the organisation is dishonourable. Proponents of the former say that Block 2 consists of "unreliable sources", while proponents of the other assert that Block 2's sources are reliable. If it were as simple as citing blogs and forum discussions then one may have a point. But when the so-called "unreliable" sources are reports from media across a variety of countries to which you could add independent writers and scholars then the "unreliable source" argument falls apart at every turn. You probably haven't noticed that there is an anomaly here: to claim that a source is "unreliable" and that its authors spread "disinformation" are two mutually exclusive assertions. Many "reliable sources" helped to peddle the myth that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, a claim that was being championed in the build-up to, during, and months after the Iraq War. At the same time, "unreliable sources" were sceptical of the tropes being parroted. If you asseverate that so-and-so is spreading "disinformation" then the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate this claim. To claim that so-and-so reports the opposite of such-and-such, the first is "reliable" and the second is "unreliable" and therefore the second amounts to disinformation is WP:SYNTH in fine feather. Do you see my point? --Coldtrack (talk) 21:38, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

Range is back at 2A00:23C5:6289:C000:8C4B:65AE:5AF3:D4AB (talk · contribs · (/64) · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) with personal attacks to the same edits. Nate • (chatter) 00:23, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for this. I was slow to respond, but am pleased to see the user have been rangeblocked. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:37, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Dear Sir, thank you for your guidance and help in editing the page, I tried my level best to follow your guidance. I need your help in creating wekimedia categories and sub categories. Already You have created Category: Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam in wikimedia commons. How to create sub categories like Butterflies of Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam, Cacti and Succulents, Birds, aquatic plants, orchids, medicinal plants like that sir. Sorry I am troubling you a lot in asking such things..I am unable to follow clearly... Sir Please help me sir if time permits, regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bmantha (talk • contribs) 02:02, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

@Bmantha: I don't think you should create more than three or four further sub-categories. Any more would be quite unnecessary. (I could envisage Insects of..., Plants of..., Birds of...) If you'd care to give me a full list, I'll try and sort them out for you. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:21, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Dear sir In my opinion the following categories looks good in wikimedia under Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam; Butterflies, Birds, Cacti & Succulents, Aquatic plants, Orchids, Plants general, medicinal plants, Education and Awareness activities etc. Otherwise you help me to how to go for subcategories please One more advise I seek; regarding The page 'Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam already reviseed by I would like to insert one gallery with just 12 pictures representing the most important plants and flowers or butterflies of different zones, Just 10 or 12 please permit or else give me your suggestion please. regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bmantha (talk • contribs) 22:16, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

. Pasdecomplot (talk) 11:48, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

you're welcome. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:22, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Hello Nick. This is Jumpycamel. I am honored to get to meet you! Really, I am new to Wikipedia and my account is about 2 days old. From now on I am using you, out of all Wikipedia members, for advice.

Happy Wiki-ing! Jumpycamel

(P. S. Is there any Wikipedia page that hasn’t been made yet that I can make?) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jumpycamel (talk • contribs) 01:46, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Hey, Jumpycamel, thanks for stopping by. I can't promise to respond quickly to questions - so actually you are better off asking at the Teahouse if you want speedy answers.

You asked: "Is there any Wikipedia page that hasn’t been made yet that I can make?", and the answer is 'yes' there are thousands! But, honestly, please don't come to Wikipedia with the idea of creating a new page, as it would be like me walking into a TV studio with no understanding of how programmes are made asking if I can create a new show for kids! Creating a new article, and following all our guidelines as ytou do it, is one of the hardest tasks any editor can perform here. So, take your time; edit slowly and gradually. In due course, you'll gravitate towards making bigger and better edits, and eventually find something that does meet our notabilty criteria. You might even go in search of pages where suggestions few new articles are collected together, like this one for notable women.

I tell you what: I'll keep an eye on your editing contributions and drop by if I think I can make further suggestions. Do have a go at The Wikipedia Adventure. It's not only fun to do, it shows other editors that you're really interested to learn. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 19:18, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Dear Sir, Thank you very much for editing this article, sparing more time and giving suggestions. In fact I am new to this, and this is my first article. As you guessed, your are right sir. I am the founder member of Dolphin Nature Conservation Society and Biodiversity Park which started in the year 2001 with a aim to inculcate the knowledge of nature conservation and environmental protection in the young minds. The main motto of the society is nature conservation,environmental protection, education and awareness. Ours is a student teacher based voluntary organization (NGO). I am a retired Professor from Andhra University affiliated college, A doctorate degree holder from Marine Biology. Zoologist and teacher by profession and a botanist by passion and above all a naturalist and nature lover. The crown project of ours is development and maintenance of this Biodiversity Park in Visakhapatnam. In a Govt. Hospital land in 3 acres we started this in 2002 and maintained with our own funds (my own funds and meagre donations from students) upto 2013. Now with the help of government agencies and with my own funds and through meager donations from student volunteers we have been maintaining it. In fact it is a living laboratory for students of all walks of life. In fact ours is the only biodiversity park in the entire state of Andhra Pradesh. Thank you very much for all your suggestions. I am much more thankful to you for the creation of Biodiversity park, visakhapatnam in Wikimedia. I am entirely new to this terminology and language of wikipedia but slowly learning . I earnestly request you to edit this article and give suggestions and advise...and make it in more presentation and pleasant form..for the wiki readers. Already you helped me a lot. Pl. extend some more help by sparing your highly valuable time in making this article a perfect page for all readers. Thank you..Thank you very much.. regards.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bmantha (talk • contribs) 00:23, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

@Bmantha: It was a pleasure to help you, sir! I realise you might not have been happy to see much of your work removed, but I am very glad you appreciated it. Please would you just do one important thing to meet Wikipedia's requirements? I need to ask you to create your userpage and to add a small 'Conflict of Interest' declaration on it. (See WP:COI for more details. The code you need to add is as follows: {{UserboxCOI|1=Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam}} and on your userpage it should appear like this:

This user has publicly declared that he has a conflict of interest regarding the Wikipedia article Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam.

What you actually say about yourself is very much your choice, but I personally tend to trust an editor's motives more if I see that they have spent a few moments explaining their background and why they are here to edit Wikipedia. What you have said above looks perfect to me; namely "I am a retired Professor from Andhra University affiliated college, A doctorate degree holder from Marine Biology. Zoologist and teacher by profession and a botanist by passion and above all a naturalist and nature lover."

