User talk:Interstellarity/Archives/2019/September

Administrators' newsletter – September 2019
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2019). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Bradv • Chetsford • Izno
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg Floquenbeam • Lectonar
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg DESiegel • Jake Wartenberg • Rjanag • Topbanana

CheckUser changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Callanecc • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-remove.svg Callanecc • Fox • HJ Mitchell • LFaraone • There'sNoTime

Technical news
 * Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools.
 * The advanced version of the edit review pages (recent changes, watchlist, and related changes) now includes two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces.

Arbitration
 * A request for comment is open to provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the 2019 English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee election and to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

Miscellaneous
 * A global request for comment is in progress regarding whether a user group should be created that could modify edit filters across all public Wikimedia wikis.

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Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:37, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia statistics
Hi Interstellarity. I was looking for an answer to your question on IRC. I found this Wikimedia website which shows edit rate and other statistics. https://grafana.wikimedia.org/. I thought I should let you know. :) Masum Reza 📞 16:58, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the information. Interstellarity (talk) 17:12, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter September-October 2019
Hello ,

Instead of reaching a magic 300 as it once did last year, the backlog approaching 6,000 is still far too high. An effort is also needed to ensure that older unsuitable older pages at the back of the queue do not get automatically indexed for Google.
 * Backlog

A proposal is taking place here to confirm a nominated user as Coordinator of NPR.
 * Coordinator

Why I Hate Speedy Deleters, a 2008 essay by long since retired, is still as valid today. Those of us who patrol large numbers of new pages can be forgiven for  making  the occasional  mistake while  others can learn from  their 'beginner' errors. Worth reading.
 * This month's refresher course

Do bear in mind that articles in the feed showing the trash can icon (you will need to have 'Nominated for deletion' enabled for this in your filters) may have been tagged by inexperienced or non NPR rights holders using Twinkle. They require your further verification.
 * Deletion tags

Please be sure to look for the tell-tale signs of undisclosed paid editing. Contact the creator if appropriate, and submit the issue to WP:COIN if necessary. WMF policy requires paid editors to connect to their adverts.
 * Paid editing


 * Subject-specific notability guidelines' (SNG). Alternatives to deletion
 * Reviewers are requested to familiarise themselves once more with notability guidelines for organisations and companies.
 * Blank-and-Redirect is a solution anchored in policy. Please consider this alternative before PRODing or CSD. Note however, that users will often revert or usurp redirects to re-create deleted articles. Do regularly patrol the redirects in the feed.

Regular reviewers will appreciate the most recent  enhancements to  the New Pages Feed and  features in the Curation  tool, and there are still more to  come. Due to the wealth  of information  now displayed by  ORES, reviewers are strongly  encouraged to  use the system now rather than Twinkle; it  will  also  correctly  populate the logs.
 * Not English
 * A common issue: Pages not in English or poor, unattributed machine translations should not reside in main space even if they are stubs. Please ensure you are familiar with WP:NPPNE. Check in Google for the language and content, and if they do have potential, tag as required, then move to draft. Modify the text of the template as appropriate before sending it.
 * Tools

Stub sorting, by SD0001: A new script is available for adding/removing stub tags. See User:SD0001/StubSorter.js, It features a simple HotCat-style dynamic search field. Many of the reviewers who are using it are finding it an improvement upon other available tools.

Assessment: The script at User:Evad37/rater makes the addition of Wikiproject templates extremely easy. New page creators rarely do this. Reviewers are not obliged to make these edits but they only take a few seconds. They can use the Curation message system to let the creator know what they have done.

is now patrolling certain categories of uncontroversial redirects. Curious? Check out its patrol log.

Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:15, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion declined: Sam Pecqueur
Hello Interstellarity. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Sam Pecqueur, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: notability assumed per WP:NRU, so not eligible for A7 speedy deletion. Thank you. So Why  13:04, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
 * , Sorry about that. I will be more careful next time. Interstellarity (talk) 14:17, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

TheWikiWizard - September 2019
Hello, Interstellarity! Here is the September 2019 issue of TheWikiWizard. We Hope you like this month's issue! If you'd like to discuss this issue, please go to this issue's talk page. Happy Reading! Thegooduser  Life Begins With a Smile :)  🍁 21:44, 14 September 2019 (UTC)
 * A big thank you! (TWW is now 1 years old!)
 * What's Hot! (Can you solve the riddles?)
 * Articles (Assume Good Faith, The Teahouse)
 * The Wikipedian
 * News about Wikipedia! (Wikipedia News and Events!)
 * Editor's Notes (New Sections to Main Page!)
 * Activity Page (Fun Activities, and answers to last time's questions...)
 * Ads (Ads)

tag question
Thank you for patrolling the page of namrita chandani which i created can i remove your tag where you said "uncategorized" ? because i have added the categories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by پاک آرمی زندہ باد (talk • contribs) 17:46, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
 * You are free to remove the tag once you added categories. Interstellarity (talk) 17:51, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Re:Victor and Valentino
That Wikipedia page was and still is in English. Although I haven't been working on it for a while, I've always used that language and I've never made any mistake of any kind. Luigi1090 (Luigi1090 21:02, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you for translating it. Interstellarity (talk) 19:11, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

village idiot
Some unsolicited advice from your not-so-local village idiot. Number 1 does not apply to the current situation, but it will be important at some point in the future.

