User talk:Davidwr/Archives/Archive 21

Copyright checks when performing AfC reviews
Hello. This message is part of a mass mailing to people who appear active in reviewing articles for creation submissions. First of all, thank you for taking part in this important work! I'm sorry this message is a form letter – it really was the only way I could think of to covey the issue economically. Of course, this also means that I have not looked to see whether the matter is applicable to you in particular. The issue is in rather large numbers of copyright violations ("copyvios") making their way through AfC reviews without being detected (even when easy to check, and even when hallmarks of copyvios in the text that should have invited a check, were glaring). A second issue is the correct method of dealing with them when discovered. If you don't do so already, I'd like to ask for your to help with this problem by taking on the practice of performing a copyvio check as the first step in any AfC review. The most basic method is to simply copy a unique but small portion of text from the draft body and run it through a search engine in quotation marks. Trying this from two different paragraphs is recommended. (If you have any question about whether the text was copied from the draft, rather than the other way around (a "backwards copyvio"), the Wayback Machine is very useful for sussing that out.) If you do find a copyright violation, please do not decline the draft on that basis. Copyright violations need to be dealt with immediately as they may harm those whose content is being used and expose Wikipedia to potential legal liability. If the draft is substantially a copyvio, and there's no non-infringing version to revert to, please mark the page for speedy deletion right away using. If there is an assertion of permission, please replace the draft article's content with. Some of the more obvious indicia of a copyvio are use of the first person ("we/our/us..."), phrases like "this site", or apparent artifacts of content written for somewhere else ("top", "go to top", "next page", "click here", use of smartquotes, etc.); inappropriate tone of voice, such as an overly informal tone or a very slanted marketing voice with weasel words; including intellectual property symbols (™,®); and blocks of text being added all at once in a finished form with no misspellings or other errors. I hope this message finds you well and thanks again you for your efforts in this area. Best regards--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:20, 18 November 2014 (UTC). Sent via--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:20, 18 November 2014 (UTC)


 * I haven't been significantly involved in AFC for several months, but when I was, there was a specific "decline" reason which was for copyright violations. This was available in the then-current AFC Helper Script.  When used in the script, it notified the submitter that the submission was declined and (unless a check-box was un-checked) nominated the submission page for speedy deletion.  Again, things may have changed since I was last involved in AFC work.  When I come back, I will bring myself up to speed on the current processes before I get too heavily involved.  davidwr/  (talk)/(contribs)  22:45, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-48
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The move from Bugzilla to Phabricator is done. You can now report bugs in Phabricator.

Problems
 * There was a problem when editing tables in VisualEditor. VisualEditor was trying to fix bad values for the  or   option. VisualEditor now leaves the bad values to avoid making things worse. This was fixed on November 17.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki ( 1.25wmf9 ) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since November 19. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 25, and on all Wikipedias from November 26 (calendar).
 * You will be able to try VisualEditor on many new wikis for the first time. After November 26, VisualEditor will become available on Wikidata, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews wikis. You can find it in your Beta options.
 * VisualEditor now tells you if your edit needs to be approved.
 * You can now use VisualEditor's tools directly when you resume editing after closing the save window.
 * VisualEditor's table editing tools now work better in right-to-left languages.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  19:31, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

neutral RfC notification
Template_talk:Succession_box  has a discussion on succession box usage. You had previously noted or opined at Template_talk:Infobox_officeholder/Archive_18 thanks. Collect (talk) 21:30, 27 November 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)

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.  16:44, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Texas State Railroad Logo.jpg
 Thanks for uploading File:Texas State Railroad Logo.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 21:58, 15 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. No objection to deletion, as the company now uses a different logo and this logo has no known encyclopedic value (i.e. it's not worthy of critical commentary, historical value, etc. as far as I can tell).  davidwr/  (talk)/(contribs)  21:37, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

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)

Merry Christmas?
Well somebody has decided to give Wikipedia a 'gift' in the form of the latest version of Asif Ali Laghari  as Asif Ali Laighari by another likely sock of. For reference Articles for deletion/Asif Ali Laghari.
 * Merry Christmas from me anyway!--220  of  Borg 12:57, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

