User:The ed17/Archives/78

Technology report
If a once-monthly thing will do, I'll take it over, but I'll need a little help with the FC those weeks. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:17, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I can help as long as I have advance notice that I need to block out library time to do it... or to make it easier on all of us, we can try to find a partner for you to assist on busy weeks. Maybe I can poach from the Bugle to occasionally help out with the featured content section? :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:32, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry Ed, I don't have the time for extra newsletter duties at the moment: my work is permanently crazy this year. Regards, Nick-D (talk) 23:03, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
 * No worries, I know that feeling right now. We'll keep hunting. Best, Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:46, 1 June 2014 (UTC)
 * (Assuming we're talking Signpost here) I'm hoping to get back into writing these soon. - Jarry1250 [Vacation needed] 20:58, 1 June 2014 (UTC)
 * That would be helpful. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:52, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 May 2014

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Thanks for the Barnstar!
BTW, just so you know, the raw data for the traffic report hasn't been posted this week, and I haven't heard back from User:West.andrew.g, so I don't know if there will be a Traffic Report next week. :-(  Serendi pod ous  04:43, 2 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, ! Not much you can do if the data isn't posted, so no worries. Ed [talk] [majestic titan]
 * It is coming this evening. Sorry for brevity, more details to my talk page shortly. West.andrew.g (talk) 21:01, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Kronan-thanks
Thank you for commenting Kronan FAC. I really appreciate all the helpful pointers.

Peter Isotalo 16:35, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Anytime, Peter. I'm happy to see it passed! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:56, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes, Issue 6
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 6, April-May 2014 by ,

 Read the full newsletter MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:59, 5 June 2014 (UTC)
 * New donations from Oxford University Press and Royal Society (UK)
 * TWL does Vegas: American Library Association Annual plans
 * TWL welcomes a new coordinator, resources for library students and interns
 * New portal on Meta, resources for starting TWL branches, donor call blitzes, Wikipedia Visiting Scholar news, and more

Wikipedia Signpost/2014-06-04/Featured content
It's set up; could use some help with the descriptions, but can finish it tomorrow if you can't help. Probably best not to publish the Signpost without it, given Portal:Featured content. Adam Cuerden (talk) 06:35, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

FC
And we're done. =)

The Signpost: 04 June 2014

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The whole barn

 * +1.  Go  Phightins  !  17:50, 8 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you, and . :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 01:58, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM: May 2014
Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 00:28, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Signpost proposal English WP Geography coverage
Items from the trees that have no article in English WP ... More than 1000 items exist in 10 language versions, but not in the English WP. Tamawashi (talk) 17:39, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
 * https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q618123 geographical features
 * https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15642541 humangeographic territorial entity
 * http://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-terminator/?list&lang=en&mode=tx&q=claim[31:(tree[618123,15642541][][279])]
 * Hey, I'm not fully certain of what you're trying to tell me. Are you saying that there are over 1000 geography-related articles on other Wikipedias that the English Wikipedia does not have? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 01:58, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Many more than 1000, but there are 1000 geo items that are present in at least 10 other Wikipedias. The third link above (correct link in source, wiki rendering is broken) shows, that in position 1000 there are still 10 other Wikipedias having a text. Maybe there are 10 000 items that are present in 5 Wikipedias and not in the English Wikipedia. If the list of these items would be known to more editors, it might trigger some article creations in the English Wikipedia. And what I think is very important, is, that even stubs have a big value here, since via them readers can find the articles in the other Wikipedias and the content that exists in Wikidata. Tamawashi (talk) 02:22, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Forgive me for being a devil's advocate, but how many false positives are there? The first example on the list is Taiwan, which definitely has an article here. ;-) The second is (on en.wp) a redirect from Giurtelecu Șimleului to Măeriște. The third is the Persian Empire. The fourth is at Fresno de Caracena, not Caracena. Only when we get to Nolay, which on en.wp would be located at Nolay, Soria, do we find something that isn't on en.wp. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 04:59, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * 1) The island of Taiwan has no article in the English Wikipedia. 2) A redirect is not an article. 3) Persian Empire - I wonder why it is not linked 4) Fresno de Caracena is some kilometers away from Caracena. E.g. check Spanish Wikipedia which has articles for both. 5) "Only when we get to Nolay, which on en.wp would be located at Nolay, Soria, do we find something that isn't on en.wp." - Not sure whom you include in "we", but I don't belong to that group. In the mean time I found that the article about Ido Wikipedia had been redirected. Other Wikipedias do not treat that Wikipedia edition in that way: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1154766. So the big French, English, German, Italian are of the opinion that this small Wikipedia merits no article. There may be more indication of cultural bias. I would be very happy to read about the Ido Wikipedia, but some content control group stays in the way :( . Who are these control people? White male computer geeks? Tamawashi (talk) 08:33, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Is it surprising that the content of the English-language Wikipedia is weighted towards topics most of interest to/familiar to English-speaking people? This has been long-known (and I think has been the subject of some Signpost articles in the past), and while it's obviously a problem (and an opportunity for article writers!), I imagine that other language Wikipedias have pretty much the same issue. The island of Taiwan appears to be covered in the Geography of Taiwan article BTW - which has similar content to what's in Australia (continent) (a country which everyone agrees is over-represented!). Nick-D (talk) 08:42, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

