User talk:Bill william compton/Archive 29

WikiCup 2015 is just around the corner...
Hello everyone, and may we wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2015 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. We have a few important announcements concerning the future of the WikiCup.


 * We would like to announce that Josh (J Milburn) and Ed (The ed17), who have been WikiCup judges since 2009 and 2010 respectively, are stepping down. This decision has been made for a number of reasons, but the main one is time. Both Josh and Ed have found that, over the previous year, they have been unable to devote the time necessary to the WikiCup, and it is not likely that they will be able to do this in the near future. Furthermore, new people at the helm can only help to invigorate the WikiCup and keep it dynamic. Josh and Ed will still be around, and will likely be participating in the Cup this following year as competitors, which is where both started out.
 * In a similar vein, we hope you will all join us in welcoming Jason (Sturmvogel 66) and Christine (Figureskatingfan), who are joining Brian (Miyagawa) to form the 2015 WikiCup judging team. Jason is a WikiCup veteran, having won in 2010 and finishing in fifth this year. Christine has participated in two WikiCups, reaching the semi-finals in both, and is responsible for the GA Cup, which she now co-runs.
 * The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. While it may be impossible to please everyone, the judges will make every effort to ensure that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.

If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk), The ed17 (talk), Miyagawa (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Figureskatingfan (talk) 18:53, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-50
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * All users are now getting pages from servers that run the HHVM tool. HHVM should make pages load faster.
 * You can join a video chat about Phabricator on December 11 at 18:00 (UTC). Phabricator is the new tool to report issues.

Problems
 * There was a problem with Phabricator on November 29. It was due to a network issue.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf11 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since December 3. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from December 9. It will be on all Wikipedias from December 10 (calendar).
 * You can now exit VisualEditor by pressing the "Esc" key.
 * It is now easier to use VisualEditor with IMEs. Typing in Malayalam now works better.
 * The new version of OOjs UI fixed many issues with the size and layout of buttons in dialogs.
 * (Lua) You can no longer use  to get the HTML from special page transclusion. You can see a list of scripts to fix.

Future changes
 * Starting next week JavaScript tools won't work if they use jQuery Migrate.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  17:11, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of File:Transmissions.jpg


A tag has been placed on File:Transmissions.jpg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F2 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Stefan2 (talk) 16:32, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 10 December 2014

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Speedy deletion nomination of File:Skanderbeg Skopje.jpg


A tag has been placed on File:Skanderbeg Skopje.jpg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F2 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Stefan2 (talk) 22:05, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-51
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * You may see a new tool tested on the mobile site of the English Wikipedia. It asks simple questions to make the article better. In the future, your answers will go to Wikidata.
 * You can watch a video to learn how to use Phabricator to manage projects.
 * You can test a new version of the Content Translation tool.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf12 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since December 10. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from December 16. It will be on all Wikipedias from December 17 (calendar).
 * You can now find and replace text in VisualEditor. You can open the tool via the menu,  or.
 * VisualEditor now doesn't change the space at the end of a text that you make bold.
 * The "Apply changes" button in the reference window of VisualEditor is now disabled until you make a change.

Future changes
 * The star image of the watchlist may change soon.
 * You won't be able to use Phabricator on December 18, 2014. It will be down between 00:00 and 08:00 (UTC).

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:43, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Now Available (December 2014)
Hello Wikimedians! The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for, free, full-access accounts to published research as part of our Publisher Donation Program. You can sign up for:


 * Elsevier - science and medicine journals and books
 * Royal Society of Chemistry - chemistry journals
 * Pelican Books - ebook monographs
 * Public Catalogue Foundation- art books

Other partnerships with accounts available are listed on our partners page. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today! --The Wikipedia Library Team.00:25, 18 December 2014 (UTC)


 * You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contact Ocaasi (WMF).
 * This message was delivered via the Mass Message tool to the Book & Bytes recipient list.

The Signpost: 17 December 2014

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Tech News: 2014-52
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * The Technical Operations team is now using Phabricator to track their tasks. The Operations team manages the Wikimedia servers. In the future you will be able to see the tasks that are not private.

Software changes this week
 * There will be no software changes this week and next week. This is because of the end-of-year holidays. The next update of MediaWiki will be on January 6.

Future changes
 * The system that displays citations will change in the future. The new system will not change the style of citations.
 * A new design for VisualEditor will come in January. You can try it now on test wikis.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:52, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2014

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Tech News: 2015-01
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Software changes
 * There are no technical changes this week.

Feedback about Tech News in 2014
 * The writers of the technical newsletter are asking for your opinion. Did you get the information you wanted this year? Did we miss important technical news in 2014? What kind of information was too late? Please tell us at m:Talk:Tech/News. You can write in your language. Thank you!

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  16:52, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015 launch newsletter
Round one of the 2015 WikiCup has begun! So far we've had around 80 signups, which close on February 5. If you have not already signed up and want to do so, then you can add your name here. There have been changes to to several of the points scores for various categories, and the addition of Peer Reviews for the first time. These will work in the same manner as Good Article Reviews, and all of the changes are summarised here.