If I may make a personal observation: If I were in your shoes, I would also be extraordinarily proud of my achievements in setting up the Biodiversity Park. From the photographs I can see that it is full or beauty and has enormous impact on the people you bring there. For such a small area, you have not only created a great resource, but also managed to generate a lot of media interest, too. You did a brilliant job. I am, if I am honest, quite jealous! My own project (The Sanctuary (Derby)) is 12 ha in size, but has nothing of the beauty of yours. In fact, it was established to protect natural wildlife and especially ground-nesting bird habitat that had developed on top of a disused and clay-capped landfill rubbish dump on the edge of our city. In winter it looks bleak and windswept, but in spring it attracts migrant birds. We even built a massive sand-filled structure for nesting sand martins, which has been very successful. Some years ago we had to fight to protect it from destruction by its owners (our City Council) who were the same body who had formally and legally designated it as a Local Nature Reserve. They wanted to build a bicycle racing track on it, and so our local conservation organisations had to start legal action in one of our countries highest courts before they finally backed down. I hope you never face the same problems! Best wishes, Nick Moyes (talk) 10:47, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Talk_page_messages_skewed_to_the_right . Interstellarity (talk) 14:12, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

@Interstellarity: Why on earth wake up the whole world and draw them to my userpage, when a few seconds should have let you see that two simple colons indenting a demo COI template a few posts above this was the cause. Next time, why not just drop by and say "Did you know...?". I hadn't spotted it, but it's a funny way to alert me to such a minor issue which I've now fixed! Nick Moyes (talk) 14:38, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

I apologize for letting the whole world know. I'm glad the issue got fixed. Did I do something wrong? Interstellarity (talk) 21:42, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Hi, Interstellarity. 'Doing something wrong' isn't the phrase I would choose. I'm certainly not annoyed or anything, so don't worry. Nor am I hiding anything I didn't want folk to see here!. It's just that it seemed really, really weird to post on two forums that my talk page was a tiny bit misaligned, as if it were a global issue that needed fixing across Wikipedia, when all you needed to have done was dropped by, and mentioned the layout issue in a post here. I might have got around to fixing it in a week or two...it really wasn't an issue that needed 'eyes on' from WP:VPT, that's all. (I also had to drop what I was doing, scramble over to VPT to see what had cracked off, then pop back here, spend two minutes working out why my talk page was indented, and then fix it. Meanwhile QEDK had very kindly popped over to take a look, and had also sussed out the issue.) So, no, you've done nothing wrong - except perhaps looked a tad daft in making a mountain out of a non-existent molehill. But, either way, thanks for raising it, as I'd not appreciated that an indented COI template continued to indent the rest of the page. That might have been the bigger technical issue that could have been raised, but you didn't appear to have spotted what the cause of the indenting actually was. No worries; all is calm. Nick Moyes (talk) 23:08, 8 June 2020 (UTC)  

I'm the kind of person that likes to point out errors in Wikipedia. I'm glad you're OK because I am as well. Interstellarity (talk) 00:19, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

Yeah - no problem. Just try to work out the best way of doing that, please. Nick Moyes (talk) 00:32, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

21:12, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your lovely message about my Jane Inglis Clark article! I am so glad to hear that my first article has gone down well. Jane Inglis Clark was a really interesting person to research and put together into a biography as part of the Edinburgh Women in Red project.

It would be great if you could do a page on the CIC Hut. For now I will focus my attention on Women in Red, in particular adding articles on the missing female climbers/travellers/mountaineers. If you have any tips or suggestions on that topic please send them my way! Best wishes, --12banana21 (talk) 08:53, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

OK, 12banana21. I think we all like to get positive feedback, and it is really fantastic to see you get off to such a great start here. I certainly didn't want to undermine your plans by creating a page on something you wanted to work on. (That happened to me with the Goûter Hut in the Alps after I'd been slowly working on a draft for over a year.)

As for tips or suggestions, I could mention that leaving on request for help on talk pages of other WikiProjects might elicit contributions from others (though it's rare!). I help to run WikiProject Mountains of the Alps where we have a 'requested articles section, including names of people. (I confess, to my shame, that so far it's an all-male list. Feel free to add any female alpinists to it, or link back to the relevant Women in Red section)). Then there's also WikiProject Climbing.

I recently purchased a copy of the RGS/Alpine Club publication 'Mountaineers' in the hope of getting some more information, but sadly it, too, is very male-focussed. What I would eventually like to do is find a way to encourage various national societies to consider mobilising some of their archives or images to Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia. But this is a long haul ambition, I fear. Just shout if you ever need help. Nick Moyes (talk) 13:21, 12 June 2020 (UTC) 

Blast from the recent past: new account User:Shadowblade08.2 looks a lot like User:Shadowblade08.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 23:44, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

@ThatMontrealIP: Oh dear. Well, if that were the case, that would be WP:BLOCKEVASION, resulting in a permanent block on both accounts unless the new account were to cease editing immediately and declare the connection. (It's certainly an amazing coincidence otherwise.) I'll leave it for now as it's late here, but we can easily get a WP:CHECKUSER to take a look if they continue editing and don't answer your question. Nick Moyes (talk) 00:28, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Confirmed, see the talk page. I'm sympathetic to younger editors but not potential further disruption and block evasion.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 03:14, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

@Nick Moyes:, when I search "WP:TH" or Wikipedia:Teahouse, in the wikipedia search bar nothing shows up. I just go to my sandbox/talk page/typed "WP:TH, Instead. I think this is a bug. Always, -Hamuyi (talk) 11:40, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

@Hamuyi: It's working fine. WP:TH doesn't show because there are innumerable autofill options that it could also be, so you don't always see them in the small box. Wikipedia:Teahouse autofills fine for me; so maybe you have a browser issue. I use Chrome. Just type the shortcut and press return and you're sorted.