FC
I should have this ready tomorrow night: have a bit of a cold just now, plus have been really busy the last couple days due to my birthday and a few other things. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:19, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
 * happy birthday! I hope it was a good one with cake and a drink or four. As I said, I'll be publishing on Friday UTC, so you have a little time. Thanks for all your hard work! On a side note, would you like me to start looking for someone to accompany you, or would you have someone you would enjoy working with in mind? I don't like you shouldering all of this burden each week. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:27, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
 * It would be nice to have someone; it is a fair bit of work. It would be nice to have someone experienced with featured articles or lists, so that - you know how I sometimes highlight a Wikipedian's work? I know the FP people pretty well, but if I had an FA or FL person, they could highlight notable contributors to those projects as well. Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:45, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Sounds good! I'll send out a few emails soon then. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 01:58, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Do I not count as accompaniment? :( I can finish this report if necessary. --Pine✉ 03:19, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry, that wasn't meant as an insult! You're not available each week (I think?), so I was going to look for someone permanent. That would also free you up for more meta stories, like the interview you proposed! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 04:59, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * OK, yes, I'm not necessarily available every week and having a regular help to Adam would be ideal. And yes, there would be a benefit in freeing up some of my Signpost time for Meta reports. I'm looking forward to seeing how this first interview goes. --Pine✉ 07:45, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Aye. I do appreciate your work, but which weeks you're available can vary a lot, and this doesn't always match the weeks where I'm a bit busy. Also - I might well be wrong on this - but so far as I know, you aren't particularly active in featured processes (outside of FP), so, like me, would need to research FA, FL, FT, and FPO contributors: having someone who knows them already would be helpful. =) I might well be wrong, though; since I'm not active, I'm not quite sure who is. Adam Cuerden (talk) 09:05, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I know enough about the other processes to recognize frequent contributors and be able to interview them, but feel free to try to recruit an expert from one of the other processes. Hahc21 has done a lot of work with FLs. --<b style="color:#01796F;">Pine</b><sup style="color:#01796F;">✉ 08:06, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I did not know that! Any FA or FL or FPO contributors we should highlight in the coming week? Adam Cuerden (talk) 10:24, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I can help a bit with FA too, though it's been awhile. One possible person would be, who has continued his large series of Michigan highway articles this week with U.S. Route 31 in Michigan. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:58, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 11 June 2014
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This Month in Education: June 2014
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:12, 16 June 2014 (UTC) <div style="margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> If this message is not on your home wiki's talk page, please update your subscription.

Signpost
Allergies are knocking me out. FC will be very late if noone else can do it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:55, 19 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for letting me know. I'm hoping to publish tomorrow US time ... think you can make it? I can try pinging someone, or we can leave it as a list of links. At the least, would you be able to add in relevant pictures? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 02:29, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
 * We really, really should NOT publish as a list of links. Portal:Featured content has between ten and a hundred times the views of any other Signpost article. I'll try. back to bed for now, though. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:50, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
 * It's about 2/3rds done. If someone can help with the FPs, we can get it out. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:59, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
 * It's done. Publish away. Please get me some help for next week, though. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:41, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
 * You're awesome. I will hunt someone down, even if I can only get them to commit to helping out on a temporary basis while I work on a more permanent solution. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 00:23, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library: New Account Coordinators Needed
Hi Books & Bytes recipients: The Wikipedia Library has been expanding rapidly and we need some help! We currently have 10 signups for free account access open and several more in the works... In order to help with those signups, distribute access codes, and manage accounts we'll need 2-3 more Account Coordinators.