Remember that only the top 64 scoring competitors will make it through to the second round, and one of the new changes this year is that all scores must be claimed within two weeks of an article's promotion or appearance, so don't forget to add them to your submissions pages! If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, and you hope to get it promoted before the end of the round, please list it on WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAN, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages. Good luck! , and

If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Opted-out of message delivery to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:51, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 December 2014

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Books and Bytes - Issue 9
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 9, November-December 2014 by, ,

 Read the full newsletter MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:36, 8 January 2015 (UTC)
 * New donations, including real-paper-and-everything books, e-books, science journal databases, and more
 * New TWL coordinators, conference news, a new open-access journal database, summary of library-related WMF grants, and more
 * Spotlight: "Global Impact: The Wikipedia Library and Persian Wikipedia" - a Persian Wikipedia editor talks about their experiences with database access in Iran, writing on the Persian project and the JSTOR partnership

The Signpost: 07 January 2015

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Tech News: 2015-03
<section begin="technews-2015-W03"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * Rotated PDF files in landscape format used to show too small. They will now display correctly. You may need to purge older files.
 * You can now use the  magic word instead of Template:!. Many wikis used the template to create a pipe  in tables and templates. You can delete the template.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf14 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since January 7. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from January 13. It will be on all Wikipedias from January 14 (calendar).
 * A bug in VisualEditor sometimes added a  (Sun) character. This is now fixed.
 * The search and replace tool in VisualEditor is now much faster in long pages.
 * The TemplateData editor now uses the same design as VisualEditor.
 * The  option is now shown in your language in the help of the classic editor toolbar.

Future changes
 * You can sign up to answer questions from designers. It will help them make editing easier.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W03"/> 16:47, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 January 2015
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Tech News: 2015-04
<section begin="technews-2015-W04"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * You can download the new version of the Wikipedia app for Android. The new version shows lead images, better galleries and content from Wikidata. It also has many other new features.
 * Programs and bots still can't read information about images on many wikis. You can see the list of wikis with the most files to fix. Wikipedia in Italian, Indonesian and Japanese language have the most files to fix. On the biggest wikis you should use bots. Bots can add information templates to groups of files. You can ask other tech users to help you.

Problems
 * All JavaScript on Commons was broken for a few minutes on Tuesday. It was because of old code in the HotCat tool. The same problem happened on some Wikipedias on Wednesday. It is now fixed.

Software changes this week
 * There are no software changes this week and next week due to annual meetings.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W04"/> 18:13, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 21 January 2015
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Tech News: 2015-05
<section begin="technews-2015-W05"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * You can now translate articles with the new ContentTranslation tool on several wikis.

This week
 * There are no software changes this week due to annual meetings.

Future changes
 * You can join a project to improve WikiProjects.
 * The Compact Personal Bar will be removed for now. It has a bug that breaks the tool to choose your language. It will come back when the bug is fixed.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W05"/> 16:08, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 January 2015
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Tech News: 2015-06
<section begin="technews-2015-W06"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems
 * There was a security issue on Wikimedia Labs. Many Labs tools were down after the issue was fixed.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since January 14. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 3. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 4 (calendar).
 * The "Save page" button in the VisualEditor toolbar is now blue rather than green. This is the same as on the mobile site.
 * You can now edit pages on the draft namespace with VisualEditor on the Russian Wikipedia and Hebrew Wikipedia. You can ask to get VisualEditor for a namespace on your wiki. When your community agrees, ask in Phabricator.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W06"/> 16:31, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 04 February 2015
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February 2015 Wikification drive
Greetings! Just spreading a message to the members of WikiProject Wikify that the February drive has been started. Better late than never! Come on, sign up! :) Grinding, grinding, grinding... what are we finding, finding, finding... (talk) 20:34, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-07
<section begin="technews-2015-W07"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent software changes
 * You can now use  to transclude a section with its title.

Problems
 * MediaWiki was reverted to the previous version on February 4. It was because of a performance issue. It was restored later.
 * UploadWizard was broken on February 4 because of the revert of MediaWiki.
 * All sites were broken for 30 minutes on February 5. It was due to a network problem.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 5. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 10. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 11 (calendar).
 * You can have one user page for all wikis. Your Meta user page will show if you don't have a user page on a wiki. You can test this tool on test wikis.
 * You can search for media files in VisualEditor more easily. Images are bigger and you see the size and license.
 * It is easier to review your changes when you save the page in VisualEditor. The window is wider.
 * You can read the latest news about VisualEditor. You can now join weekly meetings with developers. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The first meeting is on February 11 at 20:00 (UTC).

Future changes
 * Administrators will soon be able to delete change tags used fewer than 5,000 times.
 * In the future you will be able to have personal lists of articles on the mobile site.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W07"/> 16:26, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 11 February 2015
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Tech News: 2015-08
<section begin="technews-2015-W08"/> Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 17. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 18 (calendar).
 * On Wednesday your Meta user page will be shown if you don't have a user page on a wiki.
 * You can now change the order of categories in VisualEditor using drag-and-drop.
 * In VisualEditor, you now need to make a change before you can "Apply Changes" to citations and templates.
 * The way the cursor moves in VisualEditor is changing. Your browser now handles the cursor directly. Most of you will see no change. In right-to-left text, the cursor now moves in a 'visible' rather than 'logical' way. This is like other sites but you may be surprised at first.​

Meetings
 * The VisualEditor Team had their first public bug triage meeting on February 11. They will post the results on the meeting page.
 * You can join the second weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on February 18 at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join a meeting with the developers of the Content Translation tool. It will be on February 18 at 13:00 (UTC).

Future changes
 * You can comment on a proposal about abandoned Labs tools.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W08"/> 17:57, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 February 2015
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