By the way, although you are entitled to blank your talk page after people have posted there, you might like to know that it tends to draw extra attention and suspicion on your editing - whether deserved or not. My friendly advice is not to keep blanking other people's comments there, but to leave all posts there for quite some time, maybe only blank or ARCHIVE after a couple of months at least. In the spirit of openness, you will find people look more kindly on you if you allow all positive and negative feedback to be easily visible. You will note that I have still had to reformat your reply to my request to you, asking you not to leave separate lines between text and signatures, yet your reply failed to do just that. You do not need to insert line breaks either - the text will autowrap itself onto the page. Please try to pay a little more attention to what experienced editors are trying to help you with. Thus far, of your 324 edits here, only two have been two articles, and both were reverted as not being constructive. Do remember that this is our primary purpose, and try to focus on learning how to contribute successfully, and less on commenting on other people's talk pages and more on Contributing to Wikipedia. Always. Nick Moyes (talk) 12:53, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Yes, I do. I am still learning. Everyone is. I am going to go to the task center and try to help. Always -Hamuyi (talk)

@Hamuyi: OK - stick to the simplest tasks there. NOTE: You're still inserting 'Returns' at the end of sentences which are not required. They don't render on the page, but are clearly visible when you edit the source code. Try to remember that this isn't needed nor, indeed, wanted. Reply to a comment by indenting, using one additional colon to force the indent rightwards.

Like this

And like this

See? Nick Moyes (talk) 13:03, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Okay, thanks Always, --Hamuyi (talk) 13:07, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I Just created a Draft:Shehzad Poonawalla, and will be working more on it but the short summary is coming below the info box which I want to be at the top. --AstuteFlicker (talk) 04:38, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

@AstuteFlicker I’m not able to reproduce your issue. Having enabled the Short Description Helper in Preferences>Gadgets, I see it in the right place in desktop view. To be honest I’m sure where the default position should be for Mobile view users. In fact, in Mobile view, I’m not seeing one at all. Further information at WP:Short description. If you’re still stuck, please seek further help HERE. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 07:58, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

MediaWiki message delivery 21:18, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi

Just trying to add an addition to notable members of the college. The additional member would be Bobby Seagull. He has his own wiki profile page. Easy enough to find as there aren’t many blokes with said name in question.

Regards

Iain (W41) --Witchcraft Four One (talk) 20:10, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

@Witchcraft Four One  Done Nick Moyes (talk) 23:26, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

how do you make your own Wikipedia page --Light090 (talk) 23:19, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi there, Light090. Welcome to Wikipedia. What topic would you want to add to this encyclopaedia, may I ask? If by "your own Wikipedia page" you mean how to create a Wikipedia article all about yourself, then the simple answer is that you cannot do that. Article have to be about subjects that are deemed Notable, and meet certain criteria.

That said, you do have a Userpage and a User Talk page. I have just left you a 'Welcome' message on your talk page. It contains a very useful link to learning about how to start editing. This Talk page is where we interact with one another over issues around editing articles (though it's not a general chit-chat page for off-topic matters).

You are permitted to use your Userpage to say a few words about yourself and your interests in joining Wikipedia. Don't give out any personal information there, and don't try to use it to create a profile that sums up your life or promotes your music business, or whatever it might be. The 'do's and dont's' of what's permitted there can be read at WP:USERPAGE.

Finally, if you are asking about how to create a new Wikipedia article about something, I should point out that article creation is best left until you've learned the basics of editing existing pages and making improvements there first. When you feel ready to write about a Notable topic, do then read THIS. Best wishes from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 08:43, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

how do I write about me? I am a writer, who goes by the pen name AJ CASTRO, but so does someone else. I'm just trying to make it so that when the name is googled, it at least links to me and my photo also --Adalberto Castro (talk) 17:08, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Adalberto Castro. Firstly, I'm afraid Wikipedia has no control whatsoever on how Google indexes any internet content, or how it serves up that information on its results page.

I can see that Wikipedia has an article about the deceased soldier, Andrew Castro, and that is probably where you find search results about you getting mixed with your own.

Now, we are allowed to add a WP:HATNOTE to an article page where Wikipedia has two or more pages that are liable to cause confusion in its own search results so as to distinguish between them. However, unless there is already a Wikipedia article about you and your life, we cannot simply add a note to an article to distinguish it from every other person in the world of the same name. We even have special pages to help users find the right article. (See Martin Moran or Ulysses for examples of these 'disambiguation pages'.

So, I can see fully appreciate why you might hope that you might merit a Wikipedia page of your own. If you do, and it were created by someone, then a hatnote to distinguish the two A J Castros would be perfectly acceptable. However, Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia of notable topics (meaning that the world at large must have already taken note of it and written about it in independently-published sources, whether that be a species of plant, a geographical feature, a musician, writer or mountaineer.

You may which to read our general notability requirements for any type of individual, as well as check out our notability criteria for Creative Professionals, using the shortcut link, WP:AUTHOR. So, if there are a number of independent sources that have written about you (ignoring blogs, social media, YouTube and self-published works) then you may well merit an article here, just as you would if you instead meet the notability criteria at WP:AUTHOR. But if neither can be met, I'm afraid you cannot have a Wikipedia article about you, sorry.

But, even if you can demonstrate that you do meet one of our 'notability criteria', as described above, we very strongly discourage anyone ever to try to write about themselves. They would have a serious Conflict of Interest, and be unlikely to ever be able to write about themselves, based on published sources alone, in a neutral and encyclopaedic manner. Just leave it to an unconnected editor to rise to the challenge of creating an article about you. If, having read the above, you earnestly believe you can provide a number of independent sources that have written about you, then you might wish to create an entry that lists them at WP:REQUESTED ARTICLES or, more specifically, here.

I hope this helps you understand the situation a little better. Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:38, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Can i change my user name ? --HiDefRePlay (talk) 23:04, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

@HiDefRePlay You have only made three edits with this account, so it is really not worth going through the complicated process of requesting a name change. Please simply abandon this account (i.e. forget the password and never use it again) Just create a new account with your preferred name and only use that one from now on. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:30, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Weekly highlight

• The Mobile Apps team has released an update to the iOS app's navigation, and it is now available in the latest App store version. The team added a new Profile menu that allows for easy access to editor features like Notifications and Watchlist from the Article view, and brings the "Donate" button into a more accessible place for users who are reading an article. This is the first phase of a larger planned navigation refresh to help the iOS app transition from a primarily reader-focused app, to an app that fully supports reading and editing. The Wikimedia Foundation has added more editing features and support for on-wiki communication based on volunteer requests in recent years.