It takes about an hour to get up and running and then only takes a couple hours per week, flexible depending upon your schedule and routine. If you're interested in helping out, please drop a note in the next week at my talk page or shoot me an email at: jorlowitz@undefinedgmail.com. Thanks and cheers, Jake Ocaasi via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:41, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue XCIX, June 2014
The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here. If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 15:04, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 June 2014
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ITM
- I will be away for the next two weeks, and consequently will be unable to contribute to this month's ITM. I apologize, and hope others can pick up the ball this month.  Go  Phightins  !  02:08, 22 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Pinging too ... we'll make it work. Thanks for letting me know! :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 02:53, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Report title
Ed, please do not change significant features of my reports without talking with me first. The alteration that you made implies that there was a five-year struggle, which there was not. The struggle was mainly in the past two years with the civil registration process. I appreciate people making copyedits or formatting improvements to my reports but please talk with me first before changing the substance of what I've written in a report that has my name in the byline. Thanks, --<span style="white-space:nowrap;text-shadow:#008C3A 0.1em 0.1em 1.5em,#01796F -0.1em -0.1em 1.5em;"><b style="color:#01796F;">Pine</b><sup style="color:#01796F;">✉ 08:29, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * That's fair! Thanks for shooting me a message. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 17:48, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Need help
Can you please this.VictoriaGrayson (talk) 21:36, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Please review the edit histories of all involved - I think WP:DRN might be a better choice with so many POV pushers involved John Carter (talk) 22:26, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I've commented on 's talk page. Thanks, Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 02:56, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

VisualEditor global newsletter—June 2014
Did you know? The character formatting menu, or "" menu lets you set bold, italic, and other text styles. "Clear formatting" removes all text styles and removes links to other pages.

Do you think that clear formatting should remove links? Are there changes you would like to see for this menu? Share your opinion at MediaWiki.org.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor. The VisualEditor team is mostly working to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can find on Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.


 * They have moved the "" link out of the "" menu, into the "" menu. Within dialog boxes, buttons are now more accessible (via the Tab key) from the keyboard.
 * You can now see the target of the link when you click on it, without having to open the inspector.
 * The team also expanded TemplateData: You can now add a parameter type "  for dates and times in the ISO 8601 format, and  "  for values which are true or false.  Also, templates that redirect to other templates (like   →  ) now get the TemplateData of their target (bug 50964).  You can test TemplateData by editing mw:Template:Sandbox/doc.
 * Category: and File: pages now display their contents correctly after saving an edit (bug 65349, bug 64239)
 * They have also improved reference editing: You should no longer be able to add empty citations with VisualEditor (bug 64715), as with references.  When you edit a reference, you can now empty it and click the "use an existing reference" button to replace it with another reference instead.
 * It is now possible to edit inline images with VisualEditor. Remember that inline images cannot display captions, so existing captions get removed.  Many other bugs related to images were also fixed.
 * You can now add and edit  and   in  the "" menu, rounding out the full set of page options currently planned.
 * The tool to insert special characters is now wider and simpler.

Looking ahead
The VisualEditor team has posted a draft of their goals for the next fiscal year. You can read them and suggest changes on MediaWiki.org.

The team posts details about planned work on VisualEditor's roadmap. You will soon be able to drag-and-drop text as well as images. If you drag an image to a new place, it won't let you place it in the middle of a paragraph. All dialog boxes and windows will be simplified based on user testing and feedback. The VisualEditor team plans to add autofill features for citations. Your ideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support for upright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments and adding rows and columns to tables.

Supporting your wiki
Please read VisualEditor/Citation tool for information on configuring the new citation template menu, labeled "". This menu will not appear unless it has been configured on your wiki.

If you speak a language other than English, we need your help with translating the user guide. The guide is out of date or incomplete for many languages, and what's on your wiki may not be the most recent translation. Please contact me if you need help getting started with translation work on MediaWiki.org.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product manager James Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining the office hours on Saturday, 19 July 2014 at 21:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas and Pacific Islands) or on Thursday, 14 August 2014 at 9:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East, Asia).