1) Wikipedia is unfair, just like the real world

You may be right, and "they" may be idiots, but life isn't fair. Pretty much all Wikipedians, including our best and brightest, have trouble with this. Inevitably all who edit Wikipedia end up in that situation; what matters is how you deal with it.

2) Start slow

If you build up some experience with using the current software, you'll soon start to notice ways they could be improved. Then you can decide to improve the current software or start from scratch and build something new while keeping the imperfections of the existing tools in mind.

3) Start slow; but don't be afraid to start

If you make a mistake, no biggie, anything you do can easily be reverted. If you break something it will be fixed quickly. There is a bunch of super experienced people around. All areas of Wikipedia welcome newcomers, provided they have good intentions.

4) Don't get discouraged.

It is easy to get discouraged. I saw the response over at WP:RFP/AWB. That is nothing to worry about. It happens way more often than you'd think. It's not a big deal. I can explain what they are looking for in a request so that you can submit another one. Some Wikipedians are a bit grumpier than others; but almost everyone is working towards the same goal and as long as your nose is pointing in the right direction you have a huge team you can help and who can help you.

5) Learn everything. Wikipedia is a great place to learn stuff.

Use AWB. Have some fun with Pywikibot. Create your own infinitely superior bot. Go fight some vandals. Check out our collection of anti-vandalism tools and resources. Write an article about something you care about. Have it nominated for AfD and survive. Make a wiki-friend. Join a group-project. Write someone a love letter and call someone a dickhead. Read all articles. Poveglia (talk) 22:07, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
 * , Can you explain to me why my AWB rights were declined? By the way, thanks for advice. It will help me be a better Wikipedian. Interstellarity (talk) 00:21, 17 September 2019 (UTC)


 * People don't like it if automated tools are used for stuff like nominating old drafts; and AWB is for non-controversial improvements. You still want to give AWB a try so the only logical solution is to do something non-controversial instead.


 * To understand the AWB right reviewer's point of view we have to switch brains; we are going to look at the request from the eyes of the person deciding.


 * That person is most definitely going to check your recent contributions, and what they want to see is simple non-controversial improvements, many in a row, and evidence of the ability to determine if something should be fixed yes or no. Those slightly boring edits are the kind of edits that work well with AWB.


 * Instead they found someone who makes speedy deletion nominations of old drafts. Not what they expected, and judging on that basis would be weird considering they don't want you to use AWB for that task (which wouldn't really save much time anyway since you'd still have to inform the creators manually).


 * Finding things to improve in many articles that aren't typos is more difficult than fixing typos.


 * So what I would recommend is fixing a bunch of typos in the browser (do you have Firefox?) and after you've done that for a while they should be able to see if you did that correctly and understood when to hit the Skip button and when to hit the Save button.


 * So basically the typofixes in the browser will be the proof that you can use AWB correctly.


 * Read WP:TYOP, especially Typo_Team
 * Examples of thing you gotta watch out for are names, quotes, sic, notatypo, old texts, book titles et cetera; they are often NOT typos so its best to just skip em all.


 * On an unrelated note; have a look at WP:CVU. Poveglia (talk) 02:19, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
 * , Thanks, I will think about joining the Typo Team. I've already had a trainer teach me how to fight vandalism at WP:CVUA and I still fight vandalism to this day. You have been a big help me in the past few days. Could you suggest ways I can find typos and fix them without AWB so when I request the permission again, I can show the reviewing admin that I can use the tool correctly? Interstellarity (talk) 17:28, 17 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi again, Interstellarity. I've just stumbled across this conversation beteween you and about fixing typos. Before I got access to AWB I spent a rewarding time at work using Lupin's spellchecker, whose script I tweaked so that it ran all morning in the background on my computer. Then, whilst having my lunch, I went through the possible typos it reported and checked and fixed the ones that needed it. See WP:LUPIN for details, and maybe if you're interested, check out my slightly modified version of their tool at User:Nick Moyes/recent2test.js which runs for 100 cycles, not 200, and also leaves a much clearer edit summary. It is still extremely important that you take care not to fix reported typos in urls and filenames - a failure of either will really wreck a page and upset other editors. (AWB tends to leave these alone, whereas Lupin's tool unfortunately doesn't). Going through and adding the  template to bad spellings which are meant to be in their incorrect form in article text (in quotes or ye olde Englishe, etc) is itself of great value, as it stops other users of that tool from repeating the typofix when it's not wanted. Cheers, Nick Moyes (talk) 09:52, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm still alive, just busy, and to explain my method would require more time and effort than Nick's method above. I might give it a try too! Poveglia (talk) 11:10, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 September 2019
 * Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:06, 30 September 2019 (UTC)