Updates for editors

• Wikipedia readers can now download a browser extension to experiment with some early ideas on potential features that recommend articles for further reading, automatically summarize articles, and improve search functionality. For more details and to stay updated, check out the Web team's Content Discovery Experiments page and subscribe to their newsletter.
• Later this month, logged-out editors of these 12 wikis will start to have temporary accounts created. The list may slightly change - some wikis may be removed but none will be added. Temporary account is a new type of user account. It enhances the logged-out editors' privacy and makes it easier for community members to communicate with them. If you maintain any tools, bots, or gadgets on these 12 wikis, and your software is using data about IP addresses or is available for logged-out users, please check if it needs to be updated to work with temporary accounts. Guidance on how to update the code is available. Read more about the deployment plan across all wikis.
• View all 33 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the South Ndebele, Pannonian Rusyn, Obolo, Iban and Tai Nüa Wikipedia languages were created last week.
• It is now possible to create functions on Wikifunctions using Wikidata lexemes, through the new Wikidata lexeme type launched last week. When you go to one of these functions, the user interface provides a lexeme selector that helps you pick a lexeme from Wikidata that matches the word you type. After hitting run, your selected lexeme is retrieved from Wikidata, transformed into a Wikidata lexeme type, and passed into the selected function. Read more about this in the latest Wikifunctions newsletter.

Updates for technical contributors

• Users of the Wikimedia sites can now format dates more easily in different languages with the new {{#timef:…}} parser function. For example, {{#timef:now|date|en}} will show as "7 July 2026". Previously, {{#time:…}} could be used to format dates, but this required knowledge of the order of the time and date components and their intervening punctuation. #timef (or #timefl for local time) provides access to the standard date formats that MediaWiki uses in its user interface. This may help to simplify some templates on multi-lingual wikis like Commons and Meta.
• Commons and Meta users can now efficiently retrieve the user's language using {{USERLANGUAGE}} instead of using {{int:lang}}.
• The Product and Tech Advisory Council (PTAC) now has its pilot members with representation across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. They will work to address the Movement Strategy's Technology Council initiative of having a co-defined and more resilient technological platform.

In depth

• The latest quarterly Growth newsletter is available. It includes: an upcoming Newcomer Homepage Community Updates module, new Community Configuration options, and details on new projects.
• The Wikimedia Foundation is now an official partner of the CVE program, which is an international effort to catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities. This partnership will allow the Security Team to instantly publish common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) records that are affecting MediaWiki core, extensions, and skins, along with any other code the Foundation is a steward of.
• The Community Wishlist is now testing machine translations for Wishlist content. Volunteers can now read machine-translated versions of wishes and dive into discussions even before translators arrive to translate content.

Meetings and events

• 24 October - Wiki Education Speaker Series Webinar - Open Source Tech: Building the Wiki Education Dashboard, featuring Wikimedia interns and a Web developer in the panel.
• 20–22 December 2024 - Indic Wikimedia Hackathon Bhubaneswar 2024 in Odisha, India. A hackathon for community members, including developers, designers and content editors, to build technical solutions that improve contributors' experiences.

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

MediaWiki message delivery 20:49, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Current work

Newcomer Homepage Community Updates module

We will add a new module to the Newcomer Homepage that will allow communities to highlight specific events, projects, campaigns, and initiatives. We have released a simple version on beta wikis and we will soon start an A/B test on our pilot wikis. This module will only display on the Newcomer Homepage if communities decide to utilize it, so learn how to configure the Community Updates module, or share your thoughts on the project's talk page.

Constructive activation experimentation

After showcasing early design ideas at Wikimania, we conducted user testing of design prototypes. We now aim to engage communities in further discussions and plan to run a targeted experiment, presenting a structured task within the reading view to logged-in new account holders with zero edits.

Community Configuration

This Community Configuration extension was developed to help communities customize wiki features to meet their unique needs. The Growth team is now helping other Wikimedia Foundation teams make their products configurable:

• The Moderation Tools team now provides Community Configuration for Automoderator. (T365046)
• Certain Babel extension settings will be configurable soon. (T328171)

Future work

As part of the Growth team annual plan, we will continue to investigate ways to increase constructive activation on mobile, while also working with Data Products to move forward A/B testing functionality via the Metrics Platform.

Community events

• Growth team members presented Community Configuration: Shaping On-Wiki Functionality Together at Wikimania (slides). The session recording is available to watch on YouTube. This session provided an update on the Community Configuration project and introduced details about the upcoming features that communities will soon be able to configure. Representatives from the Moderator Tools, Editing, Web, and Campaigns teams shared their plans for utilizing Community Configuration in the future. Following these presentations, the WMF Growth team's Benoît Evellin and Martin Urbanec answered audience questions.
• Habib Mhenni gave a presentation of how mentorship works at WikiIndaba 2024. The recording is available.

Stay informed

Growth team weekly updates are available on wiki (in English) if you want to know more about our day-to-day work. If you want to receive more general updates about technical activity happening across the Wikimedia movement (including Growth work), we encourage you to subscribe to Tech News.

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Trizek_(WMF), 15:43, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

In which way i can earn money — Preceding unsigned comment added by TYLLER GOLD (talk • contribs) 09:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

@TYLLER GOLD Look for a real job! There's absolutely no money to be made through Wikipedia. We are all volunteers here; we're simply keen to see a world-class encyclopaedia made freely available to all. Sorry. Nick Moyes (talk) 09:09, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting a survey of Wikipedians to better understand what draws administrators to contribute to Wikipedia, and what affects administrator retention. We will use this research to improve experiences for Wikipedians, and address common problems and needs. We have identified you as a good candidate for this research, and would greatly appreciate your participation in this anonymous survey.

You do not have to be an Administrator to participate.

The survey should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement .

Please find our contact on the project Meta page if you have any questions or concerns.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 19:23, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I created this account yesterday because I was interested in editing, but I'm not sure where to begin. Should I start with adding minor details to articles about topics I'm interested in, or should I start with copyediting articles that have notices on them? Kirguy (talk) 21:14, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

@Kirguy Hi there. I love your question - it shows common sense and maturity. Most people rush in to wanting to create a new article, or make major changes, but then mess up. Rather like learning to drive a car, it is best to start off slowly and gently so that you don't crash.

I would suggest that one approach is to look at articles/topics you are interested in, reading them, then identifying the faults or gaps. (If you're worried about others identifying who you are, or where you live, avoid editing articles about your own school or your immediate community.) Most importantly, rather than adding things that you happen to know in your own mind, please look to find good sources that talk about these facts in properly published sources. You should add a 'citation' to allow other users of Wikipedia to Verify what you have added.