To change your subscription to this newsletter, please see the subscription pages on Meta or the English Wikipedia. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:59, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

FC
Will have this done tomorrow. Stressful week. Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:08, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * And we're done. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:38, 27 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Adam! Stressful week here too. Publishing will be soon. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 17:23, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

Main Page appearance: Alaska-class cruiser
This is a note to let the main editors of Alaska-class cruiser know that the article will be appearing as today's featured article on July 23, 2014. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. If you prefer that the article appear as TFA on a different date, or not at present, please ask. You can view the TFA blurb at Today's featured article/July 23, 2014. If it needs tweaking, or if it needs rewording to match improvements to the article between now and its main page appearance, please edit it, following the instructions at Today's featured article/requests/instructions. The blurb as it stands now is below:

The Alaska-class cruisers were a class of six cruisers ordered prior to World War II for the U.S. Navy. Officially they were classed as "Large Cruisers (CB)", although others regarded them as battlecruisers. Their intermediate status is reflected in the naming of the ships after US territories and insular areas, rather than states (battleships) or cities (cruisers). The idea for a large cruiser class originated in the early 1930s when the Navy sought to counter German Deutschland-class "pocket battleships". Planning of what became the Alaska class began in the later 1930s after the deployment of Germany's Scharnhorst-class battleships and rumors that Japan was constructing a new battlecruiser class. To serve as "cruiser-killers" capable of seeking out and destroying such ships, the Alaska class was given large guns, limited armor protection against 12-inch shells, and machinery capable of speeds of about 31–33 knots (36–38 mph, 58–61 km/h). Of the six planned, two were completed and a third was cancelled during construction. USS Alaska (CB-1) and USS Guam (CB-2) (pictured) served for the last year of World War II as bombardment ships and fast carrier escorts, and were decommissioned in 1947.

You (and your talk-page stalkers) may also be interested to hear that there have been some changes at the TFA requests page recently. Nominators no longer need to calculate how many "points" an article has, the instructions have been simplified, and there's a new nomination system using templates based on those used for DYK suggestions. Please consider nominating another article, or commenting on an existing nomination, and leaving some feedback on your experience. Thank you. UcuchaBot (talk) 23:02, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 June 2014
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User:Russavia/Pricasso (draft) listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect User:Russavia/Pricasso (draft). Since you had some involvement with the User:Russavia/Pricasso (draft) redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. Darkness Shines (talk) 11:18, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Big mess this week
Could you please check the Top 25 talk page?  Serendi <sup style="color:#bb0000;">pod ous  18:46, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Checking! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 06:20, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

WikiCup 2014 June newsletter
After an extremely close race, Round 3 is over. 244 points secured a place in Round 4, which is comparable to previous years- 321 was required in 2013, while 243 points were needed in 2012. Pool C's was the round's highest scorer, mostly due to a 32 featured pictures, including both scans and photographs. Also from Pool C, finished second overall, claiming three featured articles, including the high-importance Grus (constellation). Third place was Pool B's, whose contributions included featured articles Russian battleship Poltava (1894) and Russian battleship Peresvet. Pool C saw the highest number of participants advance, with six out of eight making it to the next round.

The round saw this year's first featured portal, with taking Portal:Literature to featured status. The round also saw the first good topic points, thanks to and the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. This means that all content types have been claimed this year. Other contributions of note this round include a featured topic on Maya Angelou's autobiographies from, a good article on the noted Czech footballer Tomáš Rosický from and a now-featured video game screenshot, freely released due to the efforts of.

The judges would like to remind participants to update submission pages promptly. This means that content can be checked, and allows those following the competition (including those participating) to keep track of scores effectively. This round has seen discussion about various aspects of the WikiCup's rules and procedures. Those interested in the competition can be assured that formal discussions about how next year's competition will work will be opened shortly, and all are welcome to voice their views then. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. and 18:48, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

Wikicup in the Signpost
If it's not a problem, I'd like to hold the Wikicup until the Signpost after the next one. It'll give a little more time to sort out the pictoral guide with things the Wikicup participants select. Plus, it looks like I'm back to soloing FC. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:29, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * That's fine, Adam. I'll get to work finding someone permanent asap, and will email Ian to see if he can help out for another couple of weeks at the least. Thank you very much! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:36, 30 June 2014 (UTC)