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)

Happy Holidays!
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of &#123;&#123;U&#124;&#125;&#125; to all registered users whom have commented on his talk page. To prevent receiving future messages, please follow the opt-out instructions on User:Technical 13/Holiday list

Neutral notification
You previously voted, opined, commented, or otherwise took part, at Template talk:Infobox officeholder/Archive 18. Please see a related discussion at Template talk:Infobox officeholder. Kraxler (talk) 15:28, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-03
 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.  16:47, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-04
 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.  18:13, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-05
 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.  16:08, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

RfC: AfC Helper Script access
An RfC has been opened at RfC to physically restrict access to the Helper Script. You are invited to  comment. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 17:10, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

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)

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"/> 16:27, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

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)

Tech News: 2015-09
<section begin="technews-2015-W09"/> 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 new accounts are now global.
 * Your Meta user page is now shown if you don't have a user page on a wiki. You can report problems if you see any. You can ask a bot to delete your old user pages.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 18. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from February 25. It will be on all Wikipedias from February 26 (calendar).
 * It is now easier to see template fields in VisualEditor. The fields are bigger.
 * It is now easier to see when a button is disabled in VisualEditor.
 * Sometimes when you copy-pasted a template in VisualEditor, it was replaced by HTML. This problem is now fixed.
 * Tools in Labs will stop working for a few hours on February 24.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next 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 26 at 00:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * At the moment you need to log in to edit Wikimedia wikis on mobile devices. You can say if anyone should be allowed to edit on the mobile sites. The discussion ends on March 15.
 * Images in the interface will soon work better in Opera 12.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W09"/> 16:29, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-10
<section begin="technews-2015-W10"/> 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
 * A Lua function to use Wikidata has changed. You need to update the pages that use it.
 * You can use the Content Translation tool on Wikipedia in Uzbek and Minangkabau. You need to enable it in your Beta options.
 * You can now hide banners if you don't have an account.

Software changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since February 25. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 3. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 4 (calendar).
 * You can use the Content Translation tool on Wikipedia in Punjabi and Kyrgyz. You can ask for the tool in other languages.
 * Editing the fake blank line in VisualEditor is now simpler. This change also fixed a few bugs.
 * The TemplateData editor now warns you if a related page already has TemplateData.
 * The TemplateData table now tells you if a template doesn't take any parameters.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 4 at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join technical meetings in France and Mexico this year. You will be able to ask for help if you can't pay yourself.

Future changes
 * You will be able to get a direct link for a section of a page.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. <section end="technews-2015-W10"/> 16:41, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-11
<section begin="technews-2015-W11"/> 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 now create books on almost all wikis. It doesn't work yet on wikis using the language converter.
 * VisualEditor had problems with categories in Safari. It sometimes moved or removed the categories. The issue is now fixed.

Changes this week
 * The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since March 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from March 10. It will be on all Wikipedias from March 11 (calendar).
 * In VisualEditor the "Edit beta" button is now called "Edit" on the English Wikipedia.
 * The feedback tool in VisualEditor now looks like the other tools. It also asks for information about your browser to help fix bugs.
 * You now see the VisualEditor toolbar even if the rest of the page is still loading.
 * You now see more information when you edit a link, a reference or other items in VisualEditor. You also see a clearer edit button in those tools.
 * If you use the ContentTranslation tool you now see red links in the list of articles in other languages. The link is red if the article doesn't exist in the language of your options or of your browser. You can translate the article by clicking on the red link.

Meetings
 * You can read the notes from the last meeting with the VisualEditor team.
 * You can join the next weekly meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meetings you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on March 11 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
 * You can join a technical meeting in France in May. You can ask for help if you can't pay yourself.

Future changes
 * You can get help to become a developer. You can learn more on the Google Summer of Code and Outreachy pages.
 * You will soon be able to read technical reports 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-W11"/> 15:19, 9 March 2015 (UTC)