However, if you enjoy the English language, you may well get huge satisfaction from simple copyediting and improving the readability of an article. Not everyone can do this, and many articles are quite poorly written, despite being well sourced.

I will leave you a 'welcome' message on your talk page with links for you to work through, and to learn how to edit and add good content.

We do also have two other things that might interest you. One is our ideas centre of things we've identified that need improving. See Wikipedia:Task Center.

Then we have 'WikiProjects' which focus on specific topic areas and offer information about all the articles falling under that description. I would be happy to advise you further on this, should you wish. If you want to let me know how you get on, drop me a reply and I'd be happy to comment on your first few sets of edits. But don't panic - we all make honest mistakes in life, so if someone says "oy, that's not right", don't panic if they revert any edit you've made. I'm here to help, and can also be found at The Teahouse alongside other Hosts, 24 hours a day/7 days a week. It's our help desk for new editors, and we welcome your interest. For some like me, contributing to Wikipedia is a hugely rewarding hobby. If you can find the areas to contribute to that make you feel valued, you'll be a great Wikipedian in no time! Kind regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 22:54, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

My mentor is my father --Studywithnazish (talk) 11:56, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

@Studywithnazish If you need assistance with learning how to edit Wikipedia, just ask. But otherwise please refrain from making pointless comments like this one. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 17:16, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

how do i add a image --Asifimransiddiqui (talk) 16:22, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

@Asifimransiddiqui I'm not sure why you are asking this question as you have already successfully uploaded and added an image of yourself at Draft:Asif Imran Siddiqui. What further help do you need on adding images? See HELP:PICTURES for further links and guidance.

Please note that, in its present state, your draft is not acceptable to Wikipedia. Please read THIS and WP:NACADEMIC to appreciate our notability standards for people and academics, respectively.

And please read WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY to understand why we very strongly discourage anyone trying to write an encyclopaedia article about themselves. (Everything stated here must be based upon independent, reliably published sources - not just what the person happens to know or want to say about themselves!). Kind regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 17:41, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

MediaWiki message delivery 20:53, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi Nick.

I am looking to provide information about my company on Wikipedia. Is that something you can help me with? --Sharon.Vanderheiden (talk) 13:01, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

@Sharon.Vanderheiden (talk page watcher) please do not provide information about your company without first complying with WP:PAID in all respects. 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 13:11, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

@Sharon.Vanderheiden Wikipedia only has encyclopaedia articles about 'notable topics' - be advised that we are not here to help with WP:PROMOTION of people's businesses. That said, you can determine if your business meets our Notability Criteria for Companies and Businesses by reading THIS. If it doesn't meet these criteria, I'm afraid you would be wasting your time trying. Many do, and all fail if the world at large has not taken notice of that company or business, and independent sources have not written in detail and in depth about it. By 'independent sources', we exclude business and trade magazines, their own website, social media and press releases. We do accept mainstream news media, books, journals, etc. Mere passing mentions are not sufficient.

Three good articles written by independent journalists, and not based on press releases or other PR materials/newswire content might get a business over the line. Feel free to let me know its name (but, if it's Action Appliance, it will not meet WP:NCORP as far as I can ascertain.) Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 17:41, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Is Al-mayadeen considered a reliable source? --Misinfofighter123 (talk) 09:00, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

@Misinfofighter123 Thanks for your question. The issue of unreliability of this source was discussed last year, and it is NOT deemed to be reliable, so should not be used as a source. See WP:ALMAYADEEN for more info. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:47, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2024).

Administrator changes

• Crisco 1492

• Babajobu
• Daniel
• Elf
• Jayron32
• Thue
• Wugapodes

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Guideline and policy news

• Following a discussion, the discussion-only period proposal that went for a trial to refine the requests for adminship (RfA) process has been discontinued.
• Following a request for comment, Administrator recall is adopted as a policy.

Technical news

• Mass deletions done with the Nuke tool now have the 'Nuke' tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. T366068

Arbitration

• RoySmith, Barkeep49 and Cyberpower678 have been appointed to the Electoral Commission for the 2024 Arbitration Committee Elections. ThadeusOfNazereth and Dr vulpes are reserve commissioners.
• Eligible editors are invited to self-nominate from 3 November 2024 until 12 November 2024 to stand in the 2024 Arbitration Committee elections.
• The Arbitration Committee is seeking volunteers for roles such as clerks, access to the COI queue, checkuser, and oversight.

Miscellaneous

• An unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in November 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

MediaWiki message delivery 20:47, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

My Facebook account no working --ملیارفخری سید (talk) 02:46, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

@ملیارفخری سید Oh dear. Sorry to hear that. But this is Wikipedia and has NOTHING to do with Facebook, so we cannot help you here! Nick Moyes (talk) 10:43, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello Nick, I'm a new Editor and a bit of a perfectionnist. Could you please let me know if my recent edit on the Oracle BI page was acceptable? --TechBossBabe (talk) 16:04, 30 October 2024 (UTC)

@TechBossBabe I will take another look. It may take me a few days as I've been away, and need to catch up on things. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 14:22, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

@TechBossBabe Firstly, my apologies for the delay in replying to you. Your edit was perfectly acceptable, but could have been a little better. You can see what we call 'the diff' HERE. I like perfectionists like you, so here are my perfectionist observations for you:

• Having acted on a 'template' to expand the acronym, the right thing to do would have been to remove it, as it is no longer relevant.
• Because DHTML is written in capitals, I think the expanded acronym should also have been written in Title Case (=capital first letter for each word)
• Because acronyms like HTML and DHTML are in more common usage than their expanded forms, I would probably have put the acronym first, followed by the expanded term in brackets.

Having said all this, there was nothing - absolutely nothing - wrong with your edit. Subsequent to it, another editor did fix things a bit further with THIS EDIT], which I think gives us the final, best version we all wanted.

In the same sprit of perfectionism, may I comment on your later edit to Hyram Yarbro, which I think was a Newcomer Task? I see you added a citation to a previously unsupported statement. Again, that was helpful, but could have been a bit better because it only added a WP:BAREURL. See YOUR DIFF. What we really like to see is a citation which clearly shows the source's title, author, publisher and date. You can learn more about adding fuller and better citations via the Visual Editor tool HERE, In essence, you find the 'Cite' button and type in the source url and he rest is done for us. I did it for you, and you can see the edit HERE I hope this all makes some sense! Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 23:49, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

Nick, this was extremely helpful. THANK YOU!!! TechBossBabe (talk) 15:14, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

MediaWiki message delivery 00:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello,

I recently invited you to take a survey about administration on Wikipedia. If you haven’t yet had a chance, there is still time to participate– we’d truly appreciate your feedback. The survey is anonymous and should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. You may read more about the study on its Meta page and view its privacy statement.

Take the survey here.

Kind Regards,

WMF Research Team

BGerdemann (WMF) (talk) 00:18, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello! I started an ANI thread about an editor I had concerns about, and it went unresolved and mostly uncommented— I think the thread just before it took up a lot of attention. My thread has since been archived. Should I let the issue go, ping the one person who replied, wait and see if the issue persists before starting a new thread, or something else? Thanks! Placeholderer (talk) 15:33, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi there, Placeholderer. Sorry for the long wait for a reply; I've been extremely busy IRL.

I think WP:SPA accounts tend to have a vested interest in editing in specific, narrow areas. I sense this editor is aiming for accuracy and clarity in how the area of 'Eritrea' is used. This edit, for example, seems quite valid. And this one at first looked to be updating data without updating the citation. Yet, the source link itself appears to have been updated, and is correct.

Assuming you're still concerned about over-zealous editing, my advice would be to continue monitoring their edits, and to attempt to communicate and question whey they made certain edits, and to try to come across as supportive as you can. They do seem willing to engage at times, so it would be their failure to address concerns and to continue editing in a way that requires continual reversion that would lead you to return to ANI. If you do so, feel free to link to your earlier post there. Be there to help them improve as an editor, and explain how they can do that more effectively. Only when that fails should you go back to ANI or some other COI noticeboard. Hoping this helps, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:17, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

how do I edit --Learn More177777 (talk) 20:44, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

@Learn More177777 Welcome to Wikipedia! I've left you a 'welcome message' on your own talk page with a useful link to learn more about editing. We have two different editing tools for you to choose to use, though you can easily switch between them. For a set of links to different types of help and guidance, please see THIS PAGE.

One key thing to appreciate is that nothing should be added to Wikipedia from your own personal knowledge or understanding - everything, yes, everything, should be sourced from reliable, independent sources. This excludes blogs, personal websites and most social media. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 21:03, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Nick

You very kindly gave me advice via the Teahouse on 21 October 2024, and as far as I can tell I've done what you suggested. I then re-submitted the article and it was rejected almost immediately by Theroadislong who declared there was no evidence of notability and that there was not significant coverage (not just passing mentions) of the subject. Given that all the newspaper citations I have used are articles actually about the subject, I fail to see how that qualifies as 'passing mentions'.

I removed a link to Who's Who as he said that conferred zero notablity. I don't know what else to do.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated. Jjarchivist (talk) 11:10, 29 October 2024 (UTC)

@Jjarchivist I will take another look. It may take me a few days as I've been away, and need to catch up on things. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 14:21, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. Much appreciated 92.23.74.61 (talk) 14:24, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Just wondered if you'd had a chance to look at this for me.... appreciate you have a life to lead as well! Jjarchivist (talk) 09:52, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Nick

Don't want to hassle you, but have you had a chance to take another look at my article? Many thanks Jjarchivist (talk) 11:32, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

MediaWiki message delivery 01:58, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi Nick, I don't remember the last time that we talked on Wikipedia, it's been so long since I caught up with you. I hope you are doing well online and offline. I'm 23 years old now and have a full-time job and edit Wikipedia whenever I can and see if anything can be improved. Everything is going well in my life. As a Wikipedia user, I've watched Wikipedia grow into the encyclopedia it is today. Like everything, it obviously has some setbacks, but overall, it's gotten better overtime, especially with its high standards for reliability. I started with my journey on Wikipedia fighting vandalism. I've come to a point where most of the vandalism that ends up on Wikipedia gets reverted quickly that I don't have to revert it since it will eventually get reverted. It will always be a problem, but Wikipedia has things in place to prevent these from happening. In my experience, almost all vandalism I found nowadays is reverted within an hour with human and automated tools. In the past, with the public able to edit Wikipedia, it was a lot easier to say whatever you wanted in an article and create hoaxes. Nowadays, the hoaxes that are deleted are from the early days of Wikipedia. During my time on Wikipedia, I have learned a lot about how Wikipedia got its start and the importance of working with others to make sure discussions are held in a peaceful manner. I feel like I have reached a point where if I hold advanced permissions, the workload seems to be endless, but I have learned that taking a step back from Wikipedia and doing things that are enjoyable for me is more important. I went through a brutal RFA earlier this year. At first, I thought I had the confidence that I could succeed, but unfortunately, the time wasn't right for me. I don't know about you, but I have heard that becoming an administrator is not as fun as it sounds, so I felt like I should enjoy the things that are good in life like friends, family, enjoying the outdoors, as well as learning something new on Wikipedia. I now know that going through an RFA can be stressful, and I just had to back down because I knew how it was going to end up. I love reading Wikipedia because there is so much to learn on there. Since Wikipedia is just about facts, I enjoy using Reddit to get opinions on certain topics I like reading about. I don't know if you know much about the website, but it is definitely worth checking out. You've been around on Wikipedia longer than I have, so I'd be curious to know what you think about Wikipedia improvement or decline over time. Has it gotten better or worse? What has your life been up to lately? Hope to talk to you soon. Interstellarity (talk) 00:15, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello, I'm surprised you overlooked my message. I am hoping to reach out to me to see how you are doing and catch up with you on life. Interstellarity (talk) 00:41, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello again! This is a low-urgency enquiry— I don't mean to bother you when you're busy, and am in no rush to hear back. However, I'd like to know if you have any particular guidance for dealing with situations like I discuss here. My problem is essentially that I feel like I've been treated unfairly. I don't mean to canvas— I'm just looking for your input since, to be frank, I trust what you have to say. Also it's possible that I'll hear more from that thread in the next few days, but I personally don't expect to. Thanks again! Placeholderer (talk) 21:26, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Update: I think things are probably fine. My plan in summary is to try in good faith to follow the rules, and to not necessarily follow instructions that I think clearly go against the rules. If I end up getting in trouble regardless I'll proceed from there! Placeholderer (talk) 02:46, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

@Placeholderer Sorry I didn’t reply. I’m currently away on holiday. The advice from Cullen was very valid, but you were right to politely raise the question and to follow the advice given. There’s nothing wrong in seeking clarification, though it’s never wise to fight against rules relating to editing contentious topics, as they’re designed to minimise back and forward fighting over the right kind of edits different users want to make. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:39, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

How can I get to publish my biography. --Dayiem Gatwich Gai Dayiem (talk) 01:19, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

@Dayiem Gatwich Gai Dayiem Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia.

Unless you clearly meet our Wikipedia’s Notability Criteria for People, you cannot publish anything about yourself here. If you’d care to supply me with three independent, properly published, detailed sources which talk about you and your life in some depth, I’d be happy to advise whether or not a page here is justified.

Of course, if you’ve been awarded recognised national/international awards, had a chart-topping hit record or been in an Olympic sports team, you could be found notable under some of our more specialised notability criteria. We need to see books, newspaper articles or mainstream media reporting about you. Personal blogs, social media posts and self-published content are not relevant to demonstrating notability. In essence, Wikipedia is about Notable things, and is not here for WP:PROMOTION.

Should you meet our notability criteria, we very strongly discourage people from trying to write about thelmjhselves. Leave it to others without a conflict of interest, please. See WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY Nick Moyes (talk) 13:52, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello! I hope you're doing well, before I begin my message I wanted to say thanks again for helping to bring back the WikiProject Assyria assessments, it's been extremely helpful and I've been able to add several articles to the WikiProject that'll help enhance the scope of editing in the future!

As you're an administrator, I could use your input if possible. On the article Chaldean Catholics, there's been a discussion to merge the article with Chaldean Catholic Church that has supposedly been in discussion since May, but most discussion has taken place for it this month. Most of the input suggests doing a merge, and since no editors have actively contributed to the discussion in a few days, I would love to know if you believe a final consensus has been reached and if you would be able to perform the merge if so. If you think there's someone else who's better suited to merge the articles, please let me know and I can request their assistance! Surayeproject3 (talk) 02:24, 24 November 2024 (UTC)

@Surayeproject3 Hi there. Nice to hear things are going ok. I’m away on holiday this week, so probably can’t do much to help.

Slightly worried that the discussion began on 2018 and was revived recently. So it’s possible that some visitors to the talk page might miss it entirely. I’d suggest you wait a bit longer, then make a new post, summarising that you feel there’s been a consensus reached, and giving people a final chance to comment. Even if it were a properly-formulatted RfC, it would not require an administrator to do the work of actually merging the articles- just summarising any consensus that was reached, and then leaving interested editors to make the changes. Hope this helps. Nick Moyes (talk) 19:33, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Welcome to issue #2 of the Moderator Tools newsletter! It's been about a year since the first one (sorry for the delay), but we're excited to tell you what our team has been working on since then, and where you can guide our ongoing and upcoming work.

Automoderator

Automoderator is now feature-complete for its initial release! Automoderator is a highly configurable automated anti-vandalism tool which reverts edits that a machine learning model determines to be vandalism. It can be enabled, disabled, and configured at any time by administrators via a Community Configuration form. Automoderator is now in use on Indonesian, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias, with other projects at various stages of discussion and setup. You can track data about Automoderator's activity so far via a Superset dashboard. To request Automoderator on your Wikimedia project, please refer to the deployment steps.

We are wrapping up our focused time developing Automoderator while we review data and feedback about its impact. We also still plan to provide support for small Wikimedia projects with few/no administrators (T372280), and integrate the multilingual revert risk model, which is an improved version of the model currently in use, with support for 47 language Wikipedias. We're looking for support testing the multilingual model to better understand its behaviour - please check out the testing process and review some edits!

Nuke extension ('Mass delete')

During the 2024-2025 Wikimedia Foundation fiscal year, our team wants to make improvements to the software that moderators (patrollers, administrators, stewards, etc.) are using today, rather than focusing on building new tools. Although it's valuable to build new features, it's also important that we continue maintaining the important tools that are already being used to maintain and improve Wikipedia's quality.

One such project is to make usability and feature improvements to the Nuke extension (known as 'mass delete' on some projects). We have contracted a community developer, Chlod, who has worked on the extension in the past, to help us with this! With the Nuke project, we hope to make a number of improvements, including additional filters, increasing the deletion time range, automated deletion of related pages, and bug fixes. Read more about this project, and provide feedback, at Extension:Nuke/2024 Moderator Tools project.

MediaWiki message delivery 22:39, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi. So I've been sending this message to some other admins taking these requests in hope I get blocked very quickly since I feel like I've been editing too much. Anyways, please block me until 14:30 UTC. Thanks. MouseCursor (talk) 07:57, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

@MouseCursorI’m willing to block users who request help so that they can focus on more important matters. But not on an hour by hour basis! That’s not practicable. I didn’t even see your message until after your desired deadline. A minimum of a week might be reasonable and acceptable. Otherwise you simply need to find your own means of short term self-control, such as putting your device out of reach for half a day, or going for a long walk. Sorry. Nick Moyes (talk) 22:56, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Women in Red | December 2024, Vol 10, Issue 12, Nos 293, 294, 324, 325 Online events: New: Women who died in 2024 | Religion Continuing: #1day1woman | Education (year-long initiative) Announcements from other communities Women in Religion have a monthly virtual edit-a-thon and the next session is December 2nd 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. CST. For Zoom meeting details, contact Dzingle1 or RosPost. Women in Red members are welcome to join the Zoom Meeting here Tip of the month: Think of rewarding contributors, especially newcomers, with a barnstar. Other ways to participate: Become a member. You can always opt-out of notifications. Join the conversations on our talkpage. Help us plan future events and add any general ideas on developing the project. Follow us on social media: Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter/X

--Lajmmoore (talk 18:46, 29 November 2024 (UTC) via MassMessaging

MediaWiki message delivery 22:20, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2024).

Administrator changes

• Ahecht
• DoubleGrazing
• Dr vulpes
• FOARP
• Peaceray
• Queen of Hearts
• Rsjaffe
• SD0001
• SilverLocust
• Sohom Datta
• ThadeusOfNazereth
• Voorts

• Ajpolino
• Fathoms Below
• Pppery
• Tamzin
• Worm That Turned

• Aervanath
• Christopher Sundita
• Dank
• Dennis Brown
• Dragons flight
• Fastily
• Graham87
• JaGa
• Kbh3rd
• Marine 69-71
• Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington
• Yamamoto Ichiro

Interface administrator changes

• SD0001
• Sohom Datta

Pppery

CheckUser changes

• Spicy
• TheresNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• Following an RFC, the policy on restoration of adminship has been updated. All former administrators may now only regain the tools following a request at the Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard within 5 years of their most recent admin action. Previously this applied only to administrators deysopped for inactivity.
• Following a request for comment, a new speedy deletion criterion, T5, has been enacted. This applies to template subpages that are no longer used.

Technical news

• Technical volunteers can now register for the 2025 Wikimedia Hackathon, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. Application for travel and accommodation scholarships is open from November 12 to December 10, 2024.

Arbitration

• The arbitration case Yasuke (formerly titled Backlash to diversity and inclusion) has been closed.
• An arbitration case titled Palestine-Israel articles 5 has been opened. Evidence submissions in this case will close on 14 December.

greenland.gl

sverige

slovakian

tschechian

eastgermany-berlin

women and men and youth Haan miller-stelzer (talk) 16:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Weekly highlight

• Technical documentation contributors can find updated resources, and new ways to connect with each other and the Wikimedia Technical Documentation Team, at the Documentation hub on MediaWiki.org. This page links to: resources for writing and improving documentation, a new #wikimedia-techdocs IRC channel on libera.chat, a listing of past and upcoming documentation events, and ways to request a documentation consultation or review. If you have any feedback or ideas for improvements to the documentation ecosystem, please contact the Technical Documentation Team.

Updates for editors

• Later this week, Edit Check will be relocated to a sidebar on desktop. Edit check is the feature for new editors to help them follow policies and guidelines. This layout change creates space to present people with new Checks that appear while they are typing. The initial results show newcomers encountering Edit Check are 2.2 times more likely to publish a new content edit that includes a reference and is not reverted.
• The Chart extension, which enables editors to create data visualizations, was successfully made available on MediaWiki.org and three pilot wikis (Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew Wikipedias). You can see a working examples on Testwiki and read the November project update for more details.
• Translators in wikis where the mobile experience of Content Translation is available, can now discover articles in Wikiproject campaigns of their interest from the "All collection" category in the articles suggestion feature. Wikiproject Campaign organizers can use this feature, to help translators to discover articles of interest, by adding the <page-collection> </page-collection> tag to their campaign article list page on Meta-wiki. This will make those articles discoverable in the Content Translation tool. For more detailed information on how to use the tool and tag, please refer to the step-by-step guide.
• The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, now has a multiselect filter for namespace selection. This enables users to select multiple specific namespaces, instead of only one or all, when fetching pages for deletion.
• The Nuke feature also now provides links to the userpage of the user whose pages were deleted, and to the pages which were not selected for deletion, after page deletions are queued. This enables easier follow-up admin-actions. Thanks to Chlod and the Moderator Tools team for both of these improvements.
• The Editing Team is working on making it easier to populate citations from archive.org using the Citoid tool, the auto-filled citation generator. They are asking communities to add two parameters preemptively, archiveUrl and archiveDate, within the TemplateData for each citation template using Citoid. You can see an example of a change in a template, and a list of all relevant templates.
• One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in Indonesian (voy:id:)
• Last week, all wikis had problems serving pages to logged-in users and some logged-out users for 30–45 minutes. This was caused by a database problem, and investigation is ongoing.
• View all 19 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug in the Add Link feature has been fixed. Previously, the list of sections which are excluded from Add Link was partially ignored in certain cases.

Updates for technical contributors

• Codex, the design system for Wikimedia, now has an early-stage implementation in PHP. It is available for general use in MediaWiki extensions and Toolforge apps through Composer, with use in MediaWiki core coming soon. More information is available in the documentation. Thanks to Doğu for the inspiration and many contributions to the library.
• Wikimedia REST API users, such as bot operators and tool maintainers, may be affected by ongoing upgrades. On December 4, the MediaWiki Interfaces team began rerouting page/revision metadata and rendered HTML content endpoints on testwiki from RESTbase to comparable MediaWiki REST API endpoints. The team encourages active users of these endpoints to verify their tool's behavior on testwiki and raise any concerns on the related Phabricator ticket before the end of the year, as they intend to roll out the same change across all Wikimedia projects in early January. These changes are part of the work to replace the outdated RESTBase system.
• The 2024 Developer Satisfaction Survey is seeking the opinions of the Wikimedia developer community. Please take the survey if you have any role in developing software for the Wikimedia ecosystem. The survey is open until 3 January 2025, and has an associated privacy statement.
• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings and events

• The next meeting in the series of Wikimedia Foundation discussions with the Wikimedia Commons community will take place on December 12 at 8:00 UTC and at 16:00 UTC. The topic of this call is new media and new contributors. Contributors from all wikis are welcome to attend.

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

MediaWiki message delivery 22:13, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

slovakian tschechian sverige eastgermany-berlin and all teams from vfb stuttgart .de --Haan miller-stelzer (talk) 16:41, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

@Haan miller-stelzer Welcome to Wikipedia. I do not understand your question. Do you need help in some way? If so, please explain what you need. Thanks. Nick Moyes (talk) 06:21, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Hey @Nick Moyes, I hope you are doing well. In the teahouse (Link)I had originally asked for some advice regarding the Quinte Health article. You had suggested I add a section on controversies and that has been done. Do you have any other suggestions on how to further the article? Best Regards CF-501 Falcon (talk) 21:44, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

@CF-501 Falcon No, everything seems fine. I spotted one typo where there was a spurious “to” somewhere. And ref 7 could be tidied up. Have you created a WP:REDIRECT for each hospital name?

Other than that, it’s excellent! Nick Moyes (talk) 06:31, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

@Nick Moyes Thank you for the response. I have cleaned up ref 7 and I already had added redirects from each hospital's name. Any suggestions for me in general about editing, or content. Again, Thank you. Have a good day! CF-501 Falcon (talk) 15:11, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

Colman2000 (talk) is wishing you Happy Holidays! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user Happy Holidays, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Happy holidays}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Colman2000 (talk) 21:20, 11 December 2024 (